WARM UP

WARM UP

Singers vocalize. Chess players do tactical move visualizations. Mountain climbers do straight leg bear crawls. Software programmers get coffee! 

Seriously?

Actually, programmers--at least the sharp ones--visualize the system, application, or code they're working with like it’s a house of cards which, if tinkered with before they’ve done their mental prep, may come tumbling down--with landsliding effects. (And yes, coffee helps.)

What do these all have in common? Warm ups.

But it’s funny. We don’t often think of warming up our minds. Yet no matter what we’re going to do today--morning till night--we’ll probably do it better/quicker/longer if we do a mindful warm up first.  

But how? 

One way, ironically: DON'T THINK. E.g. meditation: sitting/walking/breathing quietly letting the mind become a pond slowly stilling after a pebble’s been dropped in it. Why practice not thinking? It rids us of mental leftovers and brings us back toward our tabula rasa state. Besides, it helps balance out all the overthinking we’ll do today!

A second way? DO SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES YOU FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF BEING INSPIRED--read something sacred to you, view great art or listen to some good music--whatever lifts your spirits, brightens your mood, floods you with joy--and restores your love of YOUR life even though it’s not perfect.

A third? Get physical. Stretch. Do qigong. Work out. Go for a run. Do the barre. Do something that brings every cell of your body on board. A BODY ON FIRE IS A BRAIN ON FIRE.

Better yet, do some of each. 

Here’s to eliminating the landslide effect on our day caused by not doing true mental warm ups...and to being at our mindful best.  

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT HOW TO WARM UP OUR THINKING.