Category Archives: Psychology

Digging in to Overcome

Yes, there are going to be bad days. Yes, we’re all going to feel like we’re diving into the deep end. Overwhelmed. Stuck. Frustrated.

It all happens. To the smallest pea in the pod to the largest pumpkin in the patch.

What also happens is time continues to tick on, unrelenting.

So, as to not remain in a rut of overwhelm, give up the habit of waiting and pick up the habit of keepin on.

Keep doing. One step at a time. If it helps, sure, think about what’s getting at you as you keep on too.

One trick that I habitually adapt is to find a creative outlet to contemplate the rut. I write sad and lonely heart felt poems, I sing the most heartbreakingly slow songs I know. The list goes on, because as a human being, the ebb and flow is continual, thus the need to just keep on trying is continual.

Some tips I’ve learned over the years:

nobody is to blame, not even yourself
nobody is perfect, there are no exceptions
you learnt from old mistakes, remember?
is that an excuse running through your mind? Oh no it isn’t!
waiting does not solve anything

To add some comedic inspiration, here’s Mike Falzone.

All In An Instant

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There is patience and there is crippling fear.

Patience is an aware look at the situation, using better forms of judgement and aptitude to gauge prospects plainly laid out in front , and using all of this information to base judgements and action upon.

And then there is crippling fear that roots one so hard to their current situation that one fails to acknowledge discomfort, stress, and effects on health and mood before it’s too late and something breaks.

Both of these situations take just one single moment, one single instant to rectify, both within ourselves through our own actions or mindset, or through external forces that may just be the factors in the situation itself. A simple unexpected event.

But we can’t plan for the unexpected. We can plan, we can strategize, but the unexpected is.. unexpected.

It’s the difference between saying: “Yes, I understand that things are busy right now, getting out of control, but I’m creating plans and routines and methodologies to help with this, that I’m very eager to practice! Patience and persistence will solve this problem shortly.”

Or I can say: “I am so busy. I can’t do this. Why do these people keep demanding of me. I’ll never get this done. But I can’t stop, or somebody might get mad. Everybody is counting on me. There is no alternative. Must just keep doing as quick as demands come in.”

I prefer doing anticipatory work, rather than reactionary work. I prefer looking for schemes that will allow me to scale easily, rather than lurching like an old rusty transmission.

Smart & hard, not just hard. But this is my efficiency, not yours.

We Put In the Time

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We strive and learn, and write all the right notes in a very nice and tidy notebook. We buy the right tools, and we connect with the right people.

Today, because of our information/data age of internet, there are so many people to listen to, people who have found a way to solve all mysteries and are very eager to give them away to you for free (including me). I subscribe to many of them. Seth Godin, Tiny Buddha, Kim Anami, Art of Manliness, etc. and they’re great. They all give me such food for thought it encourages me daily. They each have such a rich abundance of life I could spend most of the better part of 10 years reading their archives page after page.

So, I’ve found my golden source of water. My lifeline. My connection to the super culture I’ve always been looking for.

Or have I?

Have I got my new secret way that only a small culture of us have tapped into and will exercise? Sure, we’re exercising our minds and that’s a huge part of the battle. But this idea is dangerously close to sitting back into cruise mode and keep ourselves busy reading blogs that tell me that I’m doing it right.

To quote Ben Harper, “You can put a man through school, but you cannot make him think.”

You’ve done the reading. you’ve studied the books, you follow the blogs, you’ve got the tips. You’ve learned it all. Now we step out into the new light of day and say, “So, I think I’m ready now.”

I think I’m ready now, and I think you’re ready now! But, I guess that’s up to you to decide.

Let’s put this plan into action.

Premium Quality Anything Takes Time

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While being inspired on Twitter one fine afternoon, a friend of mine started talking about how premium quality anything takes time to develop and build. We dove into a discussion about this, and how relevant it is today with the rapidity of growth, economies of scale, and the power of the exponent.

I asked her if she wanted to write something for the site, and she obliged.

It’s comforting to remember that premium quality anything takes time.

By Anna O’Reilly, 21^st Feb 2014

My friend Ned picked up on a thought bubble I wrote for my twitter account, and asked me to expand on the concept within the context of strategies for success.

While considering how to convey the idea in terms of success, my mind kept going back to something I read from an obscure Buddhist text in my early 20s. The words I recall were something like the following: If you wish to become a master, you must begin by learning to sweep a floor.

The notes to the text went on to explain that sweeping a floor properly, along every edge and corner, requires that the sweeper pay attention to detail. The individual who aspires to mastery of the mysteries must first become a master of the mundane. Furthermore, a master must never forget to remain humble. Beginning the journey with a menial task is an excellent leveller to yoke the wily ego. It’s the ego in the end that spoils quality.

The ability to create premium quality actions or articles in any medium requires that the mind of the creator is refined. Quality thinking demands attention to detail, method, logic and discipline without which, abstractions of the imagination become meaningless. There is a correlation here to the link between the concepts of limitation and freedom.

And so, the experience accumulated between learning to sweep a floor with thoroughness and discipline, and the creation of a premium quality work of art, craftsmanship, literature or theory, takes a lot of time.

Getting back to my original statement, it is comforting to recognise that quality anything takes time. In general, the human world around us is demanding and fast. Much of what is produced and promoted is neither premium quality nor considered beyond the value of immediate profits or benefit. In short, many products are shabby and thoughts are half-baked at best.

Those with a taste for quality resonate to a different frequency, dance to a different beat. We expect high quality thoughts and action from our relationships, our work, our governments and ourselves. It’s about context and taste. It’s about noticing the dirt in the corners of the floor and the dust along the skirting. Don’t worry if your project is taking time, it’s supposed to take time to get the best.

Concentration Trainging from the Art of Manliness

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I’m a very big fan of the Art of Manliness. Not only does this blog promote being manly, it also promotes very positive humanity things to benefit ourselves and our loved ones. I highly suggest reading some of their articles, or subscribing to their maillist and starting there.

This article I really appreciate because it touches on a few subjects I am very concerned with here at Exercise and Mind.

Exercising the body is a very important practice for us humans, it increases our abilities as humans to withstand much more stress, not to mention increases our well being. But the same practices are often overlooked with exercising the mind.

Hopefully you’ll gather some great tips from this article.

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Your Concentration Training Program: 11 Exercises That Will Strengthen Your Attention

You’ll never get big muscles from sitting on the couch all day, and you’ll never develop amazing powers of concentration from exclusively reading Buzzfeed and watching Tosh.O. Your mind muscles, just like your physical muscles, need resistance; they need challenges that stretch their limits and in so doing, grow their focus fibers. Below we outline exercises that will beef up your focus so that you can start lifting heavier and heavier cognitive loads.

1. Increase the strength of your focus gradually. If you decide you want to physically get in shape, but are starting at ground zero, the worst thing you can do is to throw yourself into an extreme training program – you’ll end up injured, discouraged, or both, and you’ll quit before you even really get started. Continue reading →

Fasting, not Cleansing

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You see, I’m a faster. I do fasts once or twice a year as I see fit.

I don’t cleanse, or that is to say I haven’t put myself onto a cleanse yet. They fascinate me, and I value the.. flushing they do, but my reasoning for not doing a cleanse rather than a fast is because I eat healthy and try to keep myself fairly free of toxicity in the first place, all year long, for life…

But fasting is a different bird, in a way.

Fasting for me isn’t about physically cleaning my system, though it does more or less force my system to tap into any resource my body has available to it.

Fasting is about mental strength for me. Fasting makes me release the desire of hunger from my mind. Fasting forces me to walk down the path or street (because it’s important to stay a bit active) and repeatedly tell myself that the strength I require to continue walking comes from my mind first and foremost. Fasting encourages me to be aware of every ounce of energy that my body uses, which also encourages me to be very aware of how I am spending the energy that my body does have. It’s kind of the same feeling one gets when they start a long hike; the feeling of pacing yourself.

Another thing that makes me appreciate fasting, is it encourages me to fully recognize every ounce of anything I’m consuming as a human in my day to day: from paper to garbage to heating the house. I like being aware of this. These are important things to me.

I feel, in the end, being aware of all of these things makes me a stronger human. This inner dialog that would otherwise sit dormant is entirely necessary for exercising the mind.

Have you ever fasted, or taken on a cleanse? Do you feel the same as I do? What is important for you to focus on while fasting? And also, are there any tricks, rituals or special practices you do for yourself while on the fast, like find meditation multiple times a day?

I’m very interested to hear.

Oh, and today is day two of a five day fast. 🙂

Commitment and Intention

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Committing is perhaps one of the scariest things we face as humans.

Do I want to commit to this vehicle for the next 6 years? Do I want to commit to this smart phone plan for 2 years?

Further, the I cannot’s. I cannot commit to my exercise schedule. I cannot commit to you’re needs full time. I cannot commit to this project. I cannot make plans that far in advance.

By no means am I saying that evaluating the tough decision ahead is a bad thing. In fact, I think an evaluation is very necessary almost always on a regular basis to keep yourself and your actions aligned with your intentions.

This is our life, these are our days, the present is now. There isn’t a moment in our life when we shouldn’t be moving with intention, with care, with awareness. The only thing we’re guaranteed is that right now this is happening. Let’s not squander this.

Getting into the shower in the morning, do it gracefully and magically. Making coffee, every scoop of coffee should be exactly measured to eye and placed into the press with a touch of flair. Shoveling the driveway, don’t just push the snow aside; design a fantasy world.

How present we are in our world is what makes us humans uniquely so. How conscious we are of every fine detail in life.

The choice is up to you, how do you want to draw your desires? Commit with intent.

Present is Presence

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It may be an old axiom beaten around the bush, but presence is a truly remarkable state.

If you cry, you are feeling. If you help you are building. If you wait you are respecting. If you hold you are encouraging. If you are aware you are present.

Present isn’t just now. It’s really not. Now is far too restricting.

My friend Brian Thompson, aka. Thorny Bleeder just reminded me of satori in his recent Medium post on the unfolding of happiness. Though he was talking about taking the steps to ensure happiness will have the ground to awaken within, I feel that presence can also lead to happiness.

What’s it called when you accept what happens, when you recognize beyond verbally expressed explanation the caveats of a situation? What’s it called when you bob and dip with the punches?

What’s it called when you do take precious moments to acknowledge little things in life that can easily be – and very often are – missed?

Whatever that’s called, that’s where it comes from. That’s where presence resides. I also believe that’s where happiness builds.

Left Brained, Right Brained, Center Brained, My Brained

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Perhaps you’re the kind of person that likes to identify with trends, use labels, associate activities with certain characteristics.

To be able to quickly and easily identify people with a label and then be startled when sometime in the future your prejudices are shattered doesn’t sound too open and willing to me, but perhaps I’m being prejudiced.

A friend of mine just called me ’emo’ because I said I wanted the slowest and most emotional music possible. She thinks I’m about to cry now. All I can think is how unfortunate it is that she has now lost all abilities to experience the very beautiful music I was listening to.

I just read this piece on The Guardian debunking the myth that there is no such thing as the left brain and right brain. There is no isolation. They work in unison. There is no separation, and has never been. And in fact, the separation has apparently never been proven by research, it’s just psychologist looking for catch-all phrases to characterize people.

The most important message from this article was the last paragraph.

What research has yet to refute is the fact that the brain is remarkably malleable, even into late adulthood. It has an amazing ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections between brain cells, allowing us to continually learn new things and modify our behavior. Let’s not underestimate our potential by allowing a simplistic myth to obscure the complexity of how our brains really work. ~Amy Novotney

Letting labels cloud the future is a dangerous proposition. Mind the gap.