Physical Flow

C'mon, get physical!
This week, we're feeling the Flow - that sweet state-of-mind when we're in the zone, operating at our peak.  Incidentally, this state is associated with feelings of fulfillment, so searching for flow is a no-brainer.  During previous challenges, we've found flow in our daily lives and turned a chore into a flow activity. Today, we're going to get physical to get flow, so get warmed up!

Of all activities, physical activities - especially sports - seem to go hand-in-hand with a flow state.  As we've discussed, activities that trigger flow are characterized by three traits: well-defined goals, immediate feedback, and appropriate challenge.  Physical endeavors, tasks that require movement and action in the real world, frequently match this profile.

But physical activities aren't restricted to sports.  Things like gardening, crafts, or do-it-yourself projects require hands-on effort.  Furthermore, these activities are perfect for flow: the goals are normally clear, you can see your progress right away, and they are often self-correcting in terms of level of challenge (you can move at your own pace).

What physical activities provide you with Flow?  Today, do something physical and let yourself get into it:

Physical Flow

Task: Find flow in a physical task.

Info: Pick any physical activity (one that requires movement of your body or part of your body) and focus on the task in a way that is conducive to flow.  Consider these questions: What are your goals for the activity?  How are you progressing?  Is the challenge appropriate?  What could you do to match the challenge to your skills?  As I mentioned before, athletics are great for producing flow, but not necessary for this task.  I especially like working with my hands and find any task of that nature to produce Flow.  Find something that works for you. 

Goal: Maintain flow for at least 30min.

Post your preferred physical Flow-maker in the comments!

Feast of Flow

Picture unrelated.
Almost any activity can become more of a "flow experience", simply by changing how we think about it.  Previously, we talked about the conditions that get us into the zone; so, today, let's modify our thinking to make a flow experience out of what might normally be an ordinary chore: making dinner.

If you're anything like me, and I bet you are, you often take what could be a perfectly enjoyable task and turn it into a bear with crappy thinking.  "I wish this were done, I'd rather be doing anything else, this is so boring."  Such a happiness-robbing approach to life! Why not make the day-to-day into opportunities for flow?

Making dinner is the perfect example of an activity that is ripe for producing flow, but for many of us is just another thing to deal with.  Why do many professional chefs consider themselves artists, relishing (pun intended) the act of preparing meals while the rest of us consider the process work?  I would argue that the chefs who enjoy their job now look at cooking as a source of flow.

When you think about it, cooking has all the ingredients (zing!) for good flow:

1. Well-defined goals: Make a meal quickly, make it taste good, make it look good, have left-overs.

2. Feedback: Taste the food as you cook.  Good? Bad?  You know immediately.  Burning smell?  Bad.  Feedback? Good.

3. Appropriate challenge: Should you tackle steamed lobster for the first time on a Tuesday after a 12-hour workday?  Probably not.  Pick something you can handle that isn't boring.

See what I mean?  Dinner should serve up (wink) some perfectly prepared flow.  Try it yourself:

Feast of Flow

Task: Change your thinking to turn "making dinner" into a flow experience.

Info: Use the principles of flow above to alter your thinking about the process of making dinner.  Set some goals (what to make, how quickly, quick clean-up), look for feedback (focus on how the food looks, smells, tastes), and pick an appropriate recipe (something fun and new, but at your level).

Goal: Increase enjoyment during dinner.

Post your thoughts in the comments!

Finding Flow

Ahh, the good life!
We all want to be happy.  Something deep in our brains seems to demand it, and the drive to achieve happiness is strong in all of us.  But with such a strong, innate drive, why do so many of us still feel a bit empty?

The answer may lie in our evolution.  Our brains evolved to handle particular challenges: hunting, gathering, farming, small close-knit groups, etc.  Today, our lives are very different: sitting, thinking, long-distance relationships, overabundance.  

This imbalance is responsible for many of our modern woes.  We are designed to deal with adversity: scarce resources, harsh climates.  Survival was the goal.  Now, resources are abundant and our brains are ill-equipped to self-regulate.  Our impulses suggest we should eat, eat eat: we over-eat.  Our impulses suggest we conserve energy: we over-relax.

What are we to do?  The answer: don't always trust your impulses.  They are not designed for modern life.  They are designed for the life of our distant ancestors.

This is the thesis of the classic text Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.  Our impulses push us to be lazy, to conserve energy, but research suggests we are happiest when we are active - engaged in a meaningful task.  These "Flow Experiences" provide the perfect balance of challenge, novelty, and reward that our brains crave.

You likely experience Flow Experiences every day.  Flow experiences have three characteristics:

1. Well-defined goals: Activities that produce flow are clear-cut.  Put the ball in the goal.  Perform 10 reps. Run for 10 minutes.  Read a chapter.  Stitch up the patient's wound.  When the goals are clear, engagement in the task becomes more likely.

2. Immediate feedback: Related to clear goals, flow happens when you know how you are doing immediately.  You are approaching the goal on a break-away.  The you've completed 8 reps and have energy to spare.  You have three pages left and are enjoying the text.  You have stitched three-quarters of the wound without incident.  Flow experiences let us know how we're doing right away.

3. Appropriate Challenge: If a task is over our heads, we get stressed.  If a task is too simple, we get bored.  Flow experiences are those that provide just the right degree of challenge, but not too much.  How do you know when the balance is struck?  When you're feeling the flow!

For today's Daily Mind Game, we're going to watch out for flow experiences that happen in our daily lives.

Finding Flow

Task: Recognize moments of naturally occurring flow.

Info: No matter the job, we all have little moments when we are "In the Zone."  During these times, you should feel totally absorbed in your task, unconcerned with time.  What types of activities get you into this state?  How do you feel during these activities?  What activities produce the opposite feeling?  What about these "anti-flow" experiences make them so arduous?

Goal: Identify at least one Flow Experience today and analyze the reasons why the task gets you in the zone.

The ironic thing is that, for most people, flow normally happens at work.  However, most of us assume we would be happier if we worked less!  Flow Theory would argue otherwise: we are happiest when we are doing something engaging, not when we're sitting around watching TV.

Three Principles of Greatness

Three principles, not three monkeys.
Some people are successful and just seem to rise to the top.  Others achieve more modest goals.  Still more live without purpose, or enjoyment, or passion.  Many harm themselves, or others, through ignorance or impulse.  This is the spectrum of human performance, and the age-old questions spring to mind: is it destiny, strength of will, or chance that propels some people to greatness while others remain mediocre, or fail?

A modern take on this issue is the Nature vs. Nurture debate.  Originally, the question was posed as either-or: are we a product of our genes, or a product of our environment?  For things as complex as human biology, health, and performance, either-or just doesn't cut it, so the goalposts moved.  The question became: how much do genes and environment each contribute to who we are?

My response: who cares?  To improve our quality of life, even considering things that are out of our control - our biology, the environment - wastes precious time and energy.  Instead, why not focus on what we can control and work hard to influence those things?  Really, we must focus on the one thing that we can control: ourselves.

At the end of the day, we are defined by what we do - how we behave - and humans are really good at learning tricks from other people about how to do stuff.  This is culture, and we are built to communicate and acquire culture.  Because of this, we can watch and learn from those people who achieve greatness and change ourselves by adopting the behaviors and thinking strategies that foster peak performance.  If we want to achieve greatness, we must think, and behave, like great people.

The science is always evolving, but three thinking approaches are clearly necessary for incredible performance.  Apply these to your own thinking to be your best, and don't let your genes or environment define who you are:

1. Mindfulness - Great performers are focused, completely, on the task at hand.  To be great, we must live in reality, attending to the challenges of the here and now.   Only with our attention focused on the present can we do things well.  If our mind wanders to distraction, or if we fixate on our own worry, anxiety, or frustrations, then we are not thinking about what we should be doing, right now, to achieve our goals.

2. Acceptance - Bad things happen.  That's life.  There is nothing we can do about it, so we should accept it and move on.  Peak performers don't try to avoid bad things, or change the past, they continue to work despite the bad things that happen.  This principle doesn't just apply to external stuff out of our control, it also applies to uncomfortable things we must go through to be great.  Want to get in shape?  You will have to accept some amount of discomfort.  Want to be the best at your job?  You're going to have to push yourself into new intellectual territory.  Being amazing requires a willingness to endure discomfort and frustration.  We must accept the sacrifices needed to achieve our goals.

3. Commitment - The final characteristic of peak performers is commitment.  For people to become great at something, they must commit to that something, and continue to pursue greatness again and again.  By "buying in" to an endeavor - athletic, professional, or personal - the peak performer will keep going, doggedly pursuing greatness no matter what obstacles emerge.  

When most people think about peak performance, they think of athletics, but these three principles are not exclusive to sports.  Whether your goal is to be the best in your career, improve your health, or maintain a strong relationship, these concepts are critical for maximizing your potential.  Of course, actually practicing these thinking strategies isn't always easy.  I know this first-hand.  All of us succumb to periods of self-doubt, low motivation, or frustration,  but these principles can apply to our own failings.  By being mindful of our emotions, accepting negative emotions as a part of life, and maintaining commitment to self-improvement, we will continue to grow stronger.

If you enjoyed this article, please take some time to promote The Happy Homunculus.  Also, you can learn more about the above topics by reading The Psychology of Enhancing Human Performance. Thanks, and Stay happy!

Week of Self-Control

Control yourself.
Another Week of Metacognition in the books - the Week of Self-Control is complete.  The challenges last week touched on a number of different behaviors that significantly impact our health, mood, and productivity. If you completed each of the Self-Control challenges, you should be feeling pretty good: you can easily control your own behavior. So, when impulses start to bubble up in the future (and they will), just think back to all the times you were able to steer your own behavior.

Did you miss last week's challenges?  Try the full Week of Self-Control for yourself:

Day 1: Reset - Calm down.
Day 2: Meal Plan - Eat with a strategy.
Day 3: Show Up - Go through the motions.
Day 4: Day of Doing - Don't plan, do.
Day 5: Play Date - Force some fun.
Day 6: Fave Five - Call your peeps.

Next week, your humble author is going on vacation, so the Daily Mind Games are going to be paused for one week (this is a one man show).  But don't fear!  I've got some fun weeks planned.  In the coming weeks, I'm planning Weeks of Flow, Productivity, Memory, and Calm.  Sound good?  Are there any topics you'd like to see?  Post your thoughts in the comments :)

Also, stop by near the end of next week - I'll be posting about the three critical cognitive characteristics of top performers.  Do you want to be awesome?  This post is for you.  So stay tuned!

Not satisfied?  Mad that I'm going to be gone?  Check out all the ways you can Support The Happy Homunculus, and you'll make me feel guilty.  But, don't stay mad for long, stay happy!


Links: Check out other Weeks of Metacognition

Fave Five

Choose your five favorites.
Congrats mental magicians, you've nearly completed another Week of Metacognition at The Happy Homunculus - only one challenge remains.  As a reminder, this week has been about self-control, and we've been playing a bunch of Mind Games to exercise those self-control muscles.  So far, we've calmed ourselves down, made a meal plan, went to the gym, did some work, and did some non-work.  Today, we're going to make contact.

We've talked about it before, but the strength of our social support network has a major influence on both the quality and the length of our lives.  One disease that is very strongly correlated with social support is heart disease: both the probability of having a heart attack and the probability of surviving a hear attack are correlated with strong social ties.  This is probably due to the power of positive social interactions in mitigating stress and triggering relaxation.  We've discussed both of these topics before, but you should also check out The Heart Mind Connection and The Relaxation Response if you want more specific evidence linking social interactions, stress and heart disease.

Unfortunately, in modern societies where families are often separated by great distances, it is easy to neglect our important relationships.  Today, we're going to push ourselves out of our normal, day-to-day routine of limited social interaction and reach out to those people that give us the most joy.

Fave Five

Task: Contact your five favorite people.

Info: Different types of contact earn you different amount of points.  Send an email to a favorite person: +1 point.  Talk to a favorite person on the phone: +5 points.  See a favorite person face-to-face: 10 points.  Skype a favorite person: I dunno, +6.3 points?

Goal: Earn more than 30 metacognition points by contacting your fave five.

Check out the top of the page: I've added some new, spiffy options for sharing The Happy Homunculus.  Maybe you should send this post to one of your favorite people?  Just a suggestion...

Play Date

Time to have some fun!
How's your homunculus doing?  My homunculus is being a whiny, little brat after all of the self-control I've been sportin' this week.  He doesn't want to be controlled any more, and has taken to groaning louder and louder in a really annoying way.  But, today, our self-control challenge is one that even the most spoiled homunculi will enjoy: forced fun!

If you're like most people, you work too hard.  Most of us want to be responsible; and really pushing ourselves at work and home can be an amazing source of fulfillment.  But, as we discussed last week, making time for fun is important for both our mental and physical health.  Thus, today we're gon' have some fun!

Play Date

Task: Schedule a time with someone else and do something fun.

Info: What you consider fun is up to you, but you have to schedule the time and it has to be something you do with someone else.  Why another person?  Because scheduling something with someone else makes it a lot harder to change plans.  This way, we're more likely to actually do something fun.  Final rule: the something fun must last at least one hour.

Goal: Spend 1 hour or more having fun with someone else.

Thanks for reading!  If you want to stay up-to-date with The Happy Homunculus, consider subscribing via RSS, email, or twitter...

Introducing Homunky!

Homunky!
Hi there Homunculus-owners - hopefully you've noticed by now, but I've hobbled together a new look for the site: new fonts, new colors, and, oh yes, a new mascot!  At the top of your screen, you can meet Homunky, The Happy Homunculus Monkey.  This little fella was designed by my favorite graphic designer of all time (I'm not revealing my sources), and represents what my homunculus aspires to be: a coy, confident, super-monkey!  Isn't he cute?  I feel like he belongs on a backpack from IKEA or something :)

At this point, you're probably starting to wonder: "what's the deal with all the monkey references?"  It's true.  I'm always posting goofy pictures of monkeys in my posts and, now, an official monkey mascot.  What gives?  The truth is, the monkey has a very special meaning for a blog about human thinking.  Specifically, as members of the great tree of life, we share common ancestors with our monkey-brethren.  Don't get me wrong, we're a lot cooler and smarter than monkeys, but we have a whole lot of "monkeyness" driving our behavior.  I guess you could say we're Monkey 2.0.  Or, maybe a better metaphor is Monkey 7 vs. Monkey Vista?  Hmmm, or maybe we're iMonkey?  Whatever.  Bottom line: when my homunculus is misbehaving, I can't help but think of my monkey ancestors trying to influence my behavior.

What about you?  What is your homunculus-animal?  Don't you love Homunky?

Day of Doing

Ready, set, aim, aim, aim, aim....
I'm so proud of myself - I spent all day planning to write this post.  I was drafting strategies for how to start the post.  Possible titles stormed from my brain.  I thought about the percentage of bold, to italic, to regular text.  And, I wrote down a list of all my favorite gerunds in case I had the desire to layer on some gerunds.  Psych! I didn't really do all that planning.  If I did, I would have spent more time planning to write than actually writing.  Too bad I'm not that smart all the time, however: I often waste tons of time planning instead of working.  But not today.

During last week's "Working" challenge, the goal was to determine the ratio of time spent planning to work to the time spent actually doing stuff.  I need to spend more time actually working, so today, the plan is to not plan at all.

Day of Doing

Task: No planning or organizing allowed for one day of work.

Info: Planning and organizing is fun and is a great way to make yourself feel better while you're not working.  Unfortunately, after all that planning, the work still has to happen.  Working, on the other hand, is sometimes painful in the short term, but in the long term feels a lot better than planning ever will.  So, today, no planning.   I'll let you decide what to classify as working vs. planning, but be honest with yourself.

Goal: Get stuff done.  One point for each task completed.  Five points if the task has been on your mind for a week or more.  Ten points if the task has been nagging you for a month or more.

Do you think "not planning" is awesome?  Show your support for The Happy Homunculus by clicking one of the social widgets at the bottom of the page.  Muchas gracias!

Show Up

Yoga pose: upward-facing monkey.
This time last week, I calculated that 99% of my time is spent sitting on some sort of cushion, barely moving.  This made me a tad disappointed, and my homunculus giggled mischievously: that lazy, inner child often gets his way.  Hopefully, you're not like me and spend more of your day physically active.  But, if you're sedentary too, today's Daily Mind Game is sure to trick your bad-self into exercising.

For me, a surefire way to get myself to exercise is to go through the motions of getting ready to exercise.  I go to the gym, I put on my headband, and I walk into the exercise area.  There have been times when I really didn't feel like exercising, but I forced myself to just show up.  When I've used this trick, I normally feel so awkward leaving after all that, I end up working out.  It's the bees knees.  It's also your Daily Mind Game.

Show Up

Task: Go through the routine of preparing to exercise.

 Info: This is the Week of Self-Control, so if you control yourself enough to go through your normal pre-exercise routine, you win today's game.  You don't have to work out if you don't want to, but see what happens.  I bet you end up exercising.  Also, this game doesn't only apply if you go to a gym.  For example, if you are a runner, put on your shoes and gear and step outside.  Don't have an exercise routine?  Make one up, yo!

Goal: Determine if a "show up" routine is an effective way to get yourself to exercise.

Well, did it work for you?  Stop back after you're done and post your thoughts in the comments...

Meal Plan

Don't think about food!
This week at The Happy Homunculus, we're smushing, squishing, bending, and folding our homunculi to our will.  No longer will the impulses and urges that pop in and out of our head control us!  Oh, no - we are in control of ourselves....  Until our homunculus gets hungry, that is.

When those thoughts of food creep in, many of us play servant to our mighty inner voice: "EAT."  Of course, hunger is one of the most basic, innate drives we have, so it isn't surprising that controlling our eating habits is tough stuff.  The fact is, reducing food intake is a painful process, so don't feel ashamed if it's hard for you, or if you feel you could do a better job.  That is totally normal.  Changing our eating habits is really, really hard.  But it is possible, if our thinking first we change... says Yoda.

Unfortunately, what goes through most of our heads when we "give in" to temptation is more along the lines of: "What is wrong with me? Why can't I control my impulses?"  This pessimistic thought process is self-defeating, because by assuming that the problem is personal and permanent, our future potential for change drops big time.  The truth is, self-control isn't all or nothing: either you have it or you don't.  Instead, I like to think of self-control as a continuum: some days are easier than others. Today, your challenge is to prove this to yourself by controlling what you eat for a single day.  This "small win" can then act as future proof that we have some degree of self-control, which can provide a big boost of hope any time we fall off the wagon.

Meal Plan

Task: Plan all your meals for the day in advance, and stick to your plan.

Info: This game isn't about self-deprivation per-se, it's about self-control.  For this reason, you fail the challenge either if you eat something not on your plan, or if you don't eat everything on the plan.  That's right: you must eat exactly everything on the plan, nothing more, nothing less.  In making your meal plan, visualize the "perfect" day of eating - breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks - and how you'll get all the food.  Then, execute.  Also, one final note: tomorrow, after your day of self-control, make sure you don't "rebound" and eat differently than you normally would.  Control your eating for one day, then return to your routine.

Goal: Do not deviate from your meal plan.  If you fail, you must try again until you succeed.  Modify your plan, if needed.

Thoughts? Feelings? Agree? Disagree?  Post a comment...

Reset

Bring it down a notch.
Welcome to the Week of Self-Control at The Happy Homunculus!  Last week, we sampled six Daily Mind Games that tested our self-awareness.  This week, the DMGs are going to push us a bit more: now we're going to attempt to control the same behaviors we audited last week.  Can you control yourself, or does your homunculus run the show?

As I discussed yesterday, our level of cognitive self-mastery is defined by two parameters: monitoring and control.  In other words, do you know what's going on in your own head, and can you choose what's going on in your own head?  These are important questions, and hopefully you answered a tentative "sorta" to both of them.  If not, practice makes perfect, which is the whole point of this blog... POW!

An important behavior to be aware of is how our body reacts physiologically to emotion.  For me, I have palpable body-sensations that accompany anxiety: tightness in the chest, panicky-feelings, a "rushed" feeling.  Ultimately, my goal is to achieve some control over how I respond to this physiological response to stress.  In the past, feeling anxious only made me more anxious.  But, recently, by being more mindful of the sensation of anxiety, I've managed to be able to better control my response to it, and this has reduced the amount of time I have to deal with the unpleasant sensations.  Your mission today is to observe a similar nasty body sensation and exert some control over it.

Reset

Task: Observe an uncomfortable body sensation and manage your reaction.

Info: A great trick I use to deal with an unpleasant sensation is to really observe the heck out of it, like I'm staring straight at it with my jedi-like-mind.  The goal is to filter the feeling through the rational part of my mind and to repackage it by labeling the feeling: "tightness, panic-feeling" etc.  I also remind myself that the body sensation isn't "real".  In other words, nothing in the environment caused the feeling: it is a product of my own mind.  These two tricks normally suffice to make me calm down, and often cause the bad sensation to go away entirely.

Goal: Eliminate a bad body sensation that accompanies a negative emotion via mindful awareness, positive self-talk, or both.

So far so good, right?  Why don't you exert some more self-control and share The Happy Homunculus with a friend?

Week of Self-Awareness

That's right, really get to know yourself.
It's done.  The Week of Self-Awareness is complete.  And. I. Am. Tired.  I don't know what it is, but being self-aware is very taxing emotionally and mentally.  However, I'm always happy after I observe my own behavior because I feel more informed about how to modify my behavior to get closer to a valued goal.  Hopefully, you came away from the week with a similar attitude, dear reader.

Did you miss the Week of Self-Awareness?  Go. Back. In. Time.

The Week of Self-Awareness

Day 1: Feeling - Good (and bad) vibrations.
Day 2: Eating - You are getting very hungry.
Day 3: Moving - Or not moving.
Day 4: Working - Or not working.
Day 5: Playing - Some work and some play.
Day 6: Socializing - All we need is love.

Last week was challenging, and I hate to be Debby-Downer, but next week is going to be even more challenging.  We've been working on our metacognitive muscle for a few weeks now, though, so I'm confident we're ready for it.

For researchers studying metacognition, two main concepts are frequently emphasized: monitoring and control.  The consensus seems to be that skillful metacognition requires both of these capacities.  In other words, we must be able to accurately and consistently monitor our thoughts and behavior and simultaneously control those thoughts and behaviors when necessary.  Demontrating both capacities is a hallmark of metacognitive mastery.  Last week, we working on monitoring (i.e. Self-Awareness).  Next week, we're going to focus on Self-Control.

What's the point you may ask?  As I've discussed before, self-control is a powerful predictor of long-term success and health.  Basically, unless we can control our impulses for short-term, immediate rewards, we will never be able to invest the consistent time and energy required to achieve bigger, more meaningful goals.  But, don't fear if you've been lacking in self-control until now.  Research suggests that training self-control is possible.  The key may be to try small, achievable self-control challenges first, before working up to more difficult projects.  Good thing The Happy Homunculus provides small daily challenge right?  Right?!


Until next time, stay happy!

Links: Check out other Weeks of Metacognition

Socializing

The Week of Self-Awareness is almost complete, cognitive ninjas.  Just one more Daily Mind Game to go!  For those of you who may have missed the week this far, we've been engaged in some active self-observation in order to become more conscious of our behavior.  We've completed five challenges so far, and in doing so have felt feelings, ate mindfully, tracked our movements, audited our own work, and (hopefully) had some fun.  For the final challenge of the week, let's think socially, shall we?

Guess which one is my homunculus? All of them!
Are you social? For today's challenge, I'd like you to try to answer that question.  However, as in the previous challenges for this Week of Self-Awareness, don't just think of the answer: observe your own behavior today to get a sense of your level of social interaction.

Why do we care about this?  Social support is a strong predictor of better health outcomes for every disease studied (that I know of).  The stress-reduction and immune system boost that results from a loving and caring social circle is undeniable.  Just google "Social Support and Health" if you don't believe me.

I've played today's Daily Mind Game before, and I am constantly reminded each time that I should probably spend more time interacting with people I care about.  However, if I were to just mindlessly go on with my day, always focusing on the next to-do item, I would probably forget to maintain the relationships I value.  By mindfully focusing on my connections with others, I am reminded to reach out to my closest family and friends.  And that just feels good.

Socializing

Task: Gauge your level of social interaction.

Info: Using today as a typical day, evaluate the total time you spend interacting with others.  What are these interactions like?  Positive or negative?  How much of your day involves interacting with people you really care about?  Look for ways to increase positive interactions with loved ones and to minimize or alleviate interactions that are chronically negative.  Again, the week is about Self-Awareness - you "win" the Daily Mind Game simply by observing your own behavior in an unbiased way.

Goal: Brainstorm three simple ways to increase the ratio of positive interactions to neutral/negative interactions during a typical day.

Good job, friend!  I know being self-aware can be challenging.  But, awareness is empowering and by consciously working our our awareness, we're developing critical metacognitive monitoring abilities that will help us during future challenges.

Playing

All work and no play may
make your homunculus cranky.
Man, isn't The Happy Homunculus turning into one downer of a blog?  Seriously! I revealed that I'm basically a lazy, do-nothing and earlier we focused on the most onerous of subjects: our eating habits.  Hissss! My homunculus is ready to disown me.  But, please don't go, fearless reader!  Today, we're going to focus on having fun.

I don't have any awesome studies or new articles to reference for today's challenge. Instead, I'm operating on my own little hypothesis: having fun is good for your brain.  Now, there is evidence that vacations are beneficial to general health, probably because of the stress-reduction.  However, I'm not personally up-to-date on the literature regarding daily leisure and mental health, but there has to be a connection!  If you know of some solid studies that examine this, please post some links in the comments.

In any case, as part of this Week of Self-Awareness, we're going to use today's Daily Mind Game to get a sense of how much time we spend having fun each day.  For me, since I waste so much time planning to work instead of working, I have less fun time than I would like.  On the bright side, when I made a conscious effort to track my leisure-time, I realized that I spend a decent amount of time doing fun stuff every day.  That mental shift immediately made my homunculus less irritable. Score!   

Playing

Task: Track your leisure time.

Info: Fun is in the eye of the beholder, so I'll let you decide what you consider fun.  No matter your definition, how much of your day is spent having fun?  Are there ways you might increase the amount of leisure time in your day?  Don't have much time for fun?  No worries, this challenge is just about observing our behavior, not passing judgement.  By enhancing self-awareness you'll be better able to add more fun to your life when you have the chance.

Goal: Have fun getting a general sense of your leisure time and brainstorm three strategies for adding even more fun to your day.

Personally, just engaging in esoteric metacognitive exercises is pretty fun...  Perhaps you could include this Daily Mind Game in your fun tally, too :)  Rock on!

Working

I did not photoshop this. It's real.
Recently, I've been both literally and figuratively sitting on my arse.  Yesterday, I revealed that I don't do enough physical activity and my homunculus wept with guilt.  Today, I must reveal another vice: not accomplishing anything.

Yes, I love to procrastinate.  Also, I love to procrastinate by pretending I'm not procrastinating by doing a lot of planning and organization.  I especially love to try out new day-planners and list-making software and rewrite my entire to-do list using different colored sharpies on monkey-shaped post-it-notes. Ok, not the last thing, but I'm pretty bad.  Thusly, today's challenge resonates with Yours Truly.  We're going to observe how much time we spend actually doing real work.  Not thinking about work.  Not planning to work. Working. 

Working

Task: Observe time spent gettin' things done.

Info: As I said before, I think of work-related tasks as either planning or actually working.  Sometimes planning is useful, so as before, the point of today's challenge is to not change our behavior so that we spend less time planning.  Instead, we want to simply observe, or become self-aware of, how much time is spent actually accomplishing things vs. planning to accomplish things.  For example, when I write a to-do list that includes "Make appointment for homunculus", that's planning.  When I pick up the phone and schedule the meeting for my homunculus, that's working.  How much time do you spend in either mode?

Goal: Generate a rough estimate of the ratio of time spent planning to time spent working.

Do you pity me and my homunculus for our procrastination predilection?  If so, cheer us up by clicking one of the social buttons at the bottom of the page!  Gracias!

Moving

My homunculus at work.
The Week of Self-Awareness is zooming along, and I've got another challenge all lined up.  I tried this Daily Mind Game earlier, and I must say, I don't like what I'm seeing.  An overview of my self-observations from yesterday: bed, table, car, desk, table, desk, car, sofa, table, sofa, bed.  Unfortunately, that isn't a stream-of-consciousness gone wrong.  No, that is an account of my sedentary lifestyle.

How physically active are you?  The reason I ask is that our brains are organs.  In our bodies.  Sooo, when things happen (or don't happen, in the case of exercise) to our bodies, our brains feel a piece of it.  Oh yeah, and in case you forgot, our brains are pretty important for lots of things.  Anyway, back to physical activity: more and more evidence is piling up that physical activity may protect our brains from many age-related diseases and enhance general cognitive health at all ages.  Importantly, very small changes in activity level, like walking or standing more, can have a big effect.  So, massive changes in behavior aren't necessary to reap the benefits.

Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Well, guess what? I'm a hypocrite: I spend a lot of my day sitting on my rear end.  So, do as I say, not as I do! And, please don't feel badly if you're in the same boat as me.  I empathize with your guilt through the intrawebs.  Nonetheless, we all have a general sense that more activity is usually better, so for today's challenge, we're going to observe our physical activity level in order to increase our self-awareness in this area.  Maybe we'll see simple ways we can increase our activity a smidge.

Moving

Task: Observe your physical activity for the day.

Info: Questions we'd like to answer today include: how much time is spent sitting, standing, walking, running, swinging kettlebells etc.  When sittting, do we fidget or sit still?  Are there opportunities to integrate more moving-about into our day?  Again, as in previous posts, the focus of the challenge isn't to actually move more.  The focus is on observing our behavior.  After we're informed, finding ways to improve should be easier.  Finally, try to brainstorm a few simple ways you might increase you activity level.

Goal: Determine how much physical activity you engage in, and think of three simple ways to increase it.

One thing I like to do is to try standing up while I work on my laptop - I stack a bunch of books on a counter-top to bring the laptop to the right height and get my geek on.  I often feel much more energetic, for longer, working that way.  My coworkers say I'm strange, but I just howl like a monkey at them until they let me be.  Just kidding :)

Thanks for the Support!

I couldn't do it without you.
Dear readers!  Thanks to you early adopters for following The Happy Homunculus during its earliest days.  I hope you continue to enjoy the posts.  Please, let me know what you think in the comments of the Daily Mind Games.  I would really appreciate feedback on what types of posts are the most valuable.

Also, I'm introducing a new way to follow The Happy Homunculus: Weekly Updates!  If the daily posts are overwhelming, consider receiving the Weekly Summaries only.  You can subscribe here:

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Eating

It's a touchy subject, I know.  But, today, we're going to be paying attention to what we eat.  Yesterday, we discussed the concept of mindfulness as an approach to improving performance in any area.  This can be especially useful when trying to make new habits of eating stick.  Mindful eating has been getting more and more attention in the last few years, and there seems to be some evidence that it works for many dietary goals.  I mean, they even have a Center for Mindful Eating....

Feeling

Just chillin'... Mindfully.
An important concept in applied psychology and performance science is the notion of "mindfulness", which is just a fancy way of referring to attention.  In other words, a mindful approach is one where our attention is focused on the task at hand, rather than other, unrelated stimuli (including our own, distracting thoughts).  This week, we're going to adopt a mindful approach to our behavior with the goal of increasing self-awareness.

Since a large fraction of the posts on this blog deal with thinking about our own thinking, we're not going to spend much time focused on our thoughts this week.  In fact, when adopting a mindful approach, thoughts just distract us from everything else, in a way.  Instead, we are going to start the week off by observing one internal behavior, our feelings.

Wait, hold up!  How can I simultaneously say that we are going to be observing our feelings while ignoring our thinking?  Aren't those the same thing?  No, no, my friend.  I'm defining "thinking" in this context as the internal, verbal dialogue that we have with ourselves in our head; I guess that would be our homunculus, maybe.  However, feelings are different.  Feelings are physical sensations that accompany emotions.  For example, anxiety for me feels like a tightness in my chest and jaw.  It has a sort of "panic" type feeling to it.  Whereas, relaxation feels sort of warmish and fuzzy in my head.  You know what I'm sayin'?

The challenge for today is to be gently aware of how you physically feel during the day.  What are the body sensations that you experience?  The goal is to simply be "mindful" (aware) of the sensations without judging the significance of the sensations.  We want to simply observe the feelings; even when uncomfortable (such as in the case of anxiety).

One way I like to think about feelings is this: our feelings are not reality.  Just because we may have the physical sensation of anxiety doesn't change anything about the world.  It's just this internal construct that we may be experiencing. Sometimes, feelings are there for no apparent reason, right?  At least that happens to me.  Personally, thinking about feelings as these "imaginary" events makes them seem less significant and I can actually have some fun experiencing the sensations.  I can then observe my feelings as interesting phenomena.  It's a cool experience, and it's your challenge for today to try to get to this point.

Feeling


Task: Be mindful of physical sensations.

Info: Again, I am defining "feeling" for this challenge as any physical sensation that accompanies an emotion.  This can include things like anger, anxiety, pumped-uppedness, sadness, happiness, boredom, etc.  How do these mental states feel?  Don't describe them to yourself in words, simply experience the feelings fully.  For difficult feelings, remember that it's "just" a feeling.  Your life isn't really any different because you are experiencing that sensation.  So, get curious about the feeling and try to enjoy each and every sensation (even tough ones).  Finally, no need to obsess over this, just go about your day and take note of new sensations as they grab your attention. 

Goal: Enjoy observing your feelings, including difficult sensations.

Welcome to the Week of Self-Awareness at The Happy Homunculus!  Today's challenge and the accompanying discussion was inspired by The Psychology of Enhancing Human Performance.  It's a great (but technical) book about peak performance.  If you have a background in psychology, it's an interesting read.

Week of Relaxation

You go girl.
Is it possible to be too relaxed?  Because, if it is possible, then I think I'm in trouble: the Week of Relaxation was a success!  I'm kidding, of course.  In today's pressure-packed world, chronic stress and a go-go-go mentality seems like the standard mode for most of us, myself included.  That being said, taking time to "reboot" is even more critical as being chronically stressed out can lead to some nasty brain stuff.  But, thankfully the relaxation response can be triggered with some simple meditation-inspired techniques.

During the week, we took some time for ourselves and completed six meditation-oriented Daily Mind Games to try to shift our brains into a more relaxed and calm state. Guided by strategies summarized in The Relaxation Response, we adopted a passive mindset and cleared our minds of anxiety-producing clutter.  Hopefully, this approach helped you become more relaxed.  I really enjoyed these challenges, and am going to try to incorporate this type of meditation into a daily routine.

Did you miss the Week of Relaxation?  No problemo: get caught up!

Week of Relaxation

Day 1: Peace and Quiet - Find a meditation spot.
Day 2: Passive - Do nothing. Seriously.
Day 3: Mantra - The secret weapon of the uber-relaxed.
Day 4: Heavy - Get loose.
Day 5: Down - Get down.
Day 6: Timeless - Escape the clock.

Now that we're all relaxed and happy, I think it's time to get back to some heavy cognitive lifting.  A basic definition of metacognition is awareness of our own thinking and understanding.  Next week, we're going to extend that definition a bit and include our behavior as a part of our metacognitive domain.  In other words, we can observe our own thoughts as part of an applied metacognitive strategy but we can also observe our own behavior.  This would be a behaviorist approach to metacognition.

What's the point you may ask?  I would argue that, for most of us, our biggest "problems" are problems in behavior: we eat too much, we don't work enough, we spend too much, etc.  Unfortunately, most of us (myself included) often don't realize what's going on until the negative consequences are born out.  Next week, we're going to work on self-awareness in order to combat bad behaviors that result from a "mindless" approach to life.  Specifically, we're going to consciously track our own behavior across a series of critical domains in order to generate a more accurate assessment of our own behavior.  Time to get serious!   

Links: Check out other Weeks of Metacognition

Timeless

Congratulations mental athletes - we have almost completed the Week of Relaxation here at The Happy Homunculus.  Isn't it sad?  But, don't fret yet.  Before we move on to a new weekly theme, we have one more challenge that will truly test our ability to get relaxed and stay relaxed.  Consider this our relaxing final exam.  Wait, that's not a good metaphor at all...

Down

Shhh!  Don't wake my homunculus...
Shhh!  My homunculus is sleeping and I don't want to wake him...  I don't think I've ever seen him this relaxed, but this Week of Relaxation is really working!  Let's keep pushing this relaxation thing, though, shall we?  I'm going to see just how docile I can make the little guy.

This week we've been trying some meditation-inspired challenges pulled from the pages of The Relaxation Response.  So far we've found a meditation spot, done nothing, adopted a mantra, and loosened up.  Today, we're going to continue with a visualization-based challenge.  We're going to visualize sinking.

I don't know about the universality of this, but the phrase "falling asleep" is interesting, isn't it?  Why does sleeping carry with it a sense of falling?  For me, I frequently experience the distinct sensation of falling when I'm about to sleep.  Has that happened to you?  Isn't it weird?!  Today, we're going to exploit this "falling down" imagery to switch our brains into an even deeper state of relaxation.

Down

Task: Visualize sinking during 15min of meditation.

Info: The rules are the same as before: let's hit up our meditation spot, adopt a passive mentality, and start focusing in on our mantra.  Now, each time the mantra comes to mind, let's visualize sinking down into a dark, relaxing space.  I try to really picture the surfaces moving around me in a way that maximizes the effect of slow descent.  Also, I frequently cannot maintain the effort of visualization for a full 15min.  This is ok, I'll often just return to a standard meditation or open my eyes and chill out for awhile.  Remember, this should be relaxing, Okie-dokie?

Goal: Maximize the perception of descent during the meditation.

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Heavy

My homunculus is getting so relaxed.  He has been in and out of consciousness for the past two days, which is great because I can finally get some work done!  But, I'm not finished yet: it's time to kick this Week of Relaxation into another gear.  Today we're going to add some progressive relaxation techniques to our meditation in a sort of odd, metacognitive thought sandwich.  Yum!

Mantra

During this Week of Relaxation, we're applying meditation techniques inspired by The Relaxation Response to achieve a deep state of relaxation.  Yesterday, we attempted to achieve a state of pure passiveness.  Today, we will use an age-old trick of self-distraction in order to foster an even more passive mindset: the mantra.

Passive

Doing nothing: easier said than done.
This week at The Happy Homunculus, we're trying some meditation-inspired challenges in order to foster a more relaxed mindset.  Yesterday, we picked a spot for doing meditation and lounged-about.  Today, we're going to try to trigger a solid relaxation response by adopting a particular mental attitude during meditation.  The goal?  Do nothing.

More specifically, we're going to be as passive as possible during our brief meditation.  This does not just apply to movement - of course, we will sit still during the meditation - it extends to our thinking: the goal is to reduce our mental activity as well.  Easy, right?  Wrong.  Where this gets especially hard is when we include the thought "don't think" as something to avoid. Yikes!

Let me put it this way: if our goal is to relax, "trying" to relax is likely to have the opposite effect.  I mean, we're trying!  That's different from relaxing.  The goal for today is to achieve pure passivity.  I recommend letting thoughts come and go, but gently nudging your homunculus into a state of tranquility.  Personally, I find this very, very hard.  I always feel like I should be doing something, even during meditation.  Truly letting go is something I continue to work on.  I hope you find it easier!

Passive

Task: Sit passively in your meditation spot for 15min.

Info: Close your eyes and let go.  Thoughts will come in and out of your mind - this is fine! But, whenever you find yourself wandering, gently return to a more passive state.  During the meditation, feel free to check a clock to know when you're done but try to avoid feeling like you're watching the clock.

Goal: Maximize the feeling of passivity.

Did you try this?  Share your experience with other readers in the comments!

Peace and Quiet

Some go to great lengths
to find peace and quiet.
Meditation isn't just for hippies anymore, so don't be so judgmental.  Meditation is increasingly becoming recognized as a strategy for training our minds and initiating the relaxation response.  It must be in vogue since neurojournalist-extraordinaire Jonah Leher has picked up the scent, right?  So, being the open-minded cognitive superstars that we are, we're going to be meditating this week to relax.  Are you excited to relax?  Me too: I just high-fived my homunculus...

This whole week, we're going to be applying meditation-inspired techniques to initiate a relaxation response.  For this reason, it is very important that we decide on a place where we can meditate without being disturbed.  Finding your special place is today's challenge.  Simple, right?  Then do it!

Peace and Quiet

Task: Decide on a mediation spot and sit there for 20 minutes.

Info: Finding a great place to have peace and quiet is so important.  You want to feel like you can have the privacy to zone-out and relax without being bothered.  Find a place that maximizes solitude and quiet.  I appreciate that this can be difficult for some people (city-dwellers, particular jobs) but do your best.  I used to work in a warehouse and I remember seeing some coworkers heading out to their cars for peace and quiet.  Try to be creative, but decide on a place to meditate and stick with it for the week.  And, one final thing: think about when you'll be meditating.  The challenges this week will require 20-30 minutes, so consider where and when makes the most sense to meditate.

Goal: Enjoy your meditation spot for 20min.  Don't do any fancy meditating yet.  Just sit and relax.

Also, help other readers come up with ideas by posting your where you meditate in the comments. The more creative, the better!

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