DAY 25
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 2012
TIME: 8:49pm
A. OPENING THOUGHTS/OBSERVATIONS:
Funny thing happened. It was a rainy day and I was at the ATM machine. A woman noticed I had “TRAINER” on the back of my shirt and asked me what sort of program I would recommend for women abused by their husbands. Needless to say I was taken aback by this question. Maybe someday someone could recommend this Quest program but I advised that she find help and support from a trained healthcare professional. My thoughts on the subject were, “Any exercise is good. Especially strength training which might help with recovering a sense of self. Most importantly, find emotional support - therapy, a social worker, whatever works.”
Today I wrote the first few pages of my book "Body Sculpting for the Creative and Spiritually Minded", taking the content from today’s exercises into account. It was really just a matter of rearranging the thoughts.
Atonement (At-One-Ment) is the word of the day for me. I been reflecting on the Course In Miracles phrase that says, “Your Minds Are Not Separate”. To be aware of this, and aware that our minds are not separate from Source, is to heal. My goal then is to heal my own sense of Self. Why does this manifest in a need to make more money? Maybe for the first time I realize it’s not “to make more money”. Making more money is side benefit. The real desire is to immerse myself in what I find productive while providing a stronger connection to others. The more aspects of this “un-separated mind” (I.e. a steady client base) will help in my experiencing the greater joy that I think I’m seeking.
B. DREAM ENTRY:
My dreams were funky. I squirmed as every thing I ever done wrong, or any impure thought I might have had, was on a video screen for my loved ones to watch. It was uncomfortable but needed to be looked at. On a conscious level I am accepting myself, warts and all, and continuing this Quest. This dream was interpreted as the ego's last ditch effort to sabotage me before concluding this Quest.
C. Simply stated, you are to journal between sets what action
steps you have already taken in completing your Quest. If it’s something
you have to do in your spare time, use the “Active Rest” periods to
complete what you need to do -- especially if what you need to do requires
some form of writing. (For example, I started writing this book during
my Emotional Exercises in this chapter.) The next three days are about
action. Bring it home!
***
The Workout
Focus on Supersets: Chest and Triceps
1. Exercise 1: Bench Press with Push Ups
4 Sets of 12 Reps
Identify Intention: Content for Book
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying the Major Points
After Set 1: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(a) Focus on the question: What do I want my audience to think and feel?
“There is no secret formula. Sticking to some basics would be a good idea - eating right, challenge yourself with exercise, rest up. The focus of this book is on the emotional life of your workouts. There will be physical exercises offered here, but the emotional work in this book can be applied to any strength training or athletic training regimen. But the emotional work in this book will require consistency from you for no less than thirty days."
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identify the Major Points
After Set 2: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(b) Focus on the question: What is the difference between success and failure in a training program?
“You should cultivate a relationship to the power of 'Why'. Why do you want to be in training program? What will specifically inspire you to become addicted to enjoying a lifelong commitment to exercise? Are you committed for health reasons? Or for beauty? Or simply to have fun? Does thinking about this commitment evoke productive emotions inside of you? Does your emotional state instantly change, for better or worse, when considering working out today?” The power behind your own personal “why?” is what will keep you committed to becoming your best in this thirty day quest and beyond.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identify the Major Points
After Set 3: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(c) Can you tell me more about the “Power of Why”?
You must find out what is compelling to you. What sends chills down your spine? Just “showing up to the gym” isn’t normally a compelling reason to most people. If your “why” is strong then you will without a doubt crush the next thirty days. If you make it through the thirty days, then you will have established a new habit dedicated to the lifelong commitment of your physical fitness.
The exercises here are only a suggestion. Do your own research for which physical exercises you wish to provide in tandem with the emotional work that this book is primarily focused on. Make it personal to you.
2. Exercise 2: Barbell Incline Press with Dumbbell Incline Flies
4 Sets of 10/15 Reps
Identify Intention: Develop Content for Book
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 1: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(a) How does focusing on emotions help increase the quality of a workout and therefore the quality of the body’s fitness level?
The
emotions are everything. There is not sufficient training in our
culture that teaches a person how to harness the creative (and
destructive) power of our own emotions. Done intelligently, well-directed
emotions will lead you to an easier, more enjoyable, and ultimately
more productive exercise routine. Every individual needs something
different. Very rarely is anything really personalized these days. For a
fitness program to stay with you for a lifetime, shouldn’t it be
personalized to your body, your personality, and your own emotional
patterns?
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 2: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(b) What is the “Quest” for lifelong fitness?
In this program you will be living a story. The story you will write for yourself in these thirty days will be the perfect one for you, the one you are ready for. While pursuing this thirty day fitness Quest, you will be asked to accomplish something else along the way. It could be something that has to do with your career, personal relationship, or even a Vision Quest for more clarity in your life. This will bring the power of “why” to every day of your 30 day fitness quest.
Stories inspire us. Therefore, this regimen will be like an adventure story, starring you, with all the elements of a good story:Beginning, middle, and end. Character arcs. Rising and falling action. Every three days or so, you go on to the next “chapter” of this story.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying the Major Points
After Set 3: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(c) Why should you record, or journal, this story?
Journaling your insights is important. We are motivated by growth and there is no better way to track your growth than by journaling not only your results, but the story of how you got to your ideal body, your ideal self. There will be a story arc in this experience - your own personal character development, if you will. This introduction is your own personal “Call to Adventure”.
3. Exercise 3: Dips with Machine Chest Fly
4 Sets of 15/12 Reps
Identify Intention: Develop Content for Book
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 1: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(a) The first ten days or so will be dedicated to getting your body and mind attuned to this new adventure. It’s a phase called “Unconscious Incompetence” where you are starting to intellectually understand what this adventure will entail. You will immediately become conscious of the benefits to your mind and body. Things will make sense to you but it won’t be a habit yet.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 2: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(b) The second ten days are dedicated to making the Quest an emotional habit, creating better quality emotions on a regular basis. Exercise, and the intentional emotions you feel after a workout, will start to become addictive. Most people begin to experience what’s called “Conscious Incompetence” and it’s the reason why most of those people quit. Or, at the very least, cease to challenge themselves to enjoy maximum results. The emotional exercises in the program therefore become the “X factor” in your workout regimen. Not only will the emotional exercises make you stronger, but the workout quality will intensify to test both your new physical and emotional skills.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 3: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(c) Finally, in the last ten days, you will begin to enjoy what’s called “Conscious Competence”. Not only will you master the workouts and see results, but you’ll also learn to master your own motivational psychology. By DAY 21, this should become an addictive habit. Not only have you worked on your body, but also on the thoughts that enter your head when you even consider working out for the day. This habit in turn leads to “Unconscious Competence” or the Art of Mastery. The 30 Day Quest process will now become instinctive and unconscious and you’ll be on the road to enjoying the benefits that can only be enjoyed through a lifetime dedication to physical fitness.
4. Exercise 4: Cable Decline Flies with Underhanded Dumbbell Flies
3 Sets of 12 Reps
Identify Intention: Develop Content for Book
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 1: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(a) The exercises contained in the photos are merely suggestions. Feel free to plug in whatever sequences of exercises work personally for you. There will be some guidelines outlined in the opening chapters specifically for burning fat, gaining muscle, or maintaining athletic performance, but ultimately the physical exercises are limited only by your goals and creativity. The primary intention of this work is to be the emotional supplement to your physical workout. Never buy into the hype that a fad diet or a specific exercise technique is perfect for you. Your perfect exercise will evolve as you evolve. There is no one path to truth, only each individual paving their own path.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying the Major Points
After Set 2: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(b) On a New Form of “Active Rest”: Between sets you will be asked to participate in different emotional exercises which will change every three days or so. This emotional work is the heart of this program. As your emotions strengthen so will your body. You will be encouraged to “rest” between sets and participate in these written exercises. Don’t waste this valuable time!
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 3: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(c) On Dreams and Journaling: You’ll want to get your subconscious mind on your side to prevent self-sabotage. But more importantly, you have deeper “why’s” to discover which will motivate you to work harder and derive more enjoyment from your workouts. Skipping or slacking in a workout is usually a by-product of unconscious habits. By journaling your dreams, making a commitment to remember these dreams, you will form a new habit that makes you more conscious of not only what holds you back, but also what will drive you irreversibly forward!
5. Exercise 5: Dumbbell Triceps Extensions with Cable Triceps Push Down
3 Sets of 12 Reps
Identify Intention: Develop Content for Book
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 1: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(a) On The Power of Choice: Within these pages, you always have the choice to accept, reject or modify anything written down. You also have the choice to challenge yourself as well. This book seeks to challenge your body while helping you develop conscious habits that will strengthen your entire being. When you lose sight of the power of choice you truly do have in every moment, you put yourself in danger of failing or quitting. You always have a choice.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 2: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(b) This program will work on three different levels:
(1) Your Consciousness -
You will call your attention to the quality of your workouts but also the emotional content behind the workout. This will increase your day-to-day effectiveness in everything that you do - IN and OUT of the gym.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 3: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(c) This program works on three levels.
(2) Your Subconscious -
The content in this book will allow you to leave every workout session in a heightened state of emotion. Eventually you will become aware of why these emotional exercises work, but on a subconscious level your mind and body will become addicted to the positive emotions anchored within your sessions.
6. Exercise 6: Crunches with Leg Raises
3 Sets of 30/12 Reps
Identify Intention: Develop Content for Book
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 1: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(a) (3) Your Unconscious -
A new habit will form connecting mind, body and emotions (spirit?) This habit will form within thirty days and you will be unconsciously drawn to the gym.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 2: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(b) On The Emotion-Spirit Connection: When the mind wants something but your choices are leading you away from what you want, you experience emotions in your body called “pain”. Likewise, if your mind believes that it’s getting closer to what you desire the emotions are called “pleasure”. Some might call this interaction, or intervention, of the spirit. Regardless of your personal beliefs, you will get to know yourself on a deeper level. The highest outcome this program is intended to provide for you is the ability to tap into any emotional state AT WILL. Some might call this a spiritual quest or intention, but I leave any spiritual influence you might experience to your personal beliefs.
Action Step Taken/Action Step You’re Completing:
Writing the Book - Identifying Major Points
After Set 3: Journal your results, feedback, or focus on what needs to be done to complete your Quest.
(c) I feel complete.
DIET JOURNAL: (log in any foods you consumed for the day)
Egg Sandwich on Whole Grain
Greek Yogurt
Protein Shake
Protein Shake
Baked Chicken
Protein Bar
Baked Chicken
Fruit Tart
ADDITIONAL JOURNAL ENTRIES:
Click Here to return to Chapter 13.
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