meditative implement changeup

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Update/202204121627: Making an effort to reincorporate meditation back into my day. Trying one round when I first wake up, and then a second NOT in the evening as I used to do, but it the middle of the afternoon, as it tends to be the time that the dangerous drift starts. No clue if I’ll stick with it, but it’s something to try, as I do recognize the anchoring value contained therein. Journaling/running/yoga routine stays the same.

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Ended my 20-year meditation practice near the end of last year after finally admitting that I needed something else – another tool, sertraline – and that it, meditation, wasn't doing the job anymore.

(That being said, I'll echo something Rick Rubin said to Marc Maron, that while he, at the time, had stopped meditating after doing so since he was 14, it remained a tool that he always had should it be needed; right now, it's a tool I don't need, or, rather, would like to try to accomplish the same job without it (though I do use the occasional pause and three deep breaths to re-center myself when I feel myself going off-kilter or in danger of slipping into an invasive thoughtloop.)

Other than meds, the current replacements are running and yoga, less sedentary pursuits which I've been doing for more than a decade anyhow – only I now approach the former as a kinhin / walking meditation practice – and, most importantly, journaling more frequently (at least twice daily, morning and evening) on a regular schedule: though I've scribbled daily illegibilities in a journal every morning for even longer than I've done either running or yoga, I've now embraced it as an at-least twice-daily anchor, a free-form replacement for a sitting meditation practice.

For the time being, it's proving to be a far more beneficial path to "letting go" and anchoring myself in the present. Should that change, I’ll roll with it.

M:I rewatch collations

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Wrapped up our rewatch of the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE films last night and wanted to record a few quick impressions, if only for myself:

  • FALLOUT is by far my favorite of the series. Were they going for the Tom Cruise running scene to end all Tom Cruise running scenes? If so, they achieved it.

  • Henry Cavill needs to play a villain more often. A hook-headed, face-melted mustachioed return would not be unwelcome.

  • I appreciated the M:I II rock-climbing callback, minus the Woo-doves and Limp Bizkit.

  • Even though we rewatched ROGUE NATION a few weeks ago, I still don't remember anything – save it being Rebecca Ferguson's debut in the franchise – about ROGUE NATION. Was that the one where he jumped on the plane?

  • I still have a soft spot for M:I III. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a spectacular villain and the addition of Michelle Monaghan’s Julia added much-needed personal stakes and tragedy to the entire series.

  • I wish that Renner had been given more to do, a failed attempt at legacy, like BOURNE LEGACY.

  • I also wish that Brad Bird had directed more than one film in the franchise - though Christopher McQuarrie's ongoing spin on it has been truly spectacular.

  • Since 7-8 are supposed to be the swan songs for Cruise's Ethan Hunt, maybe 8 could be the LOGAN / DARK KNIGHT / NO TIME TO DIE for the character, a future-set thing. I don't know, given that Hunt seems to come back into the fold in every installment anyhow. Might be neat, given that, by the time 8 arrives, Cruise will have played the same character for almost 30 years – I can't think of another actor who has done the same (though one could argue that Chaplin played The Tramp for the entirety of his career).

  • Rebecca Ferguson should take over the franchise for any installments following 8.

Should anything else spring to mind, I'll add it here.