Sabbath Progress Log for 15Sept12 Sat

I went to bed after midnight Friday night and woke up Saturday around 6:20am.
It really is nice just to wake up when I wake up as opposed to waking up to alarms. That jarring is so bad for the nerves.

I woke with a happy smile and wished myself a Happy Sabbath. It felt appropriate. :)
I gave myself a Reiki treatment (which I don't do enough) while using the Doctor Ho unit. My back has been still sensitive since I pulled it out a couple weeks ago.

I did my morning pages and ate a fruit salad of oranges, raspberries and strawberries. Ate a couple apples and promptly went back to sleep for a few hours.

Around 1pm I found I was struggling with not turning on the television. I didn't care about the internet or the phone but the TV, especially since I knew that the Gilmore Girls was on. Crazy since I've watched all the episodes. But once I got over the struggling, I did some reading and later in the afternoon I did some writing and wrote up all my blog entries. I also worked on New Moon wishes reading to get an idea of what my list will be.

The main thing I'd noticed by the end of the day was that I wasn't feeling the normal anxiety that I usually feel on the weekend. That anxiety is the feeling that time is passing by and I'm not making good use of it. By the end of the day I felt like I had a fully relaxing day, aside from the TV struggle of about an hour. Bad habits die hard.

I feel like I could have got more accomplished writing wise but that's my schtick, I never feel like I accomplish enough. I did get a lot of much needed sleep and it was super nice not to have spent my day doing laundry and grocery shopping and all the chores that normally eat up my Saturday. And cat cuddles. The cats were very enthusiastic about spending all that extra time cuddled up in bed.

So, that's one Sabbath attempted and enjoyed. The true test is how I'll feel during the work week. Of course it's only one so I'll monitor the changes over the month of Sabbaths. I think it's something I can continue.

EY

New Moon in Virgo

For the New Moon in Virgo, Simone says Mercury, the planet which rules Virgo, conjoins the Sun and Moon at the lunation. This hyper-mental energy requires placing our thoughts in service of our goals.

Well that works with my commitment to observing a Sabbath.

I also liked this idea ...

It’s time to acknowledge that despite some failures, you’ve also experienced successes, whether great or small, since the spring. Write down these successes and celebrate them. Virgo likes making lists and tallying progress; it also supports regular practice—the dedication which slowly moves us in a new direction. Whether it’s a daily walk, a morning blessing before heading off to work, clearing clutter one drawer at a time, sending out resumes to find a more fulfilling job, or volunteering for a cause you believe in, small acts will yield big shifts over time.

I read up on Virgo New Moon Wishes using Jan Spiller's book, New Moon Astrology She says no more than 10 wishes total for the month (new moon to new moon).

Here are some ideas for wishes to focus on:

- developing a healthy eating plan
- developing an exercise routine
- removing addictions to cigarettes, bad sugars etc
- completing work projects with minimal stress and maximum efficiency
- creating a routine for work/play life balance
- creating neatness and order in our home
- paying bills/ debts on time
- discerning what's important and what is not
- appreciating the opportunities that are offered to us
- focus on the here and now moment

Happy New Moon! Hope you are making new moon wishes and making them come true for you. :)

EY

Sabbath - Feeding and Enriching My Artistic Soul

I wrote up a set of my rules/ guidelines of what my Sabbath will be. I kept in mind my work schedule because I do work some Friday nights. I want a level of flexibility that will help me to succeed.

I got groceries on the way home from work Friday night and after I put them away and turned off my alarms, my 25 hour Sabbath began. I've already decided that should I have to work on a Saturday night I will have my Sabbath on a Sunday. Like I said, keeping it flexible. And during my writing festival, I think I will do this during a week day since the festival is 10 days long and I'll have all that time off during the week.

Anyway, here are my current guidelines:

Do's
- Starts 25 hours from the time I get home on Friday
- Eat healthy, cleansing foods and juices
- can attend anything that enriches my artistic soul
- Can attend writing festivals
- Keep a Progress Log


Don'ts
- No chores
- No television
- No email
- No phone
- No internet
- No cooking unless crock pot or simple meal


Observance Activities
- Prayer
- Meditation
- Kundalini Yoga and chanting (use ibook - it has no internet connection)
- Qigong (ibook)
- Reading
- Music (maybe, haven't made a decision, yet)
- Work on Novel in progress
- Write blog entries
- Write Essays
- poem
- Draw
- Walks
- Goal Setting:
a) What I'd like to study in 2013
b) 50th birthday ideas
c) Finances


EY

Observing the Sabbath

I've decided to observe the Sabbath!

July and August were weird months for me. I felt like my insides were struggling to get a proper space within my body. That's the best way I can describe it. It was the caterpillar struggle to get out of its gunk to become a butterfly. Except of course, I haven't had any major transformation yet, just the continued struggling.

I've had face to face discussions with a number of my girlfriends and I noticed one theme. We all feel as if we've given up doing the things that kept us enthusiastic. You know? Keeping a journal used to be filled with pictures and quotes and ideas and song lyrics. Now our journals are bland, "The weather was nice. I bought groceries today."

I marveled with one girlfriend about how I stopped doing my morning pages because I was boring myself! I seemed to have lost the stream of consciousness rhythm that I normally have when I do my pages. The rhythm that digs into the subconscious because the self editor is asleep. We both sighed that, "where did I lose my enthusiasm for life," sigh.

I told the same girlfriend that I'd started going to cheap Tuesday night movies weekly just to add something, anything. And I'd written up a list of healing activities that might actually push me toward the butterfly type transformation that maybe my insides were struggling for. I've got the list, I still haven't done what's on the list. (hangs head)

To make matters worse, my part time job has kicked back in since the beginning of September. So I'm back to working two jobs and in my free time, heck, during my work time, I'm always tired. And my list has been burning in my thoughts. Each day that I don't do anything on that list I'm disgruntled. Every day I begin the day asking, "How am I going to fit this in?"

Thursday, September 13th, I woke up and said out loud, "I'm going to observe the Sabbath." It's been something that has floated in my mind since July 6th when I read Gretchen Rubin's email from her Happiness Project blog. It was an interview of Joshua Foer who, you guessed it, attributes his happiness to keeping the Sabbath.

What’s something you know now about happiness that you didn’t know when you were 18 years old?

I keep the Jewish Sabbath, which is not something I did when I was 18. For 25 hours each week, everything gets turned off. No email. No phone. I don’t make anything. I don’t destroy anything. No matter how much stress I have in my life, it all evaporates on Friday night.

Joshua's mention of keeping the Jewish Sabbath brought me back to almost 30 years ago when I was a part-time live in Nanny for an Orthodox Jewish family. I was hired to care for their 6 kids specifically for the Sabbath. The family had their lights on timers so the proper lights would turn on in specific rooms like the dining room during Sabbath lunch. The Mrs used a crock pot for their lunch and put the food in before the Sabbath started and it was ready in time for lunch.

But the best part of observing the family keep the Sabbath was watching the kids devour books because there was nothing else to do. They'd each borrow a pile of books from the library before the Sabbath started and they would read, for hours! I remember telling my mother about it all those years ago. "What a great idea," I'd told her, "It's a great opportunity to slow down." The Mister and Mrs had a nap while I kept an eye on their children and the children read books and books and books and books!

Of course I'm not Jewish, nor am I religious but I know I need something drastic. I need to give myself the gift of time. So just in time for the new moon in Virgo, I've committed to observing an Artistic Sabbath for at least 4 Saturdays in a row and I'll revisit my commitment to see what changes I can make.

Here's the full interview. Oh and in the comments someone posted this Sabbath Manifesto for those who are doing it for non-religious reasons. Awesome! I hadn't thought of wine! lol

EY