Try Anything Tuesday

Hey there, happy people!

I tried a new thing today. Have you heard of Reiki? It's a Japanese energy healing technique. I just so happen to have a friend here who is a Reiki practitioner. I've known her for a couple years but it never really appealed to my logical brain.

Then this fall, I did something to my shoulder - slept wrong? I don't know. For a while it was distractingly painful, but not debilitating. Then, throughout the rainy season the pain would come and go. It hasn't been as bad for a while, but I can't sleep on my left side.

It turns out, a friend of mine back in the US goes to reiki regularly. (I don't know the verbs. "does" reiki? "Has reiki done to her"?) She sent me an article about how it has been used with some success to treat pain and trauma. Bingo.

So today, I had my first reiki session. Afterward I was told to pay attention to how I feel over the next few days, starting with today. Here's what I wrote today about the session:

Took my brain a while to relax. "Am I doing this right? Where should my hands be? What do other people do?" I felt her warm pressure in various places, but no emotion or build-up.

Tried to relax.

Tried to relax.

Trying is the antithesis of relaxing. Let my mind wander. I wondered what was happening, and associated different touch points with different chakras.

Did I doze off? I noticed a prayer-like lifting sensation. My hands felt they were rising (they weren't). My body felt lifted and pulled like taffy (it wasn't). Then I know I dozed. The place where my body was (head-to-toe) became a pool of shifting colors. Liquid violet, red, pink - jewel tones in a sea of darkness. As if someone was pouring swirls of paint together. Next I was a pool of milky-liquid (like that one Doctor Who episode).

After I thought I heard a rain storm starting (wasn't happening), I was conscious of myself again. My hand slipped involuntarily. I had a coughing fit for no reason.

Afterward, she told me the coughing thing is not uncommon as the body releases toxins through the process. She said to drink water, and that I'll probably want to go to bed early tonight.

I was so thirsty. 

Hours later, at home, after drinking more water, I felt light-headed.

When I sat to work at my computer, it felt like I'd had an injection in my shoulder.

I should explain, she knew my issues were insomnia, joint pain, and "a shoulder" but not which one. My shoulder hasn't been acting up lately, either. When we finished, she said she kept being drawn to my left ankle, and asked if I had injured that sometime in the past. No, but for the past couple weeks that ankle has felt bruised. A mild pain, so I never mentioned it.

Weird!

Balancing the Scales

Do you ever hear a phrase so often that it becomes a nothing phrase? You maybe think you have a handle on it, but then talk to someone else who reads it differently? I think in this day of memes and ancient quotes (or misquotes) being plastered all over the internet, it must be a pretty common phenomenon. 

Above images all from Pinterest

One struck me today. "Live a balanced life." You see this one in conjunction with motivational memes or those video ads for the latest free online self-improvement workshop.

What is "a balanced life"?

I have joined online fitness groups that motivate you to exercise more and watch what you eat. Set goals for weight loss! Define those goals clearly and break them down week by week, day by day! Read these articles about how you should be eating, what you should be eating, when you should be eating!

I still participate in groups like that, because it is helpful accountability for me, but I take everything with a grain of salt. One study says eat a big breakfast is key to losing weight. One study shows that intermittent fasting is effective. It's all very personal - what works for one doesn't work for another.

A few years ago - before we moved overseas - it dawned on me that this focus on food and fitness should be ... how can I put it ... just one piece of my overall health. I know, basic, right?

But I realized I was neglecting my spiritual and psychological side. All those things that actually bring happiness to life. The joy of a tasty snack (peanut butter on graham crackers felt like a healthy option) turned into guilt over abusing my body. (When you eat a whole sleeve of crackers with your peanut butter, it's not as healthy.) 

Other, non-"health" related things I enjoyed were a minimal part of my life. The things that didn't bring guilt. I usually was reading a book, making slow progress when I had time, but I hadn't sought out a new author or genre in ages. I wasn't attending church as regularly as I had in the past, although I still read my Bible.

For me, I found that taking time to meditate every day, and ensuring that I spent some time doing fun things - reading, cross-stitch, coloring, baking - helped me feel better about myself and about life.

To me, that is "balanced". I hope I will never be able to be pigeon-holed as "XYZ" type. I hope my interests and activities will vary sufficiently to keep challenging my perceptions. No one will ever fully know what's in my heart and on my mind, but if I am tending to those parts of me as well as to my physical body, I think I am achieving balance.

That's just what works for me. How do you understand "a balanced life"? What am I missing?
 

Wondering

On January 24th, I came across this statement/quote?/meme somewhere and jotted it down. (unattributed, sorry.)

"Six months from now, you could be in a completely different space - mentally, physically, spiritually, fnancially. Keep believing."

At that point, we were beginning to look for a larger apartment in Beijing, so I knew I'd be in a different physical space. I just didn't know how different!

• I'm no longer working - well, a little bit, for people in Beijing, but nothing here yet. 
• My lungs are happier with Da Nang air. I feel I'm healthier from the climate and from my new exercise habits.
• I'm not eating well, though. I used to get a salad a day, now I get so many carbs! But I eat less, because of the hot climate. 
• I'm back at square one, language-wise!

I can't help but think how everything will be different, again, at the end of the year.

• We'll be in a new, bigger apartment.
• I'm working on my business idea, but it will probably not be official until sometime in 2019 - such a layout of expense!
• I should know more of the language, although I'm not formally studying it.
• We will have found places to shop for the things we need and want.
• I hope to find somewhere to buy clothes in non-tiny Asian sizes!
• Who knows what social changes are in store? I already have more friends here to hang out with than I did in Beijing.

What am I hoping for? Pizza, the necessary ingredients and utensils to bake, fruits and vegetables, a comfortable mattress. Not much, really.

We all have these moments of future-thought, don't we? Not to dwell on the future, but maybe during goal-setting, maybe after a big change, isn't it kind of important to consider where we think we'll be next year? What might happen in the intervening time? What are our expectations? Where do we hope our lives will be?

Meditation

Meditation has become part of my daily morning routine: Get up, start the electric kettle, sweep, make my lemon water, lay down my yoga mat, meditate, yoga. Boom. By then my husband is up and the rest of the day has no consistent order.

For me, meditation is the pause at the end of a prayer when you listen for a response.
I realized that and THEN I found this on pinterest!

As a Christian, it's kind of sad to me that all the meditation memes include images of Buddha. I think the Christian community is missing out! If you hear a Christian mention meditation, it's usually tacked on to "prayer and" but I feel that the meditation aspect is often lost. It's so vital!

Regardless of your religion or lack thereof, taking a few moments to sit quietly and clear your mind can be deeply centering. 

I think many people don't try it because it's so hard to clear your mind of thought. And it is. The best advice I ever found is: thoughts will come; just don't let them stay. Ease the thought into and out of your mind, and eventually you will settle into stillness.

The longest I've sat in meditation is about 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, my mind is actually fairly clear. 

(Another Pinterest gem.)
I haven't gotten here ^^ yet. I do not act always from a center of inner peace, but I do notice a correlation between my time in meditation and my peace of mind.

Have you ever tried meditation? What is your version of meditation?

(If you're visiting from A to Z, please include the name of your blog as it is on the Master List so I can return the favor!)

Playing Hooky and Proud of It!

Hey Dudes!
(Sorry if "dude" annoys you. I live at the beach, and picked it up somehow. I'm not using it to be gender-specific, if that's not obvious. I've decided that ya'll are my "dudes". Deal.)

ANYway...
Hey, Dudes - I'm totally playing hooky today. Or, as my former boss would say, "taking a mental health day". Sometimes you just need an extra day to play catch up on life, sleep, housework, and since I have no definite commitment this evening, how nice not to have to drive anywhere. You know, saving gas is VERY good for the mental health!

Yes, I'm a little sniffly.
Yes, I could with some exaggeration claim I'm crampy.
Yes, my throat has bothered me the last few mornings.
Maybe, it could be pollen-related.
No, I don't feel like I'm on my death bed and cannot move.

I called in to take a sick-day, knowing that these days are so NOT busy at work that nobody will miss me. Besides most of the management is at a big conference today. And I've had a very productive day thus far! I'd launch into a "six impossible things I did before breakfast" but they're not impossible, not all before breakfast, and probably not six.

"Mental health, riiiight..." you say? Here's how mentally healthful this is:

1. Before I even got up I had beaten that Angry Birds level I was stuck at - Yea! Body releases dopamine into my system. Good for the mental health.
2. I moved on into some of the "nickel-slot-style" easy-win levels, but successfully put down the Angry Birds even without feeling stuck on a level! Conquering an addiction. Good for the mental health.
3. After rising, I exercised (which looks spelled wrong) releasing positive endorphines. Good for the mental health.
4. Ate sugary cereal for breakfast, which takes me back to my youth, when we never kept sugared cereal in the house so it was a very unique occasion and always at someone else's house, like Grandma's. Ah, nostalgia. A little nostalgia is good for the mental health.
5. After finishing breakfast, the kettle whistled, I made my giant mug of Earl Grey and went for a walk on the beach. (Dude, it's supposed to get into the upper 60s today, how could I not?) About 45 minutes. Endorphines AND Vitamin C. Very good for the health and mental health. Also, more exercise. SO healthy! Plus meditation time, excellent.
6. When I got out of the shower, I set up a time to skype with my parents later today. We talk every Wednesday, which is unbelievably vital to my mental health. They keep me grounded.
7. I also emailed a friend for her address so I can send her birthday gift, finally. If she gets back to me today, I can wander in to the Post Office and mail it. Sense of accomplishment: good for the mental health!

...and that's just the things I've already done. I still intend to do some of that "catch up" housekeeping, and if time and energy allow, I may even get going on my "organize my house" resolution by rearranging things or at least doing the prep-work. (I've already measured the spaces I want things to go, but need to clear bookshelves in order to move them.)

If it's truly warm, I'll have a beer on my deck later, because that makes me feel like summer's coming and although I'm not particularly a summer-lover, I do enjoy my deck, and again, out on the deck I'll be getting more vitamin C, and curing some cabin fever. ...wait, what time is sunset? Maybe I'll make it a mixed drink and have a "sun-downer" as my dad calls it.

AND on another note:
Today's "reason to celebrate" for those of you who will not be partaking of the Ash Wednesday tradition (which ya can't really call a "celebration" anyway, can ya?) is "Losar" or Tibetan New Year! Excellent! ANOTHER New Year! Get out the bubbly, everyone!