December 20th 2017

I am slowly getting back in shape

For the past two weeks I’ve dry-fasted a total number of three days. Two Sundays and one Friday. I have been eating plenty. In addition to my morning yoga, light jogging, and walking activities, I’ve added a bit more physically challenging exercises, and I increased the number of days I go out for a run. I’ve been also using my bike more. My physical activity remains mild, but I feel like I have gained a bit more strength. I am still in the mindset of regeneration, that is why I try to avoid physical activities that may be too taxing for my body. My strategy is to increase my physical activity as my organism is becoming cleaner, more alkaline and  more resilient. I don’t want to steal energy away for regeneration by exercising intensely. Although I think exercising is very beneficial for me, it can also cause fatigue if not adapted to my current situation in terms of my nervous energy capital.

No Facebook, More Creative Work

The Facebook-fast ended up lasting for over a month. I think I accidentally connected a couple of times to my account from a browser from which I had not logged out, but I did not spend any time on the platform. Psychologically it was a bit challenging, because I felt a bit lonely at times. On the positive side of things, I had more mental energy to focus on my music and writing. I was able to digitally release a new single album for Black Sea Storm called “Baharlarda”. I was also able to publish a good number of posts on this blog. My journal entries on the For A Better Monday blog are almost up to date now. I have to admit that it takes me quite some time going from my first draft journal entries, to get them to a publishable level. Some of them are over 2000 words. Just the editing process of the posts are requiring me between three to six hours of work for certain posts. It’s amazing how each time I read a post, I find things that could be improved. In that regard, I find my approach to writing very similar to the way I make music. I first let the creative juice get out of my system without worrying about grammatical or structural mechanics. I try to write as much as I can first. Later on, I spend some time on bringing my writing to a level where it could hopefully become an enjoyable reading experience for an other human soul.

Writing helps me in a lot of different ways

One of the reasons I got involved with the For A Better Monday and the Black Sea Storm blogs, is to get better at expressing my thoughts to others. Dedicating a good amount of my time writing on a daily basis has been helping me a lot. Writing helps me to get to know myself better. It allows me to ask questions and think more deeply about certain topics. It also helps me to come up with strategies to move forward with my life. Lastly, it allows me to leave a trace of my train of thought. When I read a journal entry later in time, it allows me to see how I was thinking earlier in time, and how my thoughts, and my reality have evolved since that entry.

Living Situation

This week I am moving out from my current place, this has been also affecting me. I am actually happy to move out, but it’s been almost a year now that I moved to Buenos Aires from Geneva, and it still feels like I am living out of my suitcases. I wasn’t able to establish myself at having a place where I could call it home. The whole renting an apartment thing has been pretty challenging so far. It’s very difficult for a foreigner without having property in Argentina to find decent leases. My experience with my current landlord has not been a good one from my perspective. After being on a regular lease for the past six months, now I am going to be back on the Airbnb circuit for a month and a half. This is hopefully going to allow me some time to find a good housing opportunity. The fact that my lease ends on December 23rd (a day from Christmas Eve), has been an extra challenge to find something long term.

Compensating for the Loss of Income

Other than the feeling of loneliness that the Facebook-fast generated, losing my freelancer opportunity challenged me psychologically. Just when I was thinking that I had gotten my life back on track financially, I am back in a financially unsustainable situation. Since I moved to Buenos Aires, mirage like situations keep happening to me. I’ve been having the illusion that a problem is checked off the list, and it reappears soon after, which brings my morale to a lower level than when I was dealing with the problem in the first place.

The reason why I decided to give you an insight on my psychological status, is that I find that it directly affected my dry-fasting patterns and eating habits. As soon as I found out about loosing my current income and knowing that I was going to move out, It seems to me that I ran away from fasting three to four days a week. As if subconsciously, I knew that it could have been challenging emotionally. I have also been eating plenty and exercising plenty as if I wanted to compensate for the loss of my job opportunity. I am amazed by the human instinct for survival. When the mind feels that there’s going to be a weakness somewhere, it compensates by becoming stronger elsewhere.

I don’t exactly know why, but for me it’s very important to earn money and have a positive financial balance. It’s not that much about the money itself. As long as I have enough to cover my needs, I don’t really care about money and material goods that much. No, for me it’s the act of earning money and to provide for myself that makes me proud, and makes me feel good about myself. The pride and positive energy I get from working and earning money, has a positive influence on the rest of my activities. For now I decided to not think too much about my financial sustainability, and focus on my creative projects. Because when I am working, I always lack of time for my creative endeavors. My strategy from now on is: When there are opportunities to earn money, I want to work as much as I can to earn as much money as I can. And when there are less work opportunities,  I want to work as hard as I can on my own non-lucrative projects.

Breathing

I’ve been consciously breathing a lot lately. I was already doing some breathing exercises in the past, but I recently discovered a technique from Thierry Casasnovas’ latest Terra Incognita. The actual exercise is extremely simple. The challenge for me has been relying more in incorporating it regularly in a daily routine. The exercise consists of inhaling on a count of five and exhaling on a count of five, and this for five minutes, three times a day 365 days a year. 5/5/5/3/365. So far it seems like it has been extremely beneficial for me. I feel like my mood and my emotions are more steady, and I have fewer negative thoughts during the day. I need to keep this practice in place for a while to see it effects on the long run. So far I can only recommend it.

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I AM NOT A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I would like to make it very clear that I am only sharing my own experience on this website, and have no intention to give any specific advice on health. Please read the disclaimer section for more information.