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Meeting the mysterious @BooksOnTheTub.

12 October, 201712 October, 2017 ~ poorbjorn

05.45 AM – Meeting the mysterious man behind Books on the Tub.

He got a hold of my “to-read”-list and had a few books in his collection that where in the list. So this morning, at un ungodly hour, I meet him in person for the first time and got a stack of interesting books.

“King of the world” – David Remnick
“The Four Alignments” – Don Miguel Ruiz
“Siddhartha” -Herman Hesse

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Reading List 2018
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Dr. Gabors is specialized in the study and treatment of addiction. His book offers portraits of his patient lives, stories about his own addictive behaviors, it examines the causes behind addiction and it breaks down the path to recovery. —— He opposes the weight that’s been put on the genetic component of addiction and points at stresses in early childhood (even pre-natal stresses) as the main risk factor. He is a big proponent of more compassion in society’s view of addicts and explains the futility of the “war on drugs”. ——- An excellent introduction to the complex problem of addiction! ——- 📝 “As a rule, whatever we don’t deal with in our lives we pass on to our children” -Our unfinished emotional business becomes theirs. —— 📝 Addiction = Fear of emptiness. —— 📝 Proximal separation: Physically there but mentally absent when parenting. Children experiencing this look to use external couping mechanisms like thumb sucking or tuning out. These kids have great chances of seeking refuge in drugs later on in life. —— 📝 Gabors recommends the teachings of Eckhart Tolle and the book Rosenberg’s book “Non-violent Communication” (I just got it!) —— 📝 Circumstances for brain development differs. Some have had positive experiences that others have been deprived of. Think about this before you judge. —— 📝 Parents, and mothers in particular, are getting less and less of the suppport they need during their children’s early years. This is a cultural breakdown of cataclysmical scale. —— 📝 “All problems are psychological, but all solutions are spiritual” —— 📝 “Only healthy nurturing relationships with adults will prevent kids from getting lost in the peer world. A loss of orientation that leads rapidly to drug use.” —— ⭐️ TAKEAWAY: Regardless of your degree of addiction or whether your drug of choice is heroin, TV, food or shopping - reading the stories and research presented in this book will help to shine a light on your own addictive tendencies. —— My struggles have been with nicotine and refined carbohydrates. What’s your addictions? 🤔😀 —— PS: The audiobook version of this book is excellent! —— 5/5 - Photo credit: @darcy_renea_lalimo

According to Jung, dreams carry an important role, and by interpreting their symbols we can get hints from our unconscious when the time has come to change attitudes and value systems in order to move to the next level of psychic maturity. —— Dreams are a bridge between the conscious and unconscious. —— This is my first encounter with Jungs work and certain parts of this book were some of the most intense and fascinating pages I’ve ever read. —— Each chapter is written by different authors, each with their own angle on Jungian psychology. Unfortunately all of them don’t live up to the high standards of the introductory chapter by Jung himself. —— 📝 “It takes a lot of courage to take the unconscious seriously and to tackle the problems it raises.” —— 📝 Archaic remnants: (Freud’s term) mental forms whose presence can’t be explained by anything in the individuals own life and which seem aboriginal, innate, and inherited shapes of the human mind. —— 📝 “A sense of a wider meaning to ones existence is what raises a man beyond mere getting and spending. If he lacks this sense, he is lost and miserable” —— 📝 Civilized Man: He can do what he sets out to do without chanting and drumming. Even daily prayer and divine aid is unnecessary. “His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names. They keep him on the run with relentless, vague apprehension, psychological complications, an insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, food -and, above all, a large array of neuroses. —— 📝 “If a man devoted himself to the instructions of his own unconscious, it can bestow this gift, so that suddenly life, which has been stale and full, turns into a rich, unending inner adventure, full of creative possibilities.” —— ⭐️ TAKEAWAY: I especially enjoyed reading about the individuation process and civilized vs. primitive man, and the archaic symbols of the original psyche. Initiation rites and the origin of rituals also had my full attention! —— Complex, uneven but a all-in-all fantastic book! —— 4/5

No book review this week due to stomach flue. 🤮 ———— But I thought I could share an update on what’s going into my mind these days! ———— 📖 “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts” - Gabor Maté, M.D. ———— Absolutely brilliant book about addition. Dr. Maté is sharing his experience working with addicts in Vancouver worst drug districts. His book provides us with a more sympathetic and informed view in addition. I can’t put it down! ———— 📖 “Man and his Symbols” - Jung & Co. ———— Less than 100 pages left. A truly great book, even though the part I’m at now, about modern art and symbolism has been quite a snooze. ———— 📖 “Transurfing” - Vadim Zeland ———— My antidote to the depressing feelings induced by Sebastian Jungers “Tribe”. Law of attraction and reality creation extravaganza. It’s “out there”, it kinda works, and it’s fun! 👌🏻 ———— 📖 “The Long Walk to Freedom” - Nelson Mandela ———— I have a hard time getting into this one for some reason. I just seem to choose Gabor Maté’s book over it every single time. ———— Enough about me - What I’m really interested to hear is what you guys and gals are reading? 😀🤔

This is not as much an experiment as it is a new experience for me. Framing it as an experiment makes it more fun though - so that’s what I did! --------------------------- The Lab Report - 004 - "Physical therapy" --------------------------- A while ago I got a painful sensation in my right shoulder. I’ve had muscle inflammation before but this was different. The went from a small notion and got worse with everyday instead of the other way around. --------------------------- When I complained about my situation to a colleague he said he had something similar and that his injury was chronic condition. This scared me and I sought help the next day. It turned out that it wasn’t the same thing, but it needed to be dealt with immediately or it could be. --------------------------- It was “impingement syndrome” - the runners knee of the cubical worker! The solution is tennis ball massage, awkward stretching and a full dose of ibuprofen. --------------------------- Short term effects: ⭐️ --------------------------- - The routine increases the pain before it starts to decrease. - Painkillers fuck up my stomach and I have to take additional medicine for that. --------------------------- Long term effects: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ --------------------------- - if you act fast and stick to the routine you’ll have great chances for full recovery. It worked for this case at least. --------------------------- Sustainability: ⭐️⭐️ --------------------------- - The stretch routine should be performed twice a day. Sounds simple, but it’s easy to forget. --------------------------- FINAL VERDICT: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ --------------------------- I have felt all 3 of Freud’s sources of human discontent this year. ‘The external environment’ (Swedish winter!), ‘other people’ (They are everywhere!) and lately the degeneration of ‘the aging body’ (my shoulder!). 😉 There is nothing fun about physical therapy but it’s awesome when it works! --------------------------- Where are you hurting? 🤔 --------------------------- Check out #poorbjornsexperiments for more Lab Reports!

“Tribe” started as an article for Vanity Fair and was later expanded on and turned into this book. It revolves around how at odds the structure of modern society is with our tribal instincts and how people directly, or indirectly, affected by war have problems readjusting to normal life. —— What really stuck with me with this book was how people in war torn nation look back on war with nostalgia. Many even preferring war times to what they are now experiencing. —— 📝 Genetic adaptation takes about 25000 years to accumulate in humans. —— 📝 Modern society perfected the art of making people feel unnecessary. “How do you become an adult in a society that doesnt ask for sacrifice?” —— 📝 People need 3 basic things in order to be content: - Feel competent in what they do. - Feel authentic in their lives. - Feel connected to others. —— 📝 Modern societies lack opportunity for the average man to show his commitment to his community. —— 📝 During war: suicides and depression rates goes down. Productivity goes up in bombarded cities. —— 💭 Thoughts: Apart from a feeling belonging and being an asset to society, I think there is one other aspect of war that is not talked about much in this book but that could be a factor in people missing war; people want to be told what to do! The endless possibilities of modern life is taxing on people. War limits opportunities. —- I myself don’t miss conflict, community or brotherhood. I feel like I belong and feel that I contribute. The book reminded me that I haven’t always felt this way and that a lot of people feel alienated in advanced societies. It’s weird how easy it is to forget how things ones where as your outlook on life evolves. ——- A bit of a depressing read - but good! -Now I need something completely different! ——- 4/5 —— Photocredit: @ashiorigami

Could it be that more we focus on finding and following our passions the more discontent we become with our work? Cal Newport makes an argument that you should throw passion aside and get really good first, then passion will follow! —— So what makes for an rewarding career? Room for creativity, Impact and Control are some important factors - and how do you attain that? You GIIIT GUUUUD at something rare and valuable! —— 📝 on Deliberate practice: “If you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably stuck at an “acceptable level”. —— 📝 on Craftsman mindset: Focuses relentlessly on what value you can offer the world. —— 📝 on Passion mindset: Focus on what the world can offer you. —— ⭐️ TAKEAWAYS: Make small bets. In the wake of Tim Farris “The 4-hour work week” tons of people quit their job to become bloggers with passive income streams from internet sites. Lifestyle design is cool and all, but many became disillusioned quickly and realize how hard it is to make money online. Make many small bets when you are transitioning into a new area of work instead of only one really big one.. Ask yourself what are people really willing to pay you for? And prove it. Some things will have to remain just a hobby. —— 🔸VERDICT —— This is the perfect book for someone who just starting his/her career. But for the ones of us that have 15-30 years of work experience have probably already learned these things (maybe even the hard way), and have less to gain from this book. If that’s the case, then then study these books and concepts instead: —— 📖 “Bhagavad Gita” about freedom from outcome. —— 📖 “Mastery” by Robert Greene about being persistent. —— 📖 “Outliers“ by Gladwell about deliberate practice. —— 3/5 —— What are you reading this week? 🤔

“Conduct experiments” is one of the pillars in my bio that hasn’t got the love it deserves from me lately. Let’s change that! --------------------------- The Lab Report - 003 - "Socks Sucks" --------------------------- The motto is that you are not allowed to complain about not having “enough time” until you have certain systems in place that removes unnecessary complexity. Ones those are in place, then at least you have tried your best - And automation and simplification of everyday task is a good place to start. --------------------------- Socks are a hassle - or to be more precise: to pair them is mindnumpingly boring and like all couples they break-up up, are gone for a whole and come back form new formation. --------------------------- The idea is simple: buy all your socks at the same time and stick to one model. Ones a few of them starts to get worn the rest will usually follow, then throw all of them away and fill up with new ones. Repeat. --------------------------- Short term effects: ⭐️⭐️ --------------------------- - Your closet become more bland. --------------------------- Long term effects: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ --------------------------- - You avoid decision-making-fatigue by removing small everyday choices. - Easy to do laundry. Pair however you want and you will still get a match. --------------------------- Sustainability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ --------------------------- - The drawback of having less variety can be remedied by having a small selection of colorful and cool on the side for special occasions. - Shop big and seldom. Easy! --------------------------- FINAL VERDICT: ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ --------------------------- - It just works! Easy to execute and sustain, but the positive impact is hard to measure. --------------------------- Check out #poorbjornsexperiments (then press “recent”) for more Lab Reports!

We have all seen a world record being broken. The athlete crosses the finish line and a new bar has been set. But you have also seen that the athlete is alive and moving. Which means he/she had more to give! —— What sets the limit of human endurance? Is it mental or physical? What is the absolute limit given we found the perfect athlete and perfect condition? These are some of the questions this book tries to answer. —— Some notes: —— 📝 Expectations matter! How many tries you know you have to do something impact how you pace yourself. Even if you’re told to do your max for each rep. —— 📝 Gabrselassie (marathon champ) sweats up to 3.6 Liters/hour. —— 📝 The extraction of mindfulness from it’s Buddhist context began in the 1970’s with Jon Kanbat-Zinn. —— 📝 Central governor, Anticipatory regulation, Pacing instinct - it goes by many names - basically, the theory that the brain stops us from running ourselves to death. —— 📝 Pain in training leads to a higher threshold for pain. High intensity training heightens your pain tolerance while medium intensity doesn’t. —— 📝 Experiment shows that seeing a smiling face, even subliminally, induces a sense of ease. —— ⭐️ Takeaway: Nr.1 advice (except training) is to presue motivational self talk training. Cuz it really works! Training is the cake and believing is the icing. —— 🔸Verdict:🔸 My second favorite book with a title that starts with “endure”. 😉 Well, that wasn’t a helpful measuring stick. Haha. To be fair, it’s a good book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to people that don’t have a special interest in human performance and endurance. You need a bit of passion to stay focused with all the data being presented. Spoiler: all the conclusions are: “it’s unclear”, “we have to wait for the final data” or “its complicated.” But I rather have that, than oversimplification. —— What’s my favorite book that starts with “endure”? “Endurance” by Lansing! About captain Shackleton’s amazing polar expedition. High stakes endurance! 👌🏻 —— 3/5

Recent Posts

Thoughts on: “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts” by Gabor Maté 20 May, 2018
Thoughts on: “Man and his Symbols” by Carl Jung & Co 13 May, 2018
A reading update! All over the place as usual! 10 May, 2018
Lab Report: Physical Therapy 1 May, 2018
Thoughts on: “Tribe” by Sebastian Junger 27 April, 2018

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