"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."
- Albert Einstein
I've decided I want to work on this blog again regularly. I'm going to go through a series of exercises, some minor, some major, some temporary, some consistent, some seemingly insignificant (to you), others possibly seemingly impossible, but I'd like to keep a fairly consistent record of them.
The first one is part of my morning routine that I would like to maintain daily. When I wake up, the first thing I do is literally hop out of bed and say "Ohayo gozaimasu!" (Japanese for good morning) in a powerful voice. The very next thing I do is ask myself "How can I make today just a little more extraordinary then before?" and I answer that question. Sometimes I accomplish my goal, sometimes I don't, but I always consider it. I am answering that question right now (by writing, in fact doing a little more than I did before in regards to writing). It never has to be anything big; it could be "ask someone how they're doing today." or "smile a little more often today." or "do an extra 15 minutes of exercise". Anything that makes you feel better than you would have otherwise. The more concrete it is the easier it is to accomplish. Saying "be happier" is close to useless because it's not a concrete action that you can picture in your mind. Saying "smile more" is better, because smiling is an action, but "more" is a little vague. Something like "smile at everyone I see" is perfect; it's quanitifiable, imagineable and attainable.
Finally, I've taken on an old exercise: maintain eye contact with people for a certain period of time every day. Right now I just spend 5 minutes a day trying to hold eye contact with others. It's actually more difficult than you might think (at least for me it is). I noticed my body tensing, my breath stopping and other such fear-based reactions coming to the surface. My mind started racing, worrying about what other people might do/say if they caught me staring. I tried "multi-tasking"; consciously dealing with my "fear" while unconsciously trying to maintain eye contact at the same time. It made it more difficult. But I noticed something interesting (which I virtually always notice when I do things like this): the more I kept forcing myself to do it, regardless of my emotional or mental state, regardless of how difficult it was and how easy it would have been to excuse myself, the more the fear dissipated and I just starting feeling calm again. This is the essence of behavior modification; the more you experience something, the more you force your mind to adapt to it and create a state of homeo stasis within you. But like exercise, this particular modification either expands or stagnates, it never remains static. In other words, if you do not continually practice, your ability will worsen, not stay the same. But once you get over it, your comfort zone expands. When your comfort zone expands, so does your personal sense of freedom. Your body goes from "I can't do that!" to "It's so hard to do that!" to "It's hard to do that, but I can." to "I can do that." That's what freedom is about. When your freedom expands, so does your creativity. Soon you discover things you believed you couldn't do, you can, and you start to wonder what ELSE you can do that you had thought you couldn't...
It's endless. Enjoy the ride.
- Albert Einstein
I've decided I want to work on this blog again regularly. I'm going to go through a series of exercises, some minor, some major, some temporary, some consistent, some seemingly insignificant (to you), others possibly seemingly impossible, but I'd like to keep a fairly consistent record of them.
The first one is part of my morning routine that I would like to maintain daily. When I wake up, the first thing I do is literally hop out of bed and say "Ohayo gozaimasu!" (Japanese for good morning) in a powerful voice. The very next thing I do is ask myself "How can I make today just a little more extraordinary then before?" and I answer that question. Sometimes I accomplish my goal, sometimes I don't, but I always consider it. I am answering that question right now (by writing, in fact doing a little more than I did before in regards to writing). It never has to be anything big; it could be "ask someone how they're doing today." or "smile a little more often today." or "do an extra 15 minutes of exercise". Anything that makes you feel better than you would have otherwise. The more concrete it is the easier it is to accomplish. Saying "be happier" is close to useless because it's not a concrete action that you can picture in your mind. Saying "smile more" is better, because smiling is an action, but "more" is a little vague. Something like "smile at everyone I see" is perfect; it's quanitifiable, imagineable and attainable.
Finally, I've taken on an old exercise: maintain eye contact with people for a certain period of time every day. Right now I just spend 5 minutes a day trying to hold eye contact with others. It's actually more difficult than you might think (at least for me it is). I noticed my body tensing, my breath stopping and other such fear-based reactions coming to the surface. My mind started racing, worrying about what other people might do/say if they caught me staring. I tried "multi-tasking"; consciously dealing with my "fear" while unconsciously trying to maintain eye contact at the same time. It made it more difficult. But I noticed something interesting (which I virtually always notice when I do things like this): the more I kept forcing myself to do it, regardless of my emotional or mental state, regardless of how difficult it was and how easy it would have been to excuse myself, the more the fear dissipated and I just starting feeling calm again. This is the essence of behavior modification; the more you experience something, the more you force your mind to adapt to it and create a state of homeo stasis within you. But like exercise, this particular modification either expands or stagnates, it never remains static. In other words, if you do not continually practice, your ability will worsen, not stay the same. But once you get over it, your comfort zone expands. When your comfort zone expands, so does your personal sense of freedom. Your body goes from "I can't do that!" to "It's so hard to do that!" to "It's hard to do that, but I can." to "I can do that." That's what freedom is about. When your freedom expands, so does your creativity. Soon you discover things you believed you couldn't do, you can, and you start to wonder what ELSE you can do that you had thought you couldn't...
It's endless. Enjoy the ride.
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