My experiment with fatigue and tiredness

An hour of jogging,early in the morning(which is a pretty heavy workout for me),two hours of football in the scorching sun and an hour of lfootball in the evening exhausted me.I was so tired even to rise my hand up.But still,I gathered all my powers to stay awake and watch a game between man utd and arsenal.Manchester utd lost 1-0.This made me even more tired.Then I decided to retire for the day.
That is when I found a book by dale carnegie at my bedside stand.Its called  “how to stop worrying and start living”.Just out of sheer interest I took a glance at the index.”how to banish fatigue”.hmm, interesting topic…
I then flew to that page and started reading the chapter.The author advocated the theory that every person who  is fatigued , actually acted fatigued.
This got me thinking.Am I acting to be tired? does my mind and attitude really make me tired?It seemed to be a better idea to test and find out.That is when I remembered that I’ve not written a post in this blog.I then determined to seize this opportunity to test the point made by the author.
So I concentrated for about 10 minutes on some positive things such as light and gravity.By then I was all set to experiment with the fact.
And hence,I took a paper and a pen,started writing out this post.If you could have smelled a scent of sleepiness right from the beginning of this post,you are right.It’s not in me to stay awake till late night,let alone some special occasions. My eyes would start burning,if I tried to,and eventually would fall asleep on the couch itself.This is surely not easily modifiable.But this time,I would not give up.So I did some eye exercises that I’ve learnt in a yoga class.felt better.After that I continued writing my post.
And here are the results of my experiments.Its true!! The time was 11:30 pm when I finished writing this and I was surprised to notice that I still had much left in me.I came to know that your mind overcomes your body,if we really tried to.
But after this I got a doubt,a really serious one.If a man was so able to overcome tiredness using his mind,why should we even need sleep?This I could not answer.
So,as we reach the end of the post,I should  conclude by saying some ways to be energized, when you are fatigued.Here,they are:

• Make your jobs interesting.We rarely get tired when we are doing something interesting and exciting.Do interesting things or spice up jobs in the way you like.
• Act ‘as If’ you are interested in the job at hand. This acting will tend to make your interest real.It will also decrease the chances of you getting fatigued.
• Ask this question to yourself when you are just at you breaking point.”Since you have to do it,why not have a good time doing it?”
• Our life is what our thoughts make it.Talk to yourself as often as you can,to fine tune your thoughts into purely positive.
• And,the most important one.Don’t worry.Smile,breathe and go slowly.

“Although an ass is tired, he continues to carry his burden; he is unmindful of cold and heat; and he is always contented; these three things should be learned from the ass”
                                               -Chanakya
Now for those who doubt my claim that I wrote this post in night by seeing the time I posted this,don’t tell that you couldn’t see a just about to sleep ciby in my writing.No confusion.Please believe.

Just the way you are

“ ’Cos you're amazing                       
Just the way you are”                           

Today,when I was hearing this one song by bruno mars,I suddenly recounted an experience I had long ago.About 6 years ago,I was in a residential school in kodaikkanal,doing my sixth standard.It was a beautiful hill to school in.Well away from the noisy,fast paced city,we had a beautiful waterfalls behind our hostel.There was no building around it,at least as far as I could see.This is the place where I learnt to taste the sweetness of a slower life.

There,I had a friend from the nearby city madurai.We became friends by our common interest,Literature .He was such a good friend.We used to wander in the wilderness,not so wild,about the waterfalls in our free time.We used to ponder over the amazing beauty of nature.

One thing that used to catch our eyes every time we go on this expedition was a small puppy(some say it was  a baby wolf ‘cos it was very difficult to see a pup in a forest.but we didn care) that used to run here and there around us.we liked him so much.So,we tried to catch hold of it,and keep it as our pet.And we succeeded in doing so.We got a jute rope,smoothened it with a insulation tape and used it as a collar and tied him behind our hostel.We used to feed it well.We usually take some food from the kitchen while it was being prepared .That,we gave it to our pup.He ate them.We determined to bring him up as a vegetarian,as we were not permitted non-veg in our hostel.

And so,he grew used to us and started wagging his tail when he saw us.Day by Day,the love I had to him multiplied exponentially.But, we could not figure out the fact that he was actually getting weaker.

And then I came to home for a week,because I was sort of home sick.And then when I returned,I heard that my friend was also out of the hostel for a week for some medical purpose.I searched for my pup in the place where we used to tie him.But alas,he was not there.

When I enquired about him,I could not believe what I heard.It was dead.And for the first time I found out how it would feel if a person whom you care about,dies.Even if it was a pet.

His death gave me a good hard lesson .The lesson that I wish to keep in my mind for the rest of my life.No thing in this earth is nice when kept away from their true nature.If it still was in the wilderness,it would have found its own food,not waiting for  two careless boys stupid enough to leave a pup hungry for a whole week.

And here enters the lines of bruno mars.How beautiful and true lines they are??Everything in this universe has a destiny to fulfill and the universe conspires to make an individual to achieve it.And the journey should not be altered by others.The beauty should be grasped in its most natural form.

And I think this would appeal to all those who have pets.what do you think your pets are??are they your entertainers?do they not have their own work or do they not have their right to be entertained?They are just ONE of your important things.But you are the only thing that they have.So,have pets only if you wish to spend your life FOR them and WITH them.

For  my friend,he was upto two bad news.what was the other?It was that he had acquired one of the most dreadful diseases in the world.Brain tumor .The doctors had already fixed his end,he said to me in private,one day.I was the only one who knew this and I could not bear the stress. every time I saw him thereafter I remembered those tears running down his cheek when he said this.But he seemed okay.

And so I came back from that school after spending just two months there to my home place.Those two months were the most eventful and emotional months of my first 16 years on this earth.

As long as I am here,I would have a memory of him and our baby dog,or wolf,whatever                                                                                                                                       


I LOVED THEM JUST THE WAY THEY WERE.

The "how-to"s of slow downing

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast. – Shakespeare

In my previous post i had written about getting used to slow down and do things even more productively.I ,now,have to confess that i have took some ideas given below from some of the philosophers and life coaches(as i call them).enjoy the post.And remember to do it SLOWLY.

In our rush-aholic world slowing down seems foolish. In school we have to be “seen” to be studying. Even though doing a task more slowly can often produce a result faster, many of us get caught up in unnecessary fastness. You may be suffering from too much speed. After all, you are reading this. We humans are NOT ALWAYS efficient machines that can run seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Burning the candle at both ends results in  burnout.

Humans need rests, relaxation, and recreation. We need time to think about things, to clear the mind, and to have fun.Slowing down is a way to conserve, and harvest our energy, not about relief from boredom by just watching more TV or going shopping. You may have to confront boredom at first. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.

In Japan there is an expression for death by overwork: Karoshi (Kah-roe-she).If we let it, work can take over our lives. Work is of course necessary, but the problem is taking it too far. You decide what excess is for you. Having drive is a self-actualizing positive attribute, but being driven, being compelled to work long-hours, is soul destroying.(from robin sharma)

Slow calm
More haste, less speed, or haste makes waste are a well-known sayings. When under pressure, the ability to act slowly and deliberately is a benefit. The wise carpenter measures twice and cuts once. Taking time to read the map instead of blindly heading off in what you guess might be the right direction makes sense.

Thinking and considering before acting takes a level of impulse control that’s missing when we become overly stressed. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If, is about keeping your head when all those about you are losing theirs. Maintaining a sense of calm when others are stressed and panicking is not easy. Slow is not about being lazy.

Slow eating(from "the primal blueprint")
How many of us have heard our mothers tell us not to gobble our food? Children eat like animals until they are civilized. We eat and run. The slow food movement started in Italy as a backlash against fast food, but that is another subject. Current wisdom has it that eating slowly can help you lose weight. Taking your time to chew your food releases the nutrients. It’s easy to overeat, but slowing down can help.

In America, we talk about being full up after a meal. Food is seen as fuel. You are more likely to eat quickly if you eat alone. You are more likely to eat quickly if you are working at the same time. When we gulp down food our stomachs don’t have a chance to digest it properly, nor signal to our brains that we are satiated.

Taking a break between courses or eating smaller portions and waiting, eating with others, and taking time to digest what you eat is a good way to practice slowing down.

Slow attention
Slowing down helps give our full-attention to what we are doing. Like full-attention Zen, slowing down can put us in the zone, or what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience).

Try walking more slowly. Pause before responding to questions. Speak more slowly. Does this feel awkward? Why?

Slow down now
Personal energy, attention and time are limited. By slowing down we can use these better to our advantage. Slowing down is counter-intuitive. It’s not easy to go against the grain no matter how much sense it makes.

SO JUST SLOW DOWN