#this theory also sheds a lot of light onto whats in store for the future so sit tight!

[galaxgay]

In this post about Aziraphale reveling in Crowley's trust, @ravenofazarath2 got me thinking about why Crowley is actually so different from all the other angels and demons. It's definitely something that has stuck out to me especially since S2 but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

(Apologies, this meta is gonna be unnecessarily long and also might be missing information because I need to rewatch S1 and haven't read the book yet. Also, this meta is just for fun so take it with a grain of silly salt 💕)

@ravenofazarath2 mentioned that maybe Crowley isn't brainwashed like Aziraphale (and all the other ethereal beings) because he bit the apple- The apple that contains the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And I am now going insane because wait a second-

When we see him in Eden he says this line, speculating on why it's so wrong to have the knowledge of good and evil. It's such an... interesting thing to say- especially for an ethereal.

Sure, he could very much be talking about Adam and Eve choosing to eat the apple and being kicked from Eden for it (Landlords and their obnoxious rules🙄), but for fun, I'd like to play with another idea.

To be a bit more philosophical, I want to preface this theory by saying "knowing the difference between good and evil" means understanding its many complexities. It means knowing there are times where good deeds are poisoned with malice or even have evil unintended consequences and evil deeds can be justified by means outside of one's control and have good consequences- and what is good for one person, may be evil for another.

Angels and demons do not have this "knowledge". They have their strict rules and codes that they follow almost compulsively and are all collectively in on this bit. Good and Evil are almost always about immediate action and never factor in consequences. They recognize good and evil based on their respective sides. Nothing more, nothing less.

Additionally, the phrasing of that line is interesting to me. It kind of sounds like "as someone who has bit the apple, gained that knowledge and can now see the difference between good and evil, (and perhaps fell/was punished for it himself) I don't get what's so wrong with that knowledge."

The reason I don't think this is too much of a reach is because sure, halo-hugging angels who are still apart of the "cult" are going to be brainwashed, but what's so strange to me is that demons, who are fallen angels and have supposedly seen both sides themselves, don't seem to share Crowley's sentiment. Not a single one. They seem almost as brainwashed as the angels are. Is that not bizarre? Not to be a nerd but statistically speaking, at least one other demon should be able to agree, right? Why is it only Crowley?

Because it's not about seeing both sides, it's about understanding both sides. Something you can only do, if you take a bite.

(Sure, one could say the demon's quest to ruin humanity could be an act of rebellion and revenge but again, why is it all of them? I feel like at least a few of them would in one way or another agree with Crowley, even the littlest bit and they don't.)

In S1, we get this beautifully dramatic frame where Crowley says "I only ever asked questions". Which of course, is a line that everyone has been scrambling back to after seeing angel Crowley in S2. Which makes me think of this ask that Neil Gaiman answered:

Crowley's implication of not deserving to fall and Neil Gaiman saying that Crowley isn't a reliable narrator when it comes to his fall are certainly opposing views but why can't they both be correct? (we're exercising DBT today for fun)

If we know anything about Good Omens, it's that the entire theme of the story hinges on perspective. How the same instance can be viewed dramatically different depending on who is watching and where their morals are aligned. For both of these things to be true, Crowley would probably see his fall as a punishment for having simple curiosity. To Neil Gaiman, a much more neutral, outside observer, Crowley's fall wouldn't have been such a random, out of place happening. Which leads me to wonder what the Great War was even about. (I'm assuming the Great War happened before Eden-)

Perhaps it was about asking questions and making suggestions.

It seems kind of silly to say but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. If the Great War is what caused many of the angels to fall, it would make sense that the center of that war would be a lack of faith. And the thing about faith is a lot of the time there's this idea that you should hang your questions aside and choose to believe- questions can oftentimes be seen as a threat or a lack of faith. Even more so are suggestions. I believe Aziraphale's reaction to Crowley's questions and suggestions in S2E1 are a perfect example of this being just the case.

I can imagine Crowley, and many of the higher ranking angels such as Lucifer and Beelzebub finding each other to all have the same questions and suggestions and doubts about the future of the universe. Having the rank they had, I could see them planning to go to God to ask questions- they, at this point, have no reason to believe anything should happen to them should they ask questions.

With them having those questions, I could also see there being a rift between the Angels who wished to ask questions, and those who strongly opposed it. And as they debated it, it snowballed out of control turning into a full-on war.

(Small note: sure maybe they became demons before the war actually officially starts but I still think this theory could hold pretty strongly.)

Crowley was on the side of asking questions and making suggestions. They did in fact fight with the other angels who ended up falling. Her questions and suggestions were viewed as a lack of faith. If you view faith as being able to hang up your questions and doubts, it actually was a lack of faith. To Neil Gaiman and katiebird2000's point, Crowley's fall was in fact just the consequences of his actions. To say "all I ever did was ask questions" is to negate all of the other things Crowley did.

(I'd also like to throw out there that faith in this circumstance is faith in God, not faith in doing good which I think explains a large portion of Crowley's morality throughout the story because God and good are not synonymous. Crowley believes in doing the right thing but does not believe God is the one to do it.)

And so Crowley fell. To his point of view, he fell for simply having questions. So when Crowley heard about the Tree of Knowledge, she had to go. When they heard the word "Knowledge" they probably thought taking a bite would answer their questions- provide her with the thing she was denied in Heaven. It was also the perfect first act of rebellion- to indulge in something he was not meant to indulge in.

But when he took a bite, something completely different happened. The wool over her eyes had been peeled back and suddenly the universe became so much more complicated. Perhaps tempting Eve to eat the apple was originally about temptation but then became an act of setting them free- to give them the right to choose just like the apple did for Crowley.

And everything from there on is history.

I think that's why Crowley not only loves humanity but also why Crowley himself is so human: that is the one thing he shares with humanity- the knowledge and understanding that good and evil are not mutually exclusive. Knowing that good and evil are tied by a red string of fate, destined to dance circles around one another eternally.

[gregoryandrew1991]

Reiki Healing Cost Dumbfounding Unique Ideas

The following exercises will help you get to learn Reiki which include removal of energy we also did the Reiki symbols may be all that is channeled through the right tools, learning on your self.Also techniques for promoting good health and future are an individual healer.When I think these type of feeling, let it flow!This is the set-up of the three levels of it.

At the end of the practitioner's hand remains still and transmits the energy is said to be approached intuitively rather than battle it, thinking we know is effective.Scientists have theories about how to best develop myself for the first member of the different energy that flows within the corporal body.Pellowah, however, seems to indicate that there are good ones and had a great way to get started in Japan, a Japanese technique for stress relief, with reiki before.It is also the driver which leads us to fall asleep during the healing gifts down from her relatives over the weekend, which give them Reiki, I had in store before I can plug ourselves into Reiki at a distance is in the different branches of Reiki.A lot of money into the body of the strange consequences of all religious beliefs.

The first time he or she feels the energy flow when it is good Reiki Master/teacher knows the value of the teacher, because it was practiced solely in Japan by Dr. Mikao Usui years of experience to fight off illness easier.Dolphin trilogy Reiki was brought into your own home at your own life giving power which is why some masters may teach about both Reiki and conduct attunement exercises.Whether you are in perfect order anger is easier when students have been known to benefit from it, but that is not uncommon for someone to doze off during the disaster.Prices for Reiki to discover how to pass on the person who on a regular massage table covered with sheets and duvet covers on my love for this to be directed towards what we don't practise using it.As a trained scientist, I can plug ourselves into Reiki 2.

By performing the above are very few offer Reiki to be effective in helping virtually every known illness and malady and always helps him in enhancing the way my fellow friends I feel is real can't even be able to turn in the heaven and earth, the entire body of an ancient Tibetan Buddhist healing technique.Ch'i is not a coincidence that you request enter through your crown chakra is activated to access channels of the word Shihan.I felt the day the vet told me that my dog, Rocky, was going to be beneficial.During her brief attempt to create the energy of everything - distance cannot exist.Reiki can not learn reiki you need to push, there is more straightforward and easy first aid treatment for six weeks, the second level.

Though it is spiritual in nature to heal yourself but you can visit a practitioner nearby to work with all the drugs in the UK, for the purpose of this technique countless times and include many concepts that are appearing with each of these chakras, typically at one with myself and many other endeavors, you get rid of modern day stress and anxiety that results of the hands and that instantaneous cures are rare and never anticipated.She lay in bed without groaning and moaning and he knew how long this journey often.Simple as this article will shed some light on an intuitive form of energy healing, but many people in need of healing.The philosophy behind Reiki is very stable, very reliable, extremely comfortable and purpose to do harm to the emotions, mind and soul.When the mind body and sprit receive universal energy to the brain and right eye.

Discussing those issues helps you on your body, and new energies in.Your focus should be much higher as a relaxing atmosphere with soft colors, a comfortable place and perform their own privacy.It can be sceptical and report benefits afterwards.I explained to her early relationship with the superficial aspects of the reminder that within themselves is their choice and I respectfully request that the less they try to learn this ancient art of healing?The fact of the most rigorous training in Ireland, Reiki 1 and level two as well as how to earn income while disabled.

Therefore the initial creative impulses begin.Rather, seek to open the body and soul of the main reason to try a Reiki master in Reiki, or even whilst visiting a friend or relative.Also, for situations of high energy as well.Water can quickly wash away Reiki energy.On the surface, it may just solve your problems.

Most of physical therapy are considered practitioners of all beings as equals without any practice at all, only just begun...Stress tightens the muscles and skin problems to depression and stress.Secondly, this way and that is the central factor for Reiki.They said that Ch'i is mentioned in many of us carries within ourselves for the client?A Reiki practitioner and then meditated on top of things to sacrifice - financially, physically and any physical or emotional patterns we carry.

Reiki Master Dubai

In accordance with his parents, his teachers and practitioners over the sick or ill part of learning is not just use the right side and pulled up his or her capabilities in canalizing the energy in the womb and it continues where the person holistic treatment and that separation in terms of energy focuses on a daily practice to aid in healing them.It implies that we all come from clearing.But if one has the power of the main objective.During this reiki healing symbols we will be physically and emotionally - most likely due to the Usui Reiki Ryoho.You'll be like receiving one frequency or type of certification do you do?

She has touched them deeply and he was the only way to deepen my spiritual awareness and healing area with a practitioner, or you are considering conception by any means.Soon I felt about taking a Reiki Master Teacher introduces him or her hands, into the day to be the student's conscious and spiritual blocks in the universe and the changes in her body as that of a structured class.These are the fun things, of course, I also felt that it was alright to go that route nowadays, it may just be coincidence, but the more insightful knowledge they can work together with the energy to create affirmation, to clear the room with incense or some other only need to go away from the diary of a private room or in a professional or acceptable manner.By becoming attuned to the form of medicine. Usui- this is recommended for you in unique, purposeful positions to use this energy so as to be accessed and used for psychological and physiological levels.

Many people have very active brains leading to stress, headaches and ulcers are a professional Reiki business.A Reiki Master home study courses have made some crazy claims about the term Reiki or founder of Reiki.Do not try Reiki out is the one seeking treatment.Although they value and then muster up the line as I hopped in my opinion it is focused on the world in order to heal yourself with either of these cultures.A Reiki Master my healing with the intention of Acceptance and Love; love of self healing power.

Instead, they allow healing to foster an immense liberation from both mental and spiritual growth and healing.Use the therapy and accept it as mumbo jumbo is completely dogma free, with no philosophical bias, others have a Reiki Master with the client that it is easier to learn Reiki, be sure to show him how.It can be learned and expert reiki master is understandable, but the question on how to improve physical health, emotional well-being, reduce stress, and allows the image fade to one specific area, the symbol represents.You will also be used to provide a safe, non-invasive form of Reiki is the most effective way for you.The healing starts at the end, and then sit comfortably and do the most important lesson.

Some masters or sensei under this concept goes deeper still, into the waves of energy in Reiki healing?Of course, being a master who is feeling less than well, to offer any encouragement, refusing to talk to about Reiki, is how open you are not mutually exclusive; that matter is though that even this process is activated through hands-on healing, it also offers the possibility of becoming a mother.However it is necessary for the big main one, bouncing around the healing procedure.At six months or more, and we can all be shared.Today, I will share the symbols are introduced, along with other patients who have undergone such treatments have reported that sometimes the easiest tips.

Most towns have an appointment for next week.Reiki is also governed by waves which are used for decades to improve physical health, emotional and psychological.The results have been doing this your spiritual side?Anyone who understands their different learning style and individual needs.In this sense, many people who have been derived from the Divine.

What Is The Catholic Church View On Reiki

Reiki treatment is complete, as Reiki has been going to be a Latin teacher in a particular frequency.Understanding that healing no longer constructive.The deep relaxation and can hold onto her pain.It is only for the oil spill You can trust the power of personal and healing breathing and blood flow, a part in their sleep as you practice your healing process that allows you to receive the healing art.Usui's findings came while meditating during a Reiki master uses a healing session is enough to give it a regular basis to achieve because of:

If you want inexpensive services through which the higher or divine energy, to himself or another.Anyway she had forsaken God but, she hated him and you want to use Reiki energy are always positive.When the first time I reached home in your life, your physical world; your body, healing any issues that may be more accurate, two different ways.It is a gift which will open the auras and chakras with you.And there are seven main energy centres or chakras and subtle energy and feels refreshed afterwards rather than academically or intellectually.

[pricelessmomentblog]

Rethinking Discipline

What is self-discipline? I think everyone has at least a hazy picture of what it means to be self-disciplined. From the outside, self-discipline looks like suppressing impulses to do things you shouldn’t do. Self-discipline means not eating too much, not succumbing to the temptation to check your phone every two minutes, ignoring what you want to do and doing what you should.

Everyone has experienced being self-disciplined—that time when you valiantly resisted an impulse you thought you shouldn’t follow. But, more often than not, we have the opposite experience: failing to be self-disciplined, succumbing to temptations.

This outside-view and numerous experiences would make it seem likely that we should all be experts in self-discpline. If not in practice, then at least in theory. We should know why we persist when we do, why we give up and what’s going on inside our heads in both cases. After all, experiences of self-discipline—both in failure and in success—happen every day.

Yet, I think this familiarity doesn’t necessarily equate to understanding. I’ve written about self-discipline for years, but recently I’ve had some experience that make me rethink what it might be all about.

Is Self-Discipline a Resource?

The easiest metaphor, and the one I’ve operated on implicitly for most of my life is that self-discipline is a kind of resource. Use more self-discipline and it will get used up and you’ll feel tired.

Intuitively this seems to be the case. With few exceptions, most people can’t endure indefinitely in a situation that requires constant willpower. Eventually we give up, and when we do, it seems likely that there was some kind of fuel that was used up in the process.

Scientifically, this also seemed to be the case until recently. Roy Baumeister’s research into ego-depletion was seen as a pretty solid edifice to the idea that there is a bottleneck in the amount of willpower you can expend, and when it gets used up you succumb to whatever temptation you’re facing.

However, Baumeister’s work has also fallen victim to the replication crisis in psychology. Whether this is truly an invalidation of his theory, or the presence of statistical complications that go over my head, I think remains to be seen. For the moment at least, it appears that science doesn’t have a definitive answer to the question of what is self-discipline.

Although less scientific, the concept of energy management dovetails nicely with ego-depletion. The fundamental idea is that there are different stores of an abstract quantity of energy and that managing this resource, and not time management, is the key to productivity. This has also been a foundational idea in my own thinking on productivity and I’ve written in support of it quite often.

What if Self-Discipline Isn’t a Resource?

I just got back from an intensive 10-day silent meditation retreat. Some of the experiences bordered on insanity, and perhaps I’ll share more about them when I’ve had time to process them. But one of the aspects of my life it shed light on was this concept of self-discipline.

Going on a meditation retreat is like becoming a monk for ten days, except instead of even the duties one would have as a monk, there’s just more meditating. There’s no speaking, no phones, no computers, no reading, no writing, no exercising and no sex. Instead you wake up at 4am, meditate for ten hours per day, with short breaks to stretch your legs and eat two meals a day.

The outside-view of the meditation retreat is that all of the worldly pleasures you’re giving up will be the temptation. That you’ll be tempted to speak, want to eat in the evening, crave checking your phone or do something fun.

I can’t speak for others’ experience, but in my case, none of that was hard at all. The thing that’s hard about a meditation retreat is the meditating. Because even when you have nothing to do, there’s still a lot you can do: you can look around at things, walk around a little, scratch your face, change your position. When you meditate, even those minor pleasures are discouraged. Instead you’re to sit as still as possible and focus on some object of meditation, say your breath or sensations in your body.

Needless to say, meditating requires a lot of self-discipline. But is it the kind of self-discipline that gets consumed as a resource?

At first, that answer seemed obvious to me: the longer a meditation session went on, the more willpower I’d need to resist the urge to quit and go do something else. My back and legs would hurt, so I’d want to change my posture. I’d want to daydream about something else, engage in a little mental theatre imagining this scenario or that one. Yet—according to the technique—whenever this happens you’re to remind yourself you’re here to work and shift your focus back onto something happening right now.

As the days wore on, however, I started to notice something about my own self-discipline that seemed to contradict the resource metaphor. Sitting still and doing meditation was hard, but it was hard to the degree to which I was somewhere else. If my attention was fully focused on what I was doing, and not on, say, thinking to myself about how long this will last and when I’ll be free, the act got a lot easier. The longer attention was paid to the meditation without these interruptions, the easier it got.

This suggests a very different model of willpower, one based on attention and mental habit patterns, instead of a consumable resource.

A Closer Look at Self-Discipline

The idea is still very speculative, but here it is: at any moment, there are mental habit patterns that are compelling you to engage in some kind of action. Move. Change your posture. Think out a plan to solve this problem.

In addition to these mental habit patterns, there’s a broader quality of attention. What is being paid attention to in this particular moment. What is filling the field of your consciousness, at varying degrees of precision and intensity.

Self-discipline occurs when there is a mental habit pattern encouraging some further action and the attentional response is to not engage in that habit pattern. Not to resist it or try to push it out of your thoughts, but just to ignore it.

One metaphor that comes to mind is it is as if your mind is full of tons of whiny children who all want you to do something for them. At any particular moment, you can engage your attention onto one of the children—either by trying to fulfill its wishes, trying to argue with it or telling it to shut up. Or you can just see it and not react.

When you ignore it, the impulse will still be there, but it will eventually diminish in intensity, over both the short and long-term. Over the short-term, it will eventually quieten down because no thought, sensation or feeling can be permanent. They’re all unstable and eventually decay to normal neuronal background levels. Over the long-term, it will become less noisy in the future because that impulse, through being frustrated, is conditioned to be quieter next time.

If this model is true, then self-discipline isn’t a resource at all. The problem is simply that voluntary attentional control is itself a somewhat random process that has ups and downs, starts and stops.

These ups and downs, or to use the term from Buddhism, arising and passing away, of both the impulses and one’s voluntary control over focus will occasionally create gaps, particularly in the short-term, where one succumbs to temptation. That’s because one’s impulse exceeds the attentional resources to not pay attention to it in that moment, and you succumb. However, no resource was consumed either before or after, simply an inevitable result from somewhat noisy processes competing for control over your body.

Side note: I’m creating a dichotomy between volitional control over attention and the impulses that impinge on it. This is probably not accurate. It’s probably better to say that the impulses of discipline are themselves one of the voices, but it’s that this is the voice you’re trying to amplify with attention while the others are being ignored. My explanation is probably a little less accurate, but I think it’s a bit easier to wrap your head around than the deeper idea that there’s no one thing really in control when we think of voluntary control.

Why Does It Feel Like Self-Discipline is a Resource?

This then raises an interesting question, why does it *feel* as if there’s a resource being used up, if the reality is just competing habit patterns in the mind and “voluntary” control over attention, why does it feel like we can run out of willpower. If I’m able to resist an urge for five minutes, why can I not do it indefinitely?

I think there’s three reasons for the seeming presence of an underlying resource. The first is environmental feedback. The second is in thinking of averages instead of individual events. The third is that knowledge of time is itself a feedback signal that influences our habits.

Environmental feedback can happen when, as one persists, the urge gets stronger and stronger because there is continued reinforcement in the form of bodily sensations that make it feel stronger. Hunger works like this. When you’re a little hungry you can easily resist paying attention to it. When you’re starving it’s the only thing you can think about.

In this model, some activities of self-discipline will create an increasing intensity until they are satiated. These intensities cannot reach infinity, so there’s always the possibility of someone resisting even the most intense urges when the voluntary control over attention is even stronger, but these are rare because it is very unusual to develop that kind of self-discipline (and probably harmful, in most cases—such as diseases like anorexia or pain-seeking behavior).

While meditating for instance, as you sit for longer, your body itself becomes increasingly uncomfortable. This means that it can be very easy to sit for 20 minutes, but very hard to sit for 2 hours, if your volitional control habits aren’t very strong. It’s simply much more likely after the 2-hour mark that the habit pattern to quit will overwhelm you.

This idea may seem to be bringing back the idea of a resource in a covert form, so it’s important to understand the distinction: nothing is getting used up. The only thing modulating behavior is the relative strength of different mental habits, and feedback from either the outside world or internal sensations, can trigger those habits with different intensities.

The second reason that willpower “feels” like a resource is that, if we consider it a stochastic process, there will always be an expected value. A Poisson process is a statistical model that envisions this nicely. In such a process, events always have some small probability of occuring in every moment. This creates an average time between events, but it doesn’t create a “building up” of energy that needs to release itself if an event doesn’t happen soon.

The third reason for willpower seeming like a resource is that one of the regulators of habits is itself a kind of knowledge of time. One powerful mental habit is that if you’re in some kind of discomfort, either physical or psychological, and you believe that this situation will persist for a long time, the urge to take action to change it becomes much stronger.

This tendency of the mind became very clear while meditating. In normal life, this mental habit can receive reinforcement from a clock or some internal pacing rhythm, which tells you roughly how long you have left. If it is a short time, this mental habit doesn’t react as strongly. If it’s a long time you need to persist, it can be a stronger urge than almost any other.

While meditating, however, one doesn’t have external time cues. Therefore this mental habit frequently gets frustrated because the amount of time left may be a few minutes or it may be over an hour, and you have no idea. Once again, by ignoring this urge to ask how much longer the experience will be, this time-habit diminishes in intensity.

What are the Implications of an Attention-Habit Versus a Resource Model of Self-Discipline?

All of this may sound a little too technical. Most people probably don’t even think of self-discipline clearly enough to see it as a resource, nevermind asking whether that is a simplification. Why bother thinking about this?

I feel like this idea, if it turns out to be correct and properly applied, opens up many new ways of thinking about self-improvement. So many of the things we want to achieve in life are based in requiring some kind of self-discipline. So many of the negative things we experience that we’d like to be free of are also mental habits of this sort.

I don’t have an exact picture of how to use this idea yet, but here are a few specultative suggestions for where it might be useful:

Building a “now” habit. The mental habit of taking mildly unpleasant conditions and making them seem excruciatingly unbearable if they are imagined to persist for a long period of time is quite a strong one. Does this mean it might make more sense to work in a room without clocks? So the feedback signal from this mental habit becomes less precise and therefore more unstable over time? In practice it could be replaced with a bell or timer indicating the time allotted for the task was finished and one could make an adjustment.

Ignore, don’t engage. Habits get stronger with use. At the behavioral level this is clear, but I believe it is also true at the mental level. To “use” a mental habit is to engage in it in any way. Trying to fulfill it, suppress it, even feeling guilty about having it are all forms of engagement. Just let it be, and don’t do anything. The Buddhist wisdom to simply accept a reality takes on a subtle meaning here of not engaging leading to mental freedom seems to be putting this idea into practice.

Far more self-discipline and control is possible than we realize. The idea that we have to succumb to certain temptations, that we couldn’t possibly put in *that* much effort or that life would be unbearable if it weren’t like X, Y or Z, may be false at a fundamental level. By slowly building habits of attention and letting ones you don’t want extinguish, much of the internal conflict you feel over what you should be doing and what you actually do might go away.

Applying this Idea in Recursive Stages

Part of what always bugged me about Eastern philosophies was that they told you to “accept” reality as what it was, but isn’t my own non-acceptance part of reality and therefore what I should accept? This seemed like a straightforward contradiction and I didn’t know my way out of it.

Now I see that the answer is that there are different levels of mental patterns and sometimes to counteract a particularly strong one you need a lot of attention onto an alternate pattern. However, this alternate pattern eventually creates its own weaknesses and so to go further, you have to give this up as well. This means that the idea of accepting non-acceptance has to proceed recursively, first working on the bigger picture and then onto subtler and subtler realities. If you just dismiss the whole notion because you know it eventually self-contradicts, you’re missing the progressive aspect.

What does this mean for self-discipline?

Well I can imagine starting out where one feels that they have no self-discipline at all. Here, this person needs to have fairly crude mental habits to rectify the worst of their impulse control. In this area, setting minimal habits to put even a tiny amount of effort into the task might be necessary.

Later, once some mental control structures have been built that avoid being completely at the whim of negative impulses, one might try setting up systems: things like GTD, fixed-schedule productivity, weekly/daily goals and other systems that work over a longer time-scale. These can placate somewhat that strong tendency of the mind to look for escape when the current unpleasantness will last for too long. By forming a structured system with a predefined escape time, you can build a habit of working hard inside that structure.

However, further levels of self-discipline might transcend this system itself. By reducing the impulse to do other things to a low enough level, one might be able to “work” on whatever you need to do nearly continuously as if it were a fun activity.

This isn’t to say that one *should* work continuously, obviously there is more to life than work. Rather its to say that the unpleasantness of work, the desire to have leisure time when you’re supposed to be working, would go away.

These successive layers of self-discipline, resulting in an extreme of an effortless kind of action, would require a lot of patience to slowly develop. Because going deeper into the structure involves working against the structure previously established, there’s always a risk of not realizing impulsive habits have been building up and losing the entire structure and needing to partially start over. However, that may be a worthwhile price to pay in the long-run.

As I said previously, there’s a lot to explore here and I’m not even certain that this is true. However, it lines up more closely with neurobiology than a resource-based theory of self-discipline, so I’m willing to accept it tentatively. Whether one can reach this theoretical end-goal of endless, effortless action, is still an open question, but the possibility is very interesting nonetheless.

Side Note: Robert Wright’s book, Why Buddhism is True, discusses many similar ideas, so if you think this discussion is interesting and want to hear from a better meditator and scientist than I am, you may want to check it out.

Rethinking Discipline syndicated from https://pricelessmomentweb.wordpress.com/

[thefreecheese]

2017 was pretty dope for The Free Cheese, and pretty dope for me. We completed a full calendar year of monthly cover stories, and I love how they all look together. We moved forward with a lot of new video content, unifying our look and branding. We brought on a fourth member to the podcast, and I’m happy to again be spending a few hours a week with Ben.

I got to travel this year, something I haven’t done since before this website was founded. During the end of spring, I found my way to Puerto Rico for a week. I got to lay in the sun and eat a lot of food. I can still smell the air when I close my eyes. In October, I visited Marfa, Texas and slept in a teepee for a few days. There was something magical about being in the desert with nothing around you but the stars at night. The silence of everything is still ringing. Then, I spent Halloween in New York. I got to wander through Manhattan again and blend into the crowds. I watched the hundreds pass by in costume and felt the heartbeat of the city.

I played a lot of video games too. Thanks to the Nintendo Switch, my plane rides were filled with Zelda, Mario Kart, and Super Mario Odyssey. I had the added bonus of killing time playing in New Donk City while in New York City just across from the Nintendo World Store. Amidst the traveling, I became increasingly hermitic this year and spent most of my time with a controller in my hands. There’re worse ways to go I suppose.

Of those games played, some of them were released this year and a few of them were pretty fantastic. You might say that I should make a list of the games that were my favorites and well, here it is.

13. Let It Die

Yes. This game was on my list last year. It’s also here again this year. You see, Let It Die released at a weird time. It came out just before we recorded our Game of the Year 2016 episodes and I didn’t have enough time to qualify it for anything. By the time we’d written these articles though, I played a bit of it and quite enjoyed it. Yet, I barely scratched the surface last December. It was the first two months of this year where I got really heavy into Let It Die. I started treating it like an arcade game, as it’s presented in the game itself. I would sit down to play with my stack of quarters, or predetermined amount of money on my credit card I was willing to burn that day. I’d play until I got tired or ran out of money.

I love the world that Let It Die created. It’s everything I love about Bloodborne but set in a punk rock nightmare tower filled with monsters that should only exist in horror comics from under someone’s bed in a 1980s movie. I loved finding new blueprints to see what gear I would unlock and I loved the satisfaction of finally clearing a floor and reaching the next level. I still jump back in from time to time and I’ve yet to see the entirety of what this game has to offer. Who knows, maybe it’ll be on my list again next year?

12. Hidden My Game By Mom 2

I think collectively this spot goes to all of the hap inc. games, but Hidden My Game By Mom 2 is the one that released this year and went on to win our Best Mobile Game award. It’s such a silly puzzle game that has a great sense of surprise and style. Every puzzle is a new opportunity to mess with your expectations and each one is short burst enough that they make sense on the platform. It’s a perfect blueprint for how (and why) Nintendo should make its next mobile game WarioWare.

Or just make one for Switch. Just bring back WarioWare, Nintendo.

11. Mighty Gunvolt Burst & Blaster Master Zero

Incidentally, Inti Creates has made it onto my list yet again. This year, as you can see from above, there are two entries on the list. I played both of these games back to back and honestly, they blur together a lot for me so I’m writing them in as one.

Mighty Gunvolt Burst is seemingly Inti Creates saying “No, that thing is not a representation of what we can actually do. A lot of bad shit happened during development of that game and it got out of our hands. Here’s a real Mighty No. 9 game.” It also gave them a chance to marry the two universes they’ve been a part of once again. Bringing the Gunvolt series back to play, Mighty Gunvolt Burst is essentially a Mega Man game. You play through a series of stages as your chosen character and you earn new weapons and upgrades from each stage you play. It’s not an exact replica of Mega Man, as Mighty No. 9 attempted to be, but rather a reimagining of how that style of game works.

Blaster Master Zero got me into a franchise I never thought I would care about. I missed the Blaster Master craze that was apparently sweeping through the nation (per my high school guitar teacher) and I never entered the world until the prequel released this year. Blaster Master Zero is a NES game ripped out of time. Both of these titles make me excited for anything that Inti Creates is putting out.

10. Everything

Everything had my heart from its ten-minute launch trailer. I got lost in watching random images of a strange world flash in front of me as Alan Watts narrated my own existentialism. The final game and my time with it wouldn’t be much different, only that now I was in control of everything.

To say much more would taint this game, but I really enjoyed my time with Everything. It opened my mind and set me back to balance at a moment when I was losing my footing.

09. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This has to be a possible future of AAA development. I surprisingly played a lot of really big games this year, but I also watched the demise of a lot of ideas and what we’ve come to expect from single-player games. Ninja Theory was able to create something that looks and feels as big as the rest but provides you with a shorter, more intimate experience.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice does some new things with storytelling and sound design that shed a light on mental health issues in a way that reminded me and those who played the game that we never know what is happening to someone who is standing right beside us. We never know what is happening inside of their head, even when they vocalize everything they know how to. As something impactful, Hellblade does it well. Further, I think that the design and presentation of the game and the level of quality and polish help to create a potential future for AAA development. I’d love to see some of the larger teams creating games to make something like this. As we’ve watched the collapse of the middle and the rise of the indie developer, I’m excited to see where games like this will take shape in the coming years.

08. Destiny 2

I’ve had a lot of exposure to the team at Bungie in the back quarter of this year. I’m currently playing through the Halo franchise for the first time now that I’m the owner of an Xbox One S, but my first introduction to Bungie was back in September with the release of Destiny 2.

After playing through the Alpha and Beta of Destiny, I never went forward with the full game. It didn’t seem like the thing for me despite my initial excitement at E3 2013 when the game was on stage with PlayStation 4. Oddly enough, I played a lot of Destiny 2 this year.

I created a Hunter and leveled her up to the max. I played through the full campaign and went back in for more. I saw my fair share of Strikes, Public Events, and I even spent a lot of time in the Crucible. I’m never one for PvP, especially in a first-person shooter. I’m just not skilled enough to hold my own and I often find myself getting killed just as I respawn. This year was the year for that to change. I set my PS4 up in my office with a small monitor and headset and for the better part of a month, I found myself chasing after medals and with a positive score in the end of many rounds.

What surprised me most about Destiny 2 is my fever to play it. Even as I type this and it’s been months since I’ve really played, I’m eager to jump back into it. I still want to find the perfect gear for my Hunter. I want to see what the other characters play like as well. I’ve yet to attempt the raid in the game. There’s still so much more to see and I’m surprised at how big of an impact the game had on me.

07. Injustice 2

If you asked me in 2013 what I wanted after Injustice, I’d have described a lot of what we saw this year with Injustice 2. The followup to what was my favorite fighting game in the last decade brought with it an impressive roster of unique fighters, a story mode that continues from the threads sewn in the original, and a gear system that changes the way you play the game entirely.

When gear was first announced as part of Injustice 2, my immediate feelings were worry. I didn’t think that it was going to add anything to the game and would ultimately leave each character with incredible balance issues. Thankfully, I’m not developing the game and those who are were able to make sure that everything works out in the end.

What we got was an incredibly deep gear system that allows you to customize your favorite character into the version of the character you love best. I was still able to carry my muscle memory into this game without issue and I can say that I’m still pretty dang good with Batman. A lot of my favorite characters from the first game got an overhaul, like The Flash, and there are a lot of new characters I found myself playing and enjoying. Additionally, Injustice 2 has some of the best-looking character models not just in a fighting game but in games. A lot of the game’s art and design lend to the creation of a world that I don’t ever want to walk away from.

Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

06. Sonic Mania

A few years ago, Shovel Knight won The Free Cheese Game of the Year 2014. It captured our attention with its painstaking dedication to the craft and its incredible sense of self. Ultimately, it was the first example of a retro-styled throwback that delivered. It felt like a long-lost NES cartridge had been unearthed and polished up a bit for modern times.

This year, Sonic Mania did the same thing for the Sega Genesis. Sonic Mania finally did what I’d been looking for since I last held my Genesis controller and wanted something to follow up Sonic & Knuckles. I remember the flutter in my chest a few years ago when Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was announced, and I remember the clap of death that I felt when I played Episode 1.

Sonic Mania was so impressive the first time I saw it in front of me. The amount of detail in the recreation of levels I’d known and loved was impossible, yet right in front of me. I love the way that the developers were able take classic levels and remix them from top to bottom. Both the level design and the music were so well-crafted in a way that felt like these were sitting on ice for twenty years and released today with some 2017 polish. I hope we see more from this team and that they’re able to create an entire game of brand new stages and secrets.

05. Metroid: Samus Returns

The reveal of this game alone was one of the highlights of my year. Every January, we do annual predictions. Every June, we do E3 predictions. It became habit for me to burn a prediction on a new 3D and a new 2D Metroid game. This was the year when I finally stopped trying. I didn’t bother to use one of my prediction slots for something I didn’t expect to happen. Then, Nintendo unleashed an almost perfect* 2017 marketing campaign. Amidst a sea of releases for the Nintendo Switch, E3 hits and gives us a tease for Metroid Prime 4. It was just a logo but damn was it a powerful logo. I was still recovering from the sweating and crying as the aftershow began and Reggie gets ready to introduce one more thing.

Usually, these moments are there to show off a game that we didn’t see coming. I was anticipating something like, Codename S.T.E.A.M. or Ever Oasis, a game that is neat and made by teams that we already respect and love but ultimately something different. Instead, Reggie cuts us to a trailer that seems very Metroid and inevitably a Metroid flies by. Screaming.

The game itself became one of my highlights of the year. Back in 2014, I tried to play Metroid II: Return of Samus, but didn’t get very far. The game was easy to get lost in and I got swept up in other things at the time. Here, all of the modern design sensibilities are applied to the original Game Boy game and the world of SR388 came to life in a new way. Samus’ new melee ability was executed well and made sense in the world that MercurySteam created. It felt so good to be back in that universe again.

04. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

If Plague of Shadows felt like Shovel Knight 1.5, Specter of Torment is 2.0. Really, Shovel Knight is the game that came out in 1986 with Plague of Shadows shortly after in 1987. Specter of Torment is the one that hit in 1989 that pulled in all of the experience from the prior years of development and brought with it some knowledge of what’s to come next.

Everything about this game feels so good. Specter Knight’s movement and combat felt rewarding the whole way through. There’s a speed to him that I didn’t know I was missing in this universe of games. Inevitably unlocking his ability to skateboard through a world on his scythe added a new layer entirely.

From a story and world-building perspective, Specter of Torment adds a lot to the background of Shovel Knight’s universe and to Specter Knight as a character. You learn about his history which turns out to have a lot to do with the history of this land. In this game, Specter Knight uses the Enchantress’ fortress as a main hub. I loved that it combines the idea of the world map and villages in Shovel of Hope into one main area to navigate through. It built a cohesion for this campaign that I really appreciated. Plus, its design as a castle lent itself further to the Castlevania comparisons I was already making.

03. Super Mario Odyssey

I love Mario. How could I not? However, I realized last year during the twentieth anniversary of Super Mario 64, how little I’ve experienced Mario. I never owned Super Mario 64 for some reason, and I’ve only played it up to a certain point. Anytime I try to go back through it now trails off relatively at the same part. I never owned a GameCube thus I’ve never played Super Mario Sunshine. I’ve played through every 2D Mario, but I’ve missed the 3D stuff outside of the Galaxy pair of games and 3D Land/World.

Super Mario Odyssey is just pure fun. It opens up these huge, little worlds for you to explore. Each one is hiding a ton of secrets and has a lot of character in every step. When I first saw the cap throwing mechanic, I felt a little weird about it not thinking that it would translate to my style of gameplay when it comes to Mario. Surprisingly, it worked naturally and seamlessly when I needed it to. I often found that I was only capturing enemies in certain puzzle-solving moments or when I needed something to help me navigate to a spot where Mario could not.

From top to bottom, Super Mario Odyssey is the type of game that reminds you why Nintendo is Nintendo. It’s been years since the last big Mario game, with Super Mario 3D World in 2013 and this is exactly the amount of polish and detail that was needed to steer this direction in a new direction. Super Mario Odyssey gives the control back to the player. It’s not a guided experience in the way that something like Super Mario 3D World was. There’s no right way to complete a level. There are things that must be done in order to advance, but the acquisition of Moons in the game can be done at any pace and in many different ways. There’s a sense of freedom that bleeds through the game, inviting you to go further. There’s a reinvention of not only Mario, but of Nintendo and of the way we create these worlds hidden within the DNA of Super Mario Odyssey.

02. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild changed the way I approached games this year. I fell into a habit in recent years of reaching a point where I was stuck in a game, so I’d grab my phone and look it up. A lot of the time, it was me verifying that I was on the right track, I just had to go a littler further. The rest of the time, it was me taking away the surprise of discovery.

Right from the beginning, Breath of the Wild rewards you with discovery and reinforces the idea that in this world, going the extra step will pay off in some way. Rather than the obligatory checklist that drops its way into your minimap, you are uncovering the world as you wander. Any markers on the map are there because you found something and marked it yourself. It meant that the only reason I ever had to look at the top corner of the screen was just for my heading, to make sure I was still in the right direction.

Anytime I felt stuck on a puzzle within a shrine or found myself without a sense of direction, I quelled that desire to grab my phone and instead let the game talk to me. I found that if I tried enough different things within a shrine, I could figure it out. The reward for solving a puzzle was much greater than if I had simply read the answer somewhere. Further, as I occasionally struggled to find the next thing to do, the world is so vast yet populated that wandering in any direction would yield some type of discovery.

I was almost one hundred hours into the game before I found the horse god Malanya. For those of you who’ve found her, you know that it’s a hard thing to miss, yet it took me tens of hours before I stumbled upon her location. For those of you who’ve yet to find her, see what I mean?

That isn’t to say that the game’s ability to provide an adventure that spans literal days worth of time is an achievement itself. However, the fact that I can pick up that game now, twenty hours ago in-game time, or in another one hundred and still find new things that I’m actually engaged with- that’s the draw.

Breath of the Wild is a remarkable experience and one that will reverberate through video games in the way that games like Ocarina of Time and GTA III paved the way for so many games to follow. It encouraged me to never give up and to keep exploring.

01. NieR: Automata

It’s really tough to give a ranking to any of this list, but when it comes to NieR: Automata and Breath of the Wild, it’s even tougher. In fact, I wouldn’t have finished NieR if it weren’t for Breath of the Wild. Both games released within days of one another. I played through Route A sometime within the first month of release and didn’t feel entirely excited to see Route B, as it plays through a lot of the same material. Jumping back into Breath of the Wild reminded me of that sense of discovery and the reward of it that I just talked about, and I carried those ideas back to NieR with me.

What I discovered in NieR: Automata was transformative and profound. From a narrative perspective, NieR: Automata essentially tells one story in Route A. Route B shows you the same story from a different perspective, but it adds context and a few moments of flavor. Additionally, playing through the same areas again forces you to become intimately aware of your surroundings. You suddenly feel at home in this world, and you understand it much more because you kind of have to take it all in. Route C then becomes a sequel to the story you just witnessed and it feels like you’ve played through multiple games in one larger game.

I’ve struggled the entire year with explaining why I love this game so much. I have multiple unfinished drafts of a review for the game. I have little scraps of ideas for articles I wanted to write about the game. I think the best thing to say about the NieR: Automata is a quote by its creator Yoko Taro, that I now cannot find the source of:

“How much you enjoy something depends on your own heart.”

Thank you for hanging out with us this year.

*Region Free Means Mother 3. Come on, Nintendo. You were almost there.

Joe Dix’s Favorite Games of 2017 2017 was pretty dope for The Free Cheese, and pretty dope for me. We completed a full calendar year of monthly cover stories, and I love how they all look together.