Mindfulness And Systems Versus Goals

I’m teaching habit stacks, which are systems. I’m aligning readers’ minds to overcome challenges in order to become. An atomic habit refers to a tiny change, a marginal gain, a one percent improvement. The idea is to focus on improving just 1% per day. But atomic habits are not just any old habits, they are little habits that are part of a larger system.

I’m going to show you how mindfulness ties in to using habit stacks to create your system for whatever task or project you’ve undertaken. Mindfulness is the key ingredient. It’s more than focus, which is more short term and is subjective, being distracted easier.

Mindfulness will allow you to have more stability and is a deeper state of focus. It puts you into a more waking meditative state, which gives more clarity to your thinking. The more surface levels of focus can happen at any state of brainwave frequency.

Brainwaves are electrical readings that reflect brain activity. These electrical impulses can vary in speed and are measured in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). It’s possible to detect a person’s mental state and measure the electrical activity in specific brain areas related to a particular brain function while looking at the brainwave activity.

The five brainwave frequencies are Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. I will define them quickly without going into more detail.

1. Delta waves (0.5-4 Hz): These are the slowest brain waves and are associated with deep sleep.
2. Theta waves (4-8 Hz): These waves are associated with deep relaxation and the first stages of sleep, meditation, and creativity. Examples of activities that can produce theta waves include daydreaming, visualization, and deep meditation. Kids are in this state of brainwaves before 7 years old.
3. Alpha waves (8-12 Hz): These waves are associated with visualization and daydreaming, interacting, relaxation, focus, and creativity. Examples of activities that can produce alpha waves include light meditation, walking in nature, and listening to calming music.
4. Beta waves (12-30 Hz): These waves are associated with alert focus and problem-solving. Examples of activities that can produce beta waves include working on a challenging task, taking a test, and engaging in conversation. The downside of Beta brainwaves is that doing too much of an activity causes anxiety and stress.
5. Gamma waves (30-100 Hz): These waves are associated with high-level cognitive processing, high focus and high energy levels such as hitting a fast pitch baseball, learning a new complex subject, memory, and problem-solving. Examples of activities that can produce gamma waves include intense mental focus, complex problem-solving, and tasks that require acute agility.

Watching YouTube NFL classic games from the ’70’s and ’80’s gets me into a theta-alpha brain wave state. I like to transfer this brain wave state of relaxation to learning and creation. Mindfulness allows me to block out intrusive thoughts and outside noise, enabling me to stay aligned..

Procrastination is about anger and feeling sorry for myself (victim). I had to use mindfulness to stop waiting for the feeling fairy to make me happy. Watch negative thoughts because you lose inspiration through negative thoughts.

Catch yourself and stop going directly to negative and bad thoughts and lighten up. Love what you do by being inspired, become autotelic through inspiration.

Applying systems allows this. And keep in mind, systems don’t have to be boring. You can change them around and develop several systems for a particular project once you’ve got it mastered. This keeps it exciting. The main thing is to use mindfulness to stop static interference and stay on track by lowering your brain wave state.

Applying Mindfulness Methods can get you into Flow. It’s a great frame to be in but has a dangerous side. Mindfulness is the foundation that opens the gateway to Flow. Steven Kotler is the leader right now in the concept’s teaching. It was originally named Flow by a Hungarian-American psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote a book entitled Flow. Flow happens during the creation phase of a project, while in deep concentration. The Flow state produces six of the most potent neurochemicals the brain can produce. Being in Flow is the only time the brain produces all five at once. These six are: norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide, serotonin, and GABA. Flow State depletes anxiety, says Steven Kotler.

My job is to interpret these studies and assimilate it into smaller chunks so people can hear it, see it, and absorb it.

Frank Sinatra and Roberta Flack did this as musicians. When Flack sings a song, she caresses each cadence. She is constantly in the moment of considering and intensifying the cadences.

By doing this, she can realize the full meaning of the lyric. It’s a one-of-a-kind style, often misconstrued as minimalist or middle-of-the-road. Her style contains many complex and roiling parts, and often it escalates to a vocal crescendo that can be so thunderous it could shake a concert hall to its core.

Systems are the key to producing a good life. Systems are really habit stacks brought together to form synergy. I want to point out that there is a part in the book entitled Systemantics by John Gall, that alludes to the fact of not being discouraged when systems eventually destroy themselves from within.

That does seem to contradict my previous statement about how systems are necessary for a potent life, but it’s actually a warning sign. It is exactly what Jeff Bezos of Amazon realized a few years ago.

He admitted his behemoth of a company could and probably would be overcome by competition and other factors and could eventually cease to exist within a decade.

Being armed with Gall’s truth, he could monitor the systems, customer feedback, and layers of management, to implement ongoing decisions that were flexible with the changes in our world.

Recognizing implosion is the nature of systems when they get huge and complex has saved Amazon, and they continue to thrive. Just create small solutions and keep moving.