Training as Meditation

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in fitness, Health, meditation 4 Comments
I train physically. I love it.

I’ve done all kinds of physical training outdoors and indoors….running, mountain biking, open water swimming, body building protocols, circus arts, parkour, crossfit, obstacle racing, strong lifts 5×5, barstarzz, surfing, and gymnastic bodies (GSB).

Each had it’s effect.

  • Running and mountain biking were great lung builders and meditative
  • Swimming in open water was an effort of the mind and completely emptied me
  • Body building built confidence
  • Circus arts was just fun
  • Parkour was explosive but full of injury
  • Crossfit was a magnificent emptier but fried me
  • Obstacle racing was OK but race courses were usually more running than obstacles
  • Strong lifts got me a lot stronger than I’d ever been 
  • The paddle out at Ocean Beach in SF is HARD, but on the other side it’s just surf bliss
  • Barstarzz was fun with flow but also a source of injury
  • GSB developed strength and mobility in a way you didn’t notice until you progressed

It was all work though. Tough and demanding work of the body and the mind.

Each one has a different kind of meditation to it’s process. A lot of it is a kind of work where I have to push myself mentally or physically. Working at a startup with a commute and raising twin girls, I need to unwork and not push anymore.

For me, after work, I ride in the most beautiful place I think one could ride. It’s the greatest feeling of flow I have ever felt physically. The undulating trails covered in pine needles give feelings of just pure flow. Here’s a view of one particularly magnificent ride I frequent. It’s exercise but I don’t really notice it. Just flow. When I’m done, I feel like I’ve been gone. Tired but recharged. Just perfect.

No more toil

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in General

Past

If you take a look at the previous posts on this blog, they have been all over the place. That’s largely because I have been all over the place. While I continually focus on making my family and work happen, my dreams have been like the weather…seasonal with occasional swings up and down in temperature and moisture. 

When you aren’t clear on what you want, anything looks good. The ideas and whims of others can stir you like soup in a pot. Even worse, when you are just focused on getting things done and checking off your todo list, you can lose sight of of the big things that need doing. I would even procrastinate by doing the small things instead of the big things. This is toil. I’m glad to know this now, and I’m done with it.

Present

I’m not toiling anymore. My key things get 50% or more of my attention. Other non-critical items are declined or relegated to the “another time” category.

Future

I’m intend to flourish. One can get lucky and just have things happen, but I’m for directing as much of my life as possible. I want my kids to see me go for life instead of toiling. 
Going forward, I’m…
  1. cultivating the sparks I see in my girls into explorations
  2. helping my wife recover from breast cancer and working to eliminate her chronic stress to what ever level I can
  3. taking some great experiential vacations
  4. putting on muscle for the foreseeable future
  5. getting off the employee track
  6. and adding more income generating assets
This definitely takes work. However, I’ve found each of them so far to be rewarding and re-enforcing. 

Reconfiguring bad mental associations on just about anything?

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in General 6 Comments
I’m always digging into my psychology. Specifically, how I can continue to have new experiences and growth…mentally, physically and materially, and keep out of negative self-doubt cycles. When I say materially, I mean strong wealth for security in advanced age and not mansions, boats or range rovers. There are some situations that I’ve learned what I can from about what I need to change yet they repeat in my mind and waste my time before I catch them.

A trick I have just discovered is to revisit a previous bad experience and reimagine it as a cartoon or some kind of humorous event. For example, if the experience was with a person who put you down or rejected you, imagine the person as a walking turd with all the physical properties of a turd. Or imagine the person with huge ears twice as big as their head. It might sound nuts, but my mental effect of the situation changed when I did this. Maybe it wont’ last, I’m not sure yet.

However, I have tried applying it to current difficult situations and it just makes me laugh inside. Maybe it’s weird, but I like it. I’m going to play with it. Weird is also more fun than constant seriousness which I bet raises my cortisol levels and shortens lifespan.

San Francisco Parklets, Foot traffic and Fitness

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in bars, bcooperative, Business, handstand, parklets
As a driver of cars, my initial reaction to parklets was, “Dang it! Parking is hard enough.”  As a pedestrian and bicyclist, I like them a lot since I can hang out and watch my bike. As a Small Business person, marketer, product manager and entrepreneur I love them in that they create spaces for people to gather and connect. In this case, they are connecting in front of Trouble Coffee. Parklet people hanging in front of businesses mean incremental sales of varying degrees. However, as a practitioner of elite calisthenics, I love this specific parklet built by Ben Frombgen @bcooperative. Very nice work, Ben. It rocks. Check it out at 170 Yosemite Ave in San Francisco.

Here’s a shot Ben took of me doing a handstand. It’s very solid and great for monkey moves. My kids enjoyed it, too.