You see lots of people walking with their head up on campus (as in, not down and looking at their phones). More than you would expect for one place full of nothing but 20 somethings. Which I think is encouraging. People my age are not as horrible as a lot of people think they are. I think we're probably as horrible as any other generation can be. Self-absorbed in a new way. Which, really, how new is it for a young person to be self absorbed.
A lot of people associate mindfulness with limited technology use and a low level of connectivity on social media. Being mindful of the existence millions of celebrities, beautiful people, and their ideas is not the kind of mindfulness that is intended with this challenge day though, I think. I'm going to guess the "mindfulness" of ye olde challenge is rather the understanding of the world beyond who's who and what's what. Taking time to connect with the world and find self-spirituality beyond trendy words and pretty people. To just let thing be the way they are and enjoy a little quiet.
The UND campus is lovely in the spring time. The trees are still too nervous to have budded leaves yet (discouraging), but when they do they will flower spectacularly. One of the most special things about coming out of a long winter for me is the smells you didn't realize your body had missed. The smell of dirt, actual plain dirt, after not having the totally average smell around you for nearly 6 months is something of a natural caffeine. Almost like you hadn't realized that the earth had been lying underneath all that snow you'd been surrounded by for the entire winter, as if you thought the earth's crust had simply been replaced with sterile, stench-less, frozen water while you were busying yourself with other things. And then you just wake up. And are reinvigorated by the smell of dirt.
Its good to smell dirt, among other things, to realize how plain we all are and how simple the earth is. So there is the mindfulness of the week. Honest dirt smell.
Day 20: No TV all Day. Read Instead!
Everyone say it together:
"ELLEN WHAT THE HECK, YOU'RE BOTCHING THIS CHALLENGE."
Okay, maybe you weren't going to say that (I don't actually think anyone who takes time to read this is mean, it's all hyperbole), and maybe you really don't care at all that I forgot on this day to not watch "The Newsroom" on Amazon Prime. So, I forgot and I'm sorry and I will even admit that I remembered that I shouldn't be watching TV on episode 2 (and started episode 3 anyways, it's a really good show).
So no award ribbons would hypothetically be given out on this fine Saturday for abstaining from TV, but I did read, and my reading consisted of the Grand Forks Herald newspaper. I love and hate the newspaper. I am disturbed and invigorated by the newspaper. More on this later.
END OF WEEK 3
Day 21: Journal 20 minutes
Writing in a journal has a lot of misconceptions and people are generally pretty leery about the whole thing. I wonder if this has anything to do with TV shows and movies we watched when we were little, like "Read it and Weep" and "Mean Girls".
A hypothetical response to encouragement of keeping a journal might be: "But what if someone finds it and learns all my secrets, oh garsh."
No one said you have to write horrible things about other people if you keep a journal. Nor do you have to reveal you innermost thoughts and feelings. I really like to write in a journal because I can jot down funny things that I see around campus during the day (grown men with beards singing loudly while walking to class or a group of fraternity mean smoking cigs and watching a single fraternity brethren clean all their fraternity windows). It gives me a place to write down one of the last lengthy conversation I had with my Alzheimer progressing grandfather. To assess how I'm doing in school and the quality of studying I'm doing. To jot down something kind my friends and family do for or say to me. To keep track of who gave me what as Christmas and Birthday presents. To plan my future and recount the business of the day. To doodle something goofy.
And nobody says that it has to be riveting or exciting to anybody, even yourself. It's a non competitive place to think things, remember things, and plan things. So today, like many days, I spent a little time and wrote, doodled, and remembered, and it felt good to do it.
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| Most of the time I just stick to journaling text, but sometimes I doodle a little! |
I definitively do not do a great job at bedtime routines. For as routine as my morning is, my night is anything but. As I mentioned on Day 15 (examine your daily habits), I often am glued to the computer working on something or another much later than I want to be, and I pay for it when my mind is still racing when I jump into bed. So on this night I tried to do a few methodical things that didn't require a lot of thought about half and hour before I curled up. I got in PJ's and I did my dishes, I rolled out my exercise mat and did a little yoga, I folded some clothes, and then I jumped into bed. I slept like a dream. *pun*
Day 23:Go Barefaced
I wore makeup on this day because I had a big presentation. And I don't know, business professional = blush and mascara (?). I know I know. I have sworn to go barefaced another day this week.
Day 23: Practice Gratitude
Thank you letters are my favorite. I love to take a lot of time to write them and be thorough and genuine. Today, however, no thank you letters were written. *waaah waah*
Instead, I went to the little English Coulee and did an hours worth of homework (very efficiently, I might add, it is nice not to have any internet to distract you). Then I went and photographed two geese, because I like geese and I think they are cool animals.
I'm adding this justification because some people don't really like geese. Yes, they are territorial, hiss, and will attack you if you don't leave them alone. Yes they poop everywhere and it's annoying. But I think that the behaviors of geese sound a lot like the behaviors of people (minus the hissing, and if people pooped everywhere it would be gross too). So I like geese for their independence and high spiritedness. And I think they're cute.
Wait, we're talking about gratitude. Well, I'm grateful for geese and not having to go to ChE Lab lecture on this day.
Day 24: Leave a Whole Day Unplanned
This day made me balk a little and say "NO."
But the day I had planned completely changed anyways, so there's karma for you. The whole darn day I had planned completely changed. Work on Physics project? Nope, work on ChE Unit Ops project instead, then go home early. Go to the "Jungle Book" movie at River Cinema with a buddy? Nope, go to *"Hello, My Name is Doris" solo. Went to bed super early and slept SO WELL.
So there's the lesson for me. Life will change and that's okay, be prepared for anything. The day can and will still be special even if the way it goes is not the ways it's planned. I'm still hoping to see Jungle book at some time.
*Hello, My Name is Doris" is adorable, hilarious, and heartbreaking. I busted a gut as well as almost was reduced to tears. It was AMAZING, and I encourage everyone to see it because you will fall in love with Doris and the whole movie is just great. Also, I fell in love with headscarves because of Doris, so that's going to be a summer trend of mine...*
Day 25: Identify stress triggers
What stresses me out? Like I said before, school is stressful but less paralyzingly so than it used to be for me. Something I can only take so much of before it stresses me out is noise, however, and after spending time around lots of it, silence is a necessity of mine.
I'm going to assume (rather confidently) that this is related to my youth in North Eastern Montana on my family's farm. My parents are also very sensitive to sound, as their daily lives exposes them to both intense silence (the open prairie will shock you with it's lack of loudness) and loud mechanized sounds (tractors, augers, etc.). Silence is something that my family and I find comforting, though I suppose many people not accustomed to such a lack of noise might find silence unsettling. Silence is like a commodity in the modern world, and we cherish it.
It's almost like a waterline in my chest, as if noise builds up from daily life and needs to be purged with silence. After movies or plays on the drive home, I never able to have the radio on (much to the annoyance of a particular pal). After hockey games at the Ralph, I practically have to quarantine myself from noises so I can stand going back the next night (*disclaimer: I LOVE working at the Ralph regardless!) It's just the build-up of noise really seems to dig at me in some deep way. I'm sure people from similarly rural areas might have a similar response to noise and lack there-of.
Hello Rural Pals: Can anyone else identify with this feeling? Or perhaps more so with the appreciation of silence rather than a maximum level of noise? I'd love to hear your input! :)
PS: Today was my makeup makeupless day!
Day 26: Clear out JUNK drawer
PHOTO TIME.
What do YOU have laying around, causing problems for you when you get ready, or lying about and stressing you out around you home? Many of us have far more things than we need (as you can see from the 3 different kinds of lotions in my bedside dresser). What can we shed to feel lighter? What can we get rid of to give us a cleaner space?
END OF WEEK 4
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