The (Online) Buddhist Retreat | Just a few quick notes:
I don’t have enough space anywhere in my apartment to properly practice a Qi Gong stick exercise.
There is a Christmas tree in the meeting hall in the Buddhist monastery, which threw me off for a moment.
Even with all my app support I feel I could have checked in on my socials a little less. Tomorrow hopefully. One day at a time and all that.
With Zoom meetings all day long some internet connection somewhere had to break down eventually, right?
I really need to work on my attention span.
I learned at least two helpful quick “come back to the present moment” methods today, which I hope will help me in the future.
Not for the first time, but especially during the deep relaxation practice today I noticed the variety of colours and “symbols” I see with my closed eyelids. Though “see” probably is the wrong term, because my eyes are closed I don’t see anything. But you know what I mean. I think it depends on how much light there has been before and how hard / light you actually close your eyes? Anyway, for some reason I was reminded of this old photo I took in 2008.
When the sister who lead that mediation was talking about the brain for a moment another thought popped up (yes I know, I should have just let it go and focus on my breathing and I did, after I made a mental note to blog about it): Are rational thought and emotions – which are in part sort of thought as well – processed in different parts of the brain? Does that even make sense? Anyone?
Other stuff | Some heated emails among the local Greens. I almost chimed in with a “please calm down guys” and/or a “I agree with person X” mail. Then decided to stay out of it and ignore it and focus on my retreat. Good choice for now I think. And yes I checked my mails during the day. I know, I know…
I also watched the next few guitar practice videos and think I will start with the proper 20 minutes practice for the first module in my “time off” between retreat sessions tomorrow.
Mostly stayed away from the news. Which is good, I think?
