The Power of Good

Perception is key to maximizing our life's potential. 

It really is everything and anything.

The concept is striking in what it truly entails;
Everything we feel - all of our emotions applied to everything we experience are completely controlled and dictated by our minds. We are the master and commander of our reality. From the quality of your job, to the emotion of a cloudy day, to the greenery of mother nature, to the simple things like our tastes in food and drink. The emotions tied to all of these concepts are totally subjective - that is, they have no real bearing in value, much like the color red doesn't really mean anything, or the note C sharp. The way we view reality is completely up to us, whether we believe it or not.

The most stunning example of this for me is a cloudy day. As soon as the sun hides behind the grey I find myself sunken into my negativity. Its almost as if the entire world becomes slightly sadder (I'll come back to this). Yet, if I close my eyes and imagine a bright sunny day its like the clouds don't exist. I feel fine again - a new day's dawn. The question is - what has changed? Nothing except my perspective. This is a very fundamental idea, we can see that our feelings are completely subjective. We can change them at will. Some are harder than others, of course - the stronger the emotion that is evoked, the harder it is to change the perception.

I want you to realize how important this is; Our feelings are subjective. We can change them by changing our perception of our situations. I wrote a poem about this that I hope you can enjoy;

Don't see bleak upon the rain,
As rain is under sun.
The sun exists upon your bliss
And allows your fears to run.
Hold and embrace
What you can chase,
These entities will be dear to you.
Sum your chances,
Behold your branches,
And reach for the upper blue.

 This is, ultimately, the power of good. The universe is inherently neutral - (like food!) we are the artists that paint our surroundings. We wield the brush that paints the world with feelings. We subconsciously choose to paint a delicately mystical picture, a fiery land of constant contestation, or a place of pure bliss.

Beyond this, our 'goodness' perspective is incredibly contagious (and so is a bad one). When we are happy, whether you or anyone else is aware of it, people see it. Many people are not aware of their ability to read people, some who feel it but don't know where it comes from call it vibes. Some people pick up on it subconsciously, others can see it directly, but it truly is contagious. The next time you see a person, ask yourself what they are feeling at that moment - are they content, sad, or in some other emotion. I hope you will be able to read them, if not, you can trust that your subconscious is constantly doing it. So is everyone else's consciousness.

Every time you interact with someone in a good mood, they will realize it, whether they are aware or not, and it will boost their mood as well. The chain reaction is complex, and of course there are interferences, but if all people were only 1% happier, the world would be well over 1% happier the next day, as the happiness spreads and amplifies. The opposite is also true, however, negativity gets us no-where. When we are negative to others we are directly hurting ourselves. Even thinking negatively about others, while acting nice does not allow the propagation of happiness, the subconscious can read right through this veil. Oddly enough, there aren't many situations where people think positively, but act negatively - and interesting thing to think about.

It may be very obvious that positivity breeds positivity, but now I want to get to an even deeper level. Remember when I said the entire world gets slightly sadder if you, yourself are sad? Well, I believe that this outrageous idea is actually true. I believe that whatever emotion you feel at any give point is amplified throughout your entire reality. That is, when you feel happy your entire reality - everything contained in our universe - changes. That is a pretty far out idea, I admit, but I have some reasoning behind it.

When we are in a negative state of mind, things become more negative. All which we perceive becomes more negative - the people you see become less happy, and the situations in your life become less meaningful. When you 'wake up on the wrong side of the bed' the entire world seems different. It is hard to explain how this is physically possible, but again, remember that your perception is everything. There isn't any experience outside of your mind, so it must entail that a large change in your mind will change all that you can experience. Turn this around and you truly begin to see the power of positivity.

When you are happy, the world is happy. This may seem like some meta-physical, far-out fabrication, but I don't believe it to be so. The fact that our entire reality - all that we can experience, is contained between the ears, it shouldn't be far fetched to realize that our perception changes our experience. Suddenly a happy moment becomes a worldly event. Suddenly it becomes so important to embrace your true ambitions and search for what truly makes you happy.

I am quite tired, so I think the entire world is tired. I shall spare the world my sleepiness and get some rest now.

Thanks for reading. :)

All Food Is Bad

Yes you read the title. All food is bad.

Well, pretty close. Hopefully I can convince you of this after you read this article. Don't worry, though, this won't change your lifestyle or make you feel guilty about certain foods. It is only a thought experiment, a different perspective - exactly what this blog is about.

What is food? It really is two things; energy and "lego" blocks of the body.

We can do a two things with food;

• Break it down to use the energy within chemical bonds (called Catabolism)
• We can use energy to build new chemicals (called Anabolism)

Anything outside of that would be news to me. But it is true, we can only break down bonds (usually sugars or fats) or we can build new molecules (such as proteins or communicators). So why am I making the claim that all food is bad?

What I really mean by that is that inherently food isn't good for you. In fact, it is neutral, but in most cases it isn't better for you to take more than a certain amount. The Daily Value is a good indicator (not perfect) of this fact; we need a certain amount of essential foods in order to survive, but this is a very delicate equilibrium of nutrients - too much energy and you gain weight, too little vitamins and you see some nasty effects.

Many people of the world, however, actually survive on extremely malnourished diets. Africa is full of people who nearly only eat carbs and meat, no green vegetables to speak of, and meat is often a delicacy. There are accounts in America of people only eating Chicken Nuggets for more than 90% of their life. How is this possible? It is because all those things we are told to eat - broccoli, fruits, fish, breads (the food pyramid) is basically a lie. We can easily survive on very minimal amounts of foods. Heck, the Irish lived solely on potatoes for years (there skin turned translucent but that's not the same as death, right?)

Food, inherently, then, is neutral. We don't really need a variety of foods to survive. Our body is so incredible at manufacturing it's own nutrients from almost nothing, as well as preserving the limited amounts it gets. Other foods may better our lives, and make us more healthy, but in reality we don't need very much of them - a limited amount of vegetables and fruits will get you a long way. And, with most biological processes we will see three things; diminishing returns, desensitization, and even reversal of effects.

Diminishing returns means that as you eat, for example, more and more blueberries, the anti-oxidants your body is able to extract from them gets lower and lower, until there will eventually be a point where you gain no more antioxidants if you eat 60 blueberries as oppose to 50 blueberries.

Desensitization means over time our body grows accustomed or even immune to new nutrients. If you eat carrots for a long stretch of time, your body may take up less beta-carotene (vitamin A) from the 10th day of eating carrots than you took up from the first day. This isn't necessarily bad - maybe you have an excess of vitamin A from days 1-9, but it does happen. (P.S. I have no idea if we have desensitization to vitamin A)

Reversal of effects is pretty straight forward. If you have a deficiency of Sodium in your body, don't start drinking salt water. Too much sodium can be lethal. If you are skinny, fat can be extremely necessary for you, but of course too much can clog arteries. This reversal is actually true for all nutrients, but for most it is so impossible to accumulate a detrimental amount it isn't worth considering.

What I'm really getting at here is there are very few foods that will improve your life. Most will simply sustain it, or keep it working for longer (not a bad thing by any means). But there are not many foods that if you eat for a week are going to make you super man, or have incredible energy, or change your outlooks on life - those are pretty hard to change with diet. But with a bad outlook on life comes a bad diet, and a good outlook, a good diet - there is definitely a correlation.

What foods are inherently good, you ask?
These nutrients are necessary to maintain health, mind, and body;

• Antioxidants - They fight cancer, 'nuff said. Balance these with the sugars they are usually accompanied with. Or look into Chaga - a mushroom! (I will make a post later about what cancer actually is.)
• Omega-3 oils - They are absolutely necessary to maintain nerve & neuron function. You need them. Get them from fish if you can, or there are plenty in flax seed.
• 'Essential' amino acids - Not difficult to obtain - they are in every living plant on Earth (I believe), but your body can't synthesize them itself.
• The vitamins - They are important, but they are way overrated. You get plenty with nearly any diet you can think of.
• Fats, proteins, sugars (carbs), cations (sodium, potassium), etc... The Daily Vitamin list. These are also really easy to obtain, only people who are known to have deficiencies should be watching these.

Other things like supplements and extracts... These usually have very little effect on the body, are hard to uptake, and have a half-life (how long the stay in the body) that is very short. I wouldn't dump too much money into them, but trying them can never hurt.

I hope I have tweaked some brain cells a slight bit. I didn't write this to make people change their diet at all, I wrote it for another perspective on food.

Next post - ? I don't know!

What is depression - Part II

So I didn't really get into the realities of depression in my last post. http://learningasart.blogspot.com/2012/08/depression-what-is-it-and-why-do-so.html

I'd like to cover that here.

What do I think really composes depression? 

Well, it is very simple, actually; again it is the unfortunate feeling of fear. It truly is at the root of all negativity. Fear doesn't get you anywhere good, it only keeps you alive in very rare occurrences (now-a-days). But we can talk about that later.

The most common fear-related causes of depression;
1. Fear of dying alone.
2. Fear of failure (on a grand scale).
3. Fear of losing loved ones.

Lets take a look at these.

•The fear of dying alone is the most probable reason why people are depressed. It branches off into such things as people moving away, family getting smaller and more distant, regret of not being closer to people.

•The fear of failure branches off into occupying a job that doesn't really fulfill you, dying without accomplishing anything significant, letting down the expectations of friends and family, basically anything where you didn't fulfill yourself.

•The fear of losing loved ones is pretty straight forward.

So of course these things are depressing. The thing is, most people don't realize these are at the base of their depression. They can feel hopeless and lost, sad about nothing, and it never really occurs to them why.

Going to a doctor won't answer why you are depressed, instead it masks the issue and drives you further from realizing who you are - and what you're really fearing or missing in your life. Remember - they believe it is a disease to be covered up with chemicals, not something that should be treated with changes in life-style and perception changes.

So lets really examine these things and what you can do to avoid depression. This will work for everyone, but it will be harder for some, depending on their situation. First, though, let me answer why 10% of us are depressed and don't realize it is one of the 3 subjects above.

In capitalism, specifically western capitalism, it is very normal for children to leave the parents at 18 or older. This isn't natural at all, humans are a community-based animal, we are very social, hence why we have such a great vocabulary, enjoy hugs, and have a fear of dying alone. We are meant to be around each other, and family is incredibly important for our psychology. Just look at how many psychological problems arise with a defective parent. Moving away furthers us from the closest of our kin, causing an increase in the thoughts of loneliness.

Also in western capitalism, we are bombarded with advertisements, entertainment, and education that specifically maintains "successful" as rich and important - money. To be a good family member, a good friend, and a good companion to someone isn't often regarded as successful in our society, it is majorly devoted to accumulation of wealth. So what happens is when these unrealistic and unnatural goals of becoming the president of a company or striking it rich in economics don't materialize, we feel failure. But this is like raising children to only feel like they are successful if they win the lottery or win the olympics. We are not all born to run companies, and most importantly, statistically, it is improbable that we even could. Also, what this pursuit does is further departs us from those important things such as friends and family - a strive for wealth usually consumes time and energy (and places you in a cubicle for a good portion of the rat race)!

Lastly, losing a loved one. This is absolutely going to happen. You SHOULD be depressed about this. Grieving takes a long time, and medications should not be taken to cover this natural cycle of understanding life and death, loss and gain.

Lets look at this in another light;
Long ago in scandanavia, women in the winter time would take hours of their day to brood. That means they would literally sit and cry about the negativity they felt - the hopelessness they felt. They would dedicate times of the day to do this, and after would feel refreshed and fine. (So get some sun if you want to avoid brooding time). The point being, here, is that there are natural reliefs to depression, and they have been with us for long periods of time.

The indigenous people of the amazon and some native tribes in the Americas didn't have depression - this is due to many reasons. The most important being that they lived in very closely knit communities, mostly family, where everyone spoke about everything. They had shamans to drive out the deepest and most uncomfortable depressions of people as well, bring to light peace. They also didn't set up unrealistic goals that took place far away from home and after long ordeals without old friends and close family. They didn't have success and failure as people - they simply lived.

The oldest people on earth (or at least the places with the highest density of centurions) live in places of little capitalism, and many family communities. Their diets are very healthy, but the key factor between these groups is community.

We are a social, community animal. We need family and friends throughout our lives. Some of us can go longer without, some of us cannot - but this is the real reason for depression; the 'structure' of our lives. We are stressed to leave home, stressed to be "successful" and stressed to obtain wealth and things - but this isn't us. This isn't who we are.

Find your passions.
Connect with family or friends.
Join community efforts, clubs, groups.
GRIEVE when you need to for god's sake!
And soak up some sun while you're at it.

[Oh and diet is always good]

Next time I will talk about a much less depressing subject - maybe tweak a few neurons of yours :)
Sunny side up!

What is Depression - Part I

HEY! YES! Here we are again, staring at this blog, for the better of ourselves. Lets take a stroll through depression. Sounds like fun (pfff).

What is depression?

Depression - yeah well we know what it is, or at least how it feels so I won't even go into it. I'll just refer to it as a sadness. 

What scares me about depression is how it is perceived, especially on the internet. I have people very close to me who "have" depression, that is, they have been diagnosed at one point or another with the negative "disease" or "trait" of depression. This disturbs me, as it automatically stigmatizes depression as something to get rid of immediately, treat with medication, and is generally something to avoid. 

It is generally accepted by people that depression means there is something physically wrong with them that could not otherwise be fixed by mental exercise. I would like to say in 90% of cases of depression this is a flat out wrong assumption - 90% of depression is curable without the use of medication if not 100%.

A bold claim but I hope to convince you that this is true.

Lets see what the bias and stigmatization on the internet actually looks like - what forms does it take that we may or may not have picked up on while searching ourselves. The first website I find says this;

Depression is a medical illness, not a sign of weakness. And it's treatable.

What exactly does that mean - a medical illness? Is it safe to assume that general sadness is not a medical illness? Here they indirectly explain that depression is not the same as intense sadness - there is something more, it is an illness. If I wasn't feeling bad enough already...

Next I learn that 1 in 10 people in America suffer from this "illness". Why the hell isn't every major news station asking the most important question here - Why are we depressed?

So I keep searching, and then it really hits me. This is what I read next;

Some of the most common drugs for depression are Celexa, Cymbalta, Effexor, Lexapro, Paxil, Pristiq, Prozac, Remeron, Wellbutrin, and Zoloft. Doctors may try one of these drugs first. 
If they don't work for you, your doctor may suggest another type of medication or a combination of different medicines. There are many options with different benefits and side effects.
How they work: Scientists think they work by helping to improve how nerve cells in the brain communicate.

 Oh wait, what? We went from "You may be experiencing depression" to a list of drugs. Leaps and bounds! Where do I learn what depression is - why exactly do I have it? Don't worry though - if that first list doesn't work, they'll keep trying new medication, there are many options apparently. Interestingly enough they have this big list of chemicals to give you, but they only think that they help by "improving" how nerve cells communicate.

Take a step back with me for minute. This is view of depression is prevalent wherever you go and I'd like you to realize what just happened. This is what I have read;
1. Depression is an illness - like a disease. It isn't like sadness.
2. There is something actually wrong with you that a normal person wouldn't have (notice that they indirectly state this by the statement "anti-depressants improve nerve cells" in the brain.)
3. Any website with information on depression will plaster you with anti-depressant medication, not therapies or the real cause of depression.
4. Nobody ever asks why 10% of the population has this!

Absorb what just happened in this little excursion through e-depression.
What do you really learn about the subject online?
Do you learn about the root cause of it?
Does it ever come across to you as odd why 10% of the population has it?
Does it make you wonder why scientists invent these chemicals but don't know exactly what is going on?

The next post (hopefully tomorrow) will highlight the paradigms of depression - the right and the wrong:
One gives you medication and fixes a 'dysfunction' in the brain.
The other addresses the root cause, and will bring you to your true self.

To end on a good note; a smile a day keeps the doctor away. Smile.
The muscles associated with your smile are also associated with happiness; smiling causes happiness. The beautiful thing is it, of course, works the other way around as well! :)

Panic Attacks, Dissected

This is from an old post, but it must be put on here!

I’ve had panic attacks for a good deal of my life and had very little help in really coping with them. All psychiatric advice seemed to fail, and much of the internet’s advice wasn’t really applicable to my perceptions so I examined them heavily myself and finally came to some conclusions. In writing this, I was able to help a good many people (strangers on the internet) cope with the same problem. The only reason I believe this to be helpful is their thank you replies. If you have anxiety or have ever experienced panic attacks let me help ya’s out.

The Panic Attack

What is a panic attack? – Most of us have heard about them, have had friends who deal with them or maybe even dealt with them ourselves. I’d like to delve into what a panic attack really is, clear up some misconceptions, and help you either avoid them, or take them on like a champion. They aren’t very difficult to understand, in fact they arise from the most simple (and in evolution - the oldest) part of our brains!
So what is a panic attack – plain and simple? Well, it is the emotion of fear. When we are in a conscious state and not practicing meditation or any spiritual relaxation / peacefulness we usually have “monkey-brain”; that is, a mind that swings from thoughts to thoughts, endlessly throughout the day. We constantly think of the future, the past, the present, and a combination of all these, trying to best suit our selves for gratification or whatever. Since all parts of the brain are active, and the mind seems to jump from one idea to the next, it is possible to have a negative thought – one that seems frightening or sad. In some cases, and especially for mine, the brain will quickly quiet this thought and move to the next. The problem, though, is that the part of the brain that controls fear can (at times) lag behind our speedy jumping consciousness; there is almost a delay among when one should feel fear after the fearful thought has subsided (if one skips over it).
So what does that have to do with panic attacks? What happens in a panic attack, is analogous to a trip wire. One may be walking through one’s thoughts, and trip over a depressing or confronting thought – like death or something silly like that. If one avoids the thought of this – and keeps “walking” within one’s thoughts away from the idea of death, the delayed fear may creep up seconds, or even minutes after the thought occured, and one will start to feel fear, or panic. At first the mind and brain will be attempt to figure out “what is wrong?” or “why do I feel afraid, uneasy, or anxious?” and thus begins the “attack” – the consciousness will not be able to identify what is going on, and it will attempt to fill this fear! At first there will be nothing to stick the fear to, but as the feeling of uneasiness fails to be solved, it will grow. The mind will start to escalate, perhaps the heart may start beating faster – “What is wrong – something is wrong!” This state of mind continues until one cannot prove a worry or fear incorrect – such as delusional thoughts like "I'm dying". It is impossible to prove to yourself that you are not about to die, so it may linger – there is no logical way to deduce that this isn’t true, so the fear will stick on to a thought until it can be disproved.

So what is one to do here? We must get you to the confrontation stage or at the very least bring your focus to neutrality.

When a panic attack begins, one must remember the walking through thoughts analogy. Retrace your steps backwards in time, and try to identify any thought that made you uneasy, such as a missed loved one, a distant friend, a sore relationship, or anything else that may have brought some emotional weight. It should be within the past 5 minutes, but I’ve noticed some of mine have extended to 15 minutes prior to feeling fear! After having retraced the steps, it should eventually pop in your head what you were trying to avoid. At this point the panic fear will turn into (healing) discomfort. This is where one needs to examine the situation and come to peace. Depending on the subject it may take some time, but the identification of the negative feeling is most important – this stops the mind from creating new fears, and locks it onto something manageable – something meaningful. You aren’t about to die, I promise!

Other points to deal with lingering negative feelings are doing exercise like pushups, situps, or something intensive. This will cause the mind to become focused elsewhere. While lifting the mind away from the negativity, wait until you feel neutral or otherwise fine, and start to drift into happiness, remember scenes where you felt at peace, at one with life, and some of your happiest moments with friends and family. If one is trained in meditation, by all means, use this as well – the ability to stop the mind in its tracks is a wonderful tool, it may also help in analyzing and converting a panic into a (healing) confrontation.

If one has a history of panic attacks or anxiety, please remember these above words. They can also be applicable to negative feelings during trips on psychedelics. If a panic attack happens on a psychedelic it can be much more amplified, so please keep this in the mental tool box if you are considering entheogen use.

I will get into a more in depth and meaningful post on the Confrontation stage in a bit, which applies more towards depression and how we rationalize who we are. One of the most over-looked parts of being a human in today's world is why so many people are depressed.

Archived Posts

Hello! 

What a wonderful day to read my little writings.

I have many old writings from previous months and years that I will share soon enough, as I want them to be all in one location. You can hope for those to come, re-touched a bit, and edited for completeness and ease of reading (as well as a little after-thought thrown in).

Be excited that I am writing again, as I am as well - let me explain the purpose of my blog in parts.

Part 1 and most critical;
I want to abolish, or at least hand out control and understanding of Panic attacks, depression, and anxiety. I had lived with these the majority of my life and dedicated that portion of my existence to conquering and controlling these not-so-pleasant emotions. I will share strategies, tips, perspectives, and a few paradigm shifts that will help you deal with these occurrences!

Part 2;
I would like to explain some of my insights on how to maximize yourself by learning, and taking advantage of your creative self. Creativity is one of the most defining factors of genius, entrepreneurship, and fulfillment in a life of learning. We may go through politics, science, sociology, art, academia, and onward, but it shall be a real treat for me as well, as I have much to learn!

Part 3;
Being healthy in both mind and body. I'd like to delve into mostly what not to do in order to be healthy; that is what foods and practices to avoid. Watch for my post "all food is bad" - it may surprise you. Some of this may be discomforting, some may be incredibly uplifting, the best attitude is to just sit and observe, judge after all is said and done.

Part 4;
Psychonauts unite! Being a psychonaut I will briefly and periodically take you on adventures dealing with meditation, lucid dreaming, astral projections, and last but not least entheogen use. I will only briefly touch on these subjects as they are very delicate and I wish to only be objective and give out information.

As always - I would highly enjoy comments and questions - please send to LearningAsAnArt@Gmail.com