How to live now (or Thoughts from the gym – a treadmill lesson)

Why is it so much easier working out in a gym than it is to put on those workout clothes at home? To me it’s partly because the gym makes me feel awfully cool. But there’s something else to.

When I go cross-country skiing for more than perhaps 20 kilometers, I always have this problem with breathing. And so I break down. And my tactic to get back up again is to focus on what is going on at the exact moment. Look ahead of me, but keep all of my attention at what my body is doing and not on the road that’s still to go.

I think that’s the reason I like the treadmill. I am always right there, I can never put my eyes on the road 20 meters away and think about how much it’s going to take to get me there. I do love running outside but it’s harder for me.

The same lesson applies to life. Focus on the now and you’ll get a future, focus on the future and you’ll live your entire life in something that’s not happening. Start everyday with thinking through what you have to do, then sort out the things you can actually do today from all the things that perhaps needs to be done tomorrow or the day after that. Then push the things you’re not gonna do today out of your mind. Do not worry about them until their time comes. Stop resting the world on your shoulders and stop procrastinating.

Take a deep breath and do what you need to do today.

At the moment

I do not precisely love the place I’m in right now and find myself elsewhere in my mind, not just up in the clouds with my dreams and ideas, but somewhere else as in I like the future better than I like now. It’s a trap, and I know that, because future is just another name for the now that is to come and by hiding further into the future I’ll never reach it, sometimes I just have to remind myself that there’s always a purpose for me being right where I am now, and perhaps tomorrow I’ll be somewhere else.

I forgot my heart

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in things I want to do and feel like doing and don’t feel like doing and kinda have to anyway, that I forget to stop thinking. I forget to feel life, and start to experience it simply with my mind. And then I’m suddenly shaken alive, God wakes my soul up, and so I go back to feeling. I feel everything and it’s like having an additional sense. Or bigger than that, like the way I normally go around, thinking about stuff and experiencing them with all my senses, is fine. But what a poor way to live. And when I go back to happiness that warms my heart and tears that wrecks it, it’s like all my senses had lost their meaning until now when my heart feels what it knows so it can believe it.

The curse of the artist

Conversation with myself

“I’m an artist, I am never really here.”
“So where are you then?”
“Constantly outside of it, right next to everything, witnessing it. In a picture of a laughing crowd, where do you think the artist is? A few steps away, taking the picture.”
“So you do actually want to be with them, in the centre of all things, laughing with the crowd.”
“Why would I want that?”
“How could you not want that, when you’re the one who sees everything as so beautiful?”
“I suppose. The curse of the artist. That by the sight of beauty being torn between participating in it and taking a step back to be able to correctly document it.”

The 30 second habit with a lifelong impact

I read an article recently, I’m gonna add a link to it at the end of this post so you can go read it, cause well, it was a good freakin’ article. It spoke about this man. this man whose friends were the top politicians and artists in the world, this man who wrote novels on his spare time but destroys them when they’re finished. this man who had the talent that when he sat in a meeting, he would keep quiet except for a few questions. But those questions, those perfectly times words, would always lead the whole discussion back on track and to what was relevant. He was almost the silent leader, the silent conductor. And when he got asked what his secret was, he answered that when he was young, his grandfather had told him this

Immediately after every lecture, meeting, or any significant experience, take 30 seconds — no more, no less — to write down the most important points. If you always do just this, said his grandfather, and even if youonly do this, with no other revision, you will be okay.

And as the writer of the article put it, He did. And he was. Now, in the article, a few of the benefits of this method are listed. It’s not taking notes, but it’s a way of sorting out what was actually important. A way to change the way you listen. In our world there is so. Much. Talking. So much attention seeking. People shouting out their opinions through Facebook and twitter, begging the world to listen. Or, well, through blogs. I’m not calling myself different. But this is a way automatically start to hear what’s beneath all the words. The underlying patterns of the world. Sorting out the base code of the human mind and not just listening, but then actually hearing. Go read the article, it’s amazing! https://medium.com/sonra-oku/2c3f948ead98

Dancing

I’ve gotten a job as a dance teacher! It makes me jump out of happiness and stress out about the lessons I have to plan. But I’m happy, most of all I’m happy, so many people are on the lookout for jobs and I got one without even putting effort into looking, bonus that I get paid for something I’d probably do for free. Terrifies me though because I’ve got no idea what you can expect from different age groups? Guess I’ll figure it out.

Do you guys ever wish you were clearly defined by one of your hobbies? I wish I was a star dancer or famous artist or known writer, instead of just liking a little of each. Wish I’d started something when I was really young and then never quitted it. Have to remind myself of that every time I want to quit on of the hobbies I have now.