I have a fitness blog that I don't update often enough but felt compelled to post the following to and thought it might bear sharing here as a conversation thread.
My Take. The Meaning of Life: Chasing Moments
As I was doing my workout today I really was thinking about some things that have been on my mind the past few years, months, weeks and days.
"Everything affects everything." Paul Reed Smith said that in a demonstration he gave about PRS guitars back in the late 90's to a gathering of a few dozen hardcore PRS Forum members. He was tapping wood listening to and for what he termed the 'ring' with his ADD nervous spastic energy that he has always had in person. That quote sticks out to me not just applied to building guitars, or playing them. It applies to chasing moments that create the touchstones and building blocks of memories that form a life lived.
Over my life I've come to realize that something in that quote from Paul really 'rings' true applied to everything. Getting into the moment, free of distraction, with absolute focus and total commitment to the moment is the zone. The magic. The power of connecting with your surroundings, with a group of people in emotional experiences in a singular MOMENT of time. Athletes call it the 'zone'. In competition, you find your stillness in the moments of great speed under extreme duress. You are calm in the face seemingly perpetual chaos of movement. Your situation, your surroundings, the effort, the focus all blend into a moment. As a performing musician, those perfect moments when the room, the crowd, the band, the music all HITS and everything simultaneously both 'goes away' and at the same time paradoxically 'comes together' is powerful juju. It's the same elements that form part of the power and attraction of altered states of perception, sexual experiences, being human and alive. The truly powerful music that impacts you and STOPS you and pulls you in, even for a moment (or two) either as a musician or a listener is all the same thing. The memories we will review the most vividly on our deathbed are not the mundane day-to-day; but the ones that came down to a singular moment that was memorable and impacted us more. The birth of your child, the loss of a loved one. Falling in love; dealing with battles that seem insurmountable and surviving. Life and loss. Triumph and sadness. Not cleaning the toilet or fixing a hole in the wall. I would hope so anyway.
I've been working out hard my whole life; but feel it's really coming together since I started a simple program ("Simple and Sinister" by Pavel Tsatsouline) last April. Buying into his program isn't hard. It's two basic movements - both being complex, gross motor movements that involve your whole body. One movement (the kettlebell swing) is explosive, ballistic and requires body control, breathing, power, explosiveness and technique. You are using so many things during the move that you must both explode with tension and be relaxed and loose in alternative aspects that fluctuate through the movement. The other is a 'grind' (the Turkish Get-Up or TGU), and requires all the same elements but also body proprioception and balance applied through the movement getting the bell from the floor to raised and locked out overhead with one arm in a slow, steady manner that requires moments of power and a stillness between the various postures. It is truly a 'grind'. (*I've since added a lot more to my workouts but do the S&S protocol 3-4 times a week). I have gone at it with everything I have. I've not rushed through it. I am constantly working on getting the techniques down better and better and nine months in now, it leads to a lot of 'in the zone' moments during workouts where everything zones out, I am connected to the moment in time and the work with laser focus and it's led me to truly great stuff beyond the physical. To me it connects spiritually, mentally and physically all at the same time. Everything both comes together and goes away allowing me to (as I almost constantly say to myself out loud in the moment, at the moment): "Be here. Right now."
Different lifestyles and practices - culturally and otherwise - tend to cloud that. Mobile phones. Advertising. Television. Internet. Email. Social media. Experiences you remember though - triggering memories powerful in their depth over your entire life all share the same core things are all devoid of these things. Tragic and triumph in your own life - as you experience them - tend to remove everything nonessential from the moment, impacting you in ways you do not forget. For better or worse.
There's purpose to it, thought behind it; these moments. I call awareness of this chasing moments. Yoga teaches breathing as an essential portion of the practice. Likewise breath control when practicing marksmanship on the range. The importance given to posture by design of your physical body allows for optimal breath control in physical pursuits - like higher level training with kettlebells - allow you to focus in on nuances and connect you into the moment you are in at any given time. These are essential to those experiences. Like most things; once you've mastered the muscle control, you are no longer aware of them. Once you've practiced it and internalized the movements and breathing... you let go and get to the place where those moments can happen. You can not force them. But at the same time, the mastery of the fundamentals and the techniques allows you to nurture and achieve those elusive moments in the zone.
Apply everything you've learned, focus your fears, your awareness, your regrets, your hopes, your successes. Learn to be in the moment and control the aggression, the anger, the fear, the power through technique and determination. Everything leads to here and now; but this is just another point on a curve and what you do, how you do it matters to the success or failure of the effort. Vary the wave of your intensity intelligently and push beyond your comfort zone but don't be reckless.
Age offers the chance to gain experience, knowledge and the wisdom to use them. Age is also a brutally powerful battle against time and your own mortality. All these things coalesce into letting little things go and understanding what is important to pay attention to and what is not important.
A key to all this is to simplify. Slow down, grease the groove and make the complex simple and the moments are there to be had. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Repetition through determination and applied focus over time with patience is the key.
As you go through your day today, look around. Look at the people around you lost in their phones as they eat with others. Look at drivers on the road texting instead of driving. Look at families united yet divided staring at their own screens with words, videos and pictures instead of connecting with life around you... in that moment. When the impact of what we are doing to ourselves with all this distraction and disconnection hits you, remember...
Live life. Chase moments. Be present. Be here. Right now. Everything affects everything.
My Take. The Meaning of Life: Chasing Moments
As I was doing my workout today I really was thinking about some things that have been on my mind the past few years, months, weeks and days.
"Everything affects everything." Paul Reed Smith said that in a demonstration he gave about PRS guitars back in the late 90's to a gathering of a few dozen hardcore PRS Forum members. He was tapping wood listening to and for what he termed the 'ring' with his ADD nervous spastic energy that he has always had in person. That quote sticks out to me not just applied to building guitars, or playing them. It applies to chasing moments that create the touchstones and building blocks of memories that form a life lived.
Over my life I've come to realize that something in that quote from Paul really 'rings' true applied to everything. Getting into the moment, free of distraction, with absolute focus and total commitment to the moment is the zone. The magic. The power of connecting with your surroundings, with a group of people in emotional experiences in a singular MOMENT of time. Athletes call it the 'zone'. In competition, you find your stillness in the moments of great speed under extreme duress. You are calm in the face seemingly perpetual chaos of movement. Your situation, your surroundings, the effort, the focus all blend into a moment. As a performing musician, those perfect moments when the room, the crowd, the band, the music all HITS and everything simultaneously both 'goes away' and at the same time paradoxically 'comes together' is powerful juju. It's the same elements that form part of the power and attraction of altered states of perception, sexual experiences, being human and alive. The truly powerful music that impacts you and STOPS you and pulls you in, even for a moment (or two) either as a musician or a listener is all the same thing. The memories we will review the most vividly on our deathbed are not the mundane day-to-day; but the ones that came down to a singular moment that was memorable and impacted us more. The birth of your child, the loss of a loved one. Falling in love; dealing with battles that seem insurmountable and surviving. Life and loss. Triumph and sadness. Not cleaning the toilet or fixing a hole in the wall. I would hope so anyway.
I've been working out hard my whole life; but feel it's really coming together since I started a simple program ("Simple and Sinister" by Pavel Tsatsouline) last April. Buying into his program isn't hard. It's two basic movements - both being complex, gross motor movements that involve your whole body. One movement (the kettlebell swing) is explosive, ballistic and requires body control, breathing, power, explosiveness and technique. You are using so many things during the move that you must both explode with tension and be relaxed and loose in alternative aspects that fluctuate through the movement. The other is a 'grind' (the Turkish Get-Up or TGU), and requires all the same elements but also body proprioception and balance applied through the movement getting the bell from the floor to raised and locked out overhead with one arm in a slow, steady manner that requires moments of power and a stillness between the various postures. It is truly a 'grind'. (*I've since added a lot more to my workouts but do the S&S protocol 3-4 times a week). I have gone at it with everything I have. I've not rushed through it. I am constantly working on getting the techniques down better and better and nine months in now, it leads to a lot of 'in the zone' moments during workouts where everything zones out, I am connected to the moment in time and the work with laser focus and it's led me to truly great stuff beyond the physical. To me it connects spiritually, mentally and physically all at the same time. Everything both comes together and goes away allowing me to (as I almost constantly say to myself out loud in the moment, at the moment): "Be here. Right now."
Different lifestyles and practices - culturally and otherwise - tend to cloud that. Mobile phones. Advertising. Television. Internet. Email. Social media. Experiences you remember though - triggering memories powerful in their depth over your entire life all share the same core things are all devoid of these things. Tragic and triumph in your own life - as you experience them - tend to remove everything nonessential from the moment, impacting you in ways you do not forget. For better or worse.
There's purpose to it, thought behind it; these moments. I call awareness of this chasing moments. Yoga teaches breathing as an essential portion of the practice. Likewise breath control when practicing marksmanship on the range. The importance given to posture by design of your physical body allows for optimal breath control in physical pursuits - like higher level training with kettlebells - allow you to focus in on nuances and connect you into the moment you are in at any given time. These are essential to those experiences. Like most things; once you've mastered the muscle control, you are no longer aware of them. Once you've practiced it and internalized the movements and breathing... you let go and get to the place where those moments can happen. You can not force them. But at the same time, the mastery of the fundamentals and the techniques allows you to nurture and achieve those elusive moments in the zone.
Apply everything you've learned, focus your fears, your awareness, your regrets, your hopes, your successes. Learn to be in the moment and control the aggression, the anger, the fear, the power through technique and determination. Everything leads to here and now; but this is just another point on a curve and what you do, how you do it matters to the success or failure of the effort. Vary the wave of your intensity intelligently and push beyond your comfort zone but don't be reckless.
Age offers the chance to gain experience, knowledge and the wisdom to use them. Age is also a brutally powerful battle against time and your own mortality. All these things coalesce into letting little things go and understanding what is important to pay attention to and what is not important.
A key to all this is to simplify. Slow down, grease the groove and make the complex simple and the moments are there to be had. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Repetition through determination and applied focus over time with patience is the key.
As you go through your day today, look around. Look at the people around you lost in their phones as they eat with others. Look at drivers on the road texting instead of driving. Look at families united yet divided staring at their own screens with words, videos and pictures instead of connecting with life around you... in that moment. When the impact of what we are doing to ourselves with all this distraction and disconnection hits you, remember...
Live life. Chase moments. Be present. Be here. Right now. Everything affects everything.