Hey all! You know, I just took a look at the very last article I wrote and realised that the theme is kinda similar to this one! But anyway… yeah, for reasons that will be made apparent in the latter part of this article, there won’t be images in this article. But, anyhow, let’s get started!
So, expansion. That’s quite a favourite domain of mine. But in the past few days, I actually had additional insights into it!
See, I previously discounted the nervous system to some extent when considering expansion. What do I mean? Well, I’ll get straight into a depiction.
See, say for example you do Intense Exercise X on Monday. You’re so happy that you’re able to do it, because it demonstrates your progress! Anyway, one thing that you’ve learnt from all your previous experience in expansion is that you can only do what your physical body feels up to doing by accumulating one step at a time.
Like, you can’t go straight from crawling to flying! You’ve gotta at least learn walking and running first! That’s what I knew then, yeah. But there was something that I had overlooked.
Now, on Tuesday, I did a watered-down version of Intense Exercise X. It was still relatively intense, though, but make no mistake, I was so happy that I could do it, almost replicating the previous day in some areas.
See, the perspective that I had at the time was this: You can say you have attained a decent mastery of something when you can do it for consecutive days in a row. That means it wasn’t an outlier statistic or one-off, but a skill that you’ve truly attained! And that belief got that self-motivated me to work on Tuesday.
Cue Wednesday. Burnout.
Now, what I realised from all that transpired then was this: Even if it outwardly appears from the standpoint of your physical body that you are able to do it, inwardly, it might be that you are overextending! your nervous system past what it can tolerate! And yeah, that I did, and I only really recognised like a day or two ago that it’s called burnout.
Huh, I never really considered that factor before! I only thought that the limiting factor was physical limits!
Anyway, here’s yet more evidence, kinda, to back up what I say.
Even when I was energetically burnt out, I was still able to physically break through old limits, hit new milestones and reach new heights!
It’s a bit embarrassing, really. See, on Friday, I read somewhere that a certain leisurely activity would help me recuperate from my burnout. And one thing led to another, and eventually, I got around to doing sigh… a pretty intense version of that activity instead where physically, I surpassed my old limits. That proved to me that yeah, you can be overwhelmed energetically (nervous system), but physically you’re fine.
And that reminds me on what I did on Thursday too, and now I really! cannot believe how unreasonable and crazy I was to have actually crazily gone and done all freaking that while I was burnt out.
Anyway, the main lesson I’ve learnt from this – listen to your nervous system.
Huh, I’ve even realised now how this relates to a particular thing I previously observed, that used to be sort of a trap hole for me!
See, when you’re doing very well physically in something, you might go all excited and whee and in over your head, then physically ride the momentum to complete a whole advanced version of that activity… only to be thoroughly wiped out and unable to do much for the next few…
Hah. So basically, I’ve kinda realised that that was more of me riding the momentum of energetics of my nervous system, burning my heart blood as cultivation novels might put it, before being totally drained for an extended period thereafter! See, that’s why I’ve been taking it slow, reliably, and a step by a solid step afterwards. Now I know why.
Burnout can be thoroughly unrelated to your physical capacities. You might still be able to do pretty okay in the activities you normally do. However! One thing – you’ll find that you just cannot! push yourself too! hard! at! all!
Be loving to yourself!
Burnout is such an unloving thing to your own body!
Now that I’ve experienced living from that state, I must say how wondrous and blessed it is to be living from a healthy and vigorous state! And I must say that I feel really happy! at what I was able to do even from such a state! It only goes to show all that I’ve achieved in my expansion efforts!
But if there’s anything I’ve learnt from my expansion escapades now, it’s this.
Even if you can hit a milestone on one day, it’s actually very very bad to yourself if you then go try to replicate it the very next day, to prove that it was not a fluke!
No, people. Let your energetics, your nervous system recover first. So much so as it’s kind of amazing if you’re kind of able to replicate it the very next day, how is it even worth it if that means that you’re burnt out the next next day, which might even last for an extended period?!! That simply is like playing with fire.
By the way, this is kind of a mantra that I’ve acquired: I’m in love with my nervous system.
Yeah, one thing that seems to be quite logical now that I think about it:
Scenario A: You push yourself to do max reps on days you can, and do nothing at all when you’re just not really feeling it.
Scenario B: You do reps every single day, just not exactly max reps but rather just a level that feels comfortable, easeful and sufficiently stimulating for your nervous system. Rather than setting a target beforehand and stopping when you hit it, you halt where you are cognisant that that’s at the ‘good workout’ level for you… as your nervous system tells you!
Which would you choose? Now, I admit that I didn’t do any research on this, and this is all inducted by me myself, and maybe if you go to some personal trainers they might tell you different, but, I’m personally gonna go for Scenario B from now on! That’s what my experience in the field of expansion and my ponderings on the science of it tells me, see!
Now, I hope I didn’t miss anything out. Would be a bummer if I did. And if you hadn’t realised already, yeah, I didn’t bother going to the trouble of putting in images today cause I’m recovering from burnout.
Aw.
But at the same time, I hope you find this useful! Perhaps you can think of this as an extension of self-love yo – besides loving yourself and your own body, which may be a lesson more relevant to you at your current level of spiritual development, be in love! with your nervous system too!
Alright, that’s all for today! Actually I was gonna write about something else today, already had a topic in mind, but things worked out such that this just! had! to be written today see! Maybe I’ll write about that next week! Bye for now! 🙂