Newsletter #3: Effects of formal clothing

Hi 🙂,
at the start of the week I was already fully recovered from being sick. Despite that, I took it too chill. Even though I got stuff done this week, my mindset was one of “let’s not take on too much.”

I had an idea for a great new project, but I’ve was hesitant to start it. The work of post-processing my notes for the NLP seminar, doing my taxes, writing this newsletter, etc. and the burden of daily life already seemed like a lot.

But it’s not a lot. My plate is actually quite empty right now. The NLP notes are not that big of a project, I did a lot of prep for my taxes already and the newsletter takes 1.5h. The amount of work is not the problem.

My mindset is. This thought of “it’s a lot” makes me less energetic in my approach. Everything feels like heavy a burden and thus is harder. As a result the belief that I can barely handle stuff and that I need more relaxation is reinforced. I keep thinking that I can’t do anymore and should do less, and the downward spiral continues.

As this reflection should tell you: I’m better already and will that new project next week.

Review of last challenge #

Last week’s challenge was: Improve presence in daily life

I certainly wasn’t easy to always keep a part of my consciousness on the inner body (Tolles term, not the same as your physical, outer body) and not be completely sucked into the activity. Succeeding in retaining awareness added a different quality to the activity though. I was less reactive and distracted, focused more on what’s important.

I also caught myself a lot being unaware, which is a moment of awareness in itself. As a result of this challenge, I was present for a greater percentage of my time and that was quite enjoyable.

I will keep doing it. After reading the Power of Now again, I wanted to integrate more presence into my life, while at the same time keeping up the work on my projects that I so enjoy. This technique seems like a good fit over the “dedicate your full focus” approach that was advocated up to this point in the book. That also has it’s place also but doesn’t pair as well with working.

To read more, check out Chapter 6 of The Power of Now.

Next challenge #

Wear formal clothing while working to promote abstract thinking.

Wearing more formal clothing is associated with higher action identification level¹, greater category inclusiveness² and an enhanced global processing advantage³.⁴ These different metrics are indicators for abstract thinking.

I want to test if it makes a difference for me to wear dress shirt, dress pants and sports coat in the home office. I will only wear them while working, as to associate the clothing with concentration. As they are less comfortable than t-shirt and shorts, so slacking off on the couch should also decrease.

New articles #

• Review of open ear headphones: why they have become my most used headphones