I’ve been loving the rowing machine I bought last fall, but I’ve been waiting to use it six months before posting about it to make sure its value endured a reasonable time. I’m going to write about my experience with it, but if anyone has other experiences, please let me know because I’m still new to it and would love to learn more. This is the one I bought (used,[…] Keep reading →

Following yesterday’s primer on flow, here are two simple ideas to bring more flow. If you’ve read only Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi‘s book, they may be new. The Wikipedia page on flow but not Csikszentmihalyi’s book covers the first. The second is new, as far as I know, though small. Recall the ten conditions of the flow state (from Wikipedia, citing Csikszentmihalyi articles): Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals[…] Keep reading →

Do you remember the last time you felt like this musician? You are in an ecstatic state to such a point that you feel as if you almost don’t exist. I have experienced this time and again. My hand seems devoid of myself, and I have nothing to do with what is happening. I just sit there watching it in a state of awe and wonderment. And [the music] just[…] Keep reading →

Two thoughts to follow up my post from two days ago: Where you get energy. First, after mentioning I was mystified by people who used the same excuses not to dance that I used to dance, I should mention that before my dancing friends got me to go dancing the first time, I would have used any excuse to avoid dancing too. I didn’t know how to dance and was[…] Keep reading →

Want to have more energy to do things? I’ll demonstrate how how much energy you have to do something rarely has to do with how much energy you have. When I used to go dancing every Friday night I would look forward to the excitement of seeing friends, listening to great music, dressing up, etc. The friends I went out with looked forward to it too. I was mystified by[…] Keep reading →

The summer after high school, my friend Tuan and I rode our bikes from Philadelphia to Bar Harbor, Maine and back, about 1,500 miles. We were both sixteen at the time. The trip was amazing — not that I remember many details anymore… quite an independent experience for kids that age. Everything went great. An amazing growth experience. We mostly found random places to camp, but also stayed in back[…] Keep reading →

Grete Waitz, superhero of marathons and especially the New York City marathon, which she won 9 times (!!), died today of cancer. From Wikipedia Grete Waitz (1 October 1953 – 19 April 2011) was a Norwegian marathon runner who won nine New York City Marathons between 1978 and 1988, more than any other runner in history. She also won a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles[…] Keep reading →

People who like living life to its fullest should read this post. My mom shouldn’t, at least not the first link. Holy cow. Good thing I didn’t read this article before I swam across the Hudson River! But then according to this article, no problem. And here’s a whole organization, Hudson River Swim, dedicated to it, and raising money to find cancer cures. I think Dave and I started a[…] Keep reading →

One of my raw food friends met these guys who call themselves the Raw Brahs (sounds like Raw Bro’s). They make goofy, funny, informative videos about eating raw food, being buff, living a life of abundance, and having fun. They eat tons of food, mostly fruits and vegetables, and are seriously buff. I watched them videotape their antics at a McDonalds in Union Square, which they made fun of. In[…] Keep reading →