Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Dimensions of Life, Joseph Addison, Reading

Hello, Readers!

I want to do something different with my Daily Quotes. I want to minimize the quotes and actually put more of a slant to them. This allows me to communicate with you in my own words and also makes this more personal for me.

As some of you already know, I love a good quote. I find them inspiring, funny, and eye-opening. More importantly, I find they spur me to look around inside and gauge my response, almost like a person who walks through a museum and sees that one picture that really impacts them. This is what a good quote does for me.

So, going forward, you’re going to get one quote and the thoughts this quote pulls from me. Feel free to comment with any quotes you enjoy or your take on the Daily Quote I post here going forward.

Have a terrific Friday!!

Quote

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison

My Thoughts

I am a huge advocate for physical exercise in all its forms. I am also huge on diet, supplementation, and finding new ways to improve myself physically. If you’ve been following along, I have written articles on what are called the four dimensions of life. This quote spurred me to think about these dimensions and how important it is for us to maintain each one of them so we can live a balanced and happy life.

If you are unfamiliar with the four dimensions of life, they are not mine. They were introduced by late Dr. Steven Covey, author of “The 7 habits of highly effective people.” They are the physical dimension, the spiritual dimension, the intellectual dimension, and the social dimension.

Reading is one of the great ways to learn, explore new ideas, and ultimately, get in the head of the author. Paul Twitchell, one of my favorite authors, suggests that when you read a book, a poem, or listen to music, to imagine the author writing the words of the book or imagine the artist create the painting. This is a really interesting technique because it really adds to the experience of reading.

Another thing Covey suggests is to read broadly. In other words, try a new genre, or read poetry if you haven’t read it before, or even try to read nonfiction, perhaps to learn something new.

Reading is also important because it exercises our ability to visualize. When I read a great book, my skills of visualization are tested because each story is introducing us to a new world, a world born from an author’s imagination. The better we visualize the better the experience of the book becomes.

Reading could be used to improve the spiritual dimension, the physical dimension, the social dimension, or the intellectual dimension. It all depends on what you read, right?

Part of my daily routine is to read at least 1 chapter of a book each day. I typically read more than that, but even if I’m really busy, it is not difficult to knock out one chapter. To establish this habit, start small. Read a page a day or a set number of paragraphs. Pick a time you’ll read each day, whether it’s in the morning or in the evening. I enjoy reading when I get home from the gym and have had my post workout meals, taken my vitamins, and have cleaned up. I find I’m perfectly relaxed and more than ready to explore a new world (start a new book) or continue to visit the world I’m learning about (reading a current book).

What times of day do you prefer to read? Are there any particular genres you gravitate to? What genre of book would you like to read that you haven’t picked up yet?

Have a great Friday all.

Until tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – The Mental Dimension

Tags

Learning, Meditate, Reading, Sleeping, Writing

What is the Mental Dimension?

It is the dimension of our lives that deals with the intellectual side of our lives. Today, the ability to learn new things and use these new concepts to survive has become paramount. Learning new things on a computer, a mobile phone, or a tablet. Learning new skills like programming, a language, or public speaking are all available now with a few mouse clicks or tapping on our phone or tablet.

How do we keep our mental dimension strong? Here are a few ways:

• Read daily
• Meditate Daily
• Sleep at least 7-8 hours per day
• Write daily
• Learning

Reading

Reading is one area that all of us could do more of. Luckily there are apps like Kindle, Nook, Google Books, and Scribd. All of these are a quick download. You have to buy books or find free ones, but these are all fully accessible on your mobile, tablet, or computer. I enjoy reading broadly. This is one thing that Steven Covey recommends in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Reading broadly means we read about things that normally do not capture our attention. For example, I used to just read action, science fiction, and history books. Now I try to engage in love stories, poetry, mystery novels, non-fiction (everything) and a whole lot more. The key is to keep the intellect striving for new things, broad-minded topics, and concepts.

Meditation

Meditation is the other area that will strengthen the mental dimension. Meditation has a whole bunch of benefits, one being a calming effect. Speaking of calming, you can get an app called Calm that will provide you with daily meditations, weekly meditations (each day for 7 days), and much more content. I’ve also tried Headspace but didn’t like their interface as much.

Meditation will also teach you how to focus. Focus is critical and a lot harder than you think. When you first begin meditating you’ll discover that your mind will wander quite a bit. Some who follow Zen Buddhism label the mind a “monkey”. So true. Anyways, the practice of meditation will help you calm this Monkey through various techniques, which is really beneficial. Just a few minutes of quiet each day can really prime you the rest of the day. That being said, mornings are not the only time to do this. You can meditate in the morning, lunch time, or even the evening before you head to bed. The key, just like exercising in the Physical Dimension posting, is consistency. It is much easier to establish a habit if you are doing the same things at the same time each day.

Sleep

Sleeping is such a wonderful thing. It replenishes us, repairs us, resets the brain and allows it to collect, store, and assess all the inputs it received during the day. It also can be a time of high adventure when we wake up in one of our dream worlds. Sleep is really important for your mental health. The deep REM sleep that most doctors talk about is only achieved a few times throughout the evening. This is the key part of your sleep time when the brain receives the most benefit.

If you have difficulty sleeping, you may want to try a few things I’ve found across the web:

• Turn off and put down your electronic devices. These devices put out a lot of light and are really stimulating for the brain. Stay on these things too close to bedtime and you’ll have a hard time shutting down.
• Avoid Caffeine, Sugar, and Alcohol, after dinner. These are all highly stimulating and will reduce the quality of your sleep.
• Take a hot shower or bath.
• Read a chapter in your favorite book.
• Meditate or contemplate.
• Listen to relaxing music (ambient is one genre that is terrific for this).

Writing

Writing is the last topic I’ll cover, but frankly, if you’re reading this you are already writing for your own blog and understand the benefits of writing. Writing allows us to refine our thinking and refine the way we bring out that writing to the page. I always try to write things out on paper first, but today, I’m being lazy. The writing is going on the word document and will be pasted into my blog today.

There’s a reason I like to write by hand, however. I have two journals I keep up with twice a day. The first is my 5-minute journal, which is a gratitude journal. The second is my productivity journal, which is nothing more than a focused planner. Both are hardcover books and are written in by hand. You can investigate these journals for yourself at https://www.intelligentchange.com/

Writing by hand allows you to connect the physical with the mental. Writing by hand uses more muscles, tendons, and nerves than clacking away on a keyboard. This neuro-muscular connection actually impresses your writing into your mind more effectively. So, I write by hand in one of my 90 cent journals. I normally by 10 at a time and these last me a couple of months.

Learning

One area I don’t want to forget is learning. What do you want to know? What do you want to learn? Are there any areas you’d like to tackle that you feel weak in that could benefit your life tremendously? Want to learn how to cook? Want to learn to do accounting? Want to learn about a foreign country? Want to learn how to speed read? The possibilities are endless.

One website I’d recommend if you have 15 dollars to spare each month is Great Courses +. Here is their website: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/home This service is also available for iPhone and Android devices. Currently, I’m taking a course on Game Theory. Why not right? Anyways, whatever you want to learn, you have the ability to learn more and find more information than at any other time in our history. Take advantage of it. Learning is the final linchpin of the Mental Dimension. Learning is the exercise our brains need to stay pliable and expand. Try to learn something new each day, regardless of how small that little bit of information is. The little things we do each day build up to really big things.

Until next time…

Daily Ramblings – Striving

Tags

Exercise, Improving, Learning, Meditation, Reading, self-improvement, Striving, Studying, Writing

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” George Eliot

Wow, what a great quote right? How many stories have been told through the ages of a life wasted? Wow, he or she could have been this, if only….?

When you wake up in the morning, do you realize that you are the best you’ve ever been, ever? It only gets better moving forward. I realize this may sound to be a little over the top from a positivity perspective, but why can’t it be like that? It can be.

One of the things I’ve discovered since beginning this blog and following others is that there are a lot of folks who are striving. Striving to improve. Striving to be better. Striving to heal. Striving to be heard. I really enjoy reading the thoughts of others and try to put myself in their position, really feeling where they are in life. But, living a life well-lived is about the striving, right? I think it is.

I am striving for many things. I want to become a writer. I want to tweak my prose so people will be drawn to my books, my blog, or whatever I create for a reader to consume. I want to be in the best shape of my life so my brain and body will serve me as long as humanly possible. I strive toward this goal with daily exercise, eating right, a daily dose of reading, learning, writing, and meditation. I want to be loved, so I strive to interact with people, cultivate new relationships by putting myself out there, and maintaining the relationships I have with my family and my friends by staying in touch and doing those little things that make my loved ones know they are my world and they can depend on me.

I strive for a great many things that pertain to my physical well-being, my financial well-being, my mental and intellectual well-being, my spiritual well-being, and my social well-being. This striving is what keeps me alive. I continuously look for ways to improve and get better, all while taking care of the most important person in my life—me. If I am not striving for that next goal, that next hilltop, that next landmark, then I am moving backward.

Don’t get me wrong. We all get sick. We all get old. We all get blind-sided by those things that we didn’t see coming, which put us into a temporary tailspin. What I’m talking about here is purposeful striving, continuing forward, regardless of what we get hit with or encounter.

This is where the quote above really hit me. I don’t want to be that person that looks back over their life regretting that I didn’t do something I could have done. I don’t want to be that person that cowered in fear and avoided something because it might be too hard or too scary to even try. I want to look back on my life and say, I did the very best I could with what I had and from where I started. Man, what a great ride this life has been.

We all come to this world with our own baggage and circumstances. Some are outright advantageous, while others are the exact opposite. If you are ever discouraged, look around the web for a bit or go to your local library. You’ll find a story about a person who had it rougher than you and excelled. You’ll also find a person who had everything and wasted their opportunity. A well-lived life is not all about the accolades and accomplishments. It is about the striving.

By the way, I chose the Ballerina picture, as a way of demonstrating striving in action (they work really hard to get good at this particular kind of dance).

Until next time…