Dean Karnazes did. And a big one. I’m not saying to do what he did. I’m also not saying you shouldn’t.
Where are you? Are you happy? Are you the person you want to be?
Think about it.
For reasons from personal to silly I wanted to start meditating. A friend recommended Herbert Benson’s “The Relaxation Response”
I’ve given my copy to a friend that could use some stress relief so I can’t give you Benson’s 4 tips for eliciting the relaxation response.
But…
I did find a link to the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. After looking around a bit I found a page that teaches you how to elicit the relaxation response. I haven’t found the page where you can buy the red pill, but I’ll post when I do.
Try it. Buy the book or just check out the above links. I’m going on 4-5 weeks of meditating almost daily. I’ve enjoyed the practice and it’s been really easy to fit into my mornings. Please note, this isn’t about pseudo-mystical auras, chakras, or special energy. I like to see it as practicing to get a little more control over my own personal hardware and software.
This morning I read Is There Really Such a Thing as ‘Self Improvement’? by Kent Thune of The Financial Philosopher. He raises some interesting points. Some I agree with and some that I don’t.*
He begins with asking three questions:
Kent begins by saying that the “first logical step” is to rid ourselves of what we know of self-improvement. This will allow us to move from “doubt to certainty”. Kent makes two mistakes here.
First, I think the first step would be to address the way that self-improvement is defined and used in our culture. Without an understanding of what people mean when they say self-improvement we don’t really have a place to begin. Any idea or word is very much constituted by the very community that uses it. There may be variations and subtle differences but overall most people will have a grasp of what self-improvement means. Shedding ourselves of the way it is defined through “social convention, media noise and language” is not only impossible, but will leave us with meaningless sounds or symbols.
The second mistake that Kent makes is the very idea that we could be certain about something like the self in the first place. I try and reserve certainty to math and science. And, as we can see, neither of them is as certain about their own findings as often as we are lead to believe.
Kent then attempts to define the self negatively. That is, he attempts to define it by saying what it is not. This can be helpful, but in the end we are left with a ghost image of what the self is. One of the assumptions that Kent makes is that there is such a thing as the self in the first place. The idea of the self is a trick played on us by language. As Daniel Dennett believes that the mind is a collection of process that we call mind. Self is a variety of things we clump together. None of which can be reducible to self. So as there is no mind. There is no self.
Heresy, you say? Please bear me out. Though when looked at carefully there is no thing that is the mind or the self. Both of these words have meaning in our shared consciousness and understanding. However, we shouldn’t trip ourselves up on what they are. In everyday communication both words have value. When dissected they come up short.
So where does this leave us? What is self-improvement?
Self-improvement is what most of us think it is. A general term for improving how we deal/interact/handle the world around us. This includes the way that we treat others, ourselves and our environment. True self-improvement must have this holistic approach. Self-improvement that focuses solely on one aspect isn’t self-improvement at all.
Focusing on the self becomes a dance with an unpredictable partner. We seek it and cannot find it. We look harder and it becomes more elusive. The idea that one can find him or her self is a cruel trick played by our culture and language. All is not lost though. From here we can recognize that there is no self outside of the collection of things that we refer to when we say “I love, I hurt, I am excited, I am running, etc.”
How wonderful it is that we can feel all of the things that we can feel. How wonderful it is to be able to do all of the things that we can do. If in your self-assessment you are unhappy with any of those aspects don’t go running to find out who you really are. You really are what and who you are right now. If that person isn’t the person you want to be. Start taking action. Make your life a work of art. Create the person you want to be. Live with the choices you have made be they bad or good. Learn from them and in the process of becoming the person you want to be you will recognize that those were steps you had to take to be both the person you are and the person you will become.
*As an aside I liked Kent’s post and his blog too. I am new to blogging and writing in such a public forum. My intent is not to knock Kent or his ideas down. Rather, he has some great ideas and like all great ideas they should become polished when held up to the cloth of public discourse. Thanks Kent for writing such an interesting and thoughtful post.
I was in a funny conversation recently.
Two women were ordering wine at the bar. One asked for the wine list. The other ordered right away, “Pinot Noir, please.” This introduced a brief but memorable exchange. Ms. Pinot Noir always drank pinot noir because, she had read, it was better for you. Ms. Pinot Noir wasn’t snotty about this at all. She offered the information as if she thought we should know if we didn’t already.
Ms. Pinot Noir and her friend seemed nice.
But they also seemed to spend more time on their asses and eating than they did anything else. I’m sure they worked too. They might even work hard. But they weren’t working on being healthy that’s for sure. So when I hear someone repeat/relay/regurgitate one of the many facts about “things that are good for you” like that I can’t help but think they are throwing pebbles at a mountain lion.
Are you kidding me? *this was in my head*
You really think that drinking pinot noir is going to make a difference to you? *still in my head*
This will be the first time I’ll say this. I will repeat it, but this will be the first time:
So the above two rules apply to everyone regardless of weight. This is about being healthy not being “skinny“.
So what’s wrong with Ms. Pinot Noir? She was throwing pebbles when she needed a shotgun. If she hasn’t taken some real measures towards health, a.k.a. exercising and eating better, the pinot noir isn’t going to make a bit of difference. The other problem deserves its own paragraph.
If Ms. Pinot Noir begins focusing on getting healthy by doing things like drinking pinot noir or eating more chicken rather than red meat she is going to introduce a bunch of trivial changes into her life and think that she is getting healthier. But she isn’t any healthier. That mountain lion isn’t running away from those pebbles. By believing in these popular ”truths“ people avoid doing what it takes to lead healthy lives.
Of course, exercise is often perceived as work. Two things can change that: work on people’s perceptions and make exercise more play than work. It’s a little of both. I’ll tell you about that later.
Oh, and by the way, loosely speaking: healthy=happy.
Cuil (pronounced cool) was mentioned today in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I did a search for “thoreau”.
Note the lack of advertising. This won’t be permanent but none of you have had experience searching without the influence/interference of it. Give it a shot. You may live longer.
Or you may not.
Here’s five searches for you to practice with:
I found this post by Merlin Mann at 43 Folders (a great site - one that has been a huge influence over the past two years). It’s a brief glimpse into a conversation between Obama and someone in the British Government. Merlin says it is with the British Prime Minister Cameron Brown but Brown is the opposition Conservative Party leader.
The take-home point: set some serious time aside in your day to get some thinking done.
This reminded me of the wonderful essay Thinking As A Hobby by William Golding the author of Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
Think about it.
I’m a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
I’ve got more to say about the book so look for a follow up post. I think everyone should own this book but don’t run out and buy it. Yet. I’d like to tell you a little bit about the book and what you need to really commit to the process that David describes. If you’re really feeling antsy then fine go ahead and order it
But not nearly as smart as others. I’d like to know more, though a consequence of knowing more is realizing how little you know. One way to “know more“ is to read. Read a lot. Most importantly read things (books, articles, essays, blogs) by people smarter than you.
One person that I’m pretty sure is smarter than I am is Steve Novella, M.D. the author of Neurologicablog. He writes about a lot of topics that he approaches from a background in science, philosophy, and logic. It sounds pretty dry - sometimes it is - but he’s a smart dude that will talk about celebrities, low-carb vs. low-fat diets, and Deepak Chopra.
Enjoy.
Don’t forget to move your body today!
Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford in 2005
Whether you go to college or not (Steve didn’t) this speech should resonate. It has echoes of Emerson’s Self-Reliance. Steve tells three stories each bearing its own message. In the first he talks about connecting the dots. Looking back at the unorthodox path that he took Steve realizes how seemingly random and somewhat trivial choices connected to have a profound influence on something later on. He says that seeing these connections is only done in hindsight. However, it’s important to remember while moving forward. Our paths are not as linear as we may think or were brought up to believe.
Point One: Do what you think is right and follow your interests whether they appear to have practical import or not.
In the second story he tells about starting Apple at 20 in a garage with Steve Wozniak. He also tells about how he got fired from that same job ten years later. This was a big change for him. In his words, “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” This firing ended up triggering many years of creativity and eventually led him back to Apple.
Point Two: Don’t lose faith in yourself, your ideas, or whatever you love.
It is in the third story that Steve sounds closest to our transcendentalist friend Emerson. After being faced with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. He talks about avoiding living ones life on others terms. Each of us must listen to our own heart and instincts. We won’t always be right but if we really are honest with ourselves those mistakes will help us to make better decisions in the future. In Self-Reliance
Point Three: Death works to wipe out the old and make way for the new. So live with courage and a life forged from your own mind and heart.