.

oof .

.

Adaptation

While training with Dim from Montreal he taught me "if you know you can make a jump, you have to." Of course safety is always in mind, but there are so many things besides safety that can turn us away from something we know we can do. If we can better observe the situation with the goal to better understand what we are capable of then we allow for further gains in the process of adaptation.

It's this process of adaptation to our environment that is a key element of Parkour. We take things that are hard and train them until they are easy, and in this way we grow. This method is not exclusive to parkour, it can be applied to all aspects of our lives. The goal of this experiment is to modify the mental environment to encourage adaptation.

It goes to say that these mental jumps, the ones that we know we're capable of, should be taken in stride. If we seek challenge, and do only things that make us stronger, and understand that we can learn from all things and so become stronger, we become infinitely capable. The only risk is that we might learn something.

"You only learn when you're uncomfortable." We can grow from this constant search for challenge, to bring discomfort towards our understanding. The adaptation is what we've achieved when we overcome confrontation, wherever we may find it. The goal is to (paradoxically) seek peace in chaos.



Let us become adept at adaptation,
to look for opportunities to leap in any direction
(and understand that every moment is an opportunity)
and in so to always strive

to find peace in chaos .



Stay Positive
Be Proactive

Love

-Jesse

Adaptation

You're great, this is easy!

You: are great. This: is easy



So in talking with Bryan about some aspects of my previous mindset I mentioned the self-degradation as a means of encouragement, essentially telling myself that I sucked, that whatever I was doing was too hard, and then I would strive to prove myself wrong.

Through the search for eternal energy I now believe the answer is in proactive positivity. Instead of proving myself wrong, I now believe in proving myself right. Just saying this in the middle of a tough time brings a smile to my face, so I hope this message can spread to everyone.

Be proactive
Stay Positive

Love

You're great, this is easy!

Jesse week 1

Insight
Slow start but I'm moving in to some perfect days for it.

Physical:Learn to Juggle
I've only messed around with this so far, but it's growing in my mind.

Structural:visualize/meditate nightly
I've been meditating, trying to focus in and focus out. Looking to talk to Rick about the techniques he's learned.

Mental:Write left handed
I've been writing left handed, funny enough the handwriting looks the same or better than before I tried to improve it with my right hand the first month. It's so counter-intuitive though, it's mentally jarring just thinking about it, so I try not to.

Social:Don't be late
I had chosen for this to be a daily letter, and that is symbiotic with learning to write with my left hand, but I decided today while I was on my way to being ten minutes late or so that I would make it a point this month to be on time to all appointments.

Musical:Get video of my songs/words
No videos yet, but I did write a new poem, so I'm looking to get that up

Creative:Draw something daily
Drew plans for obstacles today, left handed!

Jesse week 1

April Fools

This month The Change Experiment will be thinking differently by becoming a collaborative effort between Jesse Danger of New York and Bryan Augstein of Baltimore. We will be challenging each-other to pursue our respective challenges, and using the collaboration to push each other to challenge our paradigms.

Jesse's Challenges:
Physical:Learn to Juggle
Structural:visualize/meditate nightly
Mental:Write left handed
Social:Write 1 letter daily
Musical:Get video of my songs/words
Creative:Draw something daily

Bryan's Challenges:
Physical:Learn to Juggle
Structural:Wake up immediately
Mental:Read 2 book/week from a different literary period
Social: Create and maintain a Facebook
Musical:Play the Sax (20 mins daily)
Creative:Learn a new origami creation daily

April Fools

Marching Along

Insight:
There is no peace you can find anywhere you go that was not with you to begin with.

More insight to come to sum up the month, soon : )

Challenge Wrap-up

Culinary: Bake 7 loaves of bread a week.

Tried some spiced Loaf, but didn't pay too much care:


Left this in the oven for about an hour too long:


Getting back into the groove with it:


Good spread:


Soggy Oggy with some fresh bread:


Probably my best tasting loaf yet:


This is something that I will be taking with me through my life, with a little time, not many ingredients and not too much attention paid I can make a damn fine loaf of bread now. This is a great example to me of something that seemed daunting becoming almost effortless.

Musical: Listen to 5 new bands

kitsunenoir - Great weekly mixes every Friday

The Antlers

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Miike Snow - good trying on clothes music

Goddamn Electric Bill

Nujabes His music lives on

These are some of the ones I've enjoyed^. I need to continue to try to listen to new music, but really listen to it, give it a chance.

Physical: No shoes
Trying to remove shoes when possible.

Shoes are evil, our feet are tremendously receptive to the world.

Structural: Workout before breakfast
Some good workouts with it.


When I work out early in the morning it gives me a jump start to the day, I have energy through it.

If I make myself a nice breakfast and tell myself I've got to workout before eating it then it becomes a lot easier to make it happen.

Creative: Create one thing
Leap Shirt:


My message to you:


This month with this challenge I've created more than I have in a long time. Perfectionism masked as 'standards' stops creation. We've all got a certain amount of bad art in us, we need to get it out to get to the good stuff!

Mental: Watch a TED talk


Ken Kamler speaks about the 1996 Everest Disaster. I've read this from Krakauer's and Visteur's point of view but his is different, and more than incredible in it's own respect

I've learned some amazing things, and it's always important to remember that we can change the world, the people out there are solving problems that wouldn't be thought possible to solve.

Social: Random Acts of Kindness
Started adding (Pass it on) to the notes I hand out.

Handed out "You're Beautiful, never forget it" and "You're great, this is easy"

How can we positively effect the world in our everyday life, how can we let others now that the world cares, that there is good and truth and beauty.

Marching Along

"Subject to Change"

Insight
If there's good in all things then it's our job to find it!

This goes further to say that it's healthy to look for it places we haven't, and keep looking until we know for sure it's there. The world is an amazing place.

Culinary: Bake 7 loaves of bread a week.
Rye Flour and Caraway seed with some dill, needs to be refined, not the flour but the loafmaking



Musical: Listen to new bands
The Welfare Poets
A couple of Cornell students that came together to rhyme for a good cause. I stumbled across this in my search for do good fun events around NY. They rhyme for a reason.

Physical: No shoes
No shoes

Structural: Workout before breakfast
Crumby workout then good bread, will be looking to scratch that and reverse it.

Creative: Create one thing

I've been making some ambigrams, they need work but I kind of like them.
"ENDUr3"


"LOVE HATE"


"LEAP"


I think the Leap one turned out the best.


Mental: Watch a TED talk
Woody Norris talks about the amazing things he's invented and his interesting approach to invention. It's really pretty cool, and he's a good talker.

Social: Random Act of Kindness
I've taken to folding cranes again, I don't know if anyone sees them and smiles, but to me this is nondestructive graffiti, only positivity turning just a piece of paper into something that enriches the beauty of our world.

"Subject to Change"