When I first read about the Booker Prize this year and looked at the shortlist, one book stood out. Time Shelter, the eventual winner, was instantly appealing in its central idea of whole countries having referenda to decide which decade of the 20th century they wanted to return to. As you will have noticed on […]
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (Translation by Angela Rodel)
I wrote this review three years ago and rereading it today reminds me that I really must read the book again. If you have never read Time Shelter, click the review above and find out why it’s a really special book. I really urge you to give it a go. Let me know if you do.
Hit 5,000 steps today and drop your achievement here — we’re cheering you on!
As I put today’s post together it’s 6.15am UK time. It is extremely rare for me to have got to 5,000 steps at this point and I am not sure when or if it will happen today. There are a couple of reasons, first of which is the fact that I am in front of a computer all morning in a meeting and most of the afternoon doing lesson preparation. Second, I am at present focusing on why I am doing something not on hitting a random target.
When I was focused on my steps rather than the purpose for those steps I often found myself very close to the arbitrary target of 11,000 steps I had set myself and I would, for example, walk from the bedroom to the kitchen three or four times to get the final hundred or so steps to reach my target 🤣. It gave me a dopamine hit but it was ultimately completely pointless. Since the turn of the year I have dropped the focus on any targets in favour of more effective habits. I have started exercising by doing yoga and gentle work with weights. These sessions have been fruitful and I can actually see the difference it’s made. When I was teaching full time year round there was barely a day when I didn’t reach 10,000 steps or more, walking from home to the station, walking from Cannon Street to work, walking constantly during my classes, walking every lunchtime so I could talk to Janet and then walking back to Cannon Street and then back home from the station. This kept me from getting fat but it didn’t really get me healthier or feeling better.
The idea of hitting an arbitrary target like 5,000 steps is superficially appealing but it will do nothing for you long term in terms of fitness, physical or mental. If you have a day when you don’t walk much but you do a session of yoga or weights then you will benefit far more than if you just plod on for the sake of it. Focus on you and what you need not an arbitrary figure that puts the purpose second to the target.
Every so often, a programme comes along that you want to tell other people about because you are convinced that they are missing out on something really good. Girl Meets World from the Disney stable is one such programme. I’ve been watching since Episode 1 with my daughter and we have seen it change and […]
Girl Meets World – An undiscovered gem
This came up on the On This Day which has started to appear on my feed. This is an article I wrote 10 years ago and I think it still holds up well. It first appeared on my occasional reviewer blog which is now mothballed but I think it’s worth a read having revisited it myself.
What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?
I have been prey to negative thoughts from childhood and I have always struggled to deal with them. There is significant evidence that people have a clear bias to positivity or negativity which is genetic. That doesn’t mean that it’s a fait accompli because there’s things you can do to combat, if not overcome, your basic nature.
First of all, balanced reflection can be very helpful to some people if done in the correct way. You can look at both sides of a situation and try to balance out your natural pessimism by using a pro and con approach but, of course, my own pessimism becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because I instinctively place more weight on the cons than the pros!
What has worked for me over the past few years has been meditating and trying to develop a stillness in my mind. This is very much a continuous work in progress though, albeit with peaks and troughs that are less pronounced than they used to be. Even after meditating I can be as thoroughly negative as I was when I started, but I feel as though the journey through that negativity is perhaps not as hard. Yoga has also been helping by giving me a focus and a flexibility that makes me feel better about myself.
Last year, as regular readers of my blog will know, I finished year round work and in doing so gave myself more of an opportunity to concentrate on my health both mental and physical. It’s not clear to me that it has had any affect on my basic nature at all. Yes, I have more time for self care but I also have more time for overthinking. On balance I think the day to day is a little easier but the overall medium and long term situation has not changed.
To start to combat a natural inclination towards negativity you need to recognise that you are prone to it in and of yourself. Outward influences can only have so much effect so the internal battle will continue.
What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger?
When I was younger, the type of food I ate was, quite naturally, dictated by what was dished up. As with every other child at the time I was given two options every meal time, take it or leave it! It still baffles me to see these families on TV who are cooking 5 different meals for 5 family members, all of whom seem to have a combination of allergies or particular foods they won’t eat, but I digress!
One thing I hated when I was younger was curry, but that was based on just one meal I had when I was a kid. It was too spicy for me at the time because we didn’t have spicy food at home or when we went out to eat on the odd occasion that happened. I absolutely love it now. Until I started cooking for myself or buying my own food in restaurants or pubs I never discovered any type of spice in my diet, but you have to remember that this was extremely common in British homes at the time. Macaroni Cheese came out of tins and Vesta Curry was the nearest thing to exoticism on the table!
Actually it’s generally been the other way. Our food included lots of things that I have never touched since. My Dad came from the East End of London and he left most of that childhood behind as he reinvented himself. One thing that remained constant was his regular meals with roast and vegetables every Sunday without fail unless we were away on Scouting weekends. Avoiding the Sunday roast which I had grown to dislike over the years was a big reason I looked forward to camping at the time! The other things that made semi-regular appearances on our plates was liver and onions 🤢 which I detested but ate, because the reaction to me wasting it was even worse than the meal itself. I also disliked sweet and savoury together in any form and I dragged myself through gammon and pineapple whenever it appeared. The combination of sweet and savoury is something I will always hate. As far as I and my taste buds are concerned they must always make up different parts of the meal. As I am in charge of cooking that has remained an unbreakable rule for over 40 years! No point trying to convince me that they can be complementary, because it’s never going to happen!
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 