One of my professors at BYU taught a class for the graduating TESOL graduates. He taught a segment about how to create personal mission and vision statements, to help you see what is important to you and what you need to do to keep those things in perspective. This is important for any professional to understand so that they keep themselves from burning out. He shared a talk by President Hinckley titled "Life's Obligations", about leading a balanced life.
In it President Hinckley talked about four important obligations: 1. to
your vocation, 2. to your family, 3. to the Church, and 4. to yourself. About our obligation to ourselves, President Hinckley said, "Our
lives become extremely busy. We run from one thing to another. We wear
ourselves out in thoughtless pursuit of goals which are highly
ephemeral. We are entitled to spend some time with ourselves in
introspection, in development."
The full article can be found here. I feel like I do a bad job sometimes of making time for personal introspection and development. Yeah, I have a lot of time for myself, but a lot of my personal time is spent on either my master's project or entertainment. My time is full of reading, researching, materials writing, listening to radio, watching TV. But I think that I would see some good rewards in my life if I took more time to meditate and reflect. This has been something I've thought of doing for a long time, but I have never implemented it.
So that is my personal goal for March. I am not going to try to meditate every day. I know that would be setting myself up for failure! But I think that I will try to do it 4 days a week, for just 10 minutes. I am going to put a chart up on the magnet board in my kitchen, where I can see it and be reminded to take that time (I am so motivated by charts!).
Have any of you taken time to meditate regularly? What positive/negative results have you seen? Any suggestions for how to do it?
I've found that my meditation time comes when I practice the piano or sew. I don't listen to music when I do it (obviously, for the piano), and those are times when I can just sit and listen to my thoughts. When I sew, I tend to think a lot about the women in my family who taught me or inspired me to sew, especially my grandma. When I play the piano, I think about the times in my life when I played those certain songs. When I was younger and seriously practicing piano, I'd do a lot of thinking then. Sometimes I'd think of something that needed doing and stop mid-song and go do it.
ReplyDeleteIn college, I'd do a lot of my thinking while I walked to and from campus. I may or may not have talked outloud to myself sometimes.
Also, I used to write in my journal every single day. Sometimes I'd think a lot trying to find something to write about, but mostly it was the process of actually putting my thoughts down on paper that helped me organize them and think them through to the end.
So I've never actually set aside time to meditate, but especially in the last few years with so many ways to find interruptions, I've made the conscious decision to set certain activities aside as times when I get to spend time with my thoughts.
I guess my meditation time is when I write in my journal. I think about what is going on with me and how I feel about it, and also reflect a lot of where I want to go. If I just sit and think, my mind wanders within seconds, and my "meditation" time turns to figuring out what I need to buy at the store and wishing the girl in front of me would fix the tag on the back of her shirt. Not very productive. I'm curious to hear how it goes for you!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'll just sit and meditate, but I also like to on walks, even if it's just around the block a couple times for a few minutes. It's nice to get the fresh air and be away from all the distractions! Good luck!
ReplyDeletelove this, merry. thanks for the inspiration:)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments! These are all good suggestions.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I am going to read that talk by President Hinckley! I love him!
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