Coaching assignment #3- Awareness

Michelle Jacobs

Coaching assignment  #3

Tuesday – Awareness of your body

In the beginning of my day, this concept of being aware of my body was difficult. This week I Tuesday was the beginning of the workweek and it was extremely difficult to step out of my typical routine and look at my body movements.  One of my body movements that I chose to focus on today was my morning tooth brushing routine. I realized that while engaging in this routine I forget that I have a body. I move through the steps of what needs to be done without really thinking about what I am doing or what needs to be done next. Even though I complete this routine in front of my bathroom mirror I found that I needed to force myself to look in the mirror so I could watch the movements of my body. The next activity that I brought body awareness to was driving to work that day. Most morning I am in such a fog/ routine, however you look at it, I simply engage in the same patterns of behavior that I forget to realize what my body is doing. That morning I chose to pay attention to my rigid body while driving with the morning commute. I believe awareness of your body can help in the context of conversation because you have to stop and think about what you are doing rather than just allowing your mind to ramble or continuously talk without any context in the conversation.

Wednesday- Awareness of breathing

I noticed that breathing changes depending on the situation and the person that I am engaging in a conversation with. I noticed that I struggled to control my breathing while eating. Typically eating is not an area where I tend to spend a lot of my time and I rush through mealtime. During lunch I forced myself to just focus on eating my lunch and focus on my breaths. I usually work while I am eating my lunch and focus my attention on the task that I am engaged in. Another time that I noticed that I was not aware of my breathing was during our weekly team meeting at work. This is typically I stressful time for the supervisors at my job because there is not a open flow of conversation in our meetings but rather being talked to. Awareness of my breathing can help with me in the context of conversation because it strengths my ability to remain calm and focused. In some conversations, I may become upset because of who I am engaging in a conversation with or because I do not agree with the opinion of the other person.  Some times when I am annoyed or frustrated in dialogue I realize that my breathing becomes quick because I am not focusing my attention on body or breathing. I shifted my awareness of my breathing while stuck in traffic and it allowed me to regain my sense of calm. 

  

Thursday- Awareness of your emotions

My emotional state that I am in today would be happy.  This week I started a workout regime and I am happy that I have been able to continue with my workout regime even though I have such a busy work and school schedule.  Today is only day four of the workout routine but I have not given up and I am sticking to my goals.  There have been moments of frustration but I rarely have days that are in complete bliss. Frustration is an emotion that I get tangled up into very easily. I think the reason for this is because I have learned way to express my frustration with things and then learned to move on. I do not linger with my feelings of frustration. Whether I am frustrated with a person or a task that I am engaging in, I confront those feelings and continue with my day. I feel as though it is not a good to feel frustration and ignore it. Otherwise you will be reflecting on frustration through out the day. A moment where I was able to reflect on an emotion was during my driving commute. I get very annoyed with how inconsiderate drivers are of the other drivers on the road.  During my commute in the morning, I was being my emotion of annoyed and I realized that I started to act or exhibit annoyed behavior.  But in my afternoon commute, I was in the moment while driving and brought awareness to the emotion of being annoyed.  I did notice a difference when I brought awareness to the emotion but I found myself still reverting back to being the emotion. It was very difficult for me to be aware of this particular emotion.

Friday- Awareness of thought

I found this exercise to be very appealing to me. I found that I am often in thought and actually have a difficult time stopping thoughts when I might need to divert my attention elsewhere. I did find myself from time to time downloading with particular people. I find it difficult to be in the moment with the conversation of others rather than download. In the reading, meditation instruction, the author states “ We might feel that thinking about the past or the future makes our life richer, but by not paying attention to the immediate situation, we are actually missing our life. There is nothing we can do about the past, we can only go over it again and again, and the future is completely unknown.” This quote has had such profound impact on how I view my life. I realized that I often allow my thoughts to have me. I always live my life for the next day. What is going on tomorrow or next week? I rarely am in the moment with my thoughts. Since I was younger, I have always had strong educational goals but I often allow those thoughts to overpower my day.  Since reading that quote and applying the practice of awareness of thought I have tried to be in the moment rather than living in the next moment. It has been difficult and each day I will continue to practice awareness of my thoughts.