 Tired Teddy....
The Thursday Thesis - 26/01/201 “Why 8 Hours Might Not be a Recipe for Rest” Personally, I have always been resentful of my need to sleep. There seems to be no real reason for it, and it interrupts me when I’m chasing down the subject of my fascination – or obsession – if you like. I’ll ponder obsession at some future date, I’m sure, but – for now, at least – there’s the tedious business of sleep to think about. More specifically, how to optimise sleep instead of the usual, random “go to sleep when I can’t keep my eyes open a moment longer” or the “eight solid hours” approaches. Firstly, it’s vital to understand the sleep cycle. Research tells us that sleep is not uniform, and that it varies in depth and effect over repeating cycles, each lasting around 90-minutes. Being woken from the very deepest sleep state can leave us feeling dreadful – still tired and disoriented, even if we have been asleep for a long time. But we are closest to waking-up at the end of each 90-minute cycle, so it’s a great idea to plan your sleep to be a certain number of sleep cycles, whether that be 4.5, 6 or 7.5 hours. Notice that the traditional 8-hour sleep will mean waking up 20 minutes or so into a cycle – a deep state – which make us feel grotty. So it’s often better to sleep a part-cycle less, rather than to sleep for part of an extra cycle: bizarrely, six hours of sleep can leave us feeling better than seven hours, due to the sleep state we are woken from. It’s a terrific idea to have a pre-sleep ritual, too, as this prepares you for a decent night’s sleep. The rules for an excellent pre-sleep ritual are: No coffee for two hours before bed. I hate this rule. Caffeine is a stimulant – the last thing we need at bedtime. No food for two hours before bed. Food speeds-up your metabolism – the opposite of what happens when we sleep, so there’s a conflict of metabolic drivers. Incidentally, dairy produce contains naturally-occurring morphine-group chemicals (lactomorphines) that can cause vivid dreams and/or nightmares. Dim the lights for at least 45 minutes before bedtime. Low light (preferably red/orange light) stimulates the release of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin – which is also associated with brain well-being. No technology for at least 60 minutes before bed. Smartphones, laptops and TV screens all emit high levels of blue-spectrum light, which tricks our brains into thinking it is daylight, inhibiting melatonin production. No TV in the bedroom, and no reading, either. Keep the bedroom sacred for sleep – you’re then telling yourself “I’m in my bedroom – what I do here is sleep.....” Clean sheets - These reassure you that everything is clean and safe, so you relax much better. Get the right pillow height. Too-high or too-low pillows can cause us to hold tension in our necks as we sleep, disturbing our rest. Get a proper mattress. When you choose, remember that calling a mattress “Orthopaedic” doesn’t mean anything – it’s just a marketing word. The best mattress for you is one that supports you reasonably firmly but which does not sag or leave you feeling that you are perched right on top of it. Stay cool. Your body temperature dips during sleep, so don’t overdo the Tog rating of your duvet. Avoid all-night electric blankets, too, and turn down any thermostats in your bedroom. There are also some rituals that can help us to enjoy our waking-up time, too – for example: A sunrise alarm clock, such as those made by Lumie. These devices gradually fade-up the light in a simulated sunrise, sounding an alarm beep once full illumination has been reached. I’m usually awake before the beep, and I’d describe the gentle sunrise alarm as being kissed awake, rather than being kicked awake by more conventional alarms. I do also set a backstop alarm clock, just in case! Power-up the day with an espresso coffee and a light breakfast of nutritious food. I avoid cereals (except oats/porridge) as they are invariably laden with sugar, which has well-documented chronic poison effects. Yes – sugar is a toxin, and it’s been proven and well-known since the 70’s. Get a little exercise. Run if you can, walk if you can’t: ride a bike or pump some iron – do something that kick-starts your metabolism. A refreshing shower is a great way to start the day. Feeling clean is a great boost to our self-esteem, and we can step out in confidence, knowing that we don’t smell kinda peculiar... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
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The Thursday Thesis - 19/1/2017
“What a Musician Really Listens to in the Car” Until you’ve experienced it, you wouldn’t understand. When you really, really don’t want to turn off the ignition and get out of the car. When you just want to go for a drive. When you just want to listen... But that’s what it’s like, sometimes: when what you’re listening to is so gripping that you can’t wait for that long commute home from the office, or you decide to take the long way home – just to prolong the magic. But I’m not talking about the magic of music: I’m talking about the magic of recorded books. Even though I am a professional music teacher, musician and composer, I only listen to audiobooks in the car. Not just any recorded books – I’m talking about non-fiction books covering whatever happens to interest me. Get this: the average UK driver spends 960 hours every year in their car!! Now, to my mind that’s a gigantic opportunity to spend FORTY whole 24-hour days with the world’s top thinkers and writers as I potter around in my tin box on wheels. Just compare a brainy commute with the average student at a UK university, who spends 9 hours a week in lectures and tutorials - according to studentroom.com. The academic year runs for between 32 and 36 weeks on campus: that’s a piddling 324 hours a year doing their degree with teaching staff – a little over a third of the time that the average UK driver spends just commuting to and from work. Draw your own conclusions from that observation; mull it over. As for me, I’ve commuted to work with Richard Dawkins, Naom Chomsky, and Steven Hawking... Those guys gave me a very different outlook than if I spent my drivetime listening to depressing (and dubious) “News” programmes or the drivelling and asinine witterings of the average “radio personality”. Imagine yourself driving those miles in the company of a Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, or Earl Nightingale – all hugely influential figures in the self-help and personal development fields. How about Ann Lamott chatting to you about writing, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi advising you on creativity, or Felix Dennis and Richard Branson discussing business? It’s all about exposure, repetition and recalibrating normality for you. Let’s do the minimum-numbers maths: Two commutes a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year. 2 x 5 x 48 = 480 What might you learn this year during those 480 exposures to the best minds on the planet? What insights might you receive from almost 500 audiences with the best coaches and mentors in the world? How might that shape and mould your own thinking? What about over five years – 2400 sessions with great minds? A lifetime - over 25,000 exposures to your personally-chosen peer-group of genii? How might that change your life? What might you learn that you can you put to use in your own life that would move you forward to where you want to go? Might it be more important and life-changing than the propaganda of mendacious governments or the minutiae of a celebrity’s love-life, do you think? You bet it would! Over the last twenty years and 400,000 miles I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks and lectures, on subjects as diverse as theoretical physics, linguistics, psychology, creative writing, business, fitness, history, biography, poetry, politics, philosophy, mythology and religion – to name just a few. I’ve been in my 4-wheeled University almost every day of my life. It’s taught me more than I ever learnt at school. It has given countless “stop the bloody car!!!” insights and moments of clarity. It even made getting a First at university a joyride, because I was in class every single day – even though I worked at least 70 hours a week at the time! I want to give it up for the University on Wheels and the power of leveraging your time; for transforming a brain-dead drive to work into a skull-session with the best of the best. Hip-Hip!! © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net 
The Thursday Thesis - 12/01/2017
“The Wisdom of.... Arnie!!??" It seems that everybody’s favourite robo-assassin had six simple rules to pass out to students of The University of Southern California in his gubernatorial address. They are so good, I decided to share them with you, along with a few thoughts of my own Here are Arnie’s Rules of Life, in bold type.
If you don’t trust yourself, why should anybody else trust you? Be true to yourself and don’t try to be what someone else wants you to be. Remember that we come into the world alone, and we die alone – you will answer only to yourself. Perhaps the greatest tragedy we can imagine is to have lived as others wanted us to, and to have never discovered what we were really for, because we didn’t trust ourselves.
The Rules always restrict the debate and limit the “acceptable” outcomes. It naturally follows that progress depends upon somebody breaking the rules, of rejecting the conventional wisdom, and opening up new pathways to the future.
If you risk nothing, you risk everything. Yes, there is risk in change, but without the willingness to take the necessary risk, you and your life will never change.
Whether they are trying to protect you from risk or folly, or whether you make them feel as though they may have missed something importane is anybody’s guess, but they do seem to try to shut down any chance of progress.
You can’t climb the mountain of success whilst your hands are in your pockets. In later years, people will tell you that you are so lucky to have done so well – some will even demand that you must share your good fortune. Good Fortune, my arse! Whilst you were up until the small hours, or working 7 days a week on your dreams, where were they? They weren’t doing what it took to achieve what you have, and what they want a piece of, so you were just lucky and it’s not fair? Don’t make me laugh. You have to work hard enough to not have to work hard,; and you must be so good that you make it look easy.
The word here is “Give”, not “Have extracted from you”. Share your passion, wisdom, insight, vision, and ideas. When you share an idea with one person, you double its worth. If you can share it with a classroom, perhaps you can multiply it by thirty times, but if you can give it to the World, whay value could you add to the World? Best of all, you still have the idea to use, the wisdom to draw upon, long after you have given it away. Sadly though, Arnie will most likely be remembered for saying "I'll be back" than for his wise words and Rules of Life. Until next week - I'm not going to say it.... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net 
The Thursday Thesis - 04/01/2017 “Let ‘em Say Yes by Going for No” “But what if they reject me and say no?” Mark asked. My friend’s pain was clear in his voice. Months of frustration and indecision had left him feeling powerless and at a dead-end. Mark’s a bright guy, and he knew that his local area would not work for his planned business. He also knew that he could make the same business model work in a different part of Britain, where local conditions made it viable. All he needed was a partner to team up with in that area. Simple, yes? But Mark is a gentle, sensitive man who couldn’t conquer his fear of people saying “No” to him: it’s a very common problem. So what did Mark do about it? Well, he spent a few months quietly at home, wishing. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Nobody said “No” to Mark. But then again, everybody said “No”, too - because they hadn’t had the chance to say “Yes”. That’s the thing – failing to ask the question automatically generates “No” by default. If we are too scared, shy or embarrassed to ask the question, we automatically deprive everyone of their chance to say “Yes”, too. If the worst thing that someone could say to you is the word “No” you’d better get busy right away, collecting up all of your “No’s” and sweeping them out of the way to make room for when you hear “Yes!”. “No” is only a word, but the fear of “No” makes it so much bigger and scarier – just ask Mark! So start to see “No” as a successful result – because it is the result of you successfully asking the question. Go for No. No and Yes are one and the same thing. They each have the same value to a questioner, because the answer to your question is neutral and it is not about you. A question seeks to provide more data – “Yes” and “No” are equally valuable data. Extracting either response means that the question has been effective. As far as people go, the answer only tells you about the person answering the question, not about the person asking it. Either way, isn’t it better to find out? © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net |
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