The reason for writing is simple
Greetings,
It is now a year since the pandemic was officially declared. Time flies, or does it? What a waste of a year it was. There were some positives. I picked up new skills and hobbies which normally I would never have made the time for.
The most impactful skill I have been working on has been writing. The initial pacing was good. I really felt I was making some progress. Now, slowly but surely, I am beginning to feel a bit burnt out with the fatigue.
Writing is draining. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to publish a barely decent piece. After clicking on the publish button, I sit around like I ran a marathon. It truly feels like that. I focus on recovery and a week passes by in what feels like hours. Many of my friends have begun to truly believe that I am training for Ironman. All this while I lay on my couch waiting to exit the funk.
The Reason for Writing is Simple
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, please thank them on my behalf! Welcome to Newsletter # 36.
Thoughts that crossed my mind, while I was reading…
Your Brain is Not for Thinking by Lisa Feldman Barrett
The brain has a budget to balance. It will prioritize what it thinks is important and drop the rest of the tasks.
Eating and Sleeping help the brain have a surplus instead of running a deficit.
Depending on the current situation, a physical discomfort could easily be attributed to a mental state.
The brain always sends a signal of what it needs but we rarely do we maintain a listening watch. A deep breath or a good sleep helps deal with most psychological problems.
Ask questions and see if your brain is running a deficit? Always listen out for any messages the brain is sending you.
Do whatever it takes to return the brain to a surplus. Go for a walk, exercise, eat, sleep.
Altered states of consciousness: the elusiveness of the mind by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Altered states of mind modulate brain activity by distorting sense of space and time. Our temporal consciousness is fundamentally altered.
Even boredom, idleness, sense of flow, meditation and music can lead to an altered state.
It reduces peripheral awareness, enhances relaxation and decreases anxiety to achieve a calm mental state.
Sleep is another way to achieve an altered state - Dreaming dissociates us from reality. Fasting does the same.
But to understand altered states, we have to first know what is a normal state of mind.
Day dreaming and mind wandering. Is that our default state?
No state of mind is more valid than the other. Each mental state forms a part of our consciousness.
How Swiatek's sports psychologist honed her mental game by Courtney Nguyen
Mental stress is felt physically either through a different heart beat, queasy feeling in the stomach, sweating or feeling flushed.
Anything which brings with it an expectation is a big reason to choke up.
Keep expectations low and standards high. Build on a solid foundation.
Focus on things which will keep your brain busy and unavailable to stress over expectations.
I spoke at length with Hiroyuki about the strain I feel and the feeling of being stuck in the mud. As usual, he had words of wisdom and a photo to convey the message.
Pictured here are lotus flowers. With their roots latched in mud, they submerge every night into river water and miraculously re-bloom the next morning, sparklingly clean.
That is really what I need. A good sleep and start the day sparklingly clean.
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Stay well and see you next week.
Evian
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