Monday #2 - Mindfulness

Hello all, 

Welcome back to one Monday at a time! I'm currently writing this in my Personal Branding course (don't tell Professor Daly), after I realized that I forgot to care about this blog for the week. They say it takes time to build a habit, so I'm hoping that I only have a couple more weeks until I build it into my schedule. On that topic, I wanted to talk about mindfulness and how I've tried to focus on being more conscious of my presence this week. 

I think I'm at the point in the semester where everything is too chaotic to even breathe. I've been trying to stay on top of assignments, but I've noticed my other priorities slipping... like going to the gym, eating three meals a day, or focusing on choosing joy. One of my professors had gifted me a journal and some trinkets this past Thursday, and encouraged me to pursue mindfulness. I didn't exactly know how I was going to do that, but as I sat outside on a picnic table and opened my laptop to do some work, I re-examined the contents of her gift bag. There was two shells, a reflective heart shaped piece of metal, a fabric-covered pumpkin, and a candle. I decided that, even though I didn't have a lighter for the candle, and the picnic table wasn't my office, I was going to make this my space. So, I set out the items, put on a fall playlist, and tried to be as present in the moment as I could. To my surprise, it actually took a bit of weight off my shoulders, and I think it was the intention of putting energy into the space that made me more motivated and generally happier.

For me, another part of being mindful has always been journaling my thoughts, whether through songwriting or traditional pen and paper. Sometime's it's a rant on my close friends Instagram story, or even reposting something that I thought was funny. Journaling is taking a picture of my dogs when I go home for the weekend, or putting together my monthly playlist full of songs that don't make sense sonically, but that tell the story of where I started on the first and how I'm here on the 30th. The great thing about how accessible and personal technology has become, journaling can be done from anywhere and everywhere. With the addition of AI into our daily lives, I wonder sometimes about the future of the way we document our human experience, but that might be too meta for the second blog post. Well... at least until the next one!

one Monday at a time,

Ethan