Monday, May 16, 2011

Day 10

After a thought-provoking weekend, I finally put my thoughts down on paper, my blog in the Net realm.

I've never been either extremely lucky or well-off in terms of material wealth but I have been quite blessed in terms of family, friends and work. I've loved and been loved by those around me and have built a safe and peaceful small- town realm. On top of that, some incredibly inspiring and dynamic new faces came into my life at the beginning of this year. Ever since I got to know them, my days have become a mind-blowing roller-coaster ride. I feel urged to share some of this luck. 

Having read a newspaper article about two little boys who lost their mum in the tsunami, this urge has become overpowering.  However, my little hands can't do much except for taking hold of other hands to make a big circle of helping hands. I have come to the conclusion that only by joining such a circle of good-willed people, might I be able to do something valuable, and so I have started searching for a suitable group for me to join. I had an "aha!" moment when I found out about a series of charity Yoga events. Since I'm a regular practitioner of Yoga and a firm believer in its philosophy, it has made perfect sense to me to contribute my time and energy, and make a bit of a donation for such events.

Following my instincts has brought me some serious troubles yet no regrets. It is always the best to follow where my heart leads and it surely took to me the right place at the right time. I've met some amazingly considerate and generous people through those events, and getting to know them multiplies the joy of living. It is just awesome to see the energy that the organizers of these events put in to transforming a painfully traumatic event into something of such power. I have felt so welcomed and so honored to take a part in their events.

Such incredible experiences have given me a much clearer vision of what I want to be. Would it be too crazy If I said bringing Yogic philosophy into Japanese early childhood education is my mission?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Day 9

Had one of the best, sweetest golden weeks. Now I've got to get rid of this festive feeling and get serious about studying. My strategy is "quantity over quality", in other words,  just do it.

Going though some of IELTS practice tests, I've realized I definitely need to work on my sluggish reading speed as well as writing. In order to achieve this short term goal, I will try some speed reading exercise, at least, 10 minutes a day for a few months and see what happens. My current reading speed is about 200 words per min. and my goal is to get 500 wpm. I have a lot to work but not it is not such a unrealistic goal I reckon. Or am I too optimistic?

One of my dear friends/ tutors suggested that I should get a daily newspaper, set the timer, read and write the summary of the article. My current dilemma has been how I can fulfill both physical as well as psychological health.  Since I'm overly health-conscious and actually have incredible amount of energy to release in order to maintain my sanity, I desperately need to come up with a daily physical exercise routine, something time-effective and sustainable one. My solution for that is to combine this reading practice with walking exercise. It doesn't mean I read while I walk. That would be too radical for my one-truck mind to deal with. What I would do from today is to walk to the station to get a newspaper, which would take about 30 minutes, read the front page and write the summary of it.

I will, I will rock and roll :-)