What’s up RoL’ers! Welcome to the episode notes for episode 18. I felt the picture of where the wild things are is a perfect representation of self-care and escapism. Max the young boy takes some time to work through his problems in an imagined world, the epitome of escapism. While there you get the sense that he has lost control and has slipped too deep into escapism, instead of a tool it has become a place he cannot escape. Until finally, Max works out his issues, returns home, and appears to have a much healthier relationship with his mother as he has dealt with the emotions he was feeling. That’s a great deal o what we were talking about in this episode; working on your own self-care, whatever that looks like, but remembering to not get carried away in your own comfort.

We start off with a few tips on how to manage your own self-care. We break down self-care into three categories; taking care of the Mind, Body, and Soul.

• Mind
  • De-clutter
    • It’s easier to focus on the tasks you need to complete when you are in a clean and organized space. You also won’t be able to use cleaning as a distraction from doing the work you need to get done.
  • Be selfish 
    • Set boundaries for yourself. Whether you need boundaries when it comes to social life, picking up extra responsibilities, or managing your time in a way that makes you feel good, it’s important to put those in place so you feel you are in control of your life.
  • Compliment yourself
    • We often only point out our own faults when looking at the work we have done. Remember to be positive and point out what you did well.
    • Write them down, make them concrete.
  • Do that one thing that has been sitting on your to-do list for a while
    • Cross off the daunting tasks you have been avoiding.
• Body
  • Keep Moving
    • We both enjoy dancing as a fun way to keep moving but we both have our own physical outlets as well. I enjoy hiking often and Taylor practices Yoga.
  • Breathe deep
    • Remembering to breathe is important. The breath is part of the body that people don’t always remember to gain control of and can change your entire outlook on a situation.
  • Get to know yourself intimately
    • Seriously. Go play with yourself (in the privacy of your own home) and make it special.
  • Get some scented candles or good smelling things
  • Get some sun or go find a green space to enjoy for a few minutes
    • It’s important to get vitamin D in your system. Especially in spring after the winter sun-hiatus.
• Soul
  • Help someone
  • FEEL your emotions don’t try to change how you feel experience the feeling. Check in with how you feel periodically.
  • Pet an animal (I prefer dogs)
  • Go on vacation or even a staycation
  • Meditate
    • Meditation is one of those practices that encompasses all three aspects. Check out previous Episode Notes for some links to different types of meditation.

If you’re thinking why is self-care so important? Or Where can I find more ways to work on my own self-care? Check out these links: Why Self-Care Is Important, More.

Now on to the other end of the spectrum, when giving yourself some time to have fun and feel good turns into something that hurts you.

“Escapism is the avoidance of unpleasant, boring, arduous, scary, or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness.” – Wikipedia

Stages of escapism

When escapism is ok:

• Escapism can be a good thing in moderation, take some time to escape out of your stressful day-to-day life.
  • We’ve spoken about taking time for yourself and having fun, going on artist dates, playing video games etc.

What to watch out for:

• Escapism can become a tool for avoidance
  • Instead of working you procrastinate by doing whatever activity you find fun or enjoyable. Maybe even using self-care as an excuse but more of an excess than you really need.
• Escapism can turn into slowly neglecting the real world and your responsibilities
  • It can start small with hygiene, dietary needs, or the continuous clutter of your surroundings. Manifesting into skipping responsibilities giving excuses.
• Escapism can become an addiction and obsession
  • Nothing else matters but your form of escapism be it drugs, video games, food, etc.

If you’re thinking that many of these negative aspects of escapism sound like warning signs of depression you could be right. It has been suggested that people involved in extreme forms of escapism are more likely to be depressed. Check out this journal article on Pathological Gaming. If you’d like to read some more about escapism check out this LifeHacker article.

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for! Our Artist of the Week!

Kyle Miller – TGT Studios

Www.tgt-Studios.com

Twitter/IG: @tgtstudios

Go check out his work, ask him questions, send him some love.

Good morning RoL’ers I hope you are having an amazing week full of positive vibes and self-exploration.  This week Taylor and I spoke about the current events in cannabis culture and a recent event in our own lives. We recorded this on St. Patricks day, so Happy Belated St. Patricks day!! If you haven’t listened to the episode you can do so here.

If you live in Canada you’ve probably heard of Mark Emery. If not, Mark Emery is the “Prince of Pot” and leader of the BC Marijuana Party, a minor political party in the province of BC advocating for the legalization of marijuana. On March 8th Marc and his wife Jodie were arrested in Toronto and their stores, Cannabis Culture, located across Canada, were raided. If you’d like to know a little more about what happened I’ve found a few news articles. Vancourier Vancouversun CBC

Taylor and I began to talk about the laws around marijuana and the implications of Emery’s arrest. The Prime Minister of Canada has promised to legalize marijuana. The rumors going around have been that this will occur on April 20th (420, we also mention the Vancouver 420 festival) this year. However, if you read the final few paragraphs of this article (I’m not entirely convinced of the credibility of this news source) talking about Emery’s arrest you’ll see that it may not be possible until next year.

Another substance that has been gaining popularity in many groups within today’s society including formal researchers, tech companies, artists, wellbeing gurus, and general psychonauts is LSD. Researchers are finding possible health benefits for LSD (which you can find in the few article citations at the bottom of the page) creating a resurgence of interest in the drug in the wellness guru and psychonaut community. A surprising community to be taking on the stigma of LSD users is the Tech community, specifically the tech community in Silicon Valley where it has been noted that many individuals are using LSD for its positive effects when used in micro doses 1/10th the size of a regular hallucinogenic dose. James Fadiman is seen as the forefather and lead researcher in the microdosing community and I believe still accepts emails with testimonials and self-reported microdosing data (there is a criterion to follow you can find a link to instructions on his website). He’s also written a book on haveing safe, therapeutic and sacred journeys. If you’d like to know a little more about the benefits of Microdosing you can listen to the podcast or check out these awesome links where people tell their stories of how it went for them.

• Thirdwave – “Ultimate guide to microdosing LSD”
• Reddit – 5 months of microdosing report and long term effects
• Vice – My Week of Microdosing on Acid Was a Failed Test in Self Control
• TheHustle – 30 Days of LSD Microdosing Part 1: Buying LSD Online
• TheHustle – Microdosing: I Spent 14 Days Using LSD to Increase Productivity… Kind Of
• TheHustle – Silicon Valley Tech Workers Are Taking LSD to Increase Productivity

For the more avid readers

• A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life – Ayelet Waldman

Dolder, P.C., Schmid, Y., Steuer, A.E. et al. (2017). Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide in Healthy Subjects Clin Pharmacokinet.  doi:10.1007/s40262-017-0513-9

Liechti, M.E., Dolder, P.C. & Schmid, Y.  (2016).Alterations of consciousness and mystical-type experiences after acute LSD in humans. Psychopharmacology. doi:10.1007/s00213-016-4453-0

Episode 9 is one of my favorite subjects! This week we spoke about what people call getting in the zone, riding the wave, or a flow state. The criteria below comes from a book I read while in a class on Consciousness and rewritten by me for a project that I mention in the episode.

Criteria for experiencing flow and the elements of enjoyment as stated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi from his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Flow: The feeling of being completely in control of our actions, accompanied by a sense of exhilaration, and a deep sense of enjoyment. This is cherished and used as a landmark in memory for what life should be like; a feeling of a harmoniously ordered consciousness in the pursuit of an activity for its own sake.

• A challenging activity that requires skill
  • Goal-directed and bounded by rules.
  • Activities that require psychic energy.
  • That could not be done without the appropriate skills.
  • Not necessarily a physical activity.
  • “The golden ratio between challenges and skills”
• The merging of action and awareness
  • A person’s relevant skills are needed to cope with the challenges of a situation.
  • The person’s attentions is completely absorbed by the activity.
  • All attention is focused on the stimuli.
  • A merging of self and action, no longer feel you are making decisions rather you are reacting with an innate intuition that does not require a thought process.
  • Although feeling effortless it is in fact, a use of strenuous physical exertion or highly disciplined mental activity which does not happen without the application of skilled performance.
• Clear goals and feedback
  • Goals are clearly defined, may not be defined in an operational sense more an intrinsic self-defined set of goals that are felt to be accomplished at a certain point.
  • Feedback is immediate or reasonably attainable each type of flow activity has a feedback format.
  • The goals are not trivial, they require effort to accomplish.
• Concentration on the task at hand
  • During the activity, one forgets all other aspects of life.
  • Ability to forget the responsibilities and unpleasantries of life.
  • A by-product of the fact that the activities require complete mental and physical focus leaving no room in the mind for irrelevant information.
• The paradox of control
  • Having a lack of the sense of worry or of losing control.
  • Thus feeling completely in control of the situation.
  • An addictive property of flow that can create a problem when people focus solely on a single activity that brings them the feeling of flow, making a person focused on a certain kind of order with an inability to cope with life’s randomness.
• The loss of Self-Consciousness
  • As a thoroughly engrossing activity, the feeling of self-awareness merges with activity in which activities no longer require active conscious thought just the reaction to stimuli through practiced response.
  • The loss of self is often replaced by a feeling of oneness with the environment in which the activity is taking place.
  • There is no room for self-scrutiny as the activities had clear goals, stable runs, and challenges well matched to skills so there is little room for the self to feel threatened.
  • Requiring neither a loss of self nor a loss of consciousness but rather a simple loss of self-consciousness which requires the constant checking as to whether a certain threat to self if valid or not.
  • More often than not there comes a feeling of self-transcendence in which the feeling of the boundaries of the self is pushed forward.
  • The paradox arises in the fact that the pushing of the boundaries of the self, requires the loss of self-consciousness. We no longer focus on the self but rather reflect upon the self when the activity is completed and transcend the former self to fit our newer better self still within the parameters or conceptual limitations of our self-boundaries but to a greater extent.
• The Transformation of time
  • One of the most common descriptions of this state is the distortion of time.
  • Although this feeling does not necessarily enhance the feeling of flow and may be more closely a by-product the freedom from time may enhance the enjoyment.
• Autotelic Experience
  • Activities that are done for the sake of being done are more enjoyable as they do not have extrinsic goals associated with them.
  • “A self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward.”

Above all, the activities associated with flow have as a core principle the ability to be enjoyed.

To explain the feelings of flow and the loss of self-consciousness I looked into the mechanisms associated with the flow state. What I found in the research was a state called transient hypofrontality. Transient meaning for a short time. Hypo- meaning lower or less. And Frontality meaning – to do with the prefrontal cortex. In essence, it is the diminishing or cessation of the prefrontal cortex for a short period of time, or for the time in which one is experiencing the flow state. This state of transient hypofrontality has been found in many activities including running, yoga, and dreaming. It is thought to be the unifying state within all states of altered consciousness.

“The peak-experience itself can often meaningfully be called a `little death,’ and a rebirth in various senses.”

My Flow inducing activity is Slacklining if you’d like to see a couple of videos of people doing slacklining you can see it here and here. If you’d like to find your own flow and want to know a little bit more about how to get yourself into a flow state I recommend checking out the Flow Genome Project. I also recommend Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Steven Kotler’s book The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance.

Let us know some weird things that have happened to you or your weird habits or an experience you’ve had with a flow state or how you get into the flow. You can send us an email to rootsoflifepodcast@gmail.com

Stay weird.

As I return from a walk to write this I can only enjoy the rush of endorphins as the course through my veins. It feels good, it’s a feeling you can only get from getting outside in the fresh air and elevating that heart rate. This episode we have a conversation about physical health and how we find the inspiration to get moving.

Taylor and I both enjoy doing activities outdoors. We both find time to go hiking during the summer, Taylor enjoys snowboarding in winter and I’ve recently taken up snowshoeing. Taylor Also enjoys doing yoga, not only is it a physical challenge, he finds it allows him to challenge himself spiritually and mentally.

We both understand that it isn’t easy to keep committed to some kind of workout routine so we have both found some things we enjoy doing. We get our exercise from doing things that feel more like playing than hard work. Creating reminders for ourselves or little games to do the same, making each time we get some exercise more fun than anything. For example, one little game I mentioned in the podcast was writing down “push-ups” on my hand and then doing 10 each time I looked at my hand. It made the activity fun and almost a game against myself. Being physically active is known to help reduce stress and when it’s fun it does so that much easier.

Another practice that the two of us engage in to reduce stress is meditation. Taylor uses yoga as his main for of meditation while I tend to do more mindfulness meditation in the form of either being in nature or sitting silently and focusing. I also enjoy guided meditation now and then. My favourite is by Sam Harris, I usually listen to the 26-minute version but if that’s too long there is also 9-minute version. One of the biggest reasons for doing the practices of exercise and meditation is the stress reduction benefits. Many people carry stress in their bodies these days and getting out and moving will allow you to work those kinks out.

Well, another short blog with not a lot of extra content but if you have any more questions you can listen to the episode from the link at the top or send us an email at rootsoflifepodcast@gmail.com. I’ll be adding a lot more content to the newer blogs as they come out, completing this backlog, although important in my opinion, does not seem as important content wise. If you disagree and would like me to get more information on some other things we mention in the podcast let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Stay weird.

We all have a lot to do each day, but many of us find ourselves with less time in the day than we originally planned. If you find yourself distracted often and losing time each day that you could be using more productively this episode is for you! We talk about minimizing the distractions and the possible causes of those distractions such as fear of failure and fear of success.

For about 4 days before recording this episode I was unfortunately without a phone. Due to a failed update my phone was reduced to an expensive brick with a glass screen. This meant that I was unable to distract myself by scrolling through the many apps I had on the phone. I’ve always had a problem with distractions, I find myself staring at whatever distraction I can to get myself out of an difficult or uncomfortable situation. Without my phone that was not a possibility and I was forced into a VERY uncomfortable situation that helped me realize a few things.

Part of my job is working to help youth with certain life skills. One of those skills we are currently working on with one of the youth is becoming comfortable and able to take the bus. Now I’m not someone who normally takes the bus so doing so was already an uncomfortable situation for me but as my life seems to go weird things just happen. So sitting at the back of this bus watching as people got on I sort of laughed as an older looking native man walked on dressed in full cowboy gear including boots, trench coat, and hat. I thought the irony of the cowboy and “indian” dynamic all rolled into one person was just a little too much for me. Anyways the guy drunkenly shuffled to the back of the bus tripping on the stairs as he climbed up and sat in the seat next to me. Throughout the ride he would touch my arm and ask me questions. I politely responded even as he became more vulgar and rude talking about people and acts he would like to commit. Until I had enough and gave him a look when he touched me for the last time. Now, I was working and had one of the youth with me who was already on edge being on the bus so I wasn’t about to make a scene. But this man was saying things like “Look at the wiggle on that one. Prime breeding stock” and “I should steal this bus, we’ll head out to clearwater doing 120, hair straight back…” and my favourite as it was 4 in the afternoon “What day is it?”

If you don’t know me very well I’ll let you know I was not really interested in talking to this man in the first pace especially after he was talking about robbing banks and stealing busses, and even more so when we was talking about a woman being “prime breeding stock.” These things pissed me off to no end and I wasn’t able to distract myself with headphones or a phone screen. I felt I couldn’t say anything due to the already uncomfortable situation the youth I was working with felt he was in but it made me realize I was actually a character in my life today. I was the guy who sat there and said nothing, the guy who simply accepted that this was a man that wouldn’t learn anything even if I did. But I was not a person sitting there observing as this man spoke to someone else while I hid behind a phone screen and headphones. I decided at this moment I wanted more engagement in the world, more situations where I could stop and say enough is enough. Less distractions from the world and more interaction in attempts to lessen such ignorance. So now that I do have my phone again I have resolved to have very little in terms of apps that I can distract myself with and to spend less time on the ones I still do have.

In this episode that is one of the things we mention when it comes to distractions, try to reduce or limit the amount of social media and internet time you have not doing something productive. You might say, “but sometimes I just need a break, some time to relax.” That’s all well and fine, so meditate or spend some time outdoors. Distracting yourself with social media, although seemingly relaxing is still new information going into your brain, and not really information that is often helpful in your day to day life. As we move through this tech infested world we have become addicted to these apps. I get it, I’m addicted too, but from now on I’m going to limit myself to sort bursts of social media if any to stop myself from being distracted. When we distract ourselves we aren’t really solving anything anyways, what we’re avoiding is still there.

A few tips for avoiding distractions, limit the amount of time on social media or games apps, unplug as often as possible, and when distracted stop and think about what its is you’re avoiding and why. Our brains hate boredom and being uncomfortable take a look at what you have to do an find a way to make it fun and easier to accomplish. This new task of finding a solution to your current goal or boredom will be something easier than said goal and will also be something new for your brain to enjoy. Make life fun and happy and you can accomplish whatever you set your mind on. A final tidbit to remember, not everything needs a lot of time to get done. Do little things in transition periods rather than sitting on your phone for that hour before work, school, etc.

Continuing that sentiment we talk about the fear of failure and the fear of success, or  atychiphobia and achievemephobia respectively. I don’t have a lot to say on the subject besides what we stated in the podcast. However, I do have a video I would like to share with you on the subject. It’s about getting past that little voice in your head that says you can’t do it, you aren’t good enough, or you’ll never make it. If you’d like to watch it you can check it out here. If you’d like to read a little more about the fear of success and the fear of failure you can click the links in this sentence.

Final few thoughts, the listener challenge this week is to send in some of your work be it writing, drawing, singing, acrobatics, etc. Whatever it is send it to us. This is to beat your fear of success and your fear of failure. We’ll take it and we’ll share it to the world. Fell free to send in other things as well, for example a new question or something that tickles your fancy.

Lastly our Artist of the Week!! These guys are from our home town Nanaimo and have been killing it with the release of their first album. Check out Wise Youngblood on any of their social media platforms:

Twitter – https://twitter.com/wiseyoungblood1

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/wise_youngblood/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/wiseyoungblood

Youtube – (Pyromaniac Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dOuCTXj5MY

They have a show coming up in Vancouver at the Roxy on April 21st go check them our if you’re in the area! And you can vote for them on CBC Searchlight! Congrats on making it to the second round boys!

http://www.cbcmusic.ca/searchlight/1782

Thanks for being here, we appreciate you!

Stay weird.

P.S. If you have a few minutes we’d love if you could fill our this survey.

http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=R1qzPu3UkOFH&ver=short