Be Beautiful: Download the Negative

I look at running as meditation. It allows me to decompress, download, and get rid of a lot of negative stuff. That's my secret. I go inside myself. Jeff Corwin, conservationist.

We refresh, delete and change up the playlist, not just on our computers but in life and in conversations. But how do we download in life? I like the metaphor of downloading “negative stuff” for getting the stuff out of your head and out into the universe where perhaps it can fertilize something that’s going to grow up and be beautiful.

Definition: transferring from a local computer to a remote computer.  In addition to running, there's always the running meditation. If you don’t run, there are many ways to download. Telling a friend, coach or therapist is a download. Writing in your journal is another. We might say that anything that gets info from your head to another place is a download. So writing a novel or a song, or painting a picture, can be a download; you transfer some of the negative stuff to the page.

How about a loving kindness meditation as a download? Perhaps any type of meditative activity, be it traditional meditation, exercise or performance, is a download. Maybe anything that gets you into flow, is a download. When the meditation ends, you find more peace and equanimity. So think about how you download, and take the time to do it. And be beautiful.

For a meditative video, You’re Beautiful, James Blunt

Grit Keeps us Going

There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on - Robert Byrne

You’re trying to start an exercise plan or a diet, or maybe both. Bravo to you. Perhaps you’ve tried one or both of these many times without much success. Or if you’re like most dieters, you know how to lose weight, just not how to keep it off.

I always tell people to pick plans that they think they’ll be comfortable with for life. After all, the goal is not to go to the gym for 3 months or lose 20 pounds, it’s to exercise regularly or lose weight and continue a healthy diet, right?

I like the construct of grit for helping us maintain the best laid plans. Grit is the combination of perseverance and passion for an important goal. I think your health would qualify as an important goal.

A few tips for getting more gritty:

-Find a plan you can be passionate about…don’t force yourself into something unappealing. Pick something you can be excited about.

-Pick out people who do it successfully and study how they do it…only use things you feel comfortable with that fit your lifestyle.

-Dedicate yourself…once you decide on a plan, stick to it. You can change it, but you cannot abandon the effort.

-Learn from setbacks…it’s really the only way to learn. Figure out how to tweak your program to make it work better for you.

-Run the marathon…no, not literally, unless you really want to. It’s going to take time to change habits and get where you want to go. Keep pushing since having a good challenge tends to keep us going.

Keep it up, and be that first kind of person Byrne refers to. Think about what it will feel like to be the kind of person who finishes what they start.

Keep an eye out for my Ezine article coming out soon on this topic.

In a Rut? Get Creative

Apparently, it’s not that difficult to be more creative. Csikszentmihalyi suggests a variety of steps to take in order to do so. These are some steps that I found interesting, and fairly easy to implement. As in all tasks worth mastering, climbing out of a rut does take a bit of doing, so beware: some work is involved.

Enhancing your curiosity and interest in the world is a good start. Incorporate surprise into your daily life.

Be surprised – notice how things are unusual, different and interesting. This could be something as simple as noticing the pot bellied pigs I passed on my drive the other morning. Wow! I don’t see too many of those on a daily basis. They’re kind of cute.

Surprise someone – be different in what you do, say or how you look. Have a meaningful conversation with someone you normally just say hi to.  I could have surprised those pigs by starting a conversation with them.

Investigate surprising things – if I’d been more open to my experience, I would have pulled over and had a good look at those pigs. If I’d really been thinking I’d have whipped out my phone and taken a picture which I could have used for this blog.

Another tip for developing your creativity is to get in flow, i.e., bring more flow to your life.

Daily positive goals – have a goal each day that you look forward to. It doesn’t have to be big or particularly significant in the grand scheme of things. Just important to you, like finding out about your kid’s day after school (good luck with that one). Meeting goals gets us in flow.

Do it well – putting your all into any activity (be it running, walking or meditating) makes it more enjoyable. Do one thing at a time; no multitasking here. Concentrate on what you’re doing and focus all your attention on it. When you’re pushing yourself pleasantly hard, you can get in the zone.

Increase the difficulty – where possible, once you’ve mastered the basics, push yourself further. So you know how to make lasagna. But can you make a healthy, low fat yet tasty lasagna? Pushing the limits increases the likelihood of having a flow experience.

On your upward climb out of the mundane, a few baby steps are a great start.  Know that it’s like walking vs running. It’s a hell of a lot easier to start walking than running, but walking still good exercise on the road to health. And you know you can trust NPR on that.

Music to get creative with:  Check out Ke$ha’s Tik Toc.  This chick is really in the flow, and she’s not just another pretty face.