Day 70: Mehhhhhhh

That is the best way to describe how I feel about the state of my research essays so far!! I have spent a stupidly long amount of time collecting (I now realise) way too much data for my Buddhism paper and am still feeling pretty vague about where I'm going with it, and have an outline & 2-3 page writing sample due Monday. And I have barely started my other mindfulness paper, which I'm supposed to be able to present on (progress at least) in two weeks, and the full thing is due in five weeks....and I still haven't been able to get hold of the positive education curricula that I wanted to make comparisons with....mehhhhhhh. And I have a sociology test next Wednesday (which I'll probably end up studying for the day before). So, mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Right now, I'm feeling pretty grateful that I'm only taking 4 actual subjects + my music ones!! It's ok though, I believe that work always gets done (because it actually always does). Anyhow, fun & games are over for the moment (but I have many things to look forward to next week, including a Buddhism symposium with top scholars, a Bach violin recital, and New York again to see Diana Damrau in La Sonnambula).

What went well? 

1. I've been engaging in so many mindfulness/positive psychology-related things recently that I keep getting all this research ideas for my capstone project next semester/honours project next year popping into my head. And some of them are actually promising, and one for next year is particularly exciting, so I'll need to investigate the feasibility of that. So my running list of ideas is growing!
2. Had a guest speaker in our mindfulness class today, and enjoyed learning about her approach to bringing mindfulness to schools - by training teachers (who volunteered), who then bring the practice to their own classrooms in ways that feel authentic to them personally. It's a smart and sustainable approach to a potential whole-school implementation.
3. At least I've finally finished collected data points for that paper! (I hope. Mostly.)

What did I learn? 

• The Duckworth lab meeting today was on MCII (mental contrasting/implementation intentions), which is the most well-studied and effective self-regulation exercise. We did a WOOP (wish, outcome, obstacle plan) where you come up with and visualise a goal for the next month, the ideal outcome, the biggest obstacle, and what you would do to overcome that obstacle (if .... then.....). I set a goal to practice loving-kindness meditation for 5 minutes every night. Which is what I need to do right now after I go brush my teeth!