Welcome to Monday Mastery, my weekly newsletter where I share insights into mastering your mind, body and soul to live a stronger, happier and longer life.
What's in store today
- Facing your issues to overcome them
- How to evaluate your progress
- A Conditioning workout to challenge yourself
Monday Mastery is brought to you by Arthur Sylense Coaching
We guide and mentor clients from all backgrounds, whether that be true beginner or advanced professional athletes to reach their highest physical potential.
If you're not happy with your current shape, or have a lofty physique goal you want to hit, its time to get personalised, private coaching so that you can elevate your career, success and mindset.
Click here to apply for coaching. There are limited spaces each month, so don't delay.
The only way out, is in.
Humans suffer. That is a fact of life, an inescapable fat it seems. Our lives are driven by the core, primal urge to move away from what we don't like - to resist that which causes us pain. Seems logical, doesn’t it? totally reasonable. Of course, we resist pain, hurts, bad emotions, and unwanted situations.
To resist pain implies we seek pleasure (or a state of non-pain) but this very act of unacceptance of what is happening, in favour of a preferred future experience IS ITSELF suffering.
The act of resisting pain is further pain, the more you label something as bad, the worse it feels. The more you push it away, the more fuel you give it to burn.
It’s kind of like a high school bully. They thrive on reactions. They will call you all sorts of names, hoping to get under your skin and cause a reaction. The more you react, the harder they go. If you flip the script on them, if you agree with what they call you, truly show that it doesn’t bother you then they have no fight in the game. The whole point was to make you feel bad, if you don’t feel bad, bullying you just isn’t the same.
We are being bullied by our emotions. The bad one’s poke as us, looking for a reaction. When people come to mediate with the goal of reducing their suffering, they often come with the view that mediation is the practice of removing negative emotions.
it is not.
Mediation is not about escaping your reality.
It’s about changing your relationship to it.
If you push your problems away, you still carry you reactions and aversion to those problems wherever you go. You are still the same, and when those feelings or problems return - and they will - the same old pattern will emerge.
Mediation is about facing your problems head on. You notice the 'problem' and disentangle it from all the reactions, stories, images and feelings you have added to it.
You see that YOU have added a multitude of extra sensations ON TOP of the initial sensation which you labelled 'bad' - even the label 'bad' is an extra sensation which is not part of the first sensation.
If you face and accept your feelings, emotions, and problems - their power over you will drastically diminish.
Paradoxically the more you accept them, the more power and freedom you have to let them go.
Face. Accept. Allow. Let go.
Reality is a self-correcting entity - like flowing water always going down. If you release the dam, the water will flow. If you hold onto a dam of resistance - the water will build up, become stagnant and cause all sorts of issues.
Face your bodies issues
In order to make a change with your body, you must get crystal clear on its current state. You want it to change and you really don't like fteling way you do. I get it. Our bodies are charged with emotion, when we want a better body, we want it NOW.
This urge to change is good if used for motivation but it can lead to poor training and diet choices. In running from our negative feelings we try to achieve success as fast as possible, which often leads us to trying drastic diets, or overly intense training programs that we aren't ready for.
We don't want to accept how far we have fallen off and so we sprint before we can walk.
Positive physical change is a step by step process, based entirely on where you are starting from.
You must be totally honest with your current level of fitness.
If you have spent 10 years walking into a dark forest, you aren't going to walk out of it in 1 month are you ?
If you are starting in very poor shape, with a bad diet and destructive health habits, it does you no good to jump on an advanced training program, eat like a pro bodybuilder and cut out every bad habit all at once.
It will suck, you will feel bad and get demotivated when you don't live up to your super high goals.
The key is to evaluate your current state (you can have a free coaching call with me) and construct a solid, long term plan to slowly and steadily build yourself up.
You must be brutally honest about your fitness level, diet and motivation / will power
These are all skills that take time to build up.
To kick start building up your mindset and willpower - try this cardio challenge workout
Set a timer for 5 minutes
Perform as many rounds as you can of
- 20 burpees
- 20 jumps squats
- 20 v-up sit ups
Log down how many rounds / reps you get.
Now you may only get 1 round. You may not even complete a round. You give up before the timer. That's OK.
Next week, do it again and beat your log by at least 1 rep (if you're feeling it - go for more!)
Don't beat yourself up for starting in a poor place. You're reading this which means you have the intention of improving yourself - that's half the battle!
All you have to do is show up and do ONE rep more. Then you've won.
It doesn't matter if you started at 50 reps or 5 - if you do one more than YOU did last time - you won.
And you can win every day, week, month and year.
Step by step you can walk yourself out of that dark forrest you got yourself into.
Client of the week
Jack is a stunt performer who was coming off a bad injury to his shoulder.
In 4 months we rehabbed his shoulder back to health and helped him gain 10lbs of muscle whilst leaning down to his best shape ever.
He's now performing at his best level yet.
If you want to improve your physique to elevate your health, career and mindset - click here.
“The impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way.” - Marcus Aurelius
The obstacles that stand in our way are the very things that cause the most growth and learning. It is often problems that we face that cause us to learn and adjust, leading us down a better path.
Do not resist your problems. Lean into them and learn.
Have a great week,
Arthur
If you're ready, here are some ways I can help -
- Apply for personalised online coaching - the absolute best way to guarantee you reach all of your physique goals.
- Purchase my training ebook - a thorough guide on how to build muscle and lose fat - just £10
- Follow me on instagram for daily tips and advice. Feel free to shoot me DM question, I always try to answer every one !
