Bringing Awareness to Consumption: Results Part II

On another day I found that I was very focused on singular tasks at hand following a restless night of both my husband and baby being ill. The desire to take care of them focused my attention. Likewise, the days that I am most busy are the days I seem to manage my time the best. My thoughts narrow to mirror the checklist approach of my day, addressing one item at a time.

The accumulation of things seemed to ebb and flow. I was consistent with justifying the periods of purchasing. While I didn’t need to buy or accept certain items that were given to me, there were always more reasons to have the items than not to. So I found my list of criteria to be pretty ineffectual since I could find a way to apply pretty much anything to at least one of those bullet points.

The sadhana practice for training my mind to focus did show some progress. During the first few days of meditation my mind was all over the place. My thoughts were racing. But over time I did find brief moments of stillness. My brain was more cooperative with the pranayama since that gave it an actual task to focus on. I also believe that the meditation and pranayama began to bring emotions up to the surface that initially made my mind more cluttered. But once I was forced to work through the issues, there was a noticeable improvement in quietness and focus.