Wholesome habit #1: A Day of Rest

Since deciding on Wholesome as my 2012 word of the year, I was wondering about how I might return to that word regularly, to keep it in mind and keep the motivation behind it going. I thought of a series of 12 habits, one to focus on each month (or rather build upon the previous month). January's habit is having a day of rest. At the moment my day of rest will be Sundays. I attend Dharma Teachings in the mornings and the rest of the day will be devoted to doing not much other than pondering the teachings of the day, catching up on correspondence, reading, resting, and generally avoiding electronics. I'll write and schedule any blog posts (I signed up for January's NaBloPoMo... call me crazy), avoid my computer and television entirely and keep cell phone use to a minimum.* The idea is to unplug and limit the amount of stuff, of information, of fluff, that finds its way into my mind even for just one day. I chose Sunday because it's a day that I need to get up and get going to make it to teachings. If I chose Saturday or some other day off, I'd be quick to sleep too late and lose my motivation to stay tv- and computer-free. I'd skip breakfast and overdo it for lunch, then feel crappy the rest of the day, popping pills to try to feel better again. I know this because I know myself to be a lazy cretin. So Sunday is a wiser choice. Sunday posts during January will be devoted to chronicling my attempt at keeping this quasi-Sabbath and about what I learn from "unplugging."

So why didn't I start today, you ask? Because I didn't think of this "wholesome habit" idea until almost 8:00 p.m.! We'll give it a go next week, ok?


*My husband is often on the road so I'm "on call" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for his calls.