Mindfulness

I love taking personality tests. Not sure if there is truly anything scientific about them, because, well, humans are complicated; however, it is fun to intellectualize as well as have the vocabulary to talk about yourself. I have taken many personality tests and so far my favorite is definitely the Meyer Briggs test. I have always tested and been classified as ENFP. (Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.) Now, the question is, do we develop personalities naturally or are they molded by circumstances. Or is it a combination of both. Yes, the old nature vs. nurture debate. It is a debate that will never be solved yet one that should always be pondered. I can see why my circumstances made me an ENFP, but at the same time there are definitely people who have had similar experiences as myself and chose to go a different way. Hell, even see that in my students among siblings or even among students who have similar backgrounds. Some choose path A and the other...

I learn a lot from conversations. Talking with my students about their lives and listening as they talk about their viewpoints challenges my own. Little snippets of deep conversations with various people in my life have sent me down interesting paths. Dialogue is the best teacher. Yet dialogue is sorely lacking as of late it seems like. The art of conversation has been lost and I hope it comes back. As a kid I was always comfortable talking with grown ups. I participated in political conversations when I was eight years old, hearing the various view points of my family members and taking it in. Some things I really did not understand, but I knew it mattered to everyone and I also knew that all of my relatives wanted what was best for the world just differed on some details. I also spent some lunches with my resource teacher talking about various topics when my classmates bored me. But the real reason for this post is a man that I had many deep conversations with, his name was Ben, an...

This is what has been on my mind as of late. I am not a morning person. I have never been in my life. The fact that I was able over several months to be able to start working out in the morning is...well amazing. I got comfortable. I created routines. I got use to having lounge time in the morning. Showering. Eating a good breakfast. Setting myself up for success. As soon as I got into my stride that was when my new neighbors complained about my workouts. The contract does mention 7am as a time, so the landlord does not want to give me permission to do anything until my neighbor agrees it is okay with them. So, until told otherwise I need to figure out how to maintain my morning routines by doing things differently. This has made me stressed and to be honest a bit lost. You get use to things. There is comfort in the predictable. So once I felt confident in my predictable something unpredictable happened. It is going to be a few weeks until I work out the kinks, but I am determined to...