In preparation for January, when I will be working 7am-7pm. Yikes. Up until now, I’ve always worked second shift (2-10pm). Don’t know how I’m going to manage it. I guess I’ll start going to bed really, really early. I’m the kind of person who needs tons of sleep or I feel like a zombie.
How do you become a morning person in a way that doesn’t involve large amounts of caffeine?
I lived abroad when I was in high school (yes, I was an “exchange student”). My host family was dreadful. They hated me and the feeling was mutual. I’d like to go overseas again, but more independently this time, on my own terms. I’m thinking Europe or Asia…
After watching a bunch of these, I now want to learn to speak Korean. Really pretty, melodic-sounding language.
I can never seem to exist in the present. I mean, of course, I am able to go about my day and be functional, get things done and all that, but in my mind I’m always thinking about things that have happened in the past or things that I want to happen in the future. I think my joining 43 Things is just symptomatic of that—at least the “future” aspect of it.
Have you ever read “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” by Shunryu Suzuki? It’s all about training your mind to live in the present and to forget attachments to the past and future. I’ve read the book several times, and while I would like to practice mindfulness more often, it is sometimes incompatible with living in the 21st century, where we are so goal-directed.
But the simplicity of mindfulness is in becoming more aware of your surroundings. That’s not so hard to do, is it?
I’m a current nursing student and loving it. Only 13 more months to go before graduation!
I’m a neurotic person. This means that whatever neurotic thought pops in my mind, I have to share it. With SOMEONE—usually my husband and sometimes my girlfriends. What this amounts to usually is going over and over and over the same verbal territory, driving myself into a frenzy and the other person crazy.
I used to go see a therapist and was able to deal better with my neuroses because at least I was paying someone once a week to listen to it. I now believe that I shouldn’t actually NEED to talk everything through all the time. That I am stronger than my addiction to processing everything out loud. That I can just let things GO without thinking about them obsessively.
I was brought up in a house where communication was like an Olympic sport—everyone screaming for attention constantly, trying to one-up each other. It’s taken me many years to try to rid myself of a lot of nasty communication habits leftover from my childhood.
One habit in particular that is really hard to break is interrupting. My family still does it constantly to me, so it’s hard to not do it in conversation with others. I’m working on it…
