All posts tagged: Mindfulness

The Pace of Presence

The Pace of Presence

Published by Trotzendorff

In Octo­ber last year, when my Achilles ten­don had final­ly made its opin­ion known, I found myself in a park in Cologne. I was­n’t run­ning. I was jog­ging, slow­ly, with my eyes cov­ered and one hand light­ly rest­ing on the arm of some­one guid­ing me. We were part of a work­shop for sight­ed run­ning guides—learn­ing how to help blind and visu­al­ly impaired run­ners move safe­ly, con­fi­dent­ly, freely. It was hum­bling. I was there to learn how to guide. But at that moment, I need­ed guid­ance myself.

Beyond Resolutions: Why I Have no Idea Where This Progress is Coming From

Published by Trotzendorff

New Year’s res­o­lu­tions are a curi­ous thing. Lucky for me, I don’t real­ly need them to aim for more or less in my life. For instance, I don’t have to push myself to exer­cise; it’s such a nat­ur­al part of my dai­ly rou­tine that it’s not even nec­es­sary. But of course, I have goals and desires too. Like run­ning pain-free – after near­ly two years of a nag­ging Achilles ten­don. Or build­ing strength – after tear­ing my bicep ten­don last fall, it’s not just a wish, but a necessity. 

A female runner is running on a path in the mountains amidst a yellow-green meadow.

Intuitive Running

Published by Trotzendorff

I don’t want to run like this any­more. It’s not doing me any good. More than that: it’s jeop­ar­diz­ing my health. I’m jeop­ar­diz­ing my health. And my joy of run­ning is at risk too. I owe this real­iza­tion to a gad­get, not my own insight. But let’s start from the beginning.

Stress Is Not a Rainbow: Debunking a Folklorical Management Myth

Published by Trotzendorff

Have you ever heard of the con­cept of a sweet spot of stress? If so, you’ve heard about the Yerkes-Dod­­son Law (YDL) — the idea that there’s an opti­mal lev­el of strain for peak per­for­mance. It’s been wide­ly cit­ed in man­age­ment and orga­ni­za­tion­al psy­chol­o­gy, but what if I told you it’s not as clear-cut as you might think?

Navigating the Landscape of Identity: How Our Past Can Shape Our Future

Published by Trotzendorff

Have you ever stopped to won­der just how many iden­ti­ties you’ve embraced through­out your life? Yes­ter­day I found myself wan­der­ing through the aisles of my uni­ver­si­ty’s library, a place I had­n’t vis­it­ed in 17 years since the end of my first degree. As I strolled past the rows of books, I could­n’t help but rem­i­nisce about my past selves: the eager stu­dent, the bicy­cle couri­er, the bud­ding jour­nal­ist. Through­out my life, I have effort­less­ly shed and adopt­ed new iden­ti­ties like a chameleon chang­ing its col­ors. Some­times with­out notic­ing, often with­out think­ing about it. And at times, I may have left behind some iden­ti­ties too hasti­ly, with­out ful­ly appre­ci­at­ing the lessons and expe­ri­ences they offered.