Buddha At Your Back

Where: London Buddhist Center, Bethnal Green, London
When: June 24, 2009
What I Like: That the Buddha in the background is recognizable while still being fuzzy - took a bit of playing with the f-stop (aperture) to get the right DOF (depth of field).
What I Don't Like: I'd kind of like it to have more interesting colors. And that the highlights on the back wall didn't have to be so blown, but it was necessary to maintain any detail in the Buddha.

Meditated first thing yesterday and today. I'm giving myself permission to only do 20 minutes, which is helping with my flagging discipline. I'm trying to re-establish the "first thing every day" habit, but the 35 minute mark was just too daunting.

Yesterday was great - very positive and productive. Piper and I had a really nice walk after my meditation, then I did almost 2 hours of yoga, had a delicious and healthy lunch, and then started cleaning the apartment - one room has now been washed, floors and walls. Three more and the hallways to go.

Then we hit the climbing gym, and I had what was easily the best night of bouldering I've had since last summer. It was fun because our friends Magda and David came along (it was David's first time), and on top of that I was feeling really strong and therefore nearly fearless, and was having a ton of fun throwing myself at problems and shocking myself with how many of them I was able to finish with energy to spare. Which was good, because it meant I had the strength to climb down rather than jump down. Jumping down is normally fine, but I don't like doing it because I've hurt my knee that way.

Today will likely be slower - it's rainy, and I'm sore. I'm not sure if it's from the yoga or the climbing or both. I have a really bad habit of pushing way too hard with the yoga, particularly if I'm feeling good. This is also true of the climbing. And running. And just life generally, and what happens is my body goes along with it for a while, occasionally clearing it's throat in a worried way, perhaps throwing in a faint murmur of protest, which I brush off in an irritated, impatient fashion. And then finally, when it can't take any more, it says "NO. I'm out. You sit your ass DOWN, woman." And I get sick or injured. Or depressed, or all of the above, and am forced to sit on the couch for a week or three. So anyway, I'm trying to pay more attention to the early warning signs, and maybe learn how to stop using my body like a third world donkey, and instead treat it like a valuable and incredibly impermanent resource. We'll see how that goes.