Daily Practice
Self Care is Health Care
Physical
Staying in shape is key for me. 30-90 mins of hard exercise is key for me - a minimum of 5 days/week. If I don't burn out my anxiety, I have trouble sleeping. Also, in my experience - if you ever find yourself in the hospital - you need to be strong enough for them to do what they need to do to fix you.
For me, this is typically:
- Hiking
- Biking
- Hot Yoga If I were a table surface, it's the first leg holding me up. Exercise and nutrition. It’s Yoga and a healthy diet that allows me to function at peak performance.
- It's limiting sugar and fried foods.
- It's eating more fruits and vegetables
- It's eating less red meat.
You can’t be happy if you aren’t healthy. Exercise also does wonders for anxiety. In today's world, there are more sources of anxiety than ever before. If you are not sleeping, it might be because you are taking that anxiety to bed wit you. Burn it off with exercise.
Strength will help you endure the pain ahead.
Sleep Hygiene
Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. If you are an earlier riser, don't stay up late because your best sleep takes place before midnight. Stop eating after dinner. If you are going to bed at 9pm, then stop eating by 6pm. This will help you sleep better.
Tip: Floss & brush your teeth after dinner. You're conditioning yourself not to eat!
Emotional
The second leg is emotional and this is largely about maintaining equanimity (emotional stability) - emotional intelligence. It's essential to perform at my best and not become unhinged by toxic people and situations. It's how I avoid letting stress shorten my life. I'm reading books and articles on saying no (including James' The Power of No. I see myself (and my awareness) as a filter. Filtering out the toxic information I'm constantly bombarded with.
I see negative information and negative people as a negative vortex. I find that it's just as easy to shift my awareness to the positive people and let myself collapse into their positivity vortex. Toxic information is everywhere. As an innocent bystander... it's easy to become collateral damage. Hate in. Love out. Positivity. It's a big part of what brings me back to Spark. I firmly believe SLO has some of the best teachers on the planet, many of whom call Spark home (and that's based on over my own dataset of hundred). No exaggeration... Just truth. The Spark community that Steph and Nick have created is best described as a 'positivity vortex.' No matter what negative head trash I bring in to the studio, I can't help but be swept into the vortex of all that's good within minutes of arrival. I always walk out feeling good, and better about the world, and everyone in it. Spark is a VERY special place, far more than just a yoga studio... It's a church of smiles. The work that everyone there does is more valuable than they will ever know. Spark serves as a vital emotional anchor to stay positive in a negatively charged world. I just want the world to know just how important this little studio in SLO actually is and it's been my second home for over 8 years. So much of the negativity we see in our world; homelessness, inflation, political turmoil, war, poor healthcare, and living in a culture that is quick to cancel one another... it's too easy to get pulled into the negative current. What are your sources of emotional stress? We all have different levels of tolerance. If someone is a drag on me, I cut them out. If someone lifts me up, I bring them closer. Nobody is sacred here. When the plane is going down, put the oxygen mask on your face first. Family, friends, people I love – I always try to be there for them and help. But I don’t get close to anyone bringing me down. This rule can’t be broken. Energy leaks out of you if someone is draining you. And I never owe anyone an explanation. Explaining is draining. Another important rule: always be honest. Its fun. Nobody is honest anymore and people are afraid of it. Try being honest for a day (without being hurtful). Its amazing where the boundaries are of how honest one can be. Its much bigger than I thought. A corollary of this is: I never do anything I don’t want to do. Like I NEVER go to weddings. ## Mental The Third Leg of the daily practice table is mental and mental is your head. It’s about utilizing your mind for productive purposes. My mind is never idle. What I’ve seen with my friends who retire is that they can’t not put their mind to work. The happiest retirees have given enriching projects attention. The saddest retirees give far too much time and attention to the media, to current events, to things that ultimately can’t do anything about, but get worked up about. Every one has an opinion - and you know the saying - they all stink. For me, I am grateful that I see the distinction - I see the importance of having creative endeavors in my life. Whether it’s writing, songwriting, teaching ukulele, doing yoga, reading or taking a class on a new subject, it gives my over active mind something productive to work on. I'm a Creator, and I recognize that's there’s never been a better time in history to be one. The tools we have at sour disposal are in abundance. The tools to write (and publish). To make music (even if you don’t know how to play an instrument), The tools that turn reading into listening… youtube which gives us access to any topic any where any time. Coding has allowed me to create and adapt my own tools. In a very real sense - I am a tool builder. I create the tools that allow me to be more creative. Time as a co-create friend? Why not? When you carve out time for creating, you give yourself permission to create. The key to adapting a consistent daily practice is to make time for it. Every day I write. What James suggested is more structured with his 'write 10 ideas everyday.' I tried something similar when I took a songwriting class and started to put my writings into songs. I write down so many ideas that it hurts my head to come up with one more. Then I try to write down five more. The other day I tried to write 100 alternatives kids can do other than go to college. I wrote down eight, which I wrote about here. I couldn’t come up with anymore. Then the next day I came up with another 40. It definitely stretched my head. No ideas today? Memorize all the legal 2 letter words for Scrabble. Translate the Tao Te Ching into Spanish. Need ideas for lists of ideas? Come up with 30 separate chapters for an “autobiography.” Try to think of 10 businesses you can start from home (and be realistic how you can execute them). Give me 10 ideas of directions this blog can go in. Think of 20 ways Obama can improve the country. List every productive thing you did yesterday (this improves memory also and gives you ideas for today). The “idea muscle” atrophies within days if you don’t use it. Just like walking. If you don’t use your legs for a week, they atrophy. You need to exercise the idea muscle. It takes about 3-6 months to build up once it atrophies. Trust me on this. ## Spiritual The fourth and final leg is spiritual and this perhaps is the most important one this is the anchor to the piece that I know exists within me the peace that is omnipresent this is the part I think I was missing for a very long time. It’s what many of us raised in families without religion lack the most. I have found it through yoga and meditation. I found teachers like Adyashanti & Arjuna Ardagh have given me a solid footing in spirituality. I’ve developed a philosophy to make sense of the world and to use as a compass. But I also discovered through Adyashanti that ultimately, my own philosophy is a hurdle to enlightenment.