This was a saying often repeated in the Marines while running and gasping for air.
Now, Marines are stubborn, egotistical, cultish people, usually emotionally stunted except for a few possibly negative emotions.
What can you expect from those that willingly call themselves crayon eaters?
Seriously though, my time in Marines was great for what it was, but it did it’s damage and I am still sorting it out today. I learned a lot and it gave me tools to understand myself and the world I wouldn’t have received from anywhere else.
Like the title of this post.
Look good, feel good, am good.
Often sung loudly at 530 in the morning to remind us why we were up running at 530 in the morning. It reminded us of our discipline, and how by working on our bodies we were working on our esteem and self-worth, of how if you are happy with your physical manifestation in the world you will feel better about yourself, at least in one way.
It didn’t make hungover zero-dark-thirty runs in nylon booty shorts any more fun though.
It has stuck with me, like many of the repeated sayings did, and it still influences me today, reminding me that I have the power to change my habits, and to change how I see the world in an overall pretty crappy situation, like the aforementioned fun runs.
Do I wake up a 0530 to run? Not usually, but with two young kids I will likely have to start claiming morning hours as my own here pretty soon. Especially if I want to keep up with my little gremlins as they get older and want to play soccer, or run with me.
So, what can we gain from this?
Work on yourself. Every day, at least a little. Get your repetition in. Don’t shy away from the stuff that sucks, make it tolerable, if not fun.
Learn to love yourself, work on your flaws, and find joy in the work.
Nature is the non-human world of earth, animals, plants, waters, sky, and beyond. It is also the inherent features of something. So, we can say that the inherent features of the world are the non-human nature. Of course, there is also human nature, which is all of those things, but focusing on humans.
So, how do we connect to the inherent features of the non-human world?
We use the ALBRT method – awareness, label, bond, repeat, time. Remember, ALBRT Einstein is a connection almost all of us have.
Awareness
First is awareness of things – learning or allowing yourself to actually see the world. Awareness exercises and practices abound, but they all come down to helping you see things you normally wouldn’t have, expanding your world view.
Mindfulness is great to help you become aware of your human nature and your mind, to become the observer instead of actor, but to get past our physical body and into the world, we need to learn to see differently, to hear differently, to focus differently – to see the world as a tourist sees a new destination.
A simple awareness exercise is that, just like a tourist stepping into a new area, look around when you go through a doorway (or any other trigger), try to notice 5 new things. Try to do this from where you are now.
I’m at my desk and I notice:
a pile of green, blue, and white dice from my weekly TTRPG game bringing lots of memories
a screaming goat toy my kid got for me (now I’m smiling at this because it is a ridiculous thing and I love it)
a carved wooden spoon a good friend made for me
two stones: a white one and a dark gray one from opposite sides of a river valley in the mountains.
The white granite stone is from the North Cascades mountain range, and the dark grey rock is from the central cascades mountain range.
The river runs between where the north cascades was made from terrane accretion and the middle cascades was made when the crust uplifted, bent, and tilted the cascade plateau, which itself was made by hundred to thousands of feet of lava flows from the last time Yellowstone erupted.
Each of these objects, like everything else in the world, has a story. It is up to us to find it, to take interest in it, to make a connection. Doing so will help us feel more grounded, more belonging, and more contentment in life. I feel more content and happy, just from seeing these things I view as friends, or at least as reminders of friends and places.
Label
After becoming aware of something, as humans, we need to be able to refer to it in some way, it helps our brains memorize and relate to information. So, we need to do a bit of research and find something neat, interesting, or exciting about that thing.
Emotions help us retain memories – the stronger the emotion, the stronger the memory. In marine corps basic training, when we would mess up on something, the drill instructors would punish us with grueling physical workouts and remind us that “pain retains.”
Whether they were talking about pain of body from exertion or pain of emotions of strong dislike towards the DI, I’ll never know. Likely both.
We need to open our curiosity about the new thing, learn a bit, and find something interesting since this engages emotion (excitement), rewards our curiosity (dopamine), and provides novelty (dopamine). It is also a bit like knowing a secret – it is exciting.
This helps anchor our awareness of the thing even deeper and we will be more likely to notice the thing again next time we encounter it. It starts to form a bond.
Bond
Forming a bond to the things you are aware of was started by becoming aware of and learning about the thing.
Some cultures had concepts of these bonds as somewhat tangible entities, like Aka cords from the Hawaiian Huna culture, The Web of Wyrd in some Norse beliefs, shamanic spirit threads, new age etheric cords, soul ties in some christian beliefs, ley lines, Jungian collective consciousness, field theory….
It seems that having a concept of connection is important to lots of different humans – it is in our nature. So, how do we strengthen these bonds? Intentional repetition of acknowledgement and deepening our understanding of the thing.
Repetition
Repetition is key to human learning, and what is learning if not connecting deeper with something? So, we need to repeat the process of being aware, acknowledging the label, and strengthening the bond.
Whenever we encounter the thing, or a very similar thing, like learning about a new type of tree, then seeing that same type of tree across town in another park, we can allow ourselves to be excited! to relish in that connection, and to spout useless nature facts to our unsuspecting friends – after all, that will strengthen our bond with them too.
Time
And all this takes time. If you can, setting up intentional spaced repetition can go a long way towards learning a new thing and forming a new bond. It can feel artificial to some people though, but feel free to try it out.
Otherwise, just repeating the same process of becoming aware or noticing the thing, labeling it, solidifying your bond through remembering your cool fact or performing your trigger over a period of time will will help you connect deeply to the world around you.
Now that you have become AWARE of this ALBRT concept, you Einstein you, you’ve LEARNED a bit about it, hopefully enough to form a BOND. Now, it is up to you to REPEAT using it to create new connections to the world over TIME.
