Thittato

30 min ganja yoga, and a solid cold shower (after a really good and warm hot shower) So I've been smoking cannabis the whole day, and it has just been the most relaxing day ever. I was even high while I was kayaking. And I've been watching paddling videos on youtube the whole day as well, including a river-paddling video on Netflix which was just super-awesome. So I was just super-inspired as I sat down to smoke some more after last journal entry. And my thoughts has just been spinning on kayaking the whole time. Just really processing this really super-awesome sport that I have found. So I thought it was time to bring in some yoga again, to help integrate all this into my body even more. Kayaking in itself is really grounding, because it brings you so into the body because you have to use the whole body while paddling. And the repetitive motion of it, while at the same time you have to focus on keeping the balance with a relaxed focus. It really is a balancing act while you get to exercise your whole body and enjoy beautiful nature at the same time. So awesome on its own. But how to make it even more awesome? By bringing back my yoga-practice again. So this session of ganja yoga was so nice and smooth. I feel really mellow and strong at the same time now. This kayaking thing is really an extension of both my yoga-practice and my sitting-meditation practice. It totally is yoga and meditation fully integrated with nature. Ones goal while out paddling is simply to become one with both the kayak and the nature. Just flow into it and merge, and let nature take over. Surrender to nature, both outside of you, and inside of you, and let them merge. I see kayaking as a spiritual practice.

21st session of kayaking this year 2 hours of kayaking. So nice. Haha. My infatuation with the greenland paddle is already over. 1 / 3 through the journey today I switched back to my old euro blade. I was having a kick on youtube binging on a dude who is totally in love with the greenland paddle. Haha. He talks very spiritually about how it makes you complete and at one with your kayak as a paddler. I found it very inspiring, but then I figured out today that most of what he talks about can be applied to a regular euro blade as well. He is basically talking alot about wearing your kayak in the sense of becoming one with it, instead of it being something outside of you, and how to learn to feel at home in nature and with the wind and the waves, and ride with them instead of fighting them. Of course I'm probably not so adjusted to the greenland paddle yet. It probably takes a lot of work to adjust fully to it, but I figured I'm already so comfortable with the one I have been using for now, so I'll just stick with that comfort, and apply his philosophical principles to the skills and comfort I already have. It is probably nice to switch it up every now and then, though. Interesting to check out the various schools of thought regarding paddling. There is always some "return to the roots" dude out there hehe... :-)

20th session of kayaking this year 1,5 hours of kayaking. So nice. I already totally love the greenland paddle. I feel so whole gliding through the water with it.

19th session of kayaking this year 2 hours of kayaking, then a cold shower, and then 10 min in corpse pose on my yoga-mat. I tried out a so-called greenland paddle today. It was so awesome! The whole experience felt so much more natural and there was so much more «Qi Gong» in my paddling movements. The paddle cutting through the water felt like cutting silk with razorsharp scissors, and at the same time there was something very mellow and chill about it all. Totally love it! I want to start learning the eskimo roll soon, and I can only imagine that will turn the whole kayaking experience even more into something of a yoga-practice. During the course last weekend I experienced with what type of yoga-poses I could do while sitting in the kayak, and that was also a really awesome way of exploring yoga, and also getting some much needed stretching for my lower-back. All of this just totally rocks. And it feels like I have only just started to explore it. It was pretty demanding to do that course, but now I can totally start to reap all the benefits it gave me.

Cold shower, and 20 min lying down in shavasana on my yoga mat. So nice. Deep rest coming out of that.

17th & 18th session of kayaking this year So this weekend I participated in a kayaking course. 8 hours on saturday, and 8 hours on sunday. It was really awesome! Last summer I did something called an introduction course, which was only 4 hours. The next course on the course-ladder is something called "basic course" which goes over two days with 8 hours each day. I learned so much more about how to operate the kayak, and the instructors and the group were really great. Since I started kayaking I've been really hungry for a very solid kayak experience, and this course had it all.

Two really good cold showers today. One in the morning, and one in the evening. Really nice and flowing day at work in-between.

16th session of kayaking this year So nice :-)

45 min of meditation, and a cold shower, this morning. So nice. Meditation this morning was just straight into presence, clearity, and silent and collected joy.

15th session of kayaking this year 2 hours of kayaking tonight. So nice. Padling at night under the full moon was a beautiful experience.

30 min meditation today. Cold showers are fully back again after a mild cold.

14th session of kayaking this year Wow. So nice. It was good to have a little pause since I paddled 3 days in a row one week ago. But damn, my muscles are totally getting adjusted to this activity, and my technique gets better and better. I felt like a machine today. Not much other practice lately, but both on sunday and yesterday I had two days completely filled with guitar and jamming, just like on saturday, so in total I've had three really intense guitar-filled days, and it almost feels like I've been on a really cool workshop with it. Did a cold shower again today, which was really nice. (Had a mild cold for some days now so I had a break from cold showers).

No practice today, except 4 really great jam-sessions. Finally I'm having a week off. Been really busy working lately, and I finished it off with a double-shift yesterday before this week off. Been really tired today, but I started the day playing guitar to a backingtrack jamming with myself, then I went to meet a buddy and we had a great jam, then I met another buddy and we also had a great jam outdoors in a park, and then I met my first buddy again later in the evening and we had an even better jam, Probably the best we've ever had. I promised myself on New Years Eve that this was going to be the year of the guitar for me, and it has totally delivered so far. It is only getting better and better. It is so easy to play guitar every day now. The possibilites are just expanding, and more and more fun ways to keep at it keeps presenting themselves. With guitar, it seems, it is really hard to get established on it, but at some point it starts to move by itself. It is not like it is difficult to pick it up every day now. It happens by itself. I'm addicted to it and I'm just always looking forward to the new things I'm going to explore. And then your friends also starts to catch on. I have many guitar-playing friends. Most of them are way better than me. But they seem to enjoy playing with me more and more. So more and more the guitar becomes the center of our attention and our friendships. It is all like a positive feedback loop. Both internally and externally.

Cold shower yesterday, and cold shower today. Busy days, but the flow is good :-)

13th session of kayaking this year Wow. What a day. I started with a cold shower, then a really awesome jam-session with one of my best friends. I have managed to get him back into playing guitar again. He used to play guitar before, but then he turned to piano for many years, but now he is getting back into guitar as well. So awesome to see him translate all his piano-knowledge into guitar. After that I did 30 min of yoga, and then I went kayaking for 5 hours with another really good buddy, and when I came home I sealed the day with a cold shower again.

12th session of kayaking this year 2 hours of kayaking this evening. So nice. It was getting dark before I came home, and at one of my rests in the middle of the ocean I noticed there were fish jumping all around me. It was dark and quiet, and fish jumping every few seconds was the only sound. It was pretty magical.

11th session of kayaking this year 3 hours of kayaking this morning, then spa with 3 cold baths. Sweet :-)

45 min meditation today as well. No practice yesterday. Very tired lately. One evening-shift tomorrow, and a day-shift on monday, and then I'll have Tuesday off, before three more days of work and then 6 days off. Holy schmokes. Looking forward to those 6 days.

45 min meditation today as well. So nice. Would not be possible to alternate back and forth between working night-shifts and day-shifts without meditation.

45 min meditation today. Tired, but it gave me some rest and energy.

10th session of kayaking this year Spa with 3 cold baths today, then 1 hour and 10 min of kayaking, and then 30 min of yoga. Sweet <3 :-)

Yesterday: Cold shower. Today: 45 min meditation, and a cold shower.

Cold shower today, and then later in the evening an incredible nice jam-session with two buddies. Those jam-sessions are getting better and more relaxed all the time. So nice. Feels like all desperation on playing guitar is gone. It is an established hobby which brings me a lot of joy every day. There are always new and surprising opportunities to discover fun ways to use it which keeps on adding to each other. I’m starting to see how it all connects. Looking forward to the day when all the over-thinking around it is gone, too.

Cold shower and 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today. Sweet :-)

Only a cold shower today, and a decent amount of guitar-playing. Seems like I’m getting more and more satisfied with my playing. It is a fun thing that I do every day, and there is a steady progress that I can trust will happen. I’m also reading a book called Zen Guitar, which is really perfect for me. And I have people I frequently jam with, and that is getting more satisfying as well. I used to project too much of my desperation out onto my jam-buddies, and even though we also had a lot of fun and got very inspired together, I think I contributed to creating a certain tenseness in our atmosphere which is now much more relaxed. So now that the guitar-playing is under control and no longer needs my total mental and emotional bandwith, I have even started to create visual art again. My goal is to remove as many frustrations from my creative processes as possible in order to just have as much fun with it as I can. Before it was very much something I did in order to prove my worth and to hopefully become «good enough» one day, and of course there are still elements of that, but my goal is to just be very relaxed and fun-oriented about it.