Who Am I to Argue? in Everyday Ramblings

Here we have one of the buildings the art students at Portland State University use. This mural is new and painted over the previous not particularly attractive one which I have a picture of somewhere. At least it is colorful and kind of sort of on a natural theme. It is getting more and more urban around where I live as the population increases. Pretty soon we will start seeing food carts near by.

I am having a little trouble with focus lately.

My mind always seems to be elsewhere. Teaching the four classes and work. Last week I did two intense trainings and moderated the online comments for a large in person meeting that we streamed out to the community as well as teaching and working and all my chores. It is more difficult to have so many thought balls in the air at once as I age and there is evidence of this in the fact that I will leave something somewhere on its way to somewhere else and find it later…

I am not sure exactly when the yoga teacher I am subbing for comes back, (it could be in just two and a half weeks) she needs the money I know as her husband and her are both self-employed. I think he may have a day job too. The baby (a boy) is vital and healthy. So I just need to hang in there just a few more weeks.

Including tonight I have five more weeks of my Caregiver class. I know I will miss it, but honestly, not much. Been there done that.

Week after next we start the new pay scheme for my class at the church. That is such a great class. They are funny and compatible and love teasing me. A couple of us are going out for drinks tomorrow. They teach me so much about how to be a truly good teacher. It is had to believe that I have taught that class now for nine months without one week off. It is by far the high point of my week.

Sometimes it is meh, and there are always challenges but still it is so enjoyable. I am looking forward to earning a little money on it now as well.

I also started going to a new for me Weight Watchers meeting that clearly attracts people that are both losing weight and keeping it off. They are funny and very supportive so it isn’t such a slog to go. In the meeting I had been going to there wasn’t a lot of success and the leader who (lives and breathes the plan) talks about her self all the time in great detail. I think I may know more about her than I do about myself!

I am not only having a bit of an issue with focus, I am also having a bit of an issue with, umm, chocolate.

I am doing an online training with my teacher’s teacher about Pranayama, very specific breathing and life force circulating techniques as well. So far it is all repeat but it is something I have not had a lot of success teaching myself so I am looking forward to having this reference to refer to as I head off into the challenge of keeping my classes lively and interesting and my students engaged.

In the book Staying Sharp: 9 Keys for a Youthful Brain through Modern Science and Ageless Wisdom the authors talk about three main things one can do to provide a fundamental antidote to loneliness and isolation…

1. Focusing attention
2. Increasing tolerance for distress
3. Nourishing positive emotional states

Funny…these things are at the core of what I teach. Now if I could just practice what I preach. I do know what I need to do to help with focus and it does not include taking anything else on.

Diego says it involves paying attention to and playing with cats. Or in his case. Cat.

Who am I to argue with that?