Integrity

Thanks to the brilliance of a friend’s ideas, the encouragement and love of my mom and the inspiration of lots of reading and thinking I have been doing, I have come up with a 2011 action plan. Coming naturally to a TFA teacher/planner/leader, I had to break down each idea and philosophical tenet to its true meaning and backwards plan from there. But I feel confidence in these ideas and believe even this first month’s theme will help me to commit to living a happier, more grateful day-to-day life.

January - Integrity
definitition: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness

So based on this definition, I start with honesty. I ask myself, if I am honest with myself...
-I know I am unhappy because of my health, inside and outside

If I am honest with myself...
I will hold myself accountable for eating well and exercising
I will hold myself accountable for going to the dentist!
I will acknowledge my feelings and do constructive things to combat the destructive ones
I will reflect every day on my progresses and failures
I will begin to detach from the things that I indulge in
negativity, self-hate, laziness, regret

Next I move to moral principles... what are my moral principles? (a question I have decidedly never really asked myself)

What are my morals?
-Being healthy and happy inside and out are priorities that need to come first.
-Being loving, mindful and kind come once the first priority is meant.

What does this mean?
Being happy means acting happy and making other people happy
Being healthy means practicing self love, to the outside and inside

In Buddhism, there are the Four Noble Truths. And the last of those truths in once again broken down into the Eightfold Path. I subscribe to Buddhism right now for 2 reasons. First, because recently the times I feel closest to God are when I am meditating Buddhist prayers or practicing yoga. Second because I love how there are lists, numbers, simple ideas that are broken down in a way that I feel I can access and understand. Mainly, the path that I am most drawn to comes down to these three tenets.
Wisdom: having the right view and intention to make positive change
Ethical conduct: having the right speech, action and livelihood to make positive change
Concentration - making the right effort, mindfulness, and concentration to make positive change (Samadhi)
Making an effort to improve
awareness to see things for what they are with clear consciousness, being aware of the present reality within oneself without any craving or aversion
correct meditation or concentration

Ironically enough, the yoga studio I am joining this year is called Samadhi, and so I felt even more drawn to this last challenge, concentration on training the mind to be brighter and and clearer.

So this month, I will focus on integrity. Being honest with others but primarily being honest with myself and the things I can and cannot do.
Upholding my moral principles, that somehow break down into their smaller components within these 3 Buddhist tenets. Changing my habits by concentrating on an improved attitude and outlook. Sounds selfish, but throughout all of this thinking, reading and speaking it has become clear that taking care of yourself must come before you can even think of taking care of others. And also that if you are happier, then you will make the people around you happier.

I will continue to use this space as one to reflect on my teaching experiences, but also as a space to reflect on these monthly commitments and how they are effecting me and my day-to-day experiences teaching. I think that reflection is a huge part of growth and I think this will help me be transparent and HONEST about the efforts I'm making.
So cheers to 2011 and a month of Integrity.