BDS 15

Here we go with another morning BDS. I love it, especially because I read the readings last night and told myself that today I would meditate upon waking up and I would take my morning slow and think happy, calming thoughts instead of "gotta write my response, gotta do my BDS, gotta go to the gym, etc."

This worked wonders. As I sat down to write, I felt relaxed and then tried Boice's suggestion about thinking about something that would create happiness. With my happy thought in place and my mind and body calm and relaxed, I began to write. I had to remind myself at first to smile a little as a wrote, which as I continued, it became easier and needed less reminding. This seems like an obvious thing to do, because smiling, even if it is fake, releases endorphins and other happy chemicals in your brain. Why didn't I ever think to do this writing?

Because of this mind set, I didn't have any fears and worry during writing. But I wanted to keep this happy state of mind, so I did as Boice suggests, I let myself have optimistic and helpful thoughts. I thought to myself: wow, Ash, this is great, your story is coming along nicely, I'm really proud of you.

At my 10 minute mark comfort break, I paused, stretched and normally after this, I would get back to my writing. But for this BDS I made a list of things I wanted to try out, so I turned to my list, "reproduce the same sorts of mildly happy moods at each pause during sessions" (160). Hokay. I closed my eyes and brought my attention to another happy thought, which actually caused a little laughter because it was a fond memory. Checking this off my list, I continued writing.

When my timer sounded at the 20 minute mark, I was about to save and close and carry on with my day, but I looked back at my check list and realized I had one more thing to do: add self-congratulations.

"Good job, Ashley! You not only had a productive and very enjoyable writing session, but you made a point to try out some new strategies. Way to be awesome. Keep up the good work."

As a future teacher, I'm definitely going to be teaching my students a little bit about Boice. I think this could help students find writing to be very enjoyable, because I know it helped me.