Posts Tagged ‘human nature’

Just #Begin, the Rest Follows

Posted: January 18, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Just begin, the rest follows.

Getting started is the hardest part. Momentum can sustain itself.

There is a reason that beginning is so hard in our minds. Inertia. We need the extra effort to get started. A great external example is a space ship. The rocket blast to begin the launch and get the ship into space.

I can remember countless times, the internal feeling of some invisible, probably imaginary force pushing against my body. Making me feel mentally, emotionally, and physically uncomfortable. How am I supposed to start something new when I donā€™t feel good?

That is a natural thought. That is a normal reaction. I doubt Iā€™m the only human in the history of the world to experience a fantom, physical form of resistance.

Steven Pressfield, one of my favorite authors, has built a wonderful career on his wisdom towards the concept of resistance. His book, The Art of War is the book Iā€™ve gifted the most alongside The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday.

Resistance is the rule. Consistent effort is the exception. If that wasnā€™t true, we would be living in an unrecognizable utopia, probably resembling the world in Star Trek.

Iā€™ve been practicing yoga on and off for fifteen years. I have to say on an off because I canā€™t in all honesty say Iā€™ve been practicing consistently for that long. I can probably say Iā€™ve been practicing yoga consistently for two years, maybe three. The first time I did yoga in 2008-2009, I felt great. I loved it. I knew then I wanted to make it a regular part of my life.

Yet, I still to literally this very day, five hours ago when I did yoga, I procrastinated starting it for like an hour at least. Even though it makes me feel physically good whenever I do it. Even though itā€™s good for my physical and mental health. Yet the resistance to starting, is both strong, and dug in like a tick.

But every time when I actually start doing yoga, every time, before Iā€™m done with my first down dog pose, I feel good, am glad I started, and finish the entire routine I set out to do whether Iā€™m winging it or using a guide on YouTube.

Itā€™s like that for everything. Maybe not everything feels good when we start. But when we start, and are actually doing the thing, taking action, putting forth the effort, itā€™s easier to keep going. Itā€™s definitely easier to keep going than our resistance and procrastination would lead us to believe in our inner monologue.

Just begin, the rest follows.

Naturally #Human

Posted: January 16, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Nature trail walks/hikes have been a life saver for me.

During the Covid lockdowns in America, I was blessed to live five minutes by car from a nature trail. I went there early and often during those dark days.

Sometimes I go on walks with my earbuds in, sometimes not. Sometimes I stay for hours, sometimes just an abbreviated loop that amounts to the traditional coffee break. But every time I go, I feel at least a little better than I did before being in nature.

Itā€™s called forest bathing. What a blessing.

I canā€™t recommend it enough. I live in the midwestern area of the United States. It is currently too cold and too snowy to really even go outside for anything beyond survival essentials.

During these times I find myself watching nature documentaries. Or watching HD nature scenery with ambient music in the background on YouTube. Certainly not the same as the real thing, but thereā€™s a calling to seeing nature that soothes my soul.

When I get off the main trail and am genuinely surrounded by trees, bushes, flowers, plants, grass, weeds, dirt, birds and bugsā€¦I feelā€¦at homeā€¦I feelā€¦at peace.

Because humans are apart of nature. Just because we as a species want to poor a concrete layer over the entire planet, doesnā€™t mean that we didnā€™t come from nature. The forests are home. Nature is home.

The lessons to be learned from observing and being in nature, I feel, directly help combat the mental and emotional illnesses that are becoming rampant in the modern, developed, first world countries of the world.

Be Aware of #CognitiveDistortions

Posted: January 15, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Every day I have a reminder of my phone set to go off that says ā€œI am Aware of Cognitive Distortionsā€. It only goes off once per day. I could probably use another two or threeā€¦dozen reminders over the course of the day, as could most people.

Cognitive distortions or perceiving reality inaccurately, is as natural and normal and easy and automatic as breathing. Is it possible for people to not interpret and assign meaning to the things that happen to them? Yes. Is that the normal, commonplace way most humans live? No

Framing what happens to us in a positive way is obviously preferable. But if the majority of people had a positive way at looking at the world, the world we live in would be unrecognizable. Weā€™d be closer to the Garden of Eden than not.

Negativity is natural. Itā€™s part of how we have evolved. Itā€™s how we have survived from hunter gatherers to farmers to the industrial revolution to the information age. Unfortunately the information age has put cognitive distortions on steroids. Social media echo chambers, travel vlog FOMO, influencer sensationalization, hustle culture, face filters and photoshop.

All designed to exploit our tendency towards cognitive distortions; to think less of ourselves, more of the content creators, so that we will spend our time, attention, and emotional reactions on whatever theyā€™re selling.

Being aware of cognitive distortions brings a bit of wisdom to the information age that drowns us collectively and individually. Awareness is the way out after all. No magic pill. Awareness is less than action. But often right action wonā€™t come unless awareness is there.

Positive, productive, beneficial cognitive distortions are preferred to the negative. It is almost always better to frame what is happening to us in a way that is productive as long as it doesnā€™t bring harm to anyone else.

Today however, as an exercise in having our feet on the ground while our headsā€™ are in the clouds, lets try to observe the external reality we live in with objectivity first. This is as it is. Acknowledge the is-ness of the moment. Be aware of what is happening without assigning labels. Then take action from there.

This is Eckhart Tolle 101. Practical. Applicable. Real world helpful.

Separated from the spiritual enlightenment and fulfillment practices that Tolle is synonymous with.

Thereā€™s #Value in Going Through the Motions

Posted: January 12, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Habits are not dependent on enthusiasm.

Forming and cementing habits is about repetition.

Just do it, over and over and over and over and over again.

Does it have to be great every time? NO

Does it have to be good every time? no

Do you still need to do it even when you donā€™t want to? Yes

That is where the mental disconnect is for myself and the majority of people when it comes to establishing and sticking to new habits. When starting something new, itā€™s rarely if ever going to be good at first.

The not wanting to do something different is baked into the human condition. If starting and sticking to new, hard things was easy we would be living in a utopia.

What I have found in my experience is the lack of motivation gets its fuel from the thought of not wanting to be bad, look bad, come across as bad, etc.

Bad meaning inferior, mediocre, amateur, inadequate.

People donā€™t like looking foolish. Thatā€™s human nature. One can notice this in the ratio of creators to critics.

One of the things that has helped me is taking enthusiasm and expectation of quality out of the equation. I have so many journal entries that have the line ā€œIā€™m just going through the motionsā€ written, then list what I did that day, what I ate that day, my current mood, etc. With the end goal being habitual daily journal writing.

Not quality journal writing. Habitual journal writing.

Not quality published essays/articles/blogs (at first). Habitually published essays/articles/blogs.

Itā€™s so natural and so common and so normal to resist doing something because weā€™ll be bad at it at first. I stopped playing video games because my friends all got way better than me and I didnā€™t want to keep losing to them and didnā€™t want to invest the time into getting better.

On the other end of the importance spectrum; after finally following my lifeā€™s dream of becoming a professional wrestler, I resisted practicing and taking low level indy bookings because I didnā€™t want to look foolish or embarrass myself.

Every bar and nightclub in the history of the world has been filled with men and women who donā€™t talk to each other because theyā€™re scared of sounding foolish on approach and/or looking foolish if rejected.

So consider taking positive expectations, excitement, and enthusiasm out of the equation and just go through the motions. Literally saying to yourself internally or out load thatā€™s what youā€™re doing in the process. Or writing it down. Or texting it to yourself. As long as the thing you want to do gets done, today.

Then the next day. Then the next day. Then next week. Then the week after that. Then next month. Then the month after that. Until itā€™s just something you do. Until the thing you want to do is something that you start to do on autopilot. Until you know you are going to do it that day as your default setting when you wake up (and have your morning coffee).

Itā€™s when we reach the point of doing it by default, that we can shift our focus to proficiency, quality, excellence, and hopefully one dayā€¦mastery.

Thereā€™s value in just going through the motions.

#Create One Thing at a Time

Posted: January 10, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Many of my journal entries over the past year or two have ended with me writing the words; one thing at a time.

Getting started can be so, so hard. The internal resistance to putting forth external effort and action if measurable, would go off the charts and break the instruments.

When one is able to at least temporarily squeeze through or push past perfectionism and create something, regardless of quality, the inner pressure release and sense of relief would be the equivalent of sky diving, while holding and anvil.

One thing at a time

One action at a time

One choice at a time

What is quality? What is good and bad? The gatekeepers have been out to lunch for decades at this point. Just do it.

Spotlight effect often holds people back. I know it held me back. With a little (or a lot) of Imposter Syndrome mixed in.

One thing I realized, after a very, very long time of thinking about it, journaling about it, meditating about it, drinking about itā€¦was that if I really did think what I wanted to create was so bad then I wouldnā€™t be negatively judging otherā€™s so frequently and/or so harshly.

But thatā€™s not what weā€™re doing when weā€™re negatively judging other acts of creation. Weā€™re projecting self hatred. I know I was. It got to the point where I was getting into verbal conflicts with people I hardly knew at bars overā€¦nothing. I think back to what started those verbal tiffs and after I cringe, I slap myself in the forehead and stay there because they never actually said or did anything. I was just projecting my self hatred onto others because I wasnā€™t doing what I wanted to do which was creating.

A creator that doesnā€™t create, otherwise known as a writer or artist sans the word professional prefixed.

Just publishing blogs, articles, essays, and thoughts has changed my mental and emotional state immeasurably. Is my content good? Is it important? Is it impactful? Well all metrics of external success would say no, then to pat me on my head and say at least you tried.

But itā€™s good for me. Itā€™s working for me. Itā€™s helping me. And you canā€™t help others unless you help yourself first. You canā€™t feed others from an empty bowl. You canā€™t put on someone elseā€™s oxygen mask if you are suffocating to death yourself.

One thing at a time

One action at a time

One choice at a time

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