Good Stuff

[batskeets]

Oy. It feels like there's so much to say, but putting words to it...? Eh, it's not happening, I guess.

So, let's roll with the good (and simple) stuff:

Hosted a wee dinner at the house last Thursday. daemonwise made the dinner, and I made these for dessert. And matrixleap brought homemade muffins, so we were plenty stuffed by the end of it!

monkeyhole pulled some folks together for games on Friday! We played Race for the Galaxy, which I think I need to play a couple more times, because there's a LOT to know when you're first starting out. And we also played Dominion, and I won AGAIN. Because I am awesome. ;)

Saturday yielded dinner at KatieMay's, and then girls-only gaming night, which was, um, unexpected. Haaaahaha. It was pretty freakin' hilarious, though, and I had a good time. I do curse my lack of quick-thinking-on-my-feet skills, though; I feel like I spend half my roleplaying time blanking out and not knowing what to do. Kiiiinda like real life. :/ Meticulous-planning-in-advance skills? Not so useful here.

Sunday was pretty mellow; it involved a failed trip to ChocolateFest (they were closed), dinner at Beulahland, and then dessert from Pix and teevee. They had this crazy Japanese movie on while we were at Beulahland, and it was subtitled in cyrillics, and just... wow. No audio, so it was perfect "make your own dialogue" fodder.

Yesterday was my first day back at Taiji, after having not done it for... 4 years? Holy jeebus. Some of the details on the stances and such have jumbled around in my brain over the years, but some of it came back easily. I'm looking forward to a few weeks from now, when I start to get the details down, and regain some of the body awareness that I had back when I was practicing regularly in Eugene.

Also, in the vein of self-experimentation: I read an article that talked about strengthening the neural pathways of happiness and mood through meditation (thereby making good feelings a "habit" and a more frequent occurrence), and I'm thinking I may try it on. I've been pretty god-awful in my few prior attempts at meditation, so it may not get me anywhere, but eh, that was quite a few years ago. Maybe I'm more "enlightened" now, hahaha.

Got a big meeting this afternoon. Hoping for good things.

Comments

[katlyn.livejournal.com]

It's nice to hear about good stuff.

Re: Tai Chi and meditation - if you want a study buddy for either/or, let me know.

I know I start to get really antsy if I don't at least have some sort of mental-quiet-time (meditation) 2-3 times per week, even if it's only for a few minutes or so. I tend to sit in the shower though, quite seriously, and take accounting of myself there under the water. Meditation doesn't have to be stuffy and formal. :)

*hugs*

[skeets.livejournal.com]

I would love to do more Taiji. :D I only know the 24 Yang, and I'm fuzzy on the last bit of the form.

Right now, I'm trying a few shorter, guided meditations with audio that I found on Teh Internets... just to give me an idea of how it "should" go, and also to give me that cue to pull my mind back in when it wanders, which it inevitably does ;) It's a starting point, at least.

::co-hugs!::

[dawningday.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever really met anyone who didn't suck at meditation. As I understand it, the idea is to just accept that you suck and go on anyway. For me, at least, I came to realize that what I'd been labeling as "sucking" was just sort of a natural process of my brain, and I eventually learned to detach from it more and more.

Which is just a long way of saying "it's all about the practice." Something makes me think your wushu was probably pretty sucky when you first started that, too... ;p

[skeets.livejournal.com]

Yeh, my wushu was no great shakes in the beginning, haha. I did have the benefit of team motivation and a good teacher to guide me, though. It's the lack of guidance and structure that's tangled me up with this sort of thing, in the past... especially considering meditation doesn't seem like it's meant to *be* particularly structured.

But eh, yeah, practice practice practice.

[dawningday.livejournal.com]

You know, there ARE meditation classes and groups... just sayin'.

And there are a number of meditative techniques that are highly structured. Of course, there are also a lot that aren't. They each have their benefits and good uses. In my experience, if you want high structure, go with something Japanese.

[totchiko.livejournal.com]

Hey, could you share that link about the meditation? I have also been trying to rewire my brain to be more positive and the more different things to try the better.

My most recent addition is the one square of good chocolate a day thing. I have a tendency to buy bars of fancy/high quality chocolate whenever I come across a new one and have quite the little stockpile. I usually suck at actually getting around to having them, but recently noticed that my mood seems to be much better on the days that I have a little chocolate than on the days that I don't. That, coupled with the fact that last week I read an article (once again) confirming that those w/ mild depression get more significant results from small doses of dark chocolate than anti-depressants, == new resolution. :D

[skeets.livejournal.com]

Erm, balls, I can't find the link now. :( But the article itself didn't really say anything about how to specifically go about generating happiness through meditation; it mainly cited studies they did on what parts of the brain were active in what types of people. I'll probably blather more about it after I do it for a bit, so maybe I'll say something useful, heh.

And HEY, I like this chocolate idea! I *always* jones for chocolate when I'm having a depresso day, so I can believe that there's a correlation there.

[dawningday.livejournal.com]

Chocolate contains a number of chemicals that are in the same class as THC (one of the many chemicals in marijuana that gets you high). So, chocolate works on a lot of the same pathways as getting high.

[totchiko.livejournal.com]

Aw.. but it's alright, unless there were specific pointers I'm sure I can guess the content. Let me know how it goes!

The chocolate resolution was totally a combo of having that article fresh in my mind, and then stumbling on the Salon du Chocolat chocolate expo from france this weekend. I was flying high for two days after all those free samples, and it really made an impression. XD

I'm great at collecting really high quality chocolate (I think I'm physically incapable of not buying when I see an unknown to me or really well known but not yet tried bar), but somehow I don't actually sit down and eat them unless I declare "Today I am opening this bar!" I have managed to leave a couple sitting around for upwards of a year and had them go bad before, even... Also, when I do open them, I tend to share about half or so of them w/ friends and coworkers so we can talk about the texture and flavor.. >_>

Anyway, chocolate is really full of great nutrients, so long as you're not buying the super cheap, watered down stuff. Cocoa nibs (mmm...) and unsweetened cocoa powder are the best, but a good, dark chocolate is still really fantastic for you.

You might find this article pretty interesting.