Allison

Wow blown away by the posts in reading, isn't it amazing how doing nothing can bring so much good stuff. It's nice to be able to interact on this forum with the members on it. I plan on participating more often. Updates on this 7 day challenge of distraction deprivation & mindfull meditation peace Allison

Here is an update of my attempt at a day of doing nothing. After I got home on Friday morning after another 50hr working week I abandoned my attempt at doing nothing. I was expecting a new central heating surveyer to come to my house & think I was last in the que. After he left I attempted once again to do nothing. It was so challenging, observing the constant steam of thoughts, desires to put on TV, YouTube, Facebook, emails. I decided to cut short the journey after questioning if it was what I needed after a long working week and with only having two days off I had stuff needing doing lol. Decided to get organised & attempt a partial retreat the next day. I got up & sat with self, it was a revelation the experience, & I'm re-evaluating what exactly is good & or a treat & nurturing for myself. So is doing violent & or stupid TV series marathon a worthwhile thing to do. Is endless YouTube conspiracy theory videos a productive way to spend precious time. Eating for emotional comfort, boredom & entertainment. Smoking, drinking, drugs. ( I'm Still off the fags 20 days now) eBay & Amazon window shopping & buying. Scrolling all email subscriptions, other social media . I'm more aware than ever how much I'm dependant on things & addicted to stuff. I wrote 3 A 4 pages of the thoughts, feelings & emotions that went through my head throughout the day, too vast to put here & boring too in its predictability. I had an afternoon talk with a Buddhist Lama visiting from Samye Ling Temple & the message was fantastic & right on track for getting self cleaned up. I continued my retreat when I got home. At times it was deliciously peaceful & other times the noise of wanting to do stuff, planning things dominated my field of vision. Found myself on eBay at one point unconsciously lol. This whole exercise has shown me just how unmindfully I actually live & how it's impacting me negatively. Further adjustments in what I put into my body by way of the senses is afoot. I also intend to have distraction deprivation days on a regular basis. Apologies for the massive post, and thank you for bringing this challenge to me. I feel more connected to myself & better for it. I will now begin the 7 day challenge from Leo of an hour a day kind regards Allison

Leo's video was perfect for me at this time, I'm on day 15 of cold turkey no smoking & cannabis habit has been given the boot too. Watching the video brought to my attention just how many other distraction/ addictions I have & use to numb myself in life, also how many hours are wasted on tv series marathons etc. I've recently joined to Sanga meditation group as I want to deepen my mindfulness practice. I've also recently became part of a spiritual warrior group in my city & attended live, webcast events & contributing to the online forum. Both these groups are helping me & it's the first time for many years I've connected with other people. I've been given a bigger challenge of going a full day without using distractions in this spiritual warrior group so I'm going to try this on Friday. I'll be finishing another 50hr week of night shifts so it will be interesting to see what my experiences are. I'm strangely excited about it but scared too. I'll post any relevant stuff here. This is my first post in this forum. I've been tuned into Leo for many months now. I'm new to forums as well. The other one I'm in is not interactive with other members, I can only interact with the person who started the group & forum so this place is different in that respect. Enjoying all the posts here