happiness – Serenity Through Sweat

Wandering

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I was listening to the Huberman Lab podcast on meditation, and he referenced an interesting 2010 study out of Harvard that I thought was worth sharing.

“A wandering mind is an unhappy mind” by Matt Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert details their study into happiness and day dreaming.

This weekend I’ll be racing in the Gulf Coast Ironman 70.3 event, and I was particularly interested in this study and its interplay with endurance sports.

A quick stop in Murphy and a trail run at lake nottley before work

The Harvard based researchers designed a web app and recruited participants to self report their levels of happiness and what they were thinking about.

Participants were prompted to use the web app at randomly assigned times during their waking hours. They were asked what they were currently doing, how happy they were on a 0-100 sliding scale, and what they were thinking about with four options.

Participants could report thinking about; what they were doing currently, something else positive, something else neutral, or something else negative.

Taper week training run through the Bellevue botanical garden

Participants would be surveyed 1-3 times daily until they opted out, which resulted in a significant data set. The researchers made sure to vary their participants across age ranges (18-88), gender, countries, and occupation.

The results showed some interesting insights into the human mind and happiness. What participants were thinking about turned out to be a significantly better predictor of happiness than the activities themselves.

In other words, being present in the moment, thinking about what it is you are currently doing, will likely make you happier than letting your mind wander to something else, even something pleasant.

Taper week training on a multi day Seattle layover

“multilevel regression revealed that people were less happy when their minds were wandering than when they were not, and this was true during all activities including the least enjoyable. Although people’s minds were more likely to wander to pleasant topics (42.5% of samples) than to unpleasant topics (26.5% of samples) or neutral topics (31% of samples), people were no happier when thinking about pleasant topics than about their current activity, and were considerably unhappier when thinking about neutral topics or unpleasant topics than about their current activity (Fig. 1, bottom). Although negative moods are known to cause mind wandering, time-lag analyses strongly suggested that mind wandering in our sample was generally the cause, and not merely the consequence, of unhappiness.”

“In conclusion, a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”

Enduring anything is as much a mental/emotional battle as it is a physical one. While covering the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile half marathon, there will be plenty of time for my mind to wander.

Sometimes that mind wandering is helpful and even desired. There is a unique state of clarity and creativity that becomes available with extended physical exertion and an empty mind that is free to wander.

Other times it is important to center yourself on the task at hand, even if (or especially if), it is unpleasant. I’m reminded of the acid burn scene from fight club.

Edward Norton’s character wants to go to his cave and find his power animal. Brad Pitt’s character slaps him to bring him back to the present moment.

“This is your burning hand, it’s right here. Don’t deal with it like those dead people do, Come On! What you’re feeling is premature enlightenment. This is the greatest moment of your life and your off somewhere missing it.”

“A cognitive achievement with an emotional cost” is an extremely astute observation with some very powerful ramifications. Being able to dissociate from difficulty is a valuable survival mechanism. But being present, feeling that pain and difficulty, is the best way to learn. It is a tightrope walk for sure, but one worth walking.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Interconnected

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I’m wrapping up the last day of the 14 day mobility challenge from The Ready State working on the splits.

This is the fourth 14 day mobility challenge I have completed since last march. Each two week challenge focused on mobilizing the body into a specific archetypal position or working on an individual system. Prior challenges included squatting, arms overhead, feet and ankles, and the latest one, the splits.

Brute force 12 days off Christmas sandbag workout

I’m grateful for the well of knowledge that is available at the ready state and it seems like each position I try to mobilize, I find an interconnectedness that I didn’t know existed.

Having trouble getting in to a deep squat, it could be your ankles, or your low calf, or your hip capsule. Can’t get your arm overhead, check your lats, or your shoulder, or your oblique. Multiple muscle groups work together in complex movements, which means any of the several groups (or all of them) could be limiting factors.

The point is all of these body systems are interconnected and designed to work together. Dr. Kelly Starrett often says something to the effect of “let’s appreciate how these systems all work together for human function”

As someone who is constantly trying to improve my overall health and well-being, I’m always impressed when I find an interconnectedness I didn’t know about, and I can continue to make progress. It got me thinking about interconnectedness in other areas of my life.

The past year has brought on its own unique challenges and stressors. I know I am, and I would venture most of you are, quick to pick out the challenge or stressor that once removed would greatly improve life. Once the kids are in school, once I get that promotion, once I’m earning more money, once I have more free time. These are pretty common stressors and challenges that could be considered limiting factors to our mood.

Speedy helping out with my hamstring lockouts

More than anything the past year has taught me about the interconnectedness of my stress and emotions. The kids being at home, uncertainty on the job front, social isolation, these are all interconnected in affecting mental and emotional state of being.

Just like ankle dorsiflexion or impaired hip capsules, the stresses we encounter in everyday life are interconnected and limit our ability to get into healthy mental and emotional positions.

I try to spend a few minutes each morning and evening working on these limiting positions and systems, so that I can continue to move with a normal range of motion. As we move into a new year, I’m going to try to spend more time working on the mental and emotional limiting factors that are inhibitors to happiness.

El Duderino feeding his favorite animal at the zoo

Dr. Starrett is also fond of saying, “no one ever wins fitness”, it is a constant journey forward. I think our mental well-being and happiness are very similar. It isn’t a destination so much as a journey, and one that requires constant maintenance and attention. Just like those natural human movements, happiness is ours to regain and maintain if we are will to put in the work.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Quality Adjusted Life Year

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. With COVID-19 numbers flaring up in many places around the country, a return to “normal” still seems a ways off. As we all adjust to a new “normal” I wanted to dig in to Quality of life or QOL and Quality Adjusted Life Years or QALY.

Quality of life is a term that gets kicked around they pilot group a lot. It is an extremely broad reaching term with very individualized metrics. I’m it’s most simplistic terms, QOL is the standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group.

Up close and personal with “scoopy” the excavator on our morning run.

Qualify adjusted life year is an economic term. It is used to quantify disease and treatment in terms of both quantity and quality of life saved. QALY gives us a metric by which we can evaluate decisions about our health and well being for the future.

The two terms have some common ground, but the differences are important. For example QALY is measured on a scale from 0-1. 0 being dead, and 1 being a single year of perfect health. Quality of life on the other hand, encompasses not only health, but happiness and comfort. In other words, you could have a perfect quality adjusted life year (healthy) with lack luster quality of life (stressed, grieving, generally unhappy, etc…)

Covid-19, brings with it some pretty drastic negative consequences, but it also gives us a unique opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t have ever materialized for most of us. The opportunity to completely rewrite our daily routines from scratch while reevaluating our priorities in order to maximize our QOL and our QALYs.

It is easier said than done, and change is never easy especially in times of great uncertainty. The first step is to identify priorities, and realign around them. Ideal QOL is going to look different for everyone because there is no one size fits all for things like happiness and comfort, but health and general well-being is pretty universal. (And a favorite taking point of this particular blog)

Speedy starting to interact more

Personally, uncertainty around my job status as Covid-19 continues to ravage the travel sector, has thrown my stress levels out of whack. But sleep, diet and exercise (with the exception of a new baby) are largely within my control.

My pre Covid routine included a lot of Jiu Jitsu, but that isn’t an option for me and my family right now. Instead I’ve leaned in to what I do have available, kettlebells, sandbags, running shoes and a jogging stroller. Since I do most of the cooking in the house I can prioritize fresh produce and balanced home cooked meals (most of which are even toddler approved). On the sleep side, Speedy has started to put together reliable seven hour stretches giving me wife and I a chance to recharge.

A hot Monday afternoon run during the kid’s naptime. FL summer is here.

How much of our pre Covid routine was helping us live a better QOL and have more QALYs? How much of it was adding stress, reducing sleep, limiting options for healthy habits in diet and exercise? I would wager the average American routine pre Covid was way out of balance in those four key factors (stress, sleep, diet, and exercise).

This is a complex issue, and everyone’s situation is different. If you find yourself working multiple jobs to put a roof over your head and food on the table, there are natural challenges to prioritizing well-being. However, a lot of us have significant down time around a 40 hour work week, and even more if we find ourselves working from home when we used to commute, or are working reduced hours.

As a fitness enthusiast I want to always be in shape for whatever challenge may come. As a father of two young boys I want to have as many QALYs as I can, where I can not only be there with them, but push them mentally and physically. As a pilot who has to leave his family behind on a regular basis I’m constantly adjusting to family needs to balance work with QOL.

First layover run in a long time and I couldn’t have agreed for a better day

Your priorities, your ideas on wellness, happiness, and comfort, can be realigned at any time, and there is no time like the present. There is always room for better choices, better QOL, more QALYs, and some SerenityThroughSweat.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.