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Our dear Chinese friends are famous for their without parallel « zen » side and I’m not going to contradict that. After almost 2 months spend in their company (40% of Chinese students in my class), I can only confirm this stereotype.
Among all their wonderful theories of wisdom, my favourite one is probably the one dealing with the concepts of Yin and Yang. The yin symbolises darkness and coldness. The yang is its contrary. It means light and energy.
November: At the moment, we’re entering a cold period (well at least for the
Well that’s no big surprise when you know that according to the Chinese medicine, the winter fits to the yin. However, the good news is that it hasn’t have to be the same on the inside. I mean, aren’t yin and yang supposed to balance each other?
Then, how to find again that right balance we’re talking about? The answer is simple: Add more yang to your life: warm colours, light and activities are the secrets. Incorporate this to your lifestyle, your food, your clothes, your relationships …Etc anything you can have an influence on.
This actually just reminded me of a Buddhist concept: the « monkey mind » - I just LOVE all those bizarre theories. Appart from the fact it leads to cool blog post titles, it also is most of the time, very intersting. Therefore I consider it is my duty to advertise them.
To make it short and simple, Buddhist people believes that doing too many things at once is definitely not leading to anything good (yes, even for multi-tasked gifted women). In fact, you are wasting your energy. It's like running all over the place and therefore you can't be as effective as when you're performing only one task.
The monkey mind is the image they found to represent this idea. Your mind is like jumping from one branch to another, like a restless monkey.
That's all well and good but what do you do with your monkey ?
| The nice Buddhist monk says: « First things first, inwardly watch your shifting mind for a few moments. Then focus on a specific mental task or topic with full concentration. The monkey will be still – at least for a while. » |
Amazing.
Honestly, I never thought it would be that hard. It’s crazy how many times a day I thought about the future! It took me so much energy and I didn’t even know it. My challenge was huge because September was going to be the starting point of a new life for me so my mind was kind of contaminated with loads of questions, fears and excitation.
The first two weeks, I have to say I was heading for my fall. I couldn’t control myself: I kept on asking 300 questions everyday, dreaming every night about my first day in the
But I eventually managed to establish a few tricks to focus on the present. Here are some of them:
¤ A 1 minute meditation exercise. Take a deep breath in and then a deep breath out. Once again a deep breath in, tell yourself everything is going to be okay, and then a deep breath out (just focus on the air getting out of your rib cage). And do it again. You can of course change your mantra depending of the situation and the fear you’re experiencing. After one minute, you’ll feel much better AND you stop thinking about what is going to be next.
¤ My mind tended to fly away as soon as I was taking the subway, walking or stopping at red lights when I was driving. Therefore, I decided to focus on details around me: the blue sky, flowers in the streets, cute guys (hey every detail is good ^^). And as I was doing it I was saying myself stuff like “aw this is pretty/cool/awesome/” and this way I was focusing on something else than my thoughts. So just pick something you like around you and make little comments to yourself. It feels so good and it calms your mind immediately.
¤ Yoga. I practice many sports. I enjoy running but unfortunately I also do my grocery shopping list while I’m doing it so not the right solution! However yoga is perfect because you focus on your respiration and the stretching in the different parts of your body -> Focusing is the key, you only have to concentrate on something and then the future thoughts go away.
¤ Finally, last trick: learning to differentiate « toxic thoughts » from other ones : you can think about the future, of course, but only in some cases. Start by a making up: Here are the facts: what I know, what I don’t know, what I want to know. And then ask yourself which of the questions you’re asking yourself are truly important. Once you made this first selection, make an other one with the important thoughts: what can you do right now ?
Okay, you may need an exemple here :
The facts: I’m moving in a student house in the
What I know: I know exactly where my house is.
What I don’t know & want to know: what are the furnitures in the room. who are my flatmate. how many shoes I should bring.
Relevant questions: what are the furnitures in my room ? ( so that I know what I need to bring)
Irrelevant questions: shoes are not that important, if i need more, i’ll buy at Topshop. Flatmates are important but I really can’t do anything about it right now, only waiting, so let’s stop focusing on that.
What can I do now: send an email to the person in charge of the accomodation and ask him about the room.
See, if you can do something right now about your future, do it. It will tranquilize you. If you can’t, then try to focus on something else.
First of all, I do really want to apologize for my lack of posts. I have to say I was once again “en quête d’inspiration” (looking for inspiration if you prefer). I found the perfect article theme today though. I was browsing through the last articles written by my favourite bloggers and suddenly get inspired by Deva and Ana. Here are the link to their articles: Deva & Ana
Being a lovetarian means you essentially approach life through a love angle. I try to see the best in everybody. I prefer loving thoughts over fearful delusions. I forget about what is making me suffer to focus on what is making me a happier and a better person. I thank everyday the universe for giving me an amazing sister who is my best friend and for my great friends who believe in me. Everyday I wrote in my “Today I am thankful for” diary. I forgive and forget about the negative stuff that happened in the past. I release myself. I allow myself to be in a state of love. I allow myself to be happy. It makes me feel so much more peaceful.
Watch out, you may have recognized yourself in this description and maybe you’re already a lovetarian but you were not aware of this aspect of you yet.
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