Every morning I do essentially the same mindless routine while I’m reading and catching up on my life. The routine is pretty simple and regimented so I can maximize my personal time. If I plan ahead properly I have an entire 1/2 hour of focused mindful reading and thinking.
Many people feel that we can all multitask however studies show our productivity and concentration struggle as we attempt to do too many things at the same time. With the notable reduction in productivity and focus, what we believe is multitasking, in reality, are rapid shiftings of our tasks while we lose concentration and focus.
By creating a daily mindless routine regiment, my muscle memory has taken over many of my morning tasks. My mind can focus fully on reading or focused thinking while I’m making breakfast or washing dishes because I’ve fallen into a groove.
Mindless Focus
Having crafted a pattern of simple tasks, my processes seem to function absent of thought. I’ve visualized myself as a kitchen virtuoso since my routine is similar to a master musician that can perform perfectly while engaged in a detailed conversation.
As I distance myself mentally from my morning routine, my mind shifts to my planned mindful focus. I can read a short article or listen to a podcast with full and complete immersion. Each word I read or hear is processed into long term memory as I lose myself in the exercise.
How I Know It’s Working
The proof is in the pudding they say. Well in my case the proof is in the cleaned kitchen, breakfast made, vitamins taken, lattes frothed as I’ll evaluate all I have done within that short period of time.
If I made any mistakes in my process such as forgetting to turn on the toaster or making the espresso incorrectly, I’d agree that my multitasking technique doesn’t work and therefore I could possibly be focusing on my mindful activities. However, what actually is happening is completely the opposite. My productivity has increased while my focus and retention have become more present and purposeful.
Having my mornings to easily accomplish my chores and desires early has begun to set the tone for the day. I’ve become more focused, fulfilled and present. My completed task list grows while life’s mundane daily routine has become a mindless passive routine.
Mindful Excercise
You can multitask simply if you focusing your mind away from what can become mindless. Dishes, folding wash, raking leaves are all activities that you can remove focus from while you redirect your mind into meditative mindful exercises.
As I’ve retrained my mind to stay focused on mindful activities my productivity has increased and my presence is in the now.
Letters and symbols of nine various languages meticulously connected together to form 19 floating cloud-like stainless steel orbs. The creation of the world’s most well-known sculptors Jaume Plensa in an installation he calls Talking Continents.
Each unique individual letter is fused together to form words without any true meaning and function as an example of the breakdown of communication.
However, as we look at each unique form as they represent humans sitting on top of these floating orbs we begin to understand Plensa’s title of Talking Continents.
The Sounds of Continents
As I’m preparing for my next large scale project of 100 days of unique sound recordings I find inspiration and connection to Plensa’s works. What would be the unique sounds of these nine different and unique letters or words as they were formulated into a connection of sentences or statements? Are we all saying the same things albeit in a different tongue?
In our study of text and more elegantly typography, we see how the combinations of only a few letters can create words of beauty. The beauty of our every language articulates our feelings and emotions that resonate from island to island, continent to continent.
Photo by Michael Competielle
The Beauty In Plensa’s Silence
As I quietly walked amongst each orb I recognized letters that highlighted the diversity in distance Plensa was recognizing. It was here in the silence circling each island that I began to question our differences as we were all connected and unified, fused together as one.
Is each unique letter chosen by Plensa to make connections to our similarities while appearing to be different? What was the connection that made each sculpture unified? Are we as humans actually unified and we are saying the same thing maybe just a bit differently?
Photo by Micahel Competielle
Upon closer inspection, I noticed all of the orbs seemed to be facing the same direction. Was this intentional? Are we collectively moving along together while seemingly drifting apart?
On this day I don’t have any insightful answers however I’m certain my explorations of typography, sound, and languages will have a new and enrichening perspective.
Walking into a Starbucks one afternoon I ordered a Dragon drink. Paying with the cashless and paperless app I awaited the calling of my name. When my order was up I walked up to the counter and grabbed my drink and thanked the barista.
Heading out the door I stopped to grab a straw and noticed the only offering was a plastic straw. Immediately I was disappointed and a bit pissed off. How could a large coffee shop like Starbucks get it so wrong?
I did a quick Google search and realized they indeed did have a global initiative to replace plastic straws with recyclable lids by 2020. Why a year to stop ordering plastic straws and start using recyclable lids is beyond me but it’s a start.
I began to think about my local favored coffee shop who replaced paper straws with the plastic lids. I just happened one day and they moved on. They only two locations versus 30,000 and it made me think of a McDonald’s documentary I once watched in which it takes years for them to roll out a new product line. Their mass got in the way.
New Brands Must Start Right
Working with a new startup as Brand Designer I’ve placed myself into a strategic position for the future of the Brand and therefore the companies lifespan.
I’ve spent far less time researching or designing the perfect logo or tagline in favor of determining the brand’s identity. With the average life expectancy of a company diminished to only a dozen or so years, priorities must be set properly during the formative years of a brand.
Trends come and go and successful company brands ride the wave of trends while learning how to maintain market share and positive growth. As a new startup, we have the luxury to fill a void in our market and make a large impact by trendsetting and not following the existing market.
Forecasting out with a 5-year projection on product and brand decisions we can recognize the decisions made today are representative of where the company will stand in 5 years. Short term goals while ignoring there impact on the companies future are carving a path to failure.
As I research brands and products I love and use, I’ve recognized these are lifestyle brands. Products that make up the fabric of my personal identity and align with my vision of the perfect life.
Environment and sustainability top my list as does a brands status of how the treat their employees. With corporate giants swallowing up large mark shares of companies whose original mission was quality and convert them into profit centers at the expense of the environment and staff we have created a downward spiral, racing to the bottom.
100 Percent Sustainable
The core of our new brand is to be 100 percent sustainable. In our design meetings, we will hit many roadblocks as we see voids in our market which lacks environmentally conscious products. As we have been developing our corporate initiatives and drawn lines in the sand we are now seeing an open field ripe for growth. The products that currently doesn’t exist allows us an opportunity to make them.
The narrative of our story of how we began and how far we have come is inspiring. We have great distances to strive for however seeing our ecosystem of a brand in our 5-year projection has become clear.
Why We Will Prosper
Sales and trends aren’t guaranteed. They come and go based on the latest Instagram tag. We won’t be a copy that will survive but a company that thrives based on one simple belief. We believe in our people.
Sitting on an hourlong train ride into NYC I was deeply immersed in a conversation with a colleague. He felt everyone on the train looked like cattle headed for slaughter. I gave him the answer that is the qualification for success.
These people didn’t wake up and say I’m going to do a horrible job today. They didn’t get dressed up and say I’m going to be angry and depressed all day. Those things happened due to environment. Corporate culture that has extinguished their spark. Believe in your people and empower them to build with you the lifestyle you want to live…. And they will.
The power of human beings is our ability to communicate our thoughts and emotions with clarity and detail. The issue is, however, most people haven’t anything to really say or understand what we are actually saying. Assemblages of words that make up sentences that lead to paragraphs that speak volumes of nothingness. We vocalize our emotions based on superfluous fragments, the sum of which is zero.
Focused Listening
The key to being a great communicator is to become a great listener. If we mindfully listen to the words that are shared with us we can extract the details of how a person feels and that is where great communication is born.
Think of yourselves as the editor and the therapist as our “patient” shares with us their deepest emotions. We process each individual word and determine which words we can cutout. As we mentally abridge the story it allows us to exercise our abilities to perform Mindful Listening and deepen our connection to the story.
As the words become statements that hopefully become full-fledged thoughts we can begin to paint a mental picture of the storyteller’s feelings.
If you silently listen without retort or introjection you will begin to fill in the blanks of what story you are actually being told. When the storyteller finishes it allows us time to breathe and help the storyteller feel comfort in your understanding of the narrative. It’s at this moment when you are able to express your analysis.
Positive Response
With complete sincerity, you should begin to respond with “what I hear you saying is” as you explain back to them what it is you heard them say. A positive response notating what content you have been shared can allow for a deeper and more meaningful dialog.
We often don’t hear what we are saying or even understand the meaning behind what it is we are saying. As we hear back what another person feels they heard you say, we can begin to rebuild the content into a baseline.
Once we are reconnected to the repeated narrative we can begin to access the basis of how are statements come across to an outsider. Many times hearing back the regurgitation of our words leaves us unsettled and exposed. It’s at that moment when the listener can make the largest impact.
What it all means
Most often our conversations stem from the expression of feelings that have developed inside our reptilian brain. This portion of our brains is responsible for carnal knowledge of basic functions essential for life. Our reptilian brain handles our primal instincts inclusive of our fight or flight emotion.
Our primal mind is incapable of reasoning or thought processing and so, therefore, we often aren’t making processed statements when our narrative comes from our lizard mind.
With a kind response we should ask the storyteller “but how did it make you feel?” This one usually floors a storyteller as it’s an uncommon question that will develop the deepest impact.
It’s during that exacting moment we hope to have moved the conversation into the frontal lobe of our brains where emotional expression, judgment, and problem-solving takes place. With our focus inside this controlled environment of our minds, we have moved away from fight or flight into deciphering the content.
When you give this segment of your brain the ability to process and decipher what we have heard repeated back to us, we can then look deeper within ourselves to find the clues on why we may have been triggered.
When we care to listen and allow a story to unwind, it’s the responses we receive back that opens our mind to the ability to figure it all out. Learn to listen and listening to the process is the most powerful of our human minds. Nurture the process and sharing how you feel makes the largest advancements in self-development.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”—Dr. Seuss
Yesterday I was reading a post from an artist friend where she asked her social media friends what books were they currently reading. From Malcolm Gladwell to Sun Tzu, the answers to the question continued with a flurry of the most interesting titles. Ironically the answers mostly came from the most brilliant artists, many of whom are mutual friends.
We learn from reading. Electrical impulses fire inside our minds sparking new connections. As we learn and expand our thought process, we become more creative, inspired and free. A few moments with well-written text is mediative as the immersion allows focus into the unknown.
Piles of Well Placed Words
My shelves are filled with piles of books written by literary masters. Many of my books I haven’t the time to read yet my connection to them remains strong as they encapsulate my personal space.
From Kerouac to Hemmingway fragments of their experiences fuel my passion to create, experience and love because the treachery of life is softened by the well-articulated notions.
When I’m with my well-read friends the connection is expressive and passionate because you can hear the power of an author’s inspiration in words they speak. Details and descriptors fill every sentence as the well-read can paint you a photograph so you feel as if you are there no longer a spectator.
The well-read can quote paragraphs and phrases embedded within the narrative that has become the fabric of their existence. The power of perfectly placed wording can take your breath away but feed your mind.
Words Inspire Creativity
My list of friends is made primarily of creatives types such as musicians, actors, painters, writers, photographers, and sculptors. When I get to the heart of the connection I’ve recognized a pattern. They are all well-read.
Most of my favorite books have been recommendations or gifts from my closest friends. From the smallest passage to the culmination of a writer’s manifesto these books have helped develop and feed my passions.
Boredom is a trait for the closeminded and lazy because when we are open and impressionable our experiences become life-changing. Spontaneity and risk are the only paths to development and growth.
The Syllabus
Having read a substantial amount of books I find that it is the reading list of my most celebrated people that defines their style and inspiration. Steve Jobs studied calligraphy and annually read Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda. Ryan Holiday recommends Sun Tzu and the Art of War while Werner Herzog recommends The Peregrine.
As philosophy intertwines with spirituality and we learn about life from our connectivity to others, reading and sharing will continue to invigorate our souls.
Your arm is wrapped tightly around my bicep, your head on my shoulder. We walk together in a cadence of rhythmic footsteps. My every word touches you. We are connected as one, I take your breath away.
It’s a warm dark night for a streetwalker. The gas lamps only show a shadow of your face and your identity is unknown. I’m barely dressed, almost naked and vulnerable. Putting myself out there hoping to entice you to share this intimate moment.
I speak volumes as I’m hoping you hear my voice. My words are chosen carefully to engage your emotions. With passion and a willingness to give you pleasure, I continue to speak.
As I look into your eyes I’m seeing a spark as I hope to ignite a flame in your soul. Cars pass by, potential new business yet I’m completely immersed at this moment with you. Right now, I am yours, completely vulnerable yet trusting.
We walk down a dark alleyway and prepare for our intimate engagement and we see the reflection of light off the cobblestone streets. My eyes struggle to adjust because I’m longing to see your face.
You say nothing, silent and still. I squint my eyes as I continue to speak, my words of nakedness and honesty. Closer I move towards you and reach out my hand to touch yours as I’m hoping we still have this connection.
My footsteps and soft delicate words are the only sounds to be heard because I no longer hear your breath. Are you still engaged in our intimate moment?
I slowly move closer in an attempt to feel your presence only to find you are no longer there. I’ve lost another one.
Wiping the tears from my eyes I readjust my emotions and proudly walk back onto that gas lite street hoping another passerby will stop so we can engage in intimacy.
For I am a writer, a servant to the faceless, silent, and unknown. My passion placed onto every word hoping for a moment of intimacy so I can stop your breath.
The diagnosis of a debilitating disease changes one’s life. Time will freeze as you struggle to remain present while you reminisce on the past and pray for the future. Our internal clocks tick until time runs out and our story ends.
Driving home one evening I saw police cars at my friend Tom’s house. I feared the worst yet hoped for the best as I walked up to an officer at the open garage door. The prognosis was Tom was still alive yet barely. His plans to fade off into the afterlife was almost complete.
Calm and complacent I was satisfied with our time together as Tom was preparing for the afterlife. Actually he was already well prepared and had everything in perfect order.
One afternoon I was scouring Craigslist for film gigs when I came across an ad for a documentarian needed in my town. As I already had what I believed to be the essential qualifications and equipment for the job, I responded to the ad.
I received a response from Andy, a close and personal friend of a local artist named Tom. Tom had been plagued by years of health issues and as of late he felt he was deteriorating.
Because of Tom’s ailments, he imprisoned himself to his home.
So the project seemed relatively straight forward, bring film gear for an hour once a month and film Tom in a basic documentary style. Tom’s friend Andy would be the interviewer and attempt to keep Tom on task as we worked through the interview.
Tom’s home was your typical split level suburban tract home. Once inside we made formal introductions and headed upstairs.
Tom was a medium-sized aging gentleman in a thin fit shape. Over the past few years, he had been struggling with Parkinson’s disease and so, therefore, his movements were calculated yet lacked full control. It was immediately apparent the disease had affected his motor skills.
Tom offered us tea and pizza he had purchased specifically for us. While he was in the kitchen prepping I set up the film equipment in the dining room. It was hard to miss that the walls were filled with the most stunning artwork I had ever witnessed. Finely detailed oil paintings, some still life, and others were a bit more abstract and magical.
Tom sat down and began the interview explaining what he called his first incarnation as an oil painter. He explained his attention to details from having been a scientist for many years prior to developing a rare unrecognized Brain Allergy.
His environment was slowly killing him as his body recognized chemicals as neurotoxins and they would attack his central nervous system. Most doctors don’t believe the disease exists and feel it’s a psychological disorder and therefore Tom had to prove the disease was real and debilitating.
With the only actual research done on the disorder back in the 1960s, he had to find his own path. Tom found a specialist that was able to obtain him medical disability from having to go to work however it began Tom’s new life of a recluse. Imprisoned in his home away from the poisons he couldn’t be around.
Molds, perfumes, chemicals all exacerbated his condition. Tom had to remove all of these items from his home. The off-gassing of plastics we call the “new car smell” forced Tom to have to ride a bicycle around town. His trips would be purposeful as he had to stay away from environmental toxins.
The hardest part of his disease was his reaction to the paints and thinners he had grown to love. He could no longer paint and therefore fell into a void of depression.
He pushed on and found alternative means to express his creative side. He restored old baseball cards to offset his disability income and a few years later found his second incarnation working in water-soluble inks.
Tom surrounded himself amongst his art, each piece framed and carefully hung. As he was aging he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s that hit him with a new grouping of medical issues.
Not to be beaten Tom religiously exercised and even during one recording session did 100 push-ups for Andy and me to prove his abilities.
As we interviewed Tom religiously once a month over the course of a few years we learned of his loves and loses. He struggles to overcome his ailments and attempt to have a normal life. Every day was a struggle yet he remained sharp and in control.
His knowledge of politics, science, futurism, and art was second to none. His compassion and empathy for the world was often the motivation behind his works.
Tom was confident that his artworks were very good despite having been seen by few. The fact that he was an outsider artist he felt that he needed to help along with the narrative of his works by documenting his process and how he had gotten there.
One evening Tom explained he had an end game. He recognized that his diseases once he could no longer maintain control would kill him. A hospital or nursing facility that firmly didn’t recognize his Brain Allergy would send his body into an autoimmune rage.
That’s when we were introduced to Compassion and Choices and Tom’s plan to facilitate his own demise once the time came. Andy and I discussed the information we had just been entrusted with. We followed up with his family and were ensured though they weren’t pleased with his plans, they respected his position.
Hours were spent discussing love, life, the environment and how Tom tried to prove his theories within his paintings. He never felt as though he succeeded yet I am certain the answers an artist seeks never are.
At Tom’s memorial service, I wrote a segment of his eulogy. To this day I struggle with how to tell his story that highlights his brilliance. The day will come where the story will unfold inside my mind and I’ll complete my promise to my dear friend, that his legacy and art shall be loved and he will forever live on.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Buddha
It isn’t uncommon for me to awaken early, my mind alert and racing. I’ll think about situations I can hardly control as I’ll attempt to find a solution. Next thing I know I’m grabbing my iPhone and mindlessly scrolling through social media posts. My mind will then wander deeper into a rabbit hole. My time wasted. Nothing is resolved and I remain sleepless.
Once I began practicing meditation, on those sleepless mornings, I would focus on my breath. My mind would calm as I would fall back into a deep restful sleep. The gain was I would awaken refreshed and stressfree.
Enter the Journal
At my bedside, I kept a Moleskin journal and a pen. I was hopeful that when I would awaken I could begin to perform some mindful journaling until I fell back asleep.
The concept indeed could work however the issue I had was writing in the darkness of the night. Certain there must be a simple solution I decided on writing into my iPad.
Fully charged and in night mode, my iPad is on my end table. Now when I awaken I can immediately begin to journal while in the headspace of my anxieties.
Words begin to flow from the innards of my psyche. My focus is always on how I feel at that exacting moment that I ensure I’m articulating with honestly and focus.
Each of my latest journal entries has become my Medium articles. Journaling my articles and channeling my philosophies has expanded my mind and thought process. When I revisit my entries I’ve recognized loopholes in my thoughts have been filled as my journaling technique continues.
Journal About How You Feel
Yesterday I was told by a friend I “mindfucked her” as I explained my theories on recognizing how situations and environments make you feel. She and her fiancee wake up very early and together head to the gym. From there they together head to their jointly owned business and spend the day working hard. They have been very successful in spite of having limited free time.
As we discussed further my journaling exercises and the Power Of How You Feel she recognized she has been feeling better than 10 years prior and that their lives were fulfilled and purposeful.
Writing articles daily as journal entries as I focus on how I feel begs to ask the question Why? Why do I feel focused, calm and in touch with my feelings? Honest writing that just in the clearest form.
I’ve learned to recognize truths and can read through people’s insecurities and lies. I can practice empathy and mindfulness as my intentions can remain honest and pure. The truths of how I feel, expressed in writing and shared with the world.
Stepping outside I’ll immediately struggle with the decision whether I go left, right, or straight. “Fuck it let’s go right” I’ll say to the only one that really listens and head left, my instincts of being ambidextrous have determined when in doubt go left.
Instincts guide my decisions as I walk aimlessly through life looking for experiences and enlightenment. Situations will present themselves in a natural unadulterated fashion as I attempt to focus on the present and go with the flow.
When I walk into a store, tradeshow or museum and I’m challenged to make a decision, I always go left as that just feels right. Going right feels foreign and obscene like most people that I’ve met, boring and following a plan. I’m always focusing on being somewhat thorough in a speed reading sort of way until the connection is made with an object, a person or a notion.
Walking through an Ikea once I noticed that the store was designed properly with projected arrows on the floors guiding the pedestrian traffic in a natural flow from left to right like I read and how I wander through life like a whimsical fish.
On another occasion, in another Ikea the store’s directional arrows were placed backward guiding the herd from right to left. Unorthodox and teetering on blasphemy, I debated on the notion to leave my group and fix the store by reversing all of the store’s arrows and signage yet the concept of human traffic when I’m trying to create order is daunting. The mindless zombies certainly would be lost forever in the catacombs of chic furniture, destinations no longer known.
How adaptable is a fish out of water? We can survive. Our way of breathing will change as our skin will dry out yet we will adjust and endure the challenges of a foreign environment. We become like sea urchins, calloused and hardened.
When I ultimately get my way and get back into the water, I will swim upstream like salmon, in an attempt to spawn new ideas and adventures.
I live in fear of doing the same thing twice as I find comfort in my inconsistencies. My plans for today only spoiled by my mood and inabilities to stick to the plan. Winds and water flow will guide me off course. My surroundings uncharted and anew.
How will I feel connected and complacent? I never will, however, the journey is my destination, no matter how foreign or unplanned.
The changing of the season from summer to fall is the perfect time for forest walks and fall foliage drives. As the leaves change colors from green to vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges and the temperatures are still marginally warm and bearable.
Yet something is lurking in the shadows of fall. A cold and evil darkness is beginning to set in. As the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder, the seasons change to winter will bring on a sense of sadness.
The winter days sun is hardly reminiscent of the sun of the warmer seasons. Brightly shining with a warmth that fuels our souls and tones our flesh. Our bodies are energized on the long journey of a summer day.
The darkening of fall will lead to the dead of winter. A season lacking in birdsong, vibrancy and light. Annually I begin to sadden as I will feel imprisoned to the indoors to avoid the harshness of winters chill.
As of late, I’ve learned to overcome the sadness of dark frigid days by keeping my mind in check. I’ve learned to stack the decks against the disconnect from the great outdoors. By using my mind to fuel my soul, and adjusting my activity and motivation the changing of the season to winter has become pleasant.
Dressing warmly I’ll trudge outside to embrace the difference in the sounds of winter. The lack of leaves and ground brush changes the pitch and character of common sounds.
The feeling of the cold winters air has a bite that reminds me that I have a fire inside. An internal light that needs to be fueled and nurtured. The glowing embers of energy that I need to keep stoking to maintain my sanity.
Embracing the days and fortifying my passion to learn and experience, I’ve learned to love each day and fill it with love and life. The sadness of the cold and dark is overshadowed by the fire in my heart and power of my mind.
With controlled breath and pure thoughts I realign my mind to fulfillment. This day may not be that picturesque scene we would love to paint yet it is the perfect opportunity to reconnect my mind to my soul.
With breathing and focus the changing of the season can be enjoyed. With pure thoughts and an open mind, we can embrace this time for learning and expression.
Looking back we see where we were, and looking forward may be too far away. So by nurturing this thought in this moment for the fire shall rage to overcome the sadness of the cold and dark days ahead.
