NikithaJuly had been more about my professional life than about my personal life. I found it hard to strike a balance between the both. I was spending my free time also studying the concepts related to work. The initial struggle of doing things which are beyond your current capacity is sort of more intimidating than exciting. But this struggle goes on till I bring the level to challenging and only a bit outside my comfort zone.
Review of July
1.Anulom Vilom
The major plan for July included doing Anulom Vilom daily after Kapalbhati. But in reality, I was running short of time after kapalbhati and was not really able to do anulom vilom right after that. So I moved this routine to night time just before sleeping. I did around 60 minutes of anulom vilom over the entire month which was much lower than what I had in mind. But since that set a baseline, this month, I am going to target 120 minutes of anulom vilom.
2.Reading gita
I instead attended gita classes for a few days but they turned out more about chanting hare rama hare krishna than learning the essence of gita. I had to pause it and get back to the book where I just went through the introduction and first chapter. I am afraid if the book is really helpful because it emphasises more on bhakti yoga for which I am not really ready yet.
3.Books
In July, my reading list was E-squared, Headspace guide to meditation, Prana and pranayama, The Life‑Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Miracle of mindfulness, What your clutter is trying to tell you, Tiny Habits, Biology of belief.
Completed a few and a few are still in progress. I will start publishing the book reviews soon.
4.Miscellaneous
- I started writing in my gratitude diary that today is a new day with new opportunities. That sort of helped me deal with a crisis in work and helped me set the day on a positive tone.
- I extended my gratitude diary to the night to write about the things I am grateful for in the day
- I also started writing my goals (mostly the big ones) as I read that writing down your goals helps you look for opportunities to achieve them
- I started meditating twice a day and extended mindfulness into daily routines. Looking forward to experiencing visible changes with this extended mindfulness practice.
- I started keeping my phone inside the locker during working hours which has reduced the number of times I unlock the phone to half. This has not only reduced the mindless browsing and scrolling but also helped in spending the time in focusing on my breath
- I started learning badminton. For now, I have learnt only wrist movements.
Plans for August
1.Mindful walking
As a part of my mindfulness practices, I want to focus on mindful walking next. I am always on the run. My friends often say that it is very difficult to walk at my speed. Now, if I reduce the speed of my footsteps, I can slow down the speed of my thoughts.
To make this a habit, I will start with 10 mindful steps every morning. From the time I wake up from bed till I reach the bathroom, I will take mindful steps, breathing in and breathing out. In a day, when I stay at home, I walk around 4000 steps. In the beginning, converting everything to mindful steps might overwhelm me. So I will increase it by 20 steps every week. If I am able to do more, that is great. But the aim is to have the smallest number of steps to start with.
2.Thank you Notebook
For every person I have known so far, I will write a note in my personal notebook on why I am grateful for whatever they did for me. At the same time, I write a note why I should forgive the differences if there are any. This exercise is similar to what I planned last time but this time, I won’t be sending out any messages.That way, I will not hesitate to write down.
I will do this exercise before my night gratitude exercise.
How was your July? What are your plans for August?
Happy August!