Videos
Some ideas insist on becoming longer than a paragraph.
How to turn a shitty day into something good
This week started bad. Loads of worrying, no proper sleep for a couple of days, and some kind of bug physically. In short, I've been far below 100%. Thursday, I got home from work. Tired. I went for a walk instead of a run. I decided that my body might do good with a short break from running, but I still need the movement. Got back to shower, and still tired. Grumpy. Moody. Feeling sorry for myself. In the shower, I thought about the mood, and how it'd bothered me for almost a week. Noticed it. And decided to let go of the bad juju. Stop it. I had enough. Sometimes that works. Just getting fed up. Sometimes I need to have those days or weeks where I'm moody and in a rut. It's a signal for something else, or just the state I'm in. I know that others have these periods as well. And I've spoken to a lot of people who are stuck in a rut they don't want to be in anymore without knowing what to do about it. I've developed and stolen some ideas on that. Shifting attention from the negative and bothering to things I want to focus on, with the goal being to get out of and away from the rut. These are some of them. Steal them with pride. → Set a deadline According to Parkinson's Law, things take as much time and space as they're given. Setting a deadline for a mood or a rut makes it possible for me to limit that time. What I've seen in people when speaking about getting out of a rut is that they allow themselves to be in the rut for an indefinite amount of time. They don't really have a plan to get out, an exit strategy or even a goal post in time for when they're going to be out of it. → A word of caution Just a word of caution on this, as it's a trap I've fallen into myself: No feeling or mood is bad. They're all signals and part of living. Allow yourself to feel them. Be in them. Just don't get stuck. This method, of putting a deadline to states of being, is something I've been practicing for years. I'm still testing it, with varying results. → Behaviour first One of my current big role models is David Goggins. He's a former Navy Seal and current ultra runner and smoke jumper. He's been known to go head first into things he hate. He hates running, that's why he does it. He starts every day with running, because it's the worst thing he can think of doing. What he, and many others, does is behave in a way and then shape the reality around that behaviour. Behaving in a way as if what they're doing isn't uncomfortable until it isn't. I've done this myself a number of times and found it immensely powerful. For me, it's not about smiling until I feel happy or doing power poses. Most often, it's about making a call, sending an e-mail or just getting to work. Especially when I'm in a rut. That's when I fake it, go behaviour first, and let the feeling of doing the right thing to get me to where I want to be find me.
Take charge of your life through values
I remember vividly sitting in a workshop where we were speaking about our values. We’d been given a list of 60-something words to choose from, and were tasked with choosing 3-5 that felt important. After that, we were split into groups. Each person was given 20 minutes to share a story related to their word with the prompt “A time when [value word] was important to me…”. I was 20 at the time, in a group with people older and younger. It was wonderful speaking about these things. One woman in her 40s shared that feeling secure was important to her, that she’d declined job opportunities that fel too risky because of it. As an ambitious 20-year old I couldn’t fathom it. She continued sharing how she just kept thinking about what would happen to her children if she couldn’t pay her mortgage. Not put food on the table. What her husband would say and think about her. That’s when I understood. We all have values that are more or less important to us at different points in time. I have one set of values today, but I know very well that I didn’t have some of them just 6 months ago. They change over time, with us and with our environments. Show notes can be found here: https://almerudcaspian.notion.site/Ri...
Control over your emotions is a dial
I had a realisation last week. One of those proper ones where it seems like it came from nowhere, whilst out walking. The realisation was this: Control over emotions is a dial. In the past, I’ve seen control over emotions as something that I’m pretty good at. I can tone almost any emotion down at almost any time. I’ve got extreme patience, something I’m very happy about. The thing is, if control over my emotions is a dial and I’m really good at pulling the volume down, do I really have control? I’m horrible at pulling the volume up. I don’t like it and rarely do. I’m reevaluating what control over my emotions mean, and I think a lot more people need to do the same. At least if you, like me, believe it’s a dial. Show notes: https://almerudcaspian.notion.site/Ri...
What happens to someone who's a Fanatic?
I’ve been a fanatic in a bunch of different ways. Keeping sleep schedules religiously, keeping streaks and on mantras. And I still am, in many areas. More confidently and hopefully a bit more thoughtfully. Being a fanatic is often thought of as being religious or political, but that’s quite limiting for a behaviour that’s present in many more areas of life. Being a fanatic is, according to Amos Oz, being a person who can only count to one. Meaning you only have one solution or can only take one single perspective. In some areas of life that’s great. It makes life a lot easier. In others it’ll make you limited. Reflecting on what areas being a fanatic serves you and when it doesn’t has been useful to me. It’s led me to think of when I want to be fanatic, how fanatic I want to be and in what ways I want to present that part of me to the world. I hope this inspires you to do the same. Show notes found here: https://almerudcaspian.notion.site/Ri...
On Balance
This episode is personal on some level. All the advice and ideas are things that I’ve experimented my way to. Hence, they might not be applicable to your life. Have that in mind. I’ve struggled with the concept of finding balance. Mostly because there’s been an emphasis on relaxation and that you have to DO relaxation in order to be balanced. I think balance can be found in many different shapes and forms. As I go in to in this episode, we all have different cycles. And finding your cycle is, to me, at the core of finding balance. I hope you’ll find some inspiration to find more balance in your life. Show notes found here: https://almerudcaspian.notion.site/Ri...
Trust
This week, I speak to the topic of Trust that I've pondered quite a lot lately. Show notes are found here: https://almerudcaspian.notion.site/Ri...