Opening Blog

Welcome to Francis' Blog.

I'm starting this blog with really no idea about what exactly I'm going to say. Well... that's not strictly true.

I do have something to say about a variety of different things, but I'm wondering whether or not I should restrict my thoughts to a few important things that are work related... but nah, I think I'll just let the mind meander. If nothing else, it will be something interesting for my (one day) kids to read!

I invented something interesting the other day -- a "breadbox" meditation.

In my mind I form something looking like a breadbox at the start of the meditation, and then I allow the thoughts to be contained in the breadbox, which happens to be translucent.

Because it's "see-through," I can see the thoughts as they pass through the box, bouncing around inside. Any new thought that comes up is bounced around inside the box. Thoughts don't leave the box.

I'm bigger than the box, much bigger, but sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking that I AM the box, which can be deadly to how I feel at the moment.

Inside the box sometimes I imagine a little "thought generator" that is just creating more and more thoughts, pushing them out into the space of the breadbox. It runs on automatic, and I have no power to stop it from going. All I can do is observe it endlessly creating thought after thought, many of which have some start in a fearful feeling.

I think I'll call it the "BreadBox Exercise" for my training.