Weight loss is something that concerns a lot of people. I recently hit 16.5 stone (104 kilos for you metric types), having just finished a power-lifting cycle. The body adapts to whatever stresses are placed upon it. When hauling heavy weights, the body will tend to make itself heavier by growing muscle, consuming food and generally putting on mass. This is because being heavy makes it easy to lift heavy. This is why runners are generally slim and power lifters are not. 

I reached my lifting goal of a 200kg squat. At this point my brain said “enough” and I entered the dead zone of changing routines. One of my main targets was/is to drop back down to around 15 stone (95-96kg). And so I applied my own principles.

Your system knows EXACTLY what it needs at any given time. The reason most people over eat is simply because their ability to consume food rapidly outstrips the body’s ability to signal them that they are full. There is a twenty minute gap between the time you actually get full and the singal being sent to your brain. This makes it easy to overeat.

Simply by SLOWING down my eating, chewing every mouthful 20-30 times and putting my knife and fork down between each mouthful I gave my body the ability to let me know exactly what it needed and when it had had enough. No dieting. No stress.

I currently weigh 15 ¼ stone and still dropping....

Too many posts...

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted my weekly blog. This is because I violated the rule. Yes. Me.

I was very happy with how my blogging was going. I had always struggled with blogs, and when I finally hit on the formula that works for me (1 post per week,  100 words min, 300 words max) I was so excited! Finally I was able to post regularly and it felt so easy. And so then I did what most people do when they find something that works..

I altered it.

I thought...well people now seem to actually be reading this stuff (i was getting tweets and facebook links to my articles), I should do MORE!!! Yes, MORE!!!

Instant overload. It took me a week or so to notice that I wasn’t finding it very easy to write blog posts. Then I realised, two posts a week is too much. I was struggling to find things to write. I am really not a fan of fluff on blogs and try to avoid it at all costs.

And so I applied the Drumnosis Principle. : Do Less and Achieve more.

I dropped the second post idea (this is a marathon, not a sprint). And I’m writing again. Simples.

J.F.D.I.

Mark

What do I do...

It’s no good me going round handing out advice to people about how they can do less in their lives and that doing so will make things easier unless I can actually do it myself. I am a believer in “Walking the Walk”, setting by example and leading from the front. So with that in mind, these next few posts will detail some of the strategies I use to stay sane and mentally and physically healthy in my day to day work and life. All of these strategies fall directly in line with the core Drumnosis philosophy of Being Better by Doing Less. Removal of stressors in any situation is the key to successfully conquering anxiety. 

A bit of background...

I came into being a therapist as a result of having struggled with depression for over twenty years.  I am now finally free of depression and able to live a very happy life. As much as it was a dreadful experience, it taught me everything I now use to help others. (I will cover my full recovery details in a later post)

Let’s start with what I feel to be my most important mechanism for dealing with anxiety: Exercise. 

Yes the dreaded “E” word. I lift weights. I run, cycle, row and cross train. I play drums. The problem with exercise is that it conjures images of huge sweaty men hauling huge amounts of weight, which puts people off, particularly women. 

Rule number one when choosing exercise is make sure you LIKE IT! Seriously. I do all that stuff because I LIKE IT. I look forward to training. It is a joy, not a chore. Forget what the Internet says is best for you. If you like to walk, walk. If you like cricket, play cricket.Because if you LIKE IT you will DO IT. Simple really.  If you aren’t sure, TRY IT and see. If something isn’t right for you, SWITCH. You don’t have to get it right immediately. 

Rule number two: Exercise is part of your working day. It clears your head, produces endorphins and growth hormone, strengthens your immune system and generally helps you cope with daily life. It also helps you sleep. Again, it is part of your working day. If you are constantly stressed, it is because your system has no way of draining the anxious energy. Which brings us neatly to how this is doing “less”....(even though it sounds like more)

Exercise “Drains the Battery”.  Anxiety is an energy intensive state. Constant anxiety builds up as stored energy in the system, and with nowhere to go will eventually burst out in an inconvenient manner at an inconvenient time (aggressive outbursts, insomnia, crying etc.) By draining this energy you remove the body’s ability to produce an anxious response, and so it will do the only other thing it can do: Calm down. This gives you the mental space to solve the issues causing the anxiety in the first place.  There are simply less things for the brain to have to deal with. 

Simples. 

J.F.D.I. 

Mark

In the last blog post I spoke about what I refer to as “mental tendinitis” and how the mind can suffer from repetitive strain, and display signs of strain in the form of behavioural symptoms. I promised in this post a simple adjustment that everyone can make that will relieve anxiety immediately and permanently.

Any kind of repetitive strain injury is caused by consistent and excessive loading. We will call this overloading. In order to give the part that is being injured the resources and time to recover, this load must be reduced.

In a nutshell, to reduce anxiety, list all the things that you think are causing stress, choose one and remove it.

Yes. It really is that simple. You are a binary creature. Overload your system and it will simply go into shutdown mode. To prevent overload, DO LESS STUFF.

Do this by inches. Massive changes cause huge amounts of anxiety. Change must be gradual and deliberate.

For example:

If your to do list has a hundred tasks on it, choose one that makes you feel particularly anxious, and strike it from the list. How do you feel?

Take an extra 5 minute break in your work day (this sounds like adding stuff in, but you are in fact removing the stress of continuously working) See how you feel?

Delegate a household chore that makes you anxious to your spouse/lover/kids/intelligent dog. Then actually let THEM do it. No interfering now. How was that for you?

Ask for help....remember:

Ass Saving Kit: Ask.

If you feel overwhelmed, ask a friend/spouse/clever pet to help you. Watch what happens.

(Asking people to help you makes THEM feel incredibly important and therefore good about themselves. People love to help, so ask!)

Reduce the number of stressors in your life and you will feel less stressed. Simples.

You may well think to yourself “Well I already knew that!!”. Maybe so, but do you actually DO it?

Talk is cheap. Action is golden.

J.F.D.I.

Mark

 The mind also suffers from repetitive strain injury. The major difference is that due to the adaptive nature of the mind, the symptoms of this can go unnoticed for long periods of time. Tendon strain in the wrist for example tends to be immediately obvious, with shooting pains, pins and needles and other assorted (and painful) signals coming straight from the injured area.

Repetitive strain in the mind can be much harder to spot as the symptoms tend to be more vague.

General fatigue, irritability and headaches are some of the more commonly known signs, but there are also signs that are not so immediately obvious. Overeating, increased alcohol consumption and insomnia can also be signals, but because they tend to be associated with everyday behaviours (everyone has difficulty sleeping from time to time) they are often dismissed as just a hazard of everyday life. This all tends to be accompanied by a general feeling that things just aren’t “right”.

And this is the biggest problem. Mental repetitive strain tends not to be taken notice of until it’s too late. By the time most people take action they are in the full blown throes of systemic anxiety (repeat being anxious enough and the body habitualises it and starts to produce symptoms automatically) and the mental repetitive strain is now taking its toll on their life and health.

Does this describe you? Take a moment to pay attention to your body. How are you feeling right now? Are you holding any tension? How do you feel when you eat?

Our unconscious is talking to us all the time. We simply aren’t listening. And so it begins to shout. And we still don’t listen.

The problem is that we simply don’t realise anything is wrong in the first place. And have no idea what to do about it anyway.  

Fortunately there is an answer...

There is one simple adjustment that everyone can make immediately which will help reduce anxiety permanently.

Which I will discuss in the next post.

 

In a long and very entertaining discussion with a good friend last night we touched briefly on the subject of tendon injuries, particularly related to typing.

Tendonitis, also known as repetitive strain injury is a common problem facing anyone who plays an instrument or does anything intricate with their hands for a prolonged period. In fact anyone who repeats a given movement for an extended period risks tendon problems and repetitive strain injury.

Tendons are like small elastic bands that attach the muscle to the bone. They are less elastic than muscle and do not receive as much in the way of blood flow. As such, when they become damaged it tends to take a long time to heal completely, and in some cases can become permanently weakened.

The key word here is “strain”. Consistent excessive load applied to a tendon will cause it to tear (imagine a rubber band stretched beyond its limit). These micro tears cause inflammation in the tendon. This inflammation is painful and causes amongst other things, pins and needles as the nerves around the tendon are compressed. Left unattended, or worse under continued strain, the tendon will eventually snap and the attached muscle will become all but useless.

How do we avoid such injuries?

Simple. Slow down. Use small movements.

Tension causes tightness in the muscular system. Typing too fast for your skill level will cause tension as the brain compensates for lack of control by exerting pressure on the muscles. This ruptures the tendon and tendonitis occurs.

Slow down, close your eyes and practice using the smallest, most delicate stroke you can whilst still typing. Breathe. Pay attention to the sensations in your hand. Slowly repeat a sequence again and again until the muscles relax. Small movements are controlled. Small movements are relaxed. Rinse and repeat.

By doing this you are paying attention to how your hands move. Your mind already knows how to type. You just aren’t listening.

Now stop reading and go do it...

J.F.D.I.

Mark

How many things can you look at at once?

Simply put, the human mind is a binary machine. It uses electricity to transfer thoughts ONE AT A TIME. As much as the term “multitasking” is used, it simply does not exist. You cannot do more than one conscious action at a time. If you think you can, try this simple experiment:

Read a book and watch TV at the same time giving both 100% of your attention all the way through.

Done it? Good. How many of you I wonder were able to successfully pay attention to both simultaneously? None you say? Thought so...

And yet, so many people do not apply this simple rule to their life.

 The number one cause of anxiety is overload. Simply put, if you try and make a binary organic system perform tasks that it is simply not built to do it will react by producing anxiety. Anxiety is your body’s early warning system. It is an alarm system to let you know something is wrong.

Too many tasks = Overload=Anxiety=Shutdown.

Simple really.

Try this simple exercise. Write down all the tasks you think you need to do in a day. Rate them all from 1 to 10 (1 being least important, 10 being most). Then eliminate the lowest scoring task. You can simply leave it out, or outsource it to someone else (get your other half to do the washing up for example). At this point your mind is throwing up excuses at you. Any change causes stress. Try it for a week and see what happens.

Reduce overload and anxiety improves.

J.F.D.I

Mark

There is one question above all others that I believe to be the single most revealing question that one can ask, or indeed have asked of one. A question that strips away all the nonsense, all the confusion and conscious interference that people suffer from when considering any subject, decision or thought process. This question gets directly to the heart of what you are REALLY doing in any given situation, and exactly why you are doing it. This question produces tangible and permanent changes in people more rapidly and permanently than other sentence in the English language. 

What difference does it make to you?

Take a moment to take that in. 

Every action you perform, every thought you have produces a reaction. Your emotional and physical environment changes constantly, and most of the time without you even noticing. These processes are unconscious and mostly automatic. But they are directed. 

Think back to the last time you argued on the internet. What difference did that argument make to you? What difference did it make to you to win? What difference did it make to you to lose? Pay attention to the sensations your body produces. Do you feel anxious when asking this question?

Think back to the last time you procrastinated? What difference did it make to you to procrastinate? Pay attention to the sensations your body is producing? How did you feel? Good or bad? 

Your emotional state directly affects your actions. If you don’t know what difference something makes to you your mind will simply decide for you. 

What difference did it make to you?

You are taught from a very young age that failing is not an option. That you must not get anything wrong and if you do so you are a failure.

This is bullshit.

At school, if you get something wrong, you are shouted at. If you fail your GCSE’s your life is over. If you fail your A levels, well forget university and doing well, because you have failed. Not academically minded? Well tough. Don’t want to go to university? Well you are just failing yourself now aren’t you?

Also bullshit. All of it.

The human brain is a very simple machine at its core. It is a reactive survival mechanism that constantly evolves and learns from its surroundings.

It learns by failing.

Let’s repeat that.

It learns by failing.

You only learn by getting things wrong. Why else would the brain bother to learn? If you can already do something there is no need to adapt.

Once more:

If you can already do something there is no need to adapt.

Adaptation to new stimulus IS learning at its very core. And the brain simply does not do it unless it needs to.

Failure and repetition. That’s all there is.

I will get to repetition next time. For now I will leave you with this:

If you aren’t failing most of the time, you simply aren’t learning.

J.F.D.I.

Build it and They Will Come

Today at a networking meeting, in between cups of coffee and pleasant work based chats, I began discussing the Drumnosis project with on of my friends. We were discussing the need to get funding for our current and latest candidate for the Drumnosis year long course. As we are a new company and we rely in the main on grant funding and sponsorship there is a large delay in actually getting the funding into our company account. 

My solution to this is simple. We start training our candidate anyway and acquire the funds as we go along. If we wait for the funding to come in, we could spend a lot of time sitting on our hands doing very little. This can (and most likely will) lead to a sense of powerlessness, which in turn will cause anxiety. Anxiety will lead to all kinds of unpleasantness (it is after all “The Only Problem”) . 

And so we have elected to move ahead regardless. My colleague and friend at the aforementioned networking meeting said it best: “Build it and they will come”. 

I have my own neat little version: Do it now, fix it while you are going. 

Too much time is wasted planning (worrying) for things that might go wrong, instead of dealing with things that could go right. This is not to say that we don’t plan. But ultimately as the old military saying goes, “No plan survives the first shot of battle”

So dive in! 

J.F.D.I.