Senso1970's Blog   Thoughts, ramblings, and accountability from sunny Madison, AL

Just had something happen that I thought I would share with you all.  When the weather outside is like it is here in northern Alabama I’ll sometimes do my walk indoors.  It isn’t ideal but it gets the steps in.  When I walk outdoors it’s easy to know when the walk is over.  I walk around the block and when I return home I’m done.  When I walk indoors though there isn’t an end point to let me know the walk is over.

As such I follow the same routine when I walk indoors.  I put my headphones on so I have something to listen to, which is currently the Audible version of Mind Gym: Achieve More By Thinking Differently by Sebastian Bailey, PhD and Octavius Black.  I then will start the  Exercise app on my Apple Watch to track the workout.  Finally, so I know when I’m done without having to look at my wrist all the time, I’ll set a 15 minute countdown timer.  I just took a walk indoors and forgot to include the last step.

I was walking back and forth listening to the book.  I’m liking the information being presented.  The person reading it, Ralph Lister, has both a great voice and a wonderful British accent.  I had been walking a while and was curious how long I had left and I looked down at the Apple Watch.  Just under 20 minutes had passed and it didn’t even feel like I had reached the 15 minute mark.

I had gotten distracted by the audiobook and didn’t realize that much time had passed.  Which brings up an interesting point, which can be summed up in a quote from Seneca.  “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”  Sometimes we make things worse by assuming a negative mindset.  Like being at work and watching the clock. Time slows down because we want out, but it’s the same hour as any other hour of the day.  Or the weights being harder today because they feel heavier, even though we know they’re the same dumbbells we lifted last time.  Our mindset is what’s making it harder.

So if suffering more in imagination can make thinks worse, why not use your imagination to make things seem better?  I did by accident and my 20 minute walk only seemed like 15.  Work could be over before you realize it because you were so busy being happy.  Who knows, you might be so positive you accidentally put in another rep with those dumbbells.  Worst case scenario is you were happy for no reason.  And I think that’s a risk worth taking.  Have a great day.  Peace.