Mommy's morning out
I have not really taken much time for myself in the last 10 months. I think I need to start doing that more. We're at a point where it's easier logistically. And I think I'm a more patient mommy when I've had some "me time". Also, as the mother of a little girl, I think it's important to model taking some time for oneself. The idea that the ideal wife and mother puts everyone else ahead of herself is still fairly strong in our culture. To some extent, I have drunk that kool aid. And I think it's not entirely healthy.
Yesterday I took two and a half hours for myself. It was lovely.
There is a meditation class every Saturday morning in the Japanese gallery at the art museum. I had read about it a while back but once upon a time 10:15 on a weekend morning seemed early to me. (Hah!) Yesterday I went to the class. I've done mini meditation sessions in my yoga class and guided meditations via my iPod. But I believe the longest meditation I had previously attempted was 12 minutes. The class was 45 minutes. We sat on our museum-provided cushions on the floor. There were six of us. The instructor asked me and another newcomer about our prior experience and then explained briefly that the idea was to focus on our breath and that she would ring the bell four times to start and once to end. There followed 40 minutes of silence. It was great. I sat. I focused on my breath. Inhaling. Exhaling. Thoughts wandered in and I tried not to follow them and to go back to my breath. Inhaling. Exhaling. I had a mental imagine of my brain as a monkey jumping up and down and waving its arms. Monkey mind. Hee. Inhaling. Exhaling. I had the occasional doubt about whether I could make it to 40 minutes. No way to know how long we'd been going. Probably we weren't even halfway there yet. Inhaling. Exhaling. *DING*
I made it the whole 40 minutes! And it didn't seem like nearly that long. And I felt very relaxed afterwards. It was excellent. When the class was over I went downstairs to see The Missing Peace, an exhibit of art inspired by the Dalai Lama and his work. Some nifty stuff in there. I liked the portraits of the Dalai Lama and the Buddhist-related art the best. I ended my morning out with a lovely piece of mushroom and brie quiche and a cup of coffee on the terrace of the museum cafe, overlooking the river.
I likely won't do that every week, but I definitely do want to do it again sometime.
This entry was originally posted at http://tapas.dreamwidth.org/168917.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are currently
comments on that post.
Yesterday I took two and a half hours for myself. It was lovely.
There is a meditation class every Saturday morning in the Japanese gallery at the art museum. I had read about it a while back but once upon a time 10:15 on a weekend morning seemed early to me. (Hah!) Yesterday I went to the class. I've done mini meditation sessions in my yoga class and guided meditations via my iPod. But I believe the longest meditation I had previously attempted was 12 minutes. The class was 45 minutes. We sat on our museum-provided cushions on the floor. There were six of us. The instructor asked me and another newcomer about our prior experience and then explained briefly that the idea was to focus on our breath and that she would ring the bell four times to start and once to end. There followed 40 minutes of silence. It was great. I sat. I focused on my breath. Inhaling. Exhaling. Thoughts wandered in and I tried not to follow them and to go back to my breath. Inhaling. Exhaling. I had a mental imagine of my brain as a monkey jumping up and down and waving its arms. Monkey mind. Hee. Inhaling. Exhaling. I had the occasional doubt about whether I could make it to 40 minutes. No way to know how long we'd been going. Probably we weren't even halfway there yet. Inhaling. Exhaling. *DING*
I made it the whole 40 minutes! And it didn't seem like nearly that long. And I felt very relaxed afterwards. It was excellent. When the class was over I went downstairs to see The Missing Peace, an exhibit of art inspired by the Dalai Lama and his work. Some nifty stuff in there. I liked the portraits of the Dalai Lama and the Buddhist-related art the best. I ended my morning out with a lovely piece of mushroom and brie quiche and a cup of coffee on the terrace of the museum cafe, overlooking the river.
I likely won't do that every week, but I definitely do want to do it again sometime.
This entry was originally posted at http://tapas.dreamwidth.org/168917.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are currently
comments on that post.