Day 5

My aikido sensei always tells me that what we do during zazen can and should be applied in our daily lives. When doing zazen, keeping your back straight and maintaining deep breathing all helps to clear your mind and unify mind and body. But these basics can also be utilized outside of meditation. For example, when most people walk, the're not really thinking about walking. They're usually thinking about where they came from and regretting decisions they've already made. If you walk while thinking about the place you just left, you become unaware of the world around you and it's easier for you to get injured. You can't focusing on what's ahead of you if you're attached to thoughts like, a math question you should've done right, or that presentation that could've gone better. If you instead only focus on where you are going and on the actually act of walking, you become aware of the world around you, and you can avoid injury much more easier. Letting go of events that happened in the past, that you can't change anyways, allows you to concentrate on what's ahead and needs to be done. Not focusing on walking is the same as not focusing while driving. If you get distracted while driving, the likelihood of a crash is increased. The same idea can be applied to walking.

So while trying to stay on topic with this post, my goal for today's zazen session was to sit up straight the entire time and focus on my breathing, making sure I let go of any distracting thoughts. Overall, I felt like I sufficiently met my goal. Whenever I thought of something along the lines of, "I wonder what's for dinner?" or, "What should I write for my next post?" I just let it go and refocused on how I was breathing, feeling the air pass through my nostrils down my throat. In addition to doing zazen, I've gradually began to integrate the principles of Aikido training and meditation into my daily life. Tomorrow in my classes I will do my best to sit up straight, pay attention, and not slouch or put my head on my table.