Day 72: Greenlight

All in all, it was a great day. I woke up with a very sore throat, and was extremely tired till about noon, but after that, was very productive for the rest of the day, and cheerful too! Especially compared to yesterday.

What went well? 

1. It was actually WARM (18 degrees celsius) and SUNNY today!! Wooooo Spring is officially here!! (let's not think about snow next Tuesday :P)
2. Research paper is going really well. I'm at that stage where I've engaged so much in the paper over a short timespan (probably 25 hours this week) that I DREAM about the paper now. So, my brain figures stuff out for me while I sleep and I wake up with new ideas and connections from the get-go. It's great! Also, sent my research outline/summary to date to my Buddhism professor, and he replied and is really happy with it!! Gave me the "greenlight" (sic). Even better, I asked if, in that case, I still need to submit a 2-3 page writing sample on Monday since I don't usually start writing until I've actually finished most of my research (you can make much better connections when all the information is in front of you and you have the bigger picture), and he said that what I had sent him was fine! So that was a huge WWW, because I was kinda stressing about getting that in and studying for my sociology of mental illness test on Wednesday at the same time.
3. Had dinner with a friend who swiped me into Commons, and also a couple of others who I'd just met, and it was good company.

4. Skyped my dear friend Viky back in Melbourne, and it was so good to catch up and share good news with each other :)

What did I learn? 

• I have done more research than I thought I had! And I actually have a fairly ok understanding of the general issues in the field.
• Wow, mindfulness, as understood by Buddhist scholars, is an incredibly complex concept. My head is spinning. And psychology manages to operationalise it in a neat 1 sentence summary!