slow living. well-being. grad school.
1. Remembering the kind of meditation I like I wrote in March about trying to get back to my sitting meditation. What I think has perhaps helped me with making it stick was remembering that I don't really like guided meditation--which tends to be the default in many of the popular apps. Instead, I really … Continue reading april: what’s bringing me calm
"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attentions from serious things." Henry David Thoreau, Walden Earlier this year, I wrote about one of the ways I’ve tried to solve the problem of starting at my laptop screen too much. I decided to buck the high-tech trend of reading on a screen … Continue reading An Ode to the 2-D Printer
1. Coming back to sitting mediation I know, I know, people can't be "bad" at mediation. But I've tried sitting mediation on many occasions, and--trust me--I am not great at it. I've made daily walks in some kind of nature a much more consistent habit, and the movement combined with the nature helps calm my … Continue reading march: what’s bringing me calm
I started swimming lessons with the classic "water babies" classes taught at the local middle school. With the exception of long bouts of travel and pandemic restrictions, I don't think I've spent much time away from the pool since then. I'm the farthest thing from athletic, and swimming was no exception. I have the opposite … Continue reading Part 3 of 3: Sources of Overwhelm—My Executive Functioning Disability
1. Information as a coping mechanism for chaos This month turned out to be more anxiety-ridden than usual. A bit of this was to be expected with class demands ramping up, an exam, etc. But this was compounded for me by the winter freeze that knocked out much of the Texas power grid, which has … Continue reading february: what’s bringing me calm
After school, the second source of overwhelm for me has been my finances. I’ve vacillated between saving and spending throughout my life and would still describe myself as “not a saver by nature but by nurture.” I’ve worked hard to develop a habit of saving, but it didn’t come naturally. As with school, I’ve also … Continue reading Part 2 of 3: Sources of Overwhelm–Finances
The Lazy PhD 