Week 11 Challenge - Using What's There

This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching and Happiness.

This week's challenge was about exploring all those things available to us to use without needing to own them. It was a fun week.

I've been a heavy library user for years. I'm a fast reader so have always been a borrower more than a buyer. However, this last week I also borrowed a movie from the library. It was great! We keep a list on the fridge of movies we'd like to see sometime. So it was great to not have to pay to watch the movie.

I've also been thinking of buying a new game or two for the Nintendo Wii. And I probably will buy some. But, I decided for now to rent games. It was a great opportunity to try some games out so that I know if they're worth the money. And I suspect in many cases, once I'm done with the rental, I won't want to bother buying them.

Near the north end of town there is a wellness park. It's like a set of gym circuit machines but outside (and free). After my class yesterday afternoon, I went and did a short workout there. Because of the distance from my house, I wouldn't want to use the park unless I was already up at that end of town. But, when I am up there, I think it will make a great little pit stop. I enjoyed the gym style workout in the park setting.

One activity I've been wanting to try is geocaching. It uses GPS to find hidden caches in parks and other areas. There is one just down the road from our house. We tried to do it with GPS but it turns out the GPS on my phone isn't accurate enough. However, we're going to take another crack at it tomorrow just using the map and our own navigational skills (we used to both orienteer). We are thinking it would be a nice Sunday activity to strike out from our house and hunt out some caches.

I enjoyed this week. I tend to explore more of the free activities on a regular basis anyway since I try to keep my expenses down. But it was good to try a few new ones this week.