Spiral Findings

learn, share, grow

Speed Reading

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I had a friend lend me a couple fun books this week, which was nice and got me out of my comfort zone of reading the same type of content day after day.  This week I flipped through this book called Remember Everything You Read by Stanley D. Frank.
The first thing I noticed when getting the book was an intense resistance to reading it. This was mostly because I’ve been trying to adopt a more minimalist philosophy and speed reading seems like the opposite of slowing down and being more mindful of what is capturing my attention.  Thankfully, my friend said I probably only have to read the first chapter or so of the book so I figured what the heck if I don’t like it I’ve only read 25 pages.
The two other takeaways I had from the book were my current reading speed based on the test reading and a different way to take notes.   Although the book seems more geared to students in school, I definitely can see some application in my daily life when I’m reading complex documents or I want to note some information that I’ve been reading in a more intuitive way for comprehension.
I’m glad I gave the book a shot.  I learned some things about myself and a few new reading tricks.  Sometimes it’s good to get out of your reading comfort zone.
What book have you read that challenged you or was out of your comfort zone? 

Smiles Transcend Language Barriers

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Recently, I had the good fortune to be able to travel abroad.  I rather enjoyed it as it had been quite some time since I had the opportunity to travel internationally.  On this trip, even though I spent most of my time working, I made the effort to shuffle around and explore the city I’m was in..even if it was just trying some local restaurants or sitting outside people-watching while drinking a nice cup of tea.  Hmmmmmm…that’s rather picturesque.  I wish I was doing that right now!  🙂

In any event, it is important to note that I didn’t know much of the language in the country that I was visiting.  Sure I had picked up a few words, but nothing really that could help me out as I was walking around the town.  What I noticed, however, was that a simple smile and laughter transcended most of the awkwardness or discomfort that I felt by not knowing the language.  In fact, I had even connected with people solely because we had smiled or laughed together, usually over something very minor and that often was experienced without a single word ever spoken.

It’s interesting to note how the simple act of smiling can make a huge difference in how we relate to others – either people we know and interact with on a regular basis or just random people we pass by in life.

Can you try looking someone in the eye and smiling at them?  Is this different than how you normally walk around and interact with others?  How does it change your experience?

Different Kinds of Fatigue

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Have you noticed that there are different kinds of fatigue?

Physical fatigue: the kind you feel after doing an intense workout at the gym or in the garden 🙂 and you fall into your bed at night with the feeling of pure physical exhaustion and in the hopes of a good, fulfilling night of rest.

Mental fatigue: the kind you feel after working your mind to it’s breaking point, thinking hard, cramming for a test, and at the end of the day you veg out because your brain is too tired to function anymore.

Emotional fatigue:  the kind you feel when you’ve been doing work to grow yourself personally.

Physical and mental fatigue are easy to recognize, but emotional fatigue is different somehow.  I’ve noticed it when I’ve worked in my journal and asked questions about what’s really important to me in my life, and what does living simply and intentionally really mean to me.

Can you share a story of when you felt fatigued? What kind of fatigue was it – physical, mental, or emotional…or maybe something else? 

100 days fail already

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I’ve already failed at my 100 days project.  I’m something like a week in and I’ve already failed to do 100 days in a row.  Last week was super crazy, and I tried to do my best, but I was too tired to do my blog posts.  I started to relax the rules and just use an instagram post as a sign that I had done something.  Maybe I’m not good at “musts” like this or daily practices that have defined rules that can’t be bent.  If i’m too tired, and it’s 1am, it’s probably ok that I chose sleep versus writing a blog post.  Maybe a journal entry is sufficient to promote my writing practice and not everything has to be online.  That reminds of something Tammy Strobel taught during her Write to Flourish course.  She covers the topic of how to determine what is public content versus private content.  I think it’s important for me to explore a blogging practice, but not everything has a place in a public forum. I’m still fleshing out what makes sense to share publicly versus leave safely tucked away in my personal offline world.

How do you refocus and encourage yourself after you experience some kind of failure, even if it’s minor or just a perception of failure?  Are you forgiving or do you try to catch up somehow/turn into Mr. or Ms. Fix It?  

Do you have a writing or blogging practice?  What’s your method for sifting out topics for your blog versus content you want to keep to yourself or for offline conversations only?

Snoooooooooze

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I love and hate the snooze button on my alarm clock at the same time.  I love the extra sleep I get in the morning but I know it’s not good sleep and it’s not actually providing me with valuable rest.  I can’t help it.  I set two alarms, and when those go off, I half wake up and I set another alarm on my phone.  If only I got enough sleep in the first place.  I’m sure this isn’t something that is unique to me.  I’m sure other people get caught up in the allure of the snooze button.  It’s probably just a sign for me to go back and read this post by Leo Babauta on The Most Successful Techniques for Rising Early.  It’s not about rising early for me…I just want to convince myself to get enough rest and have the willpower to overcome that snooze button!

How do handle resisting the snooze button?  Do you have a morning process that gets you excited to get out of bed in the morning?