Day 23 — Power Ups, Hacks, & Cheat Codes. The Way of the Super Froth Bear — Part 1
Blogtober — Day 23… “what will be, will be…”
The Way of The Super Froth Bear attitude is,
“Power Up, Team Up, Show Up.”
Today I struggled with writing and decided to channel the SFB attitude and just show up.
So today, rather than skipping to writing about showing up, I’m going to knuckle down on writing on powering up. This is after I’ve done breathwork, dancing and singing to music, myofascial released me legs, neck and back, played (some Tetris), and teamed up with my business coach to plan the next phase of Super Froth Bear Entreprises.
So what does ‘power up’ mean to you? What does it mean to me?
Well, think along the lines of video games and you’ll quickly get the gist.
Think Super Mario Kart.
Even the greatest control pad gods who can handle their character’s vehicle to perfection were soon out matched and outplayed by those who accessed power ups. Coins along the road increased the horsepower of the engine and thus increased speed. An average driver with a full stock of coins would now be at least competitive against skilled drivers who didn’t know this power up.
The analogy here is sleep. Sleep is the coin which we deposit into our brain, body, heart and mind’s bank account. The deeper and longer we sleep, the more ready our biology is to perform at peak, for longer, while handling greater and more complexity too. Some might also say water… of course course oxygen is right up there hey?! Food. I know I know. But more on that later though.
Super Mario Kart also provided added pwoer ups like speed boost, shells shoot at to crush opponents, banana peels to leave in your wake for training racers to spin out on, even a feather to jump objects and people…
…and of course the coveted INVINCIBILITY STAR!!
Now pit two Mario Karters (new word?) with full coins against each other and then you’ll see some fireworks… who has the speed boost and uses it at the exact right time to steal the race? Who saves their red shell to home in on someone right up front and jump a place in the standing? These power ups generally came around twice per round. Unfortunately it’s pot luck what power up you’re given… then it’s about making the best choice with what you’re given. Sounds like life hey? ;-)
As I think about it, that twice per round is kinda like perfect metaphor for daily power up schedules .
We regularly use a majority of power ups in the morning to enhance our capacity to team up (play well) and show up (get *hard* shit done). The more effective our power ups are, the better we’ll play with others and the larger challenges we’ll take on. According to the SuperBetter program, (morning) power ups can be broken into physical, mental, social, and emotional. (I’d add the environment as that’s crucial for influencing all other four power ups too).
As we awake we’ve been sleeping for ours (or not) and we need to speed boost our brains, breath and body to on ramp into the day.. running with the human race!! Caffeine is the numero uno for power ups.
What we often forget to do is have that ‘down ramp’… “Power Downs” provide us greater recovery, restoration and regrouping from sleep.
Science shows we need to lower our heart rates, lower our body temperature, and reduce as much sensory stimuli as possible to enhance the maximum power up boost we can get from sleep.
Sleep is truly the ultimate power up. Hands down.
We can use all the other power ups like exercise, meditation, play, gaming, sports, breathwork, drawing, etc but a continually growing sleep debt will mean all power ups lose their effectiveness… and greater sleep actually enhances the effect of our power ups.
Power downs at the end of the day can be slow resonance breathwork, turning down all the lights and even using soft red lights in the home, warm showers (which actually help reduce body temperature), taking some magnesium, playing some slow Tetris, reading poetry, sex, etc.
These power downs enhance slow wave sleep which is where the majority of our growth hormone, the youth hormone emerges and restores our tired and weary bones, muscles and brains. SWS sleep is when our brains clean itself with cerebrospinal fluid so our brains are cleared of fog, gunk, bunk and funky funk.
Brain fog begone!!
The great thing about power ups and power downs is we can borrow or steal from others. Like Megaman used to do. He’d defeat the end level boss and gain his skill to use from that level on. Unlike MegaMan though, we don’t need to defeat others.. we can simply mimic, learn from observing, and trial out those power ups which others have found valuable for them. In the day and age of YouTube the power ups and power downs available to us are overhwelming. Here’s one of the best.
Many people are going deep and getting into The Wim Hof Method..
It is a combination of breathwork, cold exposure and mindset training. Wim is definitely a boss, mega-super-hyper-champion edition boss who’s world records are incredible. No one needed to defeat him… in fact he’s openly sharing his method with the world to help us all power up so we can better team up, and show up.
The ultimate reason for powering up is to be a better teammate, who can show up and fight the daily battles with honour, dignity, composure, focus, dedication, creativity and guile.
- What are your power ups?
- How often do you use them?
- Do you have any power ups which are now just kinda sorta habits which don’t really fire you up?
- How’s your power downs going?
I’ll continue with articles on Teaming Up and Showing Up… though my focus and practice is largely centred on Powering Up… but sometimes our batteries are empty, and that’s when we really need our tribe, community and partners to carry us.
