I really don’t mind the noise →

Published June 3, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 3  ·  

I’ve always had poor hearing.

(Yes, it’s been looked into. No, there’s no specific reason. Pro-tip: Some humans have sub-average hearing.)

So so so many things I could unpack about my personality, and who I am, which I now think are related to my hearing. For example, I’ve always been loud and gee, I wonder if being louder was related to my hearing. :) Put cotton in your ears and see how loud you start talking… Anywho.

Exactly three years ago I went and got hearing aids. Now most people who need them, hem and haw and fight their wives—oops, did I just call out the men? I flipped to the “team hearing aids” in one conversation.

I was at someone’s house, in the evening after a wonderful meal. Bunch of us hanging out and we’re having an incredible conversation. I was about 8 podcast episodes into my [what would become the] Movers Mindset project. One of the people in the conversation was someone I really wanted to interview; not that night, but soon.

And I was seriously pissed that I couldn’t hear half of what was being said.

Next day I made an appointment for the following week. I bought a pair (they aren’t cheap) at my first appointment. I call them my cyborg implants; I am Craig of Borg. Everyone who knows me well, was like, “hey what happened to Craig he suddenly got drastically quieter?”

What does any of this have to do with my title?

OH. MY. GAWD. BECKY the world is loud! The birds and the planes—did you know jets make noise when they fly over?—and the highway a mile over and the road when you drive and people… holy cow are some people REALLY LOUD! And podcast interviews… when I’m interviewing people, with headphones on, or talking in person, or strolling down the street where I can’t see their lips (aside: I read lips very well)… ambrosia through my ears. But the world is LOUD.

…and I love every second of it.

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Weston Edwards | Chronic Joint Pain & Unresolved Injuries →

Published June 3, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 3

On Castbox.fm — Weston Edwards | Chronic Joint Pain & Unresolved Injuries

How can individuals navigate and manage chronic pain, and what role does movement and mindset play in the recovery process?

Movement can both exacerbate and alleviate pain, depending on how it’s approached and integrated into daily life.

[I]f movement is part of your life, then movement has to be part of the answer. Especially because most people will have an association of movement with either increased risk of injury, [or] increased fear of doing further damage.

~ Weston Edwards (13:11)

The conversation explores the complexities of chronic pain, emphasizing that recovery often blends personal experiences, emotional resilience, and movement practices. Weston shares insights from his own journey overcoming fibromyalgia, highlighting the need for both scientific understanding and intuitive, experimental approaches to healing. Movement, despite its association with injury, often becomes a key element in managing and alleviating chronic pain.

Another key topic is the role of emotional support and community in dealing with long-term pain. The conversation stresses that individuals suffering from chronic pain frequently encounter isolation and misunderstandings from those around them. Holding space and offering empathy without attempting to fix the problem becomes essential. The importance of owning one’s healing process and embracing trial and error is also underscored, as the journey through chronic pain rarely follows a linear path.

Takeaways

Chronic pain and emotional impact — Chronic pain often isolates individuals emotionally, making support and empathy vital.

Movement as therapy — Incorporating movement into life can aid recovery, even when pain creates fear around physical activity.

Contradictory experiences — Effective healing practices may conflict with logical explanations, highlighting the individualized nature of recovery.

Role of community — Unconditional presence and emotional support are often more helpful than advice or attempts to fix the issue.

Self-guided journey — Recovery requires personal ownership and a proactive approach to exploring potential solutions.

Resources

Art of Retreat — Organization behind the leadership and education retreat.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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The time assigned to you →

Published June 2, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 2  ·  ,

Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions have been given you, and you didn’t use them. At some point you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.

~ Marcus Aurelius

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Care and feeding →

Published June 1, 2020  ·  All posts on Jun 1  ·  

I recently read Ray Bradbury’s, How To Keep And Feed A Muse. It’s a great essay by the way, and I suggest reading the entire collection in his book, Zen in The Art of Writing.

When I give my thoughts on interviewing, depending on who’s asked me and why, I sometimes veer off into describing where the questions come from; right smack in the middle of the interview, where do all the questions come from? Sometimes I do actively try to think them up on the spot; I’ll run through the topics we’ve covered, the ideas I had before we started, and then I’ll grab a thread of thinking and tug. But that rarely works and it’s always obvious to the guest, to me, and in the recording. Most of the time however, the questions just come to me. Like, *flash* …they come streaming at me far faster than I could say them. So what’s up with that?!

Maybe it’s my muse?

Have you heard of tulpas? A “tulpa” was originally, “a concept in mysticism and the paranormal of a being … created through spiritual or mental powers.” (Wikipedia) No, not that tulpa.

More recently, the term is being used to refer to… Well, you’re not going to believe me, so I’ll just pull-quote it:

A tulpa is an entity created in the mind, acting independently of, and parallel to your own consciousness. They are able to think, and have their own free will, emotions, and memories. In short, a tulpa is like a sentient person living in your head, separate from you. It’s currently unproven whether or not tulpas are truly sentient, but in this community, we treat them as such. It takes time for a tulpa to develop a convincing and complex personality; as they grow older, your attention and their life experiences will shape them into a person with their own hopes, dreams and beliefs.

~ What Is A Tulpa from, What is a tulpa?

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No, it’s not a joke. There are no drugs involved. They are literally talking about creating an entire, additional, thinking, conscious mind… which just happens to be running in the same physical organ as your mind. Sounds completly ape-shit-bonkers… until you start reading more about it and put some thought into how your mind developed. You [you reading. you as your current mind] certainly weren’t born in your brain. You-as-your-current-mind developed over years. How’d that happen?

What if you could do it again, on purpose, using your current brain?

Today I find myself wondering if I’ve created a nascent Tulpa. It doesn’t seem to mind being stuck in my brain; it has no control, but every once in a while it realizes there’s a cool, novel, human mind across the table, and here are these ice-cream-cone like things with the wires and… “oh OH! I have a question!!!”

…and then Craig’s all like, “now where did that question come from?”

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Mono versus stereo →

Published May 31, 2020  ·  All posts on May 31  ·  

As people get started in podcasting, the question soon comes up: Mono versus stereo?

For the Movers Mindset podcast, we produce our content as mono, and not because we don’t care about audio quality—rather, because I don’t feel stereo gains me anything. Here’s a bunch of things to consider:

But first, an aside: Newb mistake with voices: Don’t put one voice in one channel, and the other voice in the other channel. This isn’t “stereo”, it’s simply a mistake.

Data file size: Stereo is roughly twice the size as mono. Two channels of data versus one, so double the size. Size directly affects download time, storage size on listeners’ devices, their cellular data usage, and relates to my personal disdain for data-size bloat on the Internet in general; all of which cause me to take that “twice the size” very seriously. If the file is going to be twice as big, I want it to be twice as good—or at least drastically better. Stereo isn’t, and so this alone is enough for me to pick mono.

Monaural listening: Many people only put one ear bud in, and some people only have one ear.

Mostly voices: The Movers Mindset podcast is mostly people talking. In fact, it’s mostly just two people talking… often just one person at a time. That single sound source is picked up by one microphone. The other voice, in one other microphone. So here again, publishing stereo gets me no improvement in the final product.

Music: is usually generated by a collection of instruments and voices and that performance does have a three-dimensional aspect. And that’s why we see music in stereo… but we also see lots of “surround sound” systems that do a much better job than a simple left-right channel setup. Meanwhile, the Movers Mindset podcast doesn’t have any music at all, so this doesn’t even factor into our decision. (We use just simple cords, played on a single guitar, recorded—you guessed it—with a single microphone. So even our “music” is already in mono.)

Immersion: If I wanted to really go all-in, to record what it really sounds like—what would it sound like if I was literally sat there—you need to use binaural recording. This involves using two microphones positioned literally like the human eardrums are. This requires either using expensive microphones that you wear in your ears, or using microphones which are built inside a mannequin head. Because it turns out that the presence of your head and bone conduction all affect how things sound to us.

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Fasting →

Published May 30, 2020  ·  All posts on May 30  ·  ,

Fasting is nothing more than intentionally restricting what, or when, you choose to eat. Over the years I’ve posted a good bit about fasting. If this is new to you, start with my post, Ten years and About that diet.

In my battle with depression, I’ve become convinced that inflammation is a causal factor; being over-weight is generally inflammatory and then eating inflammatory foods can tip me over into an acute episode of depression. To be clear: I’m literally saying that if my weight is up, and I eat the wrong food, the following day will be a shit-show of depression.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about—AWESOME. I’m so happy for you. (That’s not sarcasm.)

…okay, you’re still reading. Here’s something new [as in: I’ve not posted this URL on my blog before] from Pilon:

I’ve found stats saying it’s the 4th leading cause of disability worldwide and that mood disturbances including depression will lead to an epidemic of disease in the 21st century in the western world. It’s clear that depression needs to be addressed more often than it currently is in the mainstream and health and fitness media. I find depression particularly interesting because of the connection with inflammation.

~ Brad Pilon from, Intermittent Fasting and Depression (an inflammation link?)

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Curious, it’s almost as if what I eat matters…

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What’s in a title? →

Published May 29, 2020  ·  All posts on May 29  ·  

Should I write the title first, or last?

Should the title be a clear signpost of what is to come?

…or should the title prepare the reader?

…prime their mental state, jar them out of common trains of thought, give them the first bit of context, …

Should the title be short, or loquacious?

An interrogative or a statement.

Should the tense (present, past, passive, active, …) match, or provide counter-point?

If I practiced by writing 2,509 titles would I be able to write a title for a post on titles?

Could I remove the titles entirely?

Should I remove the titles entirely?

What is my intention for having titles? (Hi Angie!)

Should I have the same intention each time I’m composing a title?

Could the title be revealed last—only after the piece is read?

Email has a subject line; not a title line.

Does a title convey the subject?

…always? …sometimes? …maybe it never should?

Can a subject be a title?

Could a title contain the subject but also serve some as-yet-undiscovered-by-me purpose?

Should a title set the tone?

…create tension? …allude to the subject?

…and be short?

Do people judge what I write by the title?

Do people who read a lot of my posts, versus those who are having their first experience, use the titles differently?

Or maybe the title’s primary purpose is to serve as a mental bookmark for the piece after it’s been read?

Wait. What was I going to write about today?

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Point Reyes Lighthouse →

Published May 28, 2020  ·  All posts on May 28

Serious work →

Published May 27, 2020  ·  All posts on May 27  ·  

Well, then, are we teachers the only idle dreamers? No; it is you young men who are much more so. For, indeed, we old men, when we see young ones at play, are keen to join in that play ourselves. Far more so, then, if I saw them wide awake and keen to join us in our studies, should I be eager myself to join with them in serious work.

~ Epictetus

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Nikkie Zanevsky: Coaching, inclusivity, and empathy →

Published May 27, 2020  ·  All posts on May 27  ·  

Nikkie Zanevsky: Coaching, inclusivity, and empathy

How can inclusive coaching practices and a focus on empathy improve learning and growth for diverse groups in movement disciplines like parkour?

When she first learned about parkour back in ’06, Nikkie Zanevsky never dreamed it would lead to her quitting her day job and starting her own movement company. Nikkie sits down to reflect on her approach to coaching, structuring classes, and creating an experience for her students. She shares her own methods of learning and growing, and how it impacts her coaching. Nikkie shares her insights on success, inclusivity and gender in parkour, and the importance of starting before you’re ready.

For me, my favorite part of coaching is activating everyone in the space to work with each other and to learn from each other, but I feel like I can do that better if I know something about each of the people and how to activate that.

~ Nikkie Zanevsky

The conversation explores the integration of empathy, inclusivity, and diverse movement modalities in coaching practices. Nikkie discusses her approach to creating a supportive environment for learners of all ages and skill levels. She emphasizes the importance of understanding individual needs and fostering collaboration among participants.

Key themes include the role of failure as a pathway to growth, the psychological barriers faced by older participants, and the value of blending disciplines like parkour, strength training, and playful movement. The discussion also highlights how societal expectations can influence participation and the importance of challenging norms to create equitable learning experiences.

Takeaways

Empathy in coaching — Nikkie emphasizes understanding and adapting to the needs of each participant.

Failure as a learning tool — Regularly facing challenges and setbacks builds resilience and empathy.

Diverse modalities — Combining parkour with strength training and playful elements enhances learning.

Psychological barriers — Older adults often face mental and social hurdles to engaging in new physical practices.

Inclusive environments — Structured indoor and outdoor spaces can make movement more approachable.

Impact of societal norms — Challenging expectations about age, gender, and ability fosters inclusivity.

Resources

Wildly Fit — Nikkie’s New York-based movement coaching and team-building company.

Grit — Angela Lee Duckworth’s book referenced for its focus on perseverance and passion.

The Movement Creative — A collaborative movement community co-founded by Nikkie.

Firestorm Freerunning & Acrobatics — Mentioned as a model for a thriving parkour business.

American Rendezvous — An event noted for its inclusivity across all skill levels.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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