[OWLS] Mindfulness: Moving Towards New Goals

If we don’t take care of our minds and souls, we will always be in pain.

For the past few months, things have been pretty hectic. Everyone’s lives have changed to some degree, and we can’t help but feel anxious, nervous, and overwhelmed. This month we will be focusing on ourselves and keeping a strong peace of mind with our theme, “Mindfulness.” We will be analyzing characters that have crafted and practiced their own philosophy on life and have spread their beliefs to others. We will also be talking about habits, hobbies, and things that are keeping us sane, positive, and peace within our souls.

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I used to have a friend – a friend I’ve mentioned countless times before when talking about my personal life and I will probably forever credit them for being my gateway into the anime fandom – and one day they introduced me to conventions. I was FASCINATED with this new anime world where people would dress up as their favorite characters, where I could buy weeb content to my heart’s content, and where I could meet the voices behind the anime characters I loved. I was in love and made it my weeb mission to visit as many conventions as possible…once I turned eighteen and could travel without supervision; however, before this could happen, my friend let me know it was time for them to leave the scene

They just said it was time to move onto other interests and to an extent, this is where our friendship “ended”. Anime was that one thing that always kept the conversations going between us, especially after I moved, and with them “moving on”, well, what would we even have to talk to each other about? But more importantly, HOW could they even “move on” from something like anime?! It just seemed so surreal to me. Anime was my foundation at the time and continued to be that for many years

I told myself I’d never understand this feeling. After all, there’s just so much anime out there that I’m sure I’d never get bored of it!

To an extent, I think that’s what is happening to me now and I can’t help but find it hilarious that I understand (potentially) what my friend was trying to say when she told me that

This has been something I’ve been postponing for months now, similar to how it took me about six months to finally decide to cut my hair, but it’s time to just go for it regardless of how much nostalgia or lingering feelings I may have. This will be my last OWLS post and I am, to an extent, kicking myself off the anime blogosphere. Technically, since I’m still writing about anime I’m still an anime blogger but I have to be honest and admit that it’s been months since I last felt like I was an anime blogger

It’s not that I’ve come to dislike or even become bored of anime but it’s more like a combination of needing a change of pace and needing to focus more on myself on a personal level. Naja also talked about some other things that have been on my mind during this whole tug-of-war process

While many people I know have expressed a lot of hate for the COVID-19 quarantine, and to an extent I agree with this sentiment, I also found it extremely helpful. It’s not often that we can just sit back and “relax” if you were one of those lucky non-essential workers and weren’t anxiously trying to figure out how you were going to survive the week so I took advantage of this time and did some self-reflecting. Or, to tie it to this month’s tour, I decided that some mindful contemplation was necessary

I asked myself many questions and I think that because I was in a “crisis”, I was able to really sit down and just think. I asked myself how I was feeling, if I was happy, why I wasn’t, what I could do to change things, if I was proud of who I was, and again, if I wasn’t, what could I do to change this. I asked myself what I was hoping for in the future. I wasn’t sitting down to plan the rest of my life but I made a bit of a bucket list of things I wanted to try doing so that the next time I did some self-reflecting, I could actually answer these questions with a positive answer

Here are some quick notes on what I came up with:

• Research. This is actually something I have fun doing, especially outside of the classroom where I have the pressure of grades and classes. I have a few projects I’m interested in that I’m hoping to fully develop into essays. Not for anything specific but who knows, perhaps there’s potential for something bigger down the road. Out of the things I want to try out, this is the one I have yet to start but it’s in my near future
• Creative Writing. They say that if you want to write, you should read. I’ve decided to refocus my reading to encompass more fiction and literary works instead of my typical fantasy reads. Fanfiction still finds a way to distract me but that’s alright!
• Language. I’ve decided that my Spanish has deteriorated enough that I can no longer, with good conscious, say I have native fluency. So I’ve been working on my reading and vocabulary! My current read is Artemis Fowl because it looks like adult works are a little too complex for me
• Cooking. YES, FINALLY. I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen, not really cooking, but watching my mom make food. I’ve been taking mental notes, asking questions about ingredients, how to cook things, and anything that comes to mind while I watch everything. I know that the best way to learn is to apply myself but I’m still a bit too self-conscious to try anything. Soon

But yes, these are some of the things that have kept me occupied during the time I was furloughed and now that I’m back to work…it’s been tough. Tougher to an extent (surprisingly). I’ve always been used to early schedules. I always worked and went to school during the AM shifts, starting as early as 4AM (school at 8AM), all so I could be home or wherever I was needed by noon but because business has been slow, I’m now in this strange limbo where I work during the day hours and I detest it

I’m not sure how people can work 9 to 5s…

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Well then, I think it’s time to cut this off. I feel like I’m going nowhere with all this rambling. This is potentially my worst OWLS post but I wanted to make it more casual since it’s sort of that goodbye letter. As for what I was going for…I just wanted to let you all know that it’s time for me to leave OWLS and to focus on myself and both my personal and professional goals. I’ll still be around but I’ll mostly be quiet, as some of you might have noticed. I used to be on Twitter all day but I’ve been really pulling back on my online presence. But I’m curious, what are you all doing? Did you guys develop any new hobbies or habits while at home? I also worked on my health goals, which I was really happy about but honestly, it’s a work in progress. Some days I do so well and then there are days like today where…I just…don’t even want to think about how unhealthy I was! At least I was a happy unhealthy person, LOL

Soon the roundup will be on the OWLS blog so don’t forget to check that out

Until next time