“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what
you have to do.” – Epictetus
I usually avoid doing things I don’t like. Don’t we all?
Give me a CrossFit workout over a mobility drill any day. I have had lingering
tendonitis in my knee for months now because I don’t take the time to ice and
relieve the tension.
Well, it also takes 21 days to form a habit. I am trying to
form some new habits, around doing things every day that I need to do even when
I don’t necessarily like to do them. Mobility drills for a couple problem areas
is one. Another is playing around with my newly found alpha state, and yet
another is an experiment to increase my fluid memory through something called
dual n-back training.
The interesting thing is that these latter two are both related, so I wonder if
practicing them both in tandem will have a magnified effect (or perhaps a muted
effect). Not really the scientific method but then again the brain is not the
sort of device that’s designed for measured testing! We’re not processing
machines, we’re creative machines. It may be hectic but I am loving the dual
n-back training. It feels so cool when I don’t consciously remember where
something was 3 moves back but my brain remembers.
"The first principle is that you must not fool
yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard Feynman
I am not sure when to go back to training. Tomorrow is the
plan. We’ll see how I feel. I need to sanity-check my plans. I always do know
whether or not it’s a good idea to train, it’s just when I don’t listen to
myself that I get into trouble. I don’t care if we’re doing Diane again
tomorrow, if I’m not ready I won’t go. My back and side do feel better than
they have in ages – I can almost forget there is something wrong with me.
Almost.
I was relieved (?) to discover during my session with
Kheyrne on Saturday that the reason my ankle is not 100% still is that now that
it’s healed, the scar tissue is compressing the fascia. She was massaging it
and it was painful, but after maybe 2 minutes you could feel the pain got less.
She said, to my relief, that actually trying to do this rehab a few months ago
wouldn’t have been possible because the body needed to be ready for it. Having now
done some of this myself yesterday, I can feel what she means. It does NOT feel
like it should. It feels like a plastic bag full of water that’s been
compressed, and when you press on it you can move the water along from one side
to the other. Also it’s VERY painful, which the other ankle is not. So I
understand what she said – I wouldn’t be comfortable putting myself in that
much pain if I wasn’t sure that the underlying tissues could take it. Yowzers.
But I’m happy finally to be moving along a path to get this
back to where it should be. That’s why I’m taking the time to do these things
every day that I need to do. I’m regenerating now (or trying, my own super
human aspirations will feel more real when I’m out of my cocoon and back to
training). I have a busy social schedule starting this evening and I’m actually
a bit dreading it. I’m happy when I go out, but sometimes I just need my
downtime. Then again if you’re in a bad mood and you start to smile you feel
better, so maybe what I need to start feeling more social is to BE more social.
After all I had quite a cool time on Sunday when I had two braais (one was a
surprise birthday party for Hollie’s boyfriend, the second was at Roland’s),
and then a 27dinner. Sadly the dinner was a bit sparsely attended but I did
meet some interesting people (including another SPS grad!), and got a chance to
see some friends old and new.
I was thinking on the weekend of how I would really hate to
be famous. It’s great to be anonymous, and can you imagine not being able to go
out in public without people staring, or photographing, or hassling you? Ran
into the lovely Toya De Lazy at the Biscuit Mill and she was saying how even
now she has to disguise herself a bit when going out, and she’s not even that
famous. Yet. But boy that must be hectic.
It is a very strange feeling. We are coming up to the end of
the year but instead of things winding down, things seem to be beginning. There
are a lot of very exciting things we’re busy with at work (and some that I’m
doing in my obviously copious free time) but I’ll talk about these in good
time.
- “If it’s important do it every day.” – Roland (quoting Dan John)
- “When you compromise yourself you become resentful, full stop.” – Kheyrne
- “I know sharing wine is weird but I’m drunk.” – Dave
- “I thought you were leaving. Oh, wait, that was me!” – Ellie
- “The people who are intelligent but don’t succeed aren’t reckless enough.” – Dave
- “You don’t know what action cricket is? What sort of wannabe South African are you?” – Jon
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