Say hello to Denise

...who's the resident guinea pig at Raintree Veterinary Clinic where Mojo gets his acupuncture and other treatments every weekend.

 

 

That's me trying to get friendly with her by feeding her lettuce, but she scampers off and hides as soon as she gets a chance. She's so utterly cute, and nice, though! She's scared but she neither digs in her nails when we pick her up nor does she bite.

Days of mindless indulgence

...like the ones I had yesterday and today totally kill the momentum that I gain on the other days when I am mindful.

Yesterday, for example, between 1:15-8:15 pm, it felt like I was constantly munching on something or the other. Had a fusion box, a chocolate brownie, and an iced tea from Box8 for lunch. Each time I passed the pantry, I picked a few morsels of बटाट्याचा चिवडा. Went out with a couple of old teammates in the evening and had peanut butter toast, fries, and a cappuccino. The husband wanted to have पाणी पूरी for dinner since his birthday last week, but we did something else instead, so we took the opportunity today, because the cook was on leave. However, my frustration wasn't the effect of binging, it was the reason it.

Today too, although I've been at home and have had to attend to Mojo's pee-routine every few hours, I've walked less than 3000 steps, and neither cycled, nor practiced Yoga. It's as if my mind has been in a fog and refused to participate in the real world. Procrastinating everything has been the order of the day.

And now, I don't even want to make any plans to recover from this tomorrow. Luckily for me, I know that it will happen, automatically.

It's been like this, two steps further and one step back, week after week, for the past couple of years. I've sort of given up trying to keep the momentum up for too long.

I'm just happy I now have goals in life. It's something I've never known previously, at least never practiced consciously or with any sincere effort. I've been an impulsive, obsessive person all through my teens, and have wasted time and efforts on people and things that did me no good, really. It's time now to divert those energies towards things that matter to me.

I sometimes wish I could hire someone to keep me focussed. Like some fella who hired a girl off of Craigslist to slap him each time he got distracted from his goal. However, misanthrope that I am, it's not a realistic solution for me. Nor do I know anyone who's jobless enough to want to do this for me. Also, it won't be possible for me to let someone tail me along all day at work--it would be flagged as a security threat. :D

Anyhoo. I hope that unproductive "episodes" like these get fewer and fewer over the years. I know that that will happen. I've just got to be patient and practice being mindful as often as I remember. For now, I take comfort in these words that I read somewhere today:
"Remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be."

...and the comfort food (सांजा) that I cooked this morning for brunch:

Books I started reading

...and am hoping to finish in the next few months or at least this year:

1. Refuse to Choose - Barbara Sher
2. How to Hypnotise Anyone - Confessions of Rogue Hypnotist
3. Become Healthy or Extinct - Darryl D'Souza
4. The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch
5. A New Science of Life - Rupert Sheldrake (first edition of Morphic Resonance)
6. Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge - Arthur Osborne
7. Life with My Guardian Angel - Richard Bach (the first ever RB book that I didn't devour right away)
8. Declutter Your Mind - S. J. Scott & Barrie Davenport (I found Headspace here and got distracted... talk about irony)
9. 10-minute Digital Declutter - S. J. Scott & Barrie Davenport (irony again!)
10. You Are Smarter Than You Think - Thomas Armstrong
11. Level Up Your Day - - S. J. Scott &Rebecca Livermore
12. 10-minute Declutter - S. J. Scott & Barrie Davenport (oh, the mother of ironies!)

And then there are these that I bought, but have barely even started reading:

1. Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramhansa Yogananda
2. Shivaji: The Grand Rebel - Dennis Kincaid
3. Animal Farm - George Orwell
4. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
5. Break Free: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 3 Steps - Tanya J. Peterson (rolling my eyes at this now)
6. Thank Your Wicked Parents - Richard Bach (this isn't a linear read anyway, and almost none of it is applicable to my situation, thankfully!)
7. S.M.A.R.T. Goals Made Simple - S. J. Scott
8. How Google Works - Eric Schmidt
9. Talk Like TED - Carmine Gallo
10. Game of Life - Kanishka Sinha and Girish Manimaran
11. The Ultimate Writing Guide for Students - Grammar Girl / Mignon Fogarty

Those are too many for me to finish in a year, or even two! Also, I used to believe I'm more of fiction reader. Clearly, my preferences have changed over the years. Or, maybe these are things I thought I should read, rather than what I am really motivated to read. Maybe that's why I have had trouble completing any of them.

Vegan omelette batter

...somehow looks better than that of an egg omelette. The latter may look better later and may even taste better, but there's something about this one that makes it look adorable to me.

For the record, I didn't eat this one, because I'm not too fond of tomatoes-onions-mint in my vegan omelette. I prefer mine with just plain coriander, probably because I loved the ones mom used to make. Dear old कोथिंबीर धिर्ड आणी लोणी--comfort food!

Side note: This used to be good old "veg omelette", but now that I am considering going vegan at some point, I'm so glad to realize that this will continue to be kosher. ;)

Raiding a stationery shop

...is what I did as my fun beginning to 2019!

I've been journaling more of less consistently since 2016, and have found immense help and encouragement as I read my previous entries all through 2018. Wanting to do more of it and to get better at it, I got myself these presents today.

The tiny one at the top has handmade paper, and I'm going to use it for doodling.

The black one is like a planner, and I'll use it for my daily to-dos and affirmations and reviews.

The blue ones are notebooks, which I intend to use for my Spanish class homework and exercises. I scribble with pencil on the textbook and erase it later, after I write down all of it in a fair notebook. During class, I use a rough book to make notes and do on-the-spot exercises.

The green and the magenta ones are what I will use for journaling. I've grown fond of that paper size and I need a hardcover book so that I can write fairly legibly even if I happen to be seated in a somewhat uncomfortable position.