Morita and I joined Hiro at the top of our local hill for walking meditation today.
Morita said he is a rain man, and sure enough, the rain started about 20 minutes after the event started.
To my delight, we all played in the rain!
Join us next month in Ikuta Ryokuji Park near Mukogaokayuen Station.
Great fun today in Manpukuji Park for our walking meditation.
Y’all shoulda been there because we found wonderfully
cool water and fun squishy mud.. and forgot to take pics!
All cleaned up with a faucet afterward and Lin remembered to take a picture.
Join us next month in Ikuta Ryokuji Park near Mukogaokayuen Station.
Wow I just found pics from about 1999 when Astros Field was under construction.
Funny how small the pictures are compared to a “full res” picture today. At least they are in color!!
HI Wende!
Connect to your feet as they connect with mother earth.
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
This coming Saturday I will lead a walking meditation in Shinjuku Gyoen.
Refresh your spirit. Touch the earth. Connect with nature.
Barefoot Walking Experience:
Meditation, walking meditation, relaxing in nature.
Shinjuku Gyoen, Shinjuku Gate
https://goo.gl/maps/4c35vbQqopZMGhez9
500 yen for Shinjuku park
Saturday October 10th, noon - 2:30pm
I plan for the weather to be nice, so let’s stay in the park until 14:30 and then decide what we want to do after that.
Originally published https://tinyletter.com/barefootrob/letters/getting-myself-out-there
"Done is better than perfect."
- Mark Wild
Japan has finally begun to take this COVID thing seriously. There has been some physical distancing as people move social connection online. I have used my newfound time to offer more workshops than I originally planned at the beginning of the year. I have not added all of them on Meetup, but most of my events are nestled in my friend Oren’s Quarantine Activity Guide.
In my most recent newsletter, I wrote the following:
A huge part of this business is "getting myself out there" which I
hate with a passion. I just want to stay holed up ... not facing
anyone who might say "no" in any sort of way.
Maybe this counts as my big "thing to learn" this year.
To help me “get myself out there,” I have hired Freya after doing a first session with her in March. Since then I have struggled, having great resistance to doing the simple steps she has outlined, steps which I have heard many times on how to get a business started. (I’ve been at this for a while!)
I finally finished the first step yesterday morning, and then agonized over the next step. Ask people for help.
So following the wisdom of my dear friend Mark Wild, “done is better than perfect,” I have woken up in the middle of the night, realizing I can start by sending the following to you, my favorite peeps.
drumroll Now presenting….
my first Market Research Survey questions, designed to help me understand how to best support my clients!
(Edit to add: I have hired a business coach as an accountability buddy and one of the first tasks is to create a Market Research Survey and send to people who I think are in my niche of potential clients.
I will keep the raw data to myself, and I hope to use the answers in aggregate to help plan my business promotion. I personally will search the answers for recurring themes and refer to those themes (that I can address) in ad copy for my business.
For example, if most people use the word boonfarkle in their description, I may use that word in my ad copy. “Are you working in a boonfarkle?” But I won’t say or share “N% of people are working in a boonfarkle” (for any value of N).
end edit)
Tada! If you send me your answers to the above questions, I will happily offer a one hour session to help you find your inner strength to make this change in your life!
As we are in a midst of pandemic-powered global change, let’s bring your authentic self to the world! Register for a discovery session on Calendly. https://calendly.com/robnugen
love and light
- Rob!
Focus on your breathing until the initial wave of anger has passed. It may help to focus on counting the breaths.
Allow your breathing to deepen and slow.
Say you yourself, “I feel angry.” Labeling the emotion brings your thoughtful brain back online.
This helps move beyond the Fight or Flight reaction of the reptilian brain
Recognize the steps that brought you into this situation. What part did you play in the buildup to this anger?
Taking responsibility for your part helps point to small changes that you can take to avoid anger next time.
After acknowledging your part in the situation, notice where you can make different choices next time.
Visualize yourself making different choices to help increase the chance of remembering when necessary.
- - - - optional - - - -
Depending on the situation, it may serve you to apologize. Taking responsibility for your part in the situation can help restore your relationship with the other party.
My TV says if I buy this or that toothpaste / car / ______ then I will be happy. What TV doesn’t tell me is that happiness is temporary. Instead of buying my way into temporary happiness, I can sit my way into lasting happiness.
Sitting allows me to reset my brain to my center, my spirit, my essence. This is where permanent happiness resides. In this moment, sitting in what I call the Ever Present Present, I can just be, happily.
Sticking with the basics, we have joy and fear.
is how I feel when I have what I want, or I don’t want what I don’t have. I am aligned with what is, and have no need or desire to change it.
is the emotion which says I don’t have enough information. This is usually about an unknown future. I come to a proverbial fork in the road and could simply choose arbitrarily, but if there is a part of me that wants to choose the “right” option, I may feel fear about choosing the “wrong” option. This could paralyze me until I cannot choose without more information about what each option entails.
Next, we have sadness.
is how I feel when I recognize I have lost(*) something. I had it, and now I don’t have it. I feel sad. The message here is simply to acknowledge the experience of having, whether it was an object, a pet, or a fellow human. This is what funerals are for: to acknowledge that the person who was with us is no longer here (in the physical sense). We take the chance to experience the loss in its fullness, allowing acknowledgement of the new situation so we can move on.
Anger is a slightly different emotion. There are a few different emotions that we lump together under one label. Generally speaking, anger is an emotion that comes up when boundaries have been crossed. So-called righteous anger could be when personal space or personal property has been encroached or taken.
In general, if emotions are held in the body, they can cause problems, so it’s best to express emotions as soon as possible so our emotional bodies run smoothly.
(*) Loss is something of a false belief in that I never had it in the first place, but this line of inquiry goes beyond the basics outlined here.