The video below is an excellent one on the cognitive processes involved with how we can alter our state of being. If we believe that our thoughts are our destiny, we are thinking in the past. Consequently, we are constantly doing the same thing repetitiously and this becomes the routine and program. When change happens, subconsciously we become hardwired to believe certain things. While we can say, I want to be happy and free, our body says otherwise as it is the repository of past and triggers our mind. He argues that you have to get past the analytical mind in order to be truly free. In order to get past the analytic mind, one has to enter into a meditative state and calm the body. All of us relive traumatic events, the more we connect to that event we connect to those emotional experiences and we then feel within our body the intensity of those events. That, then, creates a mood and emotional reaction. If we keep that going that creates a temperament and if it continues it becomes a personality trait. Most of us therefore live 70 % of time in that space and live in fear. We prepare for fear. We are not been able to move from that event and we become addicted to them. We then connect to those events and the chemistry of the brain unloads and this has an impact on our body. The hardest part of change is making a different choice and that is going to feel uncomfortable. Emotions trigger thoughts which connect to the body. The body then influences the mind in a reciprocal pattern which creates the same experience. Our body becomes connected to the unconscious. Being in the unknown is fearful for our body. The best way to create the future is to create it. Rehearse the action of what you want. Most of us our addicted to our environment and past. To get past this we need to disconnect from bodily senses. Less sensory information means less sensory environment and this can help us become free. Waiting for something outside of us means that we are always living in lack. The Newtonian model is about predictability. The Quantam is when you start feeling whole and free. You then create your world and reality. Epicetus is among the most interesting and earliest of the Stoic philosophers. His name is translated as "acquired one" and he was a slave. Thus, when he discusses overcoming setbacks, his lessons are wise and worthy of reflection. One of his most famous works is the Enchirdion.
He sounds an almost Buddhist when he argues that dropping desire is the key to interior freedom and ultimately happiness (a problematic term). While all is transitory and passing and suffering is part of life, our attitudes towards these can have a great impact on our well-being. Difficult to practice but at time circumstances require that we do just that. I won't comment more on it except his famous distinction between what is up to us and what isn't is a very challenging and difficult exercise. Combined with surrendering to fate (different than fatalism) and the overall philosophy contains some valuable kernels of wisdom. Although not perfect, it is a precursor to the dominance of psychology in the contemporary era. Psychology and philosophy are more related than the positivist empirical tradition of contemporary psychology might wish to admit. Most interesting idea that is being floated in the US regarding the minting of a Trillion Dollar coin. The US Constitution gives authority to the federal treasury to mint coins and values and, theoretically, the minting of Trillion dollar coin would pay of the country's debt.
The only problem is whether the Federal Reserve would accept it. However, this would set up a showdown between the government and the Federal Reserve on who controls the government, currency and money supply. If they did not accept it, the US would have no choice but to establish a national bank thereby basically abolishing the Fed. In many quarters, many argue that although it is constitionally legal and valid, given the inter-related nature of commerce and business such a move would de-stabilize confidence in the US dollar. Ellen Brown disagrees (and did when Obama floated and researched idea) and argues that it is an idea whose time has come! The current economic crisis cannot be solved with the thinking that created it. There is simply not enough money in the system to fund the services we desperately need, pay down the debt, and keep taxes affordable. The money supply has shrunk by $4 trillion since 2008, according to the Fed’s own website. The only solution is to add more money to the real, producing economy; And that means some congressionally-mandated entity needs to create it, either the Fed or the Treasury. The Fed has declined. In flatly rejecting the Treasury’s legal tender, the Fed as representative of the banks is asserting itself as outranking the elected representatives of the people. If the Fed won’t acknowledge the coins created by the government, perhaps the government needs to charter a publicly-owned bank that will. We have a chance today to end the charade of big money gridlock politics, as well as the reign of the big banks. We have the power to choose prosperity over austerity. But to do it, we must first restore the power to create money to the people. |
My PenséesThe title of this blog is an allusion to the famous work of Blaise Pascal. This blog represents the variety of my interests and thoughts on any given day and are strung together, like Pascal's Pensees, in no particular order. I work in the field of mental health, education, and human rights. I write and am a human rights advocate. I enjoy poetry, jazz, spirituality, politics and a potpourri of other interests that you will see reflected in this blog. Archives
December 2021
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