Gratitude Journal Day 2 – Sunrise over the lake.

September 30, 2024 by

Day two of the challenge sees a bit of change of pace with what I am grateful for today, a bit of an eclectic mix from the early morning sunrise while running, an afternoon at the local park with the family, and taking time to feel the grass underneath my feet after getting back from my run.

The Sunrise and Early Morning Runs.
My first moment of gratitude today occurred nice and early. I decided to sleep in past my usual wake up time of 4:40am with me not getting up until 5:15. I still managed to get to Lake Monger to experience a stunning sunrise over a lake of glass as I completed my first 10km run since returning from injury. After I finished the run I would usually get in the car and head straight home, but instead took an additional few minutes to walk around, stop and listen to the sounds of life passing by and appreciate the colours as they continued to change with the break of day. Sunrises are something that I have come to appreciate with my early morning running regime, however still taking the time to be grateful and not take for granted needs to be an ongoing conscious decision from me.

An afternoon at the local park.
The flow of today and being on holidays provided an opportunity to slow down in itself (which is greatly needed in my life). This afternoon I got the chance to head up the road with the family and enjoy each others’ company at the local park. We took a soccer ball, had a bit of a kick and laugh. I am grateful for living in an area where we have access to parks in walking distance and also for the joy there can be in the simple things like going on the new flying fox – especially the seated one which has had its chains wound round and round to have it spin while flying down, or having kids on the rotating swing and a soccer ball being thrown at them.

Feeling the grass between my toes.
I was so inspired from my run this morning that I wanted to spend some time outside in the backyard once I got back home, bare foot just soaking in nature and the sounds of the day. Listening to the various birds that we have come to visit our yard as well as the moisture beneath my toes from the dew was a great moment before getting on with he day. I am grateful for having the time and space to take these moments before the day gets busy, to stop and breathe.

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Gratitude Journal Day 1 – Lego Lego Lego

September 29, 2024 by

Today marked the first of my gratitude challenge – identifying things that I am grateful for in my life and why. Today definitely had a theme which is called lego.

Building Lego Houses with my kids.
I was sitting in the back room when one of my kids wanted me to show them how to build a lego house. A recent trip to the local library saw us come home with several “How to Build” lego books and, as most parents would attest to, we don’t have all the lego bits that are in these books. I remember always just having to sit down and work out how to build what I wanted using my own creativity and ingenuity with basic blocks rather than having every specific piece. I sat down with a big box of lego and showed the kids how to build a house in this way, how to create a roof and how to hinge the roof so it could easily be opened for them to be able to play with the inside easily without breaking to roof / walls. Doing this really took me back to my childhood and sitting for countless hours building with lego, it was a joy to do it with my kids and to see the excitement on their face with dad being cool and amazing at building things. The house now has a prize place in their “Legoville” on the lego table.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to do this and sit with my kids building a simple lego house.

Having a generous family.
I got to catch up with my side of the family for afternoon tea down at Scarborough Beach, it was to celebrate mine and one of the kids’ upcoming birthdays. The joy on everyone’s faces as presents were opened (both from the givers and the receivers) was priceless. Ever since we have gotten home, countless hours has been spent playing with new toys, but even more than the actual material gifts, I am grateful to have a family who went out of their way to want to catch up, acknowledge and celebrate the upcoming birthdays.

Freedom to practise my faith.
I live in a country where, on the whole, I can practise my faith without persecution or fear of death. While sitting in Mass this really dawned on me as prayers were being offered for all those who live in war zones / areas of persecution and trouble currently. May I never take for granted the many freedoms that we have here in Australia compared to other places in the world.

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Gratitude Challenge:Beginnings

September 28, 2024 by

Wellbeing and mental health have become really important areas of study and exploration for me over the past few years. My role as a leader in the pastoral care at a high school resulted in me becoming increasingly interested in wellbeing and what practises encourage, improve, and enhance an individual’s ability to “live well” from a holistic perspective. This interest has seen me explore various definitions and explanations of what wellbeing is through additional study and reading of academic papers and studies into what contributes to wellbeing; attending courses and workshops exploring positive education, trauma informed practices such as through the Institute of Positive Education, Berry Street, and Australian Children’s Foundation; watching of TED talks on resilience, grit, self-determination theory, eudemonic vs hedonic wellbeing theories; reading of a variety of books; explored the VIA Character Strengths and their application to improve agency and capacity in individuals; countless conversations with school leaders and psychologists who have more experience and a collective knowledge greater than I could ever gain on my own.

I have taken all of this and tried to work on my own wellbeing through adopting a number of habits and boundaries into my daily routine. I find that when I keep to my routine and habits that it has a positive impact on how I feel about myself and world around me, likewise, when I fall into not regularly doing these practises it has a detrimental impact. I have tried to ensure that these routines cover the five domains of needs:

  • Physical.
  • Emotional.
  • Cognitive.
  • Energetic.
  • Spiritual.

This has lead to my routine of early rising, running, stretches, prayer, and saxophone practice prior to the day beginning. Despite all of these practises that have been built into my life, it is still easy to fall into the “Negativity Bias” that we all inherently lean towards as human beings. This is something that I have been working on changing in my job through looking for authentic and meaningful ways to affirm students and colleagues, however I feel I can still work on this a lot more and that’s where this challenge I am going to undertake comes in.

I am currently reading “The Resilience Project” and have been reflecting upon the three key elements that Hugh Van Cuylenburg argues are key to promoting wellbeing: Gratitude, Empathy, and Mindfulness. Reading this book hasn’t really given me any significant revelations, but rather has reminded me of other books and TED talks looking at wellbeing though the Pos. Ed. lens whether that be through the Institute of Positive Education, the Berry Street Education Model, reading books by Seligmen, Street, and Brunzell or the TED talk by Br David Steindl-Radst which I have included a link to this talk below:

I am a big believer in needing to live something if you want to be able to share it with others. I am going to challenge myself over this next three months (the remainder of 2024) to work on finding opportunities for gratitude in my personal life and interactions with others. I am not going to necessarily be looking for the big things, but instead focusing on the small, every day experiences and trying to find things to be grateful for in the midst of every day life. The challenge is going to see me do two things:

  • Keep on online Gratitude Journal: I am going to take ten minutes at the end of every day to stop and reflect on what I am grateful for on that day. My plan is to keep a record of this as an online gratitude journal.
  • Write letters of appreciation / gratitude: One of the strategies written about in “The Resilience Project” was the power of writing letters of gratitude to people for what they have done. I think that as a society we probably don’t acknowledge and show our appreciation for others enough. I am going to work on writing one authentic letter of gratitude to a different person each month. While this doesn’t seem like a lot, it will be a start and I want to see me actually complete the challenge rather than falling short.

These are habits that I would love to become a natural part of the way that I live my life. I know from previous experiences in wanting to add things that it takes small steps – if I do too much too soon I always fall short of what I wanted to do. With this in mind, my posts each day aren’t going to be long winded academic dissertations, rather what I am grateful for and why.

Looking forward to the challenge and seeing how it impacts my wellbeing and outlook on life and the life of those with whom I do life with.

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90 Day Challenge: Week 12 Review – A Mixed Week

December 24, 2023 by

This last week has been one containing both huge successes and a lot of promise and also quite considerable disappointment and resignation of the inevitable. The week started with me continuing our annual family holiday, this year down in Busselton. Building upon the successes experienced last week I kept up my regular running routine which include my longest run so far on the Monday, completing 25.12km in just over two hours. I was absolutely elated with this, as it bested my previous best distance by a good 3km. Even better, I didn’t pull up too sore or fatigued, giving me optimism that it would still be possible for me to achieve my goal of 700km for the duration of the 90 day challenge.

For all the positives of Monday, Tuesday quickly unravelled this. I had decided to be doing lighter run and only completing at the most 12km for the day. During the run, I felt really good so decided to keep going and complete a longer distance, thinking that it might be possible for me to complete another half marathon distance. Everything felt great until just after the 14km mark when I was running into a head wind and felt my left calf start to tighten up. This has been my troublesome leg for the past ten years, however I knew that I hadn’t pulled anything so reduced my speed and reconsidered my distance – I still had 3km to go before I would be able to be back at the accomodation and I knew the additional for the 21.1km would not be worth the risk. I managed to get back unscathed, but with an exceptionally tight calf and spent the rest of the day with soreness through the muscles and regardless of what a tired I couldn’t release the muscle.

I didn’t manage to run for the remainder of the week, the muscles didn’t release despite my stretching and massaging it throughout the rest of the week days. On Friday I felt that I had some success in releasing it via step downs once we had returned to Perth. Still, I didn’t want to risk a run due to feeling that keeping going throughout the summer is more important than missing a few days. Unfortunately, those few days will have a significant consequence in it now not being possible for me to make the desired 700km before the end of the 90 days. I imagine that I will come up less than 100km short, a distance I would have covered this week. I have also found myself just short of the 200km milestone for December. Hopefully, I will get back out on the track before too long hopefully on Sunday this week) in which case I will be able to break that 200km mark!

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90 Day Challenge: Week 11 – A change of scenery.

December 17, 2023 by

School holidays, even better than this – Summer School holidays in Australia, meaning I now have a good seven weeks off before heading back to work. I have made myself a goal this year to continue to commit to my weekly running schedule of every week day, hopefully I will be able to build on what I have managed to do throughout the last three months of the year. While it is a slim chance, there is still a possibility of me bringing up the 700km for the 90 Day Challenge, especially after what has proven to be one of the best running weeks that I have experience so far this year. Who knows, I might even be able to build towards hitting a 100km week next week based on the progress this week and how I feel. Regardless of what happens over the next week, one thing that I know about myself is how goals orientated I am. This 90 Day Challenge has really pushed me to commit. Knowing it will come to an end on the 29th of December has got me thinking about what comes next. I have decided to keep going with setting goals and started another challenge from today (11th December) called the “Summer Challenge”. I will write about this once the 90 Days has finished, there will be a couple of weeks overlap, but I will try and run 450km over the Summer holiday break. I big ask – let’s see how that goes.

Being school holidays, we have headed away for some relaxation the before the Christmas rush. This is a great chance to rest, relax, and recover after the busy school year. Before heading down to “Busso” on the Monday afternoon I started off the week with a 16km run which included two laps around Lake Monger. I didn’t set any records for times completed, but doing it in 1:28:49 was a solid effort to start the week.

Tuesday morning saw me start my Busselton runs. I had gotten on maps to try and work out distances and a couple of different courses. My goal will be to complete a run from where we are staying in West Busselton to Siesta Park – on the map it says that it is located 10km away – after one of my runs this week I have since found that it is a little further away than that! I completed an easy 12.62km on the Tuesday morning in a time of 1:07:07. The run is quite flat which could lead to some faster times, however, there is a killer easterly blowing which will slow my return when it is a head wind.

Wednesday morning saw me increased my distance slightly, completing 14.5km. I did a similar route with a slight twist – heading first towards Busselton and doing a loop the jetty precinct before heading back out towards Dunsborough. There a little loop path that I utilised for my turn around just before Abbey Road Beach Resort, I then headed back to Busselton Jetty before finishing any home.

Thursday, my second half marathon and I set a PB for the distance coming in at 1:55:22 which is running at 5’17” per km. I combined the distances of doing the jetty and then also ran further towards Siesta Park. I didn’t get anywhere near it, turning around once past the Abbey Road Beach Resort precinct. I think there’s going to be a decent way further to go to get to Siesta Park!

Friday morning saw me ease off the distances in a recovery sort of effort. I complete 12.46km in a slower time of 5’36” per km.

I have been really happy with the progress this week. I initially thought that I might try to run Saturday and Sunday as well, but then thought having two days to recover is probably a wise idea. Next week, I am going to try and hit the 100km for a week – I’d love to get to Siesta Park at least once. Maybe Monday will be the day!

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90 Day Challenge: Week 10 Review – First Half Marathon

December 9, 2023 by

This week has seen me reach a new milestone, completing my first half marathon distance. It isn’t something that I set out to do at the beginning of the week, rather just something that evolved as the week continued due to it being the staff week at the end of the school term.

The week started with me completing 19km on the Monday, I completed this distance by just extending my previous 16km run by doing another circuit of the Manning Bridge and back to the overpass bridge back to school. I felt pretty good, completing it in reasonable time at 1:41:56 which is 5’22” per kilometre. It did get me thinking about what it would take for me to complete a half marathon, perhaps this would be the week it would be possible? I decided to wait and see how I pulled up after the longest run that I had completed to date.

Tuesday saw me feel pretty good, although a little tight and fatigued. I decided to keep to my routine from last week and did a lighter session, completing 12.5km at a slower time per km of 5’28” per km. The test would come the following day, I decided that this would be the day for the half marathon if everything went to plan.

Wednesday morning I was up and at school earlier than usually to commence the 21.1km distance. I had done some planning on what I would need to do to complete it. I figured that it would be the same course as the 19km but with an additional two laps of the ovals on school grounds to bring up the required distance. The run felt good, I completed my half marathon at 5’18” per kilometre, completing 21.2km in a time of 1:52″24. I knew that the legs would be tired from this effort, so I kept the compression socks on all day to provide some extra support. Again I thought I would wait and see how I pulled up before Thursday to judge the distance I would run.

Thursday I reduced my distance again, completing only 12.5km which was done at my slowest time for the week per km at 5’38” per km. I managed to complete it so I was satisfied overall. Friday saw me take a rest day, this was due to me not being able to get school early due to other family commitments.

Overall, I was satisfied with the week’s efforts. I completed 65.3km over four runs of the week – a great effort. Next week I am on holidays and I am hoping to take the running to a new level over the holidays. Who knows, there might still be a chance of me hitting the goal of 700km for the 90 day challenge – it will all depend on the next couple of weeks.

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90 Day Challenge: Week 9 Review – Consistency is key

December 2, 2023 by

This last week has proven a good example of how consistency can win the day. I found that it was the first week of increasing my distances for a number of weeks after the side strain. I started with a Monday run of just over 12km which was completed in just over an hour and two minutes. Tuesday saw me continue to build on this, I decided to stretch myself with a longer run, completing just over 16km with an average time of 5’10” per km meaning it was completed in just under 1 hour and 23 minutes. Wednesday saw me return to a shorter distance, coming in at just over 12.5km. This was done intentionally to try and balance the load on my legs, I am aware of previous injuries from over use and don’t want to repeat the same errors. Thursday saw me completing a longer run, coming in at just over the 16km mark again before finishing the week with a 12km run.

I am happy with how the progress has gone, my legs have felt really good. I am looking forward to resting up for a couple of days before re-hitting the pavement next week. Hopefully, I will be able to keep building on the week.

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90 Day Challenge: Week 8 Review – Building the distance

November 24, 2023 by

Week 8 has proven to be a really good one for me in my ongoing progress back after the strain to my side. I managed to complete 2 x 12km runs throughout this week!

The week started with only doing a short 5km run. This was mainly due to me running at a much later time due to not being able to get to work until after 7:00am. I still wanted to get both my personal prayer and saxophone practice in before the start of the teaching day which meant that would only be possible with less time on the path. The run went quite well, completing the 5.2km in a time of 26:22 which is 5’04 per km.

Tuesday saw the first longer run, I was quite apprehensive about this one! I managed to be on the road running before it clocked over 5:30am. This is just as well due to the expected high temperatures, I really wanted to get it all done. Overall, the run went well. My calves did feel tight at various points throughout the run which was to be expected as it is almost a month of lighter running. I did, however managed to do a reasonable time, averaging a pace of 5’16” per km which meant the 12km was done in 1:03:40. Tuesday night saw me pull out my new compression sleeves for my calves for the first time. I actually slept in them throughout the night to try and help in the recovery after the run.

Wednesday saw me return to a lesser distance, the 5km circuit. This was not due to soreness but because of practicality. Band rehearsals start at 7:00am and there’s no way for me to get in the run plus my personal prayer time that I have been having in the school chapel everyday. I had hoped to get up 30 minutes earlier (4:30am) but, yeah, that didn’t happen – something to work for over the Summer perhaps? The run went well, but a bit slower than Monday’s time with me coming in at 30:01 for the 5.34km which is a 5’37” average pace.

Thursday saw me undertake my second 12km run for the week. Again, I had hope to get up a little earlier than normal to ensure that I’d have a good practice session as well on my saxophone. Unfortunately, the alarm went off at 4:30am, but I didn’t get up. My time was good and consistent compared to earlier in the week, completing the 12km in 1:03:24 which is an average pace of 5’17”.

Friday has seen me finish with the shorter run of 5km. I had a lot of work to get done before a planning day which meant I needed to get out there and get back in – the extra 30 minutes would be valuable. The run kept the consistency in pace to my other runs of the 12km, but a little slower the the 5km pace with me coming in a 5’33” per km with 5.33km completed over 29:40.

Next week is going to be different again as I am out on Professional Development for a Lote of it. This means a few different run courses, and who knows, maybe I cam stretch that distance a little further as well once or twice!

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Simon Montgomery Music: Weekly Practice Reflection November 13 to November 19

November 20, 2023 by

The last week of practice has proven to be really good in its consistency and also the content that was covered. Overall, I am satisfied with the progress that I have made, committing to four solid days of practice being Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

My main focus for the week has still been preparation towards the Funk Club 20 Year Reunion Show that was held on Friday the 17th of November. All of my sessions were aimed towards ensuring that the repertoire for the evening was well practiced and fluent by memory – this was my goal, to play the show totally from memory.

In reviewing my practice diary for the week, there are a few areas still needing some attention that have been highlighted throughout the week:

  1. Longnotes for tone and intonation.
    I kept working on the development of my tone and intonation through 15 minutes of long tones at the beginning of each practice. My metronome has been set to 72 BPM with an aim of completing 16 beats per note. Each day I have chosen a different interval to focus on but have always started on G1 and ascended until playing F#3 and then returning to G1 before descending to Bb1. This week saw me using a different alto saxophone, using my Selmer MKVI rather than my YAS62 Series 1. I found that the intonation on the horn was pretty good, I needed to use some alternate fingerings for the high notes (especially from D3 up to F3) with the tuning going sharp. My front fingering for E3 and F3 were not as strong as the other notes, more work will be needed particularly regarding embouchure and the direction of air through my horn to strengthen the sound. In the bottom range I am still running out of air from D1 down to Bb1, only completing 12 counts before running out. Tone wise, greater work will be needed on my overtone series. I will aim to start this in two weeks time. On three days I managed to have this finished with enough time to start a review on some Hindemith technique, particularly looking at irregular interval movements as semi-breves, minims, and crotchets. I will aim to develop this further as I progress in my regime.
  2. Set repertoire.
    The work for the gig is coming nicely. I have managed to get a lot more comfortable with all the repertoire from memory and by the end of the week it was only fine tuning that needed to be done. Highlights for me have included working on the arrangements for “I Believe in Miracles” and “Fever”. “Natural Born Lover” and “Cleanup Woman” proved a little challenging due to the poor intonation on the recording (it is all a quarter of a tone out of tune due to being a copy of an LP I think). I have also started working on learning the solo for “Hip Drop” my aim is going to be to make this the solo to transcribe in the next week.
  3. Solo transcriptions.
    I have really enjoyed getting back into the Funk side of things. I am planning on completing the solo transcription for Hip Drop and then proceed into studying Maceo Parker in depth for the next few months. I would like to eventually work up to transcribing one solo a week, but this might take a little while to work up. I also need to complete the solo transcription for Lou Donaldson’s “Blues Walk” that I was working on prior to the Funk Club gig coming along. My aim by the end of next week will be to have both Hip Drop and Blues Walk completed and recorded with me playing them.

I have been recording all my practice sessions currently and will start looking at ways to share some for these videos. I am thinking I might do it as a private YouTube Channel which links from each weekly post. That will be my next challenge from a technology point of view to overcome.

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90 Day Challenge: Week 7 Review – 5 day week

November 20, 2023 by

Last week proved to have some good steps forward towards recapturing the early form of the challenge, particularly in being able to run five days in the week. Hopefully, Week 8 will see me be able to start to increase the overall distances that I am covering.

Monday’s run was probably the most challenging to complete, not due to it being the beginning of the week but rather due to a bout of food poisoning. I didn’t sleep well on the Sunday evening, up for a significant part of the night with stomach pains, sweating and feeling really hot and flushed. When I got to my usual running place, instead of heading straight out, I needed to find a toilet where I was for next twenty-five minutes before being able to get started. I had intended to do a 10km run, however this got reduced to 5km just incase I needed to get back to the bathroom in a hurry. Luckily I didn’t.

The remainder of the week went quite well running wise. I kept with maintaining the 5km rather than pushing limits. This was done for two reasons, firstly to just give that one more week of ease for my side strain, I really don’t want to run into complications with that one, and secondly because of my upcoming gig scheduled for the end of the week and wanting to get as much extra time on my saxophone as possible. The positive is that I got through the five runs, and no injuries.

Looking forward to what can occur in the next week!

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