Meditate like Batman

Focus and relaxation in intense situations are two of the key elements of being the Dark Knight. There are many techniques that Master Wayne uses to enhance his abilities like exercise and supplements, but one that is never mentioned(but just as important) is meditation. Meditation is extremely popular these days because more and more studies are showing that it helps in all kinds of mental fluidity. I guarantee you that by learning to meditate you will be able to make strides in many other aspects of life.

"Relaxed but ever-alert."

1. Find a quiet place. For many people this will be your room. Or perhaps a bathroom in your house. Silence is key, especially when your starting out so that you won't get distracted from your mediation and tempted to open your eyes. Due to the essential silence many experts suggest doing meditation early in the morning. Not only is your house asleep but the outside is still sleeping as well, so you'll be able to get an all around "hush".

2. Breath. Breathing gives you something to focus on when meditating. Breath in and out. Some people say that imagining a bag inflating and deflating helps them focus on their breathing, personally I try to think of nothing and focus on the way my body feels and relax as much as possible.

3. Don't think. Try not to think about ANYTHING while meditating if you do it'll defeat the whole point of the activity. Meditation is all about relaxation and focus. If your thinking your distracting your mind from total relaxation and will probably lose track of your breathing.

4. Practice 30 minutes per day. Batman wasn't given powers, sure he had money but that's not how he got his skills. As Christopher Nolan (the director of the latest Batman trilogy) said "He's just a guy who does a lot of push ups." Meditation takes practice to master, studies have actually shown that people who have practiced meditation for extended periods of time have actually shown a change in their physical brain, displaying a larger amount of gray matter in regions associated with learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking. Meditation is quickly coming to be known as the top brain strengthening activity that an individual can do. With time you'll be just as focused as the bat.

Adapt like Batman

Batman is super adaptive which could probably be considered as one of his super powers. This extreme adaptiveness serves as away to be victorious in every situation or/and escape a doomed fate. Batman can achieve these extraordinary feats by......

Batman....as a pirate.  Let this soak in.

1. Being extremely resourceful. If your stuck somewhere in a hopeless situation don't just give up. Look around you there's probably something that can help you. Unfortunatley it probably won't be easy to utilize but it'll be there. Never give up....something else that Batman is notorious for.
2. Remember what you're all about. There's a comic out there were Batman travels to a few different centuries and he's still kicking ass and foiling super villians. It's a great comic and an awesome example of how Batman's adaptive skills can come together. He knows he's Batman and what Batman does. You have to know who you are in extreme situations and you have to know what the true you would do.
3. Get help. Remember that comic where Batman goes through centuries in time? Well he wouldn't be alive to do that if he didn't have help. In extreme situations, even the Batman(who is known for I quote "working alone") needs help. So look for someone any one who could help you! They just might save your life.

Dream like Batman

We all must dream because we all must sleep, but did you know you could make your dreams more useful then say a nightmare, daytime fantasy, or another type of fantasy;) Batman does and you can to just read on......

A lucid dream for the Dark Knight.

1. Learn to Lucid Dream. The first thing you need to do is learn to lucid dream and although it is not common some people, like Batman with training, can do it routinely every night. Wait, what is lucid dreaming? Lucid dreaming is when you control the dream and since you can control the dream you can basically do anything like problem solve real life problems, avoid a nightmare, fight the Joker, or have a very enticing night out with Catwoman. Whatever you want to do you can do it in a Lucid Dream.
2. Keep a dream journal. This step is very important on the road to lucid dreaming. A dream journal will help you recognize when you are awake and when you are dreaming. By jotting your dreams in your dream journal you will become familiar with the elements that characterize your dreams and you will improve your dream recall. By recognizing that you are dreaming in a dream things become a lot easier to control and the awareness part is about 90% if not more of the lucid dreaming experience.
3. Follow a sleep schedule. There are many benefits to having a sleep schedule, I have covered most in my previous post Sleep Like Batman, but specifically beneficial to lucid dreaming because your dreams will become predictable. Since you know that you are going to sleep or will at least fall to sleep soon will give you time to prepare for lucid dreaming....you could even recite a mantra "I will Lucid Dream tonight". The fact that your dreams are predictable will make it more likely that you will become aware that you are dreaming in your dream. Hopefully lucid dreaming will become a regular part of your sleep schedule like it is for Batman.

The Boy Wonder must be kept in check!

Rise like Batman

So your down. You're behind on your homework, just broke up with your girlfriend, just got your back broken, you're severely unhealthy, you wake up some where and have no idea who you are.......Batman has been through most of those situations listed above(except the unhealthy part, mind you) and he always knows when to get out of the rut and win. Even if he ends up dying Batman always wins.......

He always wins....always

1. Find your purpose. This is your dawn after the dark (and yes I just typed that), this is the light in that really dark room, your purpose is your hope. Batman knows his purpose. Protect the people of Gotham while sticking to his one rule, that's it that's what keeps him going through the long haul. If he had done it for selfish reasons like vengeance or just the love of violence Batman would've either a.) destroyed Gotham b.) destroyed himself c.) died. It's purpose that drives us, it's purpose that binds us, it's purpose that defines us, with that in mind don't get bogged down if you can't find your absolute purpose it's different for everyone and continually changes. So as of now define your purpose......lose weight....gain muscle....make some friends....get back to health and get back out there.....and it really relies on your rut and who you are as a person.

2. Get organized. Clean your room, get a planner, make some timers these are very simple things that can get you way up there. You'll be surprised at how much faster you'll be and your efficiency will increase ten fold. Just don't over do it. Planning every moment from when you wake up to when go to sleep....unless it's just one of those days.

3. Get some money. Money is important and having at least a little bit of it will help a lot. Besides having the ability to buy things you need to rise out of the hole you're in a boost of confidence is what is also felt when given some cash. Of course Batman doesn't have to worry about this but he would be less without it.

4. Eat well and workout. Get the blood pumping. Running, push-ups, squats, pull-ups, and crunches is the best way to get in shape(or stay in shape), wake your brain up, and add some endorphins(a feel good hormone, stating that working out is basically like crack but without the side effects) to your day. Some good workouts can be found here: P4P Youtube Channel and for beginners P4P Workout

Here's a sample of the soon to come Batman Workout:

Fast Mile Run (Run as fast as you can)

Abs workout
Do as mush as you can for one minute:

Standard Push up

Regular Squat

Regular Pull up

Diamond Push up

Jump Squats

Chin up

5. Learn. Read a book, more Like Batman blog post, watch an educational movie, get smart this will enlighten your mind and get you thinking. I'm not going to get into it because I've already written a whole article about it.

So their it is. Depressed, just had a real bad....year that's how you get out of it. One last thing I also recommend you watch.......................................

So if you didn't see this coming I don't know why you're on my blog.

Also look at: Limitless, any sports movie, and The Shawshank Redemption.

Think like Batman

We all think in a daily lives. To talk, read, write, learn, and solve problems. Batman probably would be the number one person who could set the world record for thinking, and probably the best at it. So how do you think like him? Read on.....

Batman thinking because he does that, often.

1.The first thing you should do is to "think" of your brain as if it's a muscle. Just like we can build our selves to be stronger and faster we can also build our brains to do the same thing, but in a different sort of way.

2. How do you get stronger and faster? You workout right? Well it's the same with your brain. Unfortunately we don't have a bunch different excercises that we just know about(pushups, crunches, squats, etc.) but I've looked and I can give you some.

3. Read ALOUD! Probably one of the most effective excercises for the brain is to read out loud. It'll improve comprehension, vocabulary, writing, speaking, creativity, etc.

4. Meditate. When most people think of meditation people think of "...mmmmmmm...." but it's actually an amazing brain excercise to improve focus, but to meditate one must learn how to meditate. Here's how I learned: howcast-How-To-Meditate

5. Write a personal journal. This is a great way to organize your thoughts. This also helps you keep focus and improve your over all writing skills.

6. Play videogames. All types of videogames are good to play, although they don't all improve the same type of skill(ex. shooters raise focus, hand-eye coordination, and response times as strategy games raise strategical thinking, problem-solving, etc.) Videogames is probably the most underrated brain excercise in the world, although it's one of the best.

7. Brain excercise websites. There is actually alot of good brain excercising websites out there to improve brain function through the various computer games provided to improve memory, awareness, etc. Unfortunately they come at a cost. If you can afford it by all means do use it because it would be one of the wisest investments you'll ever make, but for the people who can't afford sites like lumosity( a very, very good website for training the brain, but also very expensive) there is always freebrainagegames.com/ which is a very good alternative(if some what repetitive) website to choose.

8. So those are the excercises, here is the workout.

• Brain excercise website
• Reading aloud for 1 hour
• Meditate for 15 minutes

Doing this(with at least once a day of writing in your journal) once a day will leave you with a clear and more efficient brain in about a week. It'll take sometime to get to Batman level but wait a little, you'll get there.