Random Walk Newsletter, Issue 24#
Observations & Insights#
About Mindfulness Meditation
I tried mindfulness meditation before, but I didn't stick with it. My initial goal was to reduce my wandering thoughts, but controlling my thoughts wasn't as easy as I thought.
Recently, I started thinking about trying meditation again because my sleep quality has been very poor this week. During the day, my eyes feel very uncomfortable, and I don't know if it's related to my sleep. Today at noon, I couldn't bear it anymore and downloaded several recommended meditation apps online. I tried them all and ended up with "nice day." Listening to it at noon, it was actually the best sleep I've had in these few days. Then I saw that there were some promotions recently, so without hesitation, I bought a membership, hoping to have more time to practice in the future.
Recently, I also came across a statement about meditation that I found quite reasonable. Let me share it: "Another interpretation of mindfulness is that it's not about trying to empty your mind and not think about anything. That's very difficult, as it's basically impossible to control your thoughts. So, what should we do? Let's try a different approach. Mindfulness is about opening up, not just focusing on negative things. It's about opening ourselves up to see everything, like the sunlight and the breeze outside the window. We can see sadness, but we can also see beauty."
When we encounter difficulties and can't get out of them, we often only see the negative side. At this time, instead of trying not to think about these negative things, we should acknowledge the negative thoughts and also see the positive side.
There's a passage from Wei Chen's newsletter that mentions a similar viewpoint:
When our minds are filled with worries, it's easy to overlook the presence of beauty. The key issue is not that good things don't happen, but that we fail to notice them. The practice of gratitude is an active reminder and a process of taming ourselves.
When something happens that ruins someone's mood for the whole day, but you can let it go after ten minutes, it's like having superpowers.
Three Forms, Six Forces, Mind Already Eight, Unintentional is Ten
This sentence was said by Yu Hewei during the second season of the comedy competition. It was originally used to describe performances, but after hearing it, I felt that it was suitable for explaining many things. The most comfortable state for others to see is naturalness. How can we achieve naturalness? By being unintentional.
Audiobooks & Books#
Last week, I worked at the company for a week and didn't listen to audiobooks or read books. This week, I read two audiobooks. One is "I Am the Gatekeeper of the Forbidden City," and the other is "The Neuroscience of Writing." Both books were mediocre, and there isn't much content worth sharing with everyone.
I don't want to just fill the space, so this section will be left blank this week.
That's all for this issue of the newsletter. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Thank you for reading.