My meditation journal

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

11th session of kayaking this year

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

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

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

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

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).

[Thittato]

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

[Thittato]

15th session of kayaking this year

2 hours of kayaking tonight. So nice. Padling at night under the full moon was a beautiful experience.

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

16th session of kayaking this year

So nice :-)

[Thittato]

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

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

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

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

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.

[Thittato]

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... :-)

Edited June 29, 2022 by Thittato

[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.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Thittato

[Thittato]

22nd session of kayaking this year

Went kayaking again yesterday with a really cool and nice buddy. We visited this beautiful island where we had a coffee and an ice-cream at the summer-open café, then we had a little swim and relaxed and chatted in the sun about interesting things. Damn. It was so good. My friend was really happy with this trip. Unfortunately I've been pushing him too far many times when we've been paddling before. He doesn't paddle as much as I do, but he has a hard time saying no to a challenge, so I've been pushing our trips before too far into length and difficult conditions, but this time I focused much more on catering to his needs and to just have fun and relax in nature together, and that was so much better for our friendship experience together. I need to spice my kayaking focus up much more with just relaxing in nature type of experiences. Not just going far and exploring new things. Enjoying kayak out in nature can really be the perfect combination of exercise and deep and healing relaxation. It is very nice to just go out there in order to just be and hang out in nature. Not just to chase something. I think what I chase the most with kayaking is probably just something similar to runners high. But the light exercise is really good for becoming warm and focused and to dissolve restlessness and get into a Zen-state of mind. But after having warmed up to this state one has to take it further by just really opening up to nature and the deep healing which is out there. All that beauty and stillness which is out there. It is just so abundant. I'm a very restless dude, much of the time, so normally I've been too restless to really appreciate nature, but kayaking really melts that restlessness out of my body and totally opens me up to peace and beauty. Nature is just a really perfect place to just be. Usually I kayak alone, and it is so good that most of the time I never feel lonely when I do it. But of course it is more fun with company. So hopefully I can attract more kayaking friends <3 Would have been really awesome to be a group of people who explored these types of experiences together with creativity and passion.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Thittato

[Thittato]

20 min vinyasa flow yoga, and a cold shower, today. So nice :-)