This is the Friday review of week 5 of my Year of Opening (because it’s good to itemize my life notice things).
In which I try to get the ‘Question? Answer.’ format out of my system, but end up just loving it more.
Opening/ calm/conscious/ conflict/ crisis-y type noticings
My first reaction is to get over the feeling
I notice, especially with sadness, that I want to just stop feeling the feeling. Opening to it first is especially hard. The urge to remove my hand from the flame is pretty strong.
Opening in the middle of the night? Harder.
Yeah. Either being uncovered but bitten by mosquitos or covered but sweating like a bastard and sitting up in middle-of-the-night-why-can’t-I-just-sleep despair and still opening?
Hard.
But I did remember to try.
Which is good.
Opening is leading to a funny kind of space
As I practice opening, there’s a weird difficult-to-describe loosening that happens, or rather is in evidence.
Like… hmmm… like an all-over blood-pressure-cuff has just had a little of the air let out of it. Or… like having soaked the pan with the really really burned-on bits and it’s just beginning to let go.
I like it.
It’s anything but dramatic, though.
Subtle.
The Opening Alarm? Wears off.
Well, kind of. I suppose what I need to do is recommit to Opening and have the alarm be a reminder. What I think I was doing was beginning to rely on the alarm, and then forget about it in between.
And I think that waking up, axiomatically, can’t be on auto-pilot.
Finance stuff? Freaks me out a LOT less.
Had a bit of a client potential-crisis this week. And it turned out not to be. And I only panicked for, I don’t know, 10 minutes before getting a grip on reality.
Nice.
Meta-blogging noticings
Comments? Five of them!
In-Other-News Noticings
Being paid to write? Feels so RIGHT.
I am being paid to co-write a book at the moment. Involves me interviewing my book-partner, transcribing the words, then editing them into a chapter that makes sense.
I.
LOVE.
It.
It might (shhhhhhhhh, really, shhhh) be my super-power.
(I mean, I know I’m in the honeymoon stage at the moment, but still. Riding the wave.)
My ideal day? Has a nap in it.
As suggested by the Great Elizabeth Potts-Weinstein, I mapped out an ideal, ordinary work-day.
It involved either writing for two to three hours, or talking to a group/running a workshop for two to three hours, then spending the rest of the day reading, napping, chatting.
Lead to some major revelations as I worked out how I might finance that day.
Also, realised today, that, this week, that’s the week I’ve had.
There’s some kind of Zen epiphany in that, but I can’t quite grasp it.
Heh. Heh heh.
Setting up a laptop? Easier the third time.
We had to replace S’s new laptop twice in ten days. Setting up Firefox, Outlook, Photoshop, Open Office, iTunes, importing docs..? All much simpler the third time.
Yes, this is me finding the silver lining.
Doing one procrastinatey thing a day? Plenty.
I have been doing scheduling one reach-out-or-get-in-contact-with-someone task and one thing-I-have-been-meaning-to-do task every day, which means I get about three of each done a week.
You know what?
Despite the protestations of the It’s-Not-Enough monster, it, well, it actually is.
Procrastinatey?
It’s a word. It could be a word.
Two-hour-classes? Cost me nothing.
I ran a two-hour presentation skills workshop for my friend’s acting students this week.
Cost me nothing in terms of energy. No. Thing.
And I enjoyed it.
And so did they.
And we all learned things.
(See perfect day above.)
***
Movies
My Twitter reviews:
Percy Jackson? Rocks! Pretty kids, epic story, Uma, Beany. What’s not to love?
Wolfman? Unleavened, undiluted, inexcusable, bland boring shite. Please save your money.
(See, I can be concise.)
Books
Same as last week. Slow reader, me.
***
So, yeah. It’s a Be Less Certain week next week. Weirdly, my favourite.
Feel free to join in with your noticings in the comments, or not, subscribe, or not, find me on Twitter, or not, and have a good weekend.
Or not.
*grins*
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: simonebernhard
Ha! Love the Q? and A! format. It’s kind of weird to realize you’ve just had your perfect day/week, isn’t it?
Happy Sunday to you!
Hey Simone – good, eh! Not sure if was the perfect week, but pretty freaking cool…
TOTALLY agree that the ideal day has to have a nap in it!
Thanks for linking Elizabeth PW’s website. I hadn’t heard of her before and browsed the site with great interest (but where is this mapping out your ideal day thing?) and followed her link to the Jung Typlogy Test. VERY interesting. Way too many interesting blogs and sites around. But you may be flattered to hear that your blog has been the second one after Havi’s that incited me to comment. Up to just a few months ago I was sure reading blogs was just a waste of time. There are still only very few that I read and I am aiming at regular blog-reading-free days but I definitely like this one.
@Leocadia – I am honoured! (The ideal day thing was in the pre-call to Elizabeth’s Live Your Truth programme.)
And, yes, there is way too much interesting stuff on the internets…