Mindfulness: The Liberal Arts

     This last two days (May 28th and 29th) of mindfulness I have tried to do a new activity; try and practice music. To be honest I have really enjoyed practicing a little music as a mindful activity. Since I began piano I have always taken about a week and a half to learn a single song. However, the song I´m trying to learn is "Moonlight Sonata" is much harder than the rest. This, in turn, have helped me concentrate during the practice sessions, and afterwards. What I like about practicing music is that after the practice I can still concentrate in the moment because I can still hear the song I have been trying to learn during an hour after the practice.

A drawing without tutorial

     This last two days I have also been doing some of the old activities, such as walking my dog around my neighborhood and by drawing. As I wrote in my last post I have been having trouble concentrating while I walk my dog because I know the rout so well that it no longer has anything for me to see and concentrate in. However, when I walked my dog today (the 30th) I changed my rout; and while it still does not have the same effect as my first mindful walk, I can say it helps me concentrate a little bit and stop thinking about schoolwork. Drawing still helps me concentrate; however I no longer need to see tutorials. Now all I need is too see an image of a drawing and shut down the computer and I can draw by my own without seeing the image again. This is the best way I could find to concentrate when drawing because by using tutorials I no longer concentrated; but by trying to concentrate in how to replicate a drawing (with my own style) I really stay in the moment. I think this last two days have been the most mindful up until one; because with the increased difficulty level of drawing and the music practice (that is really difficult for me) I have been able to always stay in the moment.