On this day

January 27th

Where does it come from?

January 27

Not every time that we talk about consciousness are we talking about experience. Sometimes ‘consciousness’ refers to awakeness. When you’re asleep at night, or blacked out from too much to drink, you’re not conscious in this sense of the term. Alternatively, sometimes ‘consciousness’ refers to awareness. It’s this kind of consciousness that you lack when you’ve zoned out while driving. You’re awake, but not you’re not fully aware of your surroundings. It’s also this kind of consciousness that activists target when they engage in the process of consciousness raising.

~ Amy Kind, from How to think about consciousness

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I no longer get stuck wondering where did my consciousness come from when I was born. Nope. I’m now stuck on: Where does it go every night when I fall asleep. …and where does it come from each morning that I awake?

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And in the end

January 27, 2023

It’s great to live a life of courage and compassion… but all the courage and compassion in the world doesn’t make any of it any easier. All it can do is hopefully make it more meaningful, somehow.

~ Hugh MacLeod, from «https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2022/07/12/the-one-choice-all-fulfilled-people-make/»

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I’d go further: The more courage and compassion I muster, the harder it gets. Compassion gives me a big “why” that burns inside, driving me to the next, harder challenge. Courage begets more courage; With each win won through courage, it becomes easier to again deploy courage intentionally. It seems that courage and compassion lead to the tackling of increasing great and difficult challenges. Meaning is great, but I haven’t yet figured out how to use any of it to pay the proverbial rent.

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Moving with Sarah Mohr

January 27, 2022

Moving with Sarah Mohr

What roles do movement, play, and internal-external balance play in human connection and self-expression?

The balance between internal and external experiences shapes how individuals perceive and express themselves.

Let us have the capacity to lose the safety, and the illusion of the safety, that we are given in our century, to figure out that pain is our beautiful companion.

~ Sarah Mohr (16:32)

The conversation explores the intrinsic human connection to movement and play, emphasizing how these activities serve as fundamental forms of communication. The discussion highlights the cultural differences in how movement and play are expressed, with some societies engaging more openly and visibly, while others internalize their play through structured or intellectual means. The relationship between internal and external experiences of play is dissected, particularly through the lens of dance, where the external beauty perceived by audiences contrasts with the internal mental and physical challenges faced by the dancer.

Another key focus is the integration of pain and love as essential forces for learning and personal growth. Pain is presented as a necessary companion that helps individuals rediscover their authentic selves and reconnect with forgotten aspects of their identities. This rediscovery is tied to the idea of balance, both within oneself and in relation to external perceptions, underscoring the role of self-awareness and trust in navigating life’s complexities.

Takeaways

Rediscovering forgotten selves — A significant part of personal growth involves reconnecting with aspects of oneself that have been neglected or forgotten.

Cultural approaches to play — Different societies exhibit varying levels of visible or internalized engagement with play.

Pain as a learning tool — Pain is essential for building trust, love, and a deeper understanding of oneself and the world.

Dance as a metaphor — Dance exemplifies the duality of internal struggle and external expression, providing insights into broader human experiences.

Integration of experiences — Personal growth often requires integrating disparate experiences into a cohesive understanding of oneself.

The illusion of safety — Breaking free from the illusion of safety can lead to profound self-discovery and freedom.

Internal versus external truth — Balancing internal perceptions with external realities is central to authentic expression and connection.

Movement as communication — Movement is an intrinsic and universal form of human expression and interaction.

Resources

Sarah Isabel Mohr @saisabelmohr

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Amy Slevin: Flow Motion, pain, and routines

January 27, 2021

Amy Slevin: Flow Motion, pain, and routines

How does one integrate diverse movement practices, personal philosophies, and life experiences to create something unique while addressing challenges like pain and injury?

Not quite fitting in can seem negative, but it is what inspired Amy Slevin to create something new. She unpacks the role movement holds in her life, and how she came to create FlowMotion Yoga. Amy discusses her thoughts on pain and injury, particularly within parkour. She shares her personal routines, habits, and what she’s been reading.

I started doing yoga— never connected with it, but I wanted it to help me. I wanted it to help me with my anxiety, with my grieving, and all that kind of stuff, and it just never did. But the physical side of yoga I really connected with, and I found it quite interesting exploring these different ways of moving my body in the yoga capacity, and seeing how that compared with parkour.

~ Amy Slevin (5:58)

Amy Slevin is an osteopath turned yoga instructor who teaches in London, UK. She founded FlowMotion Yoga to help people feel better in their bodies, while sharing her love of movement and playfulness. Amy also teaches workshops about movement, pain, and injury, and is passionate about empowering her students through both movement and mindset.

The discussion explores how movement serves as a tool for self-discovery and overcoming personal challenges. It begins with an exploration of parkour, yoga, and osteopathy, revealing how these disciplines shaped one person’s perspective on movement and pain. Key insights emerge around the struggles of aligning with the philosophical aspects of yoga while embracing its physical benefits. The integration of parkour’s playfulness and osteopathy’s anatomical knowledge into a unique practice highlights a creative approach to healing and personal growth.

The conversation goes into the broader themes of self-regulation and injury prevention within movement disciplines, particularly parkour. There is an emphasis on listening to one’s body and avoiding external pressures that lead to overexertion. Additional reflections address the mental and emotional dimensions of pain, drawing on personal experiences and professional insights. The discussion concludes by addressing how practices like reading, reflection, and adapting routines contribute to mental clarity and resilience.

Takeaways

Pain and movement — Insights into how physical practices can address emotional and mental challenges.

Injury prevention — Recognizing mental and situational patterns that lead to injuries.

Self-regulation — Emphasizing the importance of tuning into one’s physical and mental limits.

Integrative practices — Combining knowledge from diverse disciplines to create new movement philosophies.

Mindset and expectations — Exploring how shifting expectations can improve personal experiences.

Resources

Amy Slevin @amyslevin_

Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl’s book mentioned as influential and reflective of current times.

Diary of Anne Frank — Suggested for its perspective on confinement and resilience.

Ekhart Yoga — Online yoga platform where Amy Slevin’s classes are featured.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Reflection: Day 27

January 27, 2021

CONCENTRATION — “It takes but a little to destroy and overturn everything, just a slight deviation from reason. To overturn his ship, a helmsman does not need the same proficiency as he does to keep it safe, but, if he turns it a little too far into the wind, he is lost: and even if he does not do so deliberately, but simply loses his concentration for a moment, he is lost. Such is the case here too. If you nod off for just a moment, all that you have acquired up till then is gone.” ~ Epictetus, 4.3.4-6

You are using a trigger to practice reflection. Is there anything in your day that resembles the reflection trigger? Opportunities where you could reflect spontaneously?

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Arrived in the middle? Visit the first post, Where to begin?
(The entire series is available to download as a PDF ebook.)

What versus how

January 27, 2020

When you find yourself stuck on some decision, figure out if you are stuck on the ‘what’ or the ‘how’. Every situation is different, but here are some examples:

Thinking about marriage: You’re likely to be stuck on the ‘what’. Should I get married? Should I marry this person? You’re stuck on what should I do. If you decide to get married, it’s quite simple. You probably need a marriage license and a simple legal ceremony. The how you get married is almost always very easy.

Thinking about quitting college: You’re likely to be stuck on the ‘what’. Should I quit? Should I continue? How you quit is very easy; go to the Registrar’s office, and they’ll give you a form. (Actually, you could simply walk away and they’ll do the quitting for you.)

Thinking about changing jobs: You’re likely stuck on the ‘how’. I don’t like this job; I’d like that other career. Straightforward what I should do. But how do I do that? Existing family commitments, monetary support, contracts with your employer… So how you change jobs is hard.

Side hustles: I want to start a side-project working on my passion. How do I do that in my spare time? How do I create a business? How do I find some funding. Again, the what is easy and the how is hard.

It isn’t that being stuck on one versus the other is better or worse. But figuring out which you are stuck on—hopefully it’s one and not both—will clarify your thinking and will show you the type of help you should seek.

I know what I want to do, but I don’t know how to do it.

I don’t know what I want to do, but I know how to do it.

When you’re stuck, figure out where your “don’t” lies. Then figure out who you can ask for guidance to help you remove your “don’t” so you’re left with:

I know what I want to do, and I know how to do it.

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The devil always gets his due

January 27, 2019

Anyone can be an idealist. Anyone can be a cynic. The hard part lies somewhere in the middle i.e. being human.

~ Jason Korman, from «https://www.gapingvoid.com/content/uploads/assets/Moveable_Type/archives/001117.html»

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I’ve recently been on a run with posts about “balance” simply because that’s what I’m struggling with most these days. Confirmation bias then ensures I’m seeing things “about” balance everywhere.

realist: n., optimist with experience.

I’m not going to say the best place to be is always in the middle of a given spectrum. Actually, it’s not even perfectly clear to me that “idealist” and “cynic” are opposite ends of a spectrum; but I’ll run with that assumption for today. So given that acting from an entirely idealistic or cynical position is going to end badly… what can I take from that?

I think it’s pretty simple: Strive for the best, and plan for the worst. Running with that idea, I’ve been returning to my old, first step of my current journey: Self-awareness.

“Look, you’re freaking out. Simple fact.”

“Is this really the end of the world?”

“Is this maybe too far toward the cynical end of the spectrum?”

“Could I maybe do with a little less drama?”

“What if I turned around and looked back at what I’ve accomplished?”

“Would that at least bring me a little peace?”

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Do calories matter?

January 27, 2018

In a word, yes.  But, technically this is the wrong question.  The correct question is probably closer to, “What is the impact of the calories I consume on my body’s ability to store fat versus burn fat?”
…
Conventional wisdom, perhaps better referred to as Current Dogma, says that you gain weight because you eat more than you expend. This is almost true! To be 100% true, it would read: when you gain weight, it is the case that you have necessarily eaten more than you expended. Do you see the difference? It’s subtle but very important — arguably more important than any other sentence I will write. The first statement says over-eating caused you to get fat. The second one says if you got fat, you overate, but the possibility remains that another factor led to you to overeat.

~ Peter Attia, from «http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/do-calories-matter»

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All of the success in the last (roughly) five years boils down to the following strategy. Notice that “excercise” does NOT appear…

1) realize I would like to improve my health

2) read something (anything) about health, diet, metabolism… anything that piques my interest. But it has to be something I think is TRUE. No crazy “fad” stuff. Something sane like, “yogurt seems to be good for me to eat.”

3) reduce friction to lead to that change. NOT, “force change by making rules.” I want to eat more yogurt? …make sure it’s on the grocery list so it ENDS UP IN THE HOUSE. I want to stop eating Doritos? EAT LUNCH BEFORE GOING TO MARKET, DO NOT BUY DORITOS.

There is no step 4. Everything else happens automatically. There is NO CURE for curiosity. Each thing I read and adjust leads to more, interesting questions. And along the way, more activity just happens automatically as my health improves.

Yes yes yes. I’m personally interested in movement and Art du Déplacement, etc. So I’m also doing this process in that realm. Forget about that. The success with my health, came all from my diet.

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Haulin’ the mail

January 27, 2016

(Part 18 of 36 in series, 10,000 Reps Project)

Whatever it is that you think you could NEVER do, figure out how to make a small step in the direction of your goal. Take that first step. Then look back and say, “well, now that I’ve come this far, I may as well go a little farther.”

I hope someone reads this, gets riled up, and thinks: “YEAH! I want to go for a walk!” …or a run, or a 5k, or swing on some bars, or walk a flight of stairs without gasping for breath, or lower my cholesterol, or be alive to play with my grand-kids. Whatever your goal is, GO CRUSH IT!

I remember when doing ONE STINKING PULLUP was inconceivable. Now I’m doing 70 — yes SEVENTY — per workout. The things that used to CRUSH me in class? …that stuff’s now my WARM-UP. Here’s a part of the worksheet that shows what’s going on with the pullups odometer. 3,000 reps is in the past (again, INCONCEIVABLE!) 4,000 is right on the horizon. Every workout through 4,000 is planned. A few more of the workouts are an identical, “all 70’s”, setup. Then, there are three weeks of bumping everything up +5.

In this screenshot, I’ve just completed January 27th/Day #190. The yellow block is the next planned workout; an exact repeat of today. There are more columns for the other activities, but now that all the activities’ numbers are in sync, they’re all the same. The pattern of workouts-to-rests is work-rest-work-rest-rest so that I have a regular, two-day rest over and over. Also, that’s a 5 day pattern so my workouts do not have the same weekdays — that’s really important to keep things from turning into “Monday’s suck” if I had a fixed weekly pattern. The double-rest also gives me a space to pull a workout one-day-earlier if I need to rearrange things, without making it into a killer two-days-in-a-row. (The things you think of when you do this for six months. D8 )

Screen Shot 2016-01-27 at 4.08.34 PM

If anyone wants the details: The workouts are a ~45 minute circuit, based around 5 sets. Pushups, squats and bar-precisions are 5×14 (that’s 5 sets of 14 repititions.) The pullups are 5×6 (5 sets of 6 reps) plus 8×5 (8 sets of 5). So I do a set of pushups, squats and bar-pre’s to get really warmed up, then do a set of pullups between each set of everything else:

SET 1
14 pushups
14 squats
14 bar-precisions

SET 2
6 pullups
14 pushups
6 pullups
14 squats
6 pullups
14 bar-pre’s

SET 3
6 pullups
14 pushups
6 pullups
14 squats
5 pullups
14 bar-pre’s

SET 4
5 pullups
14 pushups
5 pullups
14 squats
5 pullups
14 bar-pre’s

SET 5
5 pullups
14 pushups
5 pullups
14 squats
5 pullups
14 bar-pre’s

FINALLY
5 final pullups (but sometimes I just wedge this in somewhere above)
40 second handstand (against wall)
30 second handstand

When I do a +5 bump, I just turn all those “14s” into “15s” and the 5-set layout makes a tidy +5. For pullups I can add a separate set of 5 at the end, or turn 5 5s into 5 6s, whatever — I have to see what I feel like in a few weeks.

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What if there is no spending problem?

January 27, 2015

Summing up: Liberals and conservatives agree that we have a long-term problem, but they argue about what kind of problem: a government spending problem or a healthcare cost problem.

Recently I ran into a potentially game-changing question: What if there is no problem? In other words, instead of being trapped in the dismal liberal/conservative argument about which apocalypse we’re headed towards, what if we’re actually not headed towards an apocalypse at all?

~ Doug Muder, from What if there’s no spending problem?

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My winter diary 1994

January 27, 2013

winter_diaryJAN 1 – The New Year dawns to a crisp winter morning. 3 inches of fresh snow adding to the snow that was already on the ground. This was the first “white Christmas” we have had in years. This new addition gives us a good snow cover. We clear the driveway quickly. It’s an easy job with everyone helping.

JAN 2 – 6 more inches of snow fell last night. I awakened to a beautiful winter wonderland. Snow covers everything and Jack Frost has decorated our windows. We clear the driveway again and have a snowball battle with the neighbors – WE WON! We are in awe of nature’s magnificent grandeur. Life is good. Them folks down south don’t know what they’re missing.

JAN 3 – Had to clear the end of the driveway because the snowplow pushed it closed. Also fixed the mailbox he knocked down. We all went for a walk in the snow and built a big snowman.

JAN 4 – 3 more inches of snow. Cleared the driveway again. No sooner finished, the snowplow closed the entrance again. I’l clear it tomorrow.

JAN 5 – Cleared the entrance to the driveway.

JAN 7 – 6 more inches of snow. Spent an hour and a half getting the snowblower started. I think the last time I used it was 1989. Put the mailbox back up. Mail can be delivered again.

JAN 10 – The temperature has not been above freezing in 17 days. Every flake of snow that came down is still here. The weatherman is predicting 14 inches of snow for tomorrow. That can’t be right!

JAN 12 – The weatherman was wrong. It snowed 18 inches. Spent the entire day shoveling and clearing our roads. Got some help for a while but not much. Soon as I finished the snowplow closed by driveway and knocked the mailbox down. No mail today.

JAN 13 – Bitter cold. Opened the end of the driveway again. Searched for a half hour to find the mailbox and then made quick repairs. Snowplow came by as soon as I finished. Near as I can figure, he waits around the corner watching me.

JAN 15 – More snow. I don’t know how much. There’s so much here I can’t keep track anymore. Who cares? The mailbox is down again. The hell with it. Who needs mail.

JAN 17 – Bitter cold – High winds – Dangerous wind chill factor. I cleared the end of the road. The snowplow came by as I lifted the last shovel full. I’ve had enough of this winter!

JAN 18 – Actual temperature -10F degrees. Coldest temperature in this area since the weather bureau has kept records. In the 30 seconds it takes me to walk to the garage my feet get cold, my hands and ears are numb, the hair in my nose is frozen, and I have ice in my mustache. Winter sucks!

JAN 20 – It warmed up to 30F degrees. Just warm enough to rain. 2 inches of rain. Everything is frozen – including me.

JAN 21 – Temperature drops to +10F degrees. The snowplow closed my driveway again and this time the snow mound is an immovable frozen ice mountain. Tried to clear with the snowblower. Hit something terrible and wrecked the snowblower – I think I found the mailbox! Terry says, “What’s the wether for tomorrow?” I say, “I stopped watching the weather channel – Surprise me.”

JAN 22 – SURPRISE! 8 inches of new snow. Managed to get to the hardware store to buy repair parts for the snowblower – they’re all sold out. They don’t have rock salt either. Cleared the end of the driveway again. I’m ready to move to Florida.

JAN 23 – Good News. The heatwave melted the snow on the roof but the gutters are frozen solid. The water is coming in around the front windows inside the house.

JAN 24 – Water started coming in the kitchen ceiling and bathroom window. The frozen bathroom window broke. Went to the hardware store for more buckets. They’re all sold out. Cleared the end of the driveway again. Broke the snow shovel – my back is killing me. The zippers are broken on my snowmobile boots.

JAN 26 – Went shopping for new snowmobile boots. They’re all sold out. They don’t have any snow shovels either. But I did manage to buy a bag of salt out of the back of a rental truck from Florida for $20.00.

JAN 27 – The dog can’t go to the bathroom. The snow is too high. I have to hold him up in the air.

JAN 28 – How many days does this month have? More snow, more bitter cold.

JAN 29 – Good news. There are no storms coming for a couple of days. Finally got the snowblower running. Got the roads and driveway cleared.

JAN 30 – End of driveway plowed shut again.

JAN 31 – It snowed most of the night. If I see one more flake of that white shit… Snowplow closed the end of the driveway again. I swear I heard that snowman laughing at me.

FEB 1, 3:45am – It’s snowing. I’m crouched behind a snow pile with my gun – waiting for the son of bitch that drives the snowplow. Winter sucks, life sucks – I’m moving to Florida!!!

~ Bruce W Constantine

Back in the  80’s and 90’s, my father tinkered with writing. It turns out he wasn’t very good at it. Never the less, as we went through various things in the house, I found a ring binder with a few stories. It pleases me greatly to think that once again my father has told a story, and perhaps even made you laugh.

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