Subtle Mind Meditation (class) and a Little Life... :)

Subtle Mind meditation: focusing on breathing and letting go of thought, about 20 minutes.

The practices in this meditation are common to many teachings, especially those of eastern cultures. Bringing your awareness back to your breathing helps the mind allow random thoughts to wander through without hanging on to them. Breathing is to be done in a normal, relaxed manner instead of a controlled, forced pattern frequently advised.

I agree this can be beneficial, but this will depend on the person and the moment. If there's much physical or mental discomfort occurring, trying to force yourself through the practice is nearly impossible. Attempting to do so then will create a sense of failure and self-judgment, which undermines the goal of the meditation. Allowing yourself to experience the meditation within your own comfort levels while persisting in the practice will generate better results - I think. This may be ten minutes or simply recognizing your mental turmoil, but this itself is worthy progress.

Part of the goal of this exercise is for the awareness of breath to calm and slow the mind as the two become balanced. I'd recommend people that are new to this to personalize it to their needs and not allow any sense of failure as they work with it. Also, I've found my focus on breathing is most relaxing if I extend it through my whole body - head to toe, like a balloon filling. This seems to help relax all muscles for me.
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And the rest of life in my world...

"Sera, can I deprive Valleri of her senses?" - This question tended to cause a bit of a disturbance, but I was exploring the Ganzfeld experiment of sensory deprivation and needed some test subjects. I figured a kid that isn't yet locked into preconceived notions would be a good volunteer, and if necessary it wouldn't cost much to bribe her.

She's not unwilling, but her mother is a twitchy-type (hard to believe this if you know her mother, hm?). Sera instantly recalled an episode of "Paranormal" where the investigator used a similar device to better tune in to the negative energies haunting a young girl; this led her to empathatically declare she'd never risk 'opening her mind in case Evil was lurking!'

I'm not sure why she thinks a pack of spiritual nasties are waiting to leap on her, but it may have something to do with her frequent reading of Stephen King and related authors. She drives through a fog growing nervous as she recalls a story by that name; I drive through a heavy fog hoping to come out in the Emerald City. You see the difference in our thinking.

I haven't Ganzfeld-ed enough to have an opinion yet, and any interested readers can google "Ganzfeld" for more information - also DIY (do it yourself) Ganzfeld will return homemade methods. Anyone with experience on this, please share?
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On the home front, the pond-to-capture-runoff-from-the-driveway is working fine. Just it filled completely and ran over the other side anyway. I found a used sump-pump last summer, and it was the first opportunity to test its practicality. I dropped it in the pond, carefully plugged in the connections after drying the rain off them, and wow! Within a few minutes the level was drastically reduced, thus allowing the pond to refill again.

I will need to figure out filters, in that we continually get wash-out coming from the neighbor's; a lot of sand being carried down with the rain. I could get creative with a half-buried drain line covered with landscape cloth or something? "Water in, sand out."

At least I'm not 'on call' to monitor a puddle forming outside my bedroom door or trying to shovel the water away; if anything, I can simply plug in the pump and take the pond down a few inches. And if we lose power, I'll send Val out with a bucket to bail. :)

While it rains, I'll work on assignments.