I’ve entered a different perception of reality doing this, compressing time in ways that seem inexplicable.
I’m about a 35 minutes flight to getting back to it. 
1 Like
Indeed. Focus on something natural that your amazing body is doing by itself. Breathing. Sensations on the skin. Paying attention to particular parts of your body and how they feel when you focus on them. This creates a space away from the chattering mind.
3 Likes
The only meditation I know of is the type to think of nothing (focus on the air entering and exiting the nostrils or even one nostril, kind of thing). My results have not been very good. Can either of you or anyone else elaborate on the type of meditation that has worked for you?
Exercise works for me. So does prayer. I would like to add meditation to my arsenal, but again, my results have been poor.
2 Likes
That’s a great place to start. You know you have to use your fingers to push your nostrils closed to do it, right? 
Once you can do that and focus on your breath, it becomes easier to do it without doing the alternate nostril breathing, because, i mean, come on, it’s silly. Then just do a bit of a crunch and breathe slow into your belly, and exhale through your nose.
On Youtube, look at Ritesh who does 30 days of yoga. He starts each lesson with breathing. You can just do that part and then do it for longer each day.
Day 1: Hatha Yoga | 30 Days of Yoga for Beginners with Ritesh Sheth - YouTube
I don’t worry too much about getting caught up in my thoughts as long as I try to recognize I’m doing it and let it gooo, and get back to focusing on the breathing.
No one is going to clear their mind on the first try or the fiftieth, just keep trying. It’s like learning to hold your breath under water.
1 Like
Anything related to water comes so very naturally to me. I can swim 50m underwater, for example, without any practice. I imagine I could increase that if I changed my form, did breath hold exercises, etc.
Anyway, thanks for the link. I’ll try it tonight.
1 Like
This is a variation of a relaxation technique I like:
These programs worked well also:
1 Like
Oh man, this is so good. This is accepting anxiety when it comes (what I have been doing) X 100. It’s running toward your fears. Brilliant, really.
I’ve been really frustrated with my physical health and it’s been impacting my mental sharpness and positivity.
For the last few months. I’ve had so many set backs in my training. Had some shoulder issues that prevented me from training hard for a month. Had to go light which wasn’t awful but I wasn’t really progressing. It got better and it trained hard for a month.
And then I literally just sneezed and threw out my back somehow and couldn’t train and really was in pain for a good 3 weeks. I was getting to a good place and hitting my goals before then. Got back and trained hard for another 3 weeks and felt amazing and then got Covid again and I’m out again for a week.
It’s been frustrating that I haven’t felt like I’m able to get my body into good shape for a while and always regressing. I just feel so much better mentally and physically when my mind and body are strong working together.
1 Like
@Andrew0409 knowing your background I may be preaching to the choir, but try substituting bodyweight exercises for workouts where you’re primarily using weights, at least for that period when you’re just returning to your workout after injury. I’ve found that it’s much easier to avoid re-injury using a combination of TRX and calisthenics, because it’s easy to make fine adjustments to resistance levels. As you progress into your recovery you can amp up the resistance with a weight vest that takes plates, and bring down your reps if that’s your goal. This strategy, combined with a few yoga exercises, has been key for me to recover from two “fifty-year shoulders” and get the mobility and strength I need for my primary sports.
2 Likes
I don’t know what I’d do without exercise. It’s the one thing I can count on to release stress and feel very positive mentally. I think you’re still quite young, but don’t forget that you will need to alter your workouts as you age, maybe even completely change to a different sport.
I stopped running on flats some years ago. Actually, bad knees is what caused me to head to the pool and I found I was pretty good at it after a few years. A friend of mine stopped doing taekwondo and switched to BJJ because of his knees. You get the idea. Sometimes you need to reinvent yourself.
4 Likes
I’ve been slowly fine tuning my workouts to not be about putting crazy amounts on power lifts or bodybuilding esthetics. More about functional strength and mobility. And more cardio for heart health.
I know I will probably never get as big as I was in my 20s and I’m actually ok with this. To get to that type of composition and low body fat is too much of an obsession and commitment daily.
I also know I probably won’t reach my PR or break any PRs again in most of my lifts and that’s also ok. But I still have some idea of what my goals are in terms of my lifts and every time I make progress something takes me out 
4 Likes
Yep. I have some arbitrary standards I try to maintain lifting, but I find myself thinking more and more, why? what f’im difference does it make if I can lift x times my weight in lift y?
And I’m way past getting big - it seems pretty clear bigger is worse as you age (and the hotness isn’t all about hyugeness anymore anyway ).
3 Likes
That question keeps sports psychologists fully employed .
Can you elaborate? I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to. I’m always curious to hear what has worked for people.
Anyone else hate vacations after a few days?
I’m enjoying time off with family in the US. It’s been nice to see them and just relax. However I feel like I’m not doing anything and it’s making me anxious and I can’t keep my mind off doing work.
My parents and other families are getting older. As the oldest son I’m expected to take care of them. I’m not complaining as they took care of me and provided everything I needed to succeed and more. But the weigh of it get heavy.
Financial I’m done fine. Pretty good in most senses but it’s so heavily tied to my businesses. But I’m also providing financial support to some of my family that are struggling. Also not complaining. I’m also the lowest paid employee of my companies, some design to lower my tax liability and I rather reinvest into my companies as they are growing and im being very aggressive in growth.
But it feels like im holding onto so much on me. Some maybe my own pressure. I make a lot of mistakes in business, although more successes I would say growing it so quickly and expanding it to more than 1 country in less than 3 years only. I also tie my own mental health on the health of the business. Im not sure it’s healthy but what can I do? I have employees counting me as well. I can’t fail them either.
Just feel like I’m having a lot of ups and downs lately.
I understand I need to patient. Very few companies are unicorns. Steady strong growth is the way to go but it seems like Mu cash flow coming in is always going out from taxes to business expenditures for growth. I sometimes think maybe I should just be content with what I have build. I could live very comfortably if I didn’t expand so much and take a really high income but I don’t think I would be satisfied on the other hand.
Trying to be a good family man and employer is something that’s new to me I guess. It’s a lot harder than I imagined. I respect a lot of you all that have kids and also have to be there for them and everyone else.
I just wish I had more friends to count on. I moved around so much I never made much long term friends growing up. No childhood friends for example.
But this is the life that gave me such a rich experience and in a way I continue to be nomadic but it does have its downsides.
6 Likes
I’m going to focus on just this. This would cause me a lot of anxiety. What if it all goes down the pooper? You need to pay yourself first. Retirement account in the very least. A few toys to keep you entertained. For me it was always books and in my forties when all we were was working, scuba diving. Two or three trips a year.
Try not to burden yourself. It sets a bad example for your younger siblings and it creates an off chance possibility of self destruction, be it heart attack or hair loss.
Vacations suck. Retirement is way better!
3 Likes
I know nothing about starting a company and building that. But regarding friends, I used to meet people in my own field during the first ten years of so of living in Taiwan. It really helped to meet these people, share stories, complain about issues that only we could understand, etc. I’m still in contact with a few of them, even though we stopped with our dinner and drinks some time ago. Two of them I contact whenever I face a big issue at work.
Maybe you could meet with other entrepreneurs where you’re living.
1 Like
Sounds like you are right on track. Mid life crisis ahead. Take care of your family, enjoy your vacation without worrying about the company. If your second in command is reliable, it should not be an issue.
1 Like
I keep hearing this, but for me, the MLC was the recognition that I’d done what I was supposed to do to be a good man, husband and father, ie: successful , generous and law abiding, yadyada, and that enough was enough.
Now I can focus on me and when people think I shouldn’t do that, I smile and say, actually, yes I should. 
I know what you mean. I live very basic. I live with my SO family, they have an extra house. I have no kids and no car payment as they also give me a car to use. So I’m that way I’m very lucky.
Maybe I should start talking more but I see my business as the biggest investment into my future.
I’m kind of in no man’s land. I cleared out my accounts because I don’t currently have residency and my wealth manager has cleared it out until I have a residency due to the complications of US persons accounts. But as I’ve said, I see the companies as the biggest investment I can make now. I have a few and they’re growing.
I travel a lot so that’s great. I tie in business trips to places and also take a short vacation with it. Or I have a lot of hotel and miles so I fly on vacation for them.
I talk to my dad more and I respect him a lot more these days. I never fully understand how much sacrifice and burden he had working and building his own business and taking care of everyone financially.
1 Like