Forward progress

I feel more centered and balanced than I've ever felt in my life.  As a result, my energy and focus to better myself are strong.  There are so many things that I want to work on, from optimizing my physical, mental and emotional health, to exercising my creative energy, and then doing what I can to  better the world around me.

Mindfulness
I see two key components that I want to work on to develop a strong sense of mindfulness.

The first is meditating on my center and the balance in my life.  I've been pretty successful at the relaxation of both my mind and body.  I rarely ever wake up and let my thoughts keep me awake.  Rather than my thoughts being in control of me, I am in control of my thoughts.  I have a practice of repeating the mantra "my body is relaxed, my mind is clear, I am at peace" over and over.  It's pretty cool because I always fall back asleep pretty quickly when I repeat that, and I wake up wondering how many times I actually said it to myself before I fell asleep.  I find my center by focusing on the things that I love.....  reading, music, cooking, and spending time with my kids, and focusing on people that inspire me, keep me grounded and share positivity.  By focusing on those things and people, I feel gratitude, which puts me at peace.

The second is continuing to develop my compassion through empathetic thoughts.  I know that the people who I have problems with have their own problems.  With that in mind, I don't try to ignore the emotions that I have as a result of my problems with them, but it's easier to let go of my negative emotions, and that puts me further at peace.  Compassion really is the key to a sense of internal joy, and I hope to always optimize my compassion, empathy and happiness.

"The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama, "The Power of Kindness" by Piero Ferruci, "A Force For Good" by Daniel Goleman, and "The Beginner's Guide to Meditation" by Shinzen Young have all been key in helping me to figure out who to develop my mindfulness.

Physical wellness
I know that mental and emotional health go hand in hand with physical wellness, so there are several things I'm working on to keep my physical health as best as I can.

The first is making sure I get enough sleep, and the mindfulness keeps me from staying awake too long in the middle of the night.  I also need to try to achieve at least 7 1/2 hours of sleep every night, or supplement with naps.

The second is making sure I get exercise as often as possible.  My new Fitbit helps by reminding me to get up every hour and walk during the work day because it's been proven that sitting all day is bad for you.  I also try to get 10,000 steps a day, which amounts to about 5 miles, and I try to walk at least 15 miles on weekends.  It's easy when I have audiobooks to listen to!  In fact, listening to "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed and "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand really motivate me to push myself.

The third thing is making sure I eat healthy.  I try to eat fish when I can, and I also try to eat vegetarian as much as I can.  I make sure I have a lot of vegetables, and try to eat a fruit with dinner.  Dr. McDougall's "The Healthiest Diet on the Planet" has influenced me a lot.


Knowledge
I love learning!  Reading has been a huge part of that, and I feel like my world has really opened up as I've been reading.  I also love podcasts, especially Terry Gross's "Fresh Air", "Outlook" on the BBC, and "Hidden Brain" by Shankar Vedantam.  YouTube's Vox and Eater channels really expand my mind.

I love learning about people's perspectives through personal journeys - "To Hell and Back" by Charles Pelligrino, "Shakespeare Saved My Life" by Laura Bates and "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou have given me really different perspectives.

I need to put some more time into learning to speak Japanese, and continue to read and educate myself.

I know I can never know enough, and I will never be the smartest man in the world, but that doesn't mean I can't try!

Creative energy
I really need to continue to exercise my creative side by writing music, cooking, and maybe even doing some writing.

I'm constantly inspired musically.  Decapitated, Nails and Iron Reagan are really inspiring me to write.  My band is finally starting to get a footing - we jam with the new drummer in a few weeks and I need to compile a few cover songs to jam before we start writing.  I need to select a few songs that won't be too hard for me to sing and play at the same time.  I hope this band can gel and we can write an album and play some shows.  I respect all the guys in the band and their abilities, so I'm excited about this coming together.

I'm also fortunate in that I have a creative outlet in cooking every day.  Every time I see a new recipe, it makes me think of new ways of doing things that are outside of the conventional box, and I feel really happy when I combine things in a way that they've never been combined before and come up with something new.

Efficiency
I want to try to be efficient with my time and resources, but also recognize that down time is necessary to achieve personal balance.

I want to be efficient and not wasteful - especially with food, because as a whole, our society wastes too much food.  I know that I can throw a lot of food away at the end of the week, and it's so wasteful.

I want to make sure that every minute of my day is spent efficiently and to the end of achieving all of the things I've written about so far.  Finding a balance between my creative endeavors, keeping a tidy house (Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" inspires me), exercising my physical body, reading and listening to various things to develop my knowledge, getting enough sleep, and especially the next section, in addition to having some down relaxation time, will be the key to having a balanced and satisfying life.

Making my surrounding world better
Along with making myself a better person, it's also important to me to make my surrounding world better.  This comes with compassion, and a positive outlook.  I can only optimize this by achieving my inner balance and peace.

Perhaps the most important thing is to give my kids unconditional love and attention that they need to grow and thrive.  I think I've done a pretty good job so far.  Whenever my kids come to me, I try to physically turn to them and give them my full attention, and reflect on what they say.  They seem pretty happy, and they have achieved so much that I couldn't ask for more from them.  I also think it's important for me to communicate how much I love them, how much I think the world of them, and how much I support the positive things that they do.

I love the time I spend with my daughter - we have our special time together, and we have become like best friends with inside jokes and routines.  She is so important in my life and she inspires me to be the best I can be.

My son is such a positive and wonderful person, and he radiates such a joy that he inspires me every day.  I love the young man he has become, and feel happy when I think about him.

I have such a wonderful relationship with my parents and want to continue to be the best son I can be for them, and I have so much gratitude for the time I spend with them.

I know that with positivity and compassion, I can make a difference in the lives of my friends and people I work with.  That's an important message in "The Power of Kindness" and "The Art of Happiness".

I'm a work in progress, but as my counselor told me, "good enough is good".  If I always strive to be my best, I might not be perfect, but I can find my happiness while making a positive impact in the world.