November Challenge: Choosing Not To Rush

Ever since I was little, Mama and Papa would ask me to sit beside them. I would be propped, cross-legged on a pillow to try to be still for a few minutes. It was always hard for me to stare slightly forward and do nothing except silently count 1 to 10 over and over again. I would get impatient. Little did I know that they were trying to instill in me the value of silence and settling my thoughts.

Even until now, I haven't developed the practice where I do it every day. What I find though, especially this month, is that there are moments during the day when I pause and breathe deeply. I don't necessarily stop crossing the street or whatever it is that I am doing. It's an internal pause. I breathe slower and more deliberately. I would become aware of my scrunched brows and hunched shoulders. I don't feel ecstatic or cheery. It's a calm feeling as I "un-scrunch" and "un-hunch". My personality is prone to obsessing and worrying and I feel that it has slowed some success from entering my life. Having these quiet moments remind me that obsessing won't do me good and that there are more productive things to do while waiting.

Meditation is helpful and should be a part of life, like prayer. No one has to do it sitting down, cross legged all the time. It's simply giving oneself space to relax, to let thoughts go by, to be still in this fast paced anxiety ridden world and to feel grateful that we can choose not to rush.

October Challenge: Declutter Desk, Declutter Life

my desk on better days

The 15-minute decluttering routine is some kind of a genius tool.

The List That Will Change My Life (Or Yours)

A blog post from zenhabits.net inspired me to write this post. Leo Babauta has one of the best blogs out there so be sure to check that gold mine out. In the said entry, he suggests starting one habit every month. There's a program created to guide you in every step of the way for $10/month which may be great for a lot of people but I figured I will try the concept without spending so I'm sharing my list with you. If I am a woman of my words, we shall find out after 30 days! I promise to write at least two posts about every item on the list. It sounds like a tall order but it will be for my own good. You can share your own list too and let me know if we can be accountability buddies!

Getting Organized

My mom gets upset when she sees us not wearing house slippers. Maybe she vicariously feels the cold floor or it simply doesn't sit well with her generation's sensibilities. This brings me to think of how I should put things in place--- categorize and classify them as they should be at least according to my own sensibilities. Though, at one time I can leave a room looking all topsy turvy with clothes strewn all over the floor and on another, I could be obsessively wiping a tiny stain off a kitchen appliance. Anyhow, I would rather be organized and like a bored girl on her day off, let me do a rundown on things I want to get done:

Personal Finance

The young are always told they have time on their side. Now, that is very much true if one knows what to do with it and one of those things is to make money grow. It's easier to budget money when you have less which is why my only problem when I was a student was not having enough after I paid for board and lodging.