A productive day

Today has been a very productive day! After attending Mindful on the weekend, and then catching up with a few people after the event, I’ve come back up here to Sydney with a rather expanded balloon. Jan Stewart wrote the other day about how peak experiences can expand your level of consciousness, before you shrink back close to your previous level. What’s lovely is that after such experiences as Mindful, you never quite shrink all the way back. Just like how a balloon never quite returns to normal once you blow it up and let the air out.

I feel like I’ve grown that little bit more, and that I understand my ‘mind, mindless, mindful’ selves a lot more than before the event. The key is, continuing to keep the balloon expanded through mindful practice of the takeaways from the day. So what have I been doing today?

1. Dropbox, finally.

I register for Dropbox fully today. I’ve had an account for years, but never really learned how to use it. Ross Hill and I were chatting with Bryony Cole over breakfast on Monday morning and it came up that Fred Wilson had recently moved all of his stuff into the cloud. Ross had been using Dropbox for a while, and it just struck me a simple thing I could do. So I have. I’ll move all of my files slowly over in the next week. I’ve already made a great start. One of the important aspects that came out of Mindful was resilience, and my laptop and it’s encompassed files have always been one of those things I’ve ‘meant’ to back up/secure. It’s amazingly powerful to have done that today.

2. I bought a journal.

I was lucky enough to have an expansive coffee with Ron Laurie, one of the speakers from Mindful, on Monday afternoon at Kinfolk. I really resonated with Ron’s talk, and was grateful that he was able to spend some more time with me and walk me through a few of the finer points of his thinking. One of the great questions Ron asked me towards the end of our chat was “Do you journal, Steve?”

I’ve often bought ‘visual diaries’ and used them for notes, thoughts, tasks – the whole gamut. But I haven’t done that for a while now, and Ron’s idea nudged me into thinking it was probably a very good idea to start again. So, this morning on the way to work, I bought a journal for my ‘mindful’ thoughts. It feels an enormous relief just knowing I have an outlet there, waiting.

3. #deepdive

One of the parts of the day I really enjoyed was the meditation session Xavier Shay ran in the morning, and briefly in the afternoon when the Open Space session got a little too heavy for everyone. I enjoyed a #deepdive tonight, and look forward to picking up that practice again. I listen to a recording I have of Craig Hassed, to help me through the beginning stages of re-engaging with it. It’s worth watching and listening to Craig’s stuff on the Lantern Mental Health YouTube channel when you have the mind space. It’s a great place to begin your practice.