Morning Walk: A Surprising Blessing

The Morning Walk Miracle: A Personal Journey

I am not a morning person, ok? My favourite when I was younger was to sleep till noon on weekend. I used to be proud of that. I am not that bad now as I changed to biphasic sleep and I always have a thousand and one projects going on so getting up early became a necessity. But my morning starts with checking my email, not walking and all. If you'd told me a few months ago that I'd become one of "those" people, I'd have laughed in your face. But here we are. 

My Forced Start

I started a half an hour walk everyday on doctor's advice as it can help manage blood pressure but I chose lunch time for not morning. Then on my friend's advice, I moved it to morning. I was already getting up early so I was willing to sacrifice my email checking and other projects time for the walk and shift them to lunch time. 

Honestly, I had not expect such a huge difference between lunch time walk and morning walk. It was easy to brush my teeth and get out rather than turn on the computer, but the difference in the feeling, and the outcome in the day, that was remarkable! 

The Quiet Calm

The first thing that struck me was the tranquillity - fewer cars on the road, fewer people around, not much noise from the shops and people, a huge difference that felt very...well, tranquil. Even though I followed the same route, it felt so much different. In a good way. 

Unexpected Benefits

Once I started, it became easier to keep doing it. Rather than it becoming a morning chore it became something I look forward to. It gives my day a great start. I would keep doing it just for the mental clarity. The sense of accomplishment that I get from this is also something I like. I find it easier to focus at work, I am not giving that credit to the morning but, well, I haven't changed anything else. I feel less stressed by getting a few things out of the, the morning walk, followed by pranayam, and then shower. By the time I make breakfast I am feeling like Bond. 

Beauty of Nature

I am lucky that my area is very nice and it is summer. I come across many front gardens, pretty trees and green fields. This will change in winter but there will the fall colours, and other things to enjoy, I am sure. 

Health Perks

I also started to notice some physical benefits. My energy levels are up, and I feel fitter. It was quite a dramatic transformation, that made me feel good about myself. Starting my day with a bit of exercise gives me a smug sense of accomplishment that’s hard to beat. I also noticed that it helped in my stamina for dancing (another story, another time), I don't get tired so easily, my knees don't hurt, and the soles of my feet are not sore. I have not gone for a trip since I started this but I think it will help me wander around a new city as well. 

A Personal Reflection

Although, I myself have hated this advice anytime anyone has suggested it before, still I m daring to give you this advice - try it! 

Give It a Go

I’m not asking you to commit to anything drastic. Just try one. Maybe tomorrow, or the next time you have an hour to spare in the morning, try a small walk - twenty to thirty minutes. Then feel the difference. Who knows, you might want to carry on. 

The Artist's Growth

Once upon a time, in a village in India lived a poor artist who used to make idols of Hindu gods and sell them in the daily marked in the neighbouring village.

In due course, this poor artist had a son. As the son grew up he watched his father make those idols, and he got interested. The son also started making the idols under the guidance of his father. Then one day the father took the son with him to the market with his idols. The idol made by the son sold for Re. 0.25. He was really happy. The artist's own idols sold for Re 2.00 each.

The young son made more idols, and his father pointed out the flaws in them and urged his son to do better. The son did do better and his idols started to sell for more - first 50p, then 75p and then a whole Rupee.

There came a day when the son sold his first idol at Re. 2 alongside his father. He was ecstatic. The father was very proud of his son. But he never stopped criticising his son's work.

Slowly the son's work started to surpass his father's. His idols would sell for Re. 3 while the father's idols still sold for Re.2. 00. He still criticised the son's work every day.

One day the son flared up "My idols sell for more than yours. How come you still criticise my work?"

The father took a deep breath "Son, I also used to be like you, my idols used to tell for 10p and slowly I got to where I could sell them for 2 rupees each. But once I became proud of my work, I never got better than that. I stopped at 2 Rs. and I don't want you to stop like I did."

Moral: There never comes a time when you can stop learning and growing.

I am going biphasic!

Before I am accused of trying to confuse my public, let me give you some basic information. Here is the link where I started:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/health-fitness/1638-switching-biphasic-sleeping-start-here-3.html

In simple words, it’s a way of taking your daily sleep in 2 instalments instead of one big chunk. First part is a small nap of about 1.5 hours and then a core sleep of about 4.5 hours a few hours later. I had read about Polyphasic sleep before, the kind of Leonardo da Vinci is supposed to have used, where you take a 30 minute nap every 6 hours, sleeping only 2 hours in a 24 hour day. For obvious reasons that’s not possible for me to try when I am working, but I just found this biphasic stuff from this blog:
http://caloyelboy.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-biphasic-sleeping.html

and decided to try it.

So, I am going to try it tonight.

Now, I know the big question in your mind is “why”?

There are many reasons, one of them being just to try something new and unorthodox, but there are 3 main, important reasons.

1. Get extra time. Recently, I started working full-time again, and going from having all 24 hours at my disposal to having only 3-4 hours to do everything I want to do is very hard. All my projects I started in Second Life during my Idle period are suffering, and as I tried to catch up with them, my guitar was left forgotten. I can’t allow that to happen.This is one of the straegies to get some extra time and use it to work on all my crap.

2. Quality of sleep. I have been noticing it for a long time now that I don’t sleep that soundly as I used to. In my “youth” I have literally slept through earthquakes and hurricanes. But these days I don't sleep so well even if I am extremely tired.

One time I thought this was because of my over-involvement in my digital life and my brain is focused there. Maybe so. So, I turned off both my laptops, including the media laptop that's connected to the TV, turned off the TV instead of on screen-saver as I usually do, put the primary laptop in a corner instead of on my bed and went to bed. It was eerily silent in the room and dark, without the HDD LEDs and the laptop fans, but the sleep was no better.

Recently, it's been becoming a pattern to sleep about 6 PM on the Friday afternoon and sleep till 7 am on Saturday to catch up with the lack of sleep during the week, even though I get up about 6-7 hours a night. I love sleep, I really do, but 13 hours out of my 24 hours is a bit much. I do have things I want to accomplish.

So, this might help with that.

3. More energy, better well-being. People who have tried this have reported much better energy levels throughout the day starting from the morning. I feel tired and sleepy in the afternoons regardless of the number of hours slept.

My plan is to have the nap somewhere between 7.00 and 9.00 PM and the core sleep from 1.00 am to 5.30 am. If I get up that early in the morning, I will consider walking to the station to catch the train for work. One reason I take a taxi now is that the 1.5 miles, uphill walk in the cold costs about 25 minutes of my day and I don't have that much to spare right now. If the sleep works and I have the time and the energy I will try walking to the station at least on the days when it's not raining.

One side-effect of that will be I'd save some money on the taxi fare.

With the extra time on my hands, esp. in the late night hours, I will be able to do some nice work. I have been meaning to write more lately. And of course, blog more. There are also some new areas of hobby/self-improvement that I want to get into. This might give me time for that
So, the plan is to start tonight since it's Friday and the next 2 days are more or less my own. I plan to take the nap from 7Pm to 8.30 PM tonight, then core sleep from 1.00 am to 5.30 am.

I will try to keep a log, maybe on here. Watch this space..

The first couple of weeks are supposed to be hard on the body while it adapts, so wish me luck!