20231122 SLLLAVERS FOR WEDNESDAY - NOT D-DAY YET, BUT I, KEN TAYLOR, ALREADY HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED!!!!!!!

SILENCE

Tried; mild success in silencing my brain for 80 seconds.

LLL - BHL

Laugh.  Love.  Live.

Bless.  Heal.  Love.

AFFIRMATIONS

1. I, Ken Taylor, am a loving human being.
2. I, Ken Taylor, am a loving human being.
3. I, Ken Taylor, am a loving human being.
4. I, Ken Taylor, am a loving human being.
5. I, Ken Taylor, am a loving human being.

Also said aloud for 80 seconds.

1. I, Ken Taylor, already have everything I need.
2. I, Ken Taylor, already have everything I need.
3. I, Ken Taylor, already have everything I need.
4. I, Ken Taylor, already have everything I need.
5. I, Ken Taylor, already have everything I need.

Also said aloud for 80 seconds.

VISUALIZATION

206.2  Today's weight

205.2  Yesterday's weight

+1.0

I visualize weighing less tomorrow.

EXERCISE

DId my full base-80 routine for Wednesday, November 22, 2023:

1. ankle/wrist circles 80
2. toe/finger stretches 80
3. bicycle crunches 80
4. (MADE BED; PIANO)
5. shoulder rolls 80
6. flamingo L40, R40
7. ball/wall 15
8. angel wall 15
9. counter stretch 15
10. squats 40
11. push-ups 16 (floor) + 24 (wall) = 40

READING, WRITING

RUMI

Read for 80 seconds in SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari.  He says that once our global society shifted from the medieval "Haves & have-nots" to the modern capitalistic economy, the nobility were replaced by mostly men in grey suits trying to grow their wealth.  Governments and middle-income folks did the same, wondering if they should invest in stocks, bonds, education and/or real estate.

NOTE:  I understand economics far better now that I did when I took an economics class as part of my undergraduate degree.  Thanks, Yuval!

Read for 80 seconds in A PROMISED LAND by Barack Obama.  He recalls discussing how his administration would handle the impending doom of recession, trying desperately to keep it from becoming a DEP-ression.  Following FDR & The Keyensian model, he considered various government programs, such as a highway improvement project, or a national grid.

Read for 80 seconds in WORKING WITH ONENESS by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee.  He says that we are generally caught up in trying to avoid death and darkness, when LIFE necessarily includes darkness - Vaughan-Lee calls it "the feminine."  It is is the feminine darkness that life is born and becomes the next cycle of being.  We should not try to avoid darkness & death.  We should be focused on living.

NOTE:  I like his phrase:  "If life does not change, it dies, and yet paradoxically we are so frightened of death that we try to hold back the flow of life."  We do this by trying to be "forever young," etc.

Read for 80 seconds in THE RIGHTEOUS MIND by Jonathan Haidt.  He says there are SOCIAL models that say we are persuaded to act in accordance with the social norms of a group (i.e., following friendly elephants), and REASON-BASED models that say we are persuaded to act in accordance with our own norms (i.e., NOT following a hostile other).  The question then becomes, WHEN are we persuaded to change our minds?  Is it social pressure? Or is it our own reasoning that leads us to change?  Haidt says it's rare we do this on our own.

Like the optical illusion Necker Cube, it is practically impossible to see the orientation of the cube in 2 different ways at the same time; our focus shifts to see it 2 different ways.  Similarly, we can't be focused on 2 conflicting opinions about a controversial issue (eg., is abortion ok?).  If we believe it's ok, we'll welcome others who agree, and shun to some degree others who disagree.

Read for 80 seconds in MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Viktor Frankl.  He recalls that the suffering he endured in various camps was punctuated by small "blessings."  He was fortunate enough to be in a group who were not forced to empty bins of mud for 12 hours a day, outside in cold rainy weather, day after day; rather, he was fortunate to be working on a project inside a building.  He was fortunate when a siren interrupted his supervisor's day-long beatings, from which he would otherwise likely have died.

It's hard to imagine thinking that he was "fortunate" in any way, since he was a prisoner in a concentration camp, deprived of most everything beyond staying alive (e.g., toothbrushes, clean clothes, etc.)  He considered himself fortunate that he was not dead.

He gives the example of a boxer who is losing the match, and can hardly stand up, when after endless struggle, is "SAVED BY THE BELL."  (hmmmm, I wonder if that's the true origin of the saying.)

Read for fun in THE COMFORT CRISIS by Michael Easter.  

I hadn't planned to write about a "just for fun" book, but today, I HAVE to.  Easter discusses how some artists, rather than giving in to "apathy," will enter a state (a zone) where their action and their awareness merge, and they essentially block out all exterior influences; he calls it "Flow State" and describes it as an "art of Zen in art" experience.  But he gives credit to a young psychology researcher in Chicago in the 1960s.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, over his career ran the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago (where Dr. Pruitt got his undergraduate degree); and later became president of the American Psychology Association.  He interviewed thousands of people (artists, atheletes, etc.) who all reported being in a Flow State during their careers.

I'm wondering if Dr. Pruitt knew MC, knew OF him, knew of the Flow State......