Thinking on FixYourThink.com

Your mind is on autopilot---Here’s proof and how to seize control

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Feel like your mind’s out of control? It’s on autopilot—stressed or stuck in thoughts you can’t escape. That’s not you—it’s your automatic mind, running the show. You’re pure consciousness, able to think clearly and choose freely. I’ll prove it’s on autopilot, share steps to take charge, and show how to build a better world. Ready to lead? Let’s start.

The Automatic Mind: Why It’s Running You

Your brain’s built for quick fixes, not truth. It grabs sights, sounds, and feelings, spinning a flawed reality. Optical illusions prove it: you know it’s a straight line, but it looks bent.

MistValley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This illusion tricks your brain—proof it’s autopilot controlled.

Your thoughts can trap you. Try meditating: want to focus on your breath? Your mind’s blabbing about work or lunch. That’s the autopilot keeping you stuck, not choosing.

Your body’s part of it. Eat bad food, and your stomach takes over—panic, nausea, no logic. Injuries, fear, and others cloud your mind. It’s hard to think clearly when your autopilot’s loud. But you’re more—let’s meet the real you.

You Are Psyche

You’re not your body or thoughts—you’re a Psyche, pure consciousness that is watching your mind and body: sensations, emotions, that inner voice. You’re self-aware and insightful, improving conditions quickly. You’re a natural leader, meant to guide your body’s parts—stomach, heart, brain—each with its own demands. You can harmonize them, rising above the noise.

Try this: intend your arm to rise. No words—just intend it. I bet it goes up! That’s you commanding your body, not your inner voice. Ever feel trapped by stress? That’s your body, not you. A psychic person is calm, focused, and intends their next step. Let’s build that power.

Proof Your Thoughts Aren’t You

Your inner voice is the autopilot’s tool, not you. Genie, a girl isolated until 13, found in 1970, couldn’t speak sentences due to no language exposure, yet was conscious—her inner voice was her brain’s creation, not her. Learn more about Genie, Schizophrenia’s similar—the brain floods the mind with false voices, the autopilot out of control.

Language makes it worse. Alfred Korzybski, in Science and Sanity (1933), showed words like “always” trap us, making life seem fixed. Say “the sky is blue”—it sounds permanent, but the sky changes. “All politicians are corrupt” overgeneralizes. Your autopilot blindly creates these traps, twisting your thoughts into confusions. You as self aware consciousness can catch them, as you’ll see in the steps.

How to Seize Control

Awaken your Psychic abilities with these steps, like living meditation—calmly observing and leading your daily activities, starting small:

Spot the Autopilot: Words? That’s your inner voice. Hunger? Your stomach. Fear? Your lizard brain. Name the source to seize control and guide it.
Use Intentions: Intend your arm to rise—no words. Now intend to stay calm or ignore distractions. I bet it works! Intending steers your autopilot.
Guide Like a Parent: Your body’s parts—heart, lungs, brain—are emotional, low-awareness. Intend calm or let your inner voice soothe them. Guide like a kind parent, and they’ll cooperate.
Guide Your Mind: Stumped? Intend your inner voice to act like an AI chatbot—guide inquiries, pick the best.
Question Words: Catch “always” or “never”—ask, “Is that true?” Words like “good”, “bad”, “true”, and “false” indicate absolutes which don’t occur in real life. Test beliefs like “I’m not enough.” Only your awareness can outsmarts word traps.
Know How You Know: Logical conclusions are not always the best. Practice your insight and intuition, evaluate and improve them.

These steps train you to be self aware, calm, and focused—like a perfect meditator. They’re not just for you—they’re a revolution. If we all led as Psyches, we’d end chaos: no wars from fear, no greed wrecking the planet. For more on word traps, see my article: AI Is Rewiring How We Think About Thinking, Igniting an Unprecedented Age of Enlightenment.

Create Your Future

As a Psyche, you are a natural leader. Question everything, improve your psychic abilities, thinking, and organize your mind-body into a high-performance team. Psyches can build a better world—clear minds creating safe and prosperous cities, and helping others awake. AI’s a tool, like your inner voice—your in charge.

Increase your intentions through out the day—share it with a friend! Post: “I’m guiding my autopilot! #Meditation” Organize with others to make a heaven on Earth, one mind at a time.

AI is rewiring how we think about thinking, igniting an unprecedented age of enlightenment

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

AI is already changing how humans think, but it’s nothing like the past. Forget the dystopian fears of mind control or PsyOps apps manipulating our choices—though those risks are real. Instead, I’m here to unveil a quieter, more profound shift: an evolutionary enhancement of human thinking, powered by AI’s ability to analyze vast oceans of data when guided by human insight. This isn’t a revolution overthrowing our minds; it’s a leap forward, freeing us from the shackles of language that have long distorted how we understand ourselves and reality. By rethinking mental abilities as dynamic, multidimensional spectrums—not rigid labels like “schizophrenia”—AI can help us see our minds as they truly are, transforming how we solve problems, heal, and grow.

To grasp this, we need to confront a hidden culprit: language itself. Over a century ago, Alfred Korzybski, a philosopher and scientist, warned that our words are flawed maps of reality, leading us astray. His insights reveal why we struggle to understand complex human conditions like schizophrenia. More excitingly, they point to how AI can break these linguistic chains, offering a new way to think about thinking—one that’s precise, fluid, and deeply human.

Language: The Map That Misleads

Korzybski’s core idea, laid out in his 1933 book Science and Sanity, is simple yet profound: “The map is not the territory.” Words are symbols, not the things they describe. A word like “tree” isn’t the living, leafy reality—it’s a shorthand, leaving out essentials like seasonal changes or nutrient flows from root to crest. This gap between word and world diverts progress, especially when we try to understand the human mind. Korzybski identified specific ways language, particularly English, distorts our thinking:

The “Is” of Identity: Saying “This is a table” or “She is schizophrenic” implies the word captures the whole reality. It doesn’t. A table has unique grains; a person labeled “schizophrenic” has a singular life. “Is” fosters rigid thinking by replacing complex reality with a shallow label.
Elementalism: Language splits interconnected realities—like “mind” vs. “body” or “time” vs. “space”—erasing their interconnectedness. Describing “mental illness” as separate from biology or culture oversimplifies the mind’s web.
Over Generalization: Words like “always” or “all” (e.g., “Schizophrenics are dangerous”) erase exceptions, breeding stereotypes and dogma.
Abstract Confusion: High-level terms like “time,” “love,” or “schizophrenia” feel real but are verbal constructs, not objects. Treating them as concrete things distorts our grasp of reality.

These linguistic traps aren’t just academic—they muddy how we understand mental health, nowhere more clearly than with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia: A Word That Hides More Than It Reveals

Schizophrenia, a term coined in 1911, is a poster child for language’s limits. It’s meant to describe a cluster of experiences—delusions, hallucinations, disordered thinking, emotional flatness—that disrupt life. But as Korzybski would argue, the word is a crude map, obscuring the territory of a person’s mind. Here’s why:

Vague and Rigid: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) defines schizophrenia with broad criteria, but symptoms vary wildly. One person hears vivid voices; another withdraws silently. Yet the label suggests a single “thing,” freezing a dynamic mind into a box.
Superficial Grouping: Calling diverse experiences “schizophrenia” lumps together people with different causes—genetics, trauma, or stress—ignoring their unique stories. It’s like calling all fevers “fever disease” without distinguishing causes.
Reifying the Abstract: The word feels like a real entity, as if “schizophrenia” exists like a tumor. This tricks us into fighting the label, not the underlying processes, and fuels stigma (“he is schizophrenic” vs. “he’s experiencing X”).
Lost Solutions: The term guides treatment—antipsychotics, therapy—but doesn’t pinpoint what’s breaking down or how to rebuild. It’s a snapshot, not an MRI scan, leaving patients and doctors navigating with a truncated map.

Korzybski would say “schizophrenia” is a linguistic trap, an overgeneralized abstraction that confuses map with territory. When we argue over who “has” it or what it “is,” we’re battling words, not reality. This muddles understanding and stalls progress—why can’t we describe minds more precisely?

The Old Way: Labels as Crutches

Why do we cling to terms like “schizophrenia”? Because, until recently, we had no better way. A century ago, psychiatry leaned on observation, lumping symptoms into categories to make sense of chaos. The DSM, born in the 1950s, codified this, giving doctors and researchers shared maps. But these were compromises—static, wordy sketches of fluid minds, built for an era without the tools to dive deeper.

Enter AI. With its power to crunch vast data—brain scans, genetic profiles, speech patterns, life events—AI can redraw these maps, not as crude labels but as dynamic, multidimensional models. It’s the upgrade Korzybski dreamed of: thinking that continually approaches closer to the territory.

AI: A New Way to Think About Thinking

Computers are workhorses, AI is a steam engine, doing the heavy lifting as partner in evolving how we understand our minds. By analyzing enormous datasets, it can bypass language’s limits, offering a new framework for thinking about mental abilities. Here’s how:

Mental Abilities as Dimensions

Imagine ditching labels like “schizophrenia” and instead mapping mental functions as dimensions—perception, emotional regulation, reality-testing, verbal coherence. Each is a spectrum, from “rock-solid” to “unstable,” with every person progressing in this multidimensional space. Someone with “voices” might score low on perceptual clarity, but high on empathy. No one’s “sick” or “normal”—just transitioning differently.

This isn’t sci-fi. AI can already analyze neural patterns (e.g., fMRI scans) or speech (e.g., sentiment analysis) to score such dimensions. Unlike a diagnosis, this model is granular, capturing individuality without boxing people in.

Spectrums, Not Boxes

Each dimension is a continuum, accommodating the dynamics and infinite values in Nature. Reality-testing might range from “skeptical” to “detached,” with most of us wobbling in between. AI can track how these scores shift—say, under stress or after therapy—keeping the map current. This sidesteps Korzybski’s “is” of identity: you’re not “schizophrenic,” you’re navigating a dynamic profile.

Mapping Interactions

AI’s real magic is seeing how dimensions interact. Low reality-testing plus high emotional volatility might predict impulsivity, while strong perception plus resilience could spark creativity. By modeling these webs, AI uncovers patterns invisible to traditional psychiatry. It might even discover new dimensions—say, a “cognitive flexibility” axis born from combining others—unlocking fresh ways to heal or grow.

Solving Korzybski’s Problems

This approach directly tackles language’s pitfalls:

No Identity Traps: Dimensions avoid saying “you are X.” A score of “30” on perception is a data point, not a life sentence.
Holistic View: Mapping interactions dodges elementalism, seeing the mind as a system, not split parts.
No Over Generalization: Spectrums embrace nuance, rejecting “all” or “always” for specific, data-driven insights.
Grounded Abstractions: AI ties scores to measurable data (brain activity, behavior), updating maps closer to the territory.

A Human-Guided Evolution

This isn’t AI taking over—it’s humans steering AI to think deeper. We set the questions: Which dimensions matter? How do we measure empathy or resilience? AI crunches the numbers, but our curiosity guides the exploration. This partnership could redefine not just mental health but all cognition—creativity, decision-making, even culture—by revealing how mental abilities weave together.

There are risks. PsyOps or biased AI could distort these models, reinforcing bad maps (e.g., labeling dissent as “unstable”). Privacy is another hurdle—mind-mapping demands trust in data handling. But PsyOps thinking becomes laughable once people become normalized to thinking with selectable accuracy maps.

The Future: Thinking in multi-valued dimensions, not Words

Korzybski dreamed of a world where we think extensionally—tied to facts, not fictions. AI makes this possible, replacing vague labels like “schizophrenia” with precise, fluid profiles. Imagine a future where therapy targets specific dimensions (e.g., boosting reality-testing), or schools nurture unique cognitive blends. We’d stop fighting over words and start exploring minds as they are: vast, dynamic, and interconnected.

This isn’t a revolution against the old—it’s an evolution. AI doesn’t replace human thinking; it amplifies it and frees us from language’s traps that prevented self-knowledge. The territory of the mind is complex, but with AI as our mental steam engine, we finally exit the quagmire of manual thinking, and apply machine tools to do the heavy lifting. Now we can map the unknown unknowns of consciousness.

What do you think? Could this way of thinking change how we solve mental health challenges or unlock human potential? Share your thoughts below—I’d love to hear how you’d map your mind.

You've been hacked and I can prove it to you

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

You have been hacked, and I can prove it to you.

If your response is, “No, I’m not,” this simple answer is a clear indication that you are not only hacked, but seriously compromised because you are unaware of your condition.

You see, everyone has been hacked to some extent.

How can I be so sure your mind is infected?

Oh it’s quite easy to explain.

For thousands of years, humans learned to do all their thinking with words.

But the hilarious part is, people don’t know the meaning of the words they are using.

I know, you started trusting words when you read simple things like, “See Spot run. Run Spot run.” But that trust you learned as a child now causes you to assume you understand every word you use.

For example, do you think you know what the following words mean?

Vaccine
Transgender
Love

We frequently use these words in our current society. Most people assume they understand these words. But evil people have perverted the meaning of these words in order to control your thinking. Consequently, people make terrible decisions and suffer horrendous consequences.

I will provide convincing proof that these words have hacked your mind.

I will show you how to detect when words are used to control your thinking.

Plus, I will explain how to minimize this secretive molestation of your mind.

Words control how you think

Have you ever tried to think without using words? Maybe you can think simple thoughts, but anything beyond simple is impossible. Words are the building blocks of your thinking. You put words together to form sentences and communicate complex ideas. Using words is necessary in our modern high-tech world.

Now imagine what would happen if the meaning of a word changed, and you are still thinking and making decisions based upon old and invalid definitions. Your outdated thinking and decisions could harm you.

Well, that is exactly what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For decades, medical experts have been telling people vaccines provide immunity and are safe for most people. So, when the authorities introduced the COVID-19 shots as vaccines, most people expected they would be safe and effective. Plus, authorities reinforced people’s assumptions by insisting that the shots were 97% effective at preventing infection, preventing transmission to others, would keep people out of the hospital, and were safe.

All these guarantees turned out to be lies.

The effects of those COVID-19 vaccines on the population have been devastating. Many people died the same day they got the injection. More people died within a few days. Other people suffered heart attacks, blood clots, strokes, cancers, and many other deadly or debilitating effects. Also, the injections produce such a weak immune response that many people would catch COVID-19 a few weeks after a shot. Now medical experts say booster shots are required every three to four months to maintain even a weak immune response.

Most people now know that authorities used the word “vaccine” to hack people’s minds and fool them into taking a toxic biological weapon. Even the authorities now admit that the shots do not provide immunity, the immune response is weak and temporary, do not prevent transmission, and there are serious side effects. But the authorities still insist on calling the shots vaccines and deceiving people.

When you notice the definition of a word changing and even being perverted till it means the opposite of what people believe it means, you know that word is being used to hack people’s thinking.

Conclusions

Authorities have perverted the word “vaccine” to hack people’s minds, causing them to volunteer to get injections of harmful substances. This shows how easy it is to manipulate people into doing great harm to themselves and others merely by using words. People can act like mindless zombies if they don’t understand how words can affect their thinking, decisions, and actions.

When you are thinking and making important decisions, inspect each word you are using to make sure you understand how you and others are interpreting each word. If there is a possible misinterpretation, start using words that accurately describe your ideas. For example, the shots can be called COVID-19 bio-weapons.

I will post additional articles on how the words transgender, love, and other words are used to hack your mind and other methods being used to control you.

Supporting References

The CDC changed its definition of the word vaccine

The definition of a vaccine on the CDC's website on September 1, 2021.

Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

The definition of a vaccine on the CDC's website on September 2, 2021.

Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

The definition of immunity has not changed.

Immunity: Protection from an infectious disease. If you are immune to a disease, you can be exposed to it without becoming infected.

Note that the CDC’s new definition says a vaccine does not “produce immunity” but only “stimulates the body’s immune response”. It does not say how strong the immune response is, if the response is positive or negative, or how long the response lasts. Just that the shots stimulate the immune system.

The CDC’s new definition of the word “vaccine” twists its meaning till it means the opposite of what most people think “vaccine” means. Why would they even bother to pervert this word unless they intend to use it to hack the minds of gullible people?

Whenever you see the meaning of a word going through radical changes, this may be an effort to hack your mind.

Authorities hide the fact that COVID-19 injections are bio-weapons, not vaccines

The authorities call the COVID-19 injections “vaccines”, but they know the shots are biological weapons of war because the authorities have been working hard for fifty years to make the Coronavirus as deadly as possible.

Dr. David Martin has published expertly referenced documents that prove the COVID-19 injections are bio-weapons developed and perfected by US agencies. You can view summaries of his work in the videos listed below.

The authorities have hacked the minds of gullible people by calling the COVID-19 biological weapon a vaccine.

References to articles about the COVID-19 shots causing harm

Many authors have documented the harmful effects of the COVID-19 shots. I listed the authors I recommend below in order of their focus on vaccine injuries.

Can Yoda's wisdom help us handle our fears so we can fight off the evil COVID-19 menace?

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

During the COVID-19 panic, citizens yielded to government-mandated lockdowns, isolations, business shutdowns, job dismissals, non-compliance fines, fake medical tests, deadly mRNA injections, and other harmful medical procedures. The deaths and destruction suffered by citizens have been horrendous.

We are living a reality similar to a Star Wars episode where Darth Vader, with his telepathic powers and a Death Star, attacks an entire planet.

If we could ask Yoda for advice, I believe he would say the authorities have turned to the dark side and citizens are obedient and cowardly. And all this has happened because fear has corrupted people.

Back in our real world, many people in the COVID resistance also say fear has corrupted the bureaucrats and crippled our citizens.

Could Yoda help us expel this fear?

Upon searching Yoda’s movie lines, it surprised me to find useful gems of knowledge about handling fear.

With Yoda’s wisdom, plus psychological concepts, we can convert fear into a powerful and beneficial force.

Let me explain.

Fear is a blessing, not a curse

Most people think fear is harmful and must be overcome or eliminated.

You probably have heard these famous words of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933):

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

A current leader in the COVID resistance, Robert Kennedy Junior, blames fear for our obedience to evil authorities:

“Fear is the enemy as it allows totalitarian systems to take control of people, destroying democracy in the process.”

Yoda is even more critical of fear:

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

In our society, people think fear is a destructive force. They often suppress fear. But inhibiting an emotion is not healthy. And denying your fear destroys what could be a beneficial force.

Fear can produce very helpful responses, such as fight, flight, or freeze. People often ridicule these responses as being crude, instinctive reactions. But they are absolutely necessary for the following situations.

If a vicious dog that you can’t run away from attacks you, you better fight with all your might.

If a large, slow-moving alligator on land attacks you, run away as fast as you can.

If you are walking in the woods and come upon a large grizzly bear that is moving away from you, tighten all your muscles and freeze.

In all these situations, fear instantly gives you the energy you need to manipulate your body to save your life.

There are many other activities that require fear as the source of energy and motivation. For instance, fear can motivate people to learn martial arts, build a fort, or learn a profession to provide income for survival.

Fear is energy that moves your body and motivates your mind. Energy is a tool, and tools are neither good nor bad. A painter can’t blame his brush when he produces an inferior painting.

When the power of fear drives you to act, you choose your actions. It is your choice that is good or bad because what you choose to do will cause good or bad results for you and everyone involved.

So how do you make good choices under the pressure of fear?

How to manage fear

What we need is an intelligent way of handling fear.

And Yoda can help us with the following advice:

“Named must your fear be, before banish it, you can.”

But what does Yoda mean by “name your fear?”

“Naming your fear” means to give your fear a more accurate description, a more detailed understanding, than just feeling fear.

You see, when you are feeling and thinking only about your fear, you are ignoring a lot of other thoughts that have a powerful influence on the actions you choose. And some of those thoughts have been inserted into your mind by your enemies without you knowing they hacked your mind.

Here is how to create a more accurate name for your fear. First, remember that emotions are energy. Emotional energy drives your activities. So, when you feel fear, identify the activity your fear is causing. Then write down the relationship between your fear and the action it powers as shown in the following examples of three types of fear.

fear->hiding
fear->fighting
fear->planning response

The above examples are symbolic representations of fear feeding energy into an activity.

When you first “name your fear” by also naming the action it is causing, pay close attention to your thoughts. Naming your fear brings the activities you were ignoring into your conscious mind, which immediately triggers logical thinking. Upon observing this new data, you automatically consider alternative activities and select better responses so quickly that you may not appreciate what is happening in your mind. Recognize that you are consciously improving your responses and your chances of success.

For some people, their thoughts change so quickly that they lose track of where they are in their sequence of thoughts and they end up confused. Writing thoughts down will aid in consciously managing your thinking.

A wonderful thing often happens when people consciously optimize their fear->responses mental state. A person can improve their response so much that their fear dissipates and is replaced by a more powerful emotion. Now consider the following list as a sequence of mental states that progress because of conscious evaluations.

fear->hiding
- fear->fighting
  - fear->planning response
    - excitement->planning, scheduling, executing the plan

The above progression shows how naming your fear can enable your conscious mind to progress to an emotion of excitement about executing a plan and winning. This is a case where fear transitions to a more powerful emotion (excitement) and a highly intelligent response (planning, scheduling, executing).

Sometimes the threat you are facing is not so easily handled. In such cases, add more detail to your naming, as shown below.

FDA, CDC->vaccine mandates->fear->seek help->Robert Kennedy Jr., Dr. Mercola

The example above names the cause of fear (vaccine mandates) and the preceding cause (FDA, CDC). Plus, a robust description of actions. Providing more detail in the naming of fear brings more data into the conscious mind for consideration. The additional data will suggest more opportunities for modifying the chain of controlling forces. This method improves your chances of developing a better response to fear.

But what if naming your fear just makes you more afraid?

What to do when the situation seems hopeless

If you are up against a powerful enemy, discovering more details about what you fear may uncover more frightening conditions.

Has Darth Vader appeared in the distance, looking for you?

A hopeless feeling may strike like a thunderbolt through your entire being. The two examples below represent a dire situation.

Obey or die->fear->freezing your actions
Obey or die->depression->doing nothing

Most people will think that freezing or doing nothing is a self-destructive action. But inaction is natural and appropriate when surprised by an overwhelming threat. The purpose of inaction is to make you take a moment to consciously and intelligently consider your options before you do something stupid. As soon as you figure out your best response, you can quickly unfreeze and transition to a more powerful response, such as fleeing or fighting.

If you have the time to learn more about your predicament, do so. There are always many things you don’t know. Get information from others if you can.

If after reevaluating your situation, you still haven’t come up with a reasonable action plan, Yoda has more advice for you:

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”

Yoda’s advice here is a good start but it is incomplete. I will explain the full process of letting go of what you fear for the situation below.

Obey or die->fear->freezing your actions

Yoda’s advice for this situation would be to let go of your fear of death. That makes sense when obeying orders would create living conditions worse than dying. If you realize that death is not so bad in comparison, your fear will diminish or possibly disappear.

Yoda leaves out an important dynamic in this process. When the conscious mind transitions away from one mental state, it must move into a new mental state. This happens so quickly and automatically that most people are unaware of what they are doing. Sometimes people lose their train of thought and end up controlled by subconscious biases. Writing mental states down will help maintain your focus.

If you are self-aware of your mental states, you can speed up the transition by thinking of new mental states that might work for you such as this one:

They are killing my family->fear->fighting to save my family

This mental state will help you move your attention from the fear of dying to the fear for the safety of your family. It also changes to the much more powerful and beneficial activity of fighting.

If you become skilled at consciously inventing, evaluating, and changing your mental states, try experimenting with more powerful emotions. The examples below may work for you.

Obey or die->anger->fighting to live free
Obey or die->interested->learning about the enemy and their weaknesses
Obey or die->interested->learning to convert enemy soldiers into your army

After all these suggestions, you may still find yourself frozen in fear if the future looks very dark.

So, what do you do?

What to do when the future looks grim

In times of great danger, when evil has the upper hand, it is almost impossible to muster a positive and constructive state of mind about taking action against your enemies.

Yoda has an explanation for that:

“Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.”
“The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the light, the future is.”

If you can’t feel confident about your future, your fears may continue to cripple your ability to take action. In that case, you must use the following method.

Shift your focus to short-term goals that make progress toward your long-term goal. Choose short-term goals you can understand, predict, control, and achieve.

Quickly finish a string of small projects to build momentum and a positive mental state.

By focusing your mind on tasks you can achieve, you can break the stranglehold of fear and speed up your progress toward long-term goals.

But don’t forget, you are up against opponents that are experts at these mind games.

You need one last bit of knowledge.

How fast can you respond?

Your battle with evil may become similar to a fight with lightsabers. It can be a fast and furious exchange of physical and mental attacks. Many attacks will be unexpected, catching you off-guard. You must not only analyze and repel each attack, but instantly design and deliver a counterattack.

In your battle, expect your opponent to force negative mental states upon you. He will change them radically to surprise you. To survive such dynamic attacks, you need to analyze your mental state quickly and transition to a more powerful mental state. Then plan and deliver an attack on your enemy. This will require practice.

You must learn to change faster than your opponent. And you have to be more flexible in the mental states you can manage. Plus, know the strengths and weaknesses of each mental state.

This is the beginning of your training.

May you be one with your fear

Your emotions are your source of energy and power.

Practice self-awareness. Be aware of your emotions and thoughts. These are your tools.

Be one with your fear and your fear will help you.

May understanding and wisdom be with you so you can control energy and force.

Are you a failure? Not after you learn about human fallibility

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When you set a goal, a vision for your life or for this year, remember that you will make mistakes.

After all, you and I are fallible human beings.

This is a good thing, a really good thing.

Being fallible and embracing your fallibility is what makes you human. It also makes you real and lovable.

Yet many people fear it, dread it, run from it, pretend that it is not so, and use all sorts of defense mechanisms in an attempt to escape it. If we ask, “Where do all of these responses come from?” The answer is obvious — from misunderstandings about fallibility. That then leads us to another question, “What do we misunderstand about fallibility?”

First, there is the misunderstanding that being fallible means being deficient as a human being. Now it is certainly true that we all experience the feelings of deficiency about all sorts of things. After all, we are not sufficient to do everything or to be everything. If we are measuring ourselves by others, especially by those who are skilled or competent in a given area, then of course we will feel deficient.

But deficiency in a given area is not the same thing as being deficient as a human being. All humans are deficient in numerous things. It’s inevitable and okay. What’s not okay is to assume perfection or think that it is possible.

Second is the misunderstanding that confuses fallibility with negative emotions. Actually, to be fully alive and fully human is to experience not only the full range of positive emotions. But also the full range of negative emotions.

And negative emotions are good. Without them, we would not have a strong aversion to things that can be dangerous. The so-called “negative” emotions essentially provide us the move-away-from energy within our mind-body system so that when we find that something does not fit our mental model, we are equipped to make a change.

Fallibility, which literally means “liable to error,” is an essential condition of being human. It is essential in that it is a built in condition for being free, for thinking, for problem-solving, for learning, for growing, etc.

If we were not “liable to error” we would be completely determined and have no choice, not even the choice to make a mistake. Because our lives are not determined, we have room or space within our minds and actions to make other choices. And to have that freedom means to be free to make mistakes. This is our glory.

Are you wondering, “How can making mistakes be a glorious thing?” The glory is that we can learn. We can test something, see what works and what doesn’t and constantly learn better. This is the foundation of science. It is the basis for the ongoing development of the human race.

Third is the misunderstanding that mistakes stop us. Not true. A mistake can cause you to pause. To take the time to learn from your mistakes. After you learn, you can make faster progress. The only thing that can stop you is an inability to learn.

Yet how much parenting and schooling conditions us to fear mistakes? It seems endemic in nearly every family and in every culture.

Forth is the misunderstanding that all mistakes are the same. There are all sorts of mistakes. They range on a continuum from minor inconsequential mistakes to fatal mistakes. There are also mistakes in all domains. Mistakes of mind, speech, actions, relationships, etc.

With mistakes, we can also ask about the intentional state of mind of the person who made the mistake. Was it an accident, or was it intentional? Was the person just clumsy and awkward in handling something? Were there other factors involved (weather, health, relationships, pressure, etc.)? Was the mistake a result of a plan to harm someone or destroy something?

These distinctions give you critically important questions to ask when you or someone else makes a mistake.

What is the mistake? How is that considered a mistake?
How big or small is the mistake? What are the potential consequences of the mistake?
In what domain is the mistake?
Who made the mistake? How knowledgeable and/or skill is that person in that domain?
Was the mistake an accident or intentional or some mixture of the two?
What is needed to correct the mistake? How long will that take?
How much effort will be required to correct the mistake?

Five is the misunderstanding that people make mistakes because they are bad and the only solution is to punish them. This is the biggest misunderstanding and the one that does the most damage. People make mistakes because they are fallible. Some more than others. But we know that mistakes result from not understanding. Therefore, the most helpful solution is for people to learn.

When we engage in “trial and error learning,” we are using mistakes to learn. Sometimes this is the best way to learn. You try something, see what happens, reflect on what to do, or what else one can do, and try it again. A big mistake that has lots of negative consequences needs to be recognized as soon as possible, and the person needs to make things right as quickly as possible. That’s about responsibility and ownership.

Six is the misunderstanding that you must first test your ideas in the physical world. Experiments can be performed in your mind. Einstein used thought experiments to help achieve enormous advances. Since mistakes are caused by misunderstandings which only exist in the mind, thought experiments are powerful tools for learning how to think correctly. They also have the benefit of avoiding costly mistakes. For more information about thinking correctly, you can read my book, “ Executive Thinking, Activating Your Highest Executive Thinking Potentials .”

Mistakes are an inescapable fact of life and require your complete understanding. That’s especially true if you are a parent. Children are naturally fearless and must be taught which mistakes are okay and which to avoid.

Perfectionism is the myth, the fallacy, the lie, and the goal that will defeat you in the long run.

If you are a manager, you can enable your people to own mistakes quickly and responsibly.

Your goal is the create the optimum conditions for learning and growing.

How to go beyond meditation and mindfulness to protect your sanity

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You are constantly running across psychological land mines that are almost impossible to detect and disarm.

Just consider how many people lose their wealth, mind, or life to scams involving relationships, investments, medicines, and politics.

In our modern world, meditation and mindfulness are not enough to maintain your sanity against advanced and vicious psychological attacks.

People limit themselves to meditation because they don’t know what else to do.

Then, even their mindfulness skills are at risk if they don’t extend their abilities.

To progress beyond meditation, read the explanation below of what meditation does, and what it cannot do.

But most importantly, you need to understand the mental upgrades beyond mindfulness.

The superficial benefits of meditation

If you meditate, you will notice the following symptoms of your altered mind.

There will be a significant reduction in the number of random ideas that pop into your awareness. They call this quieting of the mind.

With fewer thoughts, your mind will be calmer and more relaxed.

A calm mind can focus on the subject of its choosing. This increases awareness and concentration.

Then you can perceive and understand your world with greater accuracy.

The result is, you can make better decisions.

If you are not getting these results, or you are a beginner, I recommend reading, "10 Bad and Good Meditation Secrets You Need to Know to help you achieve greater mindfulness."

Now, let’s look at the deeper mental changes provided by meditation.

The deep mental changes

Meditation develops skills for watching your thoughts and emotions.

You become familiar with what your mind does. You learn to let go of ideas and emotions.

Your beliefs about your mind get turned upside down.

You no longer believe your thoughts are you. You now live outside and separate from your thoughts.

You manipulate your ideas as easily as you move physical objects.

Now you observe, analyze, and change thoughts at will. This article explains how to meditate and achieve these skills, "A revolutionary meditation guide: Match techniques to your abilities."

These abilities change people’s lives so drastically that they try to extend meditation to get more benefits.

The limitations of meditation

People often have so much success with meditation, they try to add mental activities to get more benefits.

The problem is, these added mental activities do not help. Instead, they prevent a person from quieting their mind.

Meditation is perfect for developing skills for calmly watching your thoughts and emotions.

That is where meditation takes you and where it ends.

Do you know what is missing?

What meditation doesn’t do

After meditation gives you better control over your thoughts, then what do you do?

Well, you could decide to simply not think. That might work if you lived thousands of years in the past.

But, in our modern world, thinking is absolutely necessary.

You must execute complex procedures, make detailed plans, and when your plans go awry, invent some way to fix it.

You need to be an expert thinker.

Otherwise, you will make big mistakes and cause a lot of damage.

But meditation is a passive activity of watching your mind and letting go of your thoughts and emotions.

Meditation doesn’t teach you how to be an expert thinker.

Mindfulness is necessary but not sufficient for handling our modern mental challenges.

Going beyond mindfulness

Now that you understand the limitations of meditation and mindfulness, you can take the next step.

The next step is to learn how to improve your thinking processes.

The first thing you need to know is the difference between subconscious thinking and conscious thinking. If you don’t understand that difference, you won’t get very far because they are quite different and you have to work with them differently.

You can recognize subconscious thinking as thoughts you don’t control. These thoughts pop into your consciousness without you inviting them. They come with emotions and physical reactions that you cannot stop.

You are the unwilling victim of subconscious thinking. The reason you can’t control these thoughts is they come from instincts and conditioned behaviors programmed deep in your subconscious mind.

The majority of psychological attacks work on your subconscious thinking because they are normally beyond your control.

Once you learn to recognize these rogue thoughts, you can learn to control them with your conscious mind. But first, you must understand what conscious thinking is.

A conscious thought is a thought you control completely. You choose, when it appears in your consciousness and you choose when it goes. You also choose the connected emotions, physical reactions, and mental reactions.

Once you learn to recognize which thoughts are subconscious and which are conscious, you can use your conscious mind to isolate a single subconscious thought. Then you can use all the intelligence of your conscious mind to analyze it and figure out how to correct its emotions and reactions.

For more details about how humans think and how to improve your thinking, I recommend the article, "Why you are making big mistakes and how to fix it."

Take control of your sanity

Now you know that meditation and mindfulness give you the ability to watch your thoughts and calmly let them come and go.

Now you know how to recognize which thoughts are subconscious and which are conscious.

Now you know that you can isolate a subconscious thought and correct it by using your conscious mind.

These are the tools you need to handle the modern psychological attacks on your sanity.

Now you can live a saner and happier life.

Why you are making big mistakes and how to fix it

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Do you believe you are intelligent?

Do you believe gurus or Gods have blessed you and humanity with wisdom?

These delusions blind you to why you are making big mistakes.

Look at the mess people make of our world. Think of all the problems each person has. What could be the cause?

Ignorance!

It certainly isn’t our intelligence causing all these problems. Nor has our wisdom or enlightenment made any difference.

Ignorance has far greater control over our lives than you know.

All the benefits of human intelligence are nullified, or worse, perverted into apocalyptic technologies.

Why is ignorance so powerful?

It is invisible. You can’t see what is not there. You can’t look for a thing you don’t know. You can’t study and understand what does not exist.

Still, like a phantom, it is ruining your life.

Stop hiding in your delusions, blaming and excuses. Face your ignorance.

This article reveals the nature of human ignorance. It explains ignorance in simple terms. Shows how it cripples people, and how it blinds and imprisons the entire human race.

You will even learn how ignorance — feels.

But most importantly, you will learn how to go from ignorance to competence on any subject.

Let’s get started.

How to detect your level of ignorance

You need a quick way to identify how ignorant you are about a subject. Each numbered section below describes a different level of ignorance.

The deepest level of ignorance is explained first, followed by increasing levels of competence. Your level of ignorance about a subject will match one of these descriptions.

The number preceding each level is its estimated relative usefulness. The higher the number, the more useful.

Once you understand all the levels, you will know how to move from total ignorance to competence.

0.0 Unconscious responses. What they are and why they can be your worst nightmare.

We are all born with zero conscious mental abilities

At birth, the human brain is still developing. A baby cannot use words to think or be self-aware.

All learning is subconscious. Subconscious learning is how animals learn.

Ivan Pavlov discovered that if you always ring a bell just before feeding dogs, they would subconsciously associate the ringing of the bell with eating. Then, every time he rang the bell the dogs would begin salivating. This learning is called behavioral conditioning.

Conditioned behaviors are subconscious and robotic. This is the primary way children learn.

Even as an adult, you are learning new conditioned behaviors.

These conditioned behaviors control your actions and thoughts several times a day.

But you don’t know when your responses are robotic unless you know how it feels.

How do unconscious responses feel?

Conditioned behaviors are subconscious. They just happen to you, as outlined below.

You have no control over the what, when, how and why of your subconscious thinking.
- What: Your subconscious mind is programmed with robotic responses. You don’t choose the trigger or the behavior and you cannot change them. In your subconscious mind, the reward-trigger-behavior is inseparable.
- When: When you experience a trigger, you robotically respond with a conditioned behavior. You believe you chose your actions. You may invent excuses for your actions.
- How: Rewarding a behavior will program it into your subconscious mind as a preferred action. The reward often comes from some other person.
- Why: You don’t have a logical reason, purpose or goal for learning conditioned behaviors. Your subconscious mind doesn’t think that way. If there is a reason, it comes from another person.
Qualities you cannot control.
- You cannot change any emotions or feelings generated by a conditioned behavior.
- You cannot change automatic thoughts triggered by a conditioned behavior.
- You cannot remember creating a conditioned behavior.
- You cannot talk to other people about logical reasons for a conditioned behavior. But you will probably give a lot of illogical excuses.

Since you lack awareness of subconscious responses, your primary clue is how they feel.

As an example, consider how a primitive person feels when they see a photograph for the first time. They feel emotions and urges to smile and talk with the person in the photograph. The photo triggers these and other social conditioned behaviors because it looks exactly like a person.

Primitive people often think a photo has a soul because they cannot change how they think about something that looks like a person.

The primitive person senses the photo is not a real person, but they are stupefied by multiple problems simultaneously attacking their conscious mind from different directions.

They cannot stop their inappropriate robotic reactions and emotions. They don’t know what a photo is. They cannot figure out the correct response. Plus, they have feelings of confusion and mental conflict. But they are ignorant about these mental sensations and don’t know how to handle them. So, they ignore their feelings or invent silly stories to feel better.

Then they keep doing the same thing over and over because it is the only response they know.

Modern people suffer from similar confusions and stresses if they don’t understand how to detect and correct their conditioned behaviors.

But there are even bigger problems as explained next.

The problems of unconscious thinking

The unconscious mind has very few thinking tools. So conditioned behaviors are really dumb.

If you do not know how subconscious responses feel, you cannot detect them and apply the enormous intelligence of the conscious mind to manage conditioned behaviors.

Plus, you can’t logically talk with other people about improving your subconscious behaviors.

You are stuck with simple, non-optimum reactions. You are trapped in a robotic mind.

In our modern complex world, robotic reactions can harm you and other people can use them to control you.

But it can get much worse.

Robotic emotions, thoughts, and reactions seem to come out of nowhere. These robotic events may feel as real as any physical world phenomenon. Or even more real.

When thoughts become this real and independent, the thoughts control the person instead of the person controlling the thoughts. Then, thoughts take on a frightening personality all their own.

The fear of unstoppable thoughts can cause unbearable stress, panic attacks, or even force a person to do self-destructive things.

Once you understand conditioned behaviors, you can use conscious thinking to detect, analyze, and correct these robotic responses.

1.0 Monism. Why Monism is the lowest level of conscious thinking.

What is conscious thinking?

You are a stream of tangled conscious and subconscious thoughts. In this confusion of thoughts, your conditioned behaviors go undetected. Then, when these robotic thoughts cause problems, you have no idea why things went wrong.

Identifying and correcting your subconscious thoughts is not an easy task.

You need some guidelines to help you separate the unconscious from the conscious thoughts.

Being conscious of your thoughts is only passive awareness.

Conscious thinking is not passive. It is consciously controlling your thoughts.

This is a detailed list of how to know a thought is conscious.

You choose the what, when, how, and why of your thoughts
- What: You consciously choose the topics of your thoughts.
- When: You control when to think about a topic. You can schedule it for now or later.
- How: You choose the thinking processes you apply to your thoughts. You could use critical analysis, imagination, logic, semantics, humor, or other methods of thinking.
- Why: You think a thought for a reason or purpose. Otherwise, you don’t create the thought and it does not appear in your mind.
You control the qualities of your thought
- You can change the meaning of the thought. You can add or remove related subjects and alter their relationships.
- You can change your responses associated with the thought. Your chosen responses may be mental and/or physical.
- You can change your emotions, feelings, values, and other qualities attached to the thought.
You can show other people how you control your thinking.
- You can remember creating and changing the thought. You can tell people how you controlled the thought.
- You can realistically discuss aspects of the thought and how to improve it.
- You can change the qualities of your thought and any connected behaviors right in front of people.

If you have difficulty catching a thought, holding it, and measuring its level of consciousness, you can use meditation to build up your mental skills. I recommend you read "A revolutionary meditation guide: Match techniques to your abilities," or other articles in the MEDITATION section to help you.

Anytime you discover a thought that is not conscious, use the tools of your conscious mind to control and improve it.

Your conscious mind uses symbolic thinking.

What is symbolic thinking?

One of the simplest types of conscious thinking is to associate a thing with a symbol.

For example, the word “chair” is a symbol for a thing you sit on. You can’t sit on this word. But the word triggers a mental response that informs you about chairs.

Sounds, fragrances, and visual images can also be symbols. The sound of a siren means danger and will cause you to be alert.

Notice that these symbols are very similar to associating the ringing of a bell with eating food.

But when you have conscious control over the meaning and responses connected with the symbol, that is conscious thinking.

Symbolic thinking ranges from simple to infinitely complex.

Monism is the simplest.

What is Monism?

Monism is consciously associating a single symbol with everything.

Here are some popular Monism ideas.

All things are physical. Mental and spiritual phenomena are physical phenomena and science will eventually explain everything in terms of physical processes.
All things are mental. Physical and spiritual phenomena are mental phenomena and everything will eventually be explained in terms of mental activities.
All things are spiritual. Physical and mental phenomena are spiritual phenomena and everything will eventually be explained in terms of spiritual activities.

People endlessly discuss these topics and often change their decisions, definitions, and methods of analysis. Notice that these discussions require considerable conscious control over mental activities.

You probably think these philosophies are silly. Yet, you use this simplistic thinking every day, as you will see next.

You are a Monist. Really! You can’t help it.

Creating a single inclusive classification is what everybody does when they encounter something new.

Imagine going to your first meeting with the local book club. The meeting is short and you get only the names of the members. In your mind, you have no choice but to classify all of these people as “Book club members”.

Everyone goes into that one class. You can’t create subclasses or individual descriptions until you spend more time with them and have more information.

After you learn more, you put people into subclasses. Some may be Romanticists or Realists. You could also put them into other types of classes such as teachers, clerks, or bus drivers.

But, anytime you experience new things, you automatically put them all into one class.

You are a Monist.

Putting everything into one class is fine as long as it works.

But when a simple class stops working, do you recognize your problem?

How does Monism feel?

If you believe most things are the same and belong in the same class, it will force you into some very sick conclusions which cause some very sick feelings.

Here are some frequently occurring Monism ways of thinking.

All men are the same. If you ever have a bad experience with a man, then you know that all men are just as bad. All men act in the same bad manner, and you should handle them in the same way.
Humans are born, eat, sleep, have sex and eventually die just like animals. Humans are the same as animals, and you should treat them like animals.
The human body and brain are composed of moving objects. All moving objects obey the scientific laws of mechanical motion. Therefore, humans are the same as any other mechanical object. Humans are machines and should be treated like machines.

Monism and oversimplified classes compress everything down to the lowest possible similar condition. You feel severely limited in who you are and what you can do. This is very depressing. That is how Monism feels.

Now, let’s look at additional problems of Monism.

The problems with Monism

The top-class definition is always misleading

Monism is a stubborn insistence that all things are the same and belong in a single class. Also, the class definition is the most important information you can know about the members of the class.

But this contradicts the entire history of science, our most successful field of study. Science endlessly corrects top-class definitions after discovering new facts about the members of the class.

As an example, Chemistry began centuries ago with the concept that all things are composed of four basic elements: earth, water, air, and fire.

After discovering real elements, they redefined “element” to mean substances which could not be divided or decomposed into simpler materials.

New discoveries forced chemistry to change the definition again. Now an element is a substance that cannot be divided into other substances by chemical reactions. They found that elements decompose and combine to make other elements by nuclear reactions but not chemical reactions.

Chemistry has become an enormously valuable body of knowledge. For each element, we have thousands of processes for producing useful products.

Now, the definition of “element” is shallow compared to the vast knowledge in the subclasses.

Here are some conclusions we can draw from the history of Chemistry.

After the first contact with a subject, everything is placed into a single, simple class definition.
The discovery of new data causes the definition of many subclasses. The subclass structure becomes very wide and deep.
The subclass members dictate the continuous correction of the top-class definition.
The top-class definition is usually a shallow, one-sentence description of little information or value and is often misleading.
The only value of the top-class name and definition is as a reference to the entire subclass structure.

The problems of Monism don’t end here.

Monism implies there is a single response to everything

Monism considers a class to be one monolithic entity. There are no individuals within the class. All class members are the same. Therefore, each member must be treated the same.

This is the exact opposite of science.

Science identifies individuals in a class. For example, Hydrogen is an element within the class of elements. Within the class of hydrogen, there are three naturally occurring isotopes plus four isotopes produced in laboratories. The hydrogen isotope with one neutron can occur as a single atom, a plasma or a molecule of two atoms. Each hydrogen atom in the universe can have its electron at one of many energy levels. The characteristics of individual Hydrogen atoms go on and on.

Science is successful because it can identify unique individuals far down in the subclass structure. Then, science provides multiple processes that work only with that unique individual to produce valuable products.

Now, find out why Monism creates the opposite of knowledge.

Monism prevents freedom of thought.

Monism is a stubborn focus on the top-class definition. There is no way that a class definition can sufficiently describe all the members of a class. So, a top-class definition obscures the valuable unique qualities of each member.

To deny this uniqueness is not only ignorance but an attack on your freedom of thought.

It stops you from looking for and understanding differences. That prevents you from discovering new ways to respond and control your world.

Now, let’s look at the psychological problems.

Monism causes psychological problems

Monism focuses on how things are the same and ignores differences.

Over two thousand years ago, Buddha tried to cure people of thinking things are the same. He called it identifying.

Buddha said that if a person identifies with a class such as the class of man or woman, they will suffer.

For example, if Bob identifies with being a man, he then feels obligated to comply with the class definition of men being courageous, powerful, and successful. These ideals demand perfection and cause a lot of stress.

There could also be negative biases such as men are brutish. If Bob accepts this belief, he would become a brute.

Bob can also inherit problems. He will feel guilty about the brutishness of other men, even if he is not a brute.

Another type of problem is Bob will make serious errors if he treats all men the same.

Alfred Korzybski, in his 1933 book, “Science and Sanity”, explains the error of sameness.

Identity is defined as ‘absolute sameness in all respects’, and it is this ‘all’ which makes identity impossible. If we eliminate this ‘all’ from the definition, then the word ‘absolute’ loses its meaning, we have ‘sameness in some respects’, but we have no ‘identity’, and only ‘similarity’, ’equivalence’, ’equality’, etc. If we consider that all we deal with represents constantly changing sub-microscopic, interrelated processes which are not; and cannot be ‘identical with themselves’, the old dictum that ’everything is identical with itself’ becomes in 1933 a principle invariably false to facts (2, page xcvi).

Modern psychologists call identification a cognitive distortion. Cognitive distortion means a distorted mental view of the world.

Stuffing everything into one class and ignoring the vast differences always distorts reality.

All these difficulties have driven many people to the next level of ignorance called Dualism.

2.0 Dualism forces everything into two classes, causing some very destructive problems

Dualism is the belief that there are only two types of things

The most famous Dualistic theory is all things can be classified as physical or non-physical. All objects, including human bodies and brains, are considered physical. The non-physical things are mental activities and/or the spirit world.

Dualism started a heated argument with Monists who believe everything is of one type. Some Monist believe the mind is a machine and the soul does not exist. Even today, many leading philosophers and physical scientists endlessly argue which is correct, Monism or Dualism.

The first thing to notice about Dualism is that it is a conscious mental activity. People must make multiple conscious choices about meanings. They also discuss their reasoning and often change some of their beliefs.

The second thing is Dualism is symbolic thinking, just like Monism. Dualism puts things into two classes and represents those classes with words (symbols). The word “physical” is a symbol for one group and “mental” is the symbol for the second group.

Now let’s see why people use Dualism.

Yes, you are also a Dualist

Just like Monism, you can’t avoid being a Dualist. It’s a natural progression. You start at zero knowledge about a subject. When you make first contact with a subject, you stuff everything into a single class (Monism). When you learn a little more about the subject, you realize there are some important differences. Not everything fits nicely into one class. So, you split everything into two classes.

There you are. You are a Dualist.

Since Dualism is a natural progression, it creeps into all of your thinking. You just don’t realize it.

Unless you know how it feels.

How does Dualism feel?

When Dualism is your way of perceiving the world, you only see opposites.

So how do you feel when you must choose between two extremes? Find out by asking yourself the following questions.

Are you a good person or a bad person?
Are you a success or a failure?
Are you with me or against me?

If those questions don’t make you feel uneasy, then how about these?

Are you angelic or evil?
Are you a multi-billionaire or a loser?
Are you a genius or an idiot?
Are you a servant to our republic or are you a traitor?
Do you still beat your children? Answer with a yes or no.

Notice that these either/or questions force you to have a distorted and sometimes sick point of view.

You deal with either/or questions all the time because people crave the simplicity of Dualism when stressed or overwhelmed by unfamiliar subjects.

But these distorted realities cause multiple mental and social problems.

The problems with Dualism

Dualism creates two opposing extremes

In some ways, Dualism is worse than Monism. When you must divide everything into two groups, you automatically feel that the groups oppose each other. Then, competition and conflict seem natural and necessary. The following attitudes just pop into your mind.

Us against them
You are either with us or against us
We win, and they lose

These situations are false dilemmas because they falsely claim there are only two choices and both are harmful. There are other choices but the either/or blinders hide alternatives.

Here are some additional mental attitudes that cause false dilemmas.

True or false
Yes or no
Good or bad
Black or white

Notice that the above mental concepts are opposites and extremes.

They are classifications. For example, people often classify things as either bad or good. Once a thing is classified as bad, people consider it all bad. This “all bad” viewpoint is extreme and usually not true.

The class name and definition is like an adjective that describes all the class members.

Psychology has another way of describing this problem.

Dualism creates cognitive distortions

A person’s eyes may see perfectly. But if a person’s mental interpretation of what they see contains errors that harm the person, these errors are called cognitive distortions.

When a person perceives things as either type A or type B, psychologists call this polarized thinking or black and white thinking.

To see how distorted these either/or viewpoints are, ask yourself, “Are you a success or failure?”

Within a single day, everyone has many successes and failures. During several years or over your entire life, you will have countless successes and failures. And your past does not completely determine your future.

To think your entire past, present and future life is a simple success or failure is an error in your representation of your life.

You can look at a rainbow and say it is red and you would be correct. But, if you believe a rainbow is only red, then you suffer from an extreme cognitive distortion of reality.

But for many people, Dualism is a subconscious, habitual, and natural way of looking at their world. They are ignorant of how they are thinking.

Unchecked Dualism can create uniquely damming and devastating mental conditions.

Now, let’s see how it destroys your abilities.

Dualism limits your responses

Dualism limits you to only two ways of thinking about things. You cannot imagine other possibilities.

Your limited thinking limits your responses.

You may never realize there are other alternatives besides competition and conflicts.

You cannot respond with constructive, unifying activities. Instead, you can only respond with actions that increase competition and hostilities.

But Scientists have broken through the barriers of Monism and Dualism as explained in the next level of ignorance.

100 Scientism. Ignorance about how science works.

Why scientists are extremely successful

Scientists promoted physical experiments to be the primary source of truth. This demoted human beliefs to the bottom because experiments constantly proved human thinking to be wrong. Testing beliefs removed the barriers to progress — the old traditional and sacred concepts.

With total freedom of thought, scientists made big scientific breakthroughs.

But freedom of thought was not the only reason for their success. Constant testing, measuring, and documenting physical reality forced them to use unlimited classes and subclasses to describe all the differences and similarities they discovered.

Their robust class structures described reality with greater detail. This accuracy minimizes cognitive distortions and other errors compared to naïve class structures like Monism and Dualism.

For even greater accuracy, scientists used infinite valued equations to model relationships. An example is force = (mass) x (acceleration). This equation gives the force required for any value of mass and acceleration. Infinite valued equations describe reality to any desired accuracy, further reducing distortions in their symbolic representations.

Scientists use their extremely accurate models to identify unique situations and respond with precise actions.

Now, scientists have an enormous library of processes that produce predictable, consistent, powerful, and valuable results.

But these successes have made some scientists overconfident.

Scientism claims physical sciences will eventually solve all problems

Scientism is the belief that based on past achievements, science will eventually solve all mysteries and eliminate all problems. This is the promise of Scientism. You must have faith — according to Scientism.

Some scientists and philosophers go even further. They claim physical laws will explain all phenomena. That includes all mental, social and all other phenomena.

Some extremists claim you can ignore most of the laws of the physical sciences and explain everything using only the basic laws of mechanics. Everything is reducible to the physical laws of colliding billiard balls (Determinism).

Science enjoyed unlimited experimental hypotheses, unlimited class structures, laws, and equations. But now, Scientism wants to reduce other fields of study to the simple laws of Physics.

Why is Scientism so appealing to some people?

Yes, you suffer from Scientism

You may not be a scientist, but you probably believe you have access to great knowledge. If not from science, then from your teachers, traditions, religion, or just because you are so smart. Overestimating your intelligence is a common cognitive distortion.

Most people need this false confidence to face their frightening challenges.

But the primary reason people have false confidence is that they don’t know what they don’t know. Yes, it’s the hidden problem — the unknown unknowns.

Lucky for you, the following information will help you detect this false confidence.

How does Scientism feel?

You may have had many successes. You may have proven yourself as a fast learner and a high achiever. But then you try to be productive in an unfamiliar field, and you can’t seem to do anything right.

Most people just ignore their failures and continue doing the same thing while expecting a different result.

This is the same way a primitive person handles their first exposure to photographs. A photo of a person looks just like a person, so they have to treat the photo like a person. They just don’t know what else to do. Even worse, they don’t know that they don’t know. They feel stress and anxiety, but they even ignore their feelings because they don’t know how to handle their feelings.

Modern people can be conscious of their failures but blame others instead of admitting they have an insufficient understanding of the situation.

They may be aware of their stress and anxiety, but consciously choose to reduce these emotions with distractions or meditation. But managing symptoms does not solve the problem.

Scientism stops people from finding new solutions for the following reasons.

The problems with Scientism

People use the word ‘Scientism’ when they criticize naïve attempts to extend the success of science into other fields of knowledge such as Psychology and Sociology. But everybody makes similar errors when they don’t understand their past successes. Therefore, you can learn by understanding the errors of Scientism.

Scientism claims the methods of science are the only path to understanding.

What are the methods of science? Some methods scientists have used are guessing, lucid dreaming, and often trial and error. The wide variety shows there are no consistent methods of science other than to do whatever it takes to make their models of reality more accurate.

For Scientism to limit methods to what they call scientific methods is not helpful for science or any other field of study. They should encourage new methods.

For example, performing experiments on humans usually requires double-blind tests, statistical methods and finesse to control psychological factors. Otherwise, test results may be distorted.

Scientism prevents discovery in other ways as described next

Scientism claims that all other fields of knowledge are reducible to the laws of Physics

Scientism assumes that science is coherent with all of reality and all fields of knowledge. Therefore, all fields of study should be reducible to Physics. But Physics is not even coherent with itself. There are many contradictions between Einstein’s Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. There are even several paradoxes within Quantum Mechanics. Therefore, Physics is not coherent within itself.

Furthermore, Einstein’s Relativity and Quantum Mechanics have different laws about different environments that entertain different phenomena. Their laws are not redundant, they are complimentary. And you certainly cannot reduce Einstein’s Relativity to Quantum Mechanics or the reverse.

Reducibility does not apply to human thought and social interaction. For example, teamwork requires constructive exchanges, mutual understanding, mutual trust, and agreements to name a few. These processes are at a much higher complexity level and they require social causation laws that cannot be reduced to simple laws of Physics.

Another missing fact is that causation goes in all directions. From big to small and small to big. From complex to simple and simple to complex. The nature of the small and simple does not cause all the properties of the large and complex.

For example, only supernovas or collisions of neutron stars can produce uranium atoms. These extremely massive and high energy stellar events require specialized laws to describe these unique phenomena.

Old beliefs are not sacred. There is always room for new laws, classifications, and even new fields of study.

And the world is changing faster than science.

Scientism is unaware of the paradigm shift away from the physical sciences

The advancement of the physical sciences is now more dependent than ever on social organizations. The physical sciences are maturing. New discoveries are usually very difficult.

Now, forward progress often requires the cooperation of thousands of people and the contribution of billions of dollars. An example is the resources required to build and use large subatomic particle colliders for research. The difficulties have become so great that there is a long-running discussion on whether we have reached the end of Physics and possibly science.

There is even a shift away from physical reality. With thousands of people and billions of dollars we landed men on the moon and brought them back safely. Humans now change physical reality to what they desire.

Causality is always a compromise between many causes.

Now science and even physical reality depend on people’s psychological and social whims.

To save science, we must understand how to extend the successes of science into Psychology and Sociology.

Scientism is ignorant of symbolic representations

Scientism claims to be the owner of truth and reality. But, in all of science, there are no truths or realities, only naïve and inaccurate symbolic representations.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Scientists are constantly proving their theories to be wrong.

Scientists will continue to increase the accuracy of their models. But the universe is infinitely complex and evolving. They will always be slow followers.

Even worse, scientists ignore the foundation of their success — symbolic representation.

They do not research, validate, formalize, apply, or teach the principles of symbolic representation.

Their misuse of symbolic representations continues to be beyond their consciousness.

1,000 Conscious use of symbolic thinking

The success of science proves accurate models are powerful and useful.

But for science to progress and spread into other fields, everyone involved must know when they are using symbolic representations and how to use them.

How to know you are using symbols

Words are symbols for other things.

Other common symbols are math symbols, street signs, and warning sirens.

Words are the most used and most powerful symbols. Also, most symbols follow the same rules. Therefore, I will explain only word type symbols.

Anytime you hear, see, say, or think words, you are using symbols.

It’s that simple.

How does the conscious use of symbols feel?

When you know you are using words to create more accurate models of reality, you consciously applying mental tools to your symbolic thinking. You are conscious of every decision you make and why you make them. Your progress is smoother and more enjoyable.

Problems will pop up.

But after reading this section, you will have many more tools for handling problems.

You will have less negative emotions. Plus, you can track these feelings back to their cause and work on the models causing the mental stress. Mental stress comes from a disagreement between your map of reality and the real-world.

Now you need to know the problems of using symbols.

The problems with symbolic representations

Symbolic representations are completely disconnected from reality

Symbols create sentences like the following.

“The blue chair is soft.”

In the previous sentence, the color of the word “blue”, is actually red. You can’t sit on the word “chair”, and the word “soft” does not feel soft when you touch it.

These symbols don’t resemble their meanings.

Words rarely resemble real-world things. That is why other languages can use other words to refer to a chair.

So, we associate words with meanings by mental processes.

Whenever you perceive a symbol, your mind automatically gives you the meaning of that symbol.

But your imaginary blueness, softness, and chairness differ from the actual things. The only way for you to find that chair is to constantly correct your mental images of chairs with your perception of real chairs.

Note that you perceive chairs differently than other people. Also, your interpretation of sentences is unique to you. Plus, your method of comparing sentence meanings to perceived things is different. These processes are in your head and only in your head.

Where else could these processes be?

To bridge this disconnect between mind and world, you must constantly use your symbolic representations to make predictions and check them for correctness. If you discover an error, hopefully you correct your mental processes.

Additional errors can be caused by the inaccuracy of words.

Words are not designed for accuracy

Words have vague meanings.

For instance, if I say “The chairs,” I could be referring to any number of chairs on Earth. Since there are almost eight billion people on the planet, there are probably over eight billion chairs. Therefore, my reference to chairs is not very useful since it does not specify which chairs.

Like most words, “chair” is a general reference. This makes words flexible. I could say, “Stack up all the chairs in the room”, and I would not have to specify each chair. Or, I could say, “Please sit on the blue chair.” If there was only one blue chair, you would understand.

Generalized words are great until you have to explain something complex like describing all the components of a chair. Then words are inefficient.

To increase the accuracy of your statements, you must add more and more words.

But no matter how many words you use, your statements will never be exact.

Why symbols cannot exactly describe reality

To expose the limitations of words, let’s try describing a specific blue chair.

Just imagine the words required to describe all the chair’s components. Each component has a location, orientation, color, shape, physical properties, chemical composition, and small imperfections.

Now try to describe the details of every atom of the chair. Then try to describe details about each subatomic particle. Then, describe how all those particles are interacting with every other particle in the universe.

Obviously, a simple chair cannot be described exactly.

Below is a list of the reasons exact descriptions are impossible.

The vastness and complexity of the real world approaches infinity
Describing the details of reality with words is impractical for humans to generate.
The Universe is changing faster than any human can comprehend. Describing reality as it changes is even further beyond the abilities of humanity.
As humans describe reality, they also increase their ability to change the future, making the future more unpredictable. Descriptions immediately become outdated.
Even if you had a detailed description of reality, it would be too much for any human to read or comprehend.

These facts explain why humans suffer from gross inaccuracies about reality. Or, in psychological terms, people have cognitive distortions — some more than others.

But there is another reason you create inaccurate models of reality.

Classifications inherently distort descriptions of reality

Classifying is a method of using symbols to think about similar subjects as a group. But these imaginary groupings don’t exist in the real world.

For example, the platypus is an egg-laying mammal that nurses its young but does not have tits. It has a duck’s bill with special electro-location sensors for detecting prey. Plus, it has a beaver-like tail, webbed feet, and its hind feet have a spur that can inject venom into opponents it attacks.

When scientists in Great Britain first received platypus pelts and descriptions in 1798, they thought it was all fake because the platypus disproved their class definitions.

After 200 years of research and playing with classifications, the platypus still defies a tidy definition.

In 2008, gene sequencing of the platypus found that over 80% of the genes are common to mammals. But there also are genes found only in reptiles, while others are unique to birds, amphibians, or fish.

The platypus highlights the unavoidable distortions caused by classifications.

Why unavoidable? Because classes simplify how we think about reality. Classes hide complexity by including oddities that don’t belong in the class or by ignoring their existence.

And why are we always thinking with classes? Let’s face it. You can’t handle the complexity of your world. You have no other choice but to use simplified descriptions of reality.

But there are more problems with classes.

Class definitions are vague summaries

Classifications are a way of organizing your thoughts.

Classes function like an alphabetized dictionary. Organizing words alphabetically does not provide any information about the meaning of words. It only helps you find a word and its meaning.

Another benefit of classes is the class structures can sometimes appear similar to structures your mind sees when looking at reality. Your subconscious mind automatically recognizes patterns and imagines structures so you can quickly recognize objects.

People like to make class structures match the way their mind automatically structures information. Examples are the Chemistry Periodic Table and company organization charts. Mental structures makes thinking about reality easier.

But the benefits come with a cost. Class definitions are usually single sentence descriptions of the members. If you use only the summary in your thinking, you lose any details about the unique class members.

You could make harmful mistakes.

Classes appear everywhere in your thinking. You use classes so often that you are unconscious of all the ways they distort your thinking.

But, if you consciously use classes and avoid the pitfalls, you can maximize the benefits and minimize the errors.

People often put too much faith in the meaning of words

People often talk about what is real and what is true. This careless use of terms makes people believe they are talking about truth and reality. This is a misunderstanding of symbols.

Remember, no matter how verbose your description of a chair, your description is not accurate. Your thinking is never the same as reality.

Furthermore, all your thinking exists in your head and nowhere else. You must continuously produce the mental meaning in your mind or it goes — poof!

Gone forever and without a trace. You can construct a similar mental meaning, but it is never exactly the same.

So, how do you solve these problems?

Take complete control of symbols as tools.

Using symbols to create classes and other models of reality is a necessary but imperfect solution.

It’s like riding a bicycle. You must constantly check and correct your balance, steering, peddling force and progress toward your chosen goal. Otherwise, you will crash and burn.

When you use symbols, you must consciously balance the complexity and accuracy of your symbolic representations to match the complexity of the problem and available data.

Sometimes the data will limit you to Monism or Dualism. But you can consciously temper your decisions based on your confidence in your classifications. Also, you can decide if you need to pay the cost of increasing the accuracy and complexity of your classes.

Any problem you attempt to handle is probably a moving target. The complexity of the problem may change, or you may just learn something new about the complexity. So balancing your model complexity is a continuous conscious effort.

The goal you are trying to achieve and its value will also be a moving target. You must continuously correct your steering and efforts.

You must monitor how well your mental model is working. Are your predictions adequate? Does your model give you the right tools with enough leverage to get the job done within your limits of time and resources?

Staying in the sweet spot requires consciously applying everything you know about symbolic representations.

Symbolic models of reality are nothing more than tools. The only thing that matters about any tool is how helpful or harmful it is.

Futures

This article explains just the basics of symbolic representation.

I will write future articles on applying symbols to Psychology and Sociology.

An excellent source of additional information can be found in Dr. Michael Hall’s book, “Executive Thinking”.

If you have difficulty managing your emotions and thoughts, you can improve your skills with the article, "A revolutionary meditation guide: Match techniques to your abilities." You can find other helpful articles in our MEDITATION section.

Escape from your ignorance

Now you have a definition of ignorance. You can easily detect when you are ignorant, even when there is nothing to see.

Now you know how ignorance feels. You can track these feelings back to the problem.

Now you know symbolic representations will always have missing data and distortions of reality.

Now you know you can increase the accuracy and usefulness of models by increasing the details of your descriptions.

With this roadmap, you can navigate from any level of ignorance to competence.

Plus, you can continually correct and optimize your mental representations of reality.

You will not repeat big mistakes. With more accurate and powerful models of the world, you will be more successful.

Now, let’s put this knowledge about symbolic representation to work!

References and Notes

Writing of this article would not be possible without the study of the following publications and others from these authors.

1. HALL, L. MICHAEL. (2018). EXECUTIVE THINKING: Activating Your Highest Executive Thinking Potentials. Clifton, Co., Neuro-Semantic Publications.

2. Korzybski, Alfred. (1933). Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristoteliean Systems and General Semantics. 5th ed., Fort Worth, Tx., Institute of General Semantics, 1994.

A revolutionary meditation guide: Match techniques to your abilities

Sat, 17 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

You worry about the well-being of your family, friends, and country. You feel enormous stress about how to protect and care for them in this increasingly dangerous and deadly world.

Unfortunately, you are struggling just to make it through the day.

You want to improve your mental condition, abilities, and your productivity. But how?

This article explains how meditation techniques can speed up or slow your mental growth. Each technique works best for certain mental abilities and condition but could be harmful for others.

Choose the best technique for you. Fine-tune it to fit your abilities. Then apply what you learned about how techniques work to quicken your improvement.

Let’s begin.

What is holding you back?

Your success or failure at everything you do depends on how well you manage your mind.

But, you probably have little education or training on using your thinking processes.

Your thoughts and actions are often beyond your control and driven by subconscious commands hidden deep within your mind.

You need help.

Meditation techniques can manipulate your mind and create positive mental states, so you can improve everything you do.

To get the best results from meditation, you need to understand how subconscious mechanisms are paralyzing you.

Let’s look at those mental barriers.

The problems with your brain

Your brain is the product of billions of years of natural (haphazard) selection of responses, now programmed into your DNA as subconscious commands called instincts. All humans are born with a truckload of instincts.

Instincts are ancient, automatic and subconscious commands that control your thoughts and actions.

I’m sure these instincts were necessary for survival in some past millennium, in some jungle or more primitive environment. But in our modern complex world, these simple instincts can destroy your life.

Instincts don’t consider all the new and changing conditions in your fast-paced modern world. They don’t use logic or weigh all the opportunities or ramifications. They don’t research or develop intelligent long-term plans.

Instincts are just dumb.

Even worse, instincts are wide-open doors for sociopaths to hack into your mind and control you like a puppet.

I’ll explain this serious vulnerability next.

Psychological attacks build mental prisons

Your modern world floods you with psychological attacks flowing from every TV, computer, and smartphone. Examples of attacks are sexual innuendos, bullying, and phishing probes intended to manipulate and abuse you.

And what are the targets of these attacks? Your instincts. Why not? Everyone knows your instincts and how to push your buttons. Instincts haven’t changed in thousands of years.

People use your instincts to hold you back and prevent your improvement, so they can take advantage of you.

Attacks on people’s instincts have changed the course of nations and peoples throughout history, creating every detail of your culture and relationships.

Psychological attacks are a fact of life. Your only defense is to take back the control of your mind.

Next, I’ll explain why your hard work to succeed might end up crippling you.

Habits are your silent masters

Even when you design fantastic action plans that reward you with successes, you may still trip yourself up – if your actions become habits.

You start with a conscious, intelligent, and beneficial response. When that response is successful, you keep reacting in the same way.

When you repeat a response often and the feedback is positive, your brain will memorize it. Then it becomes an automatic and subconscious habit.

Habits are fast and efficient. Sometimes, only a habit will work. For example, in a game of baseball, a pitched ball moves so fast that the batter must swing his bat before his slow conscious mind realizes the ball is approaching. The batter must rely on his fast subconscious habits to hit the ball.

So, habits can be the perfect solution. Except, when your world changes, causing the habit to produce bad results. Let’s say a baseball pitcher develops a new way of throwing that makes the ball move strangely. The batter will strike out every time.

When a habit produces bad results, you have a big problem. Since a habit is subconscious and automatic, retraining your brain could take a lot of time and effort. In the meantime, a habit could do a lot of damage.

Habits can gang up with instincts and psychological attacks to hold you back as described next.

Your mind is a house of mirrors

Whenever you think, you only see reflections of your thoughts. You don’t notice this limitation. You cannot detect the size, shape, and nature of your confinement. Reflections of your thoughts prevent you from thinking outside the box, forcing you to repeat your same old mental mistakes. This invisible enclosure imprisons your mind.

Add some psychological attacks and damaging habits into your house of mirrors and you have a really big problem.

Ancient ascetics hoped they could escape from their torturous confinement within primitive, morbid thoughts. They desperately tried anything and everything. Many died from their efforts.

For most of humanity, escape was impossible. But a few ancients stumbled onto practices which released them from their prison.

Now, I reveal their discoveries.

Alter your mind with meditation techniques

How can your mind improve itself?

A crippled or chaotic mind cannot heal itself. But meditation can transition a mind to a mental state where self-healing is possible.

The miracle of meditation is that it alters your mental state by using the only tools available. The same debilitating instincts, habits and other subconscious mechanisms of your brain that crippled you.

How is this possible? Read on.

Control the environment

The most obvious tactic for altering your state of mind is to control your environment when meditating. Eliminate all influences that might slow your improvement.

Beginners should meditate in a quiet, safe, and isolated room to minimize distractions, social stresses and undesirable stimulation of instincts and habits.

Advanced practitioners may require an environment with some distractions to challenge their abilities.

Before you meditate, make sure you have the right conditions for you.

Next, the most powerful method.

Pit instincts against instincts

Conflicts between instincts happen all the time and you feel these as anxieties or stresses.

Beginners can’t stop or even reduce the damaging thoughts.

The surprising solution is – don’t try.

Instead, use a meditation technique that stimulates only instincts that create a better mental state. Then boost the power of those beneficial instincts to drive all other thoughts out of your mind.

No more conflict.

When you use the correct series of meditation techniques, you will gradually move your mind to more positive mental states, like climbing a ladder.

Now for additional tactics.

Steamroll instincts over habits

All your life you are learning cultural habits about what you should think and do. And you teach yourself many beneficial habits.

Habits are subconscious, automatic, and difficult to change. Habits oppose change, and therefore, oppose your improvement.

But, some instincts are strong enough to suppress habits. So, in your meditation session, trigger instincts that suppress habits and move you to a more positive state of mind.

Meditation techniques can empower instincts to subdue habits and other destructive instincts, corralling your mind into the least destructive corner of your prison. But this corner is a weak position. You cannot fight off psychological attacks forever.

Your rescue comes from an unexpected ally with the next tactic.

Dealing with your slow-changing brain

Habits and other automatic responses are stored in neurons and connections between neurons. To change your habits, you must delete old connections and grow new ones. These changes cannot occur unless you frequently repeat a training pattern with positive feedback. But this takes a lot of time.

If you meditate frequently and consistently, your brain learns new habits that automatically shift your mind to new mental states and help you stay there.

You need these habits to quickly move you to your target mental state and stabilize you.

Now you need to know the target mental state.

What is the least damaging corner of your mental prison?

Most people are traumatized and crippled by emotions, instincts, habits, and psychological attacks.

For beginners, focusing on the present-moment is a much better mental state.

Being in the present-moment is less harmful than being stuck in traumatic events of the past or paralyzed by anxiety about the future.

When you are in the present-moment, your conscious mind uses its intelligence to observe, feel and respond to what is real. You have the ability to make intelligent decisions and improve everything you do.

Daily meditation builds helpful habits and reduces harmful habits. But you need a power boost from the next tactic.

Push power to the conscious mind

Meditation techniques stimulate helpful instincts to shift your attention to the present-moment. Beginners spend most of their time in session stimulating these helpful instincts.

Frequent meditation weakens bad mental habits and develops new beneficial habits. Eventually, you spend less time stimulating instincts.

Now your conscious mind has more time to watch and understand your mental activities. Slowly, your conscious mind learns how to help stay in the present-moment. The more it helps, the less time you spend stimulating instincts. Eventually, your conscious mind has most of the session time to learn how to control everything your mind does.

Go beyond the present-moment

Remember the baseball player and his habits for hitting the ball. Sometimes habits and instincts are the only solutions. A person who knows how to manage their mind will choose the best mental state for the situation. The right response could be instinctual, habitual, intellectual or just plain conscious observation.

Being in the present-moment is not the ultimate mental state. A better mental state is using your conscious mind to analyze and select the best mental state for the current situation. Then you shift your mind to that state to achieve your best performance. I call this higher state – managing your mind. This is one step beyond being forever stuck in the present-moment, like an animal.

Managing your mind means that you consciously shift to the best mental state for the current situation.

Now your conscious mind can manage your habits. It can research what is the best habit, plan a training program, run a training program and then test the habit to make sure it performs according to plan.

You can even change instinctual reactions. You can create new points of view to trigger new instincts and get new reactions.

But these topics go beyond this article.

When you manage your mind, you are working above the mirrored walls of your mind. You can analyze your thinking processes and the world beyond. You can optimize how you think and respond to the world.

Now you need to understand which meditation type is best for you.

Get results when you understand your techniques

Choose your meditation technique by difficulty

Your progress will be faster and easier when you match the difficulty of a meditation technique to your current mental condition and abilities.

Overwhelming techniques land on you like a pile of bricks and do more damage than good.

Easy techniques don’t develop new abilities. Eventually, you will quit.

If you don’t know your abilities, experiment with several meditation types. When experimenting, use short sessions at first, five to ten minutes, to get a feel for how well a type fits you. If you can’t handle a short session, then try an easier technique.

You should not move to a harder technique until you can meditate in your current technique for twenty or more minutes with little mind-wandering and no dozing off.

The technique descriptions below start with the easiest and end with the hardest. Now you can match your current abilities with the right meditation technique.

Match your mental condition with a technique

Your special mental condition will work with some techniques and not others. To find the best fit for you, read the subsection of each technique called, “Who would benefit.” I also recommend reading all the types before choosing.

Understand meditation types

There are thousands of meditation techniques. Understanding these techniques would be difficult, time-consuming and not productive.

In the list of meditation types below, each numbered meditation type represents many techniques that alter the mind in the same way. This reduces the number of techniques to just a few types. Selecting the best type for you is easier.

Prepare for your meditation session

Select a quiet, safe, relaxing environment. Make yourself comfortable sitting upright on a cushion. If sitting for long periods is a health issue, select the best compromise for you, somewhere between sitting upright and laying down. Keep in mind, sitting upright helps you stay alert and not doze-off while laying down is more difficult.

Choose your meditation type

1. Guided meditation

What you do

Make yourself comfortable by sitting or laying down. Close your eyes and listen to soft soothing music. Your meditation guide will speak to you in a pleasant voice. The guide talks you through a series of beautiful visions, happy experiences, imaginary spiritual experiences, focusing on body sensations or any combination of these.

You may also hear advice on how to relax, let things go, and to focus your mind on the present-moment.

Your guided session could be a group event or you could listen to a recording in private.

What the technique does to you

The music, voice, and visions presented by the guide captures all your attention and helps to push all other thinking out of your mind.

This technique is similar to hypnotic suggestion.

Who would benefit?

People with high levels of stress, anxiety, and uncontrolled or chaotic mental activity.

Improvement goals

This practice allows a person to ignore or forget their problems during the guided session. Provides needed relaxation and healing from stress and anxiety. Guided meditation may be the only way some people can unplug from their anxieties.

Problems

This technique cannot help a person with serious psychological difficulties and they should pursue a more direct and powerful treatment from a qualified psychologist.

On rare occasions, guided meditation can recall traumatic memories and cause dangerous emotions. If this happens, seek professional help.

Guided meditation tells people what and how to think and trains them to follow suggestions. This practice may weaken a person’s self-determinism and/or inject false beliefs.

The guide may end the session without a strong refocus of attention on the present-moment, leaving a person in an imaginary reality.

Strategy for improvement

The pleasant music, speaker’s voice, and visualizations use a person’s habits and instincts to glue their attention on suggestions from the guide and expel negative thoughts.

The guide manages the mind of the listener. This technique does not challenge the listener to develop self-managing mental skills. I recommend more difficult techniques as soon as you are able.

2. Single breath meditation

What you do

Use this technique at work or whenever you can take a short break. Stop what you are doing and close your eyes. Focus your attention on your breathing. Then inhale deeply and exhale slowly while relaxing all your muscles. Repeat this deep breathing cycle as many times as you wish. Do this technique several times a day.

What the technique does to you

This quick, simple and easy technique can interrupt and disconnect a person from negative thoughts and emotions. Resets the mind to a relaxed state. It enables a person to rethink a difficult situation from a fresh and calm point of view.

When used several times a day, it prevents the build-up of negative emotions and anxiety.

Who would benefit?

This technique works well for everyone.

Improvement goals

Improves mental performance for short periods. Not difficult enough to develop new mental skills.

Problems

No problems or complications.

Strategy for improvement

Neurological connections in the brain will relax the mind when they sense slow deep breathing (see scientific research). This technique is also an old folk remedy that has helped people for ages.

Using this subconscious mechanism of the brain provides short-term benefits but no lasting improvement of mental skills. I recommend more difficult techniques.

3. Mantra, prayer, walking meditation, yoga

What you do

Walking meditation, doing yoga poses, mantras, and prayers are grouped into one type of meditation. All these techniques strongly attract a person’s attention and expel all other thoughts by repeating interesting mental and physical activities.

There are endless variations of spoken words and physical actions. You can find information about variations at Live and Dare.

For the rest of this description, I will use the mantra technique as a representative of all the others.

What the technique does to you

The mental and physical activities of a mantra trigger your instincts and habits to focus your attention on interesting present-moment events and suppress all other mental activities.

A person will remain focused on the present for a while after the session.

Who would benefit?

People stuck in negative thinking, easily distracted or can’t focus on tasks that require attention for over ten minutes.

Improvement goals

This technique can stop negative thinking, cut off a person from their anxieties and redirect their attention to current events. Focusing on real, present-moment events is relaxing and more productive.

This practice increases a person’s ability to disconnect from worrying and concentrate on positive activities they can do right now.

Problems

People should avoid mantras, prayers, and other practices that suggest false ideas or unverified concepts.

Strategy for improvement

Physical events such as mantras, prayers, walking intently, and yoga poses trigger strong instincts that focus attention on current events and expel other mental activities. Now you are altering your mental state by using instincts against other instincts and habits.

Use physical activities that strongly attract your attention to make the technique easier. For example, you can easily focus on a beautiful mantra recited out loud with other people so it echos in the room and in your chest. A much more difficult exercise would be a foreign language mantra you don’t understand, recited silently in your mind-while alone in a quiet room.

Meditation should challenge, but not overwhelm. For your fastest progress, start easy and gradually increase the difficulty as your abilities increase.

When you can silently recite a boring mantra for twenty or more minutes without mind-wandering or doze-off, you are ready for a more difficult technique.

4. Counting breaths

What you do

Put your attention on the sensations of inhaling and exhaling. After each inhale and exhale, count up by one till you get to ten. Then count down by one after each breath cycle until you return to the number one. Keep breathing and counting up and down throughout your meditation session.

If you forget what count you are on, or doze-off, restart the process without self-criticism and continue till the end of your planned session.

What the technique does to you

The sensations of your breathing keeps some of your subconscious mind busy. Counting breaths keeps your conscious mind busy with a simple activity. These activities help shift your attention to present-moment events. Errors in counting give you obvious and early warnings when you lose focus.

Who would benefit?

People who have developed at least a little ability to act as an executive, monitor what their mind is doing and control its activities.

Improvement goals

This technique is for experimenting, discovering, improving and training abilities for self-directing attention, preventing mind-wandering and eliminating dozing off. These new skills let you shift your attention to the present-moment and stay there.

Problems

No known problems since this technique is simple and directs a person’s attention only to current events.

Strategy for improvement

The sensations of breathing and the mental task of counting breaths attract attention with weak stimulation from instincts. This technique is much more difficult than a mantra and demands the development of new mental skills or else the mind wanders or dozes off.

Beginners could start with only a few breaths per session and have many sessions in a day.

If you can do this technique without mind-wandering or doze-off, increase the difficulty by increasing the length of the session.

This technique develops and trains new mental skills which enable you to focus on the present-moment for long periods. These skills are permanent and beneficial for everything you do.

Advance to a harder technique when you can meditate for twenty to thirty minutes with little mind-wandering and no doze-off.

5. Attention on your breath

What you do

This type includes several meditation techniques where you focus attention on one body activity at a time. The most common meditation object is breathing. Most techniques allow you to shift focus to a new meditation object during your session.

What the technique does to you

Putting your attention on a single boring body activity triggers instincts and habits that distract and disturb you instead of helping you focus. This increases the difficulty and forces you to develop new mind management skills.

Who would benefit?

This technique type is beneficial only if you already have considerable mind management skills.

Improvement goals

You develop skills to control your attention against strong instincts and habits which normally distract and disturb you. You will develop powerful skills for managing the activities of your mind.

Problems

The extreme difficulty causes many people to quit.

Strategy for improvement

Before you begin your session make sure you are ready. You will have a difficult session if you are hungry, tired, have an immediate problem, or feel distressed. If you do things to increase your alertness and calmness before a session, your session will be easier.

You should make your initial sessions short so you can end the session on a positive note and not have a big loss. Then gradually increase session length as you improve your skills. For example, you could start at two minutes and work up to thirty minutes.

Begin your session with the counting breaths technique. After you have focused on your breath and counting, stop counting and just focus on your breath.

When you focus on your breath, amplify every sensation in magnitude, importance, and emotional feeling. Select one sensation of breathing, magnify it and split it into more sensations and amplify each of those. Example: the sensation of air flowing in your nose could be split into sensing the air flowing in your nostrils, nasal cavities, and sinuses.

If other body sensations appear, use them too. Fill your mind with sensations to focus on present-moment events and expel all other thoughts.

As you increase your ability to control your focus, reduce the exaggeration of sensations.

The above brute force methods help you keep control of your attention while you gradually develop methods to detect and correct mind-wandering and doze-off.

When rogue mental activities arise, recognize this as the challenge you need to learn how to manage your mind.

The simplest response to rogue thoughts is to acknowledge their presence as an event separate from you (you are pure awareness of passing events) and refocus on your breathing.

If a rogue thought persists, analyze the distraction, name its disturbance type and realize its unimportance and it will usually fade away. Examples of types are, worrying about future events, trying to solve a problem, and sorrow about events of the past.

When a rogue thought returns because it is important, become a manager. Make a mental note of the problem. Promise yourself to handle the issue after session and return to watching your breath.

After the session, write down the problem and schedule time to work on solutions. Some of these problems may take months or years to solve. Some problems are so big, you can only contribute toward a resolution. But if you know you are doing your best, this will help you calm your mind and allow you to do what you can do to resolve the problem.

A meditation session is where you increase your mental abilities, not where you solve world problems. You have to assign the right amount of time to each activity. Know that you cannot solve problems if you cannot focus your mind.

If you notice your mind is wandering, following rogue thoughts, or dozing off; train yourself to detect and correct these conditions in their early stages before they grow in strength. Then you never lose complete control.

Improve all your skills until they are automatic and your session is easy.

When you can easily sit through a twenty to thirty-minute session with no major loss of focus, try a harder technique.

6. Attention on your mind

What you do

You can start your meditation session with any of the easier techniques. Then when you are doing well, stop focusing on the meditation object. Now do nothing but watch whatever mental activities and body sensations occur. Acknowledge them and then let them go.

What the technique does to you

This is the most difficult technique of all because there is no meditation object to hold your attention. It also challenges you to let go of all mental activities. Your mind becomes quieter and your awareness under your control increases significantly.

As you improve your ability to let things go, you appear to have a paradox – to be aware of nothing.

Who would benefit?

People proficient with the previous technique or have excellent awareness and control of their mental processes.

Improvement goals

Your ability to acknowledge, identify and dismiss mental activities allows you to spend most of your time discovering more subtle mental phenomena and working to understand what they are.

You are increasing your ability to manage and improve your mental skills. You can apply these powerful mental skills for solving problems and making your life better.

Problems

The enormous difficulty is the primary problem.

Strategy for improvement

The paradox of being aware of everything and dismissing everything creates many new experiences, new challenges, and more questions. These questions are educational and worth investigating. Don’t get discouraged when you can’t find the answer. This research into the unknown parts of your mind takes time. Just keep doing the technique and you will make discoveries.

When you become proficient at this exploration, it can be fun and interesting.

When not in a meditation session, you can practice using your new mental management skills. Interaction with the external world is many times more complex than meditation and you must learn how to use your mental skills to handle real-world problems.

To help you understand the complexities of life you can read the article, "How to untangle Buddhist No-Self riddles to create powerful life strategies." Other articles on the website will also be helpful.

Design your meditation for your fastest progress

Now you can choose the meditation technique that best fits your mental condition, abilities, and goals.

Then you can fine-tune the difficulty to match your abilities so you can optimize your progress.

You understand how each technique works so you know exactly what you have to do to get results.

But you also get a big bonus here. This explanation of techniques allows you to design your entire improvement path. As your mental abilities improve, you can select your new best technique and fine-tune the difficulty for your fastest progress.

You now possess the easiest and fastest path toward greater mental performance.

With your new mental powers, you can make major improvements to how you manage your mind.

Meditation teaches you how to manage your instincts, habits, emotions, and conscious abilities so you can constantly improve your performance. (Click the link to tweet)

Because your mind management skills improve everything you do, you are much more productive, you can solve more problems, and make greater improvements to your life.

What are you waiting for?

Master your mind and change your life.

Meditation moves your mind from chaos to peak performance when you know these facts

Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Are you tortured by worry, stress, and anxieties but are afraid to try meditation because the marketing hype feels like a scam or even cult lunacy. Or maybe you’ve tried meditating, and it didn’t help, so you quit, and now you don’t know what to do.

Well, you are not alone.

The problem is, most meditation instructions give people the wrong goals, causing them to get stuck or detoured away from the life-changing benefits they could get from meditation.

This doesn’t have to be your story.

In this article, you will get an explanation of meditation that can really help you.

Plus, the important stuff that most gurus leave out.

You will learn how to properly use your new skills to change your real life outside of meditation.

With this new understanding, you can learn to reduce your mental chaos, stress and anxieties – and much more.

Meditation basics that deliver aha moments

Meditation is a controlled experiment where you sit comfortably in a safe, quiet place, close your eyes and focus your attention on your breath.

Limiting your attention to your breath is very boring and precisely the opposite of how you usually spend your day. You are in the habit of watching exciting movies, thinking about your current problems, opportunities, plans, and your regrets.

When people first try meditation, they always lose their focus on their breath and their attention wanders, or they get so bored they fall asleep. These difficulties are common.

You should calmly refocus your attention on your breath without self-judgments or emotions.

So what are the aha moments?

Meditation is a simple experiment that everyone can easily experience.

Meditation quickly reveals that you habitually think about exciting, emotional, and stimulating topics, or you fall asleep.

Your subconscious mental habits are stronger than your strongest conscious intention.

What a humiliating, if not frightening experience.

Your subconscious mind is so powerful, it might hijack you and drag you through an endless house of horrors, full of your worst fears — a panic attack.

At this point, most people give up, quit meditation, and never face the fact that they are not self-determined.

This reaction is regrettable because it is precisely the wrong decision.

The first aha moment you get from meditation should be that you are not in control of your mind or life. And if you want to have control, you will need to continue meditating.

When you build up the courage to take control of who you are, meditation can help.

Meditation can help you take control of your mind

Meditation is not only an educational experiment but also a training exercise. By meditating regularly, you will gradually increase your ability to focus on your breath.

Meditation is not about fighting your subconscious habits. When you meditate, you are practicing new habits. You are practicing how to direct your attention to the here and now, your breath.

The more you meditate, the more you learn new conscious skills to replace your old subconscious habits.

As you get better at meditating, you are not just increasing your ability to focus on the here and now. You are improving your ability to focus on whatever you choose.

So how does this reduce your troubling worries, stresses, and anxiety?

Now, don’t ever think that meditation changes your social and economic problems, your future, or your regrets about your past. Nor will meditation allow you to ignore real problems by always focusing on your breath. Only a small number of your problems are imaginary and disappear when you are in the here and now.

Meditation changes you, not the facts you must face.

The first benefit of meditation is it increases your ability to direct your attention. Then you can decide when and how you think about your problems. Your problems no longer cause constant mental chaos and worry. You are gaining control over when and how you think, increasing your ability to solve your problems.

But to solve your problems, you must develop additional powerful mental skills like those described in the following sections.

The big mistake gurus make about how meditation changes your life

Most meditation gurus tell everyone that meditation teaches you how to be in the NOW and that is the ultimate mind state for success.

WRONG!

Your real life is not a meditation training session.

Your days are filled with activities like driving a car and responding quickly at work when competing with others. Life comes at you at 70 MPH on a freeway and sometimes just as fast at work, or at home. On any day, an inadequate response by you could cost you your life.

I’m not trying to be negative; it’s merely a fact of life.

The important take away is that a significant portion of your life and many life-changing events depend on your fast, automatic, and subconscious responses.

Your quick responses are you operating in the “flow.” You know, that mental state where you respond so quickly, smooth and flawlessly that you feel like a God.

Well, the truth is, you’re frequently in the flow, but you don’t feel like a God because your flow sucks and you crash and burn. But you were still in a flow.

And being in the flow means your responses are automatic, habitual patterns straight out of your subconscious mind.

Don’t confuse a flow situation with a meditation session.

In meditation, your subconscious mind obediently follows your conscious mind and watches your breath. You are in the here and now with your conscious mind managing your thoughts.

But flow situations are where your conscious mind steps aside and lets your subconscious mind do its thing. Yes, you are also in the here and now, but your conscious mind is not calling the shots because it’s too slow.

Don’t turn your life into a meditation session, that would look like a train wreck.

So how does meditation really change your daily life and your flows? That’s next.

The proper way to use your new skills from meditation

Continued meditation, increases your understanding and control of your subconscious and conscious minds.

Then you know when to use your fast response subconscious mind instead of your slow methodical but smarter conscious mind.

To prepare for a flow situation, you use your conscious mind to design a smart flow pattern. Then your conscious mind manages the training of your subconscious mind. Your conscious mind is responsible for the entire project of creating a new flow pattern that won’t crash and burn.

But this flow training process hints of other skills you can learn from meditation.

The big picture most gurus don’t get

Between meditations, you think about your minds, how they work and how you can manage them.

When you consciously think about how your whole mind works, you are looking at the big picture, called meta-cognitive thinking.

Meta-cognitive thinking develops new high-level mind management skills that are much more than merely being in the flow. Much more than being in the here and now. Much more than not being emotionally disturbed. Much more than not making negative judgments. Much more than not suffering from stress, anxiety and other mental health problems.

Your new mind management skills include all the above plus the ability to work at a higher level of consciousness. To be aware of all parts of your mind. To increase your understanding of each part of your mind so you can integrate, organize and optimize their performance as a single powerful organism.

Then you will learn about new mental states and when to use them. You will know when the best approach is a habitual flow, or mind wandering or even worrying. You will be able to go in and out of any mental state at will. You will reap the benefits and avoid the disasters of each mental state.

Meta-cognitive thinking is far superior to limiting yourself to any single mental state.

So what does this mean for your future?

You can change your life with meditation

Now you have a clear, useful explanation of the immediate and easy mental improvements you get from meditation.

Now you have the big picture of how continued meditation will help you develop whole mind management skills.

And you have a glimpse of the unlimited opportunities for improvement of your conscious abilities.

No matter where you are in your meditation practice, this knowledge will point you in the right direction and improve your mental abilities. Then you can better manage your problems, eliminate mental chaos, worries, stress, and anxieties.

Your new powerful mental skills will help you efficiently and effectively solve all your problems and move you toward a happier life.

Now you know how to take charge of your mind and your life.

To learn advanced methods for accelerating your meditation progress, read the article, "A revolutionary meditation guide: Match techniques to your abilities." Other articles on the website will also be helpful.

8 Ways to Reduce Stress and Anxiety Fast (Using One Breath Meditation)

Sat, 17 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Is your stressful job filling your head with fear, anger, and hopelessness?

Are you worried about making enough money, paying the bills or a stock market collapse?

And how about your persistent conflicts with your co-workers, family, and friends?

These crippling mind problems are serious, and if you don’t find a fix, your physical and mental health will suffer, not to mention your ability to perform your best in your tough situations.

Well, the following quick, easy and powerful techniques will help eliminate negative emotions and thoughts.

These techniques are a combination of scientifically verified methods and Buddhism meditation practices.

These mind hacks are instructions on how to relax and change your mental state instantly. Meditation beginners and experienced people will benefit from these methods.

#1 How to calm your mind instantly

Has anyone ever told you to take a few deep breaths when having a panic attack or experiencing some extreme emotion?

Well, it really works, and recent scientific research has determined why.

Scientists have discovered special neurons in the brain which sense a person’s breathing pattern and then send messages to the arousal center of the brain to change the person’s mental state. Slow, deep breathing will automatically cause a person to relax while shallow, quick breathing can increase anxiety. So these brain cells will change your mental state according to your breathing pattern.

These brain cells can also sense the person’s mental state and change the breathing pattern to fit the mental state, creating a two-way connection between your breathing rate and your mental state. So you can be aware of your mental state by analyzing your breathing.

Instantly changing from an emotional state to a calm and relaxed state by breathing slowly and deeply will help you handle stress.

And the next suggestion will make this slow, deep breathing technique more powerful.

#2 How to enhance your mind-calming breathing technique

We can improve the power of slow, deep breathing by learning meditation techniques from ancient Buddhist monks. They suggest you put all your attention on the sensations of breathing in and out when meditating.

By focusing all your attention on your breath, your mind cannot think about the past, future or even problems in the present.

Your mind will only be aware of the incoming, flowing sensations of breathing.

It’s like an instant vacation, a disconnect from all worries. No past, no future, not even concerns about the present.

This instant mental reset is a powerful tool for you to improve your health and well being.

You can read many scientific studies that prove meditation reduces stress and anxiety at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This article also provides scientific information, 20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today.

But if you’re a beginner, you may need the following suggestions to improve your focus.

#3 How to increase your focus

The quickest way to learn how to focus your mind on your breath is to use the advice of Buddhist monks about how to meditate. They suggest you study every subtle sensation of your body as you slowly breathe in and breathe out.

When you breathe in you may notice how the air feels flowing through your nostrils. You may feel the cooling sensations in your nasal cavity from the passing air. Or your expanding lungs and chest. Notice any sensations in the entire body as the oxygen flows everywhere including how your brain feels.

Also, notice any emotional changes. The incoming oxygen might make you feel more energetic, aware and happy.

On your exhale, you can feel the air flowing out, the chest moving down, and the diaphragm muscles relaxing. This is a good time to notice any tense muscles and to relax them, which also helps relax the mind.

Your exhale can be through your mouth or nose, whichever you prefer.

If you have unpleasant sensations or emotions, that’s OK. Just be aware of them, don’t add to the discomfort by struggling to force them out of your mind.

To minimize any worldly problems that enter your mind, vowing to work on these after you finish your meditation and gently return your attention to your breath.

Conscious control of your breath and your attention are powerful tools for changing your physical and mental states so you can perform your best.

But how long does this mental state switch take? The next sections will help you get instant results.

#4 The instant meditation everyone can do

Most people have the wrong idea about meditation. They believe that meditation requires enormous sacrifices and suffering for years. And even then, only a few exceptional people achieve important benefits.

What you may not know is that for centuries, Tibetan Buddhist monks have recommended meditation in “Short moments, many times,” according to Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Also, Eckhart Tolle said, “One conscious breath in and out is a meditation.”

Yes, that is right, one breath cycle is meditation.

If you are busy, one breath meditation is all you can do. But you can do it anywhere, anytime and as many times a day as you like.

Single breath meditations can allow you to change your mental state several times a day and keep your entire day balanced, productive and enjoyable.

Tibetan monks say that short moments many times can be more helpful than one single meditation session for a long period.

The next technique will help motivate you to do these short moments many times.

#5 Make wins not losses

Whenever you want to create new positive habits, you must always discover and associate good feelings with your new desired behavior.

For one breath meditation, there are several immediate and good experiences.

You can immediately be calm and peaceful.

You can enjoy the energizing yet relaxing feelings in your body.

You can be proud of achieving each one breath meditation.

You can appreciate each moment of peacefulness like a valuable gift you now own.

You can look forward to the positive state of mind it creates and your higher performance.

You can appreciate that these benefits take so little time from your busy day.

Don’t make losses. Don’t compare your meditation to that of famous monks. Don’t have grandiose and unreasonable expectations of meditation results. Don’t think that you failed if your meditation is not perfect. Such thoughts will associate negative feelings with your meditation. Focus on your positive improvements.

When you associate only your wins and improvements with your meditation, then you will look forward to meditating again, and meditation will be easy.

But, there are still more benefits.

#6 How to instantly switch to your best state of mind

Life is tough. You are often under pressure to perform, and only your best will handle problems.

The stress and anxiety of these moments do not prove you or your meditation are failures. Stress and emotions may be necessary to engage all your mind-body energy to handle a crisis.

Like a fire-fighter in a burning building, you need the adrenaline and fear to get the job done. But when the job is done, you need to switch to a calm, relaxed state quickly to enjoy family and friends.

With one breath meditation, you can quickly reset your mind. Then you can calmly choose the most suitable state of mind for your next response.

One breath meditation for instantly switching states may take practice and the next technique will help.

#7 How to meditate like a monk

What allows a Buddhist monk to focus? He doesn’t think about how long he meditates or how many breaths he takes. Whether the monk takes one meditation breath or a thousand, each breath is independent of the past, future, and present.

To help you meditate like a monk, imagine each breath creates an infinite, eternal universe where absolutely nothing else exists but you, your awareness and your attention on your breath. Each breath will create a new and different universe. So, whether you take one breath or a thousand, each breath is a unique and individual event. You can revisit and enjoy any universe you created.

If you think about how many breaths you take, or how long you meditate, your mind may think about how difficult it is or about important things you need to do.

Focusing on one breath at a time eliminates thinking about all past and future breaths. Then each breath is as easy as the first.

And each breath can create an aha moment as explained next.

#8 Aha moments from one breath meditation

From the stories that you have heard about the ancient Buddhist monks, you may believe you will not have an aha moment unless you meditate for decades. Also, only special people are blessed with revelations.

Well, I want you to know, that it is not true.

I will give you one valuable example. But before you read the following explanation, repeat the one breath meditation until you are completely focused on your breath.

OK, so now you have completed a one breath meditation. Let me ask you, did you hear your inner voice talking to you? You know, that voice you hear in your mind speaking to you as if it was one of your parents.

If you focused on your sensations, your inner voice was quiet. Think about that. If you exist and are functioning without your inner voice, then what is the inner voice and what is it to you? Obviously, you can exist independent of the inner voice.

You can have many more revelations that change your viewpoint, launching unending explorations into your mind and how to improve it.

Instantly reduce stress and anxiety

I have shown you how you can instantly relax your body and calm your mind.

How you can change your mental state fast.

How you can instantly increase your awareness and focus.

How you can quickly put your attention on the present and drop regrets, anger, and fears about the past, present or future.

How you can calm your mind and relax your body in an instant even when you have waiting problems.

How you can improve your meditation practice significantly.

How you can make these new techniques your daily habit even if you are very busy.

I have also shown you how you can have ah-ha moments even with one breath meditation.

All these meditation techniques improve your mental abilities, performance, attitude, and your viewpoint of everything you experience.

These are powerful techniques, and if you apply them, you will instantly improve your life.

10 Bad and Good Meditation Secrets You Need to Know to help you achieve greater mindfulness

Sun, 03 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When I first started meditating, I felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall.

In this article, I share my unique experiences and knowledge to help you make progress.

I’m sitting in a full Lotus position, meditating on a thin pad. My back hurts, my butt hurts, and my head hurts so bad it feels like I’m banging it on a brick wall.

Hey! What happened to the serenity and happiness everyone promised? Now I feel like I am going to vomit!

“Oh, you will get to serenity once you work through your early difficulties of meditation,” said my instructor.

Why didn’t someone tell me this before I started? Anyway, I continued meditating.

When I first started meditating, I had some real problems, and I didn’t understand why. That was over forty years ago when I thought meditation was mystical, spooky and spiritual. Even today, many people think meditation is mysterious.

What people don’t know about meditation can cause difficulties. Beginners may quit and never try again. Experienced people can get stuck and stop making progress. Many people miss the unbelievable benefits of meditating.

Over the years I have meditated a lot, made many mistakes and earned several breakthroughs. In this article, I share my unique experiences and knowledge because I think it will help you.

#1 My bad meditation beginning

Now, when I look back at my first experiences with meditation, I understand a secret about why it was so difficult. A secret that even my instructor didn’t know. Recently, there have been several scientific studies into the effects of meditation on people’s brains. Medical doctors using double-blind research studies and brain scans have proven that meditation causes specific locations of the brain to grow. This surprising ability of brain cells to grow and reorganize is called neuroplasticity.

But that medical discovery is not the secret that I want to expose. The secret is, when you first try to meditate, there is no way that you can do it. It’s impossible.

You don’t have the brain cells to meditate!

You are not born with the brain cells for meditation, and they don’t automatically generate at puberty or any other time. You have to put effort into meditating to make your brain grow those brain cells.

It’s like learning to ride a bicycle. The first time you get on a bike, you are going to crash and burn. You have to fall several times to learn how it feels when you are crashing. Then you try doing something new to stop yourself from crashing.

Bingo! Now, you are growing new gray matter in your brain. But you will continue to crash and burn until you grow enough new brain cells to balance yourself on a bike.

No wonder I felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall when I first started meditating. Each time I tried to meditate, I would crash and burn. I became a freaking expert on how to crash. I could describe every stage of my mind crashing in obnoxious detail. Only then could I begin to learn how to stabilize my mind.

So, if you are a meditation beginner, it’s going to be bad.

And I am here to tell you that you just have to work through your early difficulties that stimulate your brain to grow new cells.

#2 Creating good mind tools

To meditate, I had to develop new mind tools.

Again, the process is similar to learning how to ride a bike. You have to fall over a few times before you learn to detect when you are off balance and how to correct the problem.

When meditating, I had to detect when I was falling asleep and then create a massive mental jolt to wake me up. I felt silly when my body would jump up from this jolt because others might see me.

Eventually, I improved this mental wake-up call to fire even sooner, at the slightest decrease in awareness. And I used a subtle shift in attention to thoughts of my mind instead of a massive mental jolt.

When I first created this tool, I was not fully conscious of what I was doing. I subconsciously created this function just like a child learns how to ride a bike.

But now, thanks to greater awareness of my mind, I consciously design and refine new mind tools.

#3 The good and bad moments of serenity

Serenity at last! Yes, I did find serenity after years of meditating. Well, not all the time, but often. I would be able to meditate for long periods and feel quite peaceful.

These skills did carry over into my normal life and job but not as much as I had hoped. My job was designing computers. My technical and management challenges were stressful. I also had family responsibilities. Meditation did not solve all these problems.

I often felt I had to place meditation at a lower priority.

#4 My bad meditation balancing act

There were many times when I did not meditate regularly. I was sure that I could calm myself whenever I wanted to. After all, I had reached moments of serenity many times. I knew exactly what to do, and so I was confident I could easily do it again.

But something odd happens when I don’t meditate regularly. The next time I would try meditating, it was much harder. I had relapsed to a lower skill level. I accepted the correlation between practice and skill level and didn’t think much about it.

Once again, our modern understanding of neuroplasticity can provide a useful explanation of what happens in the brain. If you do not meditate regularly, and you are learning new multitasking skills and emotional responses for your daily activities, your precious meditation brain connections will be cannibalized for these new tasks. That’s neuroplasticity.

So the lesson here is that you must find a balance between your everyday chores and meditation or else your meditation and special mental skills will disappear.

#5 A bad mind state needs a good reset

Criminals or desperate and confused people often threaten our lives and families. Also, our relationships can be maddening. I sometimes find myself emotionally disturbed by these problems.

When my mind gets locked in a cyclone of thoughts, fears, and emotions, I need to break the tight grip it has on my mind by meditating. Quieting the mind may take a little more time because of the extra stress, but I can do it.

The key to achieving a meditative state when under stress is to tell yourself that you are not seeking a solution to the problem that is disturbing you. The goal is to break the emotional grip and quiet the mind.

Later, when you are calm, rested, stronger and more objective, you will find it much easier to solve your problems.

I recommend using meditation to power down and reset your mind when it gets locked up.

#6 More good mental skills

Meditation allows you to create new mental skills. Far too many for me to explain here. So I will just present the one that I appreciate the most.

Before I started meditating, my mind was one big, flailing, thrashing, whirlpool of emotions and thoughts. I was constantly submerged and swept in all directions by irresistible mental currents.

With the help of meditation, I can now think about my mind from a detached and objective viewpoint. I can study my mind as if it were an onion. I can peel that onion and examine the different parts.

I can’t say that I have peeled the onion to its core or that I am completely unmoved by the currents of my emotions and thoughts. But I do have much more influence over what my mind does, and I am increasing my mental skills.

#7 The bad inner voice

Early in my life, my inner voice was out of control. It would constantly spew out all sorts of ridiculous and crazy ideas. Many of those ideas would hurt me or hold me back. But at the time, I considered the inner voice to be me. I was the inner voice, and there was nothing else to my existence beyond whatever the inner voice said.

Then one day, in meditation, I quieted the inner voice. It was mum, nada, kaput. Eventually, the absence of the inner voice became normal.

Then a question occurred to me, “Who am I?” What a shocker! I obviously was not the inner voice because I was still there, even when the inner voice was gone.

This realization revealed a whole new area of self-discovery and self-improvement. The next paragraph continues with this idea.

#8 Awakening to more bad mental habits is good

When meditating, you may see your mind do things that are not good. This is normal. Don’t panic.

Don’t try to force it to stop. Just watch it. Become familiar with what it is doing and why.

Once you understand the why, you can make corrections to this purpose and then make corrections to what your mind is doing, without mental conflict or stress.

#9 Awakening to the limits of meditation

No matter how much you meditate and improve your mind, there will always be a whole world out there beyond your control.

Meditation by itself will not give you the skills to fly a jumbo jet airliner, start a successful high tech company or clean up corrupt and evil politicians. Even little simple tasks may be out of your reach. For instance, you may not be able to persuade a relative or friend to stop smoking cigarettes.

The point is, meditation will not solve all the problems of the world.

Meditation will significantly improve your mental abilities, and make achieving your goals easier, but you will still face enormous challenges.

Don’t let this limitation stop you from meditating. You will need all the skills you can learn to solve your challenges.

#10 Simple is good

My preferred style of meditating is simple. I sit in a comfortable chair in a quiet room and focus on my breathing.

You may wonder, “Shouldn’t he be sitting in full Lotus position?” Well, I’ll tell you something, when I was much younger, I would sit in full Lotus for hours and meditate. I took martial arts, Tai chi, and yoga. And I must say that I had many exciting, fun and educational experiences.

However, activities that focus attention on my body can distract me from my primary purpose of learning about my mind. So, I use simple methods that don’t put requirements on what my body is doing. I strive to be able to meditate anywhere, anytime, in any body position or condition.

Finding answers

I highly recommend meditation. It is safer than learning how to ride a bike and just as simple. You can meditate almost anytime and anywhere. If you buy books on how to meditate, then it is also low cost, low risk, and low commitment.

When meditating, you may hit brick walls or stop at mental barriers. But meditation did not make these obstacles. Meditation exposes your limitations and provides you with opportunities for removing what is holding you back.

With meditation, you can become aware of your mind. In time, you will better understand how your mind works. Then you can make corrections and improvements to how you think.

I have provided you with information that will help you meditate and continue making progress.

You will discover new and powerful mental abilities.

You will become more aware, more focused, and emotionally stronger.

You will better understand yourself and others, reducing the difficulty of social problems.

You will be able to remove old barriers and take on new challenges.

With new powerful mental skills, you can make your life easier, happier and less stressful.