Will note in general thinking when I fill in yesterday's dream journal writings.
Dream
Intention (2245 the night before)
Some small tweaks to intent today. Going harder on incubating donuts. Also, going to set an intention to wake up at 0700. WBTS will stay in "nice-to-have" land.
Have some morning errands tomorrow and need some efficiency in the morning. Waking up on time would help immensely.
Bed time!
Wake (logged at 0710 this morning)
A little after 0700, but pretty good. Some dreams, but really hard to put into words. Lovecraft Country related, I think.
Time to start the day! Gots to be fast to get meditation in before errands.
Pre-nap (1235)
Yesterday's nap felt really good. I'm thinking maybe put off "incubating" nap topics for a long while. If want to do sooner, should make time for analytical meditation, instead.
So, let's relax and heal and try to be conscious of hypnagogy.
Post-nap (1258)
Relaxing and healing. Short bits of hypnagogic vision. Centralization project in FE (work idea). Wisdom that I have forgotten.
Not going to write everything. Have a meeting to get to.
Meditation (Day 124)
Intentions for the day:
- Stay in posture part of prep until you're prepared to set the intention to stay still
- Stage 4 intention (vigilance on keeping introspective awareness continuous)
- Fall back to stage 3 if necessary
- Note where the breath was when you label a distraction (attention, awareness, or forgotten)
- Try to catch a distraction as it enters awareness and/or attention
- Body-scan (one time) when few distractions and when focus not as vivid as could be
Post-Meditation
I am very close to being able to consistently sit still the whole meditation. The only thing that stopped me this time, was I pushed my lotus a bit far and lost circulation very quickly. Even then, I stayed in that position well past normal (and it was amazing to break past the first bit of pain). The second bit of pain was too big a wall to climb, though.
I think, also, that my weight isn't evenly distributed in my half-lotus. It's something I can try to set up during posture prep. Also, really make a groove in the cushion so I'm not losing circulation from pressure on the butt.
Gross distractions still happening, but they're not the same as before. Cascading distractions (where one gross distraction opens the floodgates) aren't really happening at all, I've noticed. Stage 4 mastery is very near, I feel it.
I've made body-scan part of the 3rd step of focusing on the meditation object. The 4 steps being:
- Focus on the present
- Focus on the body
- Focus on the sensations of breath throughout the body
- Focus on the sensation of breath at the nose
This means it isn't a gross distraction at the time, though if I lose vividness later, I plan on doing it again. Also, it isn't so tiring that I struggle with dullness the rest of the session. I think this is a solid tweak to my process.
Experimental
So, morning meditations are the goal again, and 1600 short meditation sessions are also a goal (to try the other types of meditation, or to focus on something other than the breath).
General Thinking
Yesterday's post updated with dreams.
Having naps be naps again is very energizing. Going to stick with these kinds of naps for a while.