Chapter 2 and 3 - Breathing as if Your Life Depends on It, Mindfulness Without Butt on Cushion

• How did the 'process over product' concept affect the way you tackled the site redesign and rebuild?

  It basically changed my entire process. For me personally, everything is outcome driven, and if something isn't done to my standard or isn't done in a period of time that I am happy with, then I tend to pit my own work up against others to try and get myself into a competitive zone, which I usually assume makes me work harder. That's not the case, though, and most times I just get more and more angry with what I can't achieve. I've just focused on making smaller goals and giving myself more time to achieve them, and I've been pretty decently happy with my outcomes so far this sprint.

• What did you think about meditation before reading chapter 2?

  I more or less considered meditation to be some sort of magical event which happens when you enter a certain state of mind that you can only achieve by absolute focus on yourself, your breathing or someone guiding you through it. That's definitely not what I think of it now.

• What new things have you learnt about meditation?

  I have learned that I practice walking meditation and breathing meditation almost daily. Even when I was working in my full time role, I spent about an hour or more each day walking, and each of those mornings and evenings I would listen to something in my ears and just walk home. Since the path home is memorised, sometimes I would find myself at home and not even remember walking there, that's how out of it I was. I am still yet to put that into practice for the rest of the meditation techniques though. I can go in and out of it when I'm walking because walking is so easy, but sitting still is something I am still having trouble with.

• Did any of the suggested meditation techniques stand out to you?

  Definitely the mindful listening and mindful conversation techniques. I am yet to find someone to try that with, but hopefully someone in my phase 0 group will be willing to try it with me!

• Any other musings?

  This chapter was really cool, and I actually found myself reading some parts out loud to myself, which was really relaxing. I have a really soft speaking voice and I studied in radio so I'm pretty decent at reading off of a page, so I recorded myself reading through some of the guided meditation monologue. I will probably listen to them again at some point, maybe when I'm out walking or when I'm going to sleep.