Exercise

Exercise is an important part of staying healthy. But that doesn't mean I have to do it all the time.

Like anything, it is best to take it in moderation. My physical health is important to me, but I don't want to use up too much of my time devoting to going to the gym. So most of the time I do simple body-weight exercises at home, and in spring I plan on doing a lot of running.

I spend about 15 to 20 minutes doing a workout every morning (or I at least aim to do it every morning. Sometimes I fail).

    I usually do three sets of ten push-ups.

    Three sets of ten leg lifts.

    Three sets of ten tuck jumps (a jumping variation of squats).

    Three sets of ten crunches or V-ups.

    Three sets of twenty second mountain-climbers.

    Sometimes I will end with thirty seconds of planking.

    Lunges are good too.

   I also do a few sets of pull-ups on a chin-up bar when one is available (thankfully, there is one at my work - I usually do four or six sets of eight a day).

    I also do a lot of stretching (I love stretching out my joints and muscles, maybe do a few yoga poses).

The main point is that I do exercises that I find fun. I enjoy doing these exercises. I stay mindful of my body while I workout. I don't listen to music or do my taxes at the same time. I be present in the moment and feel my bodily sensations.

I felt really inspired after reading Joshua Millburn's post on 18 Minute Minimalist Exercises. His writing showed me that I don't need to go to the gym for an hour every day to be in great shape. My goal in exercising regularly isn't to get buff or look good. The goal is to feel good. To feel good in my own body.

I have been kind of slacking on the exercise routine, but the rest of this week I am going to really nail my goal of getting up in the morning on time and giving myself a good workout. Honestly, my day starts off so much better when I do. Hopefully, I will be in good enough shape to run a marathon this year! Stay posted for that in the future.

If you want some ideas for exercises you can do at home, here is a great link for 50 Great Body-Weight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere.

On Routines

Today is my first day back to work after being off for March break. It was a relaxing week but also a lazy one. Coming back to work today, having to get out of bed early and get ready, actually felt really good. It felt like I was establishing a routine again. The week I had off was filled with sleeping in, lazing around, not doing work. I had goals for the week. I wanted to get a lot of writing done. I wanted to get a lot of reading one. I wanted to exercise a lot. I did some of these things, but they certainly didn't reach the level I had hoped for. And I only did one blog post last week!

Now that I have a full work week, I have structure. Structure is important to making a good routine. I failed to commit to a routine during my week off due to lack of structure. I am not saying that I necessarily need a full-time job to keep a solid schedule. Many people work free-lance or independently and can establish solid routines to get work done. But those people still establish a structure for their weeks and days.

We are creatures of habit. Most of what we do day in and day out, we do out of habit. We don't consciously think about the things we do after doing them for so long. Coming back to work, I hope to establish a better routine. I need to consciously think about this at first to get into the habit, but after the next two weeks, if I establish a healthy routine, I will habitually stick to it and hopefully feel much better.

Having a good healthy routine based around a structure is a good way to simplify and improve our lives. I have a routine of getting up in the morning and exercising, then meditating for ten minutes, and then writing a journal entry before I need to get ready for work. Having this repeated set of activities every morning creates a routine that boosts my creative energy throughout the day. I aim to do these three things (exercise, meditate, write) each morning (at least Mon-Fri) for the next two weeks. We'll see how I am doing after that.

Paring Down the DVD Collection

I am a film-maker. I went to film school. So it goes without saying that I have a certain love for cinema. I enjoy watching movies. But lately, I find myself watching less. I only watch one or two movies a week and usually that's one with friends or my girlfriend, so it's a social function, or it's one I watch to expand my cinema tastes and learn something from an artistic perspective (I watch a lot of art-house films - the Criterion Collection is great for those!). And I watch almost zero TV shows (except with my girlfriend - we usually have one show on the go together).

Yes, I still have Night of the Hunter on DVD

Since embarking on my journey into minimalism I got rid of a lot of DVDs (check out my posts when I was playing the Minimalism Game). I still have quite a few movies in my collection though. So I am going one step further. I am paring down the collection and keeping only the DVDs that will fit onto one shelf of my bookcase (I used to have two but I got rid of one when I moved into my new apartment). The ones I keep are either for personal reasons (nostalgia or I just simply enjoy the film), or for aesthetic reasons (I can learn a lot from a film-making standpoint). Whatever the reason is, the film I keep must add value to my life. The other part to this is that I must frequently come back and reconsider my choice of possessions. Is this thing still adding value? Remember, things always change. We always change. So we must always reevaluate the things we include in our lives.