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

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

Investing In My Happiness

Since Saturday’s question of where the venom comes from, I’ve been taking another look at what makes me happy. I took an uncomfortable look at the ways that I am filled with venom. The ways I can be dismissive or downright mean. Hey I’m no saint. :) The more I thought of those difficult, woman in the mirror, realities of my personality, the more I thought about ways to solve it for me. And that is to focus on making myself as happy as possible as often as possible. I know that when I have a focus that is larger than the annoying realities I can shrug the annoyances off. My best example is when I worked in retail and kept my focus on my writing and never got caught up in the work place dramas or affected by nasty customers etc.

If I’m going to continue to transform the venom injections of each day, I need to have a ready repertoire of what makes and keeps me happy. You know, simple and manageable stuff that keeps me going.

Have you ever checked out Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project? Gretchen spent a year “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happier.” And then she wrote a book. She can guide you with far better information on, well, making a project out of it.

My little list started with the promise that I would get back into getting up early to write and do yoga. As a motivation, I decided to tell myself that it was an investment in my happiness, so I wouldn’t press the snooze button and roll over. The rest of the list is just choosing from things I already own or things that are free or cheap. To remind myself that I don’t have to spend money. Although it’s nice to spend money once in awhile. :)

1- My number one goal is to get back to doing stuff for me in the mornings before I go to work. That’s at least my morning pages and a session of Kundalini Yoga. Truly, that investment is the one that pays me the most. I just plain old 'feel good'. I am putting my goals first, making my goals a priority by getting up to do them. I feel more motivated when I get to work, less distracted. Some times I can be in a bad mood simply because I’m mad at myself for not getting stuff done. So I’m getting up when I wake up. Monday it was 3am and this morning it was 4:07 am. I used to be a religious 4am riser but then I let it fall by the wayside. Dr. Wayne Dyer mentioned it in the most enlightening way quoting Rumi –“ The morning breeze has secrets to tell you, don’t go back to sleep.” I love that idea, I will hear the secrets if I simply get up. Get up! Get up! And the secret is that I’m way more productive and happier if I don’t press snooze for 15 more minutes of shut eye. Plus when I get up the moment I wake up, I’m actually less tired than if I sleep by the snooze button.
A good article on reasons to rise early

My other ways to invest in my happiness in no particular order are:
2- Sitting somewhere to feed the squirrels. I love squirrels, they make me laugh, they are fun to watch and feeding them reminds me that the Universe always provides so trust in the Universe.
I love what Squirrel Meaning and Symbolic Thoughts about Squirrels has to remind us about squirrels.

It's not commonly known that the squirrel only actually finds 10% of the nuts he hides for safekeeping. This is another message from the squirrel that we can also foolishly over-prepare.

Although, I like to think that what one squirrel doesn't find, another squirrel does.

This one says:

The gathering power of Squirrel is a great gift.
It teaches us balance within the circle of gathering and giving out.
They remind us that in our quest for our goals,
it is vital to make time for play and socializing.

Squirrel teaches us to conserve our energy for times of need.
If your totem is Squirrel or Squirrel has recently entered your life,
lighten your load of things that are unnecessary –
things that you have gathered in the past and may be cluttering your life –
thoughts, worries, and stresses.

3- Music & Singing – I have a vast music collection because I love music and I worked at a Record Store back in the day. I used to meet up with a girlfriend every Sunday for breakfast and she also has a vast collection. One year, she decided that she would play all of her music in alphabetical order and every week we'd meet up and she'd say, "I listened to the Bangles, The Beatles... Next week I'm moving onto the C's."
I'm going to pull that idea out of the vault and start doing that.
And the singing part is self explanatory. lol I love to sing and my cats tolerate it. :)

4- Playing with my cats (speaking of the cats). Gatsby , my tuxedo, loves to play fetch with a straw. He will sometimes bring the straw to bed to remind me that anytime I’m ready, he’s ready. Zelda, my grey domestic long-hair, loves to get under the sheet just as I’m flicking it in the air to put on the bed. She meows as I tickle her through the sheet. And I giggle! I've been trying to do that earlier every night so I can play longer with her before I have to go to sleep.

5- Ken Burns Jazz . I like to slip in a DVD while I’m getting ready for work and listen to stories of Jazz. I wish there were more affordable Jazz collections.

6- Crockpot cooking. I used to do more of this. And would try out zany recipes. I need to pick that up again. Cheap, easy, set it and forget it and leftovers!

7- Scribble Drawing – I literally scribble on a piece of paper. And then look for shapes and colour them in. It’s like looking for shapes in the clouds only doing it on paper. I have a sketch book filled with them. Perfect to do in a waiting room.

8- Long Walks – walking dates. This is my favourite way to get together with friends. A good walk across the city, through the ravines, along the water, anywhere. Sadly, not enough of my friends say yes to it. My one friend Lolo will walk until I say stop because my joints are hurting. Lol It’s free, you spend quality time together, you get a work out, you get to see the city.

9 - Spiritual Cinema Circle – I’ve been a member for several years now, so I have quite a collection of movies and shorts. They are a nice change from the Hollywood blockbuster. I watch them more on a winter weekend and I’m always thrilled with what I watch. One of my favourite shorts is about a little girl who outgrows her imaginary friend.

10 - And of course the zillions of physical books I have in my place, still unread. Plus my kobo and kindle that I carry every day!

11 - And Food! The summer and the best fruits. Blueberries and raspberries for breakfast makes me smile with each bite. Walking with a bag of CHERRIES! Oh Cherries, how I squeal the moment they are available. lol Fresh Strawberries in an almond smoothie. Watermelon, morning, noon and night! It's so easy to eat healthy in the summer!

So, yes, that's my easy list. Are you thinking about yours? Please do tell me what you do to invest in your happiness?

EY