Posts Tagged ‘sociology’

Changes Are Horizons

Posted: April 6, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Does any concept lend itself better to metaphor than change?

Perhaps only life and death.

Change is hard. You know this. I know this. Podcasters and self help gurus who try to convince us otherwise know this.

You know how we know change is hard? Because if it was easy, then we would all change for the better, for individual then mutual benefit, and we would be living in a literal utopia.

Change is hard, that is why it lends itself so well to metaphor.

Change involves metaphor as much as the literal.

We have to change in immaterial ways before we can change in material ways. We have to change our minds before we can change anything. Is changing our mind a literal thing or a metaphorical thing?

What is our mind? Where do our thoughts come from and where do they go?

Changing our mind means expanding our horizon(s). To push up against the limit of our perception and to then go far enough to reach the unknown and to become familiar with it.

When we reach the new horizon, what next? What’s left? What to do?

If change were easy we would know what to do, how to do it, how to habitualize it, and take inspired action by default. But change is not easy. Change may not be complex, but simple and easy are not same just as there is difference between what is difficult and what is complicated.

Does one have to go all in on change? Is incremental change a thing? Do we dip our toes in the water first or do we cannonball in and submerge ourselves in the cold plunge of the new and unknown?

Habits of thought, perception, emotion, and action would indicate that we have to change incrementally. In the never ending story of trying to replace detrimental habits with beneficial ones, we can reach a point of whatever it takes and whatever works.

Change is hard. Knowing what to do and doing it. Being socially conditioned into thinking that doing something once equates to permanent success and happiness certainly doesn’t help for those of us raised by movies and television.

Is taking a break the same as giving up? Are rest days necessary or are they for the weak? What does alpha even mean anyway?

I remember when finding information required effort. Then the information was easily accessible. Now it’s hard to find again because we have to sift through the misinformation, native ads, digital clutter, and distractions. That’s if we decide to try and change and seek out knowledge to help us.

Meditation and philosophy help me declutter my mind and emotions. They help me to focus my actions in at least a generally beneficial direction. They provide a spring board and rest stop for me when I decide to try.

Aging has taught me that time keeps going and the world keeps moving. That combination has given me some awareness and equanimity, two concepts that at least create a solid foundation for change.

Circles and Cycles are #Life

Posted: March 27, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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I’ve never dreaded getting older. I’m yet to mind the trade offs that come with aging. Hopefully I have a long way to go still, but tomorrow isn’t promised for any of us.

I still remember coming up in my teens and twenties and every time I was at a party or a bar or a club I would hear someone, both men and women equally, complain about getting older. Lamenting the loss of their youth even though none of these incidents involved someone moaning about being above the age of twenty six.

So that gave me a positively warped view of aging. I never bought it. Every time I ever heard it, whether sober or three sheets to the wind, I always thought the person sounded
uh
less than optimally intelligent.

I don’t pretend that I feel as spry and vibrant as I did ten years ago, or fifteen years ago. But I’ve never felt upset about it, or robbed of something, or like something was missing. Not yet anyway. If I’m lucky enough to live another ten or twenty years maybe that will change.

One of my favorite things about getting older are seeing life cycles. How it’s all the same, only the names will change. The seasons of nature are great metaphors for pretty much every aspect of life. The more time I spend in nature, the more I see and feel this to be true.

I see it in myself, my friends, my family, in pop culture, in society, etc. Cycles. Not lines. Not going from A to B and everything or anything being done. Nothing going up to the top of the metaphorical mountain and stays there. What goes up, must come down, and being again.

I see cycles, circles, patterns, repetition in my own life. I look back and I see myself struggling and succeeding in many of the same areas over and over again, spread out over extended periods of time.

I see more similarities than differences in the different, “eras” of my life, to use modern terminology.

I don’t get angry or disappointed or frustrated at this. Nor do I get filled with pride or superiority. It’s just what is. It’s just what happened. It’s just what’s happening. It’s just what will happen.

I will try. I will plan. I will execute. I will learn. I will apply. I will think. I will review. I will take action. I will let go. What will happen will happen.

I know before meditation, philosophy, and spirituality practices came into my life I never could have been so calm or coherent about my trials and tribulations, my successes and my failure, my drama and my karma, my life situation. After all this is my life
MY LIFE


I likely would have only been able to see the cycles of life in the cyclical nature of fashion and applied some kind of ego based judgement on people who think they’re “cool” for wearing a style of clothing that was fashionable twenty or more years ago, was deemed uncool for so long that people stopped wearing and forgot about the clothing style, only for it to be brought back again in the name of status, clout, attention, and superficial uniqueness.

But now I love seeing the style of my dress of my youth being brought back into vogue and being enjoyed by a whole new generation of people. I talk to the people wearing throwback fashions, and the majority of people I have talked to love the style, they like how they look in them, they like the aesthetic, many of them have been wearing that style for years and years and it is just now that mainstream culture has caught up to them. How wonderful. The classics never go out of style.

Seeing the cyclical nature of life takes some of the pressure off of myself to be some kind of perfect being. Perfectly unique. Perfectly productive. Perfectly efficient. None of that exists in reality. Only in the areas of our imagination under control of our ego.

Progress, not perfection.

There’s no escaping the yin yang. Ups and downs, peaks and valleys, noise and silence, dark and light, good and bad. Circles, cycles, not lines.

We are all flawed. We are all imperfect. We all repeated the same mistakes and the same successes. We are cyclical, not linear.

Living for our Present & Future vs Our Past

Posted: March 9, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Living in the present moment sounds so simple, too simple perhaps. If it was easy for people to be present, rather than identified with their thoughts, emotions, and/or memories, the world we live in would be unrecognizable.

Our past makes us who we are. What led us to this very moment in time? Our past. For better and for worse. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Our past choices became habits became patterns became the way we lived our lives. Many people live life unaware of this fact and even more are unaware that we can choose.

Meditation has been a life saver for me. Those close to me have heard me say that many times by now. Meditation helped me break the hold of identifying with my thoughts, my emotions, and as Eckhart Tolle says; my life situation.

We are not our thoughts, we are not our emotions, we are not our life situation.

What a wonderful concept. A moment of internal liberation. If only it was a one time, permanent fixing, magic pill, cure all. Meditation is not a magic cure all. Nothing is. The discovery that I am not my thoughts, I am not my emotions, I am not my past trauma was the beginning of awareness.

Awareness is the way out. Becoming aware was the first step, of the first day, of the rest of my life.

Step by step, day by day. One thing at a time. One choice at a time. That is how we live in the present moment. That is how we live for our future self that we would like to become. That is how we separate ourselves from our past, our trauma, our inapplicable teachings, our perceptions that no longer serve us, our old ways of doing things.

It’s just like most things in life; simple NOT easy.

Sure we can try, but what happens if we fail? What happens if we don’t try? What happens if we succeed? What happens if we sabotage ourself? What happens if we give up? We happens if we achieve mastery? What happens if we try, try, try again and nothing external changes?

First, gratitude. Always, gratitude. Gratitude is gravity. Gratitude is glue. Gratitude is what you lay the foundation on top of.

Then


Step by step, day by day. One thing at a time. One choice at a time. We choose, to do what we can, with what we have, to the extent we are capable of doing.

Change is hard, change is slow, change can be painful. If the opposite were true, the world we live in would be unrecognizable.

So we have to forgive ourself. We have to accept ourself. We have to love ourself. We have to support ourself. We have to cheer on ourself. We have to champion ourself. Life can be hard enough. Change is made harder if we are hard on ourself.

Simple NOT easy.

It can seem overwhelming. It can seem insurmountable. It can seem impossible. That’s why we do things of this nature;

Step by step, day by day. One thing at a time. One choice at a time. One breath at a time.We choose, to do what we can, with what we have, to the extent we are capable of doing.

That is how we live in the present moment. That is how we live for our future self that we would like to become. That is how we separate ourselves from our past, our trauma, our inapplicable teachings, our perceptions that no longer serve us, our old ways of doing things.

Simple NOT easy.

Worth a try.

Possible, Probable, Immeasurable, Balance

Posted: March 6, 2024 in Stimulus Space Response
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Balance

Possible? Yes. Probable? Well


That all depends.

Depends on what?

Well if you live in a capitalist controlled society, how much is money a direct concern for your ability to eat, drink, and be sheltered?

Are you living paycheck to paycheck just to survive? Constantly working to keep your head above water and only living on the survival plain?

If yes, then rest is a luxury. It shouldn’t be. Not this side of the industrial revolution. But it seems as though technological advances are weaponized against the working class in order to force more productivity for less compensation. See A.I doing to the white collar class what machines did to the blue collar class forty years ago.

From a place of stress and survival balance seems like a theory and a fantasy created by those who have never known struggle. But the ancient philosophies and spiritual practices that cultivate and tend to our hearts and souls come from a time when all there was to do was survive, when slavery was standard, and life expectancy was a fraction of what it is today.

Wisdom is wisdom for reason. Concepts, teachings, and ways; stand the test of time for a reason.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

When one spends the majority of their waking hours “earning a living”, and just trying to keep a roof over one’s head, as I spent many years doing myself; using limited leisure time for something other and pleasure is scary. That fear is often masked with dismissiveness, sarcasm, excuses, cynicism, and/or denial.

We work hard, we have the right to play hard. When one spends their time in the service of someone else’s dreams of making more, having more, producing more, extracting more
we want to spend our time off the clock doing what we want.

I understand this. I’ve eaten my feelings more times than I could ever attempt to count. I spent countless hours binge watches shows, rewatching movies, and marathoning video games because work sucks, I put in my time on the clock, and after my commute home it was ME time.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

But entertainment and escapism only worked so long for me before it all became shallow, then hollow, then empty, then a void, then burnout, then darkness.

We must challenge ourselves to work on ourselves and for ourselves, even when we feel we’re being worked to the bone and driven into the ground. It is hard. It is unknown. It is scary. It is work. It is hard. But it is worth it. Why?

Because we become better versions of ourselves. Individually, not in a cookie cutter way. Emotional regulation is different for everybody. Peace of mind is different for everybody. Overcoming fear is different for everybody. Letting go of the past is different for everybody. Physical fitness is different for every body. Mindfulness is different for everybody. Applied philosophical wisdom is different for everybody.

The principles are the same, the wisdom is the same, the application and results are unique because we are all unique.

I slept poorly for a third of my life. I spent my waking hours in a poor mental emotional state for half of my life. I had to work for a living. But when I stopped dedicating all of my leisure time to escaping and entertaining myself and went to work on myself, for myself
my sleep, my mind, my emotions all slowly and steadily became better.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m still going, still working on it, no magic pill, no cure all, no end point until the end of my life. However, now I move forward with some stillness and balance.

Immeasurable? Yes.

Immeasurably better? Yes, please, thank you.

Engines of #Manipulation

Posted: January 25, 2024 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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Manufacture of Consent

That term has fascinated me from the moment I heard the term.

Same goes for Social Conditioning.

I used to think people were willfully ignorant to these concepts. As I got older, I come to think it’s more of a combination of naĂŻvetĂ© and fear.

We’re hard wired to conserve our energy and effort. This has been, is, and will be exploited by those with power and influence against those without them to keep it that way.

Control.

It’s all about control. Influence. Manipulation.

To do what?

Benefit those in power.

That those with the most have such a scarcity mindset is sad.

The fact that their scarcity mindset causes so much undue suffering to the masses is something worse than sad.

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