I'M BAAAACK

This post will explain my hiatus from posting on my blog. Stay tuned to find out why I have such a huge gap between my last blog post and now.

I decided to dedicate my time I spent typing a new blog post into a new hobby called journaling. I kept a personal/private journal because I came across a lot of articles that discussed all the benefits, especially mental health benefits, of writing in a journal. I also wanted to improve my handwriting so, if I could strengthen my mental muscles and improve my handwriting at the same time, I thought the idea of journaling was a perfect hobby. I did share my journal entries with my parents and brother because a lot of my journal entries were about: the pandemic that is currently happening, the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant's death, what my favorite part of the day is, etc. I started journaling and soon realized that I could not handle creating blog posts and writing journal entries. I prioritized my newfound hobby of writing journal entries over creating blog posts.

Journaling is equivalent to keeping a "diary". A diary was, something kept by many people including myself at a young age, a space where someone could write out all of their thoughts that they did not want publicized. We all remember a diary as "confidential" or something that could only be read by the person who wrote the diary entry. Speaking of a diary reminds me of the Spongebob Squarepants episode where Spongebob keeps a confidential "work diary" and is dismayed when Squidward gets a hold of Spongebob's diary and reads his diary entries out loud to the Krusty Krab customers. Please excuse my deviation. I just really love Spongebob. A journal is an adult version of a diary. I decided to invest all of my time into physically writing in a journal. I also felt like it was more important to keep a journal instead of posting on my blog. I was hesitant at the time to share my thoughts with the world even though I was sharing my thoughts on twitter. My process of writing in my journal was time consuming and I will go into detail about this process. My process of writing in my journal included: researching journal topics the day before and keeping the journal topic in the notepad app on my phone so, I can refer to it the next day when I have to create a journal entry. I began writing in my journal in march of 2020 and stopped writing in my journal a few months later in may 2020. I then read old blog posts and realized it was quite foolish of me to invest time in an activity that I did not really enjoy doing. I did not really enjoy writing in my journal so much that the gap between my journal entries went from days to weeks. I clearly did not enjoy writing in a journal at all so, I thought I should go back to creating a blog post which is what I am doing right now. I have always had the personality that I always marched to my own drumbeat and I did not really care about how others felt about my marching because I was having fun. Keeping a journal ironically helped me to remember this part of my personality and motivated me to create this blog post. Along with keeping a journal, I also have been meditating a lot (i will go into further detail on what I use to meditate in the following paragraph) and this has also been helping me remember the part of my personality that I have described above.

I came across the practice of meditation a few years ago after my dad introduced me to it. My dad introduced me to the smartphone app which is called "headspace". I mentioned "headspace" in a previous blog post but, I came across another meditation smartphone app called "Calm" after a friend of mine introduced me to it. I absolutely love this "Calm" app because it is so easy to use and it perfectly explains the importance of meditation. It provides a variety of tools which you can use to either relax or be productive. This app is great but, it requires a paid subscription to have full access to all the features it provides. This app practices mindful meditation. Mindful meditation is defined "as a mental state that involves being fully focused on "the now" so you can acknowledge and accept your thoughts, feelings, and sensation without judgment". This app explains the importance of meditation and this app is geared towards strengthening your mental muscles that help you function and relax. My favorite meditation set is the meditation set by Lebron James. This meditation set is called "train your mind". Lebron explains and emphasizes that a strong mental health leads to a and strong and successful physical health. There is enough physical proof that can be found on YouTube to prove the fact that Lebron's physical health is very strong and successful. The "train your mind pre-game prep" meditation set describes that Lebron also has a very strong mental health. Now this of course seems biased because Lebron James plays for the Los Angeles Lakers and I am a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers but, this meditation set is my favorite because this meditation set is proof that Lebron is a FANTASTIC human being. I have decided to dedicate another blog post to explain why Lebron is an amazing human being and why I am so grateful Lebron decided to join the Los Angeles Lakers.

The two reasons I provided above explain why I have such a huge gap between my last blog post and now.

 Thank you for reading!

Links:
- https://www.verywellmind.com/mindfulness-meditation-88369