Worthwhile Living

I’ve gotten some good feedback about my original post about Saving time at the supermarket with a shopping list. I spent some time revising the shopping list to help in a few ways:

1) Now I have the week’s menu on the list itself. Before I would write the menu on a sticky, but now I find it’s nice to reference the menu in the store in case I think of something else I’ll need to go along with it.
2) I’ve added boxes for all the stores I might shop at. I do shop sales sometimes, so if an item I want is on sale at a particular store, I’ll buy it there. And I found that I don’t buy much at King Sooper anymore as we’re pretty much converted over to natural foods, which I get at Vitamin Cottage.

Here is the revised shopping list, in Word and PDF formats:

MS Word format:Shopping list-1.doc

PDF: PDF Format

Technorati Tags: Money, Productivity, shopping

(As you might know, my wife is dying of cancer, that’s why you’ll see a bunch of death related posts on my blog for a bit.)

I first heard this poem sung as a song by Sister Chang Kong at a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. She talked about how she had sung it at the bed of a dying friend, and how it comforted him. It comforts me too.

This body is not me; I am not caught in this body
I am life without boundaries,
I have never been born and I have never died.
Over there the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies
All manifests from the basis of consciousness
Since beginningless time I have always been free.
Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out.
Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek.
So smile to me and take my hand and wave good-bye.
Tomorrow we shall meet again or even before.
We shall always be meeting again at the true source,
Always meeting again on the myriad paths of life.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Technorati Tags: Mindfulness, Death

Like my last post on exercising your brain by learning a new language, here’s another worthwhile endeavor to exercise your brain: Do something different every day.

Every time you do something different your brain takes note. It’s given new stimuli, it has new things to think about, and see and do.
Because of all this new stuff, it has to work a bit harder and make more connections, and that’s good exercise. The more new connections it has to make, the richer your brain becomes, and the better off you will be now and as you age.

It’s also good practice for dealing with change, which is inevitable.

So what should you do differently? Here are some ideas:

• take a random route to work, or to the store, or wherever you are driving.
• go for a walk down different streets in your neighborhood.
• cook a new recipe
• read a genre of book you don’t usually read
• add a new exercise to your routine.
  For me, I realized that doing 100 crunches and 30 pushups were becoming routine, so over the last week I’ve increased them to 120 and 35. now I feel more challenged.
• travel
• pick something from a Sark poster and do it, like “invite someone dangerous for tea”
• tie your shoelaces differently, see Ian’s Shoelace Site [via Seth Godin's blog]
  Seth says he ties his shoelaces in a different way to, “reject the status quo.” While that’s a good enough end in itself, looking one level deeper you might see that a worthwhile life is one of constant change, constantly rejecting the status quo in favor of dealing with what is happening on a moment-to-moment basis. That is, the “status quo” is about what was, not what is.
• tie your tie in a different way. Did you know that there are 85 possible ways to tie a tie?
• Update: Peel your banana from the other end. (I’m still tickled by this one every time I do it.)

In general, be aware of the ruts that you are in, and climb out of them. The view is much better up there.

What sorts of things can you do differently?

Some apropos quotes from my Worthwhile quote database (you see a random quote from this database on the top of the main page.):

• “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.” — Gail Sheehy
• “Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.” -— William O. Douglas, American jurist, Supreme Court justice (1898-1980)
• “If you do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens” — Fay Weldon

  

As many studies show, your mind is a “use it or lose it” proposition. (see, Mental Exercise Nearly Halves Risk of Dementia, for example). That is, your mind will inexorably decline as you age (just as your muscles will) if you don’t continue to stimulate it.

This is one of the reasons that I decided to learn French. I’m also hoping for a trip to France this year. And, frankly, I always thought French was too hard to learn, so I decided to challenge myself! (Turns out it is pretty difficult to get the pronunciation correct, but not at all insurmountable.)

It’s really quite stimulating to learn a new language. I usually do one lesson per day, while in the car. Sometimes I’ll repeat a lesson if I don’t feel familiar with the new material. I feel like I’m progressing quickly, and am really enjoying it.

One interesting side effect is that my Spanish is improving too. Since it’s the same part of the brain that’s getting exercised it stands to reason, but I was surprised to find that the Spanish I already know comes out more fluidly now.

Whatever you do, do something out of the ordinary with your brain. Many people swear by crossword puzzles as a way to exercise your brain. I’m sure it works, as it forces you to think of things that aren’t part of your normal life. But for me, I want an activity that seems like a worthwhile use of my time. That’s why I’m learning a new language. Maybe you should try it too?

To learn French, I’m primarily using the Pimsleur course, which I highly recommend. It’s especially good for learning good pronunciation. I’m also trying out the Rosetta Stone language learning program. It is also good, but it excels at teaching vocabulary; I find it not as good for pronunciation as Pimsleur, though they are different paradigms. Pimsleur is an audio course, and the Rosetta Stone is a computer program.

TIP: Pimsleur CDs and Cassettes can be checked out from a library for free. Note that there are new editions of French (and probably other languages) to account for the currency change to the Euro, and other improvements, I’m sure. So be sure to get the most current one. I started on the previous edition, and find the sound quality better on the new edition that I got.

Technorati Tags: Languages

From “Slaughterhouse-Five” (Kurt Vonnegut):

“When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes’.”

I created a shopping list that saves me a tremendous amount of time when shopping. It’s organized by store, and by aisle in the store.

At home when I use something up, or will need something in a recipe, I write it down in the aisle where it will be found. Then, when at the store, on my old shopping lists, I’d have to scan and re-scan the list to see if something I need is in the aisle I’m in, but now I just look in the section for that aisle. Simple!

This also saves money because I only buy what’s written down (with some exceptions for things I know I’ve forgotten, or stuff I find on good sale.) Without a list, I’d often just “browse” to fill the pantry, and buy a bunch of stuff we didn’t use often.

Over the several months I’ve been using it, this list has really saved me time, and made shopping easier. I never have to backtrack in a supermarket to get something from an aisle I’ve already been through because I just noticed something on a list. Saving that frustration alone, makes this list worthwhile.

I’ve attached the current version of my shopping list in both Word and PDF formats. Obviously you’ll probably have to modify these for your stores, but it’s a start…
MS Word Format: shopping list.doc

PDF:

Note about the organization of the list: I mainly shop at three stores, and they’re represented in different spaces on the shopping list. I tried to arrange the stores in the actual order of the aisles to make it even easier. You’ll note that the “Whole Foods” section is just one big box. This is because I usually buy everything I can at Vitamin Cottage (where it’s 10-20% cheaper than Whole Foods), and then if I can’t get something there I buy it at Whole foods. The “Whole Foods” box is just for the few things that I know I’ll buy there.

Technorati Tags: Money, Productivity, shopping

For those who are doing some sleep hacking like I have been, there may be help on the way:

Caffeine Free: Blue Light Makes People Alert at Night:

A small study of 16 volunteers found that exposure to short-wavelength light, or blue light, perked them up immediately.

“Light exposure to this system, particularly blue light, directly reduces sleepiness,” said Steven Lockley of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Subjects exposed to blue light were able to sustain a high level of alertness during the night when people usually feel most sleepy, and these results suggest that light may be a powerful countermeasure for the negative effects of fatigue for people who work at night.”

Technorati Tags: Sleep

Apropos of my Dance of the Universe post, I saw this article in Wired Magazine about a forthcoming book called “Programming the Universe.”

Life, the Universe, and Everything
Seth Lloyd is the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with. Between gulps, the MIT prof will impart the details of how the universe really works. And if you order another, he’ll give you a summary of one of the most mind-boggling ideas emerging in science today. His new book, Programming the Universe, is a plainspoken tale of how the universe is – tell me if you’ve heard this before – one very large quantum computer. – Kevin Kelly

WIRED: I hear you’re a quantum computer repair guy.
LLOYD: Yes, I am a quantum mechanic! Those darn quantum computers break all the time.

You’ve jumped from working on quantum computers to saying, oh, by the way, the universe is a gigantic quantum computer.
When you zap things with light to build quantum computers, you’re hacking existing systems. You’re hijacking the computation that’s already happening in the universe, just like a hacker takes over someone else’s computer.

What is the universe computing when we are not hijacking it for our own purposes?
It computes itself. It computes the flow of orange juice as you drink it, or the position of each atom in your cells.

Um, how many times have you seen The Matrix?
Sadly, only once. In The Matrix, what you see is fake – a simulation of bits – which is only a facade of what is real beneath it. But our universe is a simulation so exact that it is indistinguishable from the real thing. Our universe is one big honking quantum mech anical computer.

When did you first start having these visions?
It’s not a new idea, or my idea. The notion that the universe is a computer is as old as Isaac Asimov’s story The Last Question in the ’50s and work by computer scientists Ed Fredkin and Konrad Zuse in the ’60s.

How do you explain Programming to your kids?
I tell them that it says everything in the universe is made of bits. Not chunks of stuff, but chunks of information – ones and zeros.

Do they believe you?
My daughter Zoey says, “No, Daddy, everything is made of atoms, except for light.” So I tell her, “Yes, Zoey, but those atoms are also information. You can think of atoms as carrying bits of information, or you can think of bits of information as carrying atoms. You can’t separate the two.”

I’ve just put on your magic glasses, and looking around I see that, oh my gosh, everything is computing. Is this just fashionable?
Computers are our favorite metaphor at the moment, so maybe we see everything as com puters. But this view is not that facile. Statistical mechanics, which underlies all chemistry, grew out of the realization that the world is information. The mathematical definition of a bit was first postulated not during the 1930s and ’40s when Claude Shannon and Norbert Weiner started information theory but by James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann during their 19th- century explorations of the nature of the atom. They were working on thermo dynamics, but they discovered that the world was made of information.

Would it be fair to say the universe is a mind?
You could use that metaphor. And if you did, then you and I and my cat are its thoughts. But the vast majority of the universe’s thinking is about humble vibrations and collisions of atoms.

You seem to be saying that the concept of the universe as one huge quantum computer is not just a metaphor – it’s real.
Absolutely. Atoms and electrons are bits. Atomic collisions are “ops.” Machine language is the laws of physics. The universe is a quantum computer.

Where is this all headed?
Some folks think life and technology and mind can keep expanding forever. Others say it can’t. We are still not clear on that.

Is there anything we can be clear on?
If I have one new message to convey in my book, it’s that the universe is a system where the very specific details and structures in it are created when quantum bits de-cohere – choose one path out of multiple possibilities – and that this process is identical to quantum computation. That is what I mean by programming the universe.

“Programming the Universe : A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos” (Seth Lloyd)

Technorati Tags: Quantum Mechanics

Working with your breath is an important way to affect your mental state. It’s easy too, since you always have your breath with you.

I have been using this highly effective technique since I read Dr. Andrew Weil’s, “8 Weeks to Optimum Health”. I recommend getting the book too, as it has a wide range of practical and insightful tips that I have used to improve my life.

From Dr. Andrew Weil’s site:

Unhealthy stress can wreak havoc on your body and mind. One effective way to help manage stress levels is through breath work, especially through a breathing exercise known as the relaxing breath. This exercise is simple, takes almost no time, requires no special equipment, and can be done anywhere. Start by sitting with your back straight. Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there through the entire exercise. You will be exhaling through your mouth around your tongue; try pursing your lips slightly if this seems awkward.

• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
• Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
• Hold your breath for a count of seven.
• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
• This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. Exhalation takes twice as long as inhalation. The absolute time you spend on each phase is not important; the ratio of 4:7:8 is important. If you have trouble holding your breath, speed the exercise up but keep to the ratio of 4:7:8 for the three phases. With practice you can slow it all down and begin inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply.

Technorati Tags: Breath, Breathing, Meditation, Stress

When I started meditating it was often difficult to know when to end. I didn’t want to have to be worrying about the time. When I’d set an alarm of some sort it was often jarring and unpleasant.

So I searched for a nicer way to signal the end of the meditation and found that the sound of a bell worked nicely, and I got one on MP3.

Then I was able to set up a playlist with an appropriate amount of silence for the mediation, and then the gong would ring.

For example, I set up the following if I wanted to meditate for 20 minutes:

1. 30 Seconds of silence
2. gong sound
3. 5 minutes silence
4. 5 minutes silence
5. 5 minutes silence
6. 5 minutes silence
7. gong sound

This way I got a little bit of time to get settled, then a gong to start off with. Then 20 minutes of silence, then a gong to end with. I used a file of 5 minutes of silence so that I could set up different playlists for different lengths of time.

This worked very well, and could be adapted for use on a CD, if you wanted to. That is, just burn a CD with the appropriate tracks of gong or silence depending on how long you want your mediation to be.

I have a Palm Pilot that can play MP3s and has a speaker, so I just set up playlists like above and used them to time my meditations. (Nowadays, I found a great alarm program, Palmary Clock, that has a timer that can use an MP3 as the alarm sound, so I use that with my gong sound.)

Since I’ve heard that people are looking for a tool like this, I’m posting the gong sound I use and the tracks of silence in various lengths for you to download and use as you wish. I’ve included two different gong sounds. The first has the little “tap” before the striking of the gong, which I prefer. The second is just a gong sound.

Mindfulness Bell
Meditation Gong
Silence – 1 Minute
Silence – 5 Minutes
Silence-30 Seconds

Technorati Tags: Meditation