Five-Day Online “Silent” Meditation Retreat

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Sep 162024
 

For a while, I have been contemplating how to make more use of my time and to do things that feel more purposeful with my life. As someone who does not truly believe in charity for the sake of altruism, nor do I fully support doing something for nothing (related to altruism), it has been a challenge to grow in my spirit of compassion and dana (generosity and donation).

About a month ago, I was having one of my existential crises moments feeling a lack of purposefulness in my daily life. It’s not that I feel I don’t have a purpose, it’s that I don’t know how to action my purpose in a fulfilling way whilst also maintaining the freedom and flexibility of the lifestyle I cherish in totality. So, after having a bit of a lament and probably taking out my sense of ‘lack’ on M, I sat with myself when he was away.

One solution that arose was to embark on a two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certificate Program.

So, I applied. I was accepted and began the process of ensuring I am ready for the February 2025 start.

Part of the pre-requisites is to participate in a silent meditation retreat. Since we have a number of travel plans before the end of the year, it was a challenge to consider an in-person retreat where I’d have to travel. So, thanks to the power of technology and the influence of the pandemic, opportunities have arisen so that these kinds of retreats can be done online.

I chose to do one that was on the US West Coast timezone as it was the least likely to disrupt my daily life given that I have an engaged partner and pups to ensure get attention throughout the day. Hence, the silent in quotations.

The past five days were the days, or I should say, nights.

Overall, I would say it was a meaningful experience. I did a lot of meditating, which was a treat. Insights and awakenings inside me occurred so that I felt a shift in my psyche and I narrowed down my life purpose statement more clearly.

I am the shining light of wisdom that guides others to find their own lights so they can shine for others.

If you’re not a life purpose statement kind of person, I realize this may sound a bit strange. Basically, I am called to be a “teacher” of sorts. Everything I’ve done in my professional life has been to become able to teach or train. This is really no different.

I am also motivated to support the betterment of the human capacity in individuals whether through health (diet and nutrition), yoga (physical), or meditation (mental) for an overall balanced sense of well-being. Therefore, using my own light and wisdom from my life, I can help to guide and support others so that they can shine for themselves and others. It reminds of me of the scene in The Lord of the Rings when they light the beacons.

This remains one of my favorite scenes of all time as it gives me such hope for humanity. This is also what I want to contribute to creating in us as individuals.

I also believe that much can be achieved through meditation, which is a very much misunderstood “activity” by the mainstream. So, if I can help to dispel the myths while making it more accessible to everyone, I feel that I am doing my part in my way. This combines my ability and skills of teaching with my desire to elevate the human capacity within individuals to further elevate society.

Perhaps it seems lofty or idealistic, but this is my greatest dream in life. It’s not one I often share or verbalize because it’s such a core value that I have been hesitant, out of fear, that one might try to blow out the flame. However, I now understand that I need to let the light shine and like the beacons burn bright for all the world to see as we encourage others to light their own.

So, I’m looking for further retreats – admittedly more bougie ones than the stereotypical granola, monk-ish style – and look forward to building up my practice so that I can truly fulfill my purpose. More as this develops to come.

~T 🔥🐉♋️

Fighting Motion Sickness

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Sep 092024
 

For as long as I can remember, as an adult at least, I have easily gotten motion sickness whether in a car or on a boat. There are occasions when it hasn’t hit me much, but most of the time if I look down in a car or experience any kind of movement that is not stable, I start to get sick.

Usually, my physical response is to start yawning until eventually I fall asleep. It seems that my body/brain is rather adept at shutting me down to reset or escape the source of a problem.

The typical recommendation to watch the horizon while on a boat or try to get cool air work to some small degree, but not enough to remedy the oncoming discomfort. So, when it came to prepare for our Croatia and Adriatic Sea vacation, I wanted to do something to ensure that I could enjoy it as much as possible.

Since others may suffer in a similar way, I thought I’d share some of the things I did, and that worked, to avoid major motion sickness.

Puma Method

First, I read somewhere online about the Puma Method. This is a series of exercises that you do to basically make yourself dizzy and help train your brain to adjust to the motions to avoid sickness. It says it takes about two weeks to fully benefit, but I did it for four days and noticed results in the car straightaway. This was a major result as M’s driving often leaves me feeling nauseous.

You do have to pay for the video and PDF tracking sheet, but I would say it’s definitely worth it if you’re a sensitive sufferer like me. I will be continuing to do these exercises regularly as being car sick is a constant that I’d like to be free of.

Eye Exercises

A friend helped me out before we went with some herbal, natural remedies and these preventative eye excercises.

  • Start by thinking of your eyes as a perfect circle, a clock where every second, every minute  and every hour counts.
  • Bring your focus to 12 o ‘clock, then using your eyes as a pencil, draw a line down to 6 o ‘clock. If the line wavers use your finger to guide your eyes. Do five repetitions, center your eyes, then close them.
  • Open your eyes directly at 3 o’ clock, then straight to nine o’clock and draw a line from three to nine. If the line is wavy or shaky, just work the line slowly until it feels smooth. Do five repetitions, center, then close eyes. 
  • Open eyes and draw a line between 11 and five, then five and 11 again. Five reps. Center then close.
  • Draw a line between one and seven again, five reps. then center and close.
  • If there is a weak pattern just work through that line until it becomes a perfectly straight line.
  • Now, imagining your eyes as a perfect circle, start at 12 o’clock and go clockwise making every second, every minute and every hour count (a good life lesson in general.)
  • After five circles, center, then close your eyes. 
  • Lastly, starting at 12 o clock go counterclockwise, five reps. When you end at 12, center and close your eyes.
  • Rub your hands together to create a good heat then cup your hands over your eyes and  allow the heat to  be  absorbed.

I’m not sure how much they worked, but they definitely didn’t hurt anything.

Pressure Point Bands

These were amazingly helpful and almost instantaneous in smoothing out my stomach or dizziness on the ferry, the boat and in the car. Don’t wait until symptoms arise, just wear them. I did wear them on both wrists, then wore just one the day after we returned to land as I still felt I was moving on a boat…. I also wore just one on the ferry ride the following day, but then didn’t need them after that. I now keep one set in each of our cars.

Vagus Nerve Reset and Ear Pressure Points

My friend mentioned above also taught me how to reset my vagus nerve, which is super helpful for other aspects of our health and balance. She further showed me how to find the pressure points in my ear, which helped with any dizzy spells.

  • Vagus nerve reset – the easiest way to do this is to hum. Hum normally, then hum putting lower lip above upper lip, then move lower lip back and forth from normal to above upper lip, then hum normally again.
  • Ear pressure points – push firmly into ear canal just before the finger goes into the opening of your ear, move it around until saliva begins to increase in your mouth, repeat on the other side. Do the same for the upper inner lobe of your ear on both sides.

Other Helpful Aids

  • Homeopathic nausea pills (work well for a quick fix)
  • Ear patches (heard they work well though you have to wean yourself off of them, but didn’t use any)
  • Travel gum (made my tongue numb, so didn’t try again, but can distract!)
  • Ginger chews (everyone recommends, but couldn’t find them in our pharmacy)

So, perhaps this will help you, reader, if you suffer from motion sickness. It made all the difference for an enjoyable holiday on the water. I think the highest recommendation is for the pressure point bands as our friend on the boat also had some which seemed to work great for her as well!

~T 🔥🐉♋️

Croatia and the Adriatic

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Sep 062024
 

As promised, here’s a post about our trip to Croatia and time bobbing on a boat in the Adriatic Sea.

For some years now, Croatia has been a highly recommended destination for travel thanks to the Game of Thrones being filmed there and its latest entry into the European Union. Its clear waters and fairly untainted coast line is also a popular draw for the yacht and sail boat lovers.

Since M often muses about wanting to sail the Atlantic Ocean or spend life on a boat, we have gone back and forth about a sailing holiday. Unfortunately, I have a very low tolerance for motion causing me to get ill rather quickly when getting jostled about whether in a car or on water. However, things like a fast roller coaster or a speedboat do not seem to affect me at all, so we compromised on a motor boat (yacht) for our water-based vacation.

Because we boarded the boat from Split, I decided it was a great chance to do a little bit of sightseeing if we added a day to either end of the trip.

Also, because it is easy enough to get a car ferry and driving is more convenient in some ways, we embraced a road trip!

So, from our home we drove about six hours to the southern side of Italy on the Adriatic Sea side where we caught the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik. We stayed the night in Dubrovnik closer to the ferry port since it was a late arrival and we were tired from the long drive.

Knowing that we were coming back, we decided to get up early and head toward Split with some planned stops along the coast. So, we took the slightly longer coastal road stopping in Ston and Makarska Riviera, where we had lunch, to see a bit of the lesser known towns. Both were unique in their views, but equally interesting.

Ston stone wall
Oysters are the thing in Ston
Some landscape views

Finally, we arrived in Split where we had a hotel in the old town near the Diocletian’s Palace. It was an interesting old town area that bordered the harbor. There was a reasonable amount of activity along the shore as we people watched and took in the scene. Plus, we had to have a little Game of Thrones fun!

Split seaside
GoT throne pic
Split Old Town
Split seaside activity

Then, it was a week of glorious weather on the water. Each day, we would anchor in a bay to relax and swim. Then, we would head towards a different coastal town on one of the 1200 plus islands for dinner and where we’d spend the night. It was indeed a luxurious way to spend the week.

Our friends joined us for five of the seven days, which added to the fun. There were only a couple of bumpy water moments, but we moved to calmer locations and I was well prepared with different methods of addressing these situations.

We returned back to Split, then drove the quicker highway route back to Dubrovnik, where we wandered around the fortified old town, saw the GoT stairs and then relaxed before our early ferry return ride and long drive home.

The long drive home

All in all, it was a lovely time. We relaxed, got sun, laughed a lot, and explored a tiny bit of a new country that wasn’t on our radar until recently. We agreed that we would likely do another boat trip, since I seem to have developed some sea legs, but we think we might try the Greek islands or somewhere different next time.

If you want to know more about the preparations I took for avoiding seasickness or where we stayed, etc., just let me know!

~T 🔥🐉♋️

September!

 Going Mental  No Responses »
Sep 022024
 

I know I’m due to write an update from our trip to Croatia, but I’m still catching up from it having just returned late-ish last night. So, will aim to get it posted for Friday.

In the meantime, can you believe it’s already September?

Funnily enough, M had said when we got back in February from Australia that we didn’t have much travel planned for the rest of the year. At the time, he was right. However, we are now on a pretty solid every two weeks or so travel schedule. At least we are home for about three weeks this month, so that’s nice.

Perhaps because we do travel so much, I struggle with a little bit of return home from travel blues. Part of it is because apart from our house, pets, and each other, I have little else that excites me to being in this location. Generally, I enjoy seeing the people we meet up with when that occurs, but even after nearly three years, I don’t feel that most are friends.

I feel as if I’m a fairly low-maintenance friend. In many of my friendships, I feel as if I am the one who initiates interaction and engagement. This has been the case most of my life. Some might say it is an adoptee-thing, while others might just attribute it to my nature of being quietly thoughtful of others. Whatever it is, I have become less enthusiastic playing that role as I get older. I want friendships that are mutually initiated and engaged.

The fact is that I do not need to hang out all of the time nor necessarily be in contact constantly. But, I do appreciate consistency in effort and agreement to get together. I don’t want to feel as if I am always the one reaching out to make plans or forcing presence on others.

So…I feel as if I am still trying to find my tribe. I suppose it’s just the nature of my chosen and preferred lifestyle. Perhaps, it is my age. Maybe, it’s just me.

In any case, September is here and cooler weather is on its way. That alone makes me very happy!

~T 🔥🐉♋️

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