Thought Provoking Views On Self Help: dancePROOF

“Imagine Being Born Before YOUR Technology” ~ Kevin Kelly

Arsene Hodali — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:01:58 +0000

Kevin Kelly puts forth amazing (and if you really think about it- terrifying) concepts on how technology evolves, how it doesn’t die, and how it affects you as it is a medium of expression (ex. imagine Mozart being born before the piano was invented). If you want to REALLY think, watch it. If you don’t…

What’s Your Type?

Body Noise — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:01:50 +0000

photo credit: juhansonin

It’s really easy for you to lay out what your type is based on appearance. He should be taller than you, she should be shorter than you, you like light or dark hair, light or dark skin, a certain type of clothes, and you have your perfect date.

You can also figure out your type by class, culture or status. But that’s mainly based on your own community since you’d never get the chance to really meet anyone outside your field of comfort (unless you’re daring enough to enter online dating).

Fact is, you don’t really have much of a choice in terms of what your type is in a social perspective.

But when you lay down what you want (or don’t want) in terms of someone’s personality, you find that your type doesn’t necessarily stick with you with each person you meet. For example, I hate people that want everything in a specific way. Anal people are no fun, and I’d never see myself with one. But while I’m with someone now, I see that I appreciate people that make decisions and do things with a logical approach. If I’m with someone else who is easy-going and goes with the flow, I realize that nothing ends up happening because we’re both waiting for someone to make the first move.

What I’m trying to say is what you think you want might not be what you actually want. Creating a list of all the things you expect only pushs you away from actually obtaining it.

Determining a favourite “type” is the same thing as determining one type of food to eat for the rest of your life.

Can you live like that?

You could. But only if you never plan on experiencing anything more than that. But why would you want to limit yourself when everyone else has the opportunity to explore. It’s true what they say, opposites attract. Stop trying to be in control of your fate and let your heart go.

“The Tribes We Lead” ~ Seth Godin

Arsene Hodali — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:01:24 +0000

Seth Godin talks about challenging the status quo, how you can lead people, and how you can tap into the power of groups (tribes) to actually change the world…. Sounds pretty amazing right?

My Weird Way Of Listening To Music

Arsene Hodali — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:01:46 +0000

photo credit: Orange_Beard

I’m a music lover. Scratch that, a music freak.

For example, my iTunes reads as so:

12506 songs
33.2 days of listening
69.73 GB of space

On top of that, they’re all properly organized by their corresponding albums, artist, genres, etc…. with over 90% of them having covers.

As I said, I’m a music freak.

Music is my drug; But I didn’t always see it that way.

I used to listen to music like a normal person; all throughout the day. While working, exercising, on the subway, etc. But then after a while I realized that I never actually got much done compared to those rare times when I did all these things without music. Contrary to what people believe, music does not help you work better, especially if you’re a guy (our minds are less made for multi-tasking that those of women).

When I got to the point where I was choosing music over getting work done, I knew something had to change. And so I, being weird (and the productivity freak that I am), decided to do something… drastic. I would only listen to a max of 1.5 hours of music per day.

Yup, you heard me right, only one and a half hours of music per day. If you can’t tell, this is a drastic move from a 24 hour music schedule.

You know that saying, “restrictions beget creativity” Well, it’s true. My 1.5 hour music restriction is probably one of the best things I’ve ever accidentally stumbled upon.

So, I’m here to reveal it. I don’t have some depraved notion that you people will actually change your whole music experience to match that of mine. I’m just writing this to let y’all experiment as I did, and see for yourselves if it does, in fact, improve your relation with music as it did me.

My ‘system’ of listening to music only has two notions behind it:

Try as hard as you can to not listen to music outside the restricted time zones.
Treat music as a form of meditation.

I’ll go into detail.

Designated music periods & music as meditation.

My designated time zones for listen to music are:

An hour right before I sleep.
30 minutes after I wake up.

I chose those times because they’re centred around sleep, and signify the end and beginning of the day.

I listen to music for an hour at the end of the day as a way to relieve the stress of the day off myself right before I sleep. I usually use this time to listen to songs I’ve never heard before, nothing familiar to me. This is key, because it allows me to explore new music and reach outside my comfort zone. And then in the morning I use the 30 minutes to listen to music I already know and love; it starts off my day on a positive note.

I make it a rule to never listen to music outside these times due to one thing; deprivation betters the experience.

By depriving myself of all music outside these times I cherish the little time I do have with music that much more. Compare it to fasting, if you will.

This is actually the hardest thing to do. For one, I dance for a living. So I can’t really deprive myself of music during practice and performances. It’s a necessary. And secondly, the world doesn’t care that I don’t want to listen to music. Really, it doesn’t. Try to go shopping without hearing music, try to sit in a friend’s car without them turning on the radio or their iPod on blast, and try to do anything downtown without hearing music blasting from one place or the other.

The world loves music, and it doesn’t care that you don’t desire music at that specific time.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a day where I’ve not heard music outside my designated periods. But, I’m not mad about it. For me, the general point is to control what I can control. I can control myself listening to music on my iPhone, I can’t control the grocery store deciding to play 60s music. I can control the ambient music I listen to by putting on my noise-cancelling earphones and listening to an audiobook. I can’t control the fact that I’ll constantly hear music during practice, and when I’m with friends.

I control what I can, I leave what I must.

The idea is to not listen to music by my own doing.

And when I do listen to music, I’m fully into the music. I don’t meditate, or practice yoga. For me my meditating happens in those 1.5 hours of music time. The one hour at the end of the day allows me to calm down, relax, and prepare for sleep. And the 30 minutes after I wake up allows me to shake of that “I just woke up” haze peacefully, setting the foundation for the rest of the day.

And while listening to music, I do nothing else. Really. I don’t multi-task while listening to music (I’m meditating after-all). I usually lay on a flat surface and close my eyes during these times (usually on my bed). By doing so I’m able to fully focus on the music. I focus on the words more, the beat more, the flow more… in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced music better than when I’ve had my eyes closed while laying on a flat-surface (this is only true if you rule out ‘drugs’. If you enter marijuana into the equation, things get much more interesting).

What has this done for me?

The main thing I’ve gained from this whole experience is a deeper appreciation for the artist, and the loss of “have I listened to this before” syndrome.

There’s so many little details that an artist puts into their music that you’ll never comprehend until you fully focus on it. Such as the fact that an album is an album for a reason. The order of the tracks actually mean something people! The whole album is in itself one big adventure (that’s why the majority of my songs are full albums).

On top of finding these ‘hidden gems’, I’ve also realized that I never ask myself whether I’ve listened to a song before (I used to do this all the time). I instantly recognize a song I’ve heard before every-time now (thanks to me being fully in the moment while I was listening to it).

And all of this happens in 1.5 hours of the day.

Which allows me to think even better during the day. I never realized that I wasn’t thinking as well as I could until I eliminated music. My comprehension rate increased, my reading speed increased, my creativity increased, etc.

I say this is due to my having split heart and mind. See, music is heart, it touchs your soul, moves you, and leaves you changed. And if you leave heart out of the matters of the mind, you’re able to reach new thresholds, new ideas (whether they be good or bad).

So, all-in-all, I’m weird when it comes to my music. But my weirdness is worth it.

I’ve found a way to increase my experiences of both my time with, and without music.

Which satisfies me just fine.

“Story of Stuff; How Things Work” ~ Annie Leonard

Arsene Hodali — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:01:05 +0000

The “Story of Stuff” is pretty long for those of you who are “skimmers” ( it’s 20 minutes long). However, it’s truly worth it. It exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Are You Compatible?

Body Noise — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:01:12 +0000

photo credit: nicksarebi

My faith in horoscopes is extremely unstable. When I was young, I never thought anything of it, and then I grew up and suddenly horoscopes became an obsession. I pre-determined the outcome of all my relationships by analyzing the compatibility among our horoscopes. Silly, isn’t it? We all need some type of judgment system to answer all the mysteries behind a failed relationship, and horoscopes are the best go-to source.

Horoscopes have been around since before anyone can remember. If they weren’t called horoscopes, they had a different name before. They’ve always existed as a sign to show you how you work in relation with others. It’s an important thing to study, but sometimes it gets the best of us.

As a Scorpio, my best mate would be a Pisces, which consequently my best friend happens to be. But I’ve never found a Pisces lover, and every time a relationship failed, I would say to myself, “It’s okay. It wasn’t going to work out anyway, he wasn’t a Pisces.” And to this day, I still haven’t found my soul-mate as determined from the stars.

Instead, I’ve met someone who I clash with, whom I apparently have a lame sex life with, and whom I plain don’t get along with as my new-found lover. At first I was hesitant, because I remember thinking that all my best lovers were in fact zodiac that I got along with and had chemical romance with. But I think we’re missing one thing – if something doesn’t work, it’s human nature for you to try harder until it does work.

I think the “letting it flow” gig is done.

It’s not about marrying your best friend anymore.

It’s about being determined in making something out of what you have now and devoting yourself into maintaining a relationship with someone, no matter what costs involved.

Once you get through that, compatibility and the zodiac just disappear. I haven’t seen a horoscope in months and I guess it’s because I’ve stopped searching for a reason for failure. In my current relationship, the zodiac says I’m bound to fail so I know what to expect from our horoscopes. But I don’t know what to expect between us, and that’s the fundamental difference.

I say we quit searching for answers and start asking questions all over again. What’s the real reason to you doing X to get to Y? If you have anything to say, you’re one step ahead of the game.

“How Great Leaders Inspire Action” ~ Simon Sinek

Arsene Hodali — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:01:02 +0000

Simon Sinek talks about why some people inspire, and why they do things better/first (Wright brothers, Martin Luther King Jr., Apple, etc.).

No related posts.

“A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success”~ Alain de Botton

Arsene Hodali — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:01:49 +0000

A great (humorous) speech on success, our society, self help, self esteem, failure, and a whole lot of other things. Watch it. Learn. Enjoy.

“Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” ~ Dan Pink

Arsene Hodali — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:01:16 +0000

Dan Pink’s talk on the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

How to Deal with Sweaty Dates

Body Noise — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:01:38 +0000

If you’re on dancePROOF you better be serious about dance! And as a dancer you should know how much you can sweat in just an hour. You should know above all how gross it is to meet someone with sweat stains and drenched in hot heat. It’s nasty and it turns us off. So I’ve got some tips to deal.

Take a shower together!

No one will say no to some wet, and clean foreplay. This way you both can avoid talking about who stinks… literally. This is an awesome way to ditch an awkward conversation and still be happy to continue the evening.

Have a water balloon fight or hit a pool.

Get wet during your date to save your nose from a smelly night. This cools you both off and you might find hotter ways to dry off.

What if you’re the one rushing out of the gym with no time to freshen up? Stay in.

No matter what, don’t let yourself walk in public with that frizzy hair and sweat-stained top. Propose a movie and dinner at home and you might get to be a little more romantic after your date adjusts to your scent. Or even better, you might get some time to take a quick shower if your date is meeting you at your place.

No matter how comfortable you may be in your relationship, telling someone he “stinks” is going to hurt. Unless you both left from the same gym and are drenched from head to toe, usually one person is going to be more put together than the other.

Avoid making things feel worse than they actually are.

We all have those days where we forget to put on deodorant. Don’t let it ruin your potential at sharing a possible relationship with someone.