Categories
Chillin Life Is Yours Using The Brain

Meaninglessness, and Feeling Meaning

I have been struggling off and on with feeling meaning. It comes in waves. It’s difficult to define how long this last one was, I think it was on and off for almost a year. It was more on struggle this autumn until a few weeks ago.

I think there were a combination of things that helped alleviate it. My mom helped me paint to a much brighter color in my living room and bedroom. And she shared with me a meditation which put me in a purer state of Presence when listening to it. These things helped a lot.

One of the greatest contributions to my sustaining more meaning in these recent weeks is drastically reducing the noise that my brain listens to. I live by myself, and during my free time I’m normally listening to news, sports content, talks, etc. When I cut out all those things and just sat quiet while eating, while cleaning, while brushing my teeth, etc., I was in effect spending more time with a part of my self.

While I care about what’s happening in the world, possibly the greatest meaning is found within my self. Or at least, it was a huge factor that was not getting any attention to Be, and be Present, and quiet. Quiet so that I can discern and feel the meaning that exists in the fabric of the moment.

I feel a lot better now, having cut out a significant amount of distractions from my free time. I automatically sense more meaning in the moment.

Categories
Chillin Using The Brain

Slow the Perception of Time

As I’m getting some older I notice time in general seems to go by more quickly. At the end of the year I would look back and think “Wow this year flew.”

There are some exceptions. Like the last couple of years with so many changes in my life.

I’ve been interested in this because I don’t want time to fly so quickly. Even though I am talking about the perception of time and not the speed of time itself, I still want to feel things going by more slowly. I don’t want to wake up one day and be really old and say to myself “Where did my life go?”

An aside: I do think it is possible that the actual speed of time fluctuates, even within a single day. Not sure how much control of this we have. My theory is it’s attached to some wave-like pattern / mechanism (like gravity waves?).

Back to time: I found a video which emphasizes how to slow down the perception of time:

  • being very Present (I had an intuitive hunch about this method, and had written and drew something about this previous post under the section “Stay Present”).
  • having new experiences that are attached to your ever-evolving identity.

I’ve been testing this out the deeper Presence and it seems to work. Whenever I am more Present time seems much slower. This is ‘paying’ attention to the Present moment. One way I can tell how Present I am being is when I’m in my elevator in my apartment building, if the ride went fast, I know I was distracted. If the ride feels slow, it tells me I’m being Present.

Here is the video with some thoughts on slowing your perception of time:

 

Categories
Interconnectivity Quotes

Forgive to Feel your Connection

“What the ego doesn’t try is forgiveness, because that would undermine its very existence. To forgive others for insults, real or imagined, is to weaken the boundary between self and other, to dissolve the sense of separation between subject and object. And thus, with forgiveness, awareness tends to let go of the ego and its insults, and revert instead…[to view] both subject and object equally.”

Ken Wilber, Grace and Grit

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity Life Is Yours

The Door is Within

The Door is within.

What the heck does that mean?

I feel like, whatever it is I’m looking for, asking for, wanting…, the access is inside.

It’s not like I need to search and find the door, the “thing”, somewhere out there. Maybe something specific, sure it is physically outside of your body. But as if it does not arrive in your path unless you have opened the door inside you. And that door is arrived as a vibration of your mind, your emotion, your being.

Imagine if you vibrate at certain levels, you actually see different things that exist on those levels. In this case, your own vibration is the door you are looking for to bring that which you want to you.

Now whether or not that thing is a good thing, is a different story, and one I might as well get to here : )

I say, shoot for health. Or meaning.

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity

The Way of Water

Beautiful quote from Avatar 2. As I was hearing it in the movie, I was thinking the quote could also be used to describe air / breathing. Here is the original quote:

“The way of water has no beginning and no end. The sea is around you and in you. The sea is your home — before your birth, and after your death. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world, our breath burns in the shadow of the deep. The sea gives, and the sea takes. Water connects all things, life to death, darkness to light.”

-Avatar 2

Categories
Halloween Hooraaaaaaaaay Life Is Yours Reality

Happy Halloween Birthday =D

Categories
Quotes Using The Brain

Two Pleasure Systems in the Human Brain

we have two separate pleasure systems in our brains, one that has to do with exciting pleasure and one with satisfying pleasure. The exciting system relates to the ‘appetitive’ pleasure that we get imagining something we desire, such as sex or a good meal. Its neurochemistry is largely dopamine-related, and it raises our tension level. The second pleasure system has to do with the satisfaction, or consummatory
pleasure, that attends actually having sex or having that meal, a calming, fulfilling pleasure. Its neurochemistry is based on the release of endorphins, which are related to opiates and give a peaceful, euphoric bliss.

-Norman Doidge, from: The Brain that Changes Itself

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential Inserts Quotes Using The Brain

Luck is the Residue of Design

“Luck is the residue of design”

– Predestination (movie)

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential Spark the Flame - Short Vlog Using The Brain

I do not Seek. I Find.

Referring to Pablo Picasso’s quote “I do not seek. I find” – and how the concept helps me perceive and appreciate the beauty of what is already here, and trying to reduce the ‘chase’.

When I chase certain things, they can be like forms and shapes in a cloud far away – as I get nearer the form disappears and what I thought was there turns out to be an illusion. Instead of chasing / seeking, we can ‘find’ what is here right in front of us, or beside us and around us. Instead of pursuing far away, we can open our senses and experience what we have been brought together with that exist with us right here.

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential Life Is Yours Relationships

Loss and Connection

My uncle is about to pass away. He battled many things, one of which is addiction. I love him dearly.

My grandma passed away in late June. She raised me.

There was a challenging, yet beautiful connection between my grandma and my uncle (mom and son). I think they needed each other in some ways.

Love you both. I am glad my heart feels your loss…it will be a way to connect with you.

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential Life Is Yours

The Best Security We Have

The best security we have is in who we decide to be, who our relationships are, and our faith in the higher power.

Categories
Chillin Using The Brain

A Bit on Nostalgia

This winter I realized that I was craving for some things from my past, like video games from my childhood. And I found a way to start playing some again, and it’s been great 🙂

I noticed once, in my very cold apartment, that thinking fondly of things from the past, from my warm past, actually made me feel warm physically and as if I was not alone. It was a beautiful moment and revelation.

Here is a brief online article about how nostalgia has been found to literally reduce mild pain: https://neurosciencenews.com/nostalgia-pain-20114/

And here is a New York Times piece on many benefits of nostalgia which I personally found very surprising: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/26/briefing/nostalgia-oscars-mardi-gras.html

If you don’t have access to the New York Times article you can look at the Wikipedia entry for nostalgia which mentions a lot of the psychological benefits I found surprising: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia

Cheers to a warm past reaching out to give us comfort, security and hope in the Present.

Categories
Chillin Life Is Yours Oetics Reality

Be Surprised in Life and Enjoy It

Allowing / Appreciating versus Pulling / Feeding:

If I find myself energetically feeding on someone, whether feeding through their body or some other way, and I tell myself and get myself to stop, I find that it equates to a change from taking to allowing. And inevitably that allowing transforms into or invites my appreciation.

So that got me thinking: if I did more appreciating of how things turn out and allowing instead of pulling, then I’d be more open to how Life wants to turn out, and I think I would be more aligned with the purpose and meaning of Life, which may be to: be surprised and enjoy it.

Categories
Inserts Interconnectivity Quotes

What You Are Looking For is Already Here

Thoughts, reflection on a message from the inner deep. In the midst of self-wallowing about being lonely, single and wanting, a message that came to me again, saying: “What you are looking for is already here.” Not as in I’m going to manifest something. Rather, it is about becoming aware of what is here already.

With Love.

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity Reality

Existential Journey

A short radio excerpt:

Joe Frank – Existential Journey

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity New Year

Happy New Year 2022!!!!!!!

As I take a little time to reflect,

I give you all my peace and respect.

I’m feeling pretty good. From this year I think I picked up a better sense of balance. Balance between trying my hardest, and making sure to stick with my greatest values: one of which is to enjoy myself. So, a balance between self-enjoyment, and trying my hardest. While knowing that the well-being of loved ones is top priority, while also keeping in mind well-being of the world.

I also realized that I love teaching. Maybe I will focus on that, instead of trying to get a more high-paying job that requires work which I struggle to enjoy or find meaning with.

When I think of what the world needs, it probably boils down to compassion.

Things just keep ticking, huh?

Keep the faith. Keeping a good mentality makes a huge difference.

Categories
Chillin Life Is Yours

How About Some Sweetness for that Joy?

Right now, looks like I’m going through another identity shift or movement.

Im wondering whether I need to relax on myself, and my standards of discipline, a little, so that more joy enters my life.

I work really hard and diligently. My life is filled with beauty, love, blessings, and grace. Even with all these blessings, I have been missing a more consistent joy that I want. Even acknowledging that I want this joy, and having an idea of how to allow it (by relaxing more on my requirements and discipline), I feel better and more relaxed. Truly, I want to treat myself sweeter.💘💘

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity

Knowing We Are All Equal In Value

I need your help for me to grow, get better. I need you to show me the energy of knowing that we are all equal in value.

Categories
Chillin Quotes Using The Brain

Power Over Your Interpretation

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I love this quote about having power over our mind, but not outside events. How I see it:

It’s obvious, if we are paying attention to our lives and circumstances, that we dont have direct control over everything, (and maybe not full direct control over anything). Simply put: out what we can control, we have a lot of power in creating change. But, there are plenty of times when we will receive surprises, and depending on who we are, we may interpret them in various ways, as in “good” or “bad”, etc. We have influence over our interpretation, over the meaning that we derive. And depending on our chosen and effective interpretation, we contribute or “attract” certain outcomes.

Something interesting here: I distinguish between interpretation and view. View is our perspective. If we were looking at an enormous boulder in the woods, and I was on one side and you were on the other, our view / perspective is different. The interpretation is the meaning we make with our perspective. So, to change meaning, you can try to change viewpoint.

So, while I’m with Marcus Aurelius on this quote, I think we have power and influence over both, our mind and outside events, but we will also get surprises. But we have power over how we interpret those surprises, which impacts the present as well as future events.

Good luck!

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity Live Events

Pitch to Speak on Humanization at SXSW Edu

I made a short video as part of the application process to speak at SXSW Edu, which is a yearly conference on education in Austin, Texas.

Here is the video. Enjoy!!!

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity Reality Using The Brain

On Being a Healthy Professional

I am honored to have been asked to give a presentation to a class of working professional master’s students. The theme is: being healthy. These are the general notes I put together for the presentation. 

What are your values?

  • In other words, what are your priorities?
    • We can only maintain a few priorities at the very top
    • Find your values, and stick to that
      • You are being who you want to be
  • Self-discovery takes a lifetime

What happens when you live your values?

  • You feel good about yourself
  • You feel more meaning and fulfillment
  • You forgive yourself and others more
  • You are more willing to do the hard work
  • You channel more positive energy
  • You help the world

A more healthier you is a more healthier world

  • We are all connected; we are all One; we are all part of the same whole
  • When you hurt yourself you hurt others, and vice versa
  • When you are doing the best for yourself, you are doing the best for others
  • Your state of being impacts everyone, everywhere, every single moment, near and far

Stay Present

  • The Present is a gift, that’s why they call it the Present
  • Honor your gift of being here
  • How do you honor it?
    • By living fully. Live the moment as deeply as possible
    • The moment is a miracle

Mindfulness

  • You have to be aware of yourself, of your mind, of your emotions
    • Emotion regulation; equanimity – healthily manage your emotions
    • Being aware of your thoughts allows you to stop negative thinking in the moment
  • Positive thinking leads to healthy life and positive results
  • How do we increase mindfulness?
    • One way is meditation….

Meditation and breathing

  • It’s all about the breath
    • Always focus on your breath
    • Slow breath in 
    • Just as slow, breathe out
    • Breathe into the bottom of your stomach (the diaphragm)
      • Diaphragm breathing is calming
      • Chest breathing is for fight-or-flight
  • Feel the breath fill every part of your body. Be physically present
  • Do not judge your thoughts, let them go
  • Always come back to the breath
  • There are many types of meditation. This is based on the zen way (zazen)

Benefits of meditation

  • Eventually adds pauses between thoughts
  • More present
  • More centered. Accessing answers that are inside of you
  • Observing the thoughts, instead of identifying with them
  • You are not your mind
  • When you can “catch” yourself thinking, you can better direct your thoughts

The practice of meditation

  • Meditation is a practice, not a perfect
  • Commit to 2 minutes every single day!
    • Practicing every day creates geometric growth like compounding interest in a retirement savings
  • Good talk therapy is a fantastic compliment to meditation
    • Meditation and therapy will illuminate each other

General wellness tips

  • Keep your connections with loved ones strong.
    • This helps to give you meaning
  • Meditate every day, for at least 2 minutes. Every single day
  • If there is something in your life that you know needs a change, make the change.
  • This has a ripple effect on other parts of your life
  • Show Life that you have the courage and commitment for growth and Life will respond to you with rewards and more opportunities
  • Turn off all screens at least 1 hour before going to bed
  • Do NOT look at your cell phone in the middle of the night
  • Do not look at the cell phone when first waking up
  • Use blue-light blocking lenses
    • Reduces eye strain
  • Detach from social media
  • Give yourself breaks from external stimuli
    • Your subconscious needs space and time to process things
  • Balance mind, body and spirit
    • They each affect the other
  • Get out into nature
    • Nature is a fantastic teacher of wisdom
  • Consider allowing things to happen, instead of forcing them happen
  • Don’t burn out! You are no good to anyone if you burn out.
  • Burnout often is permanent. Once you burn out you may be completely done with this industry
  • Maintain health and balance. You cannot continue a sprint indefinitely. You must go at a pace you can keep.
  • Have compassion for yourself and others. This reduces the chance of burnout
  • Sleep
    • Learn your sleep cycles
  • Start the day in calmness
  • Start and end the day by thinking about what you are grateful for.
  • Keep a journal and / or a dream journal
    • Journaling helps you understand your subconscious
  • Replace whatever you are drinking with water
  • Don’t skip meals
  • Eat your last meal early, so there is time to digest before going to bed
    • You will feel lighter in the morning
  • Chew completely. Your stomach doesn’t have teeth
    • Eat in peace. Eating is a spiritual practice.
  • Treat people like humans.

 

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential Spark the Flame - Short Vlog

River Flow

Categories
Inserts Interconnectivity

Been feeling lonely the last few weeks/month. But I think I am doing the right thing overall. And I am really proud that I am going through this without depending on numbing effects. And I am grateful for my wholesome thinking and feeling, in general, these days.

So, when you are sacrificing, but doing the best you can, or so, then take solace in that you are doing everything you can, as best as you know how. That is something to be PROUD of. Not pride as in an egotistical detachment from the world and others, but proud as in honorable, and inherently spiritual…work towards/with/for the whole.

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential Halloween Life Is Yours

Happy Halloween Birthday :)

Halloween Owl Birthday

Categories
Chillin Exponential Potential

If There is Nothing to Do, Then Wait.

If there is nothing to do, then wait.

For all our goals and aspirations, sometimes we just feel or think we have done all we could do. Maybe you have. It doesn’t mean the goal or aspiration won’t crystallize. Maybe it just requires the right timing – a timing you may not be aware of, sort of like celestial gears of a universal clock moving along, till at some point, click! The right thing has clicked into the right place, simply because the time required has finally transpired.

Like a fruit tree, or a cannabis plant. We may want the “fruit” of this plant, but we can’t force it to give fruit right after we plant it. Sometimes you have given all the water and light and nutrients it needs, and all that is left to give, is time.

Categories
Chillin Life Is Yours

How Do You Appreciate Beyond Gratitude? En-joy

How do you appreciate something beyond being grateful? En-joy it. Live it. Liiiiiiiiiiive it.

Categories
Exponential Potential

When We Do the Best We Can

When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

–Helen Keller

Categories
Quotes Using The Brain

Excerpt from Siddhartha

“…when you throw a stone into the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom of the water. It is the same when Siddhartha has an aim, a goal. Siddhartha does nothing; he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he goes through the affairs of the world like the stone through the water, without doing anything, without bestirring himself; he is drawn and lets himself fall. He is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal.”

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Everyone can reach their goal, if they can think, wait and fast.”

Categories
Quotes Using The Brain

Gratitude, From Napoleon Hill

I was astounded, when I first tried this plan of offering a prayer of thanks for what I already possessed, to discover what a vast fortune I had owned without being appreciative of it. For example, I discovered that I possessed a sound body which had never been seriously damaged by illness. I had a mind which was reasonably well balanced. I had a creative imagination through which I could render useful service to great numbers of people. I was blessed with all the freedom I desired, in both body and mind. I possessed an imperishable desire to help others who were less fortunate. I discovered that happiness, the highest aim of mankind, was mine for the taking, business depression or no business depression….It may be helpful…to take inventory of…intangible assets. Such an inventory may disclose possessions of priceless value.

-Napoleon Hill

Categories
Chillin Interconnectivity Quotes In Person

Our Health is Connected to Our Neighbor’s Health

Our health is connected to our neighbor’s health.

I heard this statement somewhere on the radio, some days ago.

It’s a reminder that we are all connected.

“Patience, understanding, and helping each other is the best thing we can do at this time” –Z, the landlord