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Singing Relaxed Solved

Byjack

I’ve always wanted to find a way to sing relaxed no matter what position I’m in, standing, sitting, playing the piano.

I figured it out finally.

It’s actually quite simple.

Relax everything, specifically the jaw, shoulders, and stomach.

Put all the tension right above the stomach (at the diaphragm).

Workpost 73: Progress

Byjack

I am trying some new things out to update my routines and actions from the last post.

  1. My morning routine: short walk outside. No computer or phone until I walk outside and get some good sun exposure.
  2. My reset. If I feel overwhelmed, take a shower or go into my closet.
  3. Practicing the transition from my chair to my door: I’m going to mark a tally on my “Active Life” tracker calendar (shout out to my girlfriend <3).

In trying out this new “Active Life” tracker, I decided the following today after trying it out today:

  1. I will leave the apartment as many times as I can
  2. If I feel tired and want to sleep, I can just go to the gym and come back after
  3. If I want to play Valorant or doomscroll, I can go out, do some quick work, then come back and go on my phone

I’m also proud of myself for doing some sketching today in the “woodcut” style that I plan to use for my business card.

I like it a lot but I want to continue on working on making it more clean like this:

Some thoughts:

  1. It helps to look at a photo reference
  2. Might help to sketch out a design beforehand
  3. Need a harder brush (sharper edges) for the image

Now it’s time to plan my day and look at yesterday’s questions.

  1. What am I going to do about my art coaching and AI gaming companies?
    • Am I behind schedule and if so what do I do about it? Yes, I am behind schedule. I think what I need to do about it is that I want to focus more on the business side of things. For coaching that means finding clients and for AI gaming I’m not sure yet. Either way, I need to start figuring out what it looks like to run the business.
    • Should I extend the schedule? Maybe a little, but at the moment no.
    • Am I losing money? Yes, but this is something I want to do and get better at. The best thing to do for me is to not to have a gameplan, just run with what I have until the money runs out. Perhaps I could also try to find a business partner or something to level up to the next step or collaborate with my current business partner more.
  2. How do I get out of my procrastination phase and get working? Leaving the apartment more. Doing a deep clean of my apartment.
  3. What do I do about my art coaching website? Create a powerpoint for it, create a basic website.
  4. How do I get everything done in such a short period of time? I don’t need to. I failed at section one of the business, but that’s ok. Failure = growth. I learned that not taking faster action to get to sales doesn’t work as well. Maybe I need to get more people involved to help me or to just bounce ideas off of.
  5. Should I start registering for fairs? Yes most definitely, also think more about what I can give away.
  6. Should I pay someone to design the website for me? I absolutely could, it probably is a very good idea.
  7. How am I going to get the motivation to start drawing? How do I start drawing consistently? I need to find the joy in just creating this new art style.
  8. How do I start going to the gym and working outside the apartment consistently? Through my “Active Life” tracker! And from being the hero, and valuing my body as a temple. And by leaving the apartment every time I want to do something unhealthy (going outside, then coming back and gaming etc.)
  9. How will I start cooking again and cleaning up my apartment? Where will I find the time? We can do it piece by piece, we also don’t need to cook immediately, just work on it slowly.
  10. How will I prepare for the next week of work? How do I balance my other businesses? I should focus work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for a specific time period (8-5). Then trust in the process. If I leave the apartment a lot, things will get done on all fronts.
  11. When will I continue to work on my Javascript projects? What is the breakdown between AI work time and coaching work time. Not sure, we have a couple of options. We can focus on coaching, switch gears to AI therapist (as greater chances of monitization), or try to create a release schedule. Or forget about getting something out as being a full stack dev would be pretty valuable and worthy skill on its own right.

Now to write some of the questions I have for tomorrow:

  1. How am I going to balance contract work with my businesses tomorrow?
  2. What can I do to make sure I get enough sleep for jiujitsu?
  3. What is the plan for getting customers for my businesses?
  4. Should I sign up for a consultation with a Fiverr coach for javascript? Should I work first to get an understanding of full stack?
  5. Should I start looking for someone to build my coaching website?
  6. What can I give away at the fairs?
  7. What is the next step for my woodcut art style? What is the plan for the business cards?
  8. When am I going to create my powerpoint for my coaching website outline?

I’m happy, I think two mentalities that are helping me are:

  1. Whenever I want to do something unhealthy or distracting (youtube, Valorant, etc.) first leave the apartment then do it when I come back. I usually get more done, are more in touch with my body and don’t feel the need to self medicate after.
  2. At the end of the day, imagine what I wished I got done, what would make me happy if I got done and turn those things into a list of questions to tackle and solve tomorrow.

Giving Too Much

Byjack

I was in Taichi class the other day and my instructor said something very interesting.

She told us that if you are leaning forward, then you are “giving too much”. And if you lean back too much, you are “accepting too much” and when someone gives you a compliment, all you need to do is say a simple thank you.

It is an very interesting concept in taichi, this idea of always being in balance, always sitting on your heels even when pushing forwards.

I really want to experiment and see how much I can apply this to things like Valorant or productivity.

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Jack’s Emotional Processing Tool

Byjack

Here are the four steps:

  1. Acceptance, understanding, love
    • Vent, express all frustration and feeling with no filter
    • Notice all sensations in body
    • Hold yourself
  2. Self love
    • Self massage
    • Therapeutic dance
    • Humming
  3. Grounding
    • Immerse yourself in the present moment
    • Reframe situation in more real, grounded, present terms
  4. Creativity
    • Happy, loving memory
    • Reframe situation as positive using creativity

You will feel pain come up after step 1, if so go back to step 1.

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Emotional Processing Techniques

Byjack

I wanted to write down these methods of emotional processing for a while since they are super helpful for me.

Method 1: Somatic

  1. Take a breath
  2. Clench the top of your body and breathe
  3. Unclench and breath
  4. Clench bottom of your body and breathe
  5. Unclench and breathe
  6. Clench whole body and breath
  7. Unclench and breathe
  8. Go into your body and feel the sensations and validate the feelings
  9. Let the sensations spread out like ripples
  10. When the ripples subside, bring in a memory that feels in connection with the world

Method 2: Thought based

  1. Write down and validate what you believe
  2. Somatically process (go into your body)
  3. Write down and validate core wounds
  4. Come up with a more balanced and realistic take on your initial belief
  5. Look for a positive way to think about it to balance things out
  6. Find a way to remind yourself of the positive way

Workpost 39: Making the Most of It

Byjack

This morning I had a very slow start. Seems to be the same for a lot of days.

I really really focused on the idea that everything could be turned into an advantage. And today, I realized that the reason why I have slow starts is because my stomach burns, aches, and has gnawing empty pain. It is so bad, it is hard to focus and feel motivated to work.

The opportunity this morning is to devise some techniques to help with my stomach and be able to test it with the worst possible conditions. In other words, if the techniques work now, they will work anytime.

I tried this video first, and it was pretty helpful.

Then I tried this video which was helpful, but too boring to finish:

Finally, I tried drinking hot tea, which seemed to help some as well.’

And then, even though my stomach starting feeling better, I ran into another problem with avengance.

This problem was simple. Absolutely no motivation to do anything, being that I still felt tired and overwhelmed. Instead, I wanted to play games and watch tv shows.

I’m going to take the same approach here: use this as an opportunity to test out some new ideas with productivity.

So I have many many techniques in this area already, but I want to innovate further today in a different direction instead of meditation, letting go, focus, etc.

I want to look at why, even in my overwhelmed state, do I want to play Valorant and Fallout Shelter, and how I can fundamentally apply the same things to the things I want to do.

Things I Want To Do

  • Consulting work
  • Linkedin posts
  • Coaching work
  • Working out

Before I forget, here are some additional mindsets I can add the useful pile:

  1. Walking to vent stress, find peace, ask tough questions, get answers
  2. Workpost is to innovate something

Main Reasons Why I Want to Play Valorant

  • Can work on a specific skill like aim, movement, gamesense
  • Want to level up really quick and be a top player
  • Inspired by demon1, tenz, oxy, and aspas – want to be the best as well
  • Like working with a team, getting clutch plays off, good vibes

Main Reasons Why I Want to Play Fallout Shelter

  • Get control of my vault
  • Satisfaction in optimizing my vault
  • Satisfaction in leveling people up, and getting new weapons

Why It Is difficult to get the same feeling with work?

  • There is no specific simple skill to work on
  • Nothing I want to level up in
  • No one to inspire me
  • No team to work with
  • Don’t feel in complete ownership of the project
  • In a hurry to get it done

What skills am I excited want to work on in terms of work?

  • Faster problem solving skills
  • Intuition + precise logic for accurate but rapid decision making
  • Ability to think deeper with less effort
  • Memory and recall with less energy

What do I want to level up in terms of rank?

  • Money
  • Intellect
  • Thought leadership
  • Communication and charisma

Who do I draw inspiration from?

  • Elon Musk
  • Alex Hormozi
  • Khalid Sharara

How might I work off my team more?

  • Showing off the results of my work

How might I feel more in control of my work?

  • Understand that charisma, leadership are part of what I need to own and protect my work, just because there are other players involved doesn’t mean I don’t own it

Using all this information, I want to develop a unit of work, called a “game” or “match” to simulate what I do in Valorant. In Valorant you play a match with a clear objective, and you warm up before the game, and take breaks after the game.

Game Structure

Warmup: 15 minutes

Use to do list, practice one skill at a time:

  1. Faster problem solving/solution creation skills
  2. Intuition + precise logic for accurate but rapid decision making
  3. Ability to think deeper with less effort
  4. Memory and recall with less energy

Main game: 45 minutes

Fights:

Capture questions and answers.

Level up in:

  • Money
  • Intellect
  • Thought leadership
  • Communication and charisma

Result Calculation:

  1. How much do I think this work is worth?
  2. How difficult intellectually was this work from 1-10?
  3. What percentile do I place this work in terms of innovation?
  4. Gains in communication and charisma?
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Tai Chi Class

Byjack

Tai chi class was very interesting. I had a thought when the instructor was answering a question by one of the students. They were asking whether or not the movement called the “whip” was supposed to have a whipping motion. The instructor told him that as a beginner you always want to go slow. She also said that she teaches with words.

I was thinking that I can apply this Tai Chi mentality to some of the things that I work really hard to do such as work or Valorant or content creation.

Some thoughts I want to try out:

  1. Do things really slow and relaxed. Speed up if its easier, but as soon as it gets hard, go slower and more relaxed.
  2. Focus on the kinks, uncomfortable parts and keep working them out (my thoughts, not usually used in tai chi)
  3. Speed up when it feels really easy
  4. Speak aloud what you are doing, in order to be more intentional
  5. Follow a predetermined routine

What I want to try for my LinkedIn 50 days of posts:

  1. Write down what I know
  2. Write down what I don’t know
  3. Do necessary research
  4. Copy photoshop template
  5. Flesh out first iteration
  6. Flesh out images
  7. More research and reflection
  8. Refinement
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Workspace 22: Relax

Byjack

I had a slower start to the day. I started the day on my phone, waking up a bit early because my new retainer is bothering me when I sleep.

I watched some Valorant, talked to my girlfriend, and now I have a flight in about 3 hours. I want to leave in about 2 hours. I still have to take out the trash, eat up some more food and load the dishwasher.

I did a bit of a workout and I found out a couple of things that help with regaining energy, and gathering chi:

  1. Butt-clenched breathing: sounds a bit weird but it works. Lie down, clench the sphincter muscle (what you use to hold in poop) breath in. Then relax and breathe out. Repeat.
  2. Tummy circles: put the left hand over your stomach, then your right hand over that. Make circles over your stomach in the clockwise direction. Do it lightly. Then put your hands in the same area in your back and repeat.
  3. Extremity exercises: this can be any exercise that works your extremities. For example, doing a dead hang and focusing on clenching really hard with your hands but leaving everything else relaxed, or doing heel raises with the tips of your toes super engaged with everything else relaxed.
  4. Meditation: lie down close your eyes and walk down a staircase while counting to 10. Imagine the smell of wet stone, always puts me in a meditative state really quick for some reason.

Anyway goals for today. Just relax! I want to get all the chores sorted out and just spend the rest of my time relaxing.