inked

I have been intrigued by tattoos for a long time. And from the first time I met a Sharpie, I have been drawing on myself. Dots. Symbols. Things I  saw on TV. I even have a file somewhere with printouts and drawings of different tattoos I liked. Some were things I could see myself getting. Others I would never get (see: on the face).

But there has only been one tattoo I ever really saw myself getting. As any of my friends can tell you, I have obsessed about it over the last 4 years. Drawn it here and there. Toyed with getting it here and there. I’ll do it after this happens I’d say. And then I wouldn’t.

The thing about that one tattoo is that getting it wasn’t originally my idea. It was my mother’s. But after her surgeries from breast cancer she didn’t want to get it anymore. In her words, “I’ve had enough pain for a while.” And with that, she passed the desire onto me. And this Saturday I finally did it.

My friend Ashley M. had also been thinking about a tattoo for a few years now. She had the script picked out and everything. And we agreed to do it together. So here is the inspiration for mine:

And here is mine:

The tattoo is the same one Leeloo has in The Fifth Element. The difference in mine is that each line is made of 13 (a fibonacci number) dots. Each set of 6 lines represents a different element: Earth & Water (near my toes) Fire and Air (closer to my ankle). I opted to place it on my foot (vs. the wrist in the movie) because it is not as typical as some places, because I don’t want it to interfere with any possible interviews, and because it will look cute with sandals but won’t be the first thing someone notices. I typically don’t walk around looking at people’s feet first.

What do you think?

Every Day

Not so Zen

Well, I failed that. Not just beyond the three days, but it just went off and on. Regardless, I’m going to try to keep meditating…. perhaps not every day, but at least regularly. If you’re interested in picking trying a little breathing here, a little zen there, here’s the audio from the class. And a little more succinct is some of the possible ‘focus’ items we could use for meditating:

1. The Perfect Ten. Exhale first, then inhale = 1. Count each one.
2. Visualize some kind of enlightened being in front of you. Focus on the details, but start with the silhouette.
3. Go back into a religious scene from history. Just imagine yourself in the scene. The scene doesn’t have to be frozen, it can be going on around you, and you can be involved in it.
4. Problem solving meditation. Is it true you are to die? Is it true you don’t know the time of your death? …or probably something a little less intense. :-(
5. A particular feature of a person. Ex. The kindness of my mother.
6. Imagine taking on someone else’s suffering and then imagine giving them life. Take their suffering into you (like black tar), and then you get rid of it.
7. Requesting Prayer. Feel the longing in your heart, and ask for a guide to help you find it.
8. Rejoicing. Even in simple things. “Who has more fun than people?”
9. Thanksgiving meditation. Think about all the richness that you have.
10. Sound meditation. Think and listen.

Maybe you can pick up where I left off. :-D

Week 1

The way the Meditation Challenge was set up allowed us to miss 3 days of meditation during the month and still receive the week of free yoga classes.

I missed those 3 days in the first week. But I haven’t missed anymore, and so far, I think I am on track.

Day 2

I started my morning with 10 minutes with my focus on the exhale-inhale pattern of breathing. Guess what? I was able to count above 10 – in fact I made it all the way to 23 before my brain had to hid the reset button.

Day 3-5

Oops. :-)

Day 6

I’m back, and breathing. After the 3 day vacation I took, I almost thought about giving up. What was the chance that I would manage to not miss another day? And what was the point of doing the meditation if I wasn’t getting free yoga?

Getting my Zen On

Thanks to Yoga Oasis I attended a free learn-how-to-meditate class as part of their 1st Annual Maha Meditation Challenge. So, for the next month, I will be meditating once a day and if at the end I complete the challenge, I will get a week of free yoga! Since I bailed on NaBlaPoMo I’m going to do something a little similar for my month. Every week I’ll post about what I meditated on, the challenge of it, how it made me feel, etc.

Day 1

Seems that I’ve been meditating wrong – it is not so much about clearing your mind, but training your mind to be able to focus. Will, our instructor was amazing and funny – which I did not expect – and gave us some amazing things to focus on. Some of these things seemed quite normal (what you hear around you or your breathing) to some pretty intense things (on another’s suffering, taking it within you, and getting rid of it).

The breathing exercise consisted of exhaling and breathing in, and counting how many times this was repeated. We did this for 6 minutes, and I could not keep count over 4. Hmmm…

Resolving

While I used to not be a fan of new year’s resolutions – all talk, no act – last year’s worked out pretty well. So, here I go:

1. Get back into the shape I was in last May, before I left for Germany and was surrounded by wurst and kartoffel.
2. Start making my own lunch to take to campus. Must save $.
3. Take off to somewhere this summer.
4. Take better care of my cuticles and nails. Fo. Ev. A.
5. Keep in touch with the people I met in Germany, my friends who have graduated and those that will.
6. Run a 5k.