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My Monkey Mind – A Meditation Journal #3

Hi there bloggies, as you might remember last week I was telling you all about how my mad monkey was running a bit wel… ape shit if I’m honest. Things have moved on a bit and I have managed to tame him a bit into a bit a quieter state.

But what I have found over the last week is a few things. Firstly I’ve found that when I reach this ‘calmness’ it’s like I’m on another level to myself and in a way looking in on myself. When I get to this point thoughts can start trickling back in and it’s like they’re a river flowing and I’m on  bridge looking down. The monkey does his own (but somewhat subdued) thing and I’m like that fine, get on with it I’m up here.

The other thing I’ve found is that when I need time to meditate it seems hard to come by. The kinds of things that life throws at you seems to want to pull me away from meditating.

The time issue led me to my third point, on Sunday I had no time to take time for myself, while walking the dog I decided… why not now? I had heard about meditative walking but I hadn’t done it. So I tried it and I have to say it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t the same of course but I managed to get the feeling of calmness and stillness – but obviously my eyes were open. 

I’m going to be researching this more becasue sometimes maybe when time doesn’t permit I might need to meditate or even just find the need to calm in the middle of life. If anyone reading this has any views or pointers on this let me know in the comments.

Simon’s Blog

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Facebook Page: Planet Simon    Twitter: @Planet_Simon    Instagram: planet_simon

Simon’s Blog

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Facebook Page: Planet Simon    Twitter: @Planet_Simon    Instagram: planet_simon

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My Monkey Mind – A Meditation Journal #2

Hi there fellow bloggies, this is my second posts in my monkey mind meditation journal and I have to say that things have been better lets say. Over the about the last week I’ve had all kinds of distractions from dogs to kids interrupting what is essentially my only 10 minutes of quiet time and then when I do get quiet… Oh brother that monkey in my head is swinging from the trees.

What I’ve been finding is that my mind is a sponge to every kind of input from everything around me, from people to phone to my imagination. So what’s going on in my head? I start with deep breaths and then relax into a meditative state, but before I get too far gone there’s a flood of.

Gotta do the bin. Dog needs something, oooh this is good you can write about this in the blog. Bin. What’s for dinner? Have I got enough fuel? Bin. Oh crap the chickens need feeding. Bin.

You get the point. I actually felt the monkey drag my mind from peace into chaos this morning. I was mad – “Why did you do that?” I actually asked it. The only thing I can do is keep at it and reign in this damn creature. To think that this thing is running about in my mind all the time. I’m mad. 

I’ll let you know how this goes.

Simon’s Blog

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Facebook Page: Planet Simon    Twitter: @Planet_Simon    Instagram: planet_simon

Simon’s Blog

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Facebook Page: Planet Simon    Twitter: @Planet_Simon    Instagram: planet_simon

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Radio 2 and it’s disastrous year

For many years since discovering Terry Wogan on Radio 2 I’ve been an avid Radio 2 listener. Even when Terry passed the torch to Chris Evans I carried on listening even though sometimes I’m shouting at the radio for Chris to “shut up!!” because boy that man can talk.

But this year I’ve become more than a little disenchanted. Many Brits will know what I’m going to say here. Yup…. the Drivetime. For years Simon Mayo with Matt and Bobby and others have made a great show that’s been funny, interesting and everything I like. Then they decided (I’m not sure who) we needed a female co host and enter Jo Whiley.  I’m not a great fan of hers but I tried it and I lasted a week, it was like eating porridge without any sugar or flavour. Bland. Even the beloved confessions are not what they were without Dr Mosh!

For me I couldn’t see the point of 2 DJ’s – why? I mean… really. The show has become less feature rich, more about bland chat and if I’m honest not my thing in music. I was searching frantically for something else to listen to – Radio 3, 4 oh damn how boring! I’m falling asleep here what’s happened? From this thought I have found podcasts… but enough of that for now.

Then Chris Evans announces he’s off back to Virgin radio. After much fussing and hoping and tweeting for Sorah Cox (Coxie) to take it over we get… Zoe Ball. Ok. Don’t hate her, but you know not my cup of tea. I’ll try it and see… But the drivetime show rumbled on a little longer until after only months – it broke. Simon’s off do to other things. No coincidences there.

Finally after months of disappointment some good news – Coxie is going to host the new drivetime show. At least I know on the drive home I will have something to listen to – Zoe is a bit of an unknown as yet. All I can say about this is what a damn mess, the BBC has been going for decades and it should know better than to put out half baked idea just because it wants to fulfill some silly corporate goal. At the end of the day BBC you’re meant to be entertaining us – if you have been discriminating your staff that’s your issue, not the fee payers. While we’re on the subject I assume that Zoe and Sara will be earning at least as much as the DJ’s they’re replacing.

What’s the betting that they’re not?

Simon’s Blog

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My Monkey Mind – A Meditation Journal #1

For some time I’ve been trying to find time in my day to chill and be me – basically I’ve been trying to find time to meditate. I could instantly see the benefit of getting those precious moment so peace in a busy day, but I also have to say it’s quite hard.

Firstly I had to find some guidance and cutting a very long story short I found something called the insight timer which starts you off with a short series from Sarah Blondin and then you have courses but being broke I kind of went for broke and have a preset where I meditate to the sound of a river and I’ve got to  10 minutes.

Now often these meditation experts and others talk about the ‘monkey mind’ and damn I have to say you can tell when you try and meditate. Even when it’s quiet your mind goes from peace to ‘what’s for dinner’ (even though it’s like 6am) to @What’s that noise?’ ‘Who’s on the toilet – man that was a big fart’

It drives me nuts I’m telling you… Why can my mind just not focus and be quiet? I tell you what though trying to meditate later in the day… Oh brother that’s a whole new level. Getting a few second of peace is hard and it makes me realise just how cluttered our mind are. So I’m going to be writing a few posts on this and make them a bit light hearted becasue let’s face it – our mind are funny!

Simon’s Blog

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The Bane of my life – Flies! (Bzzzz)

I think the title for this post spells out our nicely, but for those of you willing to endure the torture I’ll go through the motions anyways.

Flies.

What has it been about this yer and flies? I have tried so many things but I have not been able to get rid of the little sods. The best thing is to splat them. A magazine is just to mall and narrow for the job although if you make contact it’s instant death. A te towel isn’t bad, it’s quick but they get up after. A towel is better and broader! BUT the best thing I’ve found for killing flies so far is the oven glove.

I’m having times in evenings and weekends where I’m spending like half an hour trying to splat flies with varying degrees of success. But I have killed… I don’t know I’ve lost count. But I thought there was something dead in the house, while I’ve found some yukky things that haven’t helped clearing them up hasn’t helped either.

I’ve concluded that they’re coming from outside. We must have a sign on our house saying yep – come here you guys while it lasts it’s good! I really wish I knew how to keep the flies out, fun though splatting them is I would like to not have to!

Cider Vingar worked… for a day. After that it’s all been useless. What about you guys? Have you have a bad fly year? Any idea on how to keep them away? If not I can recommend only one thing. An oven glove!

 

Simon’s Blog

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