Consistency

Right now, having taken on a full-time job, it is a lot of effort to keep the rest of my activities going. Like the podcast. And even thinking about a social life makes me want to sit down.

I remind myself to be consistent. That starting a new job takes energy, but it is not going to be this energy sapping for long. It also requires the creation of new routines which also require some trial and error before they are optimised, but then they become optimised and easy.

So for this period my priority is to do the basics of looking after myself well: sleep, food, movement, meditation. My other priority is to be consistent in producing the podcast, writing this blog, and of course showing up and producing great work at my new job.

Soon I will have time and space and energy for other things. But right now it is about getting through a slightly more difficult period.

Cold showers

Each morning I have a cold shower for 30 seconds after my piping hot shower. While I never enjoy this experience, I get so much out of it, like the following:

1) It would be so easy to dread going into the shower each morning knowing that I am going to have an uncomfortable experience at the end of it. I remind myself to enjoy each part of the shower, making the most of the warmth and comfort while it is there.

-- Broader lesson for the day: live in each moment, even when knowing that there is discomfort ahead, there is no need to let that deprive me of what is happening in the current moment.

2) As soon as the cold hits me I am tempted to switch off from what I am feeling and ignore it, or to try and act as if I can handle it without overt expression or emotion. Both are not helpful. The truth is I can't help but move around; my breathing gets heavy; sometimes I even yell. But as I allow myself to feel the unpleasantness of the cold shower, the feelings somehow pass right through me and my body experiences a flow and release.

-- Broader lesson for the day: feelings and emotions are there to be felt. As the appear through the day, no matter what they are, I acknowledge them and let them do their thing as they pass through my body.

3) Just before I turn the shower from hot to cold, I start telling myself that I don't want to do this. That it will be too painful. That I can't handle it. And then I do it anyway. The truth is I can handle it. It is 30 seconds of discomfort, and I can stay with that discomfort for as long as I need to.

-- Broader lesson for the day: even when I know something is going to be uncomfortable, I have the power and agency to choose to enter into it, and the will to stay with the feeling until it ends.

4) Once I count to 30 and turn the shower off, the energy the is running through my body is joyful. Sometimes I start giggling. I always feel ready for the next thing, despite how lethargic I was feeling before getting into the shower.

-- Broader lesson: I have energy reserves available to me that I don't always access. When I am feeling down or lethargic, the positive energy I need is not actually that far away, and can be quickly unlocked.

I'm not sure I will every really enjoy the cold shower. However I am starting to value what I get from the exercise.

Dinner leftovers for breakfast

The leader of an entrepreneurial and self-development program I did recent gave me an answer I was not expecting.

As part of this program we looked at the big ways we can help improve our personal vitality and effectiveness. This included working through modules on sleep, meditation, movement, and positive psychology.

I was going for walk with him one day and asked him if eating and food was one of the upcoming personal vitality modules. He simple said 'No', that it was too hard and too controversial.

This was not the answer I was expecting because from where I am looking the things I put into our body are right up there with sleep, meditation and movement in improving how I feel and function in everyday life, not to mention their impact on my long term health. Changing the way I eat and drink has been a major factor in thriving through difficult periods.

I contrast this with somebody I heard talking on RRR radio last weekend. When asked what she recommended eating for breakfast, she reflected that eating cereal and toast were a relatively recent and culturally specific practise, and probably not that great for us. In times not too long ago, vegetables and meat for breakfast were much more common, and therefore she recommended the best breakfast was eating leftovers from the night before's dinner.

So I gave it a go during the week: chicken sausages, broccoli and carrots for breakfast. 

While it was a head spin for me and my kids who watched me do this with gaped mouths, my body felt great during the day (and I didn't feel like eating again until well after noon).

I was also a great challenge to how I think about the first meal of the day and set myself up to be the best I can, and also to what I have mindlessly taught my kids about this meal. 

Leftovers anyone?

11 minutes with a lightsaber

Call me a bad parent, but generally about ten minutes of playing Star Wars imaginary fights with a 3 and 5 year old is my limit. I get to 11 minutes and I start to lose the will to live. Energy seeps from my pores, and I am ready to lie down and sleep for the rest of the day. 

I got to minute 11 for about the third time today and while I was ready to collapse on the floor, I also had a subtle sense of an observation about myself. I realised that I seemed to be able to control my enthusiasm for the game, and hence my energy levels and commitment to playing it, based on what I was focusing on. 

This is still a thought in development but it seemed to me that when I only cared about the moves I was making with my lightsaber, rather than what I was suppose to be doing in the game, I began to approach (I can't quite believe it either) enjoying myself!

I am not quite sure what this is, but I am wondering if it is along the lines of following my own moves, rather than the moves I think I am suppose to be making.  That there is much more fun and energy to be had in finding my own fun in something, rather than trying to tap into somebody else's. If I can turn a lightsaber fight into an experiment with how I can dance with a blade, rather than trying to work out and then follow the fluid rules of a 3 year old, then it can be fun! 

I seem to be getting a few life lessons from tiny humans at the moment.