Interview 3: Mrs. McCarthy (practices yoga/meditation)For my final interview, Mrs. Anderson directed me to Mrs. McCarthy, who attends yoga and meditation classes in her free time! I had a lot of questions specifically about meditation itself to ask her, and I learned a lot about the fundamentals and variations of modern meditation. To begin, I asked a straightforward question: What is meditation? Her response: meditation is the stilling of the mind to find internal peace and quiet. Mrs. McCarthy told me that she has added meditation to her everyday routine, where sometimes she does breathing practices, guided meditation, or just sitting still in nature. For her, she finds mantra (the repetition of positive phrases or encouragement) and yoga helpful to encourage her internal focus as well. We talked about the process of building up a meditation practice. She told me that learning to take one simple deep breath while stilling the world around you is a good start to getting into meditation. Slowly after that, one can begin to lengthen the time focussed on meditation as they get used to the process. It's not necessary to pair yoga and meditation together, but in her own words, "yoga prepares you for meditation" so the "mind can settle" through your bodily preparation. I asked her about her personal experience, and she shared her experiences as an over-thinker and perfectionist. Meditation has become a tool that she can use to refocus on her present, especially when she is worried about the past or the future. She admitted that for her, even after years of practice, it still is difficult for her to meditate. However, this is all a part of the practice and the value in meditation as a challenge to the brain. Mrs. McCarthy suffered a running injury due to her not breathing correctly in response to stress. Her doctor told her she couldn't run anymore, but she could do yoga, where she was first introduced to meditation. Through yoga, she began practicing "pranayama", which is a part of yoga that focusses on breathing control. Breathing heavily relates to the successful practice of yoga and meditation. Lastly, I asked if she thought anyone could meditate. She said that anyone can benefit from a form of stilling the mind and taking a break from the stress of the day. She says that she sees people losing the connection to that part of their inner peaceful selves and that taking time, even a small time, to just breath and calm down can be a good practice for any person. Progress: My progress hasn't really changed since my last blog update as I've been in the same stage of my progression. Meditation takes a certain diligence and focus to be consistent. Taking the time has been very beneficial to my practice, but in quarantine I've had some difficulty, as I said before. With the end of this project coming to a close, I'm beginning to see the differences in each stage of meditation as I've tried to integrate the practice more thoroughly into my routine, and I've been reflecting heavily on the role that meditation should play in my life. Reflection: As this is my last blog, I thought I'd reflect on the process as a whole. Starting the year with only once a week, then to twice a week, then to every day meditating was a good progression to follow. I've really struggled through a lot of the year, but when I've sat down and meditated I've seen immediate mindset changes. Like Mrs. McCarthy said, no matter how someone meditates, anyone can benefit. In my most anxious moments I've seen what meditation can do and how it can alter how I'm feeling in that moment. I see it as a useful and effective tool for my life. I don't think that meditating every day, especially during the time we're in now, would be a realistic choice for my own life, but when I need it, meditation has proven to help. I'm truly grateful that I chose to do this throughout this past year. I've learned a lot about what meditation really means and how I can adapt it to my life when I need to, my overall goal. I'd encourage anyone to give it at try. It doesn't have to be an every day, or even weekly practice, but if anyone is having a particularly rough day, I'd say to try to take a moment to introduce some peace back into their life.
Active destressingWhen I talked to Mrs. Ross, she talked a lot about how exercise can help people to relieve stress in their lives. Throughout quarantine, I've tried my best to exercise when I can and with the resources available to me. I created a video compilation of me exercising just as a visual of what specifically I have done to keep active during a time where I'm extremely tempted to stay inside all day every day. It's always a relief whenever I can do something active, especially outside in the sun. Luckily quarantine has begun to be lifted slowly, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to exercise and go out even more as school ends and summer starts. I only filmed two of the times I exercised, but I also went on more walks, some runs both by myself and with my dad, and swam quite a few times. Thank you to my grandparents for letting me use their pool, and to Leyna for passing with me!
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