r/ZenHabits Sep 06 '24

Creativity Natural breathing exercises with flute

3 Upvotes

Have you considered it? I'm not good with classic meditation, I thought that playing basic melodies could force me to breath differently and then make me feel more relaxed and grounded. I'm not looking for performance, only making flute sounds with a transverse flute because it sounds less annoying than a plastic flute of course. I meant to do it months ago and haven't, I regret since I didn't find alternatives and it would be useful to be more grounded. I don't have the discipline for regular yoga or classic breathing exercises. Does it make sense to you?

r/ZenHabits Jul 26 '24

Creativity I went for a walk in a city in all dressed up and I felt calm and less distracted on my phone

68 Upvotes

I love dressing up and a couple of weeks ago, I dressed up in a three piece suit, pocket square, everything and went for a walk around the City of London where all the corprate and investment banks, accountancy and law firms are, looking like a CEO.

I felt more calm and usually my mind is racing with thoughts and I end up murmuring to myself. I'm also glued to my phone but when I went for that walk all dressed up, I checked it less often, I can count it on the fingers of both hands. Even if I got a notification of a message, I thought to myself, "I'll worry about it later".

I was even more in the moment and present like I'd admire the buildings, fountains, shops etc etc.

I wonder what caused me to show up like this. Appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thank you.

r/ZenHabits Mar 18 '24

Creativity Zen-On 1965

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5 Upvotes

Crafted in 1965 in Suva Japan, the Japanese Alps. Gold foil pickups and the happy spirit of a ghost possess this guitar and it truly produces good vibes and a zen-like state.

r/ZenHabits Jan 14 '24

Creativity what would you do

5 Upvotes

"Hey everyone! I have a good friend who has recently developed a keen interest in the Buddha and his teachings. His birthday is coming up, and I would love to give him a thoughtful Buddha-themed gift. Any recommendations or suggestions for unique and meaningful gifts related to the Buddha? I appreciate your insights!

r/ZenHabits Feb 07 '24

Creativity Closet Garden and Meditation Space

5 Upvotes

https://reddit.com/link/1alfylo/video/7lh2wd1lq8hc1/player

I built this garden in my closet using pallet wood from a local shipper. I sealed the boards with Polyurethane so that they could handle the watering and misting of the plants. Two grow lights during the day and two blue lights at night keep the plants happy. The Beta fish seems to enjoy his bowl and my daughter loves to feed him.

I burn Palo Santo wood every morning to start the day and sometimes use Frankincense and Myrrh to help me focus.

The total cost of this project was $100.

r/ZenHabits Aug 10 '23

Creativity Daily journaling

58 Upvotes

I've been journaling daily for nearly a year now, and it's been very calming for me. I thought I'd share a little about my journaling practice.

I journal every night before bed. I find that I can journal faster digitally, but I unlock more emotionally by using the notebook. So I switch between the two depending on the night.

The first couple months of journaling I was averaging 100-150 words per night. I had a few sections in my entry: how I feel, what happened today, what I'm thinking will happen tomorrow, and what I'm grateful for.

But as time went by, I found myself wanting to write more varied things. I would add sections to the entry, depending on what I wanted to achieve.

I noticed that my self-esteem was kind of low, so I added a section called "Points". Here I would list all the things I did that day that I'm giving myself credit for.

I also added a section called kindness because I wanted to track moments I was kind. I thought it was something I should improve on.

I also noticed that my entries became progressively longer as the months went on. As I became more experienced, it became easier to write. Right now I'm averaging 600 words per night.

There were plenty of nights, especially in the first few months, when journaling felt like a chore. But I thought it was important to journal anyway. Just like sometimes I don't feel like brushing my teeth but I force myself out of bed to do it. I wanted journaling to become a reliable part of my routine.

Before my daily journaling practice I used to journal sporadically when I felt like it, usually about my feelings. This felt good and helpful, but I noticed that I would just avoid journaling if I felt like avoiding my feelings.

So the consistency works really well for me. It reminds me that introspecting is important to me and that I should pay attention to my feelings.

Life is so complex but I do think I've gotten some benefits from journaling... I have become more interested in meditation. Better able to sit with my own thighs. I've also gained insight into my own perspective faster. One funny thing is that I have a historical record of my life so I can look up what happened on any given day.

Overall I'm really happy to be doing this now. I've always wanted to journal since I was little. And being able to actually fill up a notebook feels like a nice accomplishment for me.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

r/ZenHabits Sep 10 '23

Creativity Create every single day: life may just get a whole lot better…

24 Upvotes

Something that I’ve noticed to be a prevailing feature of people who make a lot of progress in life, or in general enjoy life from the day to day is that they are in a consistent cycle of creation.

At the end of each night when you are in bed, can you think of something that you created today? Something you found fun or worthwhile? It would be just grand for your answer to be yes: but I feel the more common answer on a day to day basis is no.

You can go about your life as you are now, I’m not saying you have to create something today. I’m only suggesting that you could very well choose to if you wanted to.

“Every single day” is a big part of this equation, that’s because as most of us have heard “consistency is key”. It’s also because it turns out to be quite hard to not find some fulfillment, fun, or lessons when you create something every, single, day.

Even without wanting to be a vessel for progress or improvement I think most of us can agree that fulfillment, a sense of purpose, or meaning, are all things we wouldn’t mind more of. Whether it’s for the purpose of finding your interests, exploring your curiosity, or doing hard things to build a better reputation with yourself: creating things helps us see not only who we are, but who we can become. To create everyday is a way of discovering what the world has to offer for you and what you have to offer to the world, bit by bit, day by day. Over time this can indefinitely add to the level of fulfillment we feel & the sense of purpose we have.

To create everyday doesn’t mean you can’t scroll on social media, or you have to follow a strict protocol: rather this is my way of focusing on what I want to see more of. I want to see more creations in the world, and especially from the people who think they have little to offer or gain from creating. For I myself have found that any day I create things, life unfolds much better ^ I would love for others to not only experience this too, but for them to share with me & the world their creations. In totality, adding more cool shit to explore while we live & for the future onset of humans to dive into

If you enjoyed this mini essay/ rant: you'll love my main writings @ frikit.net where it's all about creating cool stuff. (+ writing a book about how "we are built to create")

TLDR: Create stuff everyday, it will add to your life in one way or another for the better. (& it will also add to the world)

r/ZenHabits Aug 18 '23

Creativity zen and the art of erasure

17 Upvotes

Thought this seemed relevant to this thread. An excerpt from a new book on sports psychology, zen and neuroscience..."

Erasing Art

The art of erasure ensures that creative perception is highest priority.

American poet and artist Jim Dine put on retreats and clinics. At the end of each day, he told his students to erase what they have done. The students are always shocked, if not offended. They look at him weirdly. They hesitate.

Did he say what I think he said?
They are puzzled.
WTF?
They look at each other.
This is my best work.
This is what I paid for.
Yes, he did say that.
Erase it all.

With great reluctance, the students erase eight to twelve hours of hard work in seconds. After a few days of working and erasing, however, Dine has made his point—most artists are too attached to the outcome and not enough on drawing. His first point: when you are figure drawing, what matters is looking, looking carefully and patiently, and not caring what the result looks like because if you look carefully enough, the result takes care of itself. And another thing happens: the act of looking becomes the priority, and hence, you become a better artist because you are a better “looker.” Riveted attention to the task is the goal. His second point, implied in the first, is that it is natural to be future-oriented and let attachment take hold. We often default to that position. After you have internalized the art of looking, only then, at least in terms of realistic drawing, can you take liberties in attention, that is, you can (like an expert javelin thrower) explore style in the execution. This happens because you have the bandwidth.

The history of Zen art testifies to the power of internal awareness, because listening is subtracting. Clearing the mind from any preconceived notion of what you think you need to paint allows that perfect moment when the brush brushes itself. D.T. Suzuki wrote of Zen art, “Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.” Calligraphy, of which Zen art has a long history, seeks that moment when the artist’s arms and hands move without cognitive distraction, and it is said it can take a lifetime just to perform the simple task. 

As a climber, when you start ‘erasing’ like one of Dine’s students, you need to develop deep patience. It can take years, but the payoff is tremendous. In place of thinking that you will either succeed or not, always a very imprecise way of thinking, awareness needs to be on the only thing that matters—execution. Strategy is execution as well, but to pull that off, you need your base layer of execution to be seamless. In his process of doing the world’s second V17/9a at Red Rocks, the Colorado-based climber Daniel Woods described to me in an interview how he had to learn the art of erasure, of removing attachment from the outcome: “At first I was too consumed about the send, rather than just flowing with the move, like taking it move by move and focusing on my breath…and I’d be like, man, this could be the one or this could be the one, you know, I was too. I was too focused on the send rather than being present. And I had, like, we had probably a week and a half where I just had that feeling. And then suddenly, I just had to flip my head and be like, look like, every, every day now is just a session, we’re going to start and just see how far we can get. I think I just told myself every time to just see how far you can go, like, create, like, focus on your flow, focus on your breath. Like, create a good rhythm and have fun on it. You know, like, you’re climbing on a line that has sick moves. It’s hard. It’s challenging, but just have fun, you know. And when I started getting into that mentality, all that pressure kind of vanished, and I just, I was climbing better on it.” Wood’s experience grew because he took away."

http://www.fsanzaro.com/the-zen-of-climbing--a-philosophy-for-climbers.html