On Wednesday, I was scheduled to lead the weekly meditation for our Clinical Staff Meeting at my job. I was nervous about it, but Evernote helped me organize my way through it.
Picking the Theme
A few things in my life in recent days has led me to think about eternity and our place in the Universe. Then I remembered a reflection came to me in my dashboard on Tumblr:
Wil Wheaton joined Tumblr!
I really liked the reflection that I read… it was thought-provoking. It also needed editing as to honor my colleagues and not disparage anyone of faith.
Getting Started
I cut and pasted the quote into my note in Evernote, then worked above it to my actual meditation.
I have seen my colleagues and how they start the meditations, so I started to write. This is how I organized it while utilizing the theme that I chose:
- Grounding and inviting to join meditation
- Gentle Awareness and bringing participants to now
- Focusing on Breath
- Breathing in as cleansing light
- Breathing out as sharing ourselves
Editing
I edited the note had my meditation several times.
After reading the meditation that I wrote, I edited it several times to keep the language positive and to attempt to connect with the spiritual.
Performance Anxiety
I used Evernote to quell my anxiety over how my delivery would be sound and also to time the pacing of each person’s breath, as to not rush the meditation. I also practiced the tone of my voice, which sounds suspiciously like that of some television character.
A random graphic that has nothing to do with the sentence that precedes it.
After practicing a few times, I recorded myself and then listened to myself as I went through the meditation. Surprisingly, the first part of what I wrote lasted about two minutes. The second part lasted about a minute and a half. All together, the time of meditation in our Clinical Staff Meeting lasts 10 minutes total, so I thought the silence gap between the first and second readings was a good amount to have.
However self-conscious I still am about the sound of my recorded voice, I was satisfied with everything and relaxed that it sounded good to me.
Dynamic Note
I have mentioned several times that I like Evernote because of the dynamic note one can have. The note I share with you has my text, as well as the final audio recordings I made of myself for both parts. You can listen to them in your browser if you choose, but I thought it might help you to see the different elements that have helped me to improve my practice.
Click to see my note!
Social Work Tech Practice
Using Evernote helped my social work practice by allowing me to:
- organize my thoughts in a logical manner
- practice the delivery of my intervention
- give myself feedback as to what worked and what did not work
- use aforementioned feedback to change, omit, and rearrange words and better space out my dialogue
- grow in confidence by knowing that my meditation sounded good
