Healthy Sleep

One of my priorities of late has been getting better sleep.

Getting a good night's rest is incredibly important to our physical and mental health (not to mention emotional as well). When we are tired we are more likely to be stressed, get sick, and get frustrated or upset over trivial things. When we are getting enough sleep, we have more energy, feel more awake, and more happy. Too much sleep, on the other hand, can also leave us feeling drained.

Generally, we hear that 8 hours of sleep is what we should be getting each night. I've been focusing on that a lot the past few weeks and really made an effort to get 8 hours every night. It's tough to do when we bogged down with responsibility (so many things I have to do!) and desire (so many things I want to do!). 

I haven't been willing to forsake my morning routine though. So in order to get up at 5:30 AM, I have to be in bed at 9:30 PM. This is a far cry from my old habits a few years ago. I often stayed up until 2 in the morning or even 3, watching Youtube or movies or playing video games. I have drastically reduced the number of things I try to do each night, and instead focus on doing a few things that I can devote more attention to, and then go to bed earlier to feel rested for my morning routine. 

Getting more sleep becomes a priority when I am able to let go of things I don't need to do. Our priorities are the things we spend the most time doing. What are you spending most of your time on today and does it align with what you believe your priorities are?

Without Coffee For A Week

I successfully went a week without coffee last week. I celebrated by getting myself a delicious locally brewed coffee at the city market here in Fredericton, NB. It was a delicious raspberry flavoured coffee and since it was locally made I felt even better about it.

Since I went a whole week and celebrated my success with a coffee (actually two) over the weekend, I found I really enjoyed the treat at the end of the week. I refrained from buying more ground coffee when I did my groceries this weekend, so I will go another week without coffee. In saying that though, I already bought one this morning at work - but forgive me! I was up later than usual last night and I felt that a nice cup of coffee would be just the thing to start my day. Sleep is something I am making a priority lately and I will write more about that next time.

Who Am I?

Here's a mind-snapping concept:

"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter
is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration.
That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream
and we are the imagination of ourselves."

-- The Late Bill Hicks, Comedian -- 

No Coffee

I ran out of coffee today. I usually do a grocery run on the weekend but I am not going to refill my container of ground coffee.

Am I crazy!?

No coffee? What am I going to do? Well, in the past few months I have lowered my coffee intake considerably. I am not giving up on drinking coffee altogether, because I still enjoy a nice cup in the morning. I am giving it up for at least the next though. I will stick to drinking tea for the next week and see how the lack of coffee will affect my focus and my body. I think this will be an interesting experiment. 

I suspect that by lowering my coffee intake even more will make drinking coffee a special occasion. It will be a treat when I do drink it. When we have something in our life that we get used to, we begin to take it for granted. How many other things do we take for granted? Can we be grateful for these things instead?

I will return to drinking coffee next week with gratitude. I will practice gratitude for the cup of coffee in my hands. I will be grateful for the amount of work that went into it (the coffee farmers, the shippers, the manufacturers who made my mug, etc.).

What else can we be grateful for? Instead of complaining about the pothole in the road, can we be grateful for having roads paved for us? What can you be grateful for today?

Favorites

I am letting go of playing favorites.

Favorite movies. My favorite movie for the longest time has been The Lord the Rings (I consider it one film). A close runner-up would have to be Fight Club (probably my first introduction to the concept of minimalism). However, there are so many other great movies out there. As much as I love LOTR and Fight Club, by singling them out as my favorite films I am denying all of the other great films out there. So now when I watch Fight Club, I am fully absorbed with it. When I watch Days of Heaven, I am fully absorbed with it. When I watch La Strada, I am fully absorbed with it.

Favorite books. I have gone through a long list of favorite books. When I was a kid, I loved the Animorphs series of books. They were easily my favorite, with Goosebumps being a close runner-up. Then I turned to The Lord of the Rings in middle school. Orwell's 1984 took it over in high school, and Stephen King's Dark Tower series came soon after. When people ask, I usually respond with the Dark Tower novels being my favorite, but there are so many great novels out there! Instead, I should be present with the book I am currently reading instead of thinking about how great my favorite is. While reading Infinite Jest, I am fully absorbed with it. When I read The Gunslinger, I am fully absorbed with it. When I read the Tao Te Ching, I am fully absorbed with it.

Favorite music. I have many musical artists that I consider to be favorites. They cycle in and out of my top ten favorites, but Avenged Sevenfold has always been at the top (I even have tattoos based on their artwork). But sometimes I am enjoying other artists music more than A7X. Sometimes I like Dir En Grey more, or sometimes I am more in the mood for Radiohead, or Naked City, or Brian Eno. So instead of just settling on who my top ten favorite bands are at the time, I will just be present with the music I am listening to at the moment, whatever it may be. When I listen to System of a Down, I am fully absorbed with it. When I listen to Mozart, I am fully absorbed with it. When I listen to Miles Davis, I am fully absorbed with it.

What will I do instead? Rather than make a hierarchy of the best musicians or novels or films, I will just be present with whatever art or entertainment I am presently enjoying. Enjoy the things that are with me now. Be content with what I do have.

This concept can transfer over into other facets of my life too. Rather than compare this moment or this day to previous ones and think it's not as good, I can be content with the present. I can be accept what I have now and dismiss the labels of good or bad. Be content what it is instead of what I think it should be.

It's Just A Ride

We can all get really stressed out and worried about life. What will I do for work? How am I going to pay my bills? What will people think of me? What am I going to do? It's far too easy to fall into worry and lose sight of what we should be focusing on in life. Enjoyment. Happiness. Contentment.

When I get bogged down with worry and stress, sometimes I remind myself of this nice little story from the late Bill Hicks. It reminds to me relax. I don't need to worry, because...

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park.

And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are.

And the ride goes up and down and round and round.

It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while.

Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride?

And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride... 

...It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want.

It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money.

A choice, right now, between fear and love.

The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off.

The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride.

Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."   

-- The Late Bill Hicks, Comedian