Mindset

RELAXED YET ALERT. FEEL IT, DON'T JUST PICTURE IT.

Before you dive into the exercises, let me mention the state of mind you should try to develop for this work. I will say "relax," over and over in this document. Rather than trying to force something to happen and getting nowhere with the whole process, you may have better luck trying to develop a take-it-easy attitude for this process. This activity seems to work well, for me at least, when I am relaxed yet awake. I personally don't say alert because I am not the most alert kind of person, but relaxed yet alert should work well for you.

With that in mind, I have mentioned a couple of relaxing exercises that you may want to begin each set of exercises with. I have tried to keep them short and simple so that they don't take more than a few minutes. Looking around I see certain people, perhaps doing yoga or meditation or some other relaxing exercise that takes a good amount of practice and time. Some people want to make this kind of thing seem deep and mystical, or have spiritual, health or physical reasons for doing those practices. This seems to be a personal choice. I would encourage you to relax and take it easy. The point I want to make is that maybe you shouldn't use a relaxing method that causes you to tighten up too much mentally and makes you spend all your time following some difficult rules. In fact, it may be completely possible that you are over doing it and making your mind tight by following such a rigorous pattern. For this practice at least, I would like to emphasize the relaxation idea over other reasons for doing those types of exercises.

Personally, I am not one of those people who go through life moving from thing to do to next thing to do. To be honest I have always been mostly a day dreamer. What I'm mean is this, if you go into this thinking you will force or focus your way through these exercises and achieve your goals you may be mistaken. You will probably achieve nothing. If you are one of those focused types (sometimes called type A,) I suggest you put aside a little time for yourself each day, say a half-hour to watch a TV show or something. During that half-hour you make plain to yourself that you have no responsibilities or things to do. Like you have nothing to do then but flip channels or just hang around.

Another way of putting it would be for instance, you are at work doing a job or task that you know you can do, it is a little challenging but you have no doubt that you will be able to complete the task. The state of mind I'm trying to describe is before you start this task. You have confidence. As well as after you finish. You have confidence, are somewhat alert, but have no great trouble hanging over your head. You are sort of relaxed while at work. Do your chosen exercises when you are in that state of mind. One suggestion for a type A personality would be for you to add a meditation exercise to your set right from the start.

The next thing I would like to mention having to do with state of mind is the idea of immersing yourself in the exercises rather than simply picturing something happening. Think about how you think for a moment. When you picture a fantasy or thought do you picture yourself like you are watching a movie of you or whoever doing whatever you are thinking? Like you are the director or holding the camera upon yourself or whoever in some other place or at some other time, doing whatever. I want to lose this kind of thinking for these exercises. It doesn't help much to say to you "Don't do that," without suggesting something else. But, while you are developing your chosen exercises, try to go with the idea that these are actions of your mind, like moving your arm is an action of your body, directed by your mind. Rather than letting your head be a camera that sits on your neck and commands your actions, try doing an activity that puts your body more fully at the center of your actions. A sport, dancing or something like yoga or tai-chi would be an example. Again, relax. Maybe take it a little less than completely seriously and try to have some fun feeling your body instead of forcing through the techniques involved.

I have noticed that the climate seems more agreeable in the evening starting around nightfall (about 7 pm.) I think this is due to people getting off work and coming home/wherever to relax. I also think certain days may be better than others (Thursday is a good day, some action, some mellow.) If you want to make a habit of trying your chosen exercises at a time that feels good to you, please do. This is a feeling kind of idea. I believe, after you have gained some experience with this, you will agree with me that Thursday evenings are mellow yet still active, Friday is childlike, Saturday is sunny and Sundays feel like you are visiting your grandparents.

Later, if you gain some function you may want to take this idea into account, though I feel it depends on your personality. If you are strongly work focused, a more intense kind of person, after you gain function, your best hours may be in the mornings like you are getting some work done. Your approach to work may fit well with the feelings of those around you so that you have success during the busier times of day. If you feel you are a more laid back type, you may have an easier time working in the evenings and on the weekends when those around you are more relaxed themselves.

Another idea is to do these exercises while on the train or the bus. That may be all the time you want to spend. If you don't want to do it each day, make up your own schedule. With the 7 pm. time I mentioned, perhaps while you are flipping channels around, you could exercise then, or leave the TV on mute and do it after the news each week day.

Let me mention belief again. You may not believe it, for years, maybe ever. Ignore that thought. Just keep doing it and ignore that thought. You will hate this comment, but my bringing up doubt, saying it to you, only strengthens that doubt as you go through this. Ignore it and do your chosen exercises. Just do the exercises until they come easy and you've conditioned yourself past thinking doubtfully. This is sort of a Catch-22. You should be able to see that you probably can't have success here without following through... but, if you don't have success will you bother to follow through? So, without heading you toward a cult or something like that, should I feel the slightest guilt that I would try to get as many people as possible to try the process? Knowing many, even most, will get nowhere? Hell, probably even get angry about it? No.