Online Curriculum Development: BDS, 7-5-13

For today's BDS, I plan to continue working through the 'overview' portions of online curriculum I'm developing. I think this is a good task for my BDSs, because it takes a lot of critical thinking. However, it's not reinventing the wheel or anything like that. I've already put a lot of thought and planning into these weeks, so I definitely have a guide to go by. I'm finding myself having more fun with this type of writing, something I'll have to keep in mind in the future: if I started previously, it's easier to stay positive about the work I'm doing.

15 minutes in, I took a comfort check. I reminded myself to keep my tounge down to relive the pressure in my face. I also had to move my legs (which were propped up on the table) because one was starting to go to sleep. My laptop is warm, and my lap is warm because of it. I'm going to stand up and do some comfort walking to make the most of this break while I think about what comes next.

Got some good writing done. I wrote for about an hour. Took the one comfort check. And made mental notes of any times I felt discomfort (some in my fingers, my leg./foot started hurting again because of how I had them on the coffee table, eyes strained a bit but not bad, thirsty, ready for music, bed will be nice).

I was especially mindful of my breathing during this BDS (thanks to the UCLA breathing meditation I did earlier). It was interesting being so focused on my breathing, while still trying to use my brain to compose. It was a tricky tug of war, but I kind of like the idea of being open to a variety of senses while still having an anchor point to the here and now.

More tomorrow.

UCLA MARC Guided Breathing Meditation

It was nice to try one of these formal mindfulness practices on my own. A few reflections on the process:

• I liked having the freedom and space to do this breathing meditation on my own. I didn't miss my hard plastic chair from the classroom, and I found it was a bit easier to embrace the process knowing my body was more comfortable. 
• Another thing that was nice about doing this at home, is that most of my meditation was done with a kitty cat in my lap. Everything is easier/better with a cat in your lap. 
• While my physical space was more known to me during this meditation, I still felt a little bit out of sorts since all of my other meditation practices have come in the shared space of the classroom. The times my mind wondered were usually brought on my thinking about something in/around/about the classroom. 
• Another thing that made this a bit more difficult for me was the woman's voice. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with her voice, but I guess I have just grown accustomed to Donna's voice and it was a bit distracting to have a different person speaking. 
• I think the actual digital recording and playback of her voice made it more distracting as well. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, but I can definitely tell when sub-par production techniques have been used. The combination of the recording, the internet playback, and the low-quality of my computer speakers made listening to her voice much less-pleasing. I guess this is why people still seek out vinyl records instead of buying into the digital music revolution. There's just something nice about a rich, full, top-and-bottom recording being played for you through a powerful tuner and quality speakers. 
• The length of this recording left me wanting more. I will never complain in class again about taking too much time for our meditation. By the time the chime went off on the recording, I was just getting into a comfortable rhythm. 

It's nice to have these resources, and I'm sure I'll be back to UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. If you're curious, you can check it out here:

http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

How'd it go for you?