The Ranch Librarian Happiness Project: Mindful in October

So, is anyone else totally appalled by the fact that it's OCTOBER?!?!

I have been running and gunning like a crazy person lately, since it's fall and that's a pretty intense time for teachers...

So I was reading Ayme's blog on the 1st of October, and realized that she was posting about her happiness project (and ps: if you don't read her blog, you should. She's brilliant, and I am not just saying that because she's my friend. Truly.) I thought to myself, she's on it kind of early, isn't she. About three hours later in the day, I realized that it was A. October 1st, the date we agreed to start our projects, and B. the irony of the fact that I picked mindfulness for my first month.

I don't think I am off to a particularly promising start...

But nevertheless, October (my favorite month) has begun, and so far, it's not too bad. My folks were just here for a visit, the leaves are changing, the weather has cooled, and my wedding anniversary is right around the corner. I love fall on the ranch because the leaves turn and make it beautiful, the weather changes, the days shorten. The time for tea, sweaters, and fires in the stove arrives, and I think of Anne of Green Gables:

www.unexpectedelegance.com

So when Ayme and I decided to do Happiness Projects over the next year, it made sense to me both poetically and logistically that we would start in October. We also decided that we would do our Happiness Projects however the concept spoke to us, since that's how Gretchin Rubin encourages you to go about it in her fabulous book The Happiness Project. You can find all kinds of information, including doing your own happiness project, here.

As I got to planning my HP (it makes me SOOOO happy that the Happiness Project and Harry Potter have the same initials :-), I decided to put together a list of what Rubin calls Nine Splendid Truths and the Twelve Personal Commandments. So here's my list (which may change over the course of my project) of truths and commandments I live by or want to live by:

If you REALLY want a list of these in a readable size, let me know if the comments.  I will post them for you.

To kick off my project, I chose mindfulness. 

Mindfulness is defined as:
     1 the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something

     2 a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly       

     acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a       

     therapeutic technique.

Despite my Type A tendencies, I very often find myself in situations that cause me to wonder how did this happen? I end up with a stacked schedule, too much to do, and completing tasks for others. This causes me a great deal of stress and anxiety, and often results in sleepless nights, fretful days, and in the rare case, panic attacks. 

So mindfulness seems like a good place to begin. I need to spend more time being aware of myself in relation to my life, and pay attention to my limits. In my mind, I should just be able to do all the things, without question or hesitation. As I often tell my students: I could RULE the world if I didn't need to sleep!

But I do need to sleep, and I also need other things too, like time to rest and recharge or hang out with my husband or take my horse out for a ride in the solitude of the ranch. 

So I am going to work on being more mindful, and here are some of the ways I plan to achieve that:

• Connect with nature: for pity sake, some days I feel like all I do is be INSIDE. Gross! I need to find ways to get out and connect with nature, like walking on the ranch, visiting with my horses (or, gasp, riding them!), or taking a few minutes to watch the sunset, even if it I'm doing that while driving home.
• Make something beautiful: as an adolescent, I played the violin. As an adult, I would really like to start playing again. I really, really, really wanted to learn to play, so my mom found a teenager at church who was willing to give me lessons. Violins are really expensive, so my dad decided he would try to fix up an old barn fiddle he'd come across in North Dakota. He managed it, and my blonde beauty holds a gorgeous tune. So in October, I am going to make a conscious effort at playing my violin. 
• Try something new: Ever since I went to Italy in the 9th grade, I have wanted to learn to speak Italian. I've taken a class and can do a little Italian, but this October, I am going to spend some time working on learning Italian. Thank God for Duolingo!
• Meditate on God's Grace: My mom gave me a new devotional recently, called One Thousand Gifts Devotional. It's thoughtful and inspiring, and I am going to take the time to sit down and do it each night before bed. 

That's it--those are my goals for October. In keeping with my mindfulness theme, I wanted to make sure to set a reasonable amount of goals that I could actually accomplish. I feel pretty good about that list.

I'll keep you updated on Happiness Project Happenings as the month (and year) go by. 

Anyone thinking of giving an HP a try?