Have Faith in Your Own Thoughts | Breathwork for Improving Your Focus
Hi :) How are you doing today?
Tokyo is so hot and humid now that I don’t want to go outside for even a second!
💫 New Video + Notes
1) New video “How I Read Books | 3 Steps of Learning” is now up!
2) Added more reading notes to my mind garden!
Here are the best articles, books, podcasts, tweets I found this week in Mind | Money | Relationships | Health.
It’s a long list, so I’d recommend using a read-later service like Pocket Instapaper or mymind.
Save them 👉 Read them later 👉 Take notes 👉 Create your own content!
Mind
Stop Relying on a Source and Have Faith in Your own Thoughts ≫
To tell you the truth, I love quoting someone. If you’ve watched my videos, you probably know I quote often to emphasise some points. But, lately I’ve been thinking about why I do this.
And I figured out why: I don’t have confidence in my own thoughts and words.
This is one of the articles made me realise that. Although, I’m not going to stop quoting altogether because it’s an easy and effective way to convey a message sometimes (as I do in this newsletter).
But when I take notes in Roam, I’ll try to collect more of notes in my own words, rather than original texts in other people’s words.
Don’t quote. Make it yours and say it yourself ≫
Another article that helped me realise why you shouldn’t quote so much is this one by Derek Sivers.
The idea is simple: Stop referencing. Stop quoting. Paraphrase. Internalise it. Make it yours. Tell me what you think, not what someone else thinks.
Money
Want to Improve Your Social Media? ≫
Matthew Kobach is a Twitter wizard. He knows all about growing on social media. This articles summarises 10 top tips about Twitter strategies.
My favourite is this one:
Keep publishing. Meanwhile, keep creating. Keep a blog, website, or a social account where you showcase your experience, expertise, and interest areas. This is your CV.
Speaking of Twitter, many of the fastest growing accounts are curators. What they do is find top quality information, summarise it, and share it.
What this means is that you don’t have to have any “original” thoughts. Just share what you think would be useful for other people consistently and you’ll have a huge audience.
Many big accounts on Twitter don’t produce any original content.
They’re curators.
They find top-tier information, share it, and summarize it.
Here’s the lesson: You can now build a huge audience by simply having good taste.
Having said, I’d rather relax and tweet whatever I’m thinking about, rather than becoming a curating robot.
It’s hard to be authentic when you’re always trying to curate, summarise and stuff. It takes a lot of effort and time too!
Relationships
What Co-op Games Should You Play with Your Partner? ≫
Since my girlfriend lives in the UK and I live in Japan now, there aren’t many things we can do together. But gaming has been a life saver for us.
Playing video games with your partner is incredibly fun and a great way to deepen your bond. Even if you (or your partner) are not into gaming, there are many games that are designed for couples and friends.
This video by Girlfriend Review, which is one of my most favourite Youtube channels, talks about their favourite video games for couples.
Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person ≫
In a previous issue, I talked about the idea of “The One” and why it’s harmful.
When we say “The One”, we think of someone who can satisfy all our needs and shares our every taste. But, it’s impossible to find someone like that.
What’s important is that:
We mustn’t abandon him or her, only the founding Romantic idea upon which the Western understanding of marriage has been based the last 250 years: that a perfect being exists who can meet all our needs and satisfy our every yearning.
It’s perfectly normal to date or marry someone with different tastes/hobbies/opinions because
The person who is best suited to us is not the person who shares our every taste (he or she doesn’t exist), but the person who can negotiate differences in taste intelligently — the person who is good at disagreement.
Rather than some notional idea of perfect complementarity, it is the capacity to tolerate differences with generosity that is the true marker of the “not overly wrong” person. Compatibility is an achievement of love; it must not be its precondition.
So, if you’re trying to find your potential partner, perhaps what you want to look for is how good they are at disagreeing.
Health
While researching on breathing, I came across Wim Hof, a.k.a. Ice Man. He’s known for swimming and running around naked all over the world, but his training method, including his breathwork, does have both physical and mental benefits.
This series of videos by What I’ve Learned explains why a simple breathing exercise can improve your health.
If you want to try it, this guided video is the best place to start.
LESS Breath: Better Health? | Mouth Breathing vs. Nasal Breathing ≫
Breathing through mouth and thorough nose sounds like the same thing. But apparently there’s a huge difference and impact on your body.
One of the most shocking research results shown in this video is that mouth breathers are more likely to have learning difficulties than nasal breathers.
Mouth-breathing means difficult breathing, and this in turn means deficient oxygenation of the tissues with a resultant lowering of vital activities generally and of the activity of the brain in particular.
What does this all mean?
Well, you want to make sure your mouth are shut and breath through your nose, even when you’re sleeping.
But, how do we make sure we breathe through our nose when we’re asleep?
Tape your mouth! It may sound silly or scary, but it’s a legitimate way to improve your breathing and your overall health.
In fact, I’ve been always put a tape on my mouth when I sleep for the past 6 months, and the quality of sleep definitely improved.
Anyway, if you want to know more about the science behind mouth vs nasal breathing and mouth taping, watch this video :)
Latest Video - Reading for Maximum Learning
How I Read Books | 3 Steps of Learning
Idea Sketch of the Week
Note
This is one of the most important principles in studying and note-taking.
When you’re trying to learn a concept, you have to break it down into smaller pieces.
Badly formulated knowledge is always wordy and complex, while well-formulated knowledge is simple and specific.
More explanation here: https://www.shuomi.me/idea-sketch/the-minimum-information-principle
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