Meditation is a practice.
But what do you practice when you meditate?
You practice two things:
- Noticing your thoughts and feelings
- Letting go of thoughts and feelings you noticed
Both together offer so many direct and indirect benefits.
You notice your thoughts and feelings earlier. So it's much easier to recognize them and let them go in any situation. This helps you stay calm and clear, even when things go wrong or you're in stressful situations.
You become more empathetic with yourself as you learn more about your own patterns of thoughts.
You also become more empathetic with others. For one, because you recognize everyone has their own mind they are struggling with. And because you can stay clear even in challenging circumstances.
You're learning more about yourself. The longer a meditation session goes, the fewer thoughts will pop up. But those that occur are much more interesting. Don't hold on to them, though. Acknowledge them and let them go.
“There is no good or bad meditation — there is simply awareness or non-awareness. To begin with, we get distracted a lot. Over time, we get distracted less. Be gentle with your approach, be patient with the mind, and be kind to yourself along the way.” -Andy Puddicombe, Headspace co-founder
Reading Recommendations
Introduction to Journaling | Mindful Ambition
“What Does Journaling Look Like? It's pretty simple! You, sitting down with pen/paper or keyboard in hand, writing. The process transforms your intangible thoughts into concrete and visible words. I prefer the act of writing in a physical notebook. Most people spend all day on the computer. It's filled with distractions. A pen and notebook create an ideal environment for thinking and reflection.”
Introspection Versus Rumination
“In a recent post, I ruminated about the difference between rumination and self-examination. Since we introverts tend to spend a lot of time in our own heads, we are at risk of digging ourselves into rumination holes. We need to know how to prevent healthy self-examination from degenerating into unproductive rumination. I turned to some fellow PT bloggers with real expertise (I’m a writer, not a psychologist) to get their thoughts on the subject.”
Microservices and the First Law of Distributed Objects
“The consequence of this difference is that your guidelines for APIs are different. In process calls can be fine-grained, if you want 100 product prices and availabilities, you can happily make 100 calls to your product price function and another 100 for the availabilities. But if that function is a remote call, you're usually better off to batch all that into a single call that asks for all 100 prices and availabilities in one go.”
Weekly Mindfulness Practice
Start at the top of your head and gently scan down towards your toes. Don’t try to change anything in your body while scanning. Only notice.
You can do this exercise every time you take a quick break.
End Note
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Have a great week
Simon
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