What Have I Been Up To?

What Have I Been Up To?

Well, I definitely have been a bit lapse with my posting, it's been over a year since my last post. So, what have I been up to? It has been a busy 13 months - 1/2 marathons, new house, Butlins, new baby, new car, Buddhism and fatigue.

Cardiff 1/2 Marathon, October 2011

Well, as mentioned back in June I was training for Cardiff 1/2 marathon which I did enter and finished, not in my time of 1 hour 30 minutes but in respectable 1 hour, 44 minutes and 54 seconds. I adjusted my target time as my training wasn't going the best so I just simply went out running for the enjoyment of running. Even so, I set a target of 1:45 which I just ducked inside so I am very happy with that.

Unfortunately, after the race my training stopped as my tiredness and fatigue started to take hold of me again (more about that later). So, as a result I haven't been out running since.

Buying a house

Another huge change in my life is that me and Bernadette have finally stopped renting and bought our own home. It's only taken my 41 years, but I have finally got a mortgage and I am a home owner. We bought a house in the heart of Barry, Wales and moved into the house back in February, 2012. The move from Penarth to Barry went relatively smoothly, I hired a van for 3 days and moved the furniture ourselves. I quite enjoyed being White Van Man for that time, was a bit said to give the van back.

Butlins, another baby and new car

After the move, to give ourselves a nice break, we went back to Butlins in Bognor Regis for a weeks holiday and Robert has been really looking forward to going back there. That's all he had been going on about for the past year. So, we went the week after Easter and, although the weather wasn't the best, we still had a wonderful time.

It was towards the end of the holiday that Bernadette suspected that she might be pregnant, so when we got home we made a quick visit to Boots to get the 'kit' and it confirmed she was pregnant. I wasn't too sure at the time if I wanted to be a dad again, but over past few weeks I have grown to accept it and it might be quite nice to bring up a new baby again. We've been for the first scan, everything is fine and the baby is due 13 December, 2012. The first trimester wasn't the best as Bernadette was very bad morning-noon-and-night sickness, as well as dizziness and tiredness. As a result I had to look after Robert, drop him off and pick him up from school. This didn't help my tiredness, and did effect my work a bit.

Bernadette is now feeling better so things have returned to normal, where she is taking Rob to and from school and I'm catching the train into work. We have also traded in our rusty old Corsa for a bigger Renault Scenic to accommodate the second child seat an excess baby luggage.

Buddhism and my spiritual progress

To get back to what this blog is about, my spiritual progress. Since my move to Barry and I have found it more difficult to get to the Cardiff Sri Chinmoy centre for my meditation. I started to realise that the path I was taking was not working for me and I was feeling it more a hindrance. My meditation had all but stopped and I stopped enjoying my time again, reverting back to how I felt before I started the mindfulness course with Vicki. The ideologies taught by Sri Chinmoy are wonderful and I don't regret for one instance following his teachings and the path. I will even take a lot of what he said with me on my future path.

But I have come to the conclusion that it is the Buddhist path I want to follow and, as such, I've started to meditate every Wednesday at the Barry Meditation Centre which is only a mile down the road from where I live. I have also attend my first Puja  the 24 June at the Cardiff Buddhist Centre which was an amazing experience. I am now back to studying Buddhism and meditating mindfully, and I'm slowly returning to the path of my Journey to Enlightenment.

Fatigue and Acupuncture

One final point, not a good one, is that, as mentioned earlier, my fatigue and tiredness has returned. I have not been out running since last year and all I want to do at the weekends is stay in bed. I'm starting to have difficulty sleeping at night and enjoying my time with my wife and son. As a result, I have started another course of acupuncture with Chinese lady at a place in Bridgend. I have only had 2 treatments, so it's still early days so I'm going to wait and see what happens.

I am determined to either overcome, or even learn to live with my fatigue without a visit to the doctors, although I might arrange an appointment with them just to give myself an M.O.T. and make sure there is nothing more seriously wrong with me. To do this, I am starting to meditate at least once a day, eat healthily and get to bed early. I am keeping a record of everything I do in a private blog, so I'll keep you all informed how I progress in this blog.

That's all folks!

Well, that's a brief summary what I have been up to, when I get the chance again I'll post more. I'll also try a post some more positive messages as well.

om mani padme hum
peace, love and happiness

I'm back. Doctors, acupuncture, becoming a disciple and house buying

I have been a bit lapse with updating my blog lately, by now I'm going to try and update at least once a week,  more often if something of significance happens in my life. But just to bring you up to since my last blog Thoughts in December, my life has taken a new step and changed for the better.

It was a long hard winter, problems with the car, the weather was very cold with lots of snow and short, dull days that did not help with my mental well-being and achieving happiness. Also I have also been having trouble with people close to me, accepting who I am and not just simply trying to cause arguments and misunderstanding my intentions. Also, we couldn't get to North Wales to spend Christmas with my parent-in-laws as the car was not working (dead battery) due the cold weather and the weather was to bad to travel anyway. This upset my wife as we were both  really looking forward to spending Christmas with here parents.

I've been continuing with my meditation and that did help me get through January and I was beginning to feel happier with myself, although I was still feeling very tired at the weekends and not getting much sleep at night. Been back and forth to the doctors about this and all she has been doing is prescribing me one anti-depressant tablet after another, she thinks that I must be depressed, although I don't think I am. Having taken them for almost 3 months with no results, I have stopped as I have started on a course of acupuncture with the Chinese herbalist in Penarth. I shall write more about this in a future blog, but needless to say I think it is working as my sleep, although not that long, is improving and I'm feeling better in the morning. I'm going to the docs on Wednesday and I'm going to tell her once and for all that I no longer need to take any of her drugs.

One other change in my life, and one I will never regret, is that on the 7 February, 2011 I officially become a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. This involves meditating at the Sri Chinmoy centre in Cardiff every Wednesday and Sunday evening at 7.30pm as well as my daily meditations at home. I have also been to a couple of Joy days at the centre in London, more about these in a future blog. But what an wonderful experience I'm having and all the other disciples are such an amazing, happy group of people. As a result of this I have never been happier or more contented with my life. I think this is what I have been looking for.

I've also been on holiday with my wife, son and parents to Butlins in Bognor Regis which was very fun for all of us and, most importantly, brought me closer to my mum and dad. After the holiday they now fully accept I'm a vegetarian and that I don't drink alcohol. Also, more recently, they have begun accepting the fact that I meditate, but I've still yet to tell them I'm now a disciple. I'm might write more about this in yet another post.

I'm also in the process of finally buying a house after renting all these years. Mortgage all sorted just got to wait for contracts to be exchanged. So this is an exciting and busy time for me, but I'm not feeling stressed about it all, thanks to my meditation. I'll blog more about this as it happens.

All in all, since February, this year has been a very good year and I have never felt  happier or more contented with my life. There are some major changes going on in my life, but it is all very exciting and I'm  positive about everything that is happening.

Well that's it for the moment. Peace, love and happiness to you (the reader) and everyone.