Burn up, don’t Burn out

PROJ 3 :  

Burn up, don’t Burn out

    Pedaling down a greatly inclined slope with vengeance, I easily took to speeds of 50 kmph,changed the gear to the 5th ,and let the bicycle cruise its way down. The grin on my face wore off as quick as the endorphin high lasted. I encountered an evil pothole bang in the middle of road ,in an attempt to avoid it, jammed the break..only the front brake. The next thing I knew I was on the tarmac with a bleeding mouth and chipped off my two incisors.

            Good Morning fellow-smedians and welcome guests.

 Little did I know, that thanks to my insufficient knowledge about the cycle I was riding, I jammed the front break causing it to lock and the back tyre continued to rotate causing a double somersault and a hard hit to my jaw. Had to undergo two painful root canal treatments the same day , followed by ceramic root caps for the incisors that cost me a bomb. All due to my over-confidence .

Exercise may not always do you good. More often than not, due to insufficient knowledge and ignoring signs of your body complaining we tend to overdo it. A growing concern of obesity and health complication due to stressful lifestyles drive us to desperately seek exercise of any sort without completing understanding the good and most importantly the evils of it.

    I am a obsessive runner, let me rephrase, I was an obsessive runner. For the past three years, I unflinching wore my shoes at 5 am in the morning and ran till my hearts content. Gradually pushing it to limits my body complained to and I didn't pay attention. Last May, the alarm sounded, I got the harsh message of  over-exercising. I ran the 10km run in Bangalore with a subtle nagging knee pain which I continually ignored. There was no satisfaction of having finished the run in a good time as my knee was paining intolerably. The doctors diagnosed it as a meniscal tear and I had to get a surgery down to trim the tear. A minor procedure ,but the healing time took me six months. For a hyper-active person like me, it was six months of hell. Now I’m back to a better regime of balanced exercise and I would like to share the ills of over-exercising and signs to notice when you know you are overdoing it.

Exercising can  become addictive due to the physiological effects of endorphin, a hormone that makes one happy and more due to the psychological and positive physical effects.How do you know if you are over- training? The body is constantly communicating with you so all one needs to do is to learn to read its signals. If you feel energetic and charged after a workout session, you know you are doing something right. On the contrary, if you feel drained or fatigued, the body is hinting that it needs a rest.When we stop listening to our body and start thinking more is better, that is when the problem begins. There are four basic components that go in planning a workout schedule: exercise type, intensity, frequency and duration. As a rule of thumb, change/increase one component at a time and follow that schedule for a couple of weeks. But an over-enthusiastic person may increase two or more components at the same time leading to stress on the body.It is relatively easy to guess if you are over-training. If you’re hitting the snooze button often or having trouble sleeping and feeling exhausted throughout the day are two crucial signs. As important as it is to stimulate muscle building with hard exercise, it is equally important to recover with rest until the muscle is no longer sore. Over-training definitely leads to weight loss. The body starts conserving energy instead of expending. So even when you are burning more calories, it does not mean you are losing fat weight; you are only losing glycogen and precious muscle tissue. And that persistent joint ache cannot be pushed off as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which usually goes away in a couple of days. This continuous pain either indicates poor technique or over-training.

  To emphasize, firstly,”Research” on your exercise techniques,equipment,the good or ill it has on your body, any special dietary requirements (specifically the amount of protein to be increased). and secondly, “Listen” to your body and when it complains. Drawing this to my experiences I should have known better about the disc brakes in the cycle before taking on a massive downslope and I should have payed more attention to my nagging knee pain before aggrevating it.

Balance your routine to 30-45 minutes a day, alternating aggressive workout with conditional mind-body workout to heal your mind and body. Remember the primary motivation to exercise is to stay fit and healthy and not to drastically lose weight.

Ref source : http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/dont-overdo-it/article4414582.ece

A new year.

I have been wanting to write a new year post since last month,i decided today would be apt. I turned another year older two days back and my new year starts.
I genuinely feel like I've grown up. Emotionally, intellectually and well,unfortunately geometrically as well. This feels like my teenage to adult transition,a rather late one though. My surroundings and influences have changed quite drastically and more so, to a more responsibly aware sober one.
After the unexpected happened,it feels surreal,I feel like I'm trying on my old pants after four and half years of constantly wearing new ones. It feels more peaceful, like the tides are receding, and a more calmer and structured life awaits.
I reached a point in the relationship where I couldn't recognize myself anymore, a place where I became a permeable membrane and absorbed everything, slowly adopting a new self and losing my old. I had  reached a stage of complete devaluation of self, almost helplessly begging for recognition again.
I have been through , by far in my life, the worst couple of months last year. Nothing I wanted ever happened, but I got just what I needed. A shake, violent shake, snap to reality. Something to make me believe in myself again, a reason to work on building myself from scratch. When everything looked ruined, my health,my career and my biggest support system, the chaotic anxiety that followed tortured me,I reached a point where I thought I couldn't walk again,I was ready to give up and wave the white flag.
As I lay there exhausted in the hot sun, almost lifeless, a bunch of heads gave me shade and a hand to help me get up. I thank you all. Your words healed me, gave me the strength to believe in myself again, to  be able to walk with my head held high.
Today, at a much better state, I'm marveled at the healing power of time. Time is the enemy and the friend,it's a reflection of free flowing nature of life. My difficulties seem exaggerated now, I smile at my stupidity already, I do want to reach the place, when I can look back and laugh at it. 
I want to change, for the better. I want to make this a good year,a year dedicated to building myself and keeping my loved ones closer. I have written down a number of things I want to do, a number of ways to reconnect to my old self and also adopt better ways and to learn a LOT more.
It's always change that we are scared to accept,but the sooner we accept that change is inevitable, the easier to learn a way through change. I'm looking to change, for the better.

One of my favorite poems

SWIMMERS 

                   -- Louis Untermeyer

I took the crazy short-cut to the bay;

Over a fence or two and through a hedge,

Jumping a private road, along the edge

Of backyards full of drying wash it lay.

And now, the last set being played and over,

I hurried past the ruddy lakes of clover;

I swung my racket at astonished oaks,

My arm still tingling from aggressive strokes.

Tennis was over for the day -

I took the leaping short-cut to the bay.

Then the quick plunge into the cool, green dark,

The windy waters rushing past me, through me;

Filled with a sense of some heroic lark

Existing n a vigour clean and roomy.

Swiftly I rose to meet the cat-like sea

That sprang upon me with a hundred claws,

And grappled, pulled me down and played with me.

Then, held suspended in the tightening pause

When one wave grows into a toppling acre,

I dived headlong into the foremost breaker,

Pitting against a cold and turbulent strife

The feverish intensity of life.

Out of the foam I lurched and rode the wave,

Swimming, hand over hand, against the wind;

I felt the sea's vain pounding, and I grinned

Knowing I was its master, not its slave.

Back on the curving beach I stood again,

Facing the bath-house, when a group of men,

Stumbling beneath some sort of weight, went by.

I could not see the heavy thing they carried;

I only heard : 'He never gave a cry-

'Who's going to tell her?' 'Yes, and they just married-'

'Such a good swimmer, too... And then they passed,

Leaving the silence throbbing and aghast.

A moment there my frightened heart hung slack,

And then the rich, retarded blood came back

Singing a livelier tune; and in my pulse

Beat the great wave that endlessly exults.

Why I was there and whither I must go,

I did not care. Enough for me to know

The same persistent struggle and the glowing

Waste of all spendthrift hours, bravely showing

Life, an adventure perilous and gay,

And death, a long and vivid holiday.

 Makes you ponder only to conclude that don't stress it, life is short,make the most of it .
 Let me know what you liked.

Leave your workplace early ! :D

   My first job right after college saw me squirming to leave my seat when I can and get home faster. It was new and difficult to get used to a 9am-5pm(or more) job. So when I did get a chance early,I pinged the rest of my friends this poem .

Children lets leave,
to frolic in the field.
To fasten a used tyre from the tree bark,
and laugh and swing ,until it gets dark.
To go down a mighty slide,
and run up the wrong side again with immense juvenile pride.
To gyrate on the wicked merry-go round, with full speed,
Like a bound bird dying to be freed.
Lets climb the 'A" "B" and "c",
and talk about toys ,books and genie.

MUD

When do you know if you've dug into the earth enough?
Is it time to bury the chest of thoughts.
The assortment of memoirs,feelings,promises and bluff.
Should I be convinced that my heart will then be free of clots.
I tried to return my treasures to their rightful owners,
But they had long forgotten what I had soulfully guarded.
I tried to immortalize the candid whispers,
But the ephemeral  voices only faded.
Digging out the mud and burying my chest,
Seems heavier than expressed.

Project 2 : Write the Right way.

Posting my draft version of  Project 2 speech of Competent Communication Manual (Toastmasters). I'm a part of Smedley's Speakers Society and we meet every Sunday mornings.

           Last thursday evening while I was travelling in the bus back home. The weather inspired me, I had the biggest urge to write.I took out my small notepad,flipped over to a new page and began to write in bold letters,"SPLENDID SHOWERS". Stared at the words long enough to scratch them. Not poetic enough. "The rapid raindrops awaken my mind". Scratched the line. Not original enough.After dinner, I sat up all night ,trying to draw inspiration from the silence,but uunfortunately it silenced my mind further.

         Good morning fellow toastmasters and guests,if you havent already guessed I was suffering from a mild form of WRITERS BLOCK.A writers block is a condition faced by writers,in which he loses the ability to produce new work,in my present context,it was just a temporary inability of free creative thought flow.There are many reasons why writers and the like face this issue.Many famous writers have also faced this issue. One of the authors I admire,Scott Fitzgerald,of the "the Great Gatsby" fame,suffered from a Writers' block once,that he was threatened to abandon writing. I'm glad he didn't. But in my simple context,I concluded that there were two specific reasons why I was facing this issue. 

                        First, clearly the well is empty.My right brain is plain dead!It had been so dormant for such a long time,that it fails to get the neurons working in a creative way . With work and technical jargon eating up all my brain space,I hardly have the time to indulge in something creative, romantic, inspirational,motivational.Secondly,I was losing faith in the process. When no creative juices are flowing,should I really spend this valuable time in writing?Maybe I could get some work done or learn up on the next big technology.Do I need to probe my brain for poetic language ,allegories and similies.

                      But I was determined to write,it had been a long time since I poured out my compositions onto paper.Over the next two days,I tried many ways to stimulate my brain. I found three effective ways,which I would like to share. In short, TRY!

1. Talk to others – Talk to other writers,poets,creative people. Have a healthy conversation,exchange of ideas,opnions.Learn about experiences,talk about the block itself.One brilliant example is TOASTMASTERS. After every sunday session,I feel enrinched and inspired ,after conversing and listening to so many highly creative and inspirational people. It expands my brain.

2. Remind yourself why you started writing in the first place - I did a small exercise of reading my older blog posts and it filled my heart with joy . It helped me boost my self-confidence. I had a rush of feelings of how it is to produce something your own,original,form your thoughts. So,remind yourself of why you started writing in the first place.
   
   
3. Your new habit – We all have some many ideas brewing up inside our heads. Francis Bacon, an author and a great man said, "Write down the thoughts of the moment.Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable ". So, carry a small notepad or even type down in your phones. Any trivial idea,anything that catches your attention.

When your faced with a block, just TRY. .

These three methods proved effective for me. I finally had a poem by Saturday. If I may, Could I share it with all of you.

*The Doors are Jammed *- I recited the poem I had written. Refer to previous Blog posts.  :)

   Go ahead then. Don't get stuck. In the words of William Wordsworth's , "Fill your paper with the breathing's of your heart".

Painted my wall

After months of thinking  and bothering many people to think of ideas.My wall has been successfully painted. Most of it,thanks to my sister.
  Being a morning person,this wall reminds of the birds chirping in the morning (Yes,in my area ,you can hear the chirps). It's good. A feel-happy wall!