Prompt 12

What is "I"?

I am behind the eye that seeks perfection.

I is the inner self while the eye looks out to the world.

I love country music, eye hates the country.

I like my blackberry, eye hates the glare from the screen.

I hate flying, eye loves new unfamiliar places.

I am bad at writing poems, eye likes reading poems.

I should be made up of the dynamic duo of

I and eye.

Prompt 11

Behavioral Samskaras

• I listen to country music whenever I am in a bad mood.
• I depend on coffee to wake me up
• I where the same rings every day, and if they aren't there I start to get fidgety.
• I set my pillows up the same way every night.
• I have my phone with me basically everywhere I go.
• I am very impatient

Thought Samskaras

• I am hungry
• I won't succeed
• I can't live up to peoples expectations
• COLLEGE
• I could of worked harder

Prompt 10

Indonesia compares to India because she finally starts to let go of everything that was tying her down from being "free". Spiritually she is in a more stable place from learning different forms of meditation from India and Indonesia. On page 314 Liz has a conversation with Ketut and he asks her:

"You still meditate with your four brothers like I teach you?"

"Yes"

"You still meditate like your Guru in India teach you?"

"Yes"

"You have bad dreams anymore?"

"No"

"You happy now with God"..."Yes". This finally shows that she learned something and took long strides from her first, long tedious days of meditating. Emotionally I think that Felipe helps her find love again. After having two bad relationships it was a breath of fresh air for her to find a man that wont leave her and has a different kind of vision of love. He compares it to the love for his kids. Psychologically she has taken leaps and bounds because she is able to keep her head centered in one place. There are not as many conversations that Liz has between herself and her mind which was one of the examples of her literary techniques that she uses when trying to show instability. The writing is more positive I feel like, and she doesn't complain half as much as she did in India and Italy. There is never a point in time where you can't grow more. "Yes- Grow! Change! Evolve!" says Felipe.

Prompt 9

I really liked the part on page 246 where Ketut wife says " I could feel her love pulsing through her power grip, right up into my arm and all the way down into my guts. Then she dropped my hand and limped away arthritically, saying not a single word, continuing her sweeping as though nothing had happened. While I stood there quietly drowning in two rivers of happiness at the same time."I like this because there are times when you can sense the love and feelings that two people feel for each other just by a touch of a hand. When he talks he talks about how the last time Liz visited Indonesia she looked old, stressed, and ugly and how now that she has dealt with the divorce and trying to move on with her life and live more in the present, she looks pretty and young. This seemed like words of a yogic/ medicine doctor.

Prompt 8

Richard is trying to tell Elizabeth Gilbert the stop thinking about her negative thoughts and just focus on the positive. He believes that you can pick and choose what goes through your mind. I think that this means she can have a mantra that will tame her mind in a way to stop thinking about outside thoughts that can lead her back to her unhappy days. I tend to have a mind that is all over the place and thinking about many different things at one point in time. To control my thoughts it might be a good idea for me to focus deeply into the one thing that I am doing in the present, and not think about everything else that needs to be done. Maybe having my own personal saying such as "Emily focus" could work. But honestly I feel like this wouldn't work because if I tell myself to not think of something, I know I will. Doing/ thinking what your not supposed to be thinking about makes it more appealing to think that thing. It is like that mind game where you aren't suppose to think of something then your brain automatically thinks of what your not suppose to be thinking about.

Honors Prompt 3

In most of the books that I have read in and out of school, not many of them use conversation between the writer and the writers mind. I really liked this technique that Elizabeth Gilbert uses because it helps the reader be able to go more in depth and understand how the reader is feeling. For example on page 148 she says "I'm right here. It's OK. I love you. I ill never leave you...". We know from this that Gilbert needs the reassurance of her mind to help her get through certain hurtles in her life. Gilbert also uses a lot of metaphors and similes which I liked because it really changes up the sentence structure. In the future I feel like this all will help my writing be more descriptive than it was in the past. Descriptive writing helps the reader stay more engaged in the story line. Another technique is show not tell, Gilbert doesn't always use this, but instead of flat out saying what she is feeling she uses other literary devices to let us know what is going on.

Prompt 7

Last day of sophomore year was so exciting. I had just completed my first year at a new school and I was looking forward to spending a summer with my new friends. After a couple days of doing nothing but lying by a pool my mom reminded me that it was time to pack for the National Young Leader Conference. I had been invited to this conference during the winter and it seemed like a good way to immerse myself in a environment that I didn't know much about. Politics, history, and debate have never been very interesting to me/ I didn't know much about. This conference in Washington D.C. seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about topics I did not really know much about. About 300 teens from all over the United States gathered in D.C. for 2 weeks for this amazing opportunity. Upon my arrival I was in complete shock and saw about 299 unfamiliar faces. We broke into our Leadership Groups which consisted for about 15 students. I felt like my mouth was glued shut and it was unable to open because I just felt like I could not carry conversation with any of these other teens. I immediately started comparing myself to the others and felt like I was not as smart as them, not as well rounded, and overall just not as "good" as them. I finished my first 3 days in D.C. in my bed hysterically crying wishing to go home, go to the Vineyard with my family, sleep in my own bed, the list went on and on. One morning I had called a friend from home and she told me to think about where I was, the opportunity I had in front of me, the information I could learn, and how I was acting bratty about the whole situation. I finally gave this conference a chance and took everything in a could in my remaining 10 days. I spoke up in all of the discussions and gave my input, I made friends from states I never thought people lived in, and learned so much from every experience I was offered. Coming from Newton, MA, having a private school education, I never realized that my mind was contained by a bubble in a way. All the people I met in D.C. gave me different prospectives on life and how fortunate I am. Next time I am in a situation like this, I know to embrace it from the start. My one regret about this was being so close minded the first four days of the conference.

Prompt 6

I like this definition of a soul mate. In todays society everybody thinks that your "soul mate" is the person that you are going to be with for your whole life. This section of the book gives Elizabeth a reality check and that everyones life isn't picture perfect and every girl can't walk away with a happily ever after. I personally do not know if I have had any soul mates that have entered my life. But I have learned something different from every person that I have gotten to know. Life would be boring and pointless if you never faced disappointment or if you weren't faced with challenges. People entering and leaving your life I think does happen for a reason because each individual has something to share and knowledge to be spread. When friends/ soul mates come into your life they can some times see beneath the surface of certain things that you don't see yourself. Those people are there to tell you the truth and be there as a "mirror" like Richard says. They can act as a conscience, help lead you down a better path, or teach you certain lessons you wouldn't learn on your own from their life experiences.

Prompt 5

Yoga today was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Starting out with the downward dog kinda hurt my arms but I felt a good stretch in my calves. When all the blood rushed to my head it made me start to feel dizzy but that slowly faded away as we transitioned into other poses. I liked the lunge like pose when you put your arm in a triangle around your hip area. I liked the tree pose at the end. I love trying to balance and focus all my thoughts on one motionless area of the room and try to stand as still as possible. Once the yoga session was over and we laid on the ground for the last three minutes, this was the first time that I was able to focus on my breathing, and just my breathing. I forgot about everything that was going on outside of the classroom and felt everything relax and refocus.

Honors Prompt 2

Right as I wrapped the blanket around my stomach I closed my eyes like every other time we started to meditate. Like usual I felt my body have random twitches starting at my hand then move slowly towards my toes. I am normally kind of an antsy person so it is very hard for me to sit down in silence and just focus on my breathing. Towards the end I was slowly able to feel my body sink into the ground and let my stressful thoughts slowly drift in and out of my mind. After the restorative yoga I felt very tired. There wasn't a very noticeable change in my mood or my fatigue. But my focus was better. I was able to listen to everything that our soccer coach said during that afternoons practice.

Honors Prompt 1

On page 64 the first paragraph I really liked. Liz is talking about the lunch that she had made for her self. Something about the description of the food and the way that it ties back to Italy and where she is this time in her life. I can picture what the plate looked liked. I picture it on a not very sturdy plate but filled with so much food that she has to work to keep everything centered. She says "Happiness inhabited my every molecule". I loved this line it made me think back to a time or a place where I was so happy that nothing else could faze my mind. I can so vividly picture her sitting there on the floor in a studio apartment eating lonesomely. The comfort food that my mom makes those cold winter nights will always make me happy when I place that empty dish in the sink.

Prompt 4

The plane starts to move and I begin my normal ritual. I close my eyes as tight as possible, wrap my arms around the person next to me, and whisper songs under my breath.

Me: I’m going to close my eyes and whisper at the start of take off to center myself.

Mind: No, open your eyes and watch the view it will be soothing.

Me: Shut up, I don’t like seeing us leave the ground. I’m closing my eyes to think of something safe and comforting.

Mind: Think of a hot tropical island!

Me: No, that reminds me of the ocean and ocean speaks to me like an terrifying mass of nothing.

Mind: Think of a nice infinity pool!

Me: NO! Planes can crash in the water, you always hear of private planes crashing in water.

Mind: Fine, think about the amazing place that will be at your feet when the plane touches the ground once again.

Me: Florida? That has water? A beach? That doesn’t help the planes crashing in water image. Let me be so I can close my eyes and sing my happy song.

Mind: That’s it! Peace! Think of the song, you know about world peace!

Me: Not world peace. I want my body to be in peace. Please leave me alone.

Mind: Fine we will just leave the plane.

Me: Hello? You still there? Good… (Start whispering song).

Prompt 3

In the morning I never really feel stressed or worked up so it was a little more difficult to feel a difference from this mornings meditation. When lying on my back I felt my body kind of sink into the ground, which probably meant that I was becoming more relaxed and loosening my muscles. It was also a little difficult to make sure that my breaths were equal lengths while breathing in and out because I don't really have a normal breathing length. The lifting my abs up and lengthening my spine I am slowly starting to get but I tend to forget to breath when I am trying to pay attention to other things with my body.

Prompt 2

So far I have enjoyed Wat, Pray, Love. I have heard great things about this book so I was really looking forward to reading this book. I have not seen the movie either. I have never been to Italy so I have really liked the first part of the book and hearing about the food that she eats and her personal thoughts about being alone and taking such a life changing trip. Her love for food and eating anything reminds me of myself. I find it amusing when she talks to herself and uses her conscience to help us feel what she is feeling.

My favorite quote of the book so far is: page 27 "You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that its like you have four legs, instead of two. That way you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head you must look through your heart instead."

Prompt 1

I hope after this class I can gain more knowledge about yoga and meditation. The books that we are reading this year sound like they will be interesting and have a lot of information to learn from.