The Get Out of the Familiar Past Workout

Good Morning, my friends! It has been a long time since I have worked on the website, but I am making a comeback! The post this week will include my workout schedule, some things I have been doing to get out of my “Familiar Past/Predictable Future” cycle, and it is all about making a comeback after being stuck in the negative. I have had some setbacks that put me back into a very negative place in life, but a setback is a setup for a comeback. To start off a new week on the positive, this is the Workout of the Week. This is The Get Out of the Familiar Past Workout!

“The first step to change is starting to think about the things you have been thinking about”

Dr. Joe Dispenza

Wow, it’s been a long time since I have worked on the website! Do I even remember how to make a post? I have been out of practice for a long time. Well here goes nothing…

Familiar Past

I have spent the last few years living in what Dr. Joe Dispenza calls “the familiar past”. The familiar past is basically a low-frequency state where people get stuck in reactionary responses to circumstances in their world. It becomes like a computer program that repeats itself and we get addicted to the emotional rush of traumatic experiences. Then, even though the experience is over, we relive it constantly. The rush of energy and emotions can unconsciously make people addicted to them. We start reliving the past in our minds and get caught in a loop of that negative energy.

Dr. Joe says 95% of our thoughts are subconscious programs. They repeat without us consciously telling them to.

This is the Place I Have Been Stuck

Listening to Dr. Joe’s message made me realize that this is the life I have been living for well over two years. I started in this cycle before the Covid 19 pandemic but has been magnified by the isolation and loneliness I felt during parts of the pandemic.

I let some past events dictate my life and have been stuck reliving them in my head. Despite the fact that the events have been long over with, and the threats from them are long gone, I have relived them in my head too many times to count. I started expecting and looking for similar events which bring the old events back into my brain, thus recreating those negative experiences all over again, and again, and again.

It is like a computer program that runs every day, where the body has been conditioned emotionally to expect trauma. This creates stress hormones. Those hormones create a rush of energy. People get addicted to and then constantly expect and seek negativity to feel that rush because it is something known. That’s been me! 🙁

Familiar Past = Predictable Future

Part of the reason this happens is that the future can be scary. We do not know what the future holds. There are risks in the unknown. The human brain is wired to avoid risk. Thus, we cling to the things of the familiar past in order to get what we hope will be a predictable future where at least we know the risks. Then we get stuck in the loop and don’t move into the unknown of new future possibilities, even though those unknown possibilities could be exactly what we really want or need.

Getting Out of This Cycle

How do I get out of this cycle?

• Refuse to be a victim of circumstance
• Start embracing the unknown of the future
• Find strength by confronting challenges
• Stop sabotaging potential with expectations
• Think greater than you feel
• Bring awareness to thoughts and actions
• Understand that life is suffering, but that suffering is far worse without a meaningful purpose and meaningful relationships
• Exercise
• Eat clean
• Work on discipline
• Meditate
• Positive Media
  • List of the media I have been consuming lately below
    • The Positive Mindset Podcast on Spotify
    • Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty on Audile
    • Motivational videos on YouTube
    • Yoga With Adriene

This Week’s Workout Schedule

HIRT Circuits

HIRT = High-Intensity Resistance Training.

The gym where I live has many weight machines. I have been using them to do HIRT Circuits. For HIRT reps, I pick a machine, do a smaller number of reps at a high weight, then without a break lower the weight and do a higher number of reps on the same machine. As an example, do 8 reps on the chest press machine at 120lbs, then drop the weight to 80lbs and immediately do 15 more reps on the bench press machine. To do HIRT Circuits, you do your reps on one machine, then take about a 30-second to 1-minute break, move to the next machine, and do 8 reps at a higher weight, immediately followed by 15 reps at a lower weight. Do this pattern at all the weight machines to complete the circuit. I have been doing a chest press, pec fly, seated row, tricep extension, and bicep curls. I will be doing this routine on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

Spin Bike

I will be riding my spin bike Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Yoga

I will be doing a Yoga With Adriene video every day this week.

Heavy Bag Tabatas

See past posts on the site for Heavy Bag Tabata workouts.

I will be doing this workout Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Meditation

I will be working on Meditation every day. I am not an experienced meditator, so I am trying it for about 10 minutes a day to start. There are many great guided mediation videos on YouTube. These are helpful for me and people who are not very experienced in practicing mediation.

Wrap It Up

HEY!!! I did it! My first new post in a long time. I want to thank everyone for reading. I feel like in writing this post I am finding what has been missing in my life over the last couple of years. I will be working to continue the momentum I have started with this one. I am getting back to my purpose. It is time to get out of my “familiar past/predictable future” cycle and time to start living my purpose again! It is time for me to pull myself up, brush myself off, and get back to being me! I am writing my life every day with my thoughts, words, and actions. And it is time I started being the hero in this story again. This post was step one. Now it’s time to keep walking by continuing to take the next step.

If you have been struggling with things lately, I hope this post and some of the ideas and media shared will help you!

Thanks again for reading. Thanks to all the awesome free media providers out there who inspired this post – like Dr. Joe Dispenza and Yoga With Adriene.

Until next week, be the hero or heroine in your story!