Extraordinary Jourrney

Hello, Fellow travelers,

It’s been almost a year since my first post on discovering mindfulness. I had intended to blog about my journey as I went along.

It didn’t happen.

But I have been on this journey of discovery, even if I haven’t written  about it. I have been doing mindfulness meditation, including mindful breathing and compassion meditation, twice a day for at least 20 minutes each time almost every day since last October. In the past couple of moths I have been doing it 45 minutes to an hour twice a day, and sometimes as much as one and one-half hour at a time. Jon Kabat-Zinn says some Buddhist monks practice meditation for as much as eight hours a day every day for weeks and months at a time. I have a goal to do it eight hours in a day, but so far the most I’ve done is three hours.

It’s not always easy, but I keep plugging along. My mind wanders constantly, and i just keep bringing my awareness back to my breath over and over. It’s been a challenge — and a joy.

I am also continuing to study, listening to audio and video sessions on the benefits of formal meditation practice. Like this one I listened to today by Dr. Rick Hanson on “Using Your Mind to Change Your Brain” from Google on YouTube. Many things I have been studying came together for me while listening to this video.

Enjoy!

Take care and God bless.

Don

Don H. Morris Along the Path mindfulness, Rick Hanson

Welcome to Extraordinary Journey.  If you have been here before, you will notice that all the old posts are gone and that there is a new purpose and direction for the blog. I am beginning to study and practice mindfulness and other forms of meditation, and will keep a journal of my travels here. I invite you join join me along the way as a fellow traveler.

Listen to this post or read the transcription below, as you choose.

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“As I start out on a new phase of my journey, on a brand-new adventure, one that is similar to journeys I’ve had before, I think about what I expect.

I expect to find wonder. I expect to find awe. I expect to discover something about myself, inside myself, that I never knew before.

I’m going to be exploring what it means to be mindful.  I’m doing a lot of study and listening to videos on the topic, and I’m going to be talking to some friends of mine who have some experience, and I might even say expertise, in this area that I don’t have.

And yet, this is not my first time to explore relaxation and story and storytelling. I’m going to start it in a brand-new way here. And now I am going to rededicate this blog, Extraordinary Journey, and invite you to be fellow travelers with me on life’s adventures. Join me as I explore what it means to be completely at ease, completely relaxed and calm, and how to achieve that state.

I have a lot of different expectations, but what I’m really trying to do is to let all of those go and be surprised as each moment rolls around and into the next. I’ve always thought it rather odd to have this emphasis on being in the present, because it’s so important to plan for the future and to prepare. But I don’t think these two things are mutually exclusive. I think that we can be mindful and be present in the present moment, and yet do what we need to do to anticipate the challenges of the future and to prepare for them.

So, welcome. Welcome to this new blog and this new adventure.”

Don H. Morris Beginnings adventure, mindful, relaxation