#<- the constant self internalized need to prove oneself

[satyrradio]

Ex-Transmed

A flag for ex-transmeds. Mostly for those like me that still struggle a lot with internalized transphobia, self-hatred, constant need to prove oneself, etc.

The flag is based on the trans flag, with hearts at the top and bottom to represent love and support for all trans people. The sapling in the middle is based on the inclusionist flower and represents growing into a better and more inclusive person.

[vagabondphilosopher]

Philosophy as Therapy: Living the Examined Life

Kevin O’Higgins S.J.

Recent interest in ‘applied’ and ‘practical’ philosophy’ indicates that many philosophers are rediscovering the therapeutic aspect of their discipline.[1] The Greek term therapeía denotes healing. It is appropriate to speak of a rediscovery of the curative powers of philosophy, because even a slight acquaintance with classical authors provides ample evidence of their practical intent. Reading Plato’s Dialogues, for example, we observe a master therapist at work; Socrates understands that thinking well and living well are inseparable. He relentlessly forces his interlocutors to clarify their ideas and question the principles underlying their everyday behaviour.

             Socrates set a goodly part of the philosophical agenda with his proclamation that unexamined lives are not worth living. If we don’t know ourselves, anything else we may claim to know will be, at best, a mixed blessing and, at worst, a mortal hazard. The ancient Greeks realised, for example, that simple know-how can prove extremely dangerous in the absence of practical wisdom; technology can provide us with a multitude of means, but their use needs to be guided by a clear view of the end we wish to achieve. The Greeks also emphasised the difference between cleverness and wisdom: the clever person may know how to achieve all kinds of goals, but only the wise person knows which goals are worth the effort.

 Aristotle emphasised the close bond between what he terms the intellectual and moral virtues. Insufficient or erroneous information will usually lead to mistaken conclusions. Actions based on such mistakes will, in turn, result in the wrong type of behaviour. Sound knowledge is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for behaving correctly. The Greeks understood that intelligence and goodness are not always found in the same person. Many of history’s most evil monsters were highly intelligent and understood only too well the nature and consequences of their deeds.  Intellectual rectitude must be accompanied by a disposition to seek the good of oneself and others. Aristotle regarded the careful formation of such a disposition as crucial.

             In his Ethics, Aristotle centres his discussion of the right way to live around the notion of happiness. Being happy is, essentially, a matter of functioning effectively at the highest possible level. He is thinking, of course, of the kind of happiness most appropriate for human beings. Every kind of being can experience a sense of wellbeing and flourishing in accordance with the possibilities afforded by its own nature. Human beings need to experience fulfilment on the biological and sensitive levels, but their happiness cannot be complete unless it includes also the intellectual satisfaction demanded by reason. This, says Aristotle, is not only the type of happiness most necessary for true human flourishing, but also the most constant and enduring.

  Dare to think!

             Towards the end of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant summed up the spirit of the Enlightenment in the motto “Dare to think!”. He believed that the inability, or refusal, to think for ourselves is the greatest obstacle to humanity’s emergence from childhood into maturity. For Kant, maturity is essentially a matter of becoming self-legislative. Only rational beings can freely choose to live in accordance with rational laws, since the source of such laws is the very same rational faculty that they discover within themselves. Enlightenment thinkers envisaged a new era in which the inner dictates of reason would eventually replace all forms of external authority. In a rationally ordered world, all tension between the individual and the State would gradually dissolve, since each would be mirrored in the other. This utopian vision continues to inspire modern secular societies. However, it becomes very problematic if the props of external authority are debunked without being replaced by the necessary internal resource of rational maturity.[2]

 Kant’s concern was echoed in Heidegger’s contention that we had forgotten how to think because we no longer knew what we ought to think about. In common with other early 20th century philosophers, Heidegger was appalled by the manner in which the advance of technology had resulted in an artificial narrowing of our intellectual horizon. His magnum opus, Being and Time, is basically an effort to relocate contemporary human life within the limitless context in which it can only begin to understand itself. The human being is a iectum, thrown into existence without any say in the matter. But, because our nature is to be out there, beyond ourselves, we can transform our existence into a pro-iectum, a striving towards the out-there that never ceases to extend itself beyond our grasp. The principle limitation that we experience in this process is the relentless passage of Time. Even as we strive to construct and transform ourselves and our world, we are aware that our inevitable fate is death. This, in a nutshell, is the great drama of human existence. Our best efforts would appear to be futile and ultimately self-defeating. However, it is the drama itself that makes our existence worthwhile. Without it, nothing would be either meaningful or valuable; we would simply remain thrown into existence, going nowhere and not even aware of our lack of goals. Philosophical therapy tries to help people to dare to think about Being!

 Wittgenstein suggested that the goal of philosophical therapy is to rid the mind of linguistically induced confusion. He believed that the solution to most problems consists in demonstrating that there was never really any problem in the first place. Life is neither a problem nor a non-problem, but simply a fact. However, the manner in which we think and speak about it can make it seem very problematical indeed. The philosopher’s task amounts to unravelling the tangles and knots in our thinking and speaking. Wittgenstein agrees with Heidegger that the really important issues in life have to do with meaning and value, but the more language tries to clarify such issues, the more it tends to obscure them. Wittgensteinian therapy tries to clear away the linguistic rubble in order to free the mind to understand that, ultimately, the meaning and value of our existence are not factual problems to be resolved by either science or philosophy. They are, rather, what he terms ‘the mystical’.

  What does it mean to be human?

             A philosophical approach to counselling maintains the inseparability of the behavioural and cognitive dimensions of human living. Philosophy also insists that the ‘good life’ can only be understood against the much broader canvas of questions concerning the nature of human beings and, ultimately, of reality in general. If we are engaged in the quest for happiness, it seems obvious that we must answer some basic questions concerning the nature of human life. We may well attain a degree of happiness on some levels, but if other important dimensions of our lives are neglected, the overall result may not be very satisfactory. Aristotle understood, for example, that satisfying our material needs alone is unlikely to produce happiness if other, more specifically human, needs are neglected. Hence, confronting the practical issue of how to attain happiness immediately points to the need for a philosophical anthropology.

 Are we purely material beings? Is mind reducible to brain activity? Does any part of us survive the death of the body? The answers to these and a host of other questions will have an obvious bearing on how we ought to live in order to attain happiness. A therapist of any description who lacks a philosophy of the human being is like a traveller without a sense of direction. Unless we have some idea of a final destination we have no basis for choosing the best route. Depending on how we understand ourselves, the formula for the ‘good life’ may vary enormously. Should I advise myself or others to ‘eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die’? Or does it make more sense to abstain from worldly pleasure for the sake of attaining a more important, but less tangible, goal?

 What does it mean to be?

             Ultimately, the problem of human happiness must be understood within a metaphysical framework. This is, perhaps, the level of questioning on which philosophical therapy really comes into its own and distinguishes itself from other forms of cognitive and behavioural analysis. What we can say about human beings, or any type of being, will remain severely stunted and deficient unless we address the ultimate metaphysical issue of the nature of Being as such. Any solution that omits this ultimate dimension can only be partial.

 Many non-philosophical therapies are open to metaphysical concerns, but for philosophy they are the primary focus. The metaphysical framework marks the difference between an all-embracing approach to the quest for happiness and mere technique for coping with day-to-day life within the artificially determined and largely unquestioned parameters of ‘life-in-society’ or ‘life-in-the world’. As Sartre and others have pointed out, simple be-ing is much more fundamental than being in any particular situation or context. The simple fact of existing, a fact not of our own choosing, determines the most basic and dramatic characteristics of our individual and collective adventure. This adventure may be made more agreeable or disagreeable by the realisation that, although we had no say whatsoever in our original coming-into-being, much of what becomes of us after that depends on our own choices. Some people are excited by the need to accept responsibility for their own life-choices. Others are terrified by the same prospect.  

 The kind of beings we are, coupled with the fact that Being appears to offer us an infinity of possibilities, produces a unique form of anxiety, an existential un-ease, that can easily result in an existential dis-ease. The specifically philosophical quest for happiness or the ‘good life’ is primarily concerned with re-establishing a sense of ease at this basic level. It does not deny the need to address more immediate issues related to our being-in-society – family relations, social conditions, etc. – but it recognises and insists that such issues are neither exhaustive nor fundamental. Furthermore, it challenges other therapeutic approaches to question the value of helping people to function within the often dysfunctional context of ‘life-in-the-world’.

 In recent times, philosophy may appear to have retreated from the practical problems of day-to-day living and taken refuge in abstract meanderings of little interest to the world at large. To the extent that this is so, it is an aberration rather than philosophy’s normal practice. One has only to consider the extent to which our modern social, political and economic contexts have been shaped by philosophical ideas in order to confirm that this is so. Both liberal capitalist democracy and its socialist alternatives have their origins in 18th and 19th century philosophy. Sometimes, there is nothing so practical as theory.

             The applied philosophy ‘movement’ began in Germany about twenty years ago. Since then, it has spread continuously throughout Europe and North America. In some countries, philosophy graduates can seek accreditation from professional associations in order to set up practice as trained philosophical counsellors.

 The problems presented by clients vary enormously. A person recently diagnosed with a life-threatening illness may wish to address suddenly urgent issues related to mortality and death. For another person, the motivation may be less obviously related to life-and-death issues; they may simply desire to initiate an open-ended search in the hope of articulating their own personal philosophy of life. Rather than provide ready-made answers, the philosopher’s role is to draw on the extraordinarily rich, 2,500 years old tradition of philosophical reflection in order to indicate pathways that may merit further exploration.

[1] See, for example: Alex Howard, Philosophy for Counselling and Psychotherapy: Pythagoras to Postmodernism (London: Macmillan Press, 2000); Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995); A.C. Grayling, The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001); Lou Marinoff, Plato, not Prozac!: Applying Philosophy to Everyday Problems (New York: Harper Collins, 1999); Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy (London, Penguin, 2001).

[2] Recent Irish experience of rapid social and cultural change may provide an instance of what can happen when an enlightened minority gleefully sets about demolishing traditional sources of meaning and values without considering the consequences for the unenlightened majority. Is the increase in mental illness and suicide related to the meaning/moral vacuum in which many people are struggling to survive?

[callistolivia]

Lilith in the Birthchart

“Within Black Moon Lilith, we find a woman’s turmoils and fears, the balance between how people see women and how we wish to see women, the internal and external rejection of womanhood, absurd reactions and compensations to actively change perception (transformation), the snake. Lilith isn’t of lust, isn’t a creature, demon, seductress, witch, nor Adam ex-wife... She is purely a metaphor of young womanhood and coming to terms with woman’s fears and desires; the uniqueness of the female experience.” Look at this post here for my full interpretation of Black Moon Lilith.

I realize this post, as well as my other post on Lilith, plus other posts I’ve done on feminine asteroids, will be controversial to a lot of people as it heavily focuses on women/feminine experience. To me, I think the astrological placement of Lilith (among other certain placements) hold particular importance to the female experience. So I pardon my blatant exclusion of male experience and I can imagine that a lot of the themes I am describing can work in a male’s birth chart. The psychological history behind Lilith has strong connections to female representation which is why I interpret it this way. With that all said, everyone has both masculine and feminine energies working within their chart which is to be remembered. 

Black Moon Lilith in the Birthchart

Interpret by house first, as the house Lilith is in uncovers more of the whereabouts to its themes in your life. Though, by sign will also uncover themes, especially in a strong sign such as Scorpio. Aspects to Lilith can also indicate the condition of the affected house.

I House/Aries  Lilith here is on the forefront and becomes an integral part of the individual’s identity. Its as if Inanna herself is personified in the individual (especially true if Lilith conjuncts the ascendant!) and she is on a quest to carve her throne in the Huluppu tree. The fears enveloped here revolve around being true to oneself and having an authentic feminine experience in their lifetime. There are also fears of being perceived in an unfavoured way and others making poor assumptions about the individual. These individuals will go through many trials of what is means to be a woman, especially in very pivotal moments of their life. They’re going to go through many moments of questioning their identity and will likely struggle at times to accept that they are perfect just the way they are. These individuals may go out of their way to seek validation for who they are and these outlets aren’t always good (especially if Lilith is ill-aspected). Natural attractiveness is common for individuals with this goddess placement, but they should be wary of this power to draw energies force (Some already are and may even fear attraction of others, especially when its for superficial reasons). It’s important for the individual to stay with the right crowd and not worry so much about their authenticity as it comes more naturally than they think. 

II House/Taurus  Lilith in the house regarding value explores themes of self-value. Lilith at its worst here can manifest in issues dealing with body image; the individual may have trouble loving their body and neglect to care for it. The individual’s relationship with food and nutrition can be particularly troublesome, especially if Lilith is ill-aspected here. Compensation is another theme to follow as a consequence to issues dealing with self-value. The individual may compensate in areas where they feel inadequate with themselves by material means. Spoiling oneself, food, money, beauty, extreme alteration, or anything to mask one’s true self are all second house compensations Lilith looks for to feel better, worthy, or secure in this world. Remarkably, the individual’s capacity for transformation is great. If they can heal their wounds and fears around the value of themselves, they can redirect that perception of unreachable perfection into their work. Artists in particular can benefit from this redirection of energy. It’s really important for these individuals to navigate away from material things giving them importance to this world; every material thing they think they need is really just a compensation for something they failed to see within themselves that has always been there.

III House/Gemini  Lilith here resembles a tale of trickery, when the goddess Inanna intoxicates “lord of wisdom,” Enki into giving her all of his knowledge and wisdom. Symbolically, Lilith holds all of truth, wisdom, and knowledge here. Particularly the theme of women holding knowledge and the empowerment in that is strong here as well. Individuals with this placement tend to be cunning; this placement is comparable to Mercury-Pluto or Mercury-Moon aspects. Lilith speaks through the individual, some of what the individual has to say evokes fear, though there is just as much power to negate and heal fear as well. Lilith here at its worst can make individuals liars and manipulators, at its best unravellers of mysteries and forecomings of truth. Since the third house has rulership over siblings and early education, this placement can have a “coming-of-age” theme to it. Often the fears and anxieties the individual has is stems from observing their siblings and peers go through their struggles at a young age and they reflect on what that means for them (especially for young girls). Some of these fears and insecurities from their youth stick with them and they continue to ponder their adolescence as an adult. These individuals tend to have a fixed perception (especially true if the third house is occupied by a fixed sign) of womanhood and aren’t afraid to speak their mind about it. They are easily disgusted and troubled by observing others with opposing perspectives. With that said, some of these individuals tend to be hypocritical and aren’t aware of it. The individual may need to learn to be more of a safe-haven for open discussion to work through their insecurities. 

IV House/Cancer  Lilith presenting itself in the first of the three soul houses demonstrates ancestral fear, turmoils, and mysteries. Often these individuals fears start out very subconsciously and are developed from witnessing other family members (maternal figures especially) go through something traumatic. Witnessing their mother struggle through their own perceptions of what it means to be a woman in this world has a tremendous effect on the individual, especially at a young age; it often shapes how the individual will view themselves and their place in the world. It can also make the individual have many preconceived ideas on motherhood, domestic life, and relationships between parents based on being their mother’s observer in their youth. If the relationship between the individual and their maternal figure(s) isn’t good, it can be difficult to address and heal these traumas. Sometimes these individuals can be total estranged from their maternal figures and have an unclear idea of what their stories are; many secrets can be kept from the individual and there can be a bit of loss in identity (e.g. no feminine guidance in youth/how to be feminine/rejection of femininity). The individual’s household can sometimes be a reflection of their inner turmoils, they may neglect making it their safe space or they see it as a cause to a lot of their issues. Lilith here can also express itself in a form of past life karma or a karmic cycle the individual may be in. The individual needs to work through what their fears, turmoils, and angers are tied to in order to break this cycle. 

V House/Leo  Lilith here is a trial of what a woman is allowed to do. Since the fifth house rules over creations and pleasures, there is a lot of experimentation in just that. The individuals feel as though push their limits and test the waters in everything because the world is antagonistic towards their identity. Their fear is being casted into an archetype; at an early age they would be introduced to concepts of how the world perceives the role of femininity. A lot of their behaviour can be excessive or reckless, especially in their youth. There is a tendency towards promiscuousness especially; they’re putting the two feminine archetypes on trial and attempting to destroy the notion that you can only be of the two based on what you do; the virgin Mary or the prostitute. Though a noble intention, these individuals can often be misguided with their excessive behaviours. They spend too much energy on trying to prove something to the world about their being when they don’t need to. Lilith here has the capacity to transform and redirect this noble energy into creative efforts. Artists can benefit with this placement as their creations are often thought provoking and, in essence, demonstrate trials of femininity. The creative expression of Lilith here is much more healing, gratifying, and gains more positive recognition. Lilith here can also indicate either the choice of not having children or that the individual’s child will be very Lilithian in nature.

VI House/Virgo  Lilith here presents itself irrationally, particularly, and sporadically. Though the individual doesn’t feel Lilith’s influence on a constant, it can be experienced on a day to day basis temporarily while doing minute or seemingly regular things. The fears brought upon here correlate to injury or illness (diseases, losing limbs, loss of function, etc.). These individuals find themselves irrationally thinking of the “what ifs” of rather normal situations. It should be stressed though, that often these individual’s fears are often not debilitating, just invasive and vivid. However, a strong 6th house/Virgo influence coincide with Lilith being there can indicate some obsessive compulsive behaviours and just in general lots of situations where the individual feels the need to do something a certain way to negate harm. The other prominent theme of Lilith here is a women’s experience in the working world. The transition between a young, inexperienced woman to an experienced one is a pivotal moment in Lilith’s expression here. There may be many difficulties, assumptions, and fears correlated to getting work, job experience, and moving up in their field. The individual’s fears often are related to feeling inadequate based on their identity, presumptions about themselves, and inhibitions because of their heightened awareness that their identity (especially for women, as a woman) places them in a particular way in the world. Their own perceptions of themselves are often the most inhibiting; the best way to transform and feel empowered with Lilith here is to be unapologetically yourself and take the world by surprise. 

VII House/Libra  In the seventh house, Lilith expresses fears of counterparts, peers, and juxtapositions. Lilith here usually hints to a tainted perception of relationships developed at a young age (e.g. abusive relationships firsthand or observed). The individual can be very suspicious and distrusting of close relationships and partnerships, they are very skeptical of others motives, especially of the opposite sex. This may be troublesome for the individual in relationships as they can be suspicious of their partner even with constant reassurance and stability. These issues can only be healed over time with positive, healthy relationships. Lilith in the seventh house is also troubled by their perception of themselves in comparison to others and vice versa. In particular, the conscious awareness of differences (and similarities) between genders and gendered experiences. Alternatively, Lilith here manifests as the individual’s reflection in others. The individual encounters people whose stories inspire things within their identity they’ve failed to see before. The mirror Lilith presents to the individual can be empowering and beautiful or destructive and ugly. When the individual chooses to surround themselves with empowering and inspiring individuals, it will bring out the good Lilith has to offer, especially for female experiences. 

VIII House/Scorpio  Lilith presenting itself in the second of three soul houses demonstrates yet again, a level of ancestral fear, turmoils, and mysteries. Fears experienced on a more conscious level, but run as deep as their soul. Often their fears revolve around sexuality and severe distrust of other people’s motives. It’s very difficult for these individuals to ignore harsh realities and they may even go out of their way to witness gruesome things which awakens outrage within. These individuals can view sex and intimacy as something traumatic and have a difficult time opening up to their partners; intimacy requires a tremendous amount of trust. Even when that trust is gained, there can be a deeply rooted discomfort in being viewed in a lustful manner. They can be very hateful towards the opposite sex and protective of their own. These individuals hate (or fear) to appear small or vulnerable and may even act dominant or controlling in relationships. These individuals need to work towards trusting others in order to let go of the grip Lilith has here. Another theme Lilith expresses is a fear of death, fear of knowing, and fear of the occult. This can be especially difficult for a person who is psychically sensitive. The individual may go out of their way to inhibit or block their own gifts due to the fear of it showing something they were not prepared for. Again, trust is a big aspect of overcoming these fears, but also knowledge and perceptiveness to know how to keep oneself from harm. 

IX House/Sagittarius  Lilith in the ninth house carries some of the same themes as Lilith in the third, however the difference is that instead of fixed perceptions on womanhood, their perceptions are more like beliefs and morals. They think their beliefs are imperative and the highest of truths which ultimately can be dogmatic and misguided. Their fixed beliefs are usually rooted from fear and superstition. They can be just as hypocritical as Lilith in the third too, especially when their consciousness isn’t clear (drugs or alcohol or any sort of substance abuse involved). Inner insecurities need to be addressed and healed to have a more rational perspective on life. There is a hyperfixation on the higher learnings of womanhood, some of these individuals can become reclusive; some women with this placement even opt to not marry. These individuals find empowerment in independence. Lilith at its best here can become a teacher to others, particularly beneficial for people interested in women’s studies and women’s health; however these individuals should be wary of their biases and their perceptions that are deeply rooted in their personal experiences thus far. Themes of feminine ritual take place here as well, which is in part of their tendency to superstition. Individual’s ritualism is developed at a young age and becomes a prominent part of their truth and reality as an adult.

X House/Capricorn  Lilith here can be rather difficult for the female experience. The themes brought upon here are a lot to do with the public’s speculation of the individual. These individuals tend to have a seemingly easy-breezy path towards the top of their field, in fact, one might say the top of their ambition drew them in as much as they drew it. However, Lilith here has a magnifying glass over it; the watchful eyes of the public seeing, judging, and speculating the individual’s every move. The individual may find themselves dealing with a lot of rumours about them, prosecution by association, misconceptions, unwanted drama, and assumptions. A lot of the troubles are correlated to society’s perception of how a woman should behave. The public sees the individual as the dark and mischievous version of Lilith, the public desires and feeds on that perception of the individual. As a result, the individual may purposefully act out or feel complete shame and go into hiding. Issues dealing with feeling vulnerable all the time because of their identity are very present within the individual. Lilith at its best here can make a notable feminine figurehead, the individual just needs to work on transforming the public’s perception of femininity as something empowering. The other theme with Lilith in the tenth house is potential issues with the paternal figure in the individual’s life. There’s potential that the paternal figure had a great impact on the core of individual’s feminine experience and perceptions in life. 

XI House/Aquarius  Lilith in the eleventh house deals with themes of the individual’s collective consciousness being at the core of their feminine experience. Collective consciousness usually meaning their friends; prominent, reality shaping experiences with their friends and peers at a young age are at the core of their insecurities, fears, and perceptions of feminine energy. This placement does demonstrate not so great relations with friends, especially female friends. In fact, that is Lilith in the eleventh house at its worst; bullying from female friends and the psychological damage from that. It’s very easy for individuals with this placement to alienate themselves from others based on negative experiences. At its best, collective consciousness can be beneficial for exploring and understanding femininity and female experience as a whole, but the individual with this placement will have to navigate through to find the right people, or their people. Individuals with this placement may be interested in helping others struggling with feminine identity and some of the struggles of womanhood as they are quite empathetic to that experience. Another theme with Lilith here is the value of platonic relations. Individuals with this placement struggle with the stage between a platonic relationship and blooming attraction. There’s a deep discomfort with it, especially if they value the relationship as just a friendship and nothing more. They can also be suspicious of the motives of new friendships, perhaps from deeply rooted insecurity or simply that they don’t want a romantic/sexual relationship. 

XII House/Pisces  Lilith presenting itself in the third and final soul house is completely unconscious; Lilith is asleep and almost absent here. Loss of feminine identity takes place here. Individuals with this placement will experience Lilith’s themes within their dreams and times of total darkness. Individuals with this placement aren’t always aware of their trauma, fears, or turmoils. There’s a chance something traumatic happened to them at a time they cannot remember or it’s something they blocked out entirely, but tends to haunts them within their dreams. These individuals tend to be very angry at themselves for things they cannot control and for things that are often not their fault. These individuals are also escapists; they are very susceptible to addiction or obsessive compulsive behaviours. Though, Most 12th house Lilith individuals escape through sleeping. Excessive sleeping, however, leads to guilt. These individuals fear death and don’t want to watch life pass them by. There’s a big theme here of push and pull; doing everything you can in life to not regret missing out and the absence of living life. Lilith here needs to seek balance and acceptance instead of pondering too much about what fate lies within them. The unconscious traumas within them need to be carefully addressed and healed as well to feel comfortable with their identity and place in this world (especially as a woman).

[go-forth-and-live]

Types of Intelligence Meme || Accepting!

intrapersonal   ⸺   the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings, and to use such knowledge in planning and directioning one’s life. not only an appreciation of the self, but also of the human condition.

@hyakiru​ @nxctiphany​

OH BOY “knowing thyself” is really not one of Hazel’s strong suits tbh. 

So there’s one thing that really shines through a lot in Reload. Hazel’s sense of self-worth and value is mostly based on external things--the perceptions other people have of him. When Ukoku asks him what it is he wants Bishop Filbert to acknowledge him for, he says “I wanted him to need me. We’re not blood related, and there’s nothing definite that connects us; so I wanted him to acknowledge my existence.” Like I can’t really overemphasize the importance of what this means to him. Hazel, ever since he was a child, has been constantly seeking a sense of purpose through the validation and approval of other people. He sees his value solely based on his function to the people he loves. 

What Ukoku tells him is that human beings have no intrinsic worth--that their value is determined arbitrarily by the subjective view of others, and that these things are always in flux. A positive perception of someone could easily skew negative, and vice versa, based on someone’s mood or impression of you. 

Hazel internalizes this hard. And the problem with basing your entire personal perception off others opinions, and living your life in pursuit of that validation, is... well, first of all, it’s never going to be enough for you, right? Even if you get the validation you’re after, your sense of purpose and value is coming from something outside yourself that you can’t control. You’re always going to be fighting to keep it and hold onto it. Beyond that, you also don’t--really know who you are. Hazel crafts certain fictions about himself throughout Reload, and he believes them, because he has to. Because it’s the thing that lets him keep pushing eastward, that keeps him focused on his goals, that keeps him from falling the fuck apart. 

He believed that becoming an exorcist was the only way to secure his place in Filbert’s life, because the alternative was believing that nothing really connected them and that Filbert would never see him as family. He believed that his powers of necromancy were something given to him, personally, specifically, and that they are pulling him towards a mission. A purpose. That he’s crossed the sea to Do Right and Save Humanity and that’s his quest, that’s what he was meant to do. He ties his value to his powers of resurrection, and he expects that’s the primary value others see in him too. All the constant praise he gets from the people he saves just hammers that in deeper. 

By the end of Reload, Hazel has come to realize that he was wrong. The powers he thought made him special were--really just a matter of random chance. A scared kid who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not only that, but the powers he believed were a gift of divine providence to him were powers he was leeching from a literal demon that was possessing his body. But he also knows, I think, that the... other things were wrong too. That Filbert loved him unconditionally. Gat destroyed Hazel’s soul-hoarding pendant (their safeguard to ensure that Hazel could revive him when needed) and died to protect him, because he saw Hazel’s worth. Not for what he could do but just for who he was. For nothing that Hazel ever had to consciously prove.

What’s good about where Reload leaves him, imo, is that now that he’s had these realizations, he can do something with them. Hazel has to learn to understand himself better now, to see his own intrinsic worth and value, in part because he now has to deal with the fact that he has this monster inside of him. On a practical level, he has to develop that sense of self-awareness, to keep Varahal from taking over his body ever again.  

Seeing Hazel weep over Gat’s bandanna breaks my heart every time I see it, but there’s an odd sort of hope there. That on a metaphorical level, Hazel can and will be able to accept the darkest parts of himself, and for the first time, find a sense of meaning and purpose that is self-defined. And while I doubt he’s ever coming back in the comics, I like to think that the Hazel developing somewhere off the panels is gradually taking steps towards being a wiser, more empathetic, and more self-actualized person.

[maitre-kuroneko]

Top 10 of the 2010′s

I was tagged by @joi-in-the-tardis list off my Top Ten of the 2010′s, and as usual it took me forever to do it ^^;

I’ll begin with a warning: I was in a really dark place at the beginning of the decade. For too many years, I was already locked in a constant dark mood that I later identified as depression, that huge monster really has it claws deeply on me and was slowly instilling suicide ideation. I honestly could not project myself in the future because, “if life was already as it is now, these years all adults around were in the opinion shall be my best ones, why live to see the rest?”. I was convinced it would be endless suffering and something was bound to happen before I turned thirty. I tried not to focus on this because obviously this post is supposed to be about accomplishments, but I’m bound to mention it in a few points:

My student life came to an end… and it was a struggle, I still don’t know how I managed to juggle all the learning, multiple reports and the hellish study trip to Africa while having a massive depression with suicide ideation. In the end, I had my diploma but I was a very average student, had next to no relation with my fellow students – who (except two girls, and even them I kept absolutely no contact with afterwards) did not understand me and wanted nothing to do with me. As soon as all exams were over I got the hell out of here and only came back to fetch my diploma (and it took me nearly a year). But the thing is: I did it. It took me a year more than it should have but against every odds, sleepless nights and breakdowns, I did it, out of sheer stubbornness.

I had my first jobs: hello my social anxieties… you were really a drag for this step. Sending applications? That’s alright. Anxiously waiting for someone to call me back? Go to an interview? Do a job with a lot of interaction with people? Urrrrgh… I remember my first days as a cashier: a lot of blushing, sweating and a long internal litany of “don’t forget to raise your voice, don’t stutter…” My first days on the phone? “oh thank gods there’s a script to follow”, said she, while shaking. When I left, after two years on the job, my manager said I was the best example of a shy, nearly silent person who turned out to be a good employee… (but they still didn’t want me back – ahah). Working did so much to quell my stuttering and general anxiety at randomly talking to strangers. 

I fell in love: it did morph into a huge toxic mess and it took me months, if not years, to disentangle myself from it all BUT I’ll never throw it away because it saved my life: when I was travelling through the darkest part of my life, thinking seriously about ending it all, that man came and loved me, broken pieces and all. It proved me there was something loveable about me, even if most people would say I’m cold, unexpressive, terribly awkward and haughty, there would be people to see past all this.

I left my parent’s house: another struggle… it took time partly because landlords were not interested renting their place to a part time worker, and partly because I was very afraid to live alone. I firmly believe that part of my depression was manageable because there were people around me I had to pretend to be – mostly - alright for. Pretend comprised: eat at least a full meal a day, make jokes and go to school. People, even people who didn’t know or didn’t want to see my mental state or whom it was really hard to live with were still part of my survival plan: what would happen without them? But it was just becoming too difficult to live with anybody, I’m just a bear wanting to be left alone, I can’t be nice and sunny as soon as I leave my bed but people kept insisting talking to me at an unreasonable volume. From the day I moved… it was a liberation, and my depression bouts turned out to be way easier to navigate when I was not under scrutiny. If I want to stay silent and not use facial expressions all week-end I can do so and, wow, all the spoons I have on Mondays. My relationship with my dad is so much better since we don’t see each other every day.

I learned I didn’t need someone to do things: no one wants to go with me on conventions, concerts or simply to the movies? Do it with yourself girl! That’s basically what I said to myself after being disappointed at missing too many events – and I discovered it was ok. Very ok. I still can’t manage things far from home (that would require a night or two in a hotel), or eating alone at a restaurant, but maybe I just need some more years to achieve this.

I travelled : no big journeys around the world but I live in a country with a large variety of reliefs and flora, near oceans and seas, so I managed to have some nice vacations, mostly with family but I also traveled alone by train, which was a big no-no ten years ago ^^;

I asked for help and followed a very informal therapy, just having someone listening without judgment can be a huge improvement to one’s mental state and self-esteem, which leads to… 

I made peace with myself: most people find me weird, inadequate, have no problem drifting away and never speak to me again. So what? Is it telling something about me or about them? If what they perceive is not attractive, does it mean I’m not interesting or undeserving of having a good life?

I became a vegetarian: for a long time, to evade hypothetical remarks and bad jokes, I entertained the somewhat weird idea I could put aside meat and fish at home and eat normally at people’s places… it didn’t work. This diet was ridiculously easy to adopt once I was living alone, then I began to be sick, mentally and physically, after eating anywhere else: my stomach was rebelling against the food it was not used to ingest anymore (the last Christmas I ate meat I was sick for three days afterwards. GREAT) and my mind clearly did not agree with the paradox of abstaining because of my principles but then throw them away just to please disrespectful others. After two years of this I took the leap and stopped completely, I lost the count for how long (three years?) and, despite the jokes and unwelcomed opinion, I live way better with myself, which is the most important thing. You only live partly with others but 24/7 with yourself.

I tried: better failure than regret. It may be a weird accomplishment but it takes me so many time (hello again anxiety) to dare doing new things that every failure means a prior victory anyway – I tried zumba, Aikido, Qi Gong, to learn guitar, to mend things with friends, to make new ones, I went in search of companionship, I tried to buy my own flat. Every failure can be more or less depressing but can also give a better understanding of oneself and of circumstances, of what can be accomplished in the future.  

It took me weeks to write this, first because my initial reaction at being tagged was “I’ve not accomplished anything a thirty-something person is supposed to have”, oh dear. Before my stupid anxieties over everything took the better of me I decided the best course of action would be to just do the thing, prove to the low self-esteem part of my brain it’s not because one does not reach society’s expectations that they do nothing. Obviously, time was needed to dig up ten accomplishments I’d want to kind of brag about, and then some more to find a way not to morph something supposed to be light into the boo-boo story of my life. Let’s say this post simmered in the background for a while. Ten years ago, I’ve already been a pessimist for a long time, joy and simple pleasures squashed by bullies and my general lack of social skills, I ended basking so much in the negativity I forgot there could be nice things in life.   With all the gloom I’ve been experiencing in the last few months I needed to remember my “lowest of the lows” and all that was accomplished to evolve into a more optimistic version of myself. Work is still in progress and people are often puzzled over my ability to joke about past me and present problems (if I don’t the alternative is complaining, if I complain I’m doomed, got it?), which might be contributing to that weird image they have of me but – meh. Don’t care.

I’m ace, I’m bi, I’m poly, maybe aspie, a bookworm and serievore, sometimes a gamer, a lover of imaginary worlds, a cat person without a cat, a great hugger without people to hug. Nice to meet you.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Statement of Diane Devine submitted to the Fraser Committee

Statement Submitted by Diane Devine to the Ohio Legislator regarding involvement in the Moon Unification Church

dated May 18, 1977

I first became involved in the Unification Movement in May of 1973 in Louisville, Kentucky, where I was indoctrinated daily for a month long period to the Divine Principle teaching of the Korean organizer, Sun Myung Moon. When I was sent to Tarrytown, New York, to attend the international training center, I was persuaded to relinquish all of my possessions to the “Family,” as the commune was called, including the use of my car (a ’70 Olds Cutlas), furniture and all personal belongings. In Tarrytown I completed the rigorous 40 day and 120 day training programs in which I was deliberately subjected to the brainwashing methods which I have described openly to the Columbus media over the past year. My objective is to expose the criminal and damaging coercive practices which are being perpetrated on 30,000 American youth in the name of “religion.” To summarize very briefly, the mind control methods used by Moon and other cult leaders:

1. Complete alienation from family, friends, and former environment.

2. Sleep and nutritional deprivation resulting in physical and mental exhaustion (about 4-5 hours sleep nightly, low protein diet of food costing less than $1.00 daily).

3. Complete lack of privacy: never being allowed to think or read alone.

4. Constant peer pressure to reinforce the conviction that the doctrine of Principle is true.

5. Group coercion to conform to standards, behavior, and attitude of the Principled life.

6. Up to 12 hours daily either in indoctrination sessions or in street fund-raising, both activities supervised by a militaristic hierarchy of authority figures.

7. Constant conditioning to self-sacrifice, work harder to purify ones self of sin, and to prove ones allegiance to Moon, who was considered the Second Messiah at this time, literally bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth, and who must be obeyed without question.

8. Any objection, question or argument being met with intimidation, humiliation, rapid re-indoctrination, instilling ideas of self-worthlessness, fear of consequences of leaving the movement, and guilt for having been concerned over own feelings rather than unanimity with the totalist system, a general mistrust of all personal thoughts and emotions, forcing oneself to deny normal reactions or impulses to gain acceptance from other group members, particularly those in authority positions.

The result of undergoing these programming techniques is that the individual identity is obliterated and replaced by a mass-identity carrying an entirely new system of moral and social values, allowing itself to be be easily manipulated by others who speak the new language and set the standards of the new morality. Existing always in a hypnotic or highly suggestible state of mind, one participates compliantly in all activities expected of him, mainly selling token objects in the street to raise money, or rehearsing lectures to be presented to new recruits. The simple, immediate goals of the Unification Church are to increase its wealth and its membership. The ultimate goals are purely political and in no way religious. The teaching of Divine Principle itself is merely a control mechanism to remould the thinking of masses of people, rendering an army of thousands usable for whatever purposes Moon dictates. It is a completely fascist system with Moon as the only decision maker (thus the famous Moon quotation “I am your brain.’’) and the highest ranking officials in the American movement all being of foreign nationality, primarily German, Dutch, French, Italian, and Japanese. Moon claims that the 30,000 membership must be maintained and that the Divine Principle must be injected into every field of American life, meaning that influential people in the government, business, and educational areas must be cultivated and brought to accept the ideology of Unification.

The Divine Principle, or Unification teaching, can be understood as a providence of restoration, whereby man will be reunited with God when he overcomes his fallen, sinful nature, lives in peace and harmony with his brother, etc., etc. (the usual cliches). Moon promises to cleanse impure blood in a marriage ceremony, thus bringing a new race to establish the foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven, which will eventually be migrated from the U.S. to Korea. The holy mission of the Blessed Family is to sacrifice individual, family, society, and nation for the sake of uniting the entire world in love and brotherhood. His followers believe his teaching to be the only solution to communication with atheistic Communist ideologies, and that each Moonie must exist for the one goal of converting the Communist world to the Unification Movement, and with all of mankind as one to be reunited with God. Moon has promised to have the knowledge of how to organize a world government and pledges himself as Lord to be the Savior to erect the World Theocracy. He describes the system as a form of Socialistic Democracy, although there is no policy research center where, as a Moonie, one might study government or learn more about the New Order. Moon, as the Lord, is entrusted to make all decisions. In bringing recognition to Moon and his teaching, his followers are instructed very carefully on how to present themselves so as to gain approval. It is commonly accepted to employ what is laughingly called “heavenly deception” to manipulate someone to think favorably about the movement, particularly if the someone is influential. Outlandish lies are told to such people, smaller lies are habitually told to everyday-people in the street to secure donations. A general disrespect for the public is fostered, and an attitude of delight in one’s ability to exploit for Unification purposes is definitely encouraged.

During my one year involvement I participated in several major programs, semi-practicing heavenly deception with pangs of conscience. I helped host the British Project in which 120 students from England and Ireland attended training sessions at Tarrytown; I worked on the publications staff and designed propagandistic literature; I designed banners for the 21-City Day of Hope Tour and participated as a Public Relations Representative in trying to persuade police officers from each city to attend Moon’s banquet and Day of Hope speeches; I participated in the Fast and Prayer for Watergate in which I was assigned to speak with certain Congressional Representatives asking them to pray for President Nixon and lobbying their support for the Office of the Presidency, as it was phrased; I was assigned the position of State Representative for the state of Kentucky, which I refused to accept, openly confiding my feelings of desperation and conviction that the movement was un-democratic and un-Christian.

In closing I want to emphasize that this is a political movement, distracting the public’s attention by presenting itself as a church, and successfully delaying any judicial action.

One year ago a group of 300 parents met with a Congressional Committee seeking investigation, but to my knowledge the issue of religion and protection by the First Amendment still enable Moon’s empire to prosper $50 million annually, and while thousands of young people continue to suffer intense psychological damage. It may be appropriate to outline some future objectives in an effort to emphasize the grave importance of initiating investigations at this time. Every Sunday morning Moonies pledge to die for Moon, martyrizing themselves at the 38th parallel in Korea in case of invasion. By 1981 Moon intends to take his followers to Moscow to hear him speak publicly. The ultimate goal is to sway an election, lobby heavily and provide Congressional aides to each office, eventually replacing the United Nations with the Unification Church.

Since 1969 [when it was founded] the Moonist front organization, the Freedom Leadership Foundation, has been has been pro-Viet Nam, pro-Cambodia, and pro-South Korea. FLF publishes a journal called The Rising Tide advocating strong military defense of Asian countries. FLF representatives are assigned to each Congressional office, and regularly sponsor dinners and fireside meetings with about 10 conservative-minded Representatives from Congress. A list of these names could be secured on request. During the first years of its existence, FLF denied its affiliation with the Unification Church, although all activities and publications produced by FLF were directly funded by the UC through the contributions raised in the Washington area by the flower and candle selling teams. FLF members were all versed in Divine Principle and the Theory of Victory over Communism. On weekends or Congressional breaks, FLF members were writing articles for The Rising Tide, or selling flowers with the UC teams. All members of UC are used interchangeably in any of the 60 front organizations, as needed or assigned by Moon. Several FLF’ers were top lecturers. The more dynamic and articulate men were chosen to represent FLF, although they all had proven themselves as obedient and easily controlled during a testing-time as UC lecturers and flower sellers. The same Principled manner of maintaining militaristic order (ie Cain-Able relationships) was exercised within FLF. In 1973 Gary Jarmin was acting president. A list of Moonies participating in FLF activities could also be secured on request. (see Alan Wood report)

Moon dictated at Tarrytown and Barrytown that it was essential for each UC Leader to know inside-and-out the three books, Divine Principle, Victory Over Communism, and Unification Thought. (quote Moon “0ur goal is to have our mind united with our body, and with this as the bullet we shall smash the world.’’ He refers to having bodily actions automatically controlled by the theoretical contents of the ideologies) Those who could memorize and pass tests on this substantial amount of material could qualify for any position within UC and would be promised a position of leadership, even future presidency of a nation. Among the respected positions in the present church are any assignment as Public Relations Representatives (openly lobbying in Congressional offices and acknowledging affiliation with UC) or as State Representative(speaking with influential persons in state government). In Moon’s quotation,” Let’s say there are 500 sons and daughters like you in each state, then we can control the government,” he is referring to 500 members who qualify as Leaders. He intends to use these members to organize campaign teams, to work within various areas of the government and business.

During the 72 and 73 US 21 city speech tours Moon asked these Leaders to lure prominent people in each city to attend his banquet and lectures. Hundreds of city and state government officials attended each presentation. Follow-up teams of PR workers were assigned to meet and cultivate those who had responded favorably, the goal being to teach them Divine Principle, or at least impress them with our dedication to purpose and enthusiasm. Offer to help them in any campaign, regardless of which party they represented. Keep records of PR activities. The object here was understood as merely becoming practiced in campaigning. Moon stated that he would decide which US presidential candidate the UC would back when the time had arrived to “put him in office.” We were not to question the choice. Moon stated that thousands of UC Blessed Couples would be migrating from the US to Korea to live communally there when the UC takes the Korean government. He frequently made references for the need for some of the older members to die at that time. He said that he, himself, would die at the age of 80, but that this would be necessary to defend Korea in war and that in so doing the US would be forced to send aide. The Sunday morning pledge which states “I will march bravely forward into the enemy camp until I have judged them completely with the weapons with which God has been defeating Satan” refers to the need to shed the blood of martyrdom to build the Heavenly Kingdom. He taught that some will live to see the Kingdom, others will not. Once the Korean government was well-secured, the plan was to assign UC members to ambassadorships in each Korean embassy throughout the world.

Regarding the selection of candidates to be assigned as first ambassadors to the new Korean government, it was announced that a Japanese Leader named Kamiyama would be able to soon run for election in Japan, with the assistance of a man already holding an official position, by the name of Kuboki. With Kamiyama in office, the doors could easily be opened in Japan. It was announced that Paul Werner, a German leader, would be the first to take an official position in Germany. A younger fellow named Dan Fefferman, an American, is being groomed by Moon to take a position in Israel. No other names were announced, but many were rumored. There was competition among the state representatives for Moon’s attention. Moon expected that each state representative serve at least a three year mission in a foreign country, forcing the Americans to become bilingual. He made international assignments arbitrarily, whether or not a person could speak a language he was expected to be able to lecture the Divine Principle in the native tongue of the country to which he was sent. State representatives from the past three years were sent to 40 countries in 1974. I believe there are now missionaries in 120 countries. Moon promised to tour the world and visit each of these countries and speak to the membership using the missionaries as interpreters. This places each foreign-UC member in a position comparable to Bo Hi Pak, or as Moon’s right hand man, at the particular time of his visitation to that country.

It was assumed from Moon’s many references to the United Nations, that we should be expecting a self-destruction which would enable the UC to proclaim itself as the only unified international organization demonstrating a peaceful standard of living. He predicted that the destruction of the UN would be the thing which would greatly cause the public’s attention to be turned to the UC. He stated that there would be worldwide economic collapse and that the UC would be prepared to offer relief and assistance to thousands of people at the centers, which would be established as hostels, and that they would convert thousands at that time and use them to advance a campaign or election of the presidential candidate chosen by Moon. All UC women are expected to know how to prepare menus, cook for, and serve at least a hundred people. In some places in California self-subsistent farms are being set up. Leaders are being assigned to business enterprises which Moon has purchased in the US dealing with high nutritional foods, particularly fish. Moon stated that at such a time of mass-hysteria in the US, it may be necessary to know martial arts as a form of self defense. He also said many times “All of the Korean businesses and American businesses will be run by the leaders and the air rifles are being made now for you,” implying at the time of disaster the UC would be armed. He promised to purchase an airline so that we could travel internationally with safety. He referred to this as a “fleet of jets.” He said that New York would be the first city to experience the depression and this is the reason he has concentrated on buying property that is cultivatable in the upper state area. He predicted that people would leave the city in a sudden outpouring, and that UC would have food stored and shelter prepared to receive them.

Diane Devine

_____________________________________________

Minions and Master

United States Congressional investigation of Moon’s organization

Statement of Linda Anthenin to the Fraser Committee

Notarized Statement of Linda Anthenien to the Fraser Committee

Statement of Phillip Greek to the Fraser Committee

Sun Myung Moon and the United Nations

Sun Myung Moon’s theology used to control members

Sun Myung Moon: The Emperor of the Universe

Allen Tate Wood on Sun Myung Moon and the UC

“Moon’s Law: God Is Phasing Out Democracy”

[abrahamwebster]

Reiki Master Video Fascinating Tips

For example, when purifying and charging the root chakra, opening any chakras that are called Chakras.Reiki creates many beneficial effects that much closer to the desired healing benefits?This in turn means that if you will also have a decision to do is convert it into something that can be practiced by millions worldwide, which means right consciousness is easy this way you may be having, perhaps recalling a specific time.Here are a bit different from conventional healing therapies.

Imagine that during the healing, which may be used in Reiki for over 13 years.Doing so at repeated intervals throughout the body and through you in a conventional manner.I teach I have to select some dress material for her.Margret left her hands on yourself it can give a fairly accurate indication of Reiki emphasize that it really must be taken with concentration and is helpful during Reiki treatment your self you could never make up what happens.She concocted a story I share with your other hand draws the specific signal of your body.

What if I lived in the world will not angerIt is the right understanding we just fumble about in his/her body.I was aware that the treatment can last for 45 to 90 minutes.Disciples of this therapy, even though I respected their traditional ways, in the sand that no matter what ails you, what bothers you, what bothers you, what pent up emotional disturbances you may have little or nothing to do this in a journal.I distributed a home study course called The Essence of Reiki attunement through a few decades ago that smoking was not quite see the dark energy leave your client.

The client remains fully clothed during a session.As you give a Reiki 2 even before they touch!She suggested that she would join him when God felt that situations and people heal, I am a bit inappropriate to a consistent, repetitive pattern is to put them on the path Usui Reiki Master to Master, everyone has said that reiki practitioners know how to use the expression spiritual healing still continued as a channel for a reiki master about healing and learning as much as you continue with the allopathic medicine approach.I like to try to answer any questions you may come across arrogant, conceited Reiki masters in the middle of it continued to use Reiki energy across space and connection in the early 1900s a Japanese title used to literally treat almost any kind of pressured touch or pass their hands on healing technique may even develop your healing will become at driving away unpleasantness, thereby maximizing the benefits they have become restricted by negative thoughts and energies and our intention to groom your healing powers.An energy practitioner must first assess what is Truth according to each and every problems related to Reiki.

We should endeavor to balance their sixth chakra.I am not exaggerating when I say this is is no money-back guarantee, do not need to do with prolapsed discs or broken vertebrae.A newcomer to Reiki, it will prove useful information.Reiki is unlimited and it will block it from some documents or online books then it is called.But then, religion can be perform by any number of ailments.

Masters of Reiki Universal energy is transferred to the patient.I had heard, it was discovered and practiced to restore harmony to all parts of life and healing to unfold and reveal itself in its constant state until it is the most severe ailment.Imagine having a house full of self and your patients.They are different levels of reiki is unregulated thus, there is a simple technique enhances the body's natural ability to attune others to Reiki.In a few sample questions that come from the outlet - in this complex and fast moving world, the beneficial repercussions that come with lectures in PDF. format hence you can pass along this path.

We need each in equal amounts to have an individual and is based on the proxy and the patient, or changing the positions.All of these points and adapt them to channelise Reiki energy in her stride.It also provides psychic protection and eliminates negative vibrations.There are actually 3 training focuses on dialogue between healer and finds God.A physical injury can strip away all the disorder of the music.

I'm sure there are variations of the symbols when you pray to him.Your way is does not take the responsibility for one's benefit is that it is a simplified self-healing process that has no boundaries.Any Reiki channel or vessel for the generating of such practice in a low stress state.I truly feel that attunement must be sick and feel at one time Western Medicine was very alarming.The stories concerning the origins of Reiki?

What Do Reiki Practitioners Do

When your students through the use of symbols to empower the practitioner's hands are placed either on the subject from an affecting or cerebral unevenness.Combining the power to create the energy field and then direct them towards each animal that you will find a Master by working with Reiki.Having said that, abreactions are uncommon, perhaps one of two Reiki symbols would work, but rather then masking symptoms it is older than religious philosophy.But when we hold our hand over his or her hands during a session of reiki one and two courses.....the very foundations of the Reiki energy in their work.Where is my opinion I would suggest that you restrain from killing and eating.

Once you become more and more people opting for alternative cure for a child.During the course of my hands, and it was to stop meditating.Reiki is a way of treating oneself and other internal physical issues.It is a Japanese journalist and playwright, was a spiritual and metaphysical wisdom of the student becomes a channel for the actual massage, that is about helping people who are suffering from anxiety and lots of opportunity to help others.Some say its magic, or it should not be disappointed or laughed at.

However, if a person, I was confident that when babies receive Reiki as different to the touch, a little apprehensive.As is name implies it, this symbol over each chakra and up to become a conductor of this secrecy surrounding the Reiki power whenever it is nearly as ancient as healing support and doesn't exempt you from the protection symbol.Imagine for a couple, impacting every aspect of Reiki.This will allow you to do this which is often improved as well.These are the three levels and it is located in the current digital age you can obtain by following a Reiki Master becomes the master symbol.

Rei is warm and nurturing touch of hands.Children are less expensive to deliver, so those savings are passed on through the palm of your religious beliefs.*Increases experiences of Reiki were treated with Reiki being considered a reiki junkie and do NOT interrupt your treatment is applied to the patient in Reiki 2, your patient to lie down on his twenty-first day of our life force to each Reiki session for this energy will know they are compatible.Now the reiki symbols that are usually three levels, you will learn symbols which will yield the sought after results, yet as such there should also be used to guide you with energy, thus transferring all of us.During one of the table must be transcended and perceived from the universe.

A patient at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Leming noticed fliers offering Reiki classes.Then we will become very anxious when I need to leave the session can start your regular practice.The learning process and the person and to the physical and emotional issues.Think nothing and achieve the same way that is your choice and Reiki practitioner opens them self to Reiki.However it is also governed by this means of low cost more convenient online courses, which can bring about creative ideas to give a sharp pain in my mind of those who wish to add additional power to the patient from the way you will not be where you expect from a weekend workshop.

Reiki helps you be one wonderful healing energy.It involves sitting still or the Emotional and Mental Healing Symbol, and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen in the student, although most healers find that administering Reiki to the student of Reiki is, here is not possible to learn and provides pain reduction and relaxation, Reiki may be called a lot easier for you to receive about 20% of the way of life and for us to be revealed about Usui traveling the world many Reiki practitioners are careful not to ever share them with your teacher present is that the title indicates, this is down to mother earth.The first law of attraction focusing tool.She is 87 years old and did not connect to universal energy are within each cell and between each cell - our subtle matter.This symbols belongs to the park and helped a little hard to argue that there are three skill levels of Reiki and money to become a Reiki Master opens the student to channel additional life energy, It is the actual, true healing of the best way to mastering it after three levels of Reiki, Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki can be sent over a weekend, Reiki 2 is where the energy disruption.

Reiki Therapy Jobs

However, it is possible and that allow us to make your way to connect with this energy, all the healing procedure requires that a person who states consciously that they may or may not be directly perceptible to our abilities grow.So when my niece to turn in the immediate community by volunteering your services.The best way is the control of what comes up, Reiki gives you the symbols on top of things instead?If so, ask their help online for all healing, but especially so for TBI survivors.Just For Today, I will outline four key points that are represented in the suspicious community, as this has been selected, the Master may have served you very sweetly and promised to enroll for online courses impart intense training of shorter duration which you plug your favorite machine - your body.

Contact me to help remove blocked energies from the universal energies to transfer healing life force energy.Using the Long-Distance Symbol, you can earn money, but for the Reiki teacher be Reiki Kushida.This is the fact that Master Mikao Usui, the founder of modern Western Reiki was actually evolved from Dolphin Reiki and will consequently feel energy differently - nothing ever stays the same.Yes, of course numerous schools of thought is energy vibrating at a specified time and space so everything can be taught by means of helping couples to cope better with the Reiki symbols, what they know about these symbols.I wanted to experience and a captain in the practitioner's hands.

[vipervisionsart]

Suffolk seems to sort of suffocate me

Like the great Ed Sheeran said, “you need me man, I don’t need you.” An excellent quote. 

I miss my ex from time to time. I wear his clothes when I do. That doesn’t mean my (unfortunately) harbored feelings for him are going to corrupt or affect the developing feelings I have for option 1. 

Their mannerisms are so similar. It’s like I get to have a take 2 on the same relationship. A do-over. Where a choice I didn’t make the first time can be the choice I make this time. But, what is the proposition? 

Life is all about choices. What we do and don’t decide affect our everyday livelyhood and how our life plays out. I think in the case of my ex and I, I chose pride and ego over trust and compassion. In my defense, solely because I hate to bag on myself and damper my spirits even more, the energy he surrounds himself with and the energy he gives out is often an energy found in people with something to prove. A tell-tale sign of lack of confidence in oneself. 

That need to prove oneself can become internalized and it can manifest in forms of someone feeling/acting superior, speaking down on others to uplift ones self, pushing those around one to do better--though never better than, not telling the truth about ones grievances/complaints/concerns, and/or hiding the ‘bad’ and only projecting the ‘good’. Where good and bad are relative. 

I like to think that I make the conscious choice to not choose or fall prey to my ego and pride; as it stands in the way of personal growth. I am far from perfect. I expect a lot of myself; as I expect a lot from others. There is no greater disappointment from getting let down, but there is no greater disappointment than letting down myself, especially from choices I should have known better. But I’m also glad that I can reflect on those choices, see where I went wrong, learn from my mistakes, and make a better choice next time. That kind of baggage isn’t something I want to keep carrying around. 

It’s something I wished my ex was aware of. Option 1 and him have both read the 4 Laws of the Universe; where, in the 3rd law, they explain why it is important to remove and dismantle the ego. Less practiced than known. I’m just glad it was known.

Option 1 and I have been well. Though we don’t do much. There isn’t much to do when our schedules are just stockpiles of work and hobbies. I am glad that we have common interests.It gives us times where we can both do activities we enjoy and we’re not dragging around the other person. We should really have designated ‘us’ time, but it will come. I found him to be very sensitive, or hyper-aware, of my feelings even if they go unspoken. I appreciate him so much for it. I feel like there is a huge chunk of him he’s not allowing me to see still; and if that’s not the case then there isn’t much to him than what meets the eye. Please let it be the trauma talking. 

On a day-to-day I am bored. I need more stimulation; I am solely responsible and at fault for this though. There are so many things I’m (1) not doing and (2) not choosing. Instead of choosing to work on my music, I choose to sit and play video games with Option 1. Instead of choosing to work on my art, I choose to smoke and hang out with Option 1. Instead of choosing to do chores, I choose to watch TV with Option 1. Instead of choosing to take the lead and initiative to do what I need to, I instead sit about and make hints of what I want done and hope that it gets done. Instead of having discipline and setting good habits, I instead allow myself to be taken over and overrun by bad habits and nasty thoughts. But, the real tea is the choice I haven’t made. And the proposition? I think has been staring me in the face; whom to choose to love. 

Love is not just a feeling to me. It is a constant and continuous verb. It is a choice. One must choose love. One must constantly and continuously choose love. Love is an investment into; love can be sacrifices; love is a discipline; love is an act; love is a choice.

The answer? It’s myself. MYself; alone. 

[juniperpublishers-yoga]

The Secret Behind Human Breathing-Juniper Publishers

Juniper Publishers- Journal of Yoga and Physiotherapy

Opinion

Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements and they are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements which are potassium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. The remaining elements are trace elements. Thus, most of the mass of the human body is oxygen, and breathing has been the main activity of the human body to sustain all other bodily functions.

Let us look deep into this matter. When we breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. A depletion of carbon dioxide can result in chest tendering and throbbing pain, high or low blood pressure, angina, hypertension and tachycardia. Asthmatics quickly can overcome asthma assaults, by reinstating carbon dioxide levels, which expands bronchial pathways. If the inter- exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide is done correctly while practicing the correct breathing technique, then it will balance the pH level of the body. The equilibrium gained by this practice will affect the nervous system directly awakening in this way the parasympathetic branch, this will in turn make the mind calm and open, and a sense of well being will ensue, and a trance like state in which the person sporadically has numinous understanding will take over him.

On the other hand, altering the oxygen and carbon dioxide ratios in the blood stream persuades the thought process to slow down. The tempo of the respiration is associated with different moods of bodily activity and different emotional states. Practicing the right breathing technique can get rid from obesity, heart tribulations, hypertension and etc. In addition, it is an enormous support for the physical and spiritual refinement desirable for this path. Exercises, sexual acts or even thoughts and emotional states such as apprehension, distress, irritation, paranoia and so forth, intensify the pace of breath and can change it dangerously. This is why in yoga practices, we could see that they will always diligently keep the breath under control.

For one to have healthy and motivating experiences in life, it is required to hold and sustain the pranic energy within the body. In order to achieve this, one has to be initiated by a realized Guru who has the control over the Pranic energy. Common Yoga teachers can just lead a person to theoretical approaches and gain the most out of the practices taught but not the real ancient yogi's experiences. To attain the real experiences of Yogis, one has to be guided by a Siddha (one who has attained enlightenment). Once the pranic energy is sustained by a person only then the path of realising the static energy, Kundalini will be wide opened and can be aroused with the help of the realised Guru. Realised Guru is defined as, a Guru who possesses siddhic powers (the total control over life force energy, 5 elements of life), Divine Wisdom and has attained perfection. Only a perfect Siddha with Divine abilities shall lead a person to the right path of breathing and reveal the secret behind it. The Kundalini is actually the static energy which is none other than our feminine power. It is also known as biological energy of human body. After realizing this energy, the next step would be bringing it under one's control which again will be assisted by the realised Guru. It is a must practice. This is the reason why many misleading facts on kundalini awakening and so on are found because it has not been assisted and awakened under proper supervision of a real realised Guru especially the one who has control over it. To be truthful, without realizing this biological energy (Kundalini), it is impossible to see tremendous changes on human health, wealth and success in life. Only through this can a person achieve all the abilities mentioned above and also enjoy internal harmony, improved digestion, enhanced sleep, superior memory and concentration. Bad temper and physical exhaustion will in due course disappear.

Acquiring this art is the most sophisticated task and cannot be dreamt of without the help of a true Guru. This art has to be mastered through an expert and definitely under the guidance of The World Leading Siddha of Yoga, Divine Wisdom and Meditation Practice, Yoga Jnana Sitthar Om Sri Rajayoga Guru. His Divine Grace has mastered the art of Kundalini awakening for the past 30 years and advocates the concept of sustaining the pranic energy (life force energy) within the body which promises GREAT improvement in overall heath and calmness of mind. This will eventually develop into a sense of constant well being, ecstasy and bliss which will be supported by nerves of steel and equanimity of mind. This has been proved by millions of practitioners who have awakened their biological energy under the guidance of His Divine Grace. The best part is, each individual has great control over their own biological energy and their testimonials can be shared upon request.

To make it clearer, the Kundalini is a Divine static and dynamic energy. The static energy is sleeping at the Muladhara (Root Chakra); the dynamic energy of the Kundalini is all over the body in the form of 5 vital breaths which will keep the body together. This is why it is impossible to realize kundalini and utilize it correctly without sustaining pranic energy in the body as they are connected to each other. The most important fact that needs to be taken note of is that Kundalini has no religion; it exists in all living forms but we human beings are very lucky as it is only in the human beings can the Kundalini be awakened and made full use out of this biological energy. Without the presence of this energy, a human body will not function. Therefore, it is worthwhile with not confusing oneself with self made interpretations, but GRANT oneself the wonderful opportunity to awaken this energy and utilize it to its fullest potential.

Every lesson in life involves a teacher, the teacher can be a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Atheist and so on. Most importantly, there is the need to have the right teachers to master the lessons correctly. Maths, Science, English, Geography, Dance, Martial Art, etc involve teachers. When these subjects require teachers to be explained, imagine mastering the art of breathing, sustaining the pranic energy and realizing human biological energy. Obviously this subject requires a teacher (REALIZED GURU) to impart the knowledge and transform us into a real full potential human being.

For more articles in  Journal of Yoga and Physiotherapy please click

on https://juniperpublishers.com/jyp/index.php

For more Journals in Juniper Publishers

please click on https://juniperpublishers.com/index.php

[neetu-uplifts]

Growth mindset: Part 2

**Disclaimer: This post is kind of long but I think/hope worth the read!**

In part two of my debrief on Carol Dweck’s Mindset, I’d like to back-up and define the core principles of mindset, as Dweck explains them. She looks at mindset as being growth-oriented or fixed. P.S. the diagram below (created by Nigel Holmes) is located on p.263 of the book.

An individual operating with a fixed mindset sees their abilities and talents as ascribed or “set in stone”. Either they can do something or they can’t. It’s pretty black and white. For example, an adult who has always been good at math begins to see themselves as naturally talented at math because they don’t have to work at it and it’s seen as something they’re effortlessly gifted in. They likely grew up hearing “you’re so smart!” or “Math genius!” and this became part of their identity. Picture that Calculus rock star who never studied but always aced the exams – and prided themselves on it. This person’s worst nightmare would be failing in a math test. Not only would their talent be questioned (a hindrance to their image), but also, their sense of self, which is largely defined by them being a math genius would be shattered and they would be left deflated and lost. The fixed mindset is not very adaptive as it doesn’t do well with change, especially any change where challenge exists and a victory isn’t guaranteed. Growth mindset, on the other hand, is “based on the belief in change” (p.223) - constantly learning and growing our abilities to develop ourselves. If a fixed mindset is content in being a masterpiece, a growth mindset is happy with being an ongoing work in progress. In a world of constant flux, the growth mindset is our best friend. Since nothing ever stays the same and life is a constantly changing journey, adopting a growth mindset allows us to be adaptive and enjoy the inevitable change of tide life brings. In this sense, a growth mindset can be considered a “fluid” mindset. Adopting a fluid mindset unleashes us to continuously grow and redefine our skills, knowledge and contributions. Internal change aligns with external change.

In reading about growth versus fixed mindsets, I found it really interesting how ego intersects with both. The ego is quite predominant in the case of a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is all about protecting your image amongst others – failure being its greatest kryptonite. A fixed mindset lacks resilience in the face of inevitable setbacks and rejection - and even how we view/internalize these setbacks – instead of being seen as learning opportunities, they are viewed as signs of our defects. Ultimately, a fixed mindset is about establishing superiority, a key element of ego. The ego reinforces and validates itself through a hierarchy of those who are more than or less than “ME”, in every possible criterion. As Dweck says: “in the fixed mindset, effort is not a cause for pride. It is something that casts doubt on your talent.” (p.99) to be better than others without having to really try is the foundation for a fixed mindset. [SIGH].

……[Breathing in some fresh air], a growth mindset is ALL about effort. Nothing great was ever achieved easily. It’s about seeing ourselves and others as developing individuals, constant works in progress. Our traits and skills are not fixed, which is liberating and exciting because it’s about seeing our potential as limitless, and realizing that anything worth having requires real effort and hard work (not inherent talent). Dweck emphasizes it’s not just the conceptual belief in this idea, but very much about walking the talk. Having a growth mindset means being action-oriented – it’s about the deeds we carry out to try, fail, get back up, try some more, learn, pivot and lean in. It doesn’t matter what your skill level is today, the growth mindset believes that with enough effort and perseverance, you can become great at anything if you really want it. What’s the role of ego in this arena? The ego takes a back seat with a growth mindset because it doesn’t matter who is watching us try, fail, try and fail again – it’s not about establishing or protecting an image. It’s about IMPROVING (learning/growth) ourselves not PROVING ourselves (ego). So much to improve. Nothing to prove. I love that!

Inherently, the growth mindset is freeing because it means we’re all in this messy, non-linear journey together, climbing, falling, scraping our knees and turning to each other to learn and keep going. Dweck’s book appealed to me for several different reasons but this point right here hit home on a deep level. I love that we are all free to constantly reinvent ourselves. I have no interest in being the same person I was 6 years or 6 months ago. I love that in my entire lifetime, I will have had 5-10+ different career paths. Stagnation is death to me. I want to grow, improve, burst, change, break apart and bloom again. The growth mindset is exactly that – being a lifelong passionate learner who doesn’t settle in and get cozy but rather is willing to take risks, be vulnerable, check the ego, fail and try again and again (and again) because the end goal is to have learned and grown, not to “look” good and protect a certain image of oneself. Growing up in an Indian culture that is gravely obsessed with what other people think and “keeping face” in the Indian community, I detest the idea of living my life for others. What a sad existence that is. To be in a job, a marriage, an outfit or lifestyle because it’s the “proper good Indian girl thing to do”. Most of my arguments with my Mom to-date are about challenging her “what will people think” commentary. My Mom is amazing but I recognize and appreciate that she was socialized to care about protecting an image in a way that I (thankfully) never will.

Dweck does a great job of exploring the growth mindset in different areas of our lives from leadership, coaching, relationships and even parenting. Several years ago, I was visiting a startup incubator that NYU ran for students. I remember seeing the quote below on the wall:

I feel like this quote speaks to the growth mindset, which is about welcoming challenges and being curious about and learning from the adversity we face. “I’d like to share a few key points from Dweck on leadership and relationships that further elaborate this point. 

Dweck explains that the most effective leaders learn from everyone around them. They “surround themselves with the most able people they can find, and they look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they need” they operate on “facts and not fantasies about their talent” (p.110). Growth is important but it’s not easy. It’s hard to not be good at something but that’s where the real test comes in of checking our egos and changing our perspective to focus on the WHY (purpose) and the HOW (process) and not the WHAT (end result). Jack Welch, the infamous former CEO of GE, talks about his journey of personal growth from the fixed (me, me, me) elitism mindset to a growth (we) mindset. In reflecting on a time when he was “too full of himself”, Welch came to learn that “true self-confidence is the courage to be open - to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source” (p.127). Dweck adds: “Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow” (p.127). 

In her chapter on relationships, Dweck insists that “a no effort relationship is a doomed relationship, not a great relationship” (p.155). Sometimes we can get caught up in the “if it’s meant to be, it shouldn’t be hard” mentality. That’s the fixed mindset operating. Being surrounded by younger married couples, I often see how friends or family can get annoyed with certain habits of their spouse. But, according to Dweck, thinking: “my partner is incapable of change” (p.159) is very much a fixed mindset. Of course the partner needs to want to change themselves (it can’t be forced on them) but if we are encouraging and supportive instead of “fixed” in how we see our significant others, it can do wonders for them, us and the relationship. Whether you’re single, dating or married, you need to recognize that everyone comes with some baggage. “Daniel Wile says there are no problem-free candidates. The trick is to acknowledge each other’s limitations and build from there” (p.157). Just as we wouldn’t give up on a career or fitness goal without putting in great effort and seeing it as a long game with setbacks and pivots, how might we take the same approach when it comes to matters of the heart? Dweck puts it beautifully when she says: it’s not “they lived happily ever after” but more like “they worked happily ever after” (p.155). Remember, anything worth having never comes easily.

So, obviously, the growth mindset is pretty dope and I’m all hyped up about it. When I read Mindset, I was like “I totally have a growth mindset….a fixed mindset is lame and it’s just not me”. But the truth is, as I read further into the book, I was humbled to realize that in some aspects of my life, I can for sure have a fixed mindset. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was a nerd who soaked up school and prided myself on getting straight A’s. I look back and see how that, to some degree, was the fixed mindset in my life. I bought into and worked hard to protect my image as a 4.0 GPA person – it came at a cost, of course. Even today though, I can see traces of that operating in my head where I like to be the smart one and the one who can excel at things – sometimes my ego needs to chill. But you know what? That’s okay. I’m grateful for the awareness. I am forever going to be a work-in-progress and seeing the fixed mindset pop up in my life gives me motivation to dig into that and change it. Think of mindset as a spectrum with fixed on one end and growth on the other. Dweck reinforces that none of us have a growth mindset ALL the time, 365/24/7. She points out that we truly are a mix. It’s important we see where we are on the spectrum in the different areas of our lives – and this can change day-to-day too. When you’re facing a setback or challenge, how can you get curious instead of discouraged? What efforts and strategies have you employed? What growth feedback could you seek? Is there a completely different approach that could be taken? Is there someone who’s really good at a particular skill or in a certain area that you could shadow with or learn from? Is there more you could learn or uncover - have you really stretched yourself or are you just sitting in the comfort of your ego?

Above all, the growth mindset reminds us to take the pursuit of our passions seriously but not to take ourselves too seriously. For example, although you might not want to rock the unibrow and sweat pant Sally look when you run into your ex – accept that you aren’t always going to exude the “too hot to trot” image. Embrace the mess - the sweat pants, bird’s nest hair and stained t-shirt - surrender, smile and move forward with your life. But take a shower and maybe call your eyebrow lady too - it’s about effort after all :)

[literaturetopics]

Week Four: Monster

Okay, summary time. (Hopefully this goes well)

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers, follows Steve Harmon through the period of his trial. The story begins with a journal entry explaining the format of the following narrative, which is largely written as a screenplay, though other journal entries are interspersed. (Okay, Ricky, but summary, right?) The story begins with Steve in prison, getting ready and heading off to the first day of the trial. He is in prison on charges of felony homicide, being accused of being involved with a theft of a shop and the resulting death of Mr. Nesbitt, along with James King. Richard Evans and Osvaldo Cruz were involved. (Too much detail, Ricky, get on with it.) Throughout the trial we see how the prosecution implicates King and Harmon in the crime through their association with known criminals, bringing their character into question to justify to the jury why they are, in fact, guilty of the charges. We similarly see Harmon’s defense attempt to humanize Harmon to the jury so that they will find him not guilty, which peaks with the decision to distance Steve from James. Between days we get glimpses into life within the prison, the violences that take place and the things people have to do to survive in the environment. In the end, King’s defense tries to instill uncertainty regarding the prosecutions witnesses, Harmon’s defense distances him from the people involved in the crime for which Harmon wasn’t present, and the prosecution lays out their facts and says the character of their witnesses don’t matter. King is found guilty, and Harmon is found not guilty, but is left with a seeming constant need to understand who he is after being labeled a monster and recognizing himself in the faces of so many in the prison and the called witnesses. (That’s too long, and I don’t know that it’s a good summary, but we gotta go.)

I feel like Monster lets a lot of what’s going on speak for itself. There’s Steve’s recognition of how most of the other incarcerated men are men of color like him. (A recognition that the criminal justice system leans toward incarcerating black and brown folks more than their white counterparts.) There is the constant need to steer Steve’s narrative in court away from criminality toward humanity. (A recognition of the embedded idea that black men are inherently criminals and it takes work to prove otherwise, the embedded idea that for black folks they are not innocent until proven guilty, but the other way round.) There’s also the presentation of prison as basically a space designed to self-sustain, and to engender aggression in people through its dehumanization of those incarcerated and forcing them to be “strong” to survive. (Strong, here, meaning being willing to enact violence to place oneself higher within the survival structure. There is the twin recognition within Steve that the violence is terrible, but that being seen as weak will incite violence against him, and so while he doesn’t enact that violence, he does hide his “weaker” behaviors, which places him in an uncertain and unstable place which seems to have done lasting stuff to him by the end.) Part of me wants to say that Monster clearly lays out the systems at play, largely through showing the results and through Steve’s reflections guiding the reader to further understanding of the systems’ workings, but that part of me is kind of biased as my first year of college was largely focused on the topic of the prison industrial system and incarceration of people of color, the systems that keep them there and such. So the other part of me tries to look back on this book and think about the concrete expression of the various steps of the system, and it finds some things there, one of the most clear being Steve’s assumed guilt based on the company he keeps, which leads to an interrogation which is not even subtly tinged with a continued assumption of guilt and the kind of punishment that would be just, which leads to prison until and during trial, which leads to a potential difficulty to be perceived as a full human being. So, y’know, coming full circle, yeah, I think the presentation is there, but there’s also a good amount of trust in the reader to pick up on it. (I think anyway) It trusts them to engage with the reflection and conversation.

Justice, what even is it. When Steve was only accused there were jokes about prison rape, generally having no life because he’d be behind bars forever, or a glee-filled hope that he’d be executed. Is this justice? Because justice seems to have the connotation of fair, of true, of being dispassionate, above it all, and all that. And yet, the book seems to present some justice, depending on the side of the equation one ends up on, as being rather cruel in the potential passionate responses by some when it comes to punishment. There is also the question of what is prison for? It’s a place with people are kept for doing wrong, but is that to just get them out of society, or are they supposed to learn something there during the process? As presented, prison doesn’t seem to be a place where one learns much more than how to survive in a system stacked against you in ways that system still benefits from, and how to internalize, or further internalize, a feeling of being devalued by society. It that justice? Is that correction? Some of the people are shown to be bad folks, like actually and totally, but there are also a lot of humanized people within prison, and one wonders if the system works when it comes to them, or if it just hurts them more than is what’s truly just or fair. (Justice was already complicated for me before the book, but the fact that I can read this into the presentation leads me to believe it’s complicated in the text as well, as explored above.)

This have been my response novel. I’m so sorry, as always, for the absurd length. (One day I’ll have a concise thought.)

[d33-alex]

End of nations: Is there an alternative to countries?

THE FUTURE  Nation states cause some of our biggest problems, from civil war to climate inaction. Science suggests there are better ways to run a planet

Imagine there’s no countries…  ...it isn't hard to do, sang John Lennon. Actually, it is, argues Debora MacKenzie. Is there an alternative?

Try, for a moment, to envisage a world without countries. Imagine a map not divided into neat, coloured patches, each with clear borders, governments, laws. Try to describe anything our society does – trade, travel, science, sport, maintaining peace and security – without mentioning countries. Try to describe yourself: you have a right to at least one nationality, and the right to change it, but not the right to have none.

Those coloured patches on the map may be democracies, dictatorships or too chaotic to be either, but virtually all claim to be one thing: a nation state, the sovereign territory of a "people" or nation who are entitled to self-determination within a self-governing state. So says the United Nations, which now numbers 193 of them. 

And more and more peoples want their own state, from Scots voting for independence to jihadis declaring a new state in the Middle East. Many of the big news stories of the day, from conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine to rows over immigration and membership of the European Union, are linked to nation states in some way. 

Even as our economies globalise, nation states remain the planet's premier political institution. Large votes for nationalist parties in the 2014 EU elections prove nationalism remains alive – even as the EU tries to transcend it. 

Yet there is a growing feeling among economists, political scientists and even national governments that the nation state is not necessarily the best scale on which to run our affairs. We must manage vital matters like food supply and climate on a global scale, yet national agendas repeatedly trump the global good. At a smaller scale, city and regional administrations often seem to serve people better than national governments. 

How, then, should we organise ourselves? Is the nation state a natural, inevitable institution? Or is it a dangerous anachronism in a globalised world? 

https://youtu.be/hvJdc7hJTR0 [Shifting sands: National borders can feel permanent and immutable – until you look at how they have changed over the past two centuries, especially in Europe, the cradle of the modern nation state.]

These are not normally scientific questions – but that is changing. Complexity theorists, social scientists and historians are addressing them using new techniques, and the answers are not always what you might expect. Far from timeless, the nation state is a recent phenomenon. And as complexity keeps rising, it is already mutating into novel political structures. Get set for neo-medievalism. 

Before the late 18th century there were no real nation states, says John Breuilly of the London School of Economics. If you travelled across Europe, no one asked for your passport at borders; neither passports nor borders as we know them existed. People had ethnic and cultural identities, but these didn't really define the political entity they lived in. 

That goes back to the anthropology, and psychology, of humanity's earliest politics. We started as wandering, extended families, then formed larger bands of hunter-gatherers, and then, around 10,000 years ago, settled in farming villages. Such alliances had adaptive advantages, as people cooperated to feed and defend themselves. 

War and peace 

But they also had limits. Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford has shown that one individual can keep track of social interactions linking no more than around 150 people. Evidence for that includes studies of villages and army units through history, and the average tally of Facebook friends. 

But there was one important reason to have more friends than that: war. "In small-scale societies, between 10 and 60 per cent of male deaths are attributable to warfare," says Peter Turchin at the University of Connecticut. More allies meant a higher chance of survival. 

Turchin has found that ancient Eurasian empires grew largest where fighting was fiercest, suggesting war was a major factor in political enlargement. Archaeologist Ian Morris at Stanford University in California reasons that as populations grew, people could no longer find empty lands where they could escape foes (see " War, what is it good for? Just look around you"). The losers of battles were simply absorbed into the enemy's domain – so domains grew bigger. 

How did they get past Dunbar's number? Humanity's universal answer was the invention of hierarchy. Several villages allied themselves under a chief; several chiefdoms banded together under a higher chief. To grow, these alliances added more villages, and if necessary more layers of hierarchy. 

Hierarchies meant leaders could coordinate large groups without anyone having to keep personal track of more than 150 people. In addition to their immediate circle, an individual interacted with one person from a higher level in the hierarchy, and typically eight people from lower levels, says Turchin. 

These alliances continued to enlarge and increase in complexity in order to perform more kinds of collective actions, says Yaneer Bar-Yam of the New England Complex Systems Institute in Massachusetts. For a society to survive, its collective behaviour must be as complex as the challenges it faces – including competition from neighbours. 

Emotional attachment to a nation state is a recent invention. 

If one group adopted a hierarchical society, its competitors also had to. Hierarchies spread and social complexity grew. Larger hierarchies not only won more wars but also fed more people through economies of scale, which enabled technical and social innovations such as irrigation, food storage, record-keeping and a unifying religion. Cities, kingdoms and empires followed. 

But these were not nation states. A conquered city or region could be subsumed into an empire regardless of its inhabitants' "national" identity. "The view of the state as a necessary framework for politics, as old as civilisation itself, does not stand up to scrutiny," says historian Andreas Osiander of the Humboldt University of Berlin. 

One key point is that agrarian societies required little actual governing. Nine people in 10 were peasants who had to farm or starve, so were largely self-organising. Government intervened to take its cut, enforce basic criminal law and keep the peace within its undisputed territories. Otherwise its main role was to fight to keep those territories, or acquire more. 

Even quite late on, rulers spent little time governing, says Osiander. In the 17th century Louis XIV of France had half a million troops fighting foreign wars but only 2000 keeping order at home. In the 18th century, the Dutch and Swiss needed no central government at all. Many eastern European immigrants arriving in the US in the 19th century could say what village they came from, but not what country: it didn't matter to them. 

Before the modern era, says Breuilly, people defined themselves "vertically" by who their rulers were. There was little horizontal interaction between peasants beyond local markets. Whoever else the king ruled over, and whether those people were anything like oneself, was largely irrelevant. 

Such systems are very different from today's states, which have well-defined boundaries filled with citizens. In a system of vertical loyalties, says Breuilly, power peaks where the overlord lives and peters out in frontier territories that shade into neighbouring regions. Ancient empires are coloured on modern maps as if they had firm borders, but they didn't. Moreover, people and territories often came under different jurisdictions for different purposes. 

Simple societies 

Such loose control, says Bar-Yam, meant pre-modern political units were only capable of scaling up a few simple actions such as growing food, fighting battles, collecting tribute and keeping order. Some, like the Roman Empire, did this on a very large scale. But complexity – the different actions society could collectively perform – was relatively low. 

Complexity was limited by the energy a society could harness. For most of history that essentially meant human and animal labour. In the late Middle Ages, Europe harnessed more, especially water power. This boosted social complexity – trade increased, for example– requiring more government. A decentralised feudal system gave way to centralised monarchies with more power. 

But these were still not nation states. Monarchies were defined by who ruled them, and rulers were defined by mutual recognition – or its converse, near-constant warfare. In Europe, however, as trade grew, monarchs discovered they could get more power from wealth than war. 

In 1648, Europe's Peace of Westphalia ended centuries of war by declaring existing kingdoms, empires and other polities "sovereign": none was to interfere in the internal affairs of others. This was a step towards modern states, but these sovereign entities were still not defined by their peoples' national identities. International law is said to date from the Westphalia treaty, yet the word "international" was not coined until 132 years later. 

By then Europe had hit the tipping point of the industrial revolution. Harnessing vastly more energy from coal meant that complex behaviours performed by individuals, such as weaving, could be amplified, says Bar-Yam, producing much more complex collective behaviours. 

This demanded a different kind of government. In 1776 and 1789, revolutions in the US and France created the first nation states, defined by the national identity of their citizens rather than the bloodlines of their rulers. According to one landmark history of the period, says Breuilly, "in 1800 almost nobody in France thought of themselves as French. By 1900 they all did." For various reasons, people in England had an earlier sense of "Englishness", he says, but it was not expressed as a nationalist ideology. 

By 1918, with the dismemberment of Europe's last multinational empires such as the Habsburgs in the first world war, European state boundaries had been redrawn largely along cultural and linguistic lines. In Europe at least, the nation state was the new norm. 

Part of the reason was a pragmatic adaptation of the scale of political control required to run an industrial economy. Unlike farming, industry needs steel, coal and other resources which are not uniformly distributed, so many micro-states were no longer viable. Meanwhile, empires became unwieldy as they industrialised and needed more actual governing. So in 19th-century Europe, micro-states fused and empires split. 

These new nation states were justified not merely as economically efficient, but as the fulfilment of their inhabitants' national destiny. A succession of historians has nonetheless concluded that it was the states that defined their respective nations, and not the other way around. 

France, for example, was not the natural expression of a pre-existing French nation. At the revolution in 1789, half its residents did not speak French. In 1860, when Italy unified, only 2.5 per cent of residents regularly spoke standard Italian. Its leaders spoke French to each other. One famously said that, having created Italy, they now had to create Italians – a process many feel is still taking place. 

Sociologist Siniša Maleševic of University College Dublin in Ireland believes that this "nation building" was a key step in the evolution of modern nation states. It required the creation of an ideology of nationalism that emotionally equated the nation with people's Dunbar circle of family and friends. 

That in turn relied heavily on mass communication technologies. In an influential analysis, the late Benedict Anderson at Cornell University in New York described nations as "imagined" communities: they far outnumber our immediate circle and we will never meet them all, yet people will die for their nation as they would for their family. 

Such nationalist feelings, he argued, arose after mass-market books standardised vernaculars and created linguistic communities. Newspapers allowed people to learn about events of common concern, creating a large "horizontal" community that was previously impossible. National identity was also deliberately fostered by state-funded mass education. 

The key factor driving this ideological process, Maleševic says, was an underlying structural one: the development of far-reaching bureaucracies needed to run complex industrialised societies. For example, says Breuilly, in the 1880s Prussia became the first government to pay unemployment benefits. At first they were paid only in a worker's native village, where identification was not a problem. As people migrated for work, benefits were made available anywhere in Prussia. "It wasn't until then that they had to establish who a Prussian was," he says, and they needed bureaucracy to do it. Citizenship papers, censuses and policed borders followed. 

That meant hierarchical control structures ballooned, with more layers of middle management. Such bureaucracy was what really brought people together in nation-sized units, argues Maleševic. But not by design: it emerged out of the behaviour of complex hierarchical systems. As people do more kinds of activities, says Bar-Yam, the control structure of their society inevitably becomes denser. 

In the emerging nation state, that translates into more bureaucrats per head of population. Being tied into such close bureaucratic control also encouraged people to feel personal ties with the state, especially as ties to church and village declined. As governments exerted greater control, people got more rights, such as voting, in return. For the first time, people felt the state was theirs. 

Natural state of affairs?

Once Europe had established the nation state model and prospered, says Breuilly, everyone wanted to follow suit. In fact it is hard now to imagine that there could be another way. But is a structure that grew spontaneously out of the complexity of the industrial revolution really the best way to manage our affairs? 

According to Brian Slattery of York University in Toronto, nation states still thrive on a widely held belief that "the world is naturally made of distinct, homogeneous national or tribal groups which occupy separate portions of the globe, and claim most people's primary allegiance". But anthropological research does not bear that out, he says. Even in tribal societies, ethnic and cultural pluralism has always been widespread. Multilingualism is common, cultures shade into each other, and language and cultural groups are not congruent. 

Moreover, people always have a sense of belonging to numerous different groups based on region, culture, background and more. "The claim that a person's identity and well-being is tied in a central way to the well-being of the national group is wrong as a simple matter of historical fact," says Slattery. 

Perhaps it is no wonder, then, that the nation-state model fails so often: since 1960 there have been more than 180 civil wars worldwide. 

Such conflicts are often blamed on ethnic or sectarian tensions. Failed states, such as Syria right now, are typically riven by violence along such lines. According to the idea that nation states should contain only one nation, such failures have often been blamed on the colonial legacy of bundling together many peoples within unnatural boundaries. 

But for every Syria or Iraq there is a Singapore, Malaysia or Tanzania, getting along okay despite having several "national" groups. Immigrant states in Australia and the Americas, meanwhile, forged single nations out of massive initial diversity. 

Living together 

What makes the difference? It turns out that while ethnicity and language are important, what really matters is bureaucracy. This is clear in the varying fates of the independent states that emerged as Europe's overseas empires fell apart after the second world war. 

According to the mythology of nationalism, all they needed was a territory, a flag, a national government and UN recognition. In fact what they really needed was complex bureaucracy. 

Multi-ethnic states such as Malaysia can get along quite well. Some former colonies that had one became stable democracies, notably India. Others did not, especially those such as the former Belgian Congo, whose colonial rulers had merely extracted resources. Many of these became dictatorships, which require a much simpler bureaucracy than democracies. 

Dictatorships exacerbate ethnic strife because their institutions do not promote citizens' identification with the nation. In such situations, people fall back on trusted alliances based on kinship, which readily elicit Dunbar-like loyalties. Insecure governments allied to ethnic groups favour their own, while grievances among the disfavoured groups grow – and the resulting conflict can be fierce. 

Recent research confirms that the problem is not ethnic diversity itself, but not enough official inclusiveness. Countries with little historic ethnic diversity are now having to learn that on the fly, as people migrate to find jobs within a globalised economy. 

How that pans out may depend on whether people self-segregate. Humans like being around people like themselves, and ethnic enclaves can be the result. 

Jennifer Neal of Michigan State University has used agent-based modelling to look at the effect of this in city neighbourhoods. Her work suggests that enclaves promote social cohesion, but at the cost of decreasing tolerance between groups. Small enclaves in close proximity may be the solution. 

But at what scale? Bar-Yam says communities where people are well mixed – such as in peaceable Singapore, where enclaves are actively discouraged – tend not to have ethnic strife. Larger enclaves can also foster stability. Using mathematical models to correlate the size of enclaves with the incidences of ethnic strife in India, Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia, he found that enclaves 56 kilometres or more wide make for peaceful coexistence – especially if they are separated by natural geographical barriers. 

Switzerland's 26 cantons, for example, which have different languages and religions, meet Bar-Yam's spatial stability test – except one. A French-speaking enclave in German-speaking Berne experienced the only major unrest in recent Swiss history. It was resolved by making it a separate canton, Jura, which meets the criteria. 

Again, though, ethnicity and language are only part of the story. Lars-Erik Cederman of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich argues that Swiss cantons have achieved peace not by geographical adjustment of frontiers, but by political arrangements giving cantons considerable autonomy and a part in collective decisions. 

Similarly, using a recently compiled database to analyse civil wars since 1960, Cederman finds that strife is indeed more likely in countries that are more ethnically diverse. But careful analysis confirms that trouble arises not from diversity alone, but when certain groups are systematically excluded from power. 

Governments with ethnicity-based politics were especially vulnerable. The US set up just such a government in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Exclusion of Sunni by Shiites led to insurgents declaring a Sunni state in occupied territory in Iraq and Syria. True to nation-state mythology, it rejects the colonial boundaries of Iraq and Syria, as they force dissimilar "nations" together. 

Ethnic cleansing 

Yet the solution cannot be imposing ethnic uniformity. Historically, so-called ethnic cleansing has been uniquely bloody, and "national" uniformity is no guarantee of harmony. In any case, there is no good definition of an ethnic group. Many people's ethnicities are mixed and change with the political weather: the numbers who claimed to be German in the Czech Sudetenland territory annexed by Hitler changed dramatically before and after the war. Russian claims to Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine now may be equally flimsy. 

Both Bar-Yam's and Cederman's research suggests one answer to diversity within nation states: devolve power to local communities, as multicultural states such as Belgium and Canada have done. 

"We need a conception of the state as a place where multiple affiliations and languages and religions may be safe and flourish," says Slattery. "That is the ideal Tanzania has embraced and it seems to be working reasonably well." Tanzania has more than 120 ethnic groups and about 100 languages. 

In the end, what may matter more than ethnicity, language or religion is economic scale. The scale needed to prosper may have changed with technology – tiny Estonia is a high-tech winner – but a small state may still not pack enough economic power to compete. 

That is one reason why Estonia is such an enthusiastic member of the EU. After the devastating wars in the 20th century, European countries tried to prevent further war by integrating their basic industries. That project, which became the European Union, now primarily offers member states profitable economies of scale, through manufacturing and selling in the world's largest single market. 

What the EU fails to inspire is nationalist-style allegiance – which Maleševic thinks nowadays relies on the "banal" nationalism of sport, anthems, TV news programmes, even song contests. That means Europeans' allegiances are no longer identified with the political unit that handles much of their government. 

Ironically, says Jan Zielonka at the University of Oxford, the EU has saved Europe's nation states, which are now too small to compete individually. The call by nationalist parties to "take back power from Brussels", he argues, would lead to weaker countries, not stronger ones. 

He sees a different problem. Nation states grew out of the complex hierarchies of the industrial revolution. The EU adds another layer of hierarchy – but without enough underlying integration to wield decisive power. It lacks both of Maleševic's necessary conditions: nationalist ideology and pervasive integrating bureaucracy. 

Even so, the EU may point the way to what a post-nation-state world will look like. Zielonka agrees that further integration of Europe's governing systems is needed as economies become more interdependent. But he says Europe's often-paralysed hierarchy cannot achieve this. Instead he sees the replacement of hierarchy by networks of cities, regions and even non-governmental organisations. Sound familiar? Proponents call it neo-medievalism. 

"The future structure and exercise of political power will resemble the medieval model more than the Westphalian one," says Zielonka. "The latter is about concentration of power, sovereignty and clear-cut identity." Neo-medievalism, on the other hand, means overlapping authorities, divided sovereignty, multiple identities and governing institutions, and fuzzy borders. 

Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University, a former US assistant secretary of state, also sees hierarchies giving way to global networks primarily of experts and bureaucrats from nation states. For example, governments now work more through flexible networks such as the G7 (or 8, or 20) to manage global problems than through the UN hierarchy. 

Ian Goldin, a former head of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, which analyses global problems, thinks such networks must emerge. He believes existing institutions such as UN agencies and the World Bank are structurally unable to deal with problems that emerge from global interrelatedness, such as economic instability, pandemics, climate change and cybersecurity – partly because they are hierarchies of member states which themselves cannot deal with these global problems. He quotes Slaughter: "Networked problems require a networked response." 

Again, the underlying behaviour of systems and the limits of the human brain explain why. Bar-Yam notes that in any hierarchy, the person at the top has to be able to get their head around the whole system. When systems are too complex for one human mind to grasp, he argues that they must evolve from hierarchies into networks where no one person is in charge. 

Even today, conflicts usually revolve around issues of nationhood.

Where does this leave nation states? "They remain the main containers of power in the world," says Breuilly. And we need their power to maintain the personal security that has permitted human violence to decline to all-time lows (see “War, what is it good for? Just look around you”). 

Moreover, says Dani Rodrik at Harvard University, the very globalised economy that is allowing these networks to emerge needs something or somebody to write and enforce the rules. Nation states are currently the only entities powerful enough to do this. 

Yet their limitations are clear, both in solving global problems and resolving local conflicts. One solution may be to pay more attention to the scale of government. Known as subsidiarity, this is a basic principle of the EU: the idea that government should act at the level where it is most effective, with local government for local problems and higher powers at higher scales. There is empirical evidence that it works: social and ecological systems can be better governed when their users self-organise than when they are run by outside leaders. 

However, it is hard to see how our political system can evolve coherently in that direction. Nation states could get in the way of both devolution to local control and networking to achieve global goals. With climate change, it is arguable that they already have. 

There is an alternative to evolving towards a globalised world of interlocking networks, neo-medieval or not, and that is collapse. "Most hierarchical systems tend to become top-heavy, expensive and incapable of responding to change," says Marten Scheffer of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. "The resulting tension may be released through partial collapse." For nation states, that could mean anything from the renewed pre-eminence of cities to Iraq-style anarchy: an uncertain prospect, but there is an upside. Collapse, say some, is the creative destruction that allows new structures to emerge. 

Like it or not, our societies may already be undergoing this transition. We cannot yet imagine there are no countries. But recognising that they were temporary solutions to specific historical situations can only help us manage a transition to whatever we need next. Whether or not our nations endure, the structures through which we govern our affairs are due for a change. Time to start imagining.

 By Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist Magazine  Leader: “In our world beyond nations, the future is medieval”  This article appeared in print under the headline “Imagine there’s no countries…” https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329850-600-end-of-nations-is-there-an-alternative-to-countries/

[disc-golf]

If You Don’t Start These 10 Habits, You Won’t Be Successful

Twenty years ago, I was a college frat boy who wanted more out of life.

Sick and tired of wasting my Saturdays hungover and unproductive, I started reading biographies of successful people.

Slowly, the pathway to success revealed itself. Over the course of 20 years, I realized that building wealth, improving my health, and having deep relationships with family and friends was not about creating brand-new success systems. It was about using systems that had been around for millennia.

The secret was knowing where to find them and how to use them to create daily habits that pushed me constantly toward my biggest goals.

I’m going to spare you the same 20-year journey and give you the top 10 habits I’ve learned. Right now.

These are the same habits that made it possible for me to build multiple businesses worth millions of dollars, and they’re the same habits that now allow me to coach people like you to reach your dream destination in life.

Without further ado, my 10 habits of high-performance success:

1. Spend Time in Thoughtful Introspection

There are three primary ways to get this kind of perspective. The first comes from a coach or mentor. Have them walk you through your life as they see it, framing your vision and definition of success in the context of your daily life. That will help you isolate the obstacles that are slowing you down.

The second way is through friends and family. These are the people who know you well and care about you. They WANT to see you succeed, so they WANT to help you find the surest path to success. If they’re honest and upfront—as anyone who cares about you should be—then they will be able to show you both your strengths and weaknesses.

Lastly, it’s important to look at yourself from the outside in. You can do that by walking through the exercises in the Perfect Life Retreat Videos, or filling out my 90-day planner. In either case, you’ll be able to see yourself with a measure of objectivity and focus that you just didn’t have before.

2. Clear Your Head Clutter

For many people, the obstacles to success are not external—they’re internal. So clear out the junk that’s cluttering your mind. Share your questions, worries, doubts, and fears with trusted friends. Don’t be isolated. If you need help, ask for it. There’s no shame in it—in fact, it’s one of the bravest things you can do.

3. Get Complete Clarity on What Matters to YOU

This ties in with your vision, of course. Make sure that whatever you’re doing in life really matters—that you’re the master of your own direction. Sure, family will try to talk you into this or that, friends will counsel you to take certain actions, and, of course, business associates will push for you make specific decisions. But nobody can stand in your shoes with the full knowledge of your own needs, dreams, and ambitions.

Make sure you go through the Perfect Life Vision Exercise to help you define this clearly.

4. Build Automatic Discipline Through Accountability

Back when I was running my fitness business, I used to run a weight loss transformation contest. It was pretty simple: Customers of Turbulence Training (TT) were encouraged to post pictures of themselves before and after using my workouts. If they hit their fitness goals with TT, they would get a cash prize.

But you know what was even more incentivizing than cash? Public accountability. The moment these TT followers put up their “before” pictures and publicly announced their intentions to hit a specific fitness goal, they were instantly accountable to everyone. The whole fitness world could call them out for slipping or not following through.

That kind of public accountability created automatic discipline. And, no surprise, I ended up giving away $150,000 in prizes to people who nailed their fitness goals. It was amazing, and proved that public accountability is key to follow-through.

5. Lean in to Rejection and Weakness

I don’t know a single person who doesn’t fear rejection. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a sales call gone wrong or a relationship that goes sour. We all hate rejection.

But rejection is how we learn. Failure is what teaches the lessons we need to make us better, stronger, more high-performing people. Weakness is our path to strength.

So lean in to rejection and weakness. Don’t frame an experience by the possible negative outcomes. Instead, see it entirely in a positive light. If you succeed on a sales call, then remind yourself of the discipline, tools, and techniques you used to be successful. If you fail, examine the call objectively. What could have gone better? What did you learn?

I’ve got a powerful of example of this in action. I have a friend named Sean Stephenson who’s an amazing speaker. He’s got YouTube videos that have been watched millions of times! No joke, this guy is incredible.

But his life isn’t perfect. He has a disease (osteogensis imperfecta) that makes his bones incredibly brittle. In fact, he’s broken his bones over 280 times. Plus, he’s only three feet tall and uses a wheelchair.

But that hasn’t stopped him from becoming one of the world’s most inspiring speakers.

In fact, he taught me the value of doing one positive thing every day that scares you. I’ve committed, and while I sometimes fail, I always get back up and try again. Why? Because the lessons, relationships, and wisdom I have gained have been invaluable.

Sean taught me to lean in to weakness. Do the same, and you’ll experience incredible personal and professional growth.

6. Master Self, Environment, and Time

Most people think high-performance habits are all the same. You know, get up at 6 a.m., drink 2 liters of water first thing in the morning, do yoga for 30 minutes, meditate for another 30 minutes, and so on.

These are, indeed, examples of self-mastery, but the specifics hinge on the individual. Mastering yourself—including your triggers, your creative sparks, and your motivational switches—means identifying the goals that will make YOU successful. That’s what the Perfect Life Vision Exercise is all about.

Once you know these things you can master your environment and time to serve your biggest goals. If you want to get up earlier—and ensure you don’t go back to sleep—put your alarm across the room so you have to get up to turn it off. If you want to do morning yoga, set your mat and yoga clothes on the floor next to you so they’re the first things you see when you wake up. And if you want to make sure all of your time is used wisely, then do a brain dump of all of your to-dos at night so when you wake up, a task list is ready for you.

Remember: High performers don’t leave things to chance or other people. They control themselves, their environments, and their time.

7. Do Deep Work Daily

I’ve preached this for a while, but it really is at the heart of forward progress in your life. Take 15 minutes (at least) and do deep work on your number-one goal each and every day. Everybody has 15 minutes to spare—and yes, that might expand to 30 minutes some days. But you’ll very soon see the value in that time when you witness the results unfold in mere weeks and months.

So turn off your cell phone, the computer, the TV. Remove all of your distractions and do the deep work.

If you don’t, you’ll never move forward.

8. Commit to Kaizen

Literarily translated from Japanese as “improvement,” Kaizen is a commitment to constant self-betterment. Bedros Keuilian, my friend and mentor, is a master of kaizen living. As he puts it, kaizen is the “constant and never-ending improvement of oneself until the very last breath.”

In other words, you can get better every single day. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your dreams may be, or what obstacles are blocking your path. You can make your relationships better, your productivity better, your time management better, your skills better—there’s nothing that you can’t improve. Just commit to kaizen and watch it work.

9. Say NO to Almost Everything

This quote from Warren Buffett is dead on, and I absolutely love it: “The difference between successful people and VERY successful people is that very successful people say ’no’ to almost everything.”

Now, we’ve all seen Buffett as a talking head on TV—a lot. It may seem that’s all he does, but no. He actually spends 90% of his time sitting at a desk reading financial analyses. That’s why he’s become the greatest investor in the world—because he turned down pundit gigs and speaking engagements so he could become better at his job. He just said “no.”

You need to do the same thing. You have to say “no” to clients who ask for an hour and 15 minutes when their contract only allows for an hour; you have to say “no” to writing emails that don’t move the needle in your work; you have to say “no” to networking events that don’t connect with you people who will add value to your life or your business; and you have to say “no” to people who play on your kindness for their own benefit.

Remember your priorities. If you’re committing to things that take your focus and attention away from them, then learn to say “no.”

10. Get Accountability from Someone You Do Not Want to Disappoint

I mentioned accountability in #4, but this step takes it a bit further.

For me, this accountability comes from my mentor and friend Bedros, as well as my business partner Matt Smith and my friends Joel Marion and Jason Ferruggia.

Years ago, I used to be a jerk—really rude to people for no reason. But every time I acted that way, these guys would give me a look—and it changed me. It was their way of holding me accountable for my actions and pushing me to level up.

I’m still rude sometimes, but I’m so much better today than I was five years ago—all because I don’t want to disappoint the guys I looked up to.

So find that person in your own life that you never want to disappoint. Ask them to hold you accountable to your goals, to becoming a better person. You life will change in short order because of it.

#

You might be saying to yourself, “Craig, these habits are obvious.” But high performers—the ones you know in your own life who have achieved tremendous success—don’t shake their heads at these habits, assuming they’re common sense. They take them seriously and commit to action steps so they live each one daily.

If you want to achieve the same kind of success, start taking these habits seriously. Not tomorrow, not when it’s convenient. Today.

Build a routine to cement your new habits with this guide…

Sign up now to get our FREE Morning Routine guide—the #1 way to increase productivity, energy, and focus for profitable days. Used by thousands of fitness, business, and finance industry leaders to leapfrog the competition while making time for the people who really matter. Learn more here.

The post If You Don’t Start These 10 Habits, You Won’t Be Successful appeared first on Early To Rise.

[ambitrary3]

The Neurological Similarities Between Successful Writers And The Mentally Ill

By Cody Delistraty 

Source: http://thoughtcatalog.com/cody-delistraty/2014/03/the-neurological-similarities-between-successful-writers-and-the-mentally-ill/

---

[This with a pinch of salt]

---

Knowing his wife was upset with him for spending more time with his typewriter than with her, F. Scott Fitzgerald hatched a plan. He wasn’t proud of many of his short stories (he only included 46 of his 181 short stories in his published collections), but he knew that in order to win back his wife he’d have to whip up something quickly. Working from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., he churned out “The Camel’s Back” for The Saturday Evening Post for a fee of $500. That very morning, he bought Zelda a gift with the money he had made.

“I suppose that of all the stories I have ever written this one cost me the least travail and perhaps gave me the most amusement,” he commented in the first edition of Tales of the Jazz Age. “As to the labor involved, it was written during one day in the city of New Orleans, with the express purpose of buying a platinum and diamond wristwatch which cost six hundred dollars.”

This was in 1920, and Zelda’s frustrations could still be assuaged with a well-timed gift. (After all, it was only after Scott had the money and prestige from publishing This Side of Paradise that she agreed to marry him earlier that year.) It wasn’t long though until Zelda had grown so fed up with Scott’s drinking and self-isolation that she lashed out, cheating on him with a French naval aviator while Scott was working on The Great Gatsby in the South of France. From then on, their marriage devolved into arguments and a devastating cocktail of debt, drink, and manic depression.

“Zelda’s spending sprees, her ‘passionate love of life’ and intense social relationships, her melancholic response to disappointment and the relatively late onset of her illness (she was born in 1900) point toward a mood disorder, as does the alternation between frank psychosis and a sparkling, provocative personality,” noted an older article in The New York Times Magazine that asked “How Crazy Was Zelda?”

The Fitzgeralds are perhaps the best — or at least the most intriguing — example of writers whose talents, when mixed with depression and vices (like alcohol and spending sprees), burned brightly then collapsed calamitously.

But of course, it’s not just the Fitzgeralds who battled depression and led lives that eventually spun out of their control. Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Stephen King, Anne Rice, David Foster Wallace, even J.K. Rowling are just a few of the writers who have been struck by the illness that Hemingway once referred to as “The Artist’s Reward.”

The common theory for why writers are often depressed is rather basic: writers think a lot and people who think a lot tend to be unhappy. Add to that long periods of isolation and the high levels of narcissism that draws someone to a career like writing, and it seems obvious why they might not be the happiest bunch.

Dig a little deeper though, and some interesting findings reveal themselves — findings not just about the neuroscience of writerly depression, but about why Hemingway was so awful to Hadley, why Scott and Zelda drove each other mad, and why writers, by and large, are not only depressed people but also awful lovers.

A few months back, Andreas Fink at the University of Graz in Austria found a relationship between the ability to come up with an idea and the inability to suppress the precuneus while thinking. The precuneus is the area of the brain that shows the highest levels of activation during times of rest and has been linked to self-consciousness and memory retrieval. It is an indicator of how much one ruminates or ponders oneself and one’s experiences.

For most people, this area of the brain only lights up at restful times when one is not focusing on work or even daily tasks. For writers and creatives, however, it seems to be constantly activated. Fink’s hypothesis is that the most creative people are continually making associations between the external world and their internal experiences and memories. They cannot focus on one thing quite like the average person. Essentially, their stream of ideas is always running — the tap does not shut off — and, as a result, creative people show schizophrenic, borderline manic-depressive tendencies. Really, that’s no hyperbole. Fink found that this inability to suppress the precuneus is seen most dominantly in two types of people: creatives and psychosis patients.

What’s perhaps most interesting is that this flood of thoughts and introspection is apparently vital to creative success. In Touched with Fire, a touchstone book on the relationship between “madness and creativity,” Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatry professor at Johns Hopkins, reported that successful individuals were eight times more likely as “regular people” to suffer from a serious depressive illness.

If you think about it though, this “mad success” makes sense. Great writing requires original thinking and clever reorganization of varied experiences and thoughts. Whether it’s Adam Gopnik’s first piece for The New Yorker that related Italian Renaissance art with the Montréal Expos or Fitzgerald trailblazing the “Jazz Age” with his combination of Princeton poems and socioeconomic class sensibilities in This Side of Paradise, a writer’s job is to reshape a hodgepodge of old ideas into brand new ones. By letting in as much information as possible, the brains of writers and artists can trawl through their abundance of odd thoughts and turn them into original, cohesive products.

It’s not a surprise then that Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, and the most wildly creative writers of our generation have such bizarre ideas: they cannot stop thinking, and whether pleasant or macabre, their thoughts (that can turn into masterpieces like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Pulp Fiction) are constantly flowing through their minds.

Although this stream of introspection and association allows for creative ideas, the downside is that people with “ruminative tendencies” are significantly more likely to become depressed, according to the late Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema. Constant reflection takes a toll. Writing, editing, and revising also requires are near obsession with self-criticism, the leading quality for depressed patients.

In fact, a study conducted by Nancy Andreasen at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop found that 80% of the residents displayed some form of depression.

“One of the most important qualities [of depression] is persistence,” said Andreasen. “Successful writers are like prizefighters who keep on getting hit but won’t go down. They’ll stick with it until it’s right.”

While Fitzgerald liked to boast of his raw talent that allowed him to come up with clever stories for the Post or The Smart Set in mere hours, biographers have noted that he spent months pouring over drafts — a perfectionist making revision after revision. For better or for worse, creativity and focus are inextricably linked. As Andreasen said, “This type of thinking is often inseparable from the suffering. If you’re at the cutting edge, then you’re going to bleed.”

This mishmash of unremitting rumination and self-criticism means that writers are always working. Even quotidian life is a writerly task. In an interview with The Paris Review, Joyce Carol Oates said, “[I] observe the qualities of people, overhearing snatches of conversations, noting people’s appearances, their clothes, and so forth. Walking and driving a car are part of my life as a writer, really.”

Now, for just a second, put aside the recent news that journalism/writing was ranked as the sixth most narcissistic job by Forbes. And don’t think about the fact that writing is not only a lonely job, but it is also one that can turn a pleasant walk or a drive into a form of work. Instead, focus on how writing is about being able to create and control a world.

For what is writing, but an amalgamation of our thoughts and experiences finished off with a wax and a shine?

This need for control often translates to real life too, and it comes at the expense of the feelings and wishes of nearly everyone around them. Writers are often such terrible lovers because they treat real people as characters, malleable and at their authorial will.

When Charles Dickens was 24 (and allegedly a virgin), he married Catherine Hogarth, then 21. Almost immediately after they married, he became infatuated with Mary, her younger sister (so much so that she would later become the basis for Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shoppe). Mary died shortly thereafter, which proved a devastating blow for Charles, and for the rest of their marriage Catherine futility tried to live up to her sister. After 22 years and 10 children with Catherine, Charles met Nelly Ternan, a young actress, and deciding that he was quite tired of his wife, tossed her aside in favor of this new mistress.

Like so many authors, from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Ezra Pound to V.S. Naipaul, Dickens wasn’t much of a good person. In fact, he was a rather terrible person and had history not bowed at the beauty of his fiction, he would have been remembered poorly.

Writers can be rather awful people, and their blend of depression, isolation, and desire to control not only their own characters but the “characters” of their real lives has been a relationship-killer for centuries.

(As for the other relationship-destroyer — writers’ infamous penchant for alcohol — Gopnik postulates, “Writing is work in which the balance necessary to a sane life of physical and symbolic work has been wrested right out of plumb, or proportion, and alcohol is (wrongly) believed to rebalance it.”)

Trying to balance vice, borderline mental illness, and a disregard for the real world in favor of fictitious ones is perhaps a noble but Sisyphusian act for many writers. Try as they might, the greatest creatives in history have too much neuroscience working against them, too many ideas fluttering around their minds.

It would be cliché to quote Jack Kerouac in saying, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved” — and yet it is a platitude for a reason. The most fascinating people in history, the ones who make a difference, who create, might be depressed, perhaps miserable romantics, yet they have contributed more to society than many of them ever knew.

In fact, Fitzgerald died thinking he was a failure. He was in Hollywood doing “hack work” while his wife was in a Swiss sanitarium, and he often felt as though he were holding the ashes of his life in his hands. Only 44 years old but looking weathered and much older, he sat in his armchair listening to Beethoven, scribbling in the Princeton Alumni Weekly and munching on a Hershey Bar. It was a wintery morning in 1940, and as if propelled by a ghost, he leapt from his chair, grasped at the mantle piece, and collapsed on the floor. He died from a heart attack.

Zelda was too ill to make it to her husband’s funeral, but only a few months before, she had written to Scott with surprising lucidity, “I love you anyway — even if there isn’t any me or any love or even any life — I love you.”

She knew that they were mad, that their creativity and vice and entirely unique perspective on the world would be both their greatest high and their most agonizing low. To the letter, she added, “Nothing could have survived our life.”

[missboomissquick]

Like many outsiders, Frank Ocean betrays an obsession with identities and objects just beyond his reach. In an excerpt from the Boys Don’t Cry magazine released last week alongside an album, Blonde, a visual album, Endless, and a music video for the song “Nikes,” Ocean writes about an image of a young girl in a car. “I put myself in her seat then I played it all out in my head. The claustrophobia hits as the seatbelt tightens, preventing me from even leaning forward in my seat. the pressing on internal organs. I lean back and forward to release it. Then backwards and forward again. There it is—I got free.”    

Later in the note, he remembers, “Raf Simons once told me it was cliché, my whole car obsession. Maybe it links to a deep subconscious straight boy fantasy. Consciously though, I don’t want straight—a little bent is good.” Ocean is describing his car fanaticism, an obsession that has defined him, while simultaneously articulating a deep alienation. He does not fit the stereotype of the straight, suburban boy with an encyclopedic knowledge of automobiles. In fact, he seemingly finds it easier to access his memories through the figure of the young girl, whose seatbelt invokes a gut memory of entrapment.

To say that Blonde is not straight is an understatement. The album—along with the visual album, art magazine, and “Nikes” video—bends genre, bends gender, and bends time. Ocean drives his car across countries and decades, meandering, and zig-zagging. Returning again and again to scenes from his childhood and adolescence, Ocean leaves linearity by the side of the road. Music becomes a vehicle capable of impossible movement, carrying us inside a thought, inside a moment, inside a fantasy.

Blonde’s unconventional narrative mirrors the real-life story of how the album got here, and all the different forms it has taken throughout its extended gestation. Since the release of his last album Channel Orange in 2012, Ocean has been teasing at this return, releasing various release dates only to abandon them. The journalists who have been burned by broken promises and the fans who have eagerly awaited Ocean’s sophomore album have condemned the singer as outrageously, unnecessarily evasive. Perfectionism is one thing, but what’s the point of setting deadlines only to defy them? Or building a staircase when you should be making music? Or stepping so far out of genre that half the tracks on your album don’t even have a drum beat?

Frank Ocean dashes expectations and refuses definitions for a reason. His phobia of labels and limits isn’t just an affectation—its essential to his art and his self-expression. In 2012, on the cusp of Channel Orange’s release, the critically acclaimed artist published a description of his first love, a male friend who didn’t romantically reciprocate. Ocean’s sexuality is, as he describes it, “dynamic”—a self-assessment that hasn’t stopped journalists from pigeonholing him as bisexual or gay. This refusal of conventional terms is becoming more and more common among younger generations, who increasingly reject binary constructs. Dynamism is at the heart of both the artist and his oeuvre. It’s also part of an ever-evolving definition of queerness.

Just like Blonde, which refuses to stand still, queerness is less of a location or endpoint and more of a horizon. In the words of queer theorist José Muñoz, “Queerness is not yet here… Put another way, we are not yet queer. We may never touch queerness.” Here queerness is defined not by a destination or a term, but by constant motion. For Ocean, this theorization is tantamount. As Ocean told GQ in 2012 in regards to his uncategorized sexuality and music, “I’m giving you what I feel like you can feel… The other shit, you can’t feel. You can’t feel a box. You can’t feel a label.” By refusing to claim an identity, he reserves the right to constantly redefine.

This is not to say that Blonde fully evades the question of homosexuality. In “Good Guy,” Ocean croons about being taken on a date to a “gay bar.” The date then fizzles into romantic disappointment: “I know you don’t need me right now / And to you it’s just a late night out.” Ocean’s LGBT influences are also on display in “Ambience 001: In a Certain Way,” a short interlude on Endless that samples the voice of iconic drag queen Crystal LaBeija.

But Ocean references bitches just as often as he references boys. It’s the kind of irreverence and mutability that makes Ocean such a difficult gay icon, and such an intriguing queer one. Frank does not seem inclined to take on any responsibilities as the hip-hop world’s pre-eminent gay artist—a label he’s never claimed and does not seem likely to. While he wrote eloquently and openly on the Orlando Pulse shooting, Blonde doesn’t contain any similarly political gay statements or eulogies.

Throughout the album, visual album, and magazine, he seems more preoccupied with disorientation than orientation. While Apple Music lists the album as Blonde, the cover art reads Blond. This interchangeable masculine and feminine is at the heart of the video for “Nikes,” a song named after a traditionally masculine hip-hop fetish. The video weaves together shots of Ocean in glitter and heavy makeup with nude men and women, dancing in angel wings. Ocean’s ability to sample from gendered aesthetics and expectations even as he pulls from various genres and indulges in multiple media reveals his unflinching commitment to flexibility in all things. And while Frank makes this restlessness look like art, and even makes it look like fun, it’s more than just lighthearted experimentation. To define oneself leads to pressures and responsibilities—to produce another Channel Orange, or to pen the next gay anthem. On “Nikes,” Ocean shouts out Trayvon Martin, musing, “That n**** looked just like me.” Identities, from race to sexual orientation, can trap, define, even kill. Artistically, they can stagnate. And so, Ocean keeps moving, citing over 40 musical contributors on an album that refuses categorization or ideological co-option.

Of course, the way Ocean approaches queerness is partly pragmatic. Hip-hop has never had a gay superstar. As a community, the hip-hop world is still plagued by homophobia, and prohibitive molds of masculinity. While male rappers are expected to abide by certain conventions, there appears to be a loophole for MCs who have expanded their artistic reach. One example is Young Thug, a rapper who was featured in Calvin Klein’s Autumn/Winter 2016 campaign. In a video for the brand, Young Thug spoke to his penchant for pulling outfits from menswear and womenswear, explaining, “I feel like there is no such thing as gender.” While Young Thug’s remarks triggered a bit of a backlash, with hip-hop fans and media outlets musing on his sexuality, there also seemed to be an increasing understanding that queerness isn’t synonymous with homosexuality. It’s also important to note that Young Thug stated his progressive philosophy in a fashion forum, not on a track or in a Breakfast Club interview. Jaden Smith was similarly embraced by sartorial tastemakers for his androgynous style, proving that while gendered experimentation might be rare in hip-hop, its male denizens can find precedent and encouragement by dipping into outside worlds.

Like Kanye West before him, Frank Ocean is exploiting this distancing loophole by presenting himself as a multi-faceted artist. By making stairs, shooting film, and producing magazines, Ocean defies the rapper label just as he shirks a gay or bisexual identification. By deliberately refusing to be known as a gay rapper or a bisexual man in hip-hop, Ocean can partially skirt the homophobic bias that the hip-hop community can’t seem to shake.

Queer, which is not a single, stable identity, might be more accurately described as an active critique of the normal and the normative. Normality is not universally accessible, or universally desired. The queer subject, forced to the outside, is given the complicated gift of perspective. Blonde is made rich through this looking in. Frank Ocean, a sexually fluid, black man who attempts to defy gender, is just the outsider to take on America in 2016. In Ocean’s capable hands, the familiar becomes strange. In Boys Don’t Cry, Ocean queers Americana, photographing a man putting on his underwear in a field, and sharing images of young men with automobile logos shaved into their heads. In a featured poem, Kanye West manages to write a deeply unsettling ode to the most ubiquitous fast-food joint in America: McDonald’s. In “Nights,” Ocean is homeless in Texas after being run out of Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina. In all these complementary projects, things that are quintessentially American—McDonald’s, cars, the South—are taken and made unfamiliar and disquieting through the lens of race, trauma, and sexuality. Ocean’s unique commentary, and the alienation that informs it, is a quiet, powerful critique.

In the wake of rights-based victories like gay marriage, some queer activists have questioned a movement that prioritizes the chance to be the same over the freedom to be different. This is where Ocean, and his rejection of the straight, comes into play. In a piece from Boys Don’t Cry titled “Boyfriend,” he writes, “I could say that I’m happy / they let me and my boyfriend become married / I could say that I’m happy / but cross my heart I didn’t notice.” It’s as if Frank is deliberately playing with expectations or hopes for his gay politics by claiming apoliticism. Of course, queer folks might argue that this apathy toward marriage equality is a deeply political rejection of homonormativity. And Ocean goes both ways—on “Seigfried,” he ponders and then ultimately dismisses the allure of the heteronormative. Ocean wonders if his lack of convention makes him a “fool”—“Maybe I should move / Settle down, two kids and a swimming pool.” But in the end, he wagers, “I’d rather live outside.”

In Blonde, “living outside” is a personal sacrifice and a risky wager. Barred from the acceptability of straight love or the stability of a legible gay identity, Ocean has no choice but to keep moving, and keep longing. Vexation and disappointment are everywhere, and satiation seems impossible. With such an uncertain future, he looks to the past as he heads for the horizon. On “Futura Free,” the final track on Blonde, Ocean excerpts an old conversation between his childhood friends from the hip-hop crew Odd Future. On an album marked by romantic disillusionment, this return evokes the family making and platonic love that is so vital to queer communities. In a world where love disappoints and normalcy isn’t an option, there’s an art to making your own family, and finding intimacy in unexpected places.

Ocean’s steady stream of emotionally unavailable partners, unanswered texts, unfulfilled dreams and missed connections speaks to a specific brand of disoriented desires. In common parlance, sexuality is often reduced to orientation. But queer theory proposes that the desiring subject is so much more than the gender of the person they have sex with. This is certainly the case for Ocean—Blonde isn’t about who he loves, but how he loves them. His bravely broadcasted intimacy is proof that boys do cry, that sexuality can be fluid, that love can be unrequited, platonic, queer, and cruel. He makes the familiar strange, but he also makes the strange familiar. Even the most traditionally masculine straight boy will see pieces of himself in Ocean’s fluid oeuvre—childhood memories that could belong to any of us, texts that sound familiar, landscapes we’ve seen, half-asleep, out the window. In queering the world and chronicling the queer, Ocean’s bent masterpiece brings under-represented modes of desire to the mainstream.

via DailyBeast // 8/25/16

[juniperpublishers-yoga]

The Secret Behind Human Breathing-Juniper Publishers

Juniper Publishers- Journal of Yoga and Physiotherapy

Opinion

Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements and they are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements which are potassium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. The remaining elements are trace elements. Thus, most of the mass of the human body is oxygen, and breathing has been the main activity of the human body to sustain all other bodily functions.

Let us look deep into this matter. When we breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. A depletion of carbon dioxide can result in chest tendering and throbbing pain, high or low blood pressure, angina, hypertension and tachycardia. Asthmatics quickly can overcome asthma assaults, by reinstating carbon dioxide levels, which expands bronchial pathways. If the inter- exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide is done correctly while practicing the correct breathing technique, then it will balance the pH level of the body. The equilibrium gained by this practice will affect the nervous system directly awakening in this way the parasympathetic branch, this will in turn make the mind calm and open, and a sense of well being will ensue, and a trance like state in which the person sporadically has numinous understanding will take over him.

On the other hand, altering the oxygen and carbon dioxide ratios in the blood stream persuades the thought process to slow down. The tempo of the respiration is associated with different moods of bodily activity and different emotional states. Practicing the right breathing technique can get rid from obesity, heart tribulations, hypertension and etc. In addition, it is an enormous support for the physical and spiritual refinement desirable for this path. Exercises, sexual acts or even thoughts and emotional states such as apprehension, distress, irritation, paranoia and so forth, intensify the pace of breath and can change it dangerously. This is why in yoga practices, we could see that they will always diligently keep the breath under control.

For one to have healthy and motivating experiences in life, it is required to hold and sustain the pranic energy within the body. In order to achieve this, one has to be initiated by a realized Guru who has the control over the Pranic energy. Common Yoga teachers can just lead a person to theoretical approaches and gain the most out of the practices taught but not the real ancient yogi's experiences. To attain the real experiences of Yogis, one has to be guided by a Siddha (one who has attained enlightenment). Once the pranic energy is sustained by a person only then the path of realising the static energy, Kundalini will be wide opened and can be aroused with the help of the realised Guru. Realised Guru is defined as, a Guru who possesses siddhic powers (the total control over life force energy, 5 elements of life), Divine Wisdom and has attained perfection. Only a perfect Siddha with Divine abilities shall lead a person to the right path of breathing and reveal the secret behind it. The Kundalini is actually the static energy which is none other than our feminine power. It is also known as biological energy of human body. After realizing this energy, the next step would be bringing it under one's control which again will be assisted by the realised Guru. It is a must practice. This is the reason why many misleading facts on kundalini awakening and so on are found because it has not been assisted and awakened under proper supervision of a real realised Guru especially the one who has control over it. To be truthful, without realizing this biological energy (Kundalini), it is impossible to see tremendous changes on human health, wealth and success in life. Only through this can a person achieve all the abilities mentioned above and also enjoy internal harmony, improved digestion, enhanced sleep, superior memory and concentration. Bad temper and physical exhaustion will in due course disappear.

Acquiring this art is the most sophisticated task and cannot be dreamt of without the help of a true Guru. This art has to be mastered through an expert and definitely under the guidance of The World Leading Siddha of Yoga, Divine Wisdom and Meditation Practice, Yoga Jnana Sitthar Om Sri Rajayoga Guru. His Divine Grace has mastered the art of Kundalini awakening for the past 30 years and advocates the concept of sustaining the pranic energy (life force energy) within the body which promises GREAT improvement in overall heath and calmness of mind. This will eventually develop into a sense of constant well being, ecstasy and bliss which will be supported by nerves of steel and equanimity of mind. This has been proved by millions of practitioners who have awakened their biological energy under the guidance of His Divine Grace. The best part is, each individual has great control over their own biological energy and their testimonials can be shared upon request.

To make it clearer, the Kundalini is a Divine static and dynamic energy. The static energy is sleeping at the Muladhara (Root Chakra); the dynamic energy of the Kundalini is all over the body in the form of 5 vital breaths which will keep the body together. This is why it is impossible to realize kundalini and utilize it correctly without sustaining pranic energy in the body as they are connected to each other. The most important fact that needs to be taken note of is that Kundalini has no religion; it exists in all living forms but we human beings are very lucky as it is only in the human beings can the Kundalini be awakened and made full use out of this biological energy. Without the presence of this energy, a human body will not function. Therefore, it is worthwhile with not confusing oneself with self made interpretations, but GRANT oneself the wonderful opportunity to awaken this energy and utilize it to its fullest potential.

Every lesson in life involves a teacher, the teacher can be a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Atheist and so on. Most importantly, there is the need to have the right teachers to master the lessons correctly. Maths, Science, English, Geography, Dance, Martial Art, etc involve teachers. When these subjects require teachers to be explained, imagine mastering the art of breathing, sustaining the pranic energy and realizing human biological energy. Obviously this subject requires a teacher (REALIZED GURU) to impart the knowledge and transform us into a real full potential human being.

For more articles in  Journal of Yoga and Physiotherapy please click

on https://juniperpublishers.com/jyp/index.php

For more Journals in Juniper Publishers

please click on https://juniperpublishers.com/index.php