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Prosperity: Focus on Cause.
When we come to the end of a walking day in the Nepal, Himalayas, there are very accurate and clear guidelines to help people recuperate for the next day’s walking. These include:
Hot -Cold -Hot showers
Rehydrating
Taking carbohydrates just after stopping
Full sleep
Evening recovery stroll
Rehydration salts
Massage where possible.
Meditation and some stretching.
Recovery is a science, and it is not, in the real world of our city life, enhanced or improved by watching TV.
Recovery from work, emotional stress, relationship and environmental factors requires that we 100% STOP. This is a simple and powerful skill that can take recovery from days or weeks to hours and minutes.
Waiting for the end of the working day to do recovery is about as antique process as waiting to be bitten by a snake before learning how to treat a snake bite.
Once tiredness or stress starts to accumulate, it’s like waiting for concrete to dry before smoothing the surface of a path.
It’s wise to manage your process so that recovery is part of it, rather than have things so lumpy like waiting for the end of the working day to go to a yoga class. My suggestion is that if you can’t do it while you work, during work, it’s too clumsy.
I take five minutes each hour or so, when I’m under pressure, to chill down using the stillness process I’ll show you here. I also sit in a posture and breathe so I prevent the build up of emotional stress before it starts. I completely shy away from stress reduction and prefer the idea of addressing stress causes, and preventing the stress happening in the first place.
Hot -Cold -Hot showers
Rehydrating
Taking carbohydrates just after stopping
Full sleep
Evening recovery stroll
Rehydration salts
Massage where possible.
Meditation and some stretching.
Recovery is a science, and it is not, in the real world of our city life, enhanced or improved by watching TV.
Recovery from work, emotional stress, relationship and environmental factors requires that we 100% STOP. This is a simple and powerful skill that can take recovery from days or weeks to hours and minutes.
Waiting for the end of the working day to do recovery is about as antique process as waiting to be bitten by a snake before learning how to treat a snake bite.
Once tiredness or stress starts to accumulate, it’s like waiting for concrete to dry before smoothing the surface of a path.
It’s wise to manage your process so that recovery is part of it, rather than have things so lumpy like waiting for the end of the working day to go to a yoga class. My suggestion is that if you can’t do it while you work, during work, it’s too clumsy.
I take five minutes each hour or so, when I’m under pressure, to chill down using the stillness process I’ll show you here. I also sit in a posture and breathe so I prevent the build up of emotional stress before it starts. I completely shy away from stress reduction and prefer the idea of addressing stress causes, and preventing the stress happening in the first place.
Replies to This Conversation
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Permalink Reply by Chris Walker on -
Process is prevention; Build Recovery into your Process.
Stress happens half way between STOP and GO. When I get emotional, uncertain, confused or not fully committed to what ever I’m doing, I get stressed. So, I manage my stress in the first instance by acting in ways that don’t cause it.
The most stressful state of mind is Got To, all or nothing thinking. This is extremely emotional and hyper tense. It begins with judgement, attachment and elation but soon flips to its balance of anger, hate and greed.
“Should” mindset follows close behind as the second most stressful state.
So, what we’re trying to do on a consistent basis is rise above these levels of stress not by escaping to other worlds, but by placating them. Our body and mind operates naturally in Got to and Should states of thinking until we consolidate that level of thinking.
I’m walking up a really steep section of the trail in Nepal, my legs are aching and my lungs are really struggling for air. At some stage my physical body is going to drop down into Got to, and Should levels of operation, it’s the last resort for energy, a highly aggressive approach, adrenalin and all sorts of chemicals get released, and I suddenly turn, a beautiful walk in the mountains into, what my physical body thinks, is a life and death struggle. This is not good unless of course, it’s the last effort I have to make to reach a summit and I can have 3 weeks to recuperate.
Mentally and emotionally we can have this exact same circumstance. Walking in Nepal is a really big emotional and mental challenge for some people and when I’ve walked with a chest infection or a slight altitude sickness, I’m really reminded of just how hard a first time journey up here in the mountains can be.
I can easily slip down into that mental and emotional level of Got to and Should do, as a sense of desperation comes over me and then, those same chemicals that got triggered from my physical struggle can also be triggered from my mental struggle.
In the Eastern arts, the whole science is based on not triggering those “emergency” back up chemicals, that “Got to” or “Should” level of mindset. There are two reasons. One is because in those lower emotional levels, people do very violent, self and other abusive acts, and secondly because it’s unsustainable.
By introducing the Eastern ideal, of working and living without causing myself stress, my process for recovery became so much more simple.
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Permalink Reply by roslyn freeman on -
Good day and blessings and peace to you Chris,
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