I am still reading THE DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY SKILLS WORKBOOK. It is difficult for me to focus too long on one thing. I am good at a lot of things, but I need to work on things one thing at a time. In other words, multi-tasking is very, very difficult for me to do mostly because I am not paying close enough attention. Basically I need to practice mindfulness and focus on what's happening outside me rather than what's going on in my head. I don't know why I get good teaching evals. I got good evals for the classes I recently taught at the community college. I think it's because I find student writing interesting.

The DBT book talks about learning to describe your emotions and identifying the difference between thoughts and emotions. It's a very helpful and good book for people who experience overwhelming emotions, which I think many poets do. So, I am working on being mindfully aware of my emotions. Basically the book talks about "emotion" mind and "wise" mind or "rational" mind. I highly recommend the book if you have difficulty with emotions. For example, I may speak negatively to myself at the cash register and need to control my thoughts and attention rather than get carried away in negative thinking, self-deprecation, anxiety or fear.

Customers at a convenience stores do odd things too, like wanting to buy a single roll of toilet paper with 44 cents cash and the rest on a credit card. Ugh.

Also, the food stamps are a bit odd as people will come in and buy huge amounts of junk food with their Quest card. Kids will ring up a lot of stuff on food stamps and then the card will be a bad card and you have to void each and every thing they were going to buy. Ugh.

Well, I need to go and revise a poem now.