Day 1412

Day 1412 Record Keeping
Day 1384 Fixed Meditation (10 min, gratitude/vipassana)
Day 1259 Writing (1, 20-min Pomodoro)
Day 798 Rowing (10 min/ 1900 m)
Day 539 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 189 Social Media (Quora, 4 20-min Pomodoros)
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Horrendous sleep. I really need to figure out what's going on to reset my sleep. The last two weeks have been filled with depression and severe anxiety, and that is on top of the severe jet lag and my usual inability to deal with cold weather. 

But now that I'm back at my habits things are going smoothly. I'm just getting back into the rhythm before pushing things. Lydia is also doing a 30 day strict paleo challenge (minus not paying attention to alcohol), which I'm doing too. So far it's only a week, but I feel it's going well. 

I really want to start pushing things. Yesterday I felt so good, and it was only marginally curbed by my severe lack of sleep last night. But I know that managing Endurance is particularly key in these moments. 

Yet, cross training is sneaking in. I'm cross training meditation depending on the day. Quora is a great addition to my social media habit. Even aside from social media, it's just a great way for me to organize my thoughts and explain specific points. I hope to modify those answers for my article section on this site. And I already have a mobility change-up planned. 

Day 1178 & Day 4 Mobility Overhaul

Day 1178 Record Keeping
Day 1150 Fixed Meditation (15 min)
Day 1025 Writing (5 rounds/30 min)
Day 564 Rowing (rowing HIIT, 14 min, 15s:60s, 2500 m)
Day 305 Mobility/Stretching (20 min, toe plantarflexion, shoulder rotator smash & floss, erector side smash)
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Early to Rise
Day 333 Sleep Recording  (2:30|2:40|10:30|11:45)
Day 304 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
Day 142 Wakeup Alarm
–
Ok, but unsatisfying sleep. Depleted. 

Day 1177 & Day 3 of Mobility Overhaul

Day 1177 Record Keeping
Day 1149 Fixed Meditation (15 min)
Day 1024 Writing (2 rounds/30 min)
Day 563 Rowing (rowing, 21 min/2800 m)
Day 304 Mobility/Stretching (20 min, double leg plantar flexion, T-spine and lower spine smash)
—
Early to Rise
Day 332 Sleep Recording  (2:45|3:26|10|11)
Day 303 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
Day 141 Wakeup Alarm
–
Ok, but unsatisfying sleep. Ego depleted. Late night international call had me in bed later. Excellent mobility, but exhausted in rowing. Just got my tumblr blogged migrated to this website - this is my first post here!

Day 197 & 30 Day Nerve Cluster Reformation

Day 197 Record Keeping
Day 165 Fixed Meditation (16-32 sec, one instance of 1 minute)
Day 111 Bodyweight Exercise  (3 bridges)
Day 38 Writing = 56
Day 211 Eating = 79
Great sleep, great wakeup. 

30 Day Nerve Cluster Reformation
I was watching a video lecture dealing with emotional control. He was talking about how some experiment described brain physiology - the test subjects were asked to change their behavior, and in 30 days their brains had physically changed - I’m assuming this is what neuroplasticity is all about.

His point was that if you do a task for long enough it starts becoming you - physically. Now whether or not this is all true - specifically the 30 days, which has the hallmarks of an old wives tale (like forming habits takes only 21 days) - is unimportant - but it still has some relevance to my project.

I have been doing this no bread thing for 24 days now. In Barcelona bread is just normally given with each meal. I started off thinking it was going to be really really difficult to not eat it, especially if it’s sitting there on the table staring at me - and it was at first. But it very quickly became easy. I really don’t even see the baskets and it has progressed to amazing lengths of automaticity.

The same occurred for the one week that I did my dynamic meditation. I would start automatically catching negative trains of thought almost exactly when they began (and sometimes before they fully coalesced in as a distinct thought in my mind) - and that shift occurred really quickly.

So what does this have to do with my project? These 30 day challenges might be a good thing that I can use to bolster or take a habit up to the next level. Eating well is a great primary habit - working on not eating bread allows me to have minute control over it - I don’t have to avoid restaurants that have bread - or burger places etc - I just eat around it, and I practice for the month to have that control. There’s also something very gamified about it - I feel the challenge of going to a place that’s more difficult because I get points for doing it. 

I foresee doing the same thing for not drinking, or for a modified version of dynamic meditation - only focusing specifically for individual emotions (anxiety, anger, depression) for 30 days as an outgrowth of my meditation habit.

I do not generally like 30 day challenges. A lot of them are done in the misguided view that it will cement into a habit by that time, which is just highly unlikely. But I think they can be used to take a regular habit to greater lengths.