(10/18) Daily Practices

Last Week Total: 21, 563

Practice 7: Monday (10/12)

3,756 dots - Dorm Room

I was very tired when I did my daily practice tonight.  Most nights, I'll find it hard to fall asleep since my mind goes off in a hundred different directions.  I feel more centered after doing this exercise--since I was mentally practicing to clear my mind so that I could count the dots.  I feel a lot more calm and ready to let today go in preparation for tomorrow.

Practice 8: Tuesday (10/13)

3,633 dots - Dorm Room

From "(10/13) Homework Blog"

"In attempting to perform this sort of mindset with my daily practice, I think I became too caught up in the literal action of letting the objects do the task.  I concentrated so hard on removing myself, removing myself became the goal.  Not only did I have the goal of counting, but now I had the goal of attempting to remove myself form the counting (which seemingly counteract each other).  The frustration of this week's author seems a lot more relatable.  It seems as if our mind's ability to fail or succeed surrounds every mental decision we will ever make--which makes removing it nearly impossible."

I also noticed this week that I was hyper sensitive towards making this a competition with myself.  I'll be so worried about getting more dots, I stop making them as fast.  I also worry that something is going to go wrong with the timer, and that it won't ever go off--how would I know when to stop?

Practice 9: Wednesday (10/14)

3,739 dots - Dorm Room

I've been counting the dots in sets of 100.  When I reach 100, I make a small tally-mark on a sheet of scratch paper to keep track.  Then, I start over.  This process of fulfilling a set goal in repetition is a practice I use almost everyday for meaning and meaningless things.  I try t think about what category this project falls under.  What does each number really mean?--each corresponds to a dot , but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.  Maybe in a larger group these numbers mean more and more.  Does that mean that--at some point--there's a certain number of dots that "means" something and a certain number that doesn't?

Practice 10:  Friday (10/16)

4,000 dots - Dorm Room

Tried a new method of counting.  I still marked every 100 dots, however I counted in a different way.  I thought about the dots in 10 sets of 10.  Since it's easy to count to 10 repeatedly, I say in my mind " 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -- 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -- 3 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" until I get to one hundred.  I started doing this about 2/3s of the way through (I'm guessing since I don't see the clock).  I find it odd that my quickness in counting makes me dot faster as well.  If i couldn't count, I would inherently slow down.  And the timer DID ring at 4000 dots perfect.

Practice 11: Saturday (10/17)

4,876 dots - Dorm Room

This new method of counting, though it goes faster, tends to leave my mind faster.  My mind seems like it drifts away even quicker since the pattern becomes so rhythmic.  I find I have to slow myself down to only concentrate on the numbers themselves. 

Practice 12: Sunday (10/18)

4,935 dots - Dorm Room

I have noticed a reoccurring pattern of my over-all attitude post-daily practice.  After the counting, I feel much more centered.  I feel as if I'm not trying to be in multiple places at once.  I feel much less worried about future or past events and more aware of what's currently going on around me.  This effect might be intensified since I do it at night before I go to sleep, and my exhaustion form the day is contributing.  However, there have been plenty of times where I go to sleep with too many things on my mind.  That seems to happen a lot less often now. 34

Total Dots: 46,502 dots