- The Summit
- Posts
- T.H.U.R.S. #7
T.H.U.R.S. #7
Making Time, Sleep, Lady Mac
Gabriel Mira
September 19, 2024
Hola and welcome to The Summit, my biweekly newsletter where I share my unfiltered thoughts on navigating the peaks and valleys of adulthood.
My mission is to question everything, grow every day and have fun along the way. The Summit’s mission is to invite you to do the same.
Today: T.H.U.R.S. #7
Thoughts:
Something light: Make time for the activities you love.
I saw this journalling prompt the other day that got me thinking:
What activities makes me lose track of time? Am I doing enough of them?
For me, the answer is competitive sports. Not game 7 type of competitive but just friendly competition with your mates. It could be basketball, pickleball or soccer… anything really. But I hardly ever make time for it.
This thought is nothing profound, just a reminder to make time for the activities you love. If you don’t make time, there won’t be time.
After writing this, I walked down to the park with a ball and put on some shots. Before I knew it, an hour had passed, and I was lovin’ it. Make the time!!!
Something heavy: Lessons from a 5000-year-old tree.
I stumbled across this story last week, which I haven't been able to verify anywhere, so maybe it's just a metaphor – but I still think it's great!
There was tree in North America. A great and mighty tree that lived over 5000 years. This tree withstood almost everything: storms, lightning, tornadoes, droughts, fire, everything! But what ultimately took down this mammoth, was a swarm of little beetles. These beetles were able to get inside the tree and eat it from the inside out, killing the tree in less than a year...
So, what's the message? Like this tree, us humans can withstand many horrific things. Whether it is losing a loved one, facing battles with health or even experiencing physical injury – we can stay standing, or at least get back up. But what can really knock us down, quickly, are bad habits. Habits that consistently, day in day out, consume us from the inside out.
My interpretation: it's not one big hit that will take us out, it's the compounding 'bites' of negative self-talk and poor mental health that will knock us to the canvas. So, be aware of what you're feeding yourself!
Highlights:
My favourite thing I learnt this week: Losing two hours of sleep is lot more than you realise.
In a blog post a couple of weeks ago, my good mate Elliott shared a really interesting insight about sleep:
On a podcast episode of ‘Huberman Labs’ with Dr Matt Walker, they dove into the science of sleep (I know right so sexy). This is where I heard this gem: Say you normally go to bed at 12 am and wake up at 8 am. But one day you have to get up at 6 am. So, you think "It’s not so bad I can lose 2 hours sleep, I'll be fine". Well, not really. You might be fine. But you are losing more sleep than you think. On the surface sleeping 6 hours instead of 8 is a 25% loss of sleep. However, due to how our sleep cycles work we lose a lot more. In fact, (for this example) it would be close to 50-75% loss in quality of sleep.
So maybe think a bit more before playing that next episode on Netflix and sacrificing those couple hours of precious sleep ;)
If you want to read more of his work (you totally should) you can see more and subscribe here:
Uplift:
Something uplifting that I stumbled across and want to share:
I found another ‘Summit’ 🤣. Still not quite used to seeing these around everywhere (I do like their logo though)!
Reflect:
A question I asked myself this week:
❓️How can I cut down my screen my time? Why is it rising!?!?
💁♂️Put the phone down… (not very helpful I know).
💁♂️Re-read what I wrote a few months ago: Idle Time.
Summit:
A challenge I set myself: Summit Lady Macdonald.
This week, I summitted my favourite mountain yet, and it was a killer! 1240 metres gain over about 6kms up 😵💫. The final section was a traverse across a narrow and very scary ridgeline - I loved it! Mum seems to think I have a bit of an adrenalin problem, what do you think?
Lady Mac Final Traverse
The challenge this week: Join a run club in Canmore.
While this may sound easy, this is their upcoming run:
Difficulty: easy!?!? These people are built different. Wish me luck 🫠.
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share it with a friend who might also enjoy it; and if you’re the friend, feel free to subscribe here 🙃!
As always, if you have any feedback, you can respond to this email! I’d love to hear what you think :)
Reply