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Wings of Flight

~ …Emblazing brightness with enchantress Wings…

Monthly Archives: July 2011

Strength Training: iii of the 3/2/1 challenge

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Frugal&Minimal, Habits, Personal Notes

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

3/2/1, dancing-with-limitation, fitness, strength


For those of you who may not know, one of my 3/2/1 strength challenges is that of “exercise: physical strength”. Generally I talk about doing:

* Stretches

* Yoga

* Dance

* Physiotherapy leg exercises

* Shivanata

 

However, I also have an actual work-out which I sometimes revert back to [i.e. when I remember, have time, feel up to it & have space: read as~when I see myself negatively so strongly I feel I need to sort it out NOW].

 

My friend Sonja is a big inspiration to me in terms of strength as she reads, is creative and posts about her workout stats; which keep reminding me of what I haven’t achieved [but could if I just put in the time/effort!].

 

A History

I would never call myself “sporty”.

I love exercising. When I was 13 I lied about my age to get into the ‘junior gym’ group; my grandmother wrote a “6” instead of an “8” so that I looked two months older and thus reached the age of 14 in time for the summer holidays. I spent the next two years of holidays going to the gym, with my music player, the treadmill, rowing machine and different bikes as my favourite activities.

 

I then switched from swimming to lifesaving; where I learnt to tow causalities through water in pyjamas, plimsolls and a long-sleeved top. Skip to college, where I began doing karate and then to University; where I began strengthening my arms for circus society, unicycled 6 hours a week until my knees broke [hence the physio] and began taking yoga and belly-dance classes.

 

The Enjoyment Factor

I’m not a fan of paying a lot of money to exercise; yet this means I’m often doing things alone [I’ve tried the buddy system with running, walking, stretching, yoga and belly-dance now and they’ve all failed in their own ways]; which then means I forget or “take a night off” easily.

 

Yet, I feel so much better when I’ve exercised! I don’t really enjoy walking, but strength training, dance and cycling (which I can’t do until my knees recover). I’m also not up for swimming due to distance form a pool and price [and fear of hurting fish in lakes/the freezing cold ofEngland=P].

 

The Exercise

I’ve tried to write all my exercises down here.. none of them cost any money [now that I’ve done two years of karate and know how to do the moves correctly].

 

~*~ Arms ~*~

–          Press ups (with knees on floor to begin with)

–          Leg tucks (plank then lift left knee to right side)

–          Karate warm-ups – punches [head, stomach], back hand [round and forward], elbow strike [side, forward]

–          Free Weights  (I use 500g cans for ease/cheapness)

  • Basically I hold the cans out in front and move backward, inward, up ward; then hold them at shoulders and go in ward, outward, up ward, downward.. simple stuff.. I think the technical names may include:
  • Bicep curl
  • Triceps Curl
  • Shoulder Press
  • Lateral Raise

~*~Yoga/Back~*~

–          Sphinx (Elbows on floor, arch back backwards/up)

–          Cobra (Same as above but lift elbows up so palms hold you up)

–          Plank

–          Curl into ball on back and roll

–          On back, legs up on chair, arch.

~*~Flexibility/Stretches~*~

–          Right hand over to left ankle

–          Touch your toes

–          Squats

–          Sumo Stance [knees face out]

–          Horse-riding stance [knees face forward]

–          Sit on floor doing tree stance [one leg bent, foot on other knee… get Karate friend to push on your back until you can touch your toes..

 

So, that’s quite a lot to add to walking, running, jogging on the spot, star jumps, burpees, lifting objects up around your room, washing up, cleaning the house [scrubbing the cooker is a good one!], skipping and so on.

 

When I return home next weekend, I’ll be able to use the Wii Fit again to play balance games and do yoga on [and live near some swings and a lovely lake].

 

Do you work out? How do you minimise the cost in terms of money, time spent getting to the gym/class etc? Do you exercise alone? Are there any exercises I’ve missed?

 

In Light,
Rose

Musings of a Young Scholar

25 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Habits, Insights, Personal Notes, Poetic, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

3/2/1, blazing-crusade, dancing-with-limitation, Insights, metaphor, reflection, scientific spirit, SlinkySummer, soar

So, the flu has turned into a cold that just won’t leave. I’m taking another day off work.

Thus, I’ve spent a lot of time on the first 4 Bardic Gwersi of the OBOD course and equally as much time playing ragnarok online; getting my mage up to wizard, levelling my assassin cross, questing my thief up to rogue and killing Anubis with my priest. –nods- Oh, and making a homunculus once my merchant became an alchemist.

 

The Memory of the Library

However, I’ve also been reminiscing a little. Remembering.

 

I used to read so many books. I was a prolific reader and remember getting to Junior school at 7 and being told I could only read books with the orange stripe on the spine.

You WHAT? They’re books. If I CAN read them, why CAN’T I read them?

 

I read one book; which I still remember to this day [though now I search for it on Amazon, I can’t find it]: something like “The Pink Shoe”. About a girl who wanted these ballet shoes which were in the shop; then they weren’t – they’d been bought,. And she came home and cried and then her parents gave them to her, for they had bought them for her birthday. It had a yellow cover and probably 50 pages; 10 lines to a page. And I hated the story; but before I was “allowed” to read the “big kids books” I had to summarise the story to the teacher. Within the reading hour I’d finished it and they “didn’t believe me” so said to pick another book with an orange sticker.

 

If I could go back to that day and talk to my 7-year-old self; I would go to that teacher with Whale Adventure by Willard Price and get my young self to read it to the teacher because that series became my new best friend; as soon as I was free of that one book about the slippers (I appealed to a second teacher and was allowed run free among of all the books; including non-fiction).

 

To this day, I have more non-fiction books than novels; and even a range of books on books/authors [Oscar’s Books: A Journey through the Library of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright comes to mind].

 

Knowledge

However; aside from my love of reading and my novel-a-week which I read alongside nonfiction books [when I reached the scary adventure bits of the novel, I had books on Planets for “lighter” reading], I wasn’t what I’d consider “scholarary”.

My grades weren’t particularly high; except in specific subjects such as English and Algebra. I don’t even remember being curious as a child.

 

Yet, that intuitive nudge still happens. Based on my German aunt, my ease of learning Latin and my Irish grandfather; I began learning German and Irish language [though had to give up Latin due to a timetable clash at school]. I still get that urge to re-learn Latin and now have very basic British Sign Language skills.

I’m doing a Masters, I spent much of my teenage-life reading self-help books and trying to find my totems; to define myself.  seem to have had this lust for self-scholarship – to be a sage in myself, of myself. I began blogging, took psychology at A-level, began meditating and found Paganism.

 

Other Resources

Similarly, Pagan podcasts are wonderful things for me; I’m tempted to try book-tapes or the modern equivalent; except I have to be fully engaging to follow them, and sitting doing nothing is uncomfortable for me, unlike holding a book or scrolling the mouse.

So there is this inner sage; this will and desire to be able to speak a couple of languages at least mildly well, to get back on track with the amazing mathematical and linguistic ease I used to find, to devote more time to my MSc than I did my BSc, to be able to debate rather than argue and to get a PhD at some point before I die [for no reason other than to say I’ve done so (although having seen the stupid hat the PhD graduates wore at my graduation, maybe not). :P]

 

A Goals List

Traditionally this would consist of things like “Re-learn 50 words of Latin” or “use the dictionary.com’s word of the week twice in conversation or poetry”, but then I saw this picture in a post over at Sonja’s blog and got inspired.

So, in keeping with my iii/ii/i challenge, my scholarary to-do list based on this post looks like this:

And I’m aiming for 5/7 of those a day.  My new “5-a-day”, except called “Scholar-Seven” just so that I don’t forget to aim for all seven.

 

Are there any other “inner scholars” reading this? How do you nourish her/him? What could you bring back into your life?

In Light,

Rose

Buddhafield Workshops: a Breakdown

20 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Adventure, Personal Notes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

buddhafield, buddhism, dancing-with-limitation, meditation, SlinkySummer

There won’t be mid-month check-in for my iv/iii/ii/i as I didn’t exercise, couldn’t eat real food [the vegans at BField only seem to eat curry and salad] and was focused on the theme of Abundance/ Awareness instead of whatever I chose at the beginning of this month [capacity] /which I guess I did as I did learn to respect my body’s wishes after a while\.

 

The Workshops

I’ve had a couple of questions about how I found the festival’s workshops [the main reason I went] and so I thought I’d do a brief review of the things I attended.

 

Writing Workshop – A good space to share and listen to others; but the exercises I already did or could find in a book [the artist’s way, for example].

 

Tribal Belly-dance – Really Good. One hour, three moves, one transition, one “cue” and we practised in groups of 4, practising being in all 4 positions. Barbara was an amazing teacher and I went to her showcase a couple of nights later, which was also fab. She teaches in Bath and Bristol: see here for details. Recommend & I’m looking at local classes again.

 

Shamanic Journeying with Northern Drum – Would have been good if I’d been in the right space. I’m going to grab my drumming music [I’ve a john Richardson CD around somewhere] and try again as the 15 minutes of practical journeying wasn’t enough for me to really connect. Lovely relaxation time though so worth it just for that. Recommend.

 

Instinctual Body – Really odd workshop for me. The information on the workshops site said this, word for word:

 ‘Embodied Presence’ invite you to rediscover the physical and emotional intelligence and capacity you were born with. To journey close to yourself. To relax into who you really are, and to open into life offering your true gifts out into the world. As you increasingly meet yourself, you may find a capacity to meet nature and each other in a new way. A sense of intimacy with one’s self and our environment begins to arise.

I assumed it would be a bit of relaxing listening to your body, meditation perhaps, then dancing to our own rhythms and maybe some drumming to trance us out a little [drums change the brainwaves from alpha and beta etc.]

What the class actually asked was that you let you pelvis, breastbone, arms and feet guide/lead you.. then work with random other people; dance with them as partners. Then some non contact, contact, hugging while dancing.. then be in the roles of the hunter and the hunted. As someone with issues around personal space, with being in close spaces, with any form of intimate touch with strangers, I actually teared up and had to beg my partner not to do half those things. He was very accommodating and “mirrored” me form about 3 foot away. Then we paired up with a same-sex member of the crowd; a girl I’d done bellydance with, and that bit was much more comfortable. I think it was good to push myself but it brought up a lot of tears and pain and past issues that I am working through and had being trying to leave just for this week. So a mixed class on this front. Details here.

 

Creative Movement and Music: Part 1, Balancing Yin and Yang – I began this, but it was right after the previous one and the ‘yin’ part was slow and not dance at all [10 minutes worth?], the yang was fast and had good music but lasted barely 2 minutes and then we were back to yin. I was so close to tears I left and called Phil instead. My housemate loved it though; and she recommends it 🙂

 

TALK: Amarantho – Your Presents Make a Difference – This was a really good talk. It was about how an integrated practise helps us, our relationships & society. Except it wasn’t. It was about begging, schedules, listening to your body, the ego mind, nature, the Buddha’s first teaching session [failed], old habits, shadow work, the News of the World, modern education, energy, our mind’s power & psychology. I wrote 3 pages of notes and I hope some of the other talks will be up on free Buddhist audio soon. He laughed like a school-girl [high pitched, freeing] and swore quite a bit before saying “cut that bit out” of the recording. A really down to earth monk 🙂 Recommend.

 

In hindsight, I wish I’d done the classes in singing, more dance, and more talks [and more time in the 24/7 meditation dome].

I meant to go to a talk on Discipline, but our “check-out” process ran over on Saturday so I missed it, and had a shower instead. [I also kept remembering the ZenHabits post about motivation vs. discipline and my own posts on how motivation is the main factor of failure.] So not too bothered about that. Similarly, I missed Yin Yoga because I was tired and my body was saying No.

 

So current actions: looking for Shamanic Journey Talks in Hove/Lewes and Bellydance classes in Brighton. Also downloading pagan podcasts and keeping an eye on FreeBuddhistAudio for the talks I missed.

 

What kind of workshops do you like to go to? Do any of these interest you?

In light,
Rose

Buddhafield Festival: Aspects to Nourish

18 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Adventure, Healing, Insights, Personal Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blazing-crusade, breaking habits&labels, buddhafield, buddhism, dancing-with-limitation, Insights, meditation, processing, reflection, SlinkySummer, soar, WorkingOnStuff

I’m back from Buddhafield festival. I had a really good time overall, although I left early and had to spend 8.5 hours travelling with the flu; including a 90 minute train where there were no seats. I sat on my suitcase in the corridor because I could not physically stand without support.

Feeling a bit better today but that experience is clouding the overall sense of how I found the festival. So I shall leave the actual review stuff to another day.

There are a couple of aspects I loved so much that I want to bring them back here though; to the real world:

Checking In and Out

Mindfulness Cue

Listening to my body – hunger and feeling

Receiving

Documentation

Dance!


New Systems

[Context: I was on the early morning shift at Buddhafield Café – arriving at 7am and leaving between 1:30 and 2pm]

Each morning, we grabbed some breakfast and headed into the café space; where we sat on carpet-covered crates and ate in a circle. Once our co-ordinator joined us and most people had arrived; we began Checking In.


The Check In

This is a process where you explain how you’re feeling, what you think you’d be best doing today and anything you want the group to know. Common comments were “tired but good” or “did a workshop last night which brought up some stuff for me; feeling a bit fragile, can I do washing up?”

– This process allows everyone a space to really feel how they’re feeling.

– It also tells other people to avoid you/subjects/give you hugs/be extra kind and so on. If a job needed doing and I couldn’t do it; I knew which people weren’t feeling tired or who was in a good mood to ask if they could do it. The awareness of others was a big part of how we got each shift smooth; despite any hiccups [the wind blowing out the grill fires, having no hot water and the gas bottles dying for example].

– I also felt I knew my colleagues much better on a personal level; which helped me to feel okay helping with other jobs. I know I may have thought 2that’s not my job; you do it” but knowing how people are and that we all have days where we pick up the extra bits; it was so helpful to have made the strong connections.

– we also had dharmashamin attend our check-in and check-outs to provide a little “bit of wisdom” or Buddhist thought – e.g. “notice when you’re feeling content or not”, “can we all share one thing we’re grateful for?”, “notice if there’s anything you want to give; such as a hug or do another person’s job without them asking”.

After our shift, we met again in a circle and began the process of checking out.


The Check Out

We finished our shift at 1pm and met in the Dome with our lunch to discuss how the shift went. We discussed how we each felt, how we each thought the shift had gone. Then once everyone had expressed feelings; our co-ordinator then talked through any practical things about the good/bad bits of the shift. We also took this time to reflect on Dhamrashamin’s suggestion for the day; saying if we’d remembered it and what we’d experienced.

Not only did this help me to separate work from non-work; it kept me grounded for that space in integrating a thought or awareness for a few hours a day. It was good to say goodbye to everyone at the end of the shift; unlike in a normal job where you may say bye to your one friend/close colleague.

This practise also made us aware of the different energies of the different roles.

After a hectic shift on the counter, the washing up people said their space had been quite relaxed; despite being just 3-4 metres form the counter while the cook said she’d made her curry pot almost a little shrine where she poured love into her stirring. Being aware of other roles are; which ones drain energy and which ones leave you feeling energetic; this again helps with the flow and knowing who to ask to do what how each person must be feeling during the shift.

All this greater awareness came from spending just a few minutes with each person at the beginning and end of the shift. And it meant we felt like a fellowship; cared for humans; not worker bees needing to be fast and earn a lot.


Mindfulness Cues

As we worked, anyone was free to ring the mindfulness bell which gave us a 5 second or 60 second gap to just notice how we were; to get back into our body and to perhaps call to mind Dharmashamin’s thought for the day.  You could take as much time for it as you needed/wanted, but this depended on the job – half way through serving customers, you can perhaps only take 3-5 seconds; but that’s sometimes enough.

On Saturday, I attended a talk by Amarantho who said whenever he sees a church, he uses it as a cue to be aware, to come back to his practise. I think I could do this pubs or buses around Brighton.


Listening to the Body

He also spoke about going on retreat and having no schedule; which forced him to listen to his body to know when to eat; if he wanted to meditate, to read, etc.  I began to get good at this while I was at the festival; I’d eat when I felt hunger as I could take as many free meals as I wanted from the café during the week. On evening I went to see a band who then said “this isn’t sitting down music, we want you up on your feet and going crazy” at a time when I was tired. I liked the music but didn’t feel it was dancey music.   I took a good 5-10 minutes to debate with myself

“I feel tired. I want to sit.”

“You’re now the only one sitting. Others want to dance who can’t get in.”

“But I’m so tired. I hurt. Standing hurts.”

“Then let’s go”

“But the festival finishes now. This is my only chance to see them.”

“Well, decide because we hurt. We need to respect that. And standing for 6 hours tomorrow morning at the café to add onto anything we do tonight.”

“Okay, let’s go back.”


Receiving

A couple of comments struck me form that dharma talk from Amarantho.

“Not one person in here isn’t pure, innocent. You have all your energy. You can always have your energy.”

“We just want our love received. As a baby, we are loved and our love is received.”

“Presence is just Pre-essence. Get out the way and be present”.

“Offer each other presents. Offer presence.”

“The Universe only blesses”.

And lastly, “Receiving yourself after taking a breath.”

This is the practise done when cued to midnfulness. Ground, get into your body and then see how you feel. Take a breath, maintain your energy and receive yourself.

I’ve not heard that phrase before but it struck me quite strongly. I can receive myself. Just as I am. Take a breath, and accept/receive myself.


Documentation

While I was there, I wrote a diary. Not a diary on lined paper in sentences. Scribbles of feeling, thoughts, notations.

For example, one page says:

 “Saturday. Feeling versus acting. Worked counter – money, complaints, refunds, choc bars, teas, water, muesli, fruit. “feel sad but can still smile & be friendly”. Fragile + feeling ill – eyes, head, stomach. Jacket, cous cous, roll. Phone charge. Nap! Shower. Naked man. Pancake!!! Ritual sparklers. “other languages say ‘I have sadness’ which doesn’t define their being” (e.g. Spanish). I owe Hannah £6.50. feel body need sleep + ;left music. I don’t have a kissing-cheek friend. Bellydance show.  Began panic- got into rhythm.”

That’s enough for me to know what I did that day. At the café we were told to be mindful of how we feel, but that we had a choice to act as we wanted. Hannah and I were spoken to by a random naked man as we walked through one field; very odd/new experience for us both. I noticed a lot of friends just kiss each other on the cheek while giving hugs. I know what I did on shift, what I did after – music, bellydance show & the ritual. I have pancakes, jacket potato, cous cous and a bread roll. And so on.

I want to keep this documentation up if I can. I’ve not been good at it in the past; and it’s essentially what I tell Phil each evening so maybe that’s enough; now I’m back. We’ll have to see how it goes and how I feel about it.


Dance!

I attended Introduction to Tribal Bellydance, Instinctual Body, and part of Creative Movement 1: Balancing Yin and Yang. I remember how much I love to dance and that I don’t do it much a University for fear for being too loud/people hearing. However, it used to be a really big part of my life, my practise and I want it back. So I hope I can reclaim that a little. I’m going to look at more formal classes and see if anything sparks my interest and until I find something, commit to dancing once a week for a minimum of ten minutes.


Home

Wow, that was longer than I expected. I’ll be writing a couple more pieces about my experiences at Buddhafield, but those are the really important aspects I want to bring home in some form. I’m planning to add a checking-in process into my morning ritual, to listen and receive my body, to dance regularly and to document something in some way.

In light,
Rose.

Buddhafield Festival 2011: Finding Abundance [in Strength]

12 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Adventure, Personal Notes

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Tags

blazing-crusade, buddhafield, buddhism, dancing-with-limitation, enchantress, meditation, SlinkySummer

Tomorrow, I’m heading to Buddhafield Festival in Somerset. This is a drink-free and drug-free festival full of meditation spaces, tai chi, green arts, music workshops, Buddhist talks, music line-ups, yoga sessions and even circus skills. The theme for this year is “Finding Abundance“.

I’ll be volunteering at the Buddhafield Café each morning from 6:30am to 1pm; which entitles me to a free ticket to all the events.

As part of my Slinky-Summer and my blazing crusade; this year is my “I’m heading into adulthood” time to do new things and build up the skills I’ll need to get a job, negotiate volunteering, explore the world [another county], build up my social skills and teach myself that I define my own potential. This is balanced with a “what-have-i-always-wanted” teenage freedom I’m suddenly finding. I can decide that I want to go to a festival and that I’ staying in Brighton for the Summer; that I’m staying for another year.

Feelings Arise

Excitement.. Panic. Panic. Panic. Experience. Panic.

The Café – I’m a fussy eater.

– I’ll be waking 5:45am to work 6:30am-1pm

– Not confident at meeting new people [though better these days]

Space – I’m an only child; needing space.

– Not been more than 48 hours without music since I was 14 [I sleep with it on; wake to it]. Mp3 Player lasts 6 hours; I’m away 6 days.

Sleep – Insomniac, painful shoulders/back/neck. Going to be sleeping on the ground for 5, possibly 6 nights.

Systems to Call Upon

– 2 friends working at the café with me

– KJ is like me in his social skills/space-needing and he said I’ll make it though it will be a challenge at times

– I’ve learnt this year about re-definition and he power of acting.

– I have enchantress tools; some of which they even facilitate

  • E.g. Meditation

– I love places where I can switch between a variety of activities; like I did in Centreparcs [which needed me to go alone and use social skills]

– I can write. And Dance the Shivanata.

– I have Kelina andWillow

– I’ll take books, a magazine and my Druid Gwersi

I can find that child love and respect for solitude. Find that space for birdsong in silence.

I can hike in the woods and meadows and find the divination of the clouds once more.

Finding the Light

I can remember that the idea of contemplation pulls at me; I strived for so many years of my teenagerdom to “find myself” and “soul-search”.

As someone who began meditation at 13; though I’ve never kept up a regular practise; I can get into that space easily and I know it benefits me.

I sat on the platform; knees in the sun as the blue skies, void of cloud, watched on. People walked past; awaiting the same train’; seemingly ignorant of the gentle rays that snuck under the platform’s awning.

 

Let the lighthouse find your way.

If I take the time to walk, to listen and to follow the light trails; I may blaze.

I believe that most trail-blazers had a guide of some form; be it a way of thinking, a belief or intuition.

In light,

Rose

Month VII – 6-monthly review

05 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Personal Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

3/2/1, blazing-crusade, SlinkySummer

It’s July… Half of the year gone.

My aims of working on strength of mind, of energy and of body are still vaguely in the picture [which is better than this time in a normal year].

 

So, here’s the recap of whys, how I’m doings and “incorporations” into Slinky-Summer-Vol.2.

 

This month I’m… surviving this 11 days of 9-3/7 cleaning [having never done a 9-3 day of any job], volunteering in a café at a festival, graduating [oh hell!], working a casual day, teaching shivanata, finishing a 6-week course, beginning the OBOD Bardic grade and attending two Lammas festivals.

iv/iii/ii/i

iv. Finance: frugal-fifteen
As my frugal-15 plan mentioned; I’ve got a place on a MSc course for a year [and passed my BSc so this is now certain].

Thus; here is weeks 5-10 update of my 15-week plan. I had to celebrate passing my degree and as I adjust to having three jobs simultaneously, I’ve had to up the spending on fresh fruit and cereal bars etc.  I’ve averaged my weekly rate at my third job so that figure is also not necessarily accurate, and I’ve also been lax about writing up the final amounts I’ve spent over the past 2 weeks, which makes this slightly inaccurate.

However, I’m in week 10 of 15 now, and from a “how much I had in week 5, how much I have now, minus income” I have spent £598.

Five-week allowance:  £561

  • Food £100  (20 a week)
  • Social £65 (13 a week)
  • Rent £321 (81 a week/paid monthly)
  • Bills £50 (10 a week)
  • Extra/Emergency/Fun £25 (5 a week)

Final Totals for Week Ten:
– earned: £220.82 + around £400 [45+ hours at rough wage £8 plus maybe time and a half or three quarters… so roughly £600.]

– spent: £598.82/561 [5 weeks food, outings & months rent]   + £195 for Bardic OBOD course

  • Food = £143.65/£100
  • Rent = £321 [paid monthly]
  • Bills = £0/£50 [gas + elec]
  • Social = £80/£65 [£2 moot, £10 druid meet, £40 for 2 nights out]
  • Extras = £42 graduation gown, got underpaid ../£25   –

I’m over budget, however, I’ve already covered my back with £400 offsetting the 598 and £200 offsetting the £195 OBOD course.

I’m seeing finance tomorrow about the underpayment, getting £25 back for my Other half’s graduation ticket as he won’t be attending now, and the rough payrate for this week is an underestimation; so I’m doing okay overall.

The next 5-weeks run from 4th July to 8th August; though I go home on the 6th. Aiming to earn around £500 this month from 10 days of paid work.

iii. Exercise; physical strength
I’m standing for 6 hours a day; bending and leaning and stretching, and using my hands and arms to the point of pain. Next week, I’ll be standing/running around from 6:30am-1pm each day at the café. I think that counts.

My physiotherapy is still on track, but stretches and shivanata have halted for a retreat as my arms and legs just hurt too much.

ii. Diet: energy/vitality
I’m waking at 7am still, eating a mixture of meat, marmite, fruit, cheese and bread for lunch – covering all bases. However, I’m eating more chocolate that normal when I get home; and did skip dinner a couple of nights.

i. Meditation; spirit/strength of mind
Been having some blocks with meditation lately, but am working on it.

Strengthening aspect for Month VII
June was all about malleability and learning.
During July, I’m focusing on the strength of my capacity. I’ve taken today off to rest my painful feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, neck, arms and hands.

I’m taking off next weekend to see my other half, then have 7 days of work, then 3 days off with graduation in the middle, then 5 days of work. And then I’m going home for a real rest.

How are your goals shaping up this month?

In light,
Rose

Day off! In which I declare silent retreat for no reason

04 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Healing, Living Metaphor, Personal Notes

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Tags

dancing-with-limitation, metaphor, processing, WorkingOnStuff

I declare today a no-leaving-the-house-day!  /except to take the bins out because it will make me feel better/

And I’ve decided to make my bedroom into a playground/lighthouse/cottage.

 

As an only child who traditionally “doesn’t like people”, having to watch everything I do and say for over 50 hours this week, then talk to housemates and attend my course Thursday and so on, I’m shattered.

 

Today is a day of Introvert Recovery while Connecting with Friends.

And I’m yelling “SILENT RETREAT!”

I’m adding a beat to everything I do [paws! *makes puppy hands!*]. Well, -pawses-, trying to experiment with doing so.

 

The Plans

So, it’s a Monday. I’m working Tues-Friday, Monday, then Tues-Sunday is a festival where I’m working. Today is a time for respecting my capacity. With incense.

 

As part of Introvert Recovery, I’m singing and finding pockets of silence. I’m also meeting Sacred Intentions; reflecting on the past 6 months and the next 6. So, here’s the programme for the day:

 

-tidy room as it makes me feel ick to look at right now 😛

-listen to shivanaut snack call

-read OBOD bardic gwersi

-read some books

-read psychologies magazines

-novel-editing?

-game?

-talk to my best friends on skype ❤

-batch cook healthy food for tomorrow night

 

Are you getting enough space and time? How could you take an hour of retreat this week?

 

In Light,

Rose

Results!

02 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by Rose in Personal Notes, Very Personal Ads

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

dancing-with-limitation, neuroscience, plans

I passed my Degree!! Huzzah!!

I got a 2:1 overall, but was just 2% off a “first” on my dissertation… as a B student who hated the topic my tutor chose for me, I have no idea how I did that 😀 Highest mark other than that was in clinical psychology ^_^

Oh, and that means I met the requirement to do Msc in Cognitive Neuroscience . Win!

Began my summer job this week as a university accomodation cleaner – today is the big move-out move-in weekend so after a week of 9am-3pms, today [saturday] is a 9am-7pm… working tomorrow 9am-undertermined finish and then mon-fri, back to 9-3.

In other news, got my OBOD Bardic grade pack; which I’ll likely write about at some point here soon 🙂

Have a wonderful week/end.
In Light,
Rose

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artist, neuroscientist, writer & dreamer

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