Yesterday was a "casual training/rest" day. I went for a walk, but wanted to do something a bit more and noticed someone posting Express Tone. I'm sorry I don't remember who because I thought I'd try day 1 and enjoyed, so I'm going to continue on through - an add-on programme should be fine.

Day 3 of meditation.

Got some stuff done.

Didn't get some other stuff done.

You know. Usual.

On we go. x

PS: I've seen some bits and pieces on the vagus nerve and polyvagal theory. Again, it's something I may have discussed with someone here and now can't remember it - sorry! The short version of this is that I'm wary of pseudoscience stuff and over-claiming and wary of the fact that I find these theories superficially appealing (which I do, and I know there is some science there - I have a particular worry about evolutionary biology/psychology) but if anyone who is better informed scientifically than me or good with sources has any input on this I'd be interested to hear it. Maybe I'll do a post on the forum looking for info.

For information, this is the video I saw yesterday that got me thinking about this again:

Just an on the bus on my way back response, whenever I come across something suspicious looking but appealing, I check an actual science website, find a good amount of articles to get a basic clue and if it looks legit, keep on searching.
I'll look more thoroughly later but I hope I got your meaning. If not, I'm sorry.

Thank you, GF, you have completely got my meaning. Please only dig around if it is something you have spare time and energy for and it feels useful. I was outsourcing my own research!

This has reminded me of what I found in the first place, which was this article, which I posted to the Meditation forum - equal breathing being a regular part of Darebee's meditation challenges.

https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/i-now...ell-being.html

So, I'm pretty sure there's somthing there, just wary of things that get reported in this One Simple Trick To way.

In truth, I would also like to find some other techniques to try - beyond the equal breathing - but want to know they're legit before getting too involved!

I am currently procrastinating searching for stuff on the vagus nerve but just off the top of my head, the guy in the video in kind of whining... also I'm still in a bit of a bad mood so my tolerance towards some presentation approaches may be suffering for no real reason. Why haven't we learned about "how our brains works at school"? Probably because neuro-scientists are just scraping the surface of how the brain works. Trigonometry on the other hand is solid and in an increasingly digitized world (and that's coming from geography) it's getting even more important. What schools should teach is how to think for yourself, how to research and how to understand what humanity already knows and how to question it in a logical, non-conspiracy way. You definitely need math for that, in my opinion. I just needed to get this off my chest. Will be back (unless you don't want me to... just say so).

PS: tomorrow is Max Planck's birthday.

the claim that social media makes you feel bad to make money is really not new to me so I can't really comment on that, I blindly agree. It didn't start with social media, the global news companies and newspaper, long before fb and twtr, have used it to pull people into their different shows and even top of the hour updates.

And after watching the whole thing... I really wish I used mute and close captions - oh my gods, small and medium sized (gods), his voice and manner are sooo annoying.
On a personal note, society will never fit everyone and to claim that it will is dangerous - humans are an adaptive species. It adapts to climate, food, fewer or more (or waaaayyy more) humans in a given space or around them... each person has to be different so some humans in a given time may seem completely nuts but they are crucial to society because they help (eventually) groups to adapt to changes (or they become so irrelevant that nobody cares). I know I'm not making myself very clear here - these are stuff I often think about and sometimes read about without getting too much into and without developing them with other human beings because I have an anxious personality and a discussion can turn very quickly into an argument and then my flight or flight response kicks in when there's no call for it really so vagal shutdown.
I found a few articles in Hebrew and they do source English researches and articles but I haven't got to those yet. The nervous system is still being studied and new discoveries are made so feel free to read on and experiment on yourself Colin , for the time being. Yes that's very ambiguous and deprived of any personal responsibility but Low mood and a need to comment fast are playing with me here. Feel free to tear my approach a new one.

lol

You're fine thanks GF, please carry on!

Updates to my former comment... above

Too many people don't learn to think for themselves and it's frustrating.

Maybe you can give this a try
https://www.coursera.org/learn/medical-neuroscience
If you are very into learning about the nervous system. It looks like it might be relevant.

Thank you, GF. I have got quite interested in this stuff - first of all through looking into addiction, then recovery things that reference neuroscience (meditation for example). I'll take a look at Coursera - I think I've used them for a music thing before.

A couple of lovely sunny days here. In fact, we're short of rain in the allotment and have to water seedlings, which isn't typical for a Welsh spring - there's no rain forecast until May.

I've continued on with the Fighter programme and with Express tone and remain on track with both. Also with the meditation adventure - on a beach yesterday.

This was my strength workout along with Day 3 of Express tone yesterday.



We walked in the park on Thursday morning. The blossom has come out and I'm far enough away from the camera to make this acceptable to share!

Actual blossom this time!

They have music things. Great pictures, lovely trees.

Thanks GF. Yes, I did a song-writing course via them. It was really good fun.

Beautiful pictures!

Thank you for the photos!

Awesome pictures! Thank you for sharing!