I woke up today with anxious thoughts. As a freelance designer, my work day feels like it starts once I leave the bed. I feel these need to immediately sit in front of the laptop and put in some work before I can feel calm.
That open laptop often creates many more layers of anxiety. I need to update my blogs, check my tumblr and Twitter, maintain my social networks, and then there are the 1000+ articles that I HAVE to read in Google Reader.
Thankfully one of the articles I discovered in this media mess was What Daily Meditation Can Do for Your Creativity. I have been working meditation into my daily routine and am currently reading and practicing the techniques from When Things Fall Apart. I started with 5 minutes of meditation on Sunday where I concentrated on my exhale. Today I will practice 10 minutes. After my racing thoughts are quieted I begin my 5K training with a 1.5 mile run.
During these activities I will have to struggle with the fact it is 11am and I still have not clocked in an hour of billable work. This must be why freelancers work so late into the night. Update on these activities in the comments.
One Comment
The meditation was pretty easy, I spent too much time thinking about writing this comment though. Right around the 10 minute mark I started to get anxious that I never started the timer.
Running (all 2,438 steps, barely a mile) was much harder. My morning exercise routine typically consists of walking outside to smoke a cigarette though. After the “run”, my lungs hurt, my skin felt on fire and my head ached a bit. After about 10 minutes all of those feelings were replaced with those healthy exercise feelings. Tomorrow is rest or run/walk. I think I will rest/walk it.