Module #3 - “MONOLOGUES“ - Spring 2021

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Welcome to the Module 03 "Monologues" thread! Consider what you've written down from your brainstorm in the Meditation portion of our exercises. What jumps out at you that's wanting to be explored a little more deeply? Come up with a topic based around these meditations and write an essay about your personal perspective on the matter ("Scroll-and-a-Half" / 150 words). This could be a single aspect or multiple elements from your list. In addition to sending in via e-mail, if you feel like sharing with your peers go ahead and post here with or without including your "Meditation" and/or "Mindfulness" responses added in together. This is voluntary and will not effect your points one way or another, however it will add to our community vibe and could stir up conversation for any "Mingling" points you may wish to accrue as Extra Credit.

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

Meditation
With my third time responding to this prompt, I know the drill: back to the Muggle heating box for five minutes of relaxation.
-As I get to the box I notice a slight, but persistent pain in my abdomen.
-I feel a strong urge to lower my upper body to the horizontal, a position I keep for nearly the whole time (except for brief bits when my upper body is purely vertical).
-I then feel numbness and weirdness in my feet, followed by comforting warmth in my arms: each arm is cradled in the opposite hand.
-Heat feels comforting throughout my upper body, but my lower legs - just below the power of the heating box, remain uncomfortably cold.

Monologue
The clearest tie between my meditation and the month's lesson/topic is posture. While I normally don't have too much of a problem maintaining a good seated posture, I felt a strong pull away from any sort of working posture during the meditation: a horizontal upper body is the opposite of a reasonable seated posture! I don't think my posture suggests any sense of being "weak" or "no good" as much as "I don't have the energy right now to maintain a decent posture at the moment; I'll need to relax and recuperate before I can change that."

On the other hand, two lessons ago I explained exactly why meditation was always hard for me: it put me too much in tune with physical pains that are not comfortable in their rawest forms. As such, doing these meditations at all is definitely a form of courage as reflected in this lesson: a specific 'new' thing that I am willing to try in order to help me grow and better understand myself.

But to be honest? The most courageous part of these reflections is probably the fact that I'm writing them out: sharing them not only with my instructor, class assistant, and classmates... but also with myself. Reporting my reflections from meditation as they are is a form of courage that makes it easier to understand where I currently stand on this whole meditation journey!

Mindfulness
In general, I feel that courage is fairly balanced in my life: the ways I'm working through my personal difficulties match with a sense of trying new roles; that said, often it's useful for me to project a specific type of image to acheive other goals - and knowing when this image is needed may sometimes look like "fear of embarrassment" from a distance. One last thing: for reasons unrelated to courage, I sometimes have a hard time with physical posture: standing up straight for more than a few minutes at a time can be exhausting. But I know enough about myself that I'm seeking various solutions to that problem as well - both medical and therapeutic! I think that courage, along with my other powers, can become more in balance when my external image is a better match for how I feel internally.

[Carrie Warts]

For this meditation, I decided to use Binaural beats which I use when I connect with my spirit guides.
I decided to use them because I believed that I needed some assistance for this months' lesson. Courage is something I don't tend to think about too much for I never quite understood the difference between courage and bravery and other synonyms.
Thanks to my meditation I could go back in my life and remember the times I've been courageous and I have to admit I was quite proud of myself. All those times I didn't know the strength, value, decision, and passion I had for certain things.
I've always been very playful, imaginative, goofy, and overall quite childish sometimes but that doesn't take away my seriousness, my determination, my focus, and my calmed side. I've always embraced my inner child and let it play as much as I want but I was almost always embarrassed by it until one day when I was goofing around with my parents at a mall and they looked at me and said: 'never lose that innocence and spark in you for it is what makes you unique.' After that I stopped caring for what other people thought and said about me, I was going to be myself because I loved myself.