To the aspiring learner that had the carpet yanked from under their feet
Let’s begin with a breathing exercise
Inhale from your belly not the lungs. Exhale for a long time…count to four and continuously exhale the CO2 while counting to four. Pause breathing…don’t inhale, count to 4…now inhale while counting to 4…hold it for a count of 4 and exhale ever so slowly…empty out all of the air in your lungs…it’s a long count of 4.
The above is known as Box breathing. Inhale (count to 4), hold breath (count to 4), exhale count of 4, delay inhaling by a count of 4.
OK, now that did the reading part, let’s actually practice this. First Step indeed.
You are in charge of your daily agenda
Interesting how even unstructured data (images) needs to become structured (1s and 0s) for machine learning to render any predictions. And so now, all of a sudden, our structure of commuting to work/school, lunching around lunch-time, an afternoon exercise, team sport, yoga class and the commute home has been upended. You got to build some structure in your newly unstructured canvas called a day that deals with people but from a distance. And more importantly, that it works for you.
So while we are exercising social distancing, which I admit, is super hard to endure…there are some saving graces we can do with this new normal.
- As soon as you wake up drink a glass of water you brought to your bedside the night before. It’s a smidgen jarring chugging that glass of water first thing upon waking up before you head to the bathroom…just say yes!
- Go for a walk every day. It has to live on your calendar otherwise it won’t happen. Every day say at 11:00 AM until 11:45AM. Nature is going to be your companion in this walk. You pick your walking period. Of course, if raining hard or snowing sideways, it may require schedule adjustments; however, the movement (even if it is going up and down the stairs in your house until you start to break a sweat) has to be a daily event because you said so; It is your decree.
- Wake up and go to bed at the same time…even on weekends.
- Caution: being home generally means not much moving and a dangerously close-by refrigerator or snack cabinet. I’m worried by the time summer rolls around my shorts from last summer may be too tight around the waist!
- Unless you are body building, delay breakfast until after your walk. I recommend, picking a window of 8 hours where you do any and all eating…the other 16 hours is zero calories. This means black coffee in the AM….but, that’s not happening for me…I need the full-fat milk and the maple syrup in mine.
Exercise the grey matter. I have three suggestions:
- If you have not started or stopped journaling, now is the time to start. You need to record these times. This new normal will one day be an interesting read.
- And here is: https://cognitiveclass.ai/courses. The cool thing about cognitiveclass is that in less than handful of hours, for zero cost, you can earn a badge and add that to your LinkedIn and other social media platforms. The diploma gets the hiring manager’s attention, the micro-credentials (badges/certificates) gets you the interview.
- Learn about data science and artificial intelligence. These two topics are now inseparable. See my previous blog when standing at the podium and lecturing to more than 10 people in one place was the right thing to do. A good place to start for the young ones may be right here: https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/#!/welcome and for the AI enthusiasts, let me suggest this site: https://developer.ibm.com/patterns/
As the hours and the days roll by bear the following in mind: 1) Take this newly found solitude time to build the best relationship with yourself; 2) Exercise gratitude. See how I made that word a hyperlink…go there, read Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s reckoning; and 3) we are all in this together. Even the late-night shows are filmed from the host’s backyard. News casters from around the globe are broadcasting from their dining room table, this is not happening just to you and me.
….oh and should the social distancing curb your enthusiasm as it has done to me, I would love to hear how you are structuring/coping with WFH (working from home) or SFH (schooling from home). Personally, I’m thinking a second walk today followed by the joy of cooking. I can hear the tummy growling right about now, but I’m going to hang in there…after my second mini walk!
