Mina Samuels's Blog, page 9
May 25, 2010
Day One Hundred and Eighty-Three
Today may be the first day of the rest of your life, but it may also be day one hundred and eighty-three of your current workout regime. Getting up and sticking to it are are hard. In fact, the only thing harder might be starting at all.
How and why do we do it? ("It" being keep setting goals and training for them). Well, here's a few reasons from women:
"My morning workout is the hardest part of my day, whatever comes up next I can handle." Katrine
"When you land the axle, then you want t...
How and why do we do it? ("It" being keep setting goals and training for them). Well, here's a few reasons from women:
"My morning workout is the hardest part of my day, whatever comes up next I can handle." Katrine
"When you land the axle, then you want t...
May 12, 2010
Impressed?
Have you impressed yourself lately? Been proud of an accomplishment?
No? Huh. Could it be that you just don't value what you do anymore?
According to many psychologists, if we are driven, ambitious people, we often lack the ability to appreciate and value our own successes. What a downer. The phenomenon, or maybe it's a syndrome, even has a name--idealization/devaluation. In other words, you idealize a certain measure of success when you see it in others, or when you are struggling to...
No? Huh. Could it be that you just don't value what you do anymore?
According to many psychologists, if we are driven, ambitious people, we often lack the ability to appreciate and value our own successes. What a downer. The phenomenon, or maybe it's a syndrome, even has a name--idealization/devaluation. In other words, you idealize a certain measure of success when you see it in others, or when you are struggling to...
May 3, 2010
Happy "Now" or "After the Fact"
Reading a great new book by Lucy Danziger (the editor in chief of Self) and Catherine Birndorf (a psychiatrist), The Nine Rooms of Happiness (more on the book later), I came across an interesting observation about the difference between our experiences and our memories of experiences.
Scientists apparently often use what's known as the "Experience Sampling Method" to conduct studies; a process by which participants in a study record their experiences at random moments, in real time. Apparen...
Scientists apparently often use what's known as the "Experience Sampling Method" to conduct studies; a process by which participants in a study record their experiences at random moments, in real time. Apparen...
April 29, 2010
The Unexpected Dangers of the Scale
If you're like me, you let the narrative in your head about your weight play too often, whether or not your weight is actually an issue you ought to be thinking about at all. This is not a good thing. We all know that, right? The narrative in our head is very unlikely to be helpful, even if we are trying to lose weight. Because mostly it's going to be sending us undermining negative messages.
In my own case, I recently had cause to see just how damaging my own internal monologue could be. ...
In my own case, I recently had cause to see just how damaging my own internal monologue could be. ...
April 27, 2010
Woman Climbs High
How cool is it that not only has the first woman now summited all fourteen of the highest mountains in the world, but that she completed this amazing feat at the age of 44?
Oh Eun-sun Scales Annapurna
Oh Eun-sun Scales Annapurna
April 20, 2010
George Sheehan on Running Like a Girl
A link I am passing along to a wonderful essay from the inimitable George Sheehan:
http://www.georgesheehan.com/essays/essay29.html
http://www.georgesheehan.com/essays/essay29.html
April 13, 2010
Giving Up
Yesterday I passed a t-shirt on a runner that said "never, never, never, give up." The slogan reminded me of a conversation I'd had the day before. I had just found out that two women I knew had "given up" on doing the big races they had signed up for a year in advance--one a double ironman and the other an ironman (projected to take place 10 months or so after her first son was born).
Give up.
Words are so much more powerful and slippery than we think. Those two words, in my mind (and I...
Give up.
Words are so much more powerful and slippery than we think. Those two words, in my mind (and I...
March 30, 2010
Being Mortal
A great passage I read in Pascal Mercier's Night Train to Lisbon:
"Who could in all seriousness want to be immortal? Who would like to live for all eternity? How boring and stale it must be to know that what happens today, this month, this year, doesn't matter: endless more days, months, years will come. Endless, literally. If that was how it was, would anything count?...It is death that gives the moment its beauty and its horror."
And then this: "So the fear of death might be described a...
"Who could in all seriousness want to be immortal? Who would like to live for all eternity? How boring and stale it must be to know that what happens today, this month, this year, doesn't matter: endless more days, months, years will come. Endless, literally. If that was how it was, would anything count?...It is death that gives the moment its beauty and its horror."
And then this: "So the fear of death might be described a...
March 11, 2010
Overheard...
...in a bar last night.
"Are you skiing tomorrow?" says one male bartender to the other.
"Not really, I'm skiing with a girl."
And, in case you were wondering, his tongue was not in his cheek.
"Are you skiing tomorrow?" says one male bartender to the other.
"Not really, I'm skiing with a girl."
And, in case you were wondering, his tongue was not in his cheek.
March 1, 2010
Having Ovarios
Here's a quote I came across in Natalie Angier's fascinating book, Woman: An Intimate Geography, from which I could pull quotes for this blog for a month, it's so chock full of great insight.
"Men take strength for granted. Women have to fight for it. They have to trick themselves into their strength, or rather their strengths. Physical strength is but one allele of strength. There are all the other strengths: of self-conviction, of purpose, of being comfortable in your designated plasm....
"Men take strength for granted. Women have to fight for it. They have to trick themselves into their strength, or rather their strengths. Physical strength is but one allele of strength. There are all the other strengths: of self-conviction, of purpose, of being comfortable in your designated plasm....
