PE5: Begin Well, End Well

Begin well, end well…

I love that slogan!

I use it every day, multiple times a day—not just with those I train (and train with), but with myself, too. It pithily reminds me of exactly how I want to be when I begin or end anything, be it tying my shoes, backing up my truck, or just listening to a friend.

Every day, I engage in three mind/brain-body composite rituals.  Rituals that engage my entire personhood and that help me begin and end well each day as well as each endeavor I pursue throughout each day.

Ritual Element 1:  In the morning, soon after awakening, I make my bed.

Every morning, after telling God "good morning," and after completing my first round of self-guided PT (that is, physical therapy) exercises, I make my bed.  If someone were to watch me closely over the course of several days, he (or she) would notice how I make my bed exactly the same way every time.  That person would notice, too, that it takes me about three minutes to complete it--and do it WELL.  Not only do I approach the overall task methodically, but I seek, in each aspect of it, to do it really, really well.  I've been engaging in this practice every morning since approximately 4am on Monday morning, September 24, 1984--my first full day of Basic Training in ROTC (that is, Reserve Officers Training Corps/U.S. Navy; Corps of Cadets; Virginia Tech; Blacksburg, VA).  By doing such a thing well, and by doing it day-in and day-out, I reinforce in my neurology the pathways and ritual-habits of beginning well everything I do.

While making my bed (and doing it well) might seem like a small (and somewhat trivial) task, I've found that doing so charts the course of my day toward extraordinary significance, creativity, excellence, and elegance.  When I don't make my bed, it affects me negatively.  Actually, since failure to make my bed hasn't happened in a very long time (I think we’re approaching close to 39 years now), I'm not quite sure what would happen if I didn't make my bed.  But... I can bet it would probably influence me negatively.  For starters (pun intended), I'd begin the day knowing I let myself down (and I hate that feeling).  Life's hard enough without saddling myself with emotional and physical hindrances over which I can take complete control.  Given this, I decided a very long time ago I'd make my bed every morning--with no exceptions.  I decided, too, I'd do it really, really well--also every morning--and, again, with no exceptions.  Of course, while I was in Basic Training for those three months in late 1984, this practice also helped to keep me out of hot water with the upperclassmen in the corps (that is, the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets)… at least, in that particular element of my training. 😊

Here’s my principal take away from all this:  In my life, I may never be the smartest or the strongest or the fastest person I know (or know of), but I can, rest assuredly, do one thing:  I can make my bed, and I can do it well.  (I can also be on time, but that's for another discussion!)

Ritual Element 2:  Soon after making my bed, I take a cold shower [see Note 1].

Every time I take a shower, I finish by turning the water to as cold as it will go.  And then, while I’m immersed in cold-mode, I take myself through the following mediation (repeating it over and over for several minutes)…

Chasing the fire… Welcoming the hammer… Becoming a sword… Becoming unbreakable.

And that’s it, my friends--that’s the ritual-practice.

To help you ease in to this one, I recommend you adopt the following seven-day progression in your practice:

Today (on day one), count out loud Ten Mississippis while you’re standing or moving around under the cold water:  “One Mississippi, two Mississippi, and so on...”

Tomorrow (on day two), count out Twenty Mississippis.

On day three… Thirty Mississippis.

On day four… Forty Mississippis.

And on days five through seven… Fifty, Sixty, and Seventy Mississippis, respectively.

One of the greatest skills you can learn in life is how to become increasingly comfortable with feeling increasingly uncomfortable.  Life is filled with uncomfortableness, pain, difficulty, and suffering.  Those who try to avoid such feelings and experiences are missing out on significant parts of their lives.  In addition, they’re running away from that which is intended to create toughness as well as the subsequent (and derivative) ability to experience God-and-self-honoring pleasure.  Like almost nothing else, learning to stay present with feeling uncomfortable will create greater and greater toughness (and resiliency) within your soul.  Taking daily cold showers is a powerful, yet relatively inexpensive, way to breed mental, emotional, and physical toughness.  It's also good for you physically (again, see Note 1).

Here's a meditation on toughness I wrote a while back...

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Toughness, a Fresh Understanding of it

Toughness is the ability to stay long, present, self-organized, self-galvanized, and self-energized during times of deep discomfort.

Toughness is the ability to lean into discomfort, look it in the eye, see it for what it is, and not let it dissuade you from the tasks or goals at hand.

Toughness enables you to not shut down, run away, or react aggressively when your circumstances and conditions are doing everything they can to do just that.

Toughness enables you to be present in extremely difficult situations and yet still able to think clearly, look at your options comprehensively, evaluate them thoroughly, choose a congruent course of action (including one or more back-up options or fallback positions) wisely, and then act on that choice (or those choices) resolutely.

Toughness is about coming through; it’s about taking the ball across the goal line.  Toughness is all about finishing--and finishing well!

Toughness is not about being physically unbreakable (even though training in toughness makes you less and less breakable).  Rather, it’s about being and becoming increasingly resilient, open-hearted, and clear-headed when confronted with one’s limitations and vulnerabilities.  It’s also about being able to set goals in the heat of battle.  Again, toughness is not about being unbreakable--because, in its purest since, achieving such a state is impossible.  If you push anyone--even a battle-hardened U.S. Navy SEAL--long and hard enough physically and emotionally, you’ll break him (or her).

In SEAL training, after weeding-out those who don’t really want to be there, the goal, technically, is not to break men down (even though, when you’re enduring such an intense course of evolutions, it sure feels like it); the goal is to push them so they’ll...

1/See how internally tough they really are (and when, where, how, and why they aren’t).

2/Tap into their current internal toughness reserves.

3/Extend those limits and reserves--ever so incrementally--so as to build (that is, train into them) a super-reserve of expanded internal toughness AND emotional agility...

And...

4/Begin to operate more mindfully, responsibly, and responsively as they explore and enlarge the unique ways in which they mentally, emotionally, and somatically navigate their way through intense, significant, and (at times) life-threatening difficulties and challenges.

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One of my top goals in life is to be and become progressively more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable—even extraordinarily uncomfortable.  Growth in (and the attaining of) discernable measures of this particular life-skill sits near the top of my list of aptitudes I’m actively pursuing in life.

May such a goal sit near the top of your list as well.

Ritual Element 3:  Right before I go to bed each night, I (A) floss my teeth, (B) gargle with homemade mouthwash, and then (C) brush my teeth.  Yes, I do it in that very peculiar and particular order.

Like making my bed each morning, I floss, gargle, and brush before bed each night (see Note 2).  And I do it really, really well.  First and foremost, I do it to protect my teeth, gums, heart, and immune system.  Secondly, I do it to help me sleep better (which improves EVERYTHING in my life).  And thirdly, I do it to help me finish out the day well.  Just like making my bed, I do it, worshipfully and ritualistically, exactly the same way each and every night, and I do my utmost to complete each aspect of it really, really well.  This, too, is a practice I've been doing for a very long time.  As an aside, I'm 57 years-old; and, most gratefully, I've never had a cavity, needed a bridge, or needed a root canal.  I'm hoping to continue that trend ("knock on wood") until I'm at least 120 years-old (again, “knock on wood”).  As my Dad, whose nearly 90, still likes to say, "Son… if you brush and floss before bed every night for a hundred years, you'll live to be an old man."  And that's exactly what I intend to be and become one day:  An old man.  Actually, I want to be and become a VERY old man... one who has all his teeth... still craves the cold--especially, cold showers… and maintains a very well-made bed.

Begin the day well by making your bed.  After that, kick things into overdrive by taking a cold shower.  And then, at the end of the day, end things well by flossing, gargling, and brushing.  Engaging in these simple, yet profoundly generative, rituals--and doing them really, really well--will help you begin and end well everything you do throughout your life.

A Blessing:  May you live to be a VERY old man (or woman)... one who has all his teeth... still craves the cold--especially, cold showers… and maintains a very well-made bed.  Amen.

Notes:

1. Cold-immersion (cold showers, ice baths, etc.) has shown to decrease inflammation and improve circulation within the body. It’s also shown to bolster your body’s production of high-quality mitochondria (the energy in your cells). Further, cold immersion activates your survival mechanisms which, biologically, reduce the age of your cells.
2. I do this in the morning (and after meals), too! 😊

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Today's MRL Maxim:  "You are what you repeatedly do" (borrowed from Aristotle).

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Today's MRL Call-to-action:  For the next seven days, and you must do this for at least seven days in a row, complete each of the above elements.  During day three, begin asking Jesus to help you use these practices--these rituals you're creating for yourself--to leaven every other aspect of your life.

Leaven:  An element, influence, or agent that works subtly to lighten, enliven, or modify a whole.

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So... there you go, friends.  Go, and think upon these things.  Do the work, and BE revellious.

Until next time…

We (and that includes you and me!!)...

Are the few... the proud... THE REVELLIOUS.

Dave out…

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ABOUT DAVE

Beyond being an imager, lover, imitator, and follower of Jesus Christ, Dave Brown is nothing more than a contemplative artist of life in desperate need of His Master:  The Triune God.  His greatest desire is to experience loving and Divine intimacy with God Almighty (the Trinity).  After that, it’s to walk before Them—in and with great holiness, humility, and revelliousness of heart—all the days of his life.  To meet his needs, Dave works as an ecological engineer, inventor, writer, life- and business-coach, and personal trainer (in mixed martial arts, holistic life-discipline, and meditative prayer).  If you’re interested in engaging with Dave in conversation or through personal one-on-one training in living revelliously, you can connect with him through MyRevelLife.com and The Revellious Podcast.  If you’re interested in his engineering and inventiveness sides, please visit his other website here.