Week 3, Day 1

For the mind:
I perused the Sunday Democrat & Chronicle, dipped into a couple of books and watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica, Season 1. The mind needs entertainment as well as enlightenment.

For the body:
I walked on the treadmill for 30 mnutes. It's surprising how fast the time goes when I'm watching Grease and listening to the musical soundtrack. I tried to take Zeke for a walk, but it's most decidedly not an aerobic one. We have to stop every few feet and snuff where the rabbits, chipmunks, grey squirels and woodchuck have been. I also did my 7 minutes of flexibility exercise. I managed to find my pedometer and clipped it on first thing in the morning. Looking at it as of this moment I have walked 7,221 stepsn today, (including the treadmill).

For the spirit:
I downloaded the 20 minute meditation timer from Insight Meditation Center and sat for 20 minutes between my cat, Zak, and my dog, Zeke.

Week 2, Day 5

For the body:

• 30 minutes of aerobics on the treadmill (2 mph)
• 10 minutes of strength exercises
• 10 minutes of flexibility exercises

For the mind:

• I learned that today was Julius Caesar's birthday (a factoid, I know)
• I plan on grabbing Beyond AI for a few more chapters before falling asleep.

For the spirit:

• 20 mintues of mindfulness meditation

Week 2, Day 4

For the mind:
I found some time to read Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac today and found the following entry:

It's the birthday of the literary critic and teacher Harold Bloom..., born in New York City (1930) to Jewish immigrants. His first language was Yiddish, and he started reading poetry in English before he'd ever heard English spoken. He didn't do well in high school but took the statewide Regents exams, got the highest score in the state, and that won him a scholarship to Cornell.

He went on to study literature at Yale in the 1950s at a time when there was a dress code. The students wore jackets and ties. Harold Bloom wore an old Russian leather coat and a pair of fisherman's trousers. He became famous at Yale for his great love of poetry. He memorized everything that he read. He could recite enormous, long poems.

As a professor at Yale and as a critic, Bloom has moved further and further away from the mainstream of literary criticism in this country. Most other critics look at literature as a product of history, politics, and society. Whereas Harold Bloom is one of the last who believes that great literature is a product of pure genius, and who believes that we should read not to learn about history or politics but to learn about the human soul.

In the last few years, he's begun writing books for general readers, believing that scholars have forgotten how to read for pleasure, and many of his recent books have become best-sellers, including Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human and How to Read and Why and Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds.

Now, I took a mandatory course in college entitled "Literary Criticism" that was the most deadly dull, excruciating exercise in futility that I can remember from my entire four years. To read that Professor Bloom had a completely different view of literary criticism, "...to learn about the human soul..." sparked enough interest in me to go online to the Pioneer Libary System and request his book, How to Read and Why. More to follow...

For the body:
Today is a rest day as the Solutions for Wellness exercise program slowly builds up over the next twelve weeks. Moderation in all things, I tell myself. And, indeed, my muscles were a bit sore from the strength training.

For the spirit:
After I post this, I'm going to set my meditation timer widget for twenty minutes and sit on my futon between Zeke, the basset, and Zak, the cat, and attempt to follow my breath. Wish me luck!

Week 2, Day 2

(Side note: for some reason Blogger is giving me fits tonight. Safari can't access it at all and Firefox isn't allowing me to edit with ease.)

For the body:
I thought I needed to do 30 minutes of aerobics today, so, after cleaning up the basement exercise area to make it more conducive to actually exercising there, I jumped on the treadmill for 15 minutes. Again, figuring an hour's worth of heavy duty cleaning should count for something aerobic.

Later tonight I actually looked at the Solutions for Wellness exercise guide and discovered today wasn't 30 minutes of aerobics, but 10 minutes of strength exercises! So, after the PBS newshour I scooted back down cellar to my husband's old weight bench, grabbed my trusty 2.5 pound weights and got to work.

For the spirit:
I managed to escape both the dog and the cat and make it upstairs unseen to sit on my meditation cushion for 20 minutes.

For the mind:
This is always the easiest part for me. I can always find something to do to expand my mental capabilities. Today it was listening to Beethoven's First Symphony and I'll probably finish off the day by picking up J. Storrs Hall's book, Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine.