Pilates

As I may have mentioned before I have found exercising really beneficial to improve physical and mental well being and can be slightly addictive.

I have been running regularly for the last 10 years or so and cycling for about 5. I also try to do a bit of amateur yoga as I am not the most flexible.

However, I pilates recently and what a difference, it improves posture, composure as well as conditioning and strength I hope. I remember the recently retired Manchester United player Ryan Giggs stating that he felt his career had been prolonged by regularly taking pilates classes.

I'm still a complete novice and have only tried beginners videos on Youtube but it is well worth a try.

Cheers

Self Esteem and Dopamine - Simon Sinek

I really enjoyed Simon Sinek's youtube interview about the generation known as millenials. He talks about many of the subjects we have covered here; self esteem as a result of failed parenting strategies and dopamine hits as a result of getting positive feedback on social media. These factors have affected younger people more than others.

He goes on to say prolonged periods on social media result in people feeling worse rather than better about life. Younger people are becoming reliant on devices rather than friends resulting in superficial friendships. It all sounds like a recipe for a lack of confidence and increased likelihoods of depression.

Instant gratification is another expectation younger people have; however, we only become fulfilled where we put the work in over the long term. Really interesting viewing.

What it here at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU

Cheers

Happy New Year?

There is a view that 2016 was not a great year; a stream of very popular celebrities many for here in the UK passed away at a depressingly speedy rate throughout the year.

Combine this with the puzzling Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump across the Atlantic many would have you believe that last year was the worst ever.

But was it really?

The UK team enjoyed unprecedented success at the Rio games, Andy Murray won Wimbledon and my own football team enjoyed a very successful time.

So what can we conclude from this?

All the events I mentioned are objective, there are plenty who have a completely opposing view. Also I had no direct influence over them. We can be hostages to fortune if we look to external events to ensure we feel happy.

Happiness and confidence are an inside job, for every time your team or sports star overachieves they will also fail to meet expectations. So how to we ensure we are happy; meditation, eating healthily, plenty of exercise and treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves.  That's what I'll be doing as well as having my fingers crossed Donald Trump isn't re-elected in 202, hopefully there will only be four years of damage done!

Cheers