…since rushing sets up a whole multitude of antagonistic vibrations.”
When I slow down, my life-time increases.
With more time, there’s more to experience.
Because with more time, you have more focus, and more presence.
Quote credit: Alan Watts
Tag: presence
She said something, and I missed it
(1 min to read)
So that’s why I had to leave, she concluded.
Ack, what was she talking about?
She’d been talking about her mother, and how her mother had helped her sister, and not her, and then something…I’d gotten lost. I hadn’t been paying attention.
All attention is paid for. I paid my attention to…god-knows-what… instead of her. We all must lose something in giving something. Opportunity cost: I choose to go out to this movie, with this person, and so I don’t get to go to the park with that other person, or I sacrifice reading a book, or writing a book, or a writing a song.
And then there’s the attention you put towards everything in life. That attention is your time, and you’re paying it constantly, towards your choosing. But even when you’re not choosing, you’re still choosing to do something with your time. You’re paying… I’m paying… for everything, all the time!
The payment of your attention is a special payment. It’s the payment that invests. With the person you’re interacting with, you pay attention in order to gain something and give something directly back.
It may be the highest payment a person can give.
Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.
Please feel free to pass this along if you think others would enjoy it.
Look mom, no hands!
He’s planning to double-cross her, acting like he’s working for her, but taking money from his employer and is going to turn her over to them in the end. But then he falls in love with her.
Brilliant. It had taken me too long to get to this story premise. And that was because I had kept stopping to judge my output and pet my ego and feel satisfied with myself.
But as soon as you start thinking you’re doing a great thing, you stop doing so great.
Step out of the present, and you’ve begun losing your self. You begin losing the connection to your actions. Because you have stepped out of reality.
Stay present and in the act, not on the judging. Self-assessment can come after you’re done. Self-congratulations? Rarely.
Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.
Please feel free to pass this along if you think others would enjoy it.
Which is the focus? Your Flesh, Breath, or Mind?
(1 minute to read)
“Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh, and breath, and the ruling part. Throw away your books; no longer distract yourself: it is not allowed; Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. It is blood and bones and a network of nerves, veins, and arteries.
See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is, air, and not always the same air, but every moment sent out and again sucked in.
Finally, there is the ruling part: consider this: You are an old man; no longer let the mind be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to selfish impulses, no longer either be dissatisfied with your present lot, or shrink from the future.”
-Marcus Aurelius (from Meditations)
Follow me and I will take you away from the everyday.
If this is something you care about, then SHARE it. Less observation. More participation.
Later never comes
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
The single best exercise in the gym
I recall all the time I spent in the gym as a youngin. Two hours easily gone, almost every day. And the exercises weren’t even for fitness as much as appearances. We’re so busy today, time devoted to the gym is a super valuable commodity. Ron Burgundy was so pressed for time that he was forced to sculpt his guns at the office! I’m still trying to find that uvulus muscle of his…
Also, my title is a lie. I don’t have a single best exercise for the gym. What exercise you need depends on what you want. Big arms? Try a mix of testosterone-inducing squats and deadlifts mixed with bicep curls and tricep extensions and rows, all on the standard 3-sets per exercise with a minute or two rest between them. General fitness? Circuit-training: moving between exercises without rest, hitting all the major muscle groups, Men’s Health has some greats ones, see the Spartacus workout for a good example. Pure cardio, for a healthy heart? Interval sprints mixed with steady state running or ellipticalling or whatever interesting leg-gyrating machine your gym has these days (Except for the stationary bike, those are useless. A joke..but it would be my last choice of all the upright machines.)
But what if the gym is more than just exercise?
My time in the gym was back in the days before everyone had earbuds and their own personal radio station going in their head. When I was in the gym, we talked. There was a communion of sorts. Today, the gym is still a great source of connecting with like-minded individuals. You just have a slight barrier of rubber and plastic buffering you from hearing most everyone else. The trend though, is having a shared experience. We are shifting to Crossfit, and yoga, and even hot yoga (because yoga was just too easy, right?!)
But we’ve each got a life. Some of us want to get into the gym, do our business, and get back to our life. I’m definitely in that camp, now that I have so much more I want to accomplish than I did in my twenties. So what do I lose if I plug into my mobile and put a blinder to my surroundings?
We miss everything. Not only does sound get blocked, but what little residual attention we have goes to listening to our podcast, or music, or audio book. And for me, the gym is often the place I catch-up on that podcast or a few chapters of a book. The question is how much time am I actually spending in front of the screen or plugged into my earbuds?
To get this, we sacrifice that. And that could be something we didn’t even know we lost, because we just aren’t paying attention. An interesting conversation, a business opportunity, a romantic opportunity, or simply getting too distracted from what’s in your ear so that you can’t put 100% in your workout…whatever it is. It’s gone.
Can we take care of both body and mind? Surely.
Just stay aware..and leave an earbud out and let a little life in.
How to fix most all relationship problems
If I can’t live in the present, then I can’t love. Love is NOW. Living in a future of wants prevents me from sustaining love for anything, or anyone. And expecting love from someone who looks ahead, dissatisfied with himself or herself, is a losing proposition. And sure to make you unhappy in the process.
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