Morning and Night Routine

Having a routine for morning and night helps making our lives stayed on the right track automatically. In that regard, I research around the Internet as well as put my own thought in, and bellow is the first version for my morning and night routine:

Morning

1. Wake up at XX:XX AM
2. Drink water
3. Walk or stretch for 10 minutes
4. Set 3 Most Important Things for today (One is toward long-term goal)
5. Meditate for 10 minutes
6. Fix lunch
7. Eat breakfast with tea
8. Write short morning journal
9. Shower
10. Go to work

Evening

1. Starting at XX:XX PM
2. List things needed to be prepared for next early morning
3. Finish as many as possible from above list
4. Meditate for 15 minutes
5. Write short evening journal
6. Brush teeth
7. Go to bed and read a boring book till feeling asleep

I also make a PDF file having above lists put nicely together (there are two quotes to motivate you as well). Feel free to download and use it for yourself. Here is the link.

How to sit

I found out this very good video clip which instructs the basic techniques of sitting. The beginners should follow this at first.

My Zazen

Today, The World is full of information, and people have plenty of tasks to handle.

How many time we ask ourself how great it is if we just need to handle one task at a time, or reading or watching one piece of information at a time. It seems to be impossible, right?

I have faced the same above problem. It took me a while to find out that zazen can help.

The fact is: Yes, we can handle just one thing at a time. The only thing that prevent us from being able to do so is our mind. Our minds often juggling things that we have to care or worry about. And keeping juggling things like that will make us soon tired and stress. Zazen give us the ability to put things aside, and handle them one by one, at each moment, everyday.

In a nutshell, practicing Zazen give us the ability to focus at any moment. That sounds simple, but it is much harder in reality. By siting crossed-leg, trying to focus our mind for 20 or 30 minutes everyday, we try to improve our ability to focus. And gradually, we will become more productive and have less stress.

This blog, is a place for me to share with you my experience and practice. Please feel free to ask questions, I would gladly to answer. Or even better, if you have a story about your own experience, please share.

Thanks

* In the next article, I will write about the basic practice of Zazen.

* The picture in this post is of Kodo Sawaki