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courtesy of mindfulness

What is mindfulness? 

Mindfulness is defined as "a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience" (taken from Psychology Today).

When should you start practicing mindfulness?

My answer is to start right now. Start making a conscious effort to live in the moment, to notice all the experiences you have. Do not let them get lost in the flow of life.

Practicing mindfulness is just that: a practice. Like meditation or yoga, you must deliberately practice mindfulness in order to get better at it.

My story

I stumbled upon mindfulness during my second year of graduate school (last year actually). I was stressed out and burnt out from graduate school, working two jobs, and trying to move on from a devastating breakup. I needed to find some peace, comfort, and solitude. And I needed it fast because I knew I couldn't keep going like I was. I was already breaking down and it was only a matter of time before I completely collapsed.

I came across musings about mindfulness on Kimberly Wilson's blog Tranquility du Jour. And in what seemed like divine intervention, Kimberly also launched her e-course Mindfulness: Tranquility Within.

I started my mindfulness practice and have never looked back. It was hard to get into at first, but after I'd done it enough, it made a huge difference in how I approached my life.

How can you practice mindfulness?

Start with your routines. Pick either your morning or evening routine and check in with yourself to see how you're feeling physically, emotionally, and spiritually in the moment.

Practice beginning and ending your day with a focus on you and your feelings and thoughts. Write your reflections down in a journal to help solidify the moment.

Do you practice mindfulness? If so, how did you start?

As always, thank you for reading :)
Melissa

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courtesy of Salamanca Arts Centre

What is an information need? 

Oh information. We can't do anything these days without you. But where should you start when you need to gather information, particularly if you are considering a different hobby, pursuing your passion project, or want to start your own business? We can't do any of these without gathering info first to see if it might be a good fit for us right? When making new and big decisions, it always helps to research it first before jumping in.

An information need is defined as "an individual or group's desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious or unconscious need." You could also replace need with goal if you want :)

Defining your information need 

So how do you go about knowing which information you need to help you make your decision? Write out your information need or goal.

I've pulled out three different things to look at when you decide you want to pursue something new and want to research it.

1. What is your goal?

Any information you look for won't really help you unless you have a clear goal in mind for how the information will help you. For what purpose do you want this information? For example, my goal is to write a novel.

2. Look for the problems and questions and list them.

Use these problems to find which information you really need to get started. As you start looking for information, your questions might change and that's okay. For my writing example, I had no clue how to write characters, plot, or suspense. And I knew I needed to research these further.

3. Write (or type) your goals and problems and keep them with you as you begin searching for the answers and resources you'll need.

You may find that other goals and problems may pop up, which is okay.

By defining your goals, problems, and questions early on, you can begin to create an information strategy that will help you in whatever decisions you want to make.

Thank you for reading. Until next time :)
Melissa

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This week I am reviewing the blog Tiny Buddha, which was founded and is maintained by Lori Deschene.

What this blog is about 

This was one of the first blogs I started to read when I wanted to start changing my life a few years ago. It is fantastic. Tiny Buddha is about reflecting on simple wisdom and learning new ways to apply it to our complex lives—complete with responsibilities, struggles, dreams, and relationships. Over the last four years, Tiny Buddha has emerged as a leading resource for peace and happiness, with more than two million monthly readers.

You’ll find posts about happiness, motivation, inspiration, love, relationships, meaning, possibilities, mindfulness, and letting go. Much of it has its roots in Buddhism, but this is not a site about religion. It’s about ideas that make sense and make a big difference when applied.

Why I love this blog

The wisdom in this blog has helped me through so much crap in the last three years. If you are experiencing hard times, I recommend going to read about other people's experiences. This blog is all about empathy with other people; chances are you are not alone in any of your experiences.

The other great things are the forums, where you can talk and interact with other people. Check out the quotes that are famous on Tiny Buddha. The founder, Lori, also has an ecourse, Recreate Your Life Story. There are also several great books written with the Tiny Buddha philosophy.

Check all of it out and find what is useful for you :)

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courtesy of Twilightsagafan

My history with Twilight

Being a self-proclaimed nerd and lover of fantasy, I have of course read the Twilight series. They caused quite a ripple a couple of years ago.

I read the first Twilight book in high school, before it even became popular. I found it be accident at my local bookstore and didn't know if I wanted to read it or not. So I wrote the name down and checked it out at the library. Then it became popular and exploded.

In high school, I loved these books. Now that I'm older I can't stand them. There's just so much in them that I personally can't agree with now. If I don't like them, then why am I writing a post about them?

Because they do have some great lessons in the midst of the drama, particularly about mindfulness. I believe that all books have great lessons in them but sometimes it's finding them that's the hard part. For Twilight, I learned a lot about mindfulness.

Creating space in your mind 

There's this one moment, after Bella has become a vampire, in which she is out hunting for the first time and she comes across a human. Since she is a newborn vampire, she shouldn't have any control over her thirst for blood. However, she manages to separate herself from her hunger in her mind and runs away. She creates space in her mind between her desire for blood and separates herself from it.

She separates her mind from an immediate response. At the time of reading the last book, I thought it was really cool. It turned out she had superpowers. Now, I try using it in my mind.

When you practice mindfulness, you try to live in the moment and make decisions after you've reflected on it. Reflection is huge in making mindful decisions. Sometimes, though, it's not clear what you should believe or feel or what actions you should take. Sometimes, you want to immediately respond to a situation without thinking. In these instances, I recommend creating space in your mind between your problem, your feelings, and your choices before coming back to yourself and taking action.

Separating you, your problems, feelings, choices, and actions 

Imagine that your brain is a big room that has four corners. You are in one corner, looking at the other three. Put your problem in one corner, your feelings in another, and your choices in the last one. Go around the room and ask these questions: What is the problem? What are you feeling right now? Why is it so hard for you to make these decisions? What choices do you have?

After you have gone around the room, come back to you. Always start and end with you. And ask yourself What action do I want to take? What action am I going to take?

It always helps to separate from how you immediately want to respond to a situation. Create space in your mind before reacting. Remember to stop, pause, and reflect. Go around the room.

Thank you for reading :)

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This week I am reviewing the blog Zen Habits, which is written and maintained by Leo Babauta.

What this blog is about

Zen Habits is one of the most widely regarded lifestyle blogs on the internet with more than a million monthly readers. Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness. Some of the topics it covers include: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment.

About Leo

Leo Babauta is a former journalist of 18 years, a husband, father of six children, and in 2010 moved from Guam to San Francisco, where he leads a simple life. He started Zen Habits to chronicle and share what he's learned while changing a number of habits. Find out more about him on his post My Story.

Why I love this blog 

What's not to love about it I think is the better question. Every time I go exploring on this blog, I always find something I needed to read. Leo also blogs a lot about writing, which I find very useful. The theory in Zen Habits is that you can accomplish anything but you have to start small and build your habits one by one. By building habits, you stick to and accomplish your goals.

Leo also offers some courses for building habits, including his Habit Course and the Simple Fitness Habit course. I plan on taking both of these :).

Check out Zen Habits. You won't regret it!

Resources 

Zen Habits - http://zenhabits.net/
Leo Babauta - http://leobabauta.com/
The Habit Course - http://habitcourse.com/
The Simple Fitness Habit - http://simplefitnesshabit.com/

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courtesy of standford.edu

What is creative overload?

This weekend I experienced something that I never thought would happen. I had creativity overload big time.

I've heard of information overload (I deal with it as a librarian) and there's also creative blocks (like writer's block). To have an overabundance of creative ideas is normally a good thing. But for some reason, my brain just wouldn't work.

I had so many ideas going through head and I have a ton of individual projects I'm working on. And all of sudden, my brain refused to cooperate. I even had the weekend to work on things, on projects I needed to get done sooner rather than later.

What did I do?

How was I going to get over this? I needed my brain to function ASAP (nobody would work on my creative projects but me!). I spent Friday night fighting it. And then I decided to do one thing.

I listened. I tuned into what my brain was telling me and I couldn't remember the last time I took a break from doing stuff. So, I put my creative projects aside. I watched movies and read all weekend to give my tired brain a rest.

And it felt great! By listening and being mindful, I was more productive after the weekend. On Monday, I churned out 10 pages of a writing project that I had been dreading.

Be mindful 

When dealing with overload or an overabundance of anything, remember to tune in and be mindful of what your body is telling you. Do you sense any resistance? If so, then you might need a break. Take the opportunity to rest and return to your creative projects with renewed energy.

Thank you for reading! Until next time :)
Melissa

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So, I was trying to find a great way to define mindfulness and how it can apply to daily life.

Then I saw this video about baby sloths (warning, extreme cuteness alert). And I fell in love.


Naturally, I had to look further into sloths after seeing this video and I found this page What is a sloth?

I'll admit that before reading this information that I didn't know anything about sloths. Most people I've talked to just think sloths are slow because they're lazy. However, the reason that they move slow is because of their diet. They eat mostly toxic leaves that can take up to a month to digest; if they tried to digest them any faster than that they would poison themselves. Who knew???!!!!

The sloth spends about 70% of its time resting because they have to digest their food. Otherwise, it could kill them.

I would say that the sloth is one of the most mindful creatives I've ever known. It's knows itself and its biological limits. Can we honestly say the same for ourselves as human beings?

Mindfulness is defined as "a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience" (taken from Psychology Today).

The sloth appears to be lazy and slow to those of us who don't know better. They know what's going on in themselves and they don't feel any pressure to move faster than they're going. They know what they're doing; they're mindful of themselves :).

What pressures are you feeling in your life? How can you handle those who think you should be going faster or harder than you are? Do you know what your limits are? Are there times where you just can't give more effort than you already are? Do you ever take the time to just slow down? Are you awakening to these experiences?

If you don't, maybe you should practice some mindfulness in true sloth fashion :).

Resources for Sloths

Slothville - Headquarters of the Sloth Appreciation Society

The Little Book of Sloth by Lucy Cooke

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Looking at the title of this blog, the word that will probably stick out the most is "librarian". Yes, I am a librarian and I deal with information constantly. It's my job and I absolutely love it. And I want to share my love for information.

Why did I start this blog? 

Because I have some topics that I'm really passionate about. My blog looks how to explore information at the crossover of five main things: personal information management, lifestyle design, technology, creativity, and nerdy stuff. I want to help you find the right information and resources for these topics. I also want to talk about my passion for manga, anime, and science-fiction (just to spice things up).

Join me on my journey!

I have been in school for the past 20 years of my life (and I'm only 25). This blog will chronicle my adventures as I begin to develop my life after not having much of one :). I'm going to explore personal information management, lifestyle design, technology, creativity, and all things nerdy.

I hope my information will be useful to you and please connect with me!

Welcome to Nerdy Mindful Librarian!

Topics on my blog include:

Personal Information Management

Lifestyle Design

• Wellness 
• Career/Entrepreneurship 
• Blog of the Week 
• Mindfulness
• Minimalism 

Technology

• Tutorials 

Creativity

• Writing 
• Blogging 

Nerdy Stuff

• Manga 
• Anime
• Science-Fiction and Fantasy 
• Book Reviews

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