Powering Down

As I woke this morning an odd thing happened. I turned off my alarm, which happens to be my iPhone, then immediately checked my email. I never do this. I usually turn off my alarm, stumble downstairs, and head out the door, only looking at my phone to turn off my alarm. I then go for my walk, come back and make breakfast, then power up the computer for 40 minutes or so before heading out the door to work.

Little technology interaction in the first 30 minutes of my day is how I like starting the day.

Today though things were different. Checking my email, my mind freaked out. I got an email that wasn’t all that surprising, but pushed my mind into work mode. I spent my 30 minute morning walk thinking about work, how I was going to respond to the email and what I needed to do over the next week or so to move the project along. My heart rate rose, my body stressed and my mind strained. It was not the way I want to start my day.

Over the last few minutes of my walk, I realized I was in work mode already. I focused in on how I was feeling and the stress I was handling. I thought about how I usually don’t start my day like this and how I ease myself into the day by letting my mind wander. I enjoy starting my day in a more relaxed manner. I don’t enjoy staring it by staring at a screen.

The amount of time I spend in front of the computer during the day is pretty ridiculous.

After much thought, I’ve decided in the month of September, I am going to start my mornings with no technology. Instead of coming home from my walk and opening up my computer, I am going to read magazine articles, read a book and write in my notebook. I want to see how it makes me feel. Maybe nothing will change. Maybe I’ll stress about how I am getting a later start to my work day. Maybe I’ll love it. We’ll see.

I am going to use the time between my walk and the start of my workday at the office as a non-tech bridge. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

(photo via State Library of Victoria Collection)

Refresh

The stillness of the cool morning air surprised me this morning as I headed out on my morning walk. The quiet solitude of the morning shook me from my hazy-minded state, propelling me to critiquing how I was feeling and how things have been going in every aspect of my life as of late.

While I often use my morning walks as a time of reflection, today was a different sort of reflection. It was more of a refresh. When reflecting, I often think about a past event or series of events, giving them the time necessary to process through my mind, usually coming to some sort of conclusion, then letting them go. This morning’s refresh took a different path.

When I have a morning I would classify as a refresh, it’s still processing a series of events or actions, but instead of processing them, concluding something and moving on from them, instead I process and conclude then immediately reapply those conclusions to how I am going to shape my day.

I’ve been working through ways to frame my day and actions as of late, which I am sure I’ll write about after one of my walks here soon, but today’s refresh is taking the thoughts of the morning and shaping the day around those thoughts. It’s a process I should work through more often, as it always breathes some fresh air into my routine, but for today I am refreshed and ready to move forward.

Thinking Simple, Acting Simple

The act of simplicity is something many of us crave. Pushing away the noise in our everyday lives, seeking something that’s more natural and less complex. This morning, as I rounded a corner and walked past a rose garden, a cyclist flew by me.

I thought about the cyclist for a moment and where he might be going at 5:30 am, but then I thought about his bike and that this gentleman chooses to ride to work (where I figured he was headed) every day on a bike, rather than drive a car. It’s an act of simplicity. The motion of a bicycle is simple. How one rides a bike (once learned) is simple. There is little noise that comes from a bike, riding it slows you down and you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. Riding a bike is an act of simplicity.

Like the vast majority of things you might decide to do in your life, you first think about it, then take action on it. Simplicity is the same way. To reduce the noise in your life, to break down how you live to a point of finding balance, you first must think through where you are at and what you want, then taking action to creating such simplicity.

My morning walk is an act of simplicity. Each morning I think about the benefits of walking and the enjoyment that I find from it. I think about how basic it is, how it doesn’t cost money and how both my mind and body benefit from it. I think about minimizing my stress, minimizing the noise I create, then I set about on my walk, creating simplicity for myself.

Positive Thoughts

“A man is but the products of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.” – Mahatma Gandhi

It’s so easy to wake up in the morning, head out the door for my morning walk and just get in the habit of talking negatively about whatever comes to mind. A little sleepy and a little hungry, dusting the cobwebs off the mind, leaves one susceptible to negative thoughts.

It’s something I’ve been working on being aware of as of late. When negative thoughts start clouding the mind so early in the day, it sets a bad tone for the rest of the day. Thoughts build on each other, whether positive or negative, so why would one want a bunch of negative thoughts piling on one another?

When a negative thought comes to mind during my morning walk, I generally try to either switch the subject or just think a quick positive thought. This, more times than not, does the trick. Every few days though, one thought sticks in my head and I find myself focusing on that negative thought for a block or two. When this happens and I can’t switch it up, I decide to challenge it, asking myself why I am having that negative thought.

When I question myself, really pushing myself for the answer, I get to the root cause and can go about changing my state of mind. It allows me to think clearly, jump back into a positive state of mind and ultimately helps me have a positive outlook towards what I was once negative about.

(photo via return the sun)

Sleep

The first few minutes of every morning walk, I stumble up my walk route, probably looking hungover or still sleeping. I am sure it’s an amusing sight. It takes me those few minutes to wake up, get my mind thinking and my body moving. It’s a challenge, but once I get a block or two into my walk, I am wide awake.

While my morning walks are the perfect way to start my day, every so often I think about the fact that almost everyone else I know are still sleeping. I am a morning person, so getting up at 5:30 and heading out the door isn’t all that difficult, however, at least once a week I wish I was still sleeping.

This morning, as I rounded the corner by the quaint coffee shop that lives along my morning walk route, I thought about how much sleep I get over the course of the week. I generally get around 45 hours of sleep a week. I figure the average adult in Portland, which is definitely a city that embraces sleep, gets around 55 hours of sleep a week. 10 less hours of sleep a week is significant. That’s nearly 20% less sleep. Thinking about how little sleep I get was surprising, as I generally think of my sleeping habits on a day-to-day basis, not as a weekly whole.

While I won’t give up my morning walk to sleep for an extra 30-60 minutes, what I can do is be more aware of the sleep I am getting and be more stringent in what I time I go to bed, especially during the work week. An extra five hours of sleep could have a big influence on my daily energy, especially later on in the week, as my body wears down and loses the restfulness it gets from the weekend.

(photo courtesy of wwarby)