Day 9 Waking Up, Calm

Today I did Day 9 of the Waking Up course. I did it after doing poorly on a test. I was really stressed and sad because of that combined with the stress of college application stuff, so it was really nice to be able to have a calm moment. At the beginning of the meditation my mind kept buzzing with what I had to do, but towards the end I started to calm down. Throughout I counted my breaths but at the end Harris said to use the last minute to just be and not do anything. I got the most relaxation out of that last minute because I removed myself from my body and just thought of where I was in the room. Pulling myself out of my own head really helped my anxiety levels, at the beginning I was a seven or eight (10 being the highest - I’ve learned to rate my anxiety levels) but by the end I was about a three. I am feeling a lot better about everything I was worried about before. I’m really starting to see a change in how I feel, and it’s really exciting. Today I signed up for a six week online Positive Psychology course with Barbara Fredrickson. I hope it doesn’t add stress to my day considering all that I already have to do with school, but I think overall it will help.