New Year: Whee.

Normally I don't do New Year's resolutions. If I attempt to set goals of that sort it's usually based on my birthday, which admittedly is only a 2 week shift from there, but the feel of it is different and less arbitrary-feeling. Yes, I know it's still arbitrary, if more tied to my actual being. You have to start somewhere.



This year I'm actually starting at the calendar change, for a variety of boring reasons. New Year's Day I noted that my weight goals had been obliterated in a series that runs like: injury-sickness-injury-busyness. Frankly I feel like hell as a result. Also, speaking of feeling like hell, my return to the office routine contrasts with my natural sleep patterns so starkly, and my shift to correctness was so fast when I took time off, that there can be no more question about whether such things are real or just a matter of being sufficiently virtuous to have the same patterns as the earliest and most smug circadian rhythms.

Also, science has begin to support my view of this at long last:

Researchers at Oxford University have found that the work schedules of the majority of people do conflict with our natural circadian rhythms. This may lead to many health disorders, including mental and physical problems, anxiety, weight gain, and high blood pressure.

As the study’s results have shown, the early start of the working day can be unhealthy for humans. Children between the ages of 8 and 10 should start school no earlier than 8:30 a.m., while those from 16 to 18 years of age should start at 10 a.m. or later.

Adults can benefit from a later waking-up time, too. According to the scientists, people between the ages of 18 and 55 should start their work at or after 10 a.m.

You don't say.

So removing at least part of the offending schedule is of primary importance this year. In related news, I have several reasons for wanting to fix my commute & schedule. They'll have to wait a bit, though, since I have to be fairly discreet at this juncture. I'll give you all the details as soon as I can.

I'm also doing a variety of things to improve my mind and some things (apart from the aforementioned lifting) to improve my body. Scott Adams wrote yesterday about his view of how mind and body interact, and how improving one's physical circumstances improves one's mental circumstances. His ideas go rather farther than mine on the subject, but they overlap very nicely with mine, which I've developed and held for a fair few years, now. His discussion is mostly about interfaces, and my concepts are more about cyclical improvements. Generally, though, they come to the same conclusion. As he puts it,

To convince yourself that my framework is valid, take an inventory of the people in your life who are unhappy. Ask some questions about what they are doing about their unhappiness. Rarely will the person say they are working on their body to fix their minds.

Now take an inventory of your more well-adjusted friends. Watch the degree to which they manipulate their bodies to manage their minds. Once you see the pattern, you will start to see it everywhere.

As with learning and many other areas of life, I find that it goes round and round. Improving body improves mind improves body. I'll write about this elsewhere in more depth when I have a chance, and the specifics of what I'm doing.