Post: #21

Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing the song with us. The song's rhythm is quite nice, and I like the lyrics too! ^^
I don't collect poems, but I do like to read poems. I took a short glance of your Tumblr, there are a few poems that inspired me!
Since I don't have a Tumblr account, I have bookmarked your Tumblr into my Google reader.

Again, thanks for your sharing~

Post: #22

You are welcome! I love poetry - I love how skillful writers can put words together in such beautiful creative ways to mean something completely different, and how so often I find poems that really resonate with how I'm feeling at that moment. Same with song lyrics sometimes, too!

Well, I haven't updated here for a while, but that's because I'm finding it so hard to find time to do so with the 21DPC as well! Still, I'll try and post here and keep up with everyone's journals every so often!

I'm really enjoying the 21DPC, although I got a bit behind with it over the weekend and had to frantically catch up yesterday. My exercise routine is going well - one of my friends is running a 10km race in June and suggested I sign up too. Unfortunately the event was full, but I got an email this morning saying that someone had dropped out and I have a place! I'm nervous - I know I have plenty of time to train, and I can easily run 5km now, but when you're a newbie at anything, taking the next steps can be scary.

Work's going well too I have to submit a sample of writing at the end of the month as part of my progress review panel in May, and that's all done - I'm just waiting for my supervisor to get back to me with her feedback.

Right, off to do today's positivity task Hope everyone's having a good week!

Post: #23

I'm really loving the 21DPC Also, I found this amazing site the other day - http://thoughtquestions.com/ Some of the photos are beautiful... I thought some of you might be interested, too

Post: #24

Wow 10 kilometers sounds intense. I don't think I have ever run that far all at once. I'm sure you'll make it though. Like most people I bet your just scraping the surface of your physical and emotional strength. You can do it. Please keep us updated.

I like the thoughtquestions website. The question I saw was "What is one simple way to make life less complicated?" For me that would probably be eliminating "stuff". Just getting rid of as many physical possessions as I can. I have long thought I should get into the habit of throwing out / giving away one item each day.

Post: #25

Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing the link. The Thoughtquestions site is great. Reminded me of the 21DJC.

Post: #26

Hi Sarah, thanks for your recommendation on the Thought Questions website. The questions posted over there are really good, which lead to my inner heart!

Keep going with your 21DPC even if you left behind for that. Don't worry, no one is going to fail you.

Post: #27

Hi again everyone!

I really, really enjoyed the 21DPC and I feel that I've taken a lot of really positive things from it. I especially loved the fact that we were asked to note down something positive about each day, and it really helped me to see the good in every situation.

I'm going to be making sure I do that from now on, and it's going to be one of the habits I cultivate in April's challenge! The main one, though, will be studying. I've been meaning to get my Japanese up to the level it was when I graduated for ages, and this is going to be a perfect opportunity. Even if I only study for 10 minutes or so every day, I'm sure it will be beneficial!

Is anyone else going to be doing April's habit cultivation challenge?

In other news - I did my first 'official' run last week! It was 3 miles, which is a little under 5km, and I ran it in about 24 1/2 minutes ('about,' because the timer started before everyone had got to the start line!) I was quite worried because the week before, I'd twisted my ankle at an aerobics class, and it was really swollen and bruised for several days, but the run went really well

Matt: I definitely agree with you. Last week, I had a big clear-out, throwing away lots of papers and 'stuff' I didn't need and taking old clothes to the charity shop. It sounds strange but I felt physically lighter when I'd finished!

Ish and Jaleen - I'm glad you like the site I think some of the images are lovely, too.

Post: #28

Hey Sarah, I absolutely agree with you about 21DPC - just the fact that I was thinking about what was positive in my life at that moment made a big improvement on the rest of my day.

Good luck with your language studies this month, and congrats on your run! I am also participating in April's challenge.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Find me at My Studio Blog or My Facebook Page

Post: #29

Sarah! Japanese must be a very difficult language! At least so it seems to me! I'm so proud of you taking up this challenge - it's a lot of fun speaking another language fluently and enjoying the communication with native speakers without any borders! Good luck to you!

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso
Welcome to Stacey Dream's World | Follow Stacey Dream on twitter!

Post: #30

Hi Sarah, great to see you achieved the 5km running without any suffer from your ankle. But, do take good care of your injured ankle, not to over stress it.

For my April challenge, it is to have more veggies in my diet. I would say that I want it to be a habit to have veggies in my diet, but not only a 21-day challenge. ^^

Post: #31

Sarah, running 3 miles is amazing, very good!

Post: #32

Hey Squiggle!
Nice to come back and find you still charging ahead!
Good luck with your japanese and other challenges

Post: #33

(04-01-2012 04:52 AM)squiggle Wrote:  I've been meaning to get my Japanese up to the level it was when I graduated for ages, and this is going to be a perfect opportunity. Even if I only study for 10 minutes or so every day, I'm sure it will be beneficial!

Thank you for sharing that link for Thought Questions!

As for studying Japanese, how has it been going? I remember you began using a piece of software to memorize/recall Japanese vocabulary.

"You were born an original, don't die a copy." ~ John Mason | You can check my blog here

Post: #34

Oh goodness. I completely abandoned the forums! I'm back now, though, although I'll probably be spending most of my time over at the 30BBM programme board. I signed up for this year's live run as I've been needing something like that for a while.

So, since April, there've been some positives and some negatives (as always!)

A big positive has been the running! After the 5km, I successfully ran a 10km in under an hour, which was my goal. I took a bit of a break from running after that (a negative point ) but am now training for a half-marathon in October. It's going really well.

I didn't keep up with my Japanese study I was finding memorising vocabulary to be a bit of a chore and without reading text and seeing it in context, it wasn't staying in my memory. At some point soon, I'm going to start reading Japanese news articles and study that way. Seeing vocab in context is so much more useful than just learning word lists! I won't give up though. Just because that particular method of study didn't work so well, doesn't mean I won't be able to find one that suits me better. Also, over the past few weeks I taught a short course to some visiting Japanese teachers of English, and we chatted in Japanese after class. I'm not as hopeless as I thought I was, I can definitely get by in spoken Japanese, and it was a great motivator to get more stuck in to it.

I've been struggling a bit lately with my depression, too. I can't really pinpoint the moment it started - just that I've been feeling low and irritable and 'hopeless' far more often than I did at the beginning of the year. I think that's because I was being a bit lazy and letting it beat me. I was involved in lots of projects that meant that I wasn't actually completing anything, I wasn't journalling enough and I'd fallen behind with my meditation. That's been changing I'm doing a course of cognitive behavioural therapy online to get to the bottom of why I react the way I do to some things, and I've been seeing some positive results from that. I participated in Celes' self-esteem seminar, which was fantastic. I spoke to my boyfriend about some things that had been bothering me about our relationship and we became even closer than ever. 30BBM will definitely help with that, too.

From the end of September, I'll be teaching my own course at the university - and supervising seminar groups! I can't wait, but I'm going to be very busy and it's going to be quite stressful. I think doing 30BBM in September will help give me a more solid foundation to make me more likely to rise to the challenges of the next semester.

If anyone else is going for it, let me know! It'll be great to see you there