Don't Rush: Conclusion

I have thoroughly enjoyed Don't Rush month, even when my resolution was hard to keep. There was so much to explore from yoga to mindfulness, and meditation to journaling. But slowing down and finding my own pace wasn't always easy.

The thing is, I kept rushing. I wrote about slowing down, staying calm and yet there I was running around feeling stressed. I rushed and reached burn out. I was physically and mentally exhausted and ending up getting sick and having to take time off work mid-month. That's one way of teaching you you're doing your resolution wrong.

However, I am really proud of myself for finding new motivation to keep going. When my resolution seemed to have fallen apart and failed around me, I didn't give up. I came up with a new plan to practice my resolution for the last 7 days of the month and I stuck with it.

It hasn't always been easy not to rush, but, today anyway, I'm walking at my own pace.

I Tried Yoga!

On Saturday, I tried yoga. When I set my resolution to Don't Rush, yoga was high up on my priorities for the month. I've always wanted to be the type of person who attends yoga classes; yoga mat under one arm, serene look on my face. I've always seen Yoga is a lifestyle, not just a class you attend weekly. When yoga kept coming up in the self-help literature as the greatest practice to bring calm into your life, I decided to finally give it a go. 

Many people try Yoga to tone up, to increase their strength and balance, or just to explore their inner self. I wanted to find the yogi pace of life. So I signed up to a 2 hours 30 mins workshop in Yoga Dublin studios in Dundrum to learn all the basics.

I was super nervous about having to spend such a huge amount of time in the one room with complete strangers, but our instructor really helped to settle us all in by getting us to write down on paper a one word reason for attending the class. Many of us had the same motives - de-stress, find calm, improve flexibility... And from these reasons for signing up, I think all of us got what we wanted out of the class.

Calm: App and Book Review

Calm the mind, change the world

I've struggled to motivate myself to practice mindfulness in the past. Even this past month it's been a challange. Finding journaling tools that allow me to explore mindfulness through writing and reflections have helped me to bring a little bit of awareness into every day. But I still want to find a way of bringing mindfulness meditation into my life. And the Calm app and book are just what I needed to make meditation easy and achievable.

"Being mindful of your thoughts will get easier with practice. When you notice your thoughts, don't hold on to them or push them away. They all come and go and are constantly changing. Just let them be as they are." - Claire Thompson

Calm App

The Calm App is free to download (so no excuses) and it offers different forms of guided or non-guided meditation. With daily reminders to check-in, it's easy to explore the different forms of meditation offered via the app including body scans and loving-kindness. You can only unlock all of the mindfulness tools by completing the first few ones, which gives the app a sort of gaming type appeal. You can choose your own background and sound effects, or change it up every few days depending on your mood.

Developing my Zen Attitude

I've experienced a few setbacks with this month's resolution. The Romeo Project is all about finding the self-improvement tools that work for those with a mental illness, and the reality is that mental illness can often get in the way of productivity. Lacking any inspiration to write, post or even experiment for the past week has left me feeling stuck in a rut when it comes to the blog.

But yesterday I discovered some new found motivation to improve my sense of calm this month; becoming Zen.

Zen, according to my best friend the Oxford English Dictionary, is;

"A Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition rather than ritual worship or study of scriptures. Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan from China in the 12th century, and has had a profound cultural influence. The aim of Zen is to achieve sudden enlightenment (satori) through meditation in a seated posture (zazen), usually under the guidance of a teacher and often using paradoxical statements (koans) to transcend rational thought."

That's not exactly what I meant, and is a bit too wordy for my liking. So instead, I found this perfect short descriptor of what I want to bring into my life during the last week of my resolution Don't Rush.

"Zen deals with things as they are, that is with reality." Source.

So for the next seven days, I will be practicing mindfulness, meditation and finally succumbing to my promise to try yoga.

And to spark my new attitude, I found some encouragment to help me along the way.

Periodic Table of Emotions

As many of you know, for Don't Rush month I have been trying to embrace mindfulness. To stay mindful, I find it really important to recognise my moods, feelings and emotions. Awareness is a huge part of mindfulness, which is why I reflect on how I feel every day.

Acknowledging our emotions accepts them, and allows us to work towards challenging and improving our feelings. So everyday in my journal, I keep track of my mood and record how positive or negative I felt on average over the day. Focusing on my emotions has reminded me of  the wonderful Disney Pixar film Inside Out. Some days, I really do feel that there is an internal battle between my emotions for dominance. Sadness and Joy are in a constant struggle to try and win out. But there are so many other feelings not covered by the stagnant 5 of Inside Out.
And to fully help me accept my feelings, I find it really important to find just the right words that describe exactly how I feel each day. So inspired by the characters of Inside Out I have developed a Periodic Table of Emotions.


One day I went to write in my recovery journal about how I was feeling, and I was stuck. I just couldn't think of the right word to convey my hurt and pain. So I googled some alternatives that might fit my mood. With depression, it isn't always easy to know how you feel at a particular moment in time. I often use words like 'numb' when I refuse to explore and choose to ignore my feelings. I stay 'numb' because I don't want to process all of the feelings.

Press Pause

Have you ever tried to do nothing?

I am one of those people who likes to keep busy. In some ways, it's a coping mechanism; a distraction from my worries and pain (see Spinning-my-wheels). In others, having so much to do gives me a sense of pride. My self-worth is valued based on my volunteer, ambassador and teaching roles. Not to mention my job and, dare I say it, career. But sometimes I do feel too busy. I find myself stressed and anxious, and rushing. It can be hard for anyone to find time for themselves in this day and age. Every week, I try to have one evening free for myself, but when teaching evening classes and balancing two jobs, that isn't always possible.

That’s why I’m pressing pause. I need 'me time' every day; not just one night a week.

It’s time to sit back and do nothing. Except, doing nothing isn't really doing nothing. Doing nothing is time to take a break; have down time; unwind; and refocus.

On the importance of learning to be idle, I really liked the following quote:

"The more you practice, the easier it becomes to enjoy the benefits of a calm, focused mind." - Patricia Macnair and Ilona Boniwell, 'Change your life one day at a time'

One way to spend your pause time is in meditation.

Check-in: A Mental Health Update

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written a specific update on my mental health. Having been caught up in my monthly resolutions, an update didn’t seem to fit in with the themes. But this is Don’t Rush month, and pausing to reflect is precisely what this resolution is all about.

As I type this I am slowly recovering from a case of the summer cold. Mysterious in ways like the man-flu, the summer cold is one of those lesser spotted juxtapositions of life. My chesty cough and sore throat came at precisely the moment when the weather was spectacular and I had plans to make the most of the outdoors. Typical.

How I spent my Sunday

I spent the weekend indoors, away from the sun, hoping to heal. I hate being unproductive but illness rendered me so and there was nothing I could do but accept that fact. Unusually for me, my mood was not altered by my lack of productivity. Normally that becomes a trigger for me – the need to keep going, to keep busy, to constantly create, motivates me to the point of burnout.

In fact, apart from some mild anxiety last Friday, May has been a month of positive mental health. My moods have not altered dramatically; steadily tracked in my daily mood tracker to be in and around the same level each day.  I actually sat down to write this update and thought, ‘what’s the point? My mental health has been boring all month?’ Boring because it’s actually been going well.