It's not all heart failure and death-obsession here. I went for a walk this morning, from a little before 7 a.m. to a little after 9 a.m.—just my usual route, about 9K, out to the Han River and back. It was -10ºC, with the weather service suggesting that the felt temperature was -18ºC (about -0.4ºF).
This walk was part of a larger program that I'm engaged in during my period of unemployment. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I engage in staircase work plus various exercises for what the French call l'haltérophilie, or weightlifting (from haltère, or dumbbell, so "dumbbellophilia," I guess). On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I go distance walking and work on correcting my posture, especially my awful neck hump, which developed after years of slouching in front of various monitors. I'm also finally back to meditating; it's the first thing I do after waking up, and now that I have the pad-cushion combo (pad/좌복/坐服/juabok, cushion/방석/方席/bangseok; Jpn. zabuton/座布団/pad, zafu/座蒲/cushion) you find in many Korean Seon (Zen) temples, I can feel a bit more legit while engaged in just sitting. Meditation is going to be an everyday discipline; walking, weight/bodyweight training, and posture are every-other-day endeavors.
I've also scheduled out my days to include time for self-education via Skillshare, work on my various book projects (one at a time), cleaning my small studio, learning Spanish for the Camino walk, blogging time, and—of course—me time. I'm still trying to get my body used to waking up at 5 a.m.; the thing I really need to improve is when I go to bed and get to sleep. Somehow, it's easier to follow an early-morning schedule when I'm out on the road and have nothing else to do but walk for eight or nine hours. Here in the city, with all of the urban distractions and my natural tendency toward laziness, concentration is a lot harder. Hence the return to meditation.
Anyway, I'm happily surprised that life now seems to be more orderly—not to mention busier—than when I was gainfully employed. Assuming I get a GoPro along with the other equipment I need as I continue to learn new skills, I can start cranking out videos of my humble achievements, which ought to improve over time if I keep this up. So stay tuned.
Good luck Kevin! Sounds like a great start!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andy. I saw your almost-duplicate comment, so I know this is you.
DeleteWelcome to the bliss of routines in retired life! But seriously, it sounds like a productive and enriching plan to fill the hours in a meaningful and healthy way. And you'll get used to being an early riser. I love the quiet morning hours. I worry that you will love this new life so much that you'll never want to work again. Maybe your videos will be so good that they generate enough YouTube income, and you'll never have to go back to an office job!
ReplyDeleteDid I miss the death obsession? Anyway, glad to hear you're making productive use of your time. Or perhaps that's not the best way to put it, what with modern society's obsession with productivity at all costs. Shall I say instead that it sounds like you are living mindfully?
ReplyDeleteDeath obsession: I'm doing what I can to keep it off the blog, but I've left little remarks here and there along the lines of "if I make it to 60" or "if I live through the year" or "if I survive this," etc. Everything feels like borrowed time now. Maybe that's what "concentrates the mind wonderfully" and is moving me back to meditating. I'll see, in a few weeks, whether I've really become a regular meditator, something I've never been before.
DeleteRight. I always thought of those remarks as "awareness of human mortality" as opposed to an obsession with death. Whatever it takes to motivate you, though.
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