This and That - Just Letting My Mind Free Today (A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste - LOL)

I'm looking at a desk full of things that have to be handled tomorrow ... but that's tomorrow. Today it's swimming, dropping by the bank for a deposit, and then work. After work it's dinner, relaxing for an hour or so, and sleep. Tuesday always starts my "hard days" out for my week. The days when I swim are the days when my alarm goes off at 3:00 am. I'm usually up before it goes off, but the 3:00 am wake-up is mandatory if I'm to be on the road no later than 4:30 am and in the pool when it opens at 5:00 am. There's nothing like a schedule to get a person up and running - or swimming, in my case. So, what do you do when you wake up? 

Although the sun is still below the horizon when I 
awaken (except on Sundays), it's still morning 
to me when I awaken at 3:00 am. Yes ... I know I'm crazy! LOL

When I wake up I start with meditation. That can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as 30+. Generally, on swimming days, it's around 15 minutes. Time to practice breathing, be grateful for the morning and the upcoming day, and settling into my body. Then I do various brain games on my phone - three different games of solitaire and two puzzles - and finally I make my "bed", take my daily weight, get dressed in my skin suit for the pool, and settle down to write my blog. I now have 15 minutes to get this together, posted and wrapped up before I go back upstairs, clean out my jacket pockets, and grab my swim bags for the pool. Generally I'm on the road between 4:15 and 4:30 am. 

I've been using Insight Timer for daily guided meditations 
for years now and highly recommend them. I have a stable 
of guides whom I adore, lessons learned over the months 
that I use every day without fail. 

Some might say that I hit the day running, but I know better. The things that I do first thing in the morning, whether or not I'm swimming, are the coping techniques that I developed during COVID, when I found them to be a lifeline for the pressure and the various crap we were dealing with. It wasn't a comfortable time, to be sure. I broke my foot, which is what pushed me to the living room for my bedroom instead of being upstairs in the master bedroom. It moved me from the downstairs bathroom to the main floor mini-bathroom (no shower or tub in that room), and it was the prelude to my daily meditation. (Something I had wanted to do as a habit since I was in college in the early-mid 1970's.) I started working with meditation teachers and classes on MindValley; and by following one teacher who left, I found Insight Timer. I've been visiting Insight Timer for daily meditation ever since, (and dropped Mind Valley because of the expense). 

I actually take both of these, but just ran out of my 
mushrooms over the weekend. Oops! I have more 
on order which should be in within a week. I have 
plenty of my "Brain" pills, and they work REALLY 
well for me. I highly recommend them to my friends
 who might have "fuzzy brain". They work - really well. 

I also take daily brain supplement tablets. I started off with Stonehenge Health Dynamic Brain, and later also added their Dynamic Mushrooms. I really like this brand - a LOT. I had one time when checkout simply wasn't working and I purchased a different brand for six months. Oy! I could really tell the difference. Things were much cloudier and murkier, thoughts simply weren't there at my beck and call. After those six months were finished, I returned to Stonehenge Health and I'm feeling much more confident once again. Yes - supplements at my age are helpful - VERY helpful, and even though they're not inexpensive, I find them well worth the cost. 

It's going to be a VERY busy day today. 

So, now that my mind has taken it's usual tangents when faced with a white screen and 20 minutes to get my daily blog posted, I'm wrapping this up and I'm out of here. My brain and I have a very busy day today - LOL. Time to get moving on it. Have an excellent day. Slava Ukraini and חיים עבור ישראל, I'll be back tomorrow.