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10 Brutal Truths About Life That We All Need to Accept Before it’s Too Late

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Here are some of those truths which you should (re)learn and accept:

1. VALUE YOURSELF

You must know and value yourself before you expect anything from others. You should be aware of your talents, passions and desires. Do not depend on other people to awaken you from the inside, rather go ahead and explore your soul. Know your worth; don’t let anyone dull your sparkle.

2. UNPREDICTABLE AND UNCERTAIN LIFE

One of the most challenging aspects of life is its unpredictability. You can never surely measure what is going to happen next. The world is changing at a rapid rate leading to great existential dilemma. If you accept the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of life then it’ll prove to be highly advantageous.

3. ACCEPT FAILURE

We cannot succeed at all times. Learn to accept failure in a positive way. If you never fail then how can you handle success effectively? Failure makes one humble; it keeps us grounded when success gives us wings to fly. Learn your lessons from your failures and keep bouncing back stronger than ever.

4. MATERIAL POSSESSIONS

Possessions does not define life. Sure, they are necessary but they do not define what life is. Try to build meaningful relationships with people on the basis of love and care. Material possessions are temporary, and since we live in such an uncertain world it is better to not form attachment with tangible goods.

5. ACTION VS. INACTION

Spending more time on thinking things rather than doing them will keep you stuck in your current position. Think things through but also try to work on them. You can’t sit on your hands forever and expect life to award you with success. Take that step! Make that move you have been long waiting for.

6. FORGIVE PEOPLE

Forgiving people can be very hard but it is good for inner peace and harmony. Life will not stop for you or for anyone. So it’s better to get along with it in the forward direction. It’s very easy to remember: Forgive, Forget, Move On.

7. YOU MAKE YOUR OWN LIFE

You are the driver behind the wheel when it comes to your life. Other people can do backseat driving by telling you what you should and shouldn’t to do. But you have to take the ultimate step. It all depends on you, whether you want to speed ahead or hit the brakes.

8. LET GO OF SOME PEOPLE

It’s not that hard to understand that some people are just not meant for you. Instead of dragging any relationship for the sake of it, drop the baggage and move ahead where endless possibilities are awaiting you.

9. BEING BUSY VS. BEING PRODUCTIVE

You might be busy playing games on your phone, but are you being productive? Add some knowledge and creativity to your life if you really want to be productive. Don’t pretend to look busy in order to feel superior to others. You are only wasting your time.

10. YOLO (YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE)

Yes, life is short. All the points mentioned above are summed up in this simple sentence. Make the best of your time, energy, love and money. Stop wasting them on worthless people and activities.

Source: Simple Capacity

The post 10 Brutal Truths About Life That We All Need to Accept Before it’s Too Late appeared first on Educate Inspire Change.


Why Living With Less Can Actually Make You Happier

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Will having more wealth actually make you happier? According to a number of studies an addition to your income isn’t only unlikely to make you happier, but it can make those around you less happy, and you for the fear of losing it.

To explain, we must first look at a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Two economists, David Blanchflower of Dartmouth and Andrew Oswald of Warwick, set out to document the relation that age has to overall happiness. What they found was that as income tends to increase steadily over time, happiness follows a U-shape pattern, dipping to its lowest point at around age 45, then quickly climbing up thereafter.

A large-scale survey from the General Social Survey, which included around 20,000 men and 25,000 women of 16 years and older supports these findings. After asking Americans to rank their happiness on a 3 point scale ranging from “very happy” to “pretty happy” to “not too happy”, they found a resulting average of 2.2, or just over “pretty happy”. The Eurobaromoter, after conducting a similar survey on close to 400,000 men and women in 11 European countries from 1975 to 1998 found that the average self-assessed happiness score across Europe is 3 out of 4.

After further investigation, Oswald and Blanchflower found that the age of any given person in the developing world is more powerful in determining overall happiness than a halving or doubling of income. Also, they found that people of every gender and income have become enormously less happy throughout the past century. The difference in levels of happiness between those born in the 1960’s vs the 1920’s is the same effect as a tenfold difference in income, despite the fact that the younger generation is far more prosperous.

“I thought, if I could make 10 million dollars then it must be too easy. In fact, I honestly thought, everyone else had probably already made 11 million dollars. So then I felt poor again. I now needed 100 million dollars to be happy.” ~James Altucher

What could explain this sharp decrease in happiness over time? Well, one of the largest societal changes that occurred throughout the 20th century was the onset of a mass consumerist culture. Before the roaring 1920’s, life was much simpler and people didn’t have strong desires for material things beyond the basics to live a fulfilling life like we do today.

On a scientific level, the ultimate reward for the purchase of a new watch, car, or other status symbol is a short-term release in dopamine which triggers a brief period of personal satisfaction. This is why we feel good after buying new things and it’s where the term “retail therapy” comes from. However, the happiness one gets from material worth is short-lived. After time, the buyer will revert back to their original demeanor, while obtaining a sense of comfort and security from those new things they bought.

From this perspective, it begins to make sense why prosperous people in the developing world are some of the most prone to depression; they become afraid of losing what they have which their peers don’t. In fact, those on the opposite end are shown to have the reverse effect and often become more depressed when around those with greater wealth. Contrary to popular belief that areas of high poverty produce higher homicide rates, it is actually those with the highest income disparity.

“Riches leave a man always as much and sometimes more exposed than before to anxiety, to fear and to sorrow.” ~Adam Smith

About the Author

Phillip Schneider is a student and a staff writer for Waking Times.

This article (Why Living With Less Can Actually Make You Happier) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here with permission.

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Why Humans Struggle With Happiness

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When a person considers and analyzes the functions of the brain, the brain is analyzing itself.

As far as the human brain is concerned, it is the only thing on planet earth to have the ability to become self-aware of its own existence.

Not only is the brain aware of its existence, but it also spends its entire life trying to understand why. Existing is not enough for the brain. The brain must also understand why.

It is the single question “why?” that separates human from all other species on planet earth.

Ever since we are old enough to utter words, it seems as though our favorite word is, “why?” When we are children, we ask things like why the sky is blue or why things die. Our parents might give us their best answers, but the spirit of our question remains restless and fundamentally unanswered.

Our brain is so confused. It does not understand how it can be both conscious enough to ask questions but not conscious enough to uncover all of the answers? It taunts itself with this perpetual cycle, trying to find a way out of its infinite madness, but it only knows how to digs its self deeper. So what do we do? Do we follow our brain into its hole of madness?

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22 Common Things People Realize When They Quit Drinking Alcohol

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With over 30% of people reporting that they have some sort of drinking problem, the question remains, what happens when you stop? Well, as a former alcoholic, I can’t tell you that your life begins to change immensely, and in the most surprising ways.

1. People Tell Me I’m Like a Different Person

And for good reason, because I am. However, I didn’t realize that until after I had a few sober outings. The truth is, it feels great.

2. You Will Lose Almost All Of Your Friends

While at first, you may feel sad about it, the sad truth is that all of those people didn’t truly care, to begin with, they were only there for the party.

3. Current Drunks Will Drive You Crazy

After years of partying, and being the life of the party, I have come to realize only since I quit that I don’t like being around drunks.

4. You Will Be Bored

At first, it’s like you won’t know what to do with your spare time. However, as you find new interests, the boredom will dissipate.

5. Alcohol Is Everywhere

During my years as an alcoholic, I expected alcohol to be everywhere. Now, I am just like ‘Really?!’

6. People Think I Am Pregnant

When I pass on booze, friends, and family that didn’t know I quit asking me if I am pregnant.

7. I Save So Much Money

During active addiction, I drank at least $10.00 a day.

8. I Lost Weight Like Poof

Faster than a magic trick, I dropped 10 extra pounds. No, I’m not complaining.

9. I Have So Much More Time

While before I couldn’t find enough time in my day to get anything done, now I have more than enough time.

10. I Realized I Don’t Have to Be Drunk to Have Fun

I can have fun without alcohol now, which amazes me!

11. I Regret Less

Now, I don’t black out entire evenings after cussing random friends out while on a bender.

12. Some People Will Never Get It

I find myself turning down invites to social gatherings that include alcohol, and some people will never get it. But, I don’t need that anymore.

13. Bars Are Gross

Smoke, booze, puke and drunk people…..fun…..NOT.

14. I Realize Now I Drank Mostly Out of Habit and Boredom

In hindsight, my drinking was caused mostly by boredom and out of habit. Now, I have healthier habits.

15. I Appreciate Non-Drinkers More

Before, non-drinkers were prudes in my eyes. However, now, I get it.

16. I Have Less Balls

After having a few drinks, I was bulletproof. Now, I am more hesitant to step close to a high ledge, but honestly, I think it’s better that way.

17. I Apologize Less

Without fights, there is no need to apologize. And I don’t care who you are, people get stupid when they drink too much and violence follows. That’s just how it is for some.

18. Alcoholic Conversations Drive Me Mad Now

In the past, alcohol seemed to fuel some wonderful conversations. Now, it makes people’s conversations make less sense and more boring to me.

19. I Am More Aware of Myself

I am more mindful and attuned to myself without alcohol.

20. My Memory Is Clearer

I forget less, remember more, and actually want to.

21. I Don’t Feel Sick All The Time

Rather than having a stomach ache every day, I feel much better.

22. My Sleeping Schedule Is Normal For Once

Drinking made me want to pass out or go to sleep later, there was no in between. Now, I go to sleep at a regular time and wake up normally to boot!

Inspired by an article written by Waking Times.

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10 Ways School Is Making Children Stupid and Depressed

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From the age of at least five years old, until adulthood, we are told that school is a necessary rite of passage that all children must go through. However, what most people don’t tell you, is that school is what is making children stupid and depressed.

Unfortunately, despite this, we must send our children to school. But, thankfully, according to a number of ‘unschoolers’, there is another option. For more information on that check out this link.

And without further ado, here are 10 ways that schools are stifling our children, and causing them to lead depressing and empty lives.

1. Their Individuality Is Not Treasured In School

In a school like setting, children’s individual needs are overlooked as there are so many children to care for. Because of this, there is no way to cater the talents of the child to their own personal interests. Instead, they are told to think collectively.

2. It Teaches Your Children to Live For the Future, Rather Than to Seize the Day

Instead of teaching children to enjoy their lives, school teaches us that we should always continue to sacrifice our days for the good of the next. While it is good to plan for the future, it is also good to enjoy the moment as well.

3. It Equates Money With Success

By telling children that they must have good grades to succeed, so they can go to school and make a lot of money, we are instilling in them that nothing is more successful than pockets full of cash.

4. It Teaches Them to Doubt Themselves

Don’t do “fill in the blank here” without asking the teacher. While this is commonly heard in school corridors, teachers tell children to depend on them completely for everything, which couldn’t be worse for their independence.

5. It Stifles Creativity

Rather than enforcing true creativity, children are given set guidelines for everything. And every child is expected to conform and be the same.

6. It Teaches Them to Fear Failure

By telling you that you will lose everything if you make and F and flunk out of school, the curriculums are telling children that failure means game over. That isn’t true in real life and it shouldn’t be in school.

7. They Teach You What to Think, Not How to Think

Rather than teaching children how to think creatively, schools teach children to think as they are told. This can become quite depressing for a human being that is creative by nature.

8. They Are Given Ridiculous Expectations that No Child Should Have to Meet

As an adult, I have very rarely had to squeeze in extra-curriculars, work, and school in the same day, however, many high school kids are carrying this load. It is too much, too soon.

9. It Teaches Them Play is Bad

During school hours, outside of a 20-minute recess, most children are reprimanded for playing. Why? Because it isn’t school work.

10. They Are Grouped Together Like Cattle

Depending on your performance, your name, your age, etc., you are sorted into large groups of other children from a young age. Because of this, the child is ignored as an individual and only considered as part of a group.

The post 10 Ways School Is Making Children Stupid and Depressed appeared first on Educate Inspire Change.

24 Powerful Keys to Transcend the Ego

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The Ego is the central figure of our personal history, based upon the past and looking into the future. It is a dissatisfied, possessive small ego that often makes our life a misery. It is for certain that this small ego–or, more precisely, what we believe is our Self, our Ego–coiled up tightly in the back of our mind, is responsible for a tremendous amount of senseless and unnecessary suffering and destruction in the history of mankind.

On our spiritual Journey arises the question, how we transcend the Ego?

Here are 24 Keys to transcend the Ego

Key 1.

The Ego is not bad, it is simply unconscious.

Key 2.

The Ego is responsible for the integrity of the personality, for our inner well-being.

Key 3.

The components of the Ego are thoughts, emotions, memories (with which the person identifies as “my story”), fixed unconscious roles and collective identifications (nationality, religion, etc.). Most people completely identify with these components of the Ego, and for them no self “outside” of this exists.

Key 4.

The identification of the Ego with things (object, the person’s own body, way of thinking) creates the link of the individual to various things. The Ego experiences his/her existence through the possession of various objects.

Key 5.

The satisfaction provided by the sense of possession is, short, so the Ego usually carries on the pursuit for new objects. There is a powerful motivation behind this activity of the Ego, a psychological demand to obtain more, the unconscious sense of “not yet enough,” and this feeling surfaces in a want for more.

Key 6.

The content of the Ego will then be the thing with which the individual identified him/herself (my house, my car, my child, my intelligence, my opinion, etc.). The contents of the Ego (with which the individual identifies) are shaped by the environment and upbringing of the person, that is, the culture in which the person becomes an adult.

Key 7.

The thoughts such as “it’s mine,” “I want it,” “I need it,” “it is not enough,” belong to the structure of the Ego. The content of the Ego changes with time; it is replaced with new contents. No content is, however, able to lastingly satisfy the Ego as long as the structure of the Ego remains in its place.

Key 8.

The Ego keeps looking for something different, something that promises a greater satisfaction, making the sense of self of the individual more complete.

Key 9.

The Ego wants to possess more and more, wants to become more and more powerful. More knowledge, more faith, more material wealth. The Ego wants to devour more and wants to do it more anxiously. That is how the Ego becomes a tyrant and dominates our life to an increasing extent.

Key 10.

The Ego is shaped by the past, determining its structure and contents. The structure of the Ego is an unconscious factor, which forces the individual to reinforce his/her identity by joining an external object.

Key 11.

The Ego is but a mental production, a system of beliefs.

Key 12.

The Ego strives to protect, sustain and expand itself. The Ego functions in survival mode. The statement that the Ego functions in a survival mode means that it continually struggles to remain “psychologically alive,” so it regards other Egos as rivals or even enemies.

Key 13.

One of the most important strategies of the Ego to sustain and reinforce itself is the experience of “I am right.” This is the identification of an idea, position, evaluation. Nothing gives the Ego more power than experiencing that “I am right.”  It is the desire of the Ego to be right, and thus overcome the other, ensuring its own superiority.

Key 14.

One of the favorite self-reinforcing strategies of the Ego is complaining. Complaining implies the sense that “I am right.” When another Ego refuses to accept that “I am right,” it is an offense to the complaining Ego, which. in turn, further reinforces its self-awareness.

Key 15.

The Ego intends to elevate the forms (including its own form) to eternity, which is impossible. This intention of the Ego will be the source of all sufferings, because its world of forms and shapes shall collapse like a sandcastle after a while, until death snatches away the last of the forms: its body from it.

Key 16.

Our entire culture and civilization rest upon the selfish and possessive Ego and, as the Ego created the institutions of society, these institutions are also the expressions of the Ego.

Key 17.

In most people identifies with that socially conditioned Ego. At a number of people this identification is so powerful that they are unaware that their life is governed by a socially conditioned Mind.

Key 18.

The Ego must fall, as it is against the evolutionary development of the Consciousness.

Key 19.

If an individual is able to notice and observe the functions of the Ego, he or she will be able to transcend it.

Key 20.

We must reach beyond our Ego-dominated mind programs, because if we fail to do that, we will eventually destroy ourselves and a large part of the world.

Key 21.

One of the ways of transcending the Ego is not reacting wholeheartedly to the ever-changing caleidoscope of thoughts and emotions, but concentrating on the alert Consciousness in the background instead.

Key 22.

The Ego calls itself real and the only existing ”Self,” though it is nothing more than a conceptual product, the continually changing content of the space of Consciousness

Key 23.

In the space of Consciousness, in the state of pure consciousness the person recognizes and clearly experiences that Ego is a fraud.

Key 24.

The Truth is that we are the embodiment of Life, we are born into this world as a result of a miracle, and later we are lost amidst the multitude of teachings and dogmas.

~Read more: Frank M. Wanderer: The Revolution of Consciousness: Deconditioning the Programmed Mind 

Source: The Mind Unleashed

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THIS Is How To Send Distant Energy Healing To Anyone…

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Our thoughts are powerful. So powerful in fact that often just thinking about someone can send a small stream of energy their way.

We are all energetic beings and we all have energy that flows from within and around us. When we start to become aware of this energy and its potential, we can use it to send healing, good thoughts and wishes to people we care about all over the world.

We all have the ability to do this as long as we are open and confident in who we want to send loving, healing energy to.

Here is how to send distant healing energy to another person, animal or plant:

1. SET UP YOUR SPACE

Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Try to make sure the space has been cleansed and is free from clutter and other distractions.

2. QUIET YOUR MIND

Still your mind by taking a few deep breaths and then set your intention for your healing. You may even want to state clearly who you are sending the healing energy to.

3. BUILD UP YOUR ENERGY

To send a positive ray of healing energy, start rubbing your hands together in a circular motion until you can feel the energy building between them. You should be able to feel the energy pulsing from your hands as you slowly separate them.

4. MAKE AN ENERGY BALL

Once you can feel the energy pulsing through your hands imagine the energy taking on the shape of a ball. You can also give the energy ball its own colour based on the type of healing you are wishing to send:

  • Blue: emotional healing
  • Orange: physical healing
  • White: spiritual healing/ general healing
  • Green: heart healing
  • Purple: psychic protection

Keep focusing your attention on this energy ball, making it bigger and stronger and more powerful with every breath.

5. SEND THE ENERGY

When you feel your ball of energy is buzzing and strong, visualise sending it to your chosen person (or animal). You may even want to picture the person you are sending it to receiving the energy and feeling the beautiful healing effects of what you have sent.

6. RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES

Once the healing energy has been sent, it is important to recharge your batteries by grounding your energy. This could include taking a walk in nature, meditating, having a relaxing bath or simply nourishing your body with some healthy food.

Sending energy healing to another is a very powerful tool and is a great way to help others when you can’t be there for them physically.

There are just a few things to remember about sending healing energy:

  • The quality of your healing energy begins with you, so avoid sending healing energy when you are physically ill or feeling emotionally drained.
  • It is not necessary to tell the person you are sending healing energy to them, however if you do tell them, it can make them more open to receiving the energy.
  • Healing energy has to be sent with love. If you find yourself feeling any negative emotions towards the person you are sending this energy to, stop.
  • Whatever you send out comes back to you three times. This means whatever energy you send out into the world will come back to you three time as strong.

 Learning how to send distant energy healing is a valuable and special tool that we can all learn to do. So if someone you know could use a dose of healing energy, why not give it a try.

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY TANAAZ CHUBB AND PUBLISHED ON FOREVER CONSCIOUS
 

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Why Is Marijuana Banned? The Real Reasons are Worse than You Think

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Across the world, support for marijuana legalization continues to grow in places where it’s currently illegal. But then the question becomes – why was it ever banned in the first place?

The answer may surprise you – because it’s not what you think.

In fact, we think you’ll find the answer downright shocking.

Back in 1929, Harry Anslinger was made director of a government department known as the Department of Prohibition. But, as it turned out, Prohibition was a disaster – and when it was repealed, Anslinger needed a way to keep his department alive.

So, without a way to scapegoat alcohol any longer, he turned his eyes elsewhere – on cannabis.

Cannabis, he said, would make a dangerous, insane criminal. Marijuana, he said, made people turn into evil beasts. And then, he said, there was the case of the boy Victor Lacata, who’d recently hacked his family to death in Florida – with an ax. That, Anslinger said, is what happens when you smoke weed.

Documentation now shows that Anslinger wrote to thirty leading doctors, hoping they’d sign off on his crazy statements. Twenty-nine said no. One said, sure. Anslinger used that doctor to give legitimacy to his ravings.

The United States banned marijuana – then strong-armed other countries, such as Mexico, into doing the same.

Confused doctors, who knew that cannabis wasn’t the evil Anslinger was making it out to be, asked where the scientific research was to support such wild claims.

Anslinger refused to hear it, writing only “The marijuana evil can no longer be temporized with,” and as such, he would fund no independent science, not ever.

But here’s the catch. Years later, somebody went and looked at the psychiatric files for Victor Lacata – and there’s no evidence he ever used cannabis. Instead, there was a long history of mental illness in his family, and someone had actually suggested Lacata be institutionalized a year prior. There was no mention of cannabis in any of his files.

There’s no data anywhere to support the idea that cannabis causes pyschosis.

In fact, the scientific evidence suggests cannabis is safer than alcohol. Alcohol kills 40,000 people every year in the US. Cannabis kills nobody—although Willie Nelson says a friend of his did once die when a bale of cannabis fell on his head.

Isn’t it time we listened to the science—and finally put away Victor Lacata’s axe?

Source

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10 Ways Those Who Are Emotionally Abused Love Differently

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Emotional abuse can come in many shapes and forms, and it affects everybody differently. Many people are left traumatized by the experience, leading many victims to do things differently than other people would.

If you or someone that you know is dealing with emotional abuse, please seek the guidance of a counselor. If you have been abused, and you are recovering, then you can relate when I say that the emotionally abused person loves differently. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say love less. Actually, it could be argued that they may love you more. But, that is for a different article.

1. They Need Their Own Space

Victims are often left feeling empty and alone, and many of them are dealing with quite a lot on the inside. Because of this, it is expected that they may set boundaries for their own personal space. If not, please grant them this respect anyways.

2. They Are Guarded

Due to the fact that they have been taken through the ringer, the emotionally abused person is more guarded. This is to protect them from further harm. However, once they get to know and trust you, things will change.

3. It Will Take Time Before They Let You In

Trust is not something that comes easy for a person with any kind of disorder. However, if you give them time they will learn to let you in.

4. They Might Be Overly Suspicious

Going through a traumatic event leaves many people feeling suspicious of other peoples motives.

5. We Are Affectionate……On Our Terms

Emotionally abused people need love too, but we also need space.

6. Sometimes We Suspect the Worst Out of People

Having a loved one hurt you can completely rewire your brain, oftentimes altering your perception of other people.  While we may suspect the worst out of other people, we always hope for the best…. Don’t let us down!

7. We Over Apologize

When you have been demeaned and degraded verbally by another person you trust, you begin to think everything you do is wrong. We don’t mean to get on your nerves, but we will apologize for EVERYTHING!

8. We May Overreact 

As a victim of trauma, our brains are hypersensitive to everything. Even the slightest situation could look like impending trouble.

9. We May Contradict Themselves

Due to past abuse, we have built a need to change at the drop of a dime to accommodate someone else. Because of this, we may come off as flakey.

10. We’ll Always Be There

Because we know what it feels like to be left, we will always be there when you need us! There is no need to feel like you can’t talk to us or that you have no place in our lives.

The post 10 Ways Those Who Are Emotionally Abused Love Differently appeared first on Educate Inspire Change.

Are Mood Disorders the Price We Pay for High Intelligence and Creativity? Scientists Say “Yes”

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Throughout history, we have known many highly intelligent and creative people who suffered from mood disorders of all kinds. Even Beethoven was notorious for his angry outbursts.

It seems great thinkers in the past would be classified in modern day as bipolar or with some other chronic mental illness that alters’s one’s mood. The main primaries of these being Bipolar one, bipolar two, and cyclothymic disorder. Bipolar one is more manic and usually, comes before or after a depressive episode while bipolar two consists of one or more major depressive episodes lasting two weeks and a manic cycle of at least four days. The most lenient, in my opinion, is the cyclothymic disorder that lasts for two years or longer of mild mania and depressive episodes.

In one study carried out by the University of Glasgow examining the IQ of around 2,000 eight-year-old children and comparing the data with the children of which developed manic traits by the age of 22 or 23, they discovered that a high IQ was in fact linked with bipolar symptoms later in life. While having a high IQ is not a clear-cut risk factor like many other issues environmental issues may play a part.

Lead researcher Daniel Smith said:

“There is something about the genetics underlying the disorder that are advantageous. One possibility is that serious disorders of mood – such as bipolar disorder – are the price that human beings have had to pay for more adaptive traits such as intelligence, creativity, and verbal proficiency,”

This, however, is not the only study to find a link between something of this sort. Another study found a link between genetics, bipolar disorder, and creativity. For this, they reviewed the DNA of well over 86,000 people looking for specific genes that increased the risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. They documented whether or not the individuals were in creative fields and upon analyzing the data found that those who are creative have a 25 percent higher risk to carry genes often associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. This study was carried out by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

It really does seem that a lot of people who are creative and highly intelligent are at a greater risk of developing some type of mood disorder. How many amazing individuals are sacrificed by way of the pharmaceutical industry? That we do not know. While medication is something that some people do need, lots of the drugs being used today turn us into nothing more than zombies, there has to be a better way.

Inspired by an article written by Learning Mind.

Image Via What Dreams May Come

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The Surprising Cause of Self Doubt

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Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” ~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

You’ve likely never lost sleep thinking about how capable or awesome you are. Self-doubt is formed from those thoughts that keep you up at night. What causes this pain-in-your-ass thinking pattern, though? Surely you’d rather not constantly doubt your own worth, your own mind, and your own abilities. What creates this gnarly beast and how do we reel it in?

Self-doubt is formed from a frozen conclusion you made at some point in your life. In a nutshell, belief forms self-doubt. O.k. We can all go home now!

But really, you formed these beliefs when you were much younger, and you had much less power to affect change. Because the emotional self doesn’t experience time, that belief becomes frozen – still affecting you now, even if someone said or did something unkind to you decades ago.

Maybe you lived in a family that doubted your intelligence, or beauty, or innate worth. Maybe the world re-infected you with low self-worth because you then acted in ways to support those erroneous assumptions of your closest family members.

It doesn’t really matter who got the ball rolling. The fact is it can feel like trying to push a boulder up a steep driveway once you start to believe something different about yourself.

Fascinatingly, emotional abuse – those unkind words or subtle looks of disdain can be much more damaging to long-term self-esteem and contribute to the formation of self-doubt than even physical abuse. This is because we can think back on physical abuse and know very clearly that it was wrong. It is very tangible, and therefore often easier to heal from. It is the insipid, quiet kind of underhanded compliment or sly instigation of fear, often subconsciously used by our family members and peers when we are young and impressionable, that sticks with us.

Then, when we’re much older, and perfectly capable of forming our own opinions and beliefs – even about ourselves – we find we are still thinking with the minds of our abusers. It’s the wagging finger which forms our self-opinion, the voice of the ego (the father of all lies) which is creating our reality, not the still, small voice of the Divine. That voice was cut off and stifled long ago.

Self-doubt causes us to be small. It impedes our ability to have fulfilling relationships, succeed in business, and even experience true health and happiness.

SELF DOUBT ALWAYS LEADS TO SELF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

It creates toxic shame. We end up acting out the abuse we saw as young, evolving souls, on ourselves.

Here’s the beautiful thing about recovering from self-doubt, though. All you have to do is change your beliefs. You are already perfect, even in your imperfection. You no longer need to shrivel up inside yourself, hiding your true light so that others don’t feel overwhelmed by your Divinity. That’s their bag of lies – not yours.

So how do you heal from self-doubt?

  1. Notice any destructive patterns you engage in and know that this is internalized abuse. You are repeating the pattern of your abusers, only now you do the work for themSadly, they learned the same pattern from their abusers. It only stops when you see the root cause of your actions.
  2. If your creativity is cut off, you are likely suffering from self-doubt. The writer Sylvia Plath would attest to this fact, as would thousands of artists, writers, and generally-creative folks. Healing self-doubt reignites your creative abilities.
  3. Decide right now that you will no longer abuse yourself with hateful inner-talk. This inner disdain leads to action. The actions you take will change when the inner dialogue – the beliefs you have about yourself change.
  4. If traditional psychotherapy doesn’t work for you. Talk to a friend. Find a shaman. Do some soul work, but know that the Still Small Voice is the Voice of the Divine, always at the ready to heal your pain.
  5. Learn more about toxic shame. It’s a term because it is very real. It is also energetically lower than even the emotional vibrations of hatred and anger, so it must be dealt with for your energetic body to heal. It causes us to literally “freeze” due to a fight-or-flight response, making it impossible for us to realize our dreams. Only when it is healed, can we then move forward in life.
  6. Absolutely refuse to be around people who feed your self-doubt. Once you start to love yourself and adopt new beliefs you will naturally attract supportive, loving people, but in the meantime, detox yourself from people who continuously cause you to feel “less-than.”

Image: SourceSourceSourceSourceSource

Source: The Mind Unleashed

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61 Quotes From Self-Proclaimed Introverts That Redefine Being Alone

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*“A wise man once said nothing.”*—Proverb

I LOVE spending time on my own.

I’m not a narcissist.

Plato

”Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”

“Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.”

J.K. Rowling

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”

“No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours’ writing. Nothing.”

*“Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be.” *

Bill Gates

“I think introverts can do quite well. If you’re clever you can learn to get the benefits of being an introvert, which may be, say, being willing to go off for a few days and think about a tough problem, read everything you can, push yourself very hard to think out on the edge of that area.”

I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot”.

“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

“A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.”

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”

Albert Einstein

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.”

“The monotony and solitude of a quiet life *stimulates the creative mind.”*

Larry Page

“We’re at maybe 1% of what is possible. Despite the faster change, we’re still moving slow relative to the opportunities we have. I think a lot of that is because of the negativity… Every story I read is Google vs someone else. That’s boring. We should be focusing on building the things that don’t exist.”

“I have over 2 million followers now on Google Plus.”

Henry David Thoreau

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

Mahatma Gandhi

A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.”

“An ounce of practice is worth more than *tons of preaching.”*

“Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.”

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

Marilyn Monroe

*“I restore myself when I’m alone.” *

Rosa Parks

“My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.”

“Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way.”

Audrey Hepburn

“I’m an introvert… I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees, flowers, the sky.”

“I have to be alone very often. I’d be perfectly happy if I spent Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.”

“I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.”

“Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.”

Paolo Coelho

“Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.”

 “They say that extroverts are unhappier than introverts and have to compensate for this by constantly proving to themselves how happy and contented and at ease with life they are.”

Charles Darwin

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.”

Mark Zuckerberg

“A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.”

Michael Jordan

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”

Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”

“To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.”

Nikola Tesla

“Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone—that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.”~ Nikola Tesla

Warren Buffett

“You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”

Steve Wozniak

*“I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by committee… I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.” *

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me. They’re shy and they live in their heads. The very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone…”

Aldous Huxley

“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.”

Steven Spielberg

“Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.”

“The public has an appetite for anything about imagination – anything that is as far away from reality as is creatively possible.”

Sir Isaac Newton

If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.”

“Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.”

Stephen Hawking

“Quiet people have the loudest minds.”

Dr. Seuss

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”

“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

Anne Frank

*“I think a lot, but I don’t say much.” *

*Jimi Hendrix *

“I’m the one that has to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to.”

“Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens.”

Bob Dylan

“Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.”

“I kinda live where I find myself. “

Tom Hanks

“Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema has the power to make you not feel lonely, even when you are.”

Barack Obama

“Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”

Source: Expanded Consciousness

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WATCH: Woman Defends Having Sex While Breastfeeding In Most Bizarre Interview Of All Time

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“If you’re having sex in front of your children and it feels good …”

In one of the most uncomfortable and bizarre television interviews to date, Utah-based vlogger and mother of three Tasha Maile, defended her decision to have sex while breastfeeding, during an appearance on a U.K. morning show, while, fittingly, breastfeeding.

Maile posted a video about her doing the dirty while breastfeeding in 2015 and unsurprisingly received much backlash in response. The words “incest” and “creepy” where the biggest on the word cloud.

Someone over at the U.K.-based show was smart enough to see the potential for ratings gold, tracked down Maile, and invited the vlogger onto the show to defend herself.

What unfolded was likely more than they bargained for.

“The baby was sleeping while breastfeeding, so, he was very attached to me,” Maile, breast exposed and baby in-arm, explained to co-hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

“If your baby is sleeping, again being an adult about the conversation, we all like sex, there’s no secret about it. I think it’s totally fine if the baby is sleeping,” she added.

Willoughby, clearly tripped-up by the absurdity of Maile, asked if there was ever a time she would refrain from breastfeeding the baby, perhaps while she’s in the shower…?

“The baby showers with me,” answered the vlogger, giving off an awkward laugh.

“If the baby is okay, the baby’s okay,” she added, circling back to the topic of intercourse while breastfeeding. “They’re not sitting there judging you and thinking ‘my mom and dad are having sex.’ It’s a two- or three-month-old baby. They’re so innocent.”

Schofield then asked the mother about some of her viewers potentially watching her posts for the wrong reasons, implying sexual deviance.

She was totally cool with it. For real.

“In my opinion there is no right or wrong, it is what it is. And what people are watching my videos for is really none of my business,” she deadpanned.

Maile apparently still breastfeeds all three of her children, the eldest of whom is five. So the co-hosts inquired at what age it is no longer acceptable to get it on with your children attached to your breast.

“I’m not sure it doesn’t become not okay,” she replied, incredulously.

“If you’re having sex in front of your children and it feels good …,” she said before being cut-off by Schofield.

“That’s a hell of a quote!” exclaims the co-host.

You really just have to watch for yourself.

Source: DailyWire

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Scientists Accelerate Backward Time Travel Under Laboratory Conditions for First Time

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This experiment is the first of it’s kind and has created something quite interesting. The only known matter in the world with ‘negative mass’ has been created by physicists from Washington State University!

Every single other physical object in the world that we are familiar with does not accelerate backward under pressure, but this mass does. The phenomenon itself is known as the intuitive side of Neuton’s Second Law of Motion, force is equal to the mass of an object times its acceleration (F=ma). This is something we could use to explain some of the more bizarre things in space like black holes and things of that sort. It was proved more than a decade ago that negative mass could, in fact, exist in this Universe but until now creating a substance with ha negative mass has resulted in failure after failure.

Scientists held previous assumptions that negative mass would require some sort of exotic particles that ‘did not exist in our Universe’ but were proven wrong. This assumption was held because if something like this did exist it would defy Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. In order to create this negative mass, scientists cooled rubidium to absolute zero. This created a Bose-Einstein condensation in which particles are only able to move very slowly and behave more like waves. This is similar to how it is described in the famous double slit experiment.

After this point, scientists used lasers to kick atoms around until they begin spinning backward. You see, when the rubidium rushes out fast enough it behaves as if it had negative mass. This lab created negative mass can now be used to test out theories in regards to dark matter. This being because scientists have suggested in the past that dark matter and dark energy in itself should be considered negative mass.

Michael Forbes a professor from Washington State who took part in this says this about its creation:

“Once you push, it accelerates backward,”

“It looks like the rubidium hits an invisible wall. What’s a first here is the exquisite control we have over the nature of this negative mass, without any other complications”

“With negative mass, if you push something, it accelerates toward you.”

According to scientists Saoussen Mbarek and Manu Paranjape from the University de Montreal in Canada, there is a solution to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity that allows negative mass to exist without breaking assumptions that are essential. They have even hinted at these different positive and negative masses would create a plasma of some sort that would eventually allow for space travel.

What do you think about this amazing creation and where do you think it will lead us in the future? For more information check out the video below. Isn’t this amazing?

Inspired by an article written by the Mind Unleashed

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Is Your Soul Tired? 13 Things That Are Secretly Draining You

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In this life the things we deal with on a daily basis can be exhausting. Not only do our physical bodies get tired, but our souls get tired as well.

Our soul energy is something that we must maintain when our souls are tired it is a sign that we as human beings are living out of alignment with our purpose in life. When your soul is tired you will not be able to nourish your physical form. You can sleep for eight hours and still wake up feeling as if you have not rested at all.

For most of us, we know when our soul is tired because of the way it makes us feel and how persistent the pain itself is. If you think that your soul may be tired you need to assess why this could be! Many people don’t realize that a lot of the things we do have a real affect on not only our bodies, but our being as a whole!

Look over the following list, if you are doing any of these things it is time to make some major changes! Doing the following will leave your soul feeling fatigued.

1. Not loving yourself.

2. Not letting go of toxic people.

3. Holding onto something that is no longer benefiting you.

4. Saying yes when you mean no.

5. Allowing others to take advantage of you.

6. Not being true to yourself.

7. Doing something that does not fulfill your purpose.

8. Allowing others to abuse your kindness.

8. Negative self-talk.

9. Holding onto the past.

10. Being afraid of the future.

11. Surrounding yourself in clutter.

12. Making excuses for your wrongdoings.

13. Not learning from your mistakes.

These things will take a very serious toll on your soul and can manifest as depression. If your soul is tired let it rest. Once you identify the issues, you can make a difference and recharge your being from the inside out.

For more information on how to boost up the process of recharging check out the video below. There are several options and for me, crystal healing and meditation really do the trick. Be true to yourself and your soul.

Image via Shutterstock.

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12 Careers With The Most Psychopaths – is Your Profession on This List?

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Unfortunately, in modern times psychopaths are everywhere. This could be the person right next to you, your partner at work, or even the cashier at the grocery store could be a psychopath! As a matter of fact they could be making headlines before you even have a chance to notice…

While not all psychopaths turn out to be terrifying serial killers, they are more common than you think. The clinical diagnosis of a psychopath is something that refers to people who lack empathy or guilt; they are cold-hearted and manipulative.

There are actual visible differences when looking at the brain scans of someone who is a psychopath and someone who is not. This being especially obvious in areas where the individual would be processing emotions. Author Kevin Dutton has done quite a bit of research on this and knows a lot about the brains of psychopaths.

He is a research psychologist at the University of Oxford and was actually able to compile a list of careers that are most likely to attract and/or foster people with a psychopathic personality. That being said, his list only goes to ten and is a few years old so after number ten we will be adding in a couple more careers that seem to be flooded with psychopaths as well.

Is your job on the list? Take a look below to find out!

12 Careers With The Most Psychopaths:

1. CEO

CEO is a position of power which is perfect for the psychopath. They are able to make important emotionless decisions and because they lack remorse can hire and fire with ease. This often results in reckless behavior and can cause problems in the long run.

2. Lawyer

We can say without a doubt that there are many lawyers in this world who benefits from being able to lie and turn on their charm without conscience. During one interview Dutton actually spoke with a successful psychopathic lawyer who said this “deep inside me there’s a serial killer lurking somewhere. But I keep him amused with cocaine, formula one, booty calls, and coruscating cross-examination.”

3. Media

This one should be quite obvious; while not everyone in media falls into this category a lot of them do.

4. Salesperson

As you can probably tell, salespeople often only think of themselves. This means there will always be problems to come. The psychopathic salesperson is going to exploit the system as best they can in any way that will benefit them.

5. Surgeon

It seems a lot of surgeons are self-centered. Psychoanalyst Carl Sword actually recalled a conversation with an anonymous neurosurgeon who said the following “I have no compassion for those whom I operate on…. In the theater, I am reborn: as a cold, heartless machine, totally at one with scalpel, drill, and saw. When You’re cutting loose and cheating death high above the snowline of the brain, feelings aren’t fit for purpose. Emotion is entropy, and seriously bad for business. I’ve hunted it down to extinction over the years.”

6. Journalist

Psychopathy is something that can creep its way into any career, especially journalism. Seeing your name in a big newspaper daily is enough to turn anyone narcissistic and things can become worse from there.

7. Police officer

As you may have noticed police brutality is a huge topic these days. While not all police officers are psychopaths, any person who puts themselves in a position of power has the potential to be. Women actually suffer domestic abuse in at least 40 percent of police officer families.

8. Clergy

Joe Navarro, a former member of the FBI actually took the time to create a list for Psychology Today of the reasons why psychopaths might be attracted to the clergy. To read more on that click here.

9. Chef

Gordon Ramsay himself claims that Chefs are nutty. He says they are all self-absorbed narcissists and absolutely have the potential to be psychopaths. He of all people would know!

10. Civil servants

There is a bit of power when it comes to certain civil service rolls and as mentioned above psychopaths love any sort of power position they can obtain.

11. Entrepreneur

Psychopaths like to manipulate people and this is the perfect career for manipulation. There is plenty of room for the psychopath to do whatever he or she wants with this kind of job.

12. Management (of any kind)

Managers get to tell other people what to do, obviously a person with this sort of power at any job has the potential to be a psychopath. Regardless if it is fast food management, department store management, or even corporate management psychopaths are always going to be found no matter where you go.

This is because most of these professions offer power and many even require an ability to make clinical decisions apart from feelings. Psychopaths are drawn to these kinds of jobs. They do not want any part in a position that offers no power and forces them to deal with emotions.

To hear a little more information about this topic please check out the video below, but keep in mind the last two careers will not be mentioned in this video.

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The Reason We’ve Never Found Intelligent Life Might be Because We Are Already Going Extinct

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If you haven’t heard of the Fermi Paradox by now you must live under a rock! Dig yourself out because we are about to open your mind to something intense.

The galaxy in which we live is home to anywhere from 100 billion to 400 billion stars and each is potentially orbited by planets. When you really start to break things down, if there were aliens of any kind out there we would have found them by now, right? With at least 2 trillion galaxies like ours in what we consider to be the observable universe and each one populated by trillions of planets orbiting the stars mentioned above there should be intelligent life out there somewhere. Enrico Fermi was the man to decide that he needed to ask a question. He took these numbers and asked ‘where are they?’

His question is referred to as the Fermi paradox and seems to cover the most possible answers even now. One being the ‘Great Filter’ hypothesis that before intelligent life was able to escape the bounds of its original planet that it hit a wall of sorts, this being the Great Filter. This hypothesis being proposed first in an online essay titled ‘The Great Filter – Are We Almost Past it?’ by Robin Hanson. In our case, we could very well be on the verge of going against our Great Filter as well.

Climate change is our Great Filter and as you likely know if we allow things to continue on as they are, life on this planet will become devastatingly bleak. Could this be why we haven’t found intelligent life in space? While other thinkers have different answers when it comes to the Fermi paradox it seems no matter how deep we dig, things only get more depressing for the human race. For more information and a better in-depth explanation of the Fermi paradox check out the videos below.

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Heartfulness and Mindfulness: A Personal Reflection

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HEARTFULNESS
DR. HESTER O CONNOR, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, SHARES HER EXPERIENCE AS A MINDFULNESS TEACHER AND A HEARTFULNESS PRACTITIONER.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.They must be felt with the heart.’’

– Helen Keller

On the 30th of April 2016 I will celebrate twenty-one years of Heartfulness meditation. I trained as a Mindfulness teacher in the beautiful valley of Triginos in Wales in 2008. For me the Mindfulness practice of being present moment by moment softens me and takes me to my heart. Heartfulness satisfies the longing of my heart. I would like to share with you the love story of my route to Heartfulness. For it is a love story. Every day I get up to re-orient my inner compass to a heart-centered goal that started out long ago when I was a small child in a village near Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland.

The kindness of Mindfulness is a beautiful place to begin to re-connect with the spiritual heart of Heartfulness.


spiritual-beingAs the sixteenth child of a family of eighteen children, it is hardly a surprise to say I was raised a Catholic. I recall going with my mother to visit the church before the others would file in from school. The visits were short and the church was just fifty yards from the house. Sometimes we would call over to the grave of my brother Peter who died aged five years having been hit in the head by a horse. These were precious moments with an overstretched mother. I was stealing moments of togetherness that never happened anywhere else in the day-to-day melting pot of meals and wash up. I believe that the intense inner longing of my heart stems from these moments. The childhood yearning of my heart was finally satisfied twenty-five years later when I began Heartfulness meditation.

From the first meditation I can only describe falling in love with what and who and where I cannot describe, but all I can say is that every time I turn inwards my longing heart feels satisfied.

 

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”

– Helen Keller


What I love about Mindfulness is the non-judgement, the moment-by-moment awareness and aliveness to the visceral sense of connection with the body. In the Body Scan or Sitting Practice, that easing to a spot is calling your attention, curious to where your attention takes you in this moment. Maybe the mind wanders as minds do, to what you will eat for dinner and you learn to kindly bring your attention back to this moment in the body.


What I love about Mindfulness is the non-judgement, the moment-by moment awareness and aliveness to the visceral sense of connection with the body.


After thirty years of practice as a clinical psychologist, one thing I am sure of is that many of us come from backgrounds of trauma, loss, longing, and general unease within ourselves. Most mothers today have deadlines, debts, and pressures of all sorts to contend with. Mindfulness has enormous potential to bring us back to ourselves and I have seen this time and time again while running Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (MBCT) groups with adults. It is a delight to be with someone who has known depression learning to treat their thoughts with kindness. Kindness is something truly beautiful in Mindfulness practice. There is a growing emphasis on compassion and kindness within the Mindfulness movement.


THE SIMPLICITY OF HEARTFULNESS HAS A GREAT DEAL TO COMPLEMENT MINDFULNESS. HEARTFULNESS REACHES BEYOND THE BODY TO THE REALM OF THE SPIRITUAL HEART WITH ITS CAPACITY FOR INFINITE EXPANSION THAT CAN ENCOMPASS THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.

Where Do Heartfulness and Mindfulness Meet?

The simplicity of Heartfulness has a great deal to complement Mindfulness. Heartfulness reaches beyond the body to the realm of the spiritual heart with its capacity for infinite expansion encompassing the whole Universe. For me, getting out of bed every day to tune inwards to my heart profoundly shapes how I orientate myself in response to the ups and downs of daily life. It takes years to become a Clinical Psychologist and I am very glad that the drive to get there has softened to a willingness to let my heart lead the way in meetings rather than that driven-ness that was so strong when I first set out in my studies. I now manage a psychology service and what I do most days in meetings is simply connect us all through the heart; it changes everything. What I believe Mindfulness has to offer Heartfulness is the returning to the breath, this breath, in this moment. The visceral connection with the body that comes in Mindfulness is really precious in today’s world dominated by social media and external attraction where the centre of gravity seems increasingly far removed from us all. The kindness of Mindfulness is a beautiful place to begin to re-connect with the spiritual heart of Heartfulness.

Source: Collective Evolution

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Don’t Try

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I wish I could take credit for the two-word title that headlines this article, but it was used historically by an unlikely hero. Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), the “accidental” American author and poet had it written on his tombstone in Los Angeles. He wanted to reiterate something we need desperately to hear again in the age of sugar-sweet positivism. Sometimes success comes even to those who don’t try very hard. In fact – it comes to people who just don’t give a %#)&@.

Charles Bukowski’s advice? Don’t try.

This is the crux of another writer’s philosophical invective. Mark Manson wrote The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. It’s full of Bukowksi-inspired advice. Though I don’t see anything wrong with dropping an F-bomb here and there, I’ll replace his liberal use of f—k with duck so that I don’t offend anyone who might otherwise benefit from reading about how not to give one.

Manson took Bukowski’s advice to heart, and noticed that we give way too many ducks about things that shouldn’t matter to us. He says we’re a culture of trying too hard at too manythings.

And I couldn’t agree more.

While we’re “staying positive,” and working toward world peace, raising our children, maintaining friendships, keeping ourselves selfie-ready at a moment’s notice – just in case, God Forbid – we are caught on our “bad” side for a social media posting, hitting the gym, eating only non-gluten, GMO-free, sugar-free, MSG-free, vegan, wild-catch tofu, meditating, fighting the good fight, and showing up to work every day so that we don’t end up living out of a card board box slurping the remnants of a super-sized soda someone leaves by a trash dumpster, we’re trying so ducking hard!

We stare in the mirror to say our “you’re so beautiful, you’re so handsome” affirmations. We work on our relationships, take workshops, go to therapy, keep working on our internal dialogue, etc. etc. etc. Everything we do now is one big TRY.

As Bukowski will tell you, trying really hard doesn’t bring success, and success doesn’t always bring happiness. He was an alcoholic recluse before he made it as a famous writer, and he continued to be after he made it. At book signings, he would berate his fans. Before he had any fans, he worked in a post office, hating his life, and turning to the bottle while he occasionally wrote a line of poetry or a short story, getting refused by publisher after publisher. You can’t even say he made it because he didn’t give up. He gave up (you could say, stopped giving a duck) long before a random publisher took a strange fancy to him years after he had submitted any work, and that was the one big break that gave him a writing career.

Manson points out in a discussion of Bukowski, that his greatest strength was that he didn’t try to hide his faults. In fact, he didn’t try at much of anything.

In October 1963, Bukowski told John William Corrington in a letter how someone once asked him,

“What do you do? How do you write, create?” To which, he replied: “You don’t try. That’s very important: ‘not’ to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.”

Why Seeking Happiness Too Hard May Cause Unhappiness

It turns out Bukowski’s philosophy is backed by science. Reaching for happiness is an admittance that you aren’t happy. The seeking of happiness, just like the avoidance of suffering, are the same acts of desperation. In an endless quest to get something or ditch something else, we don’t experience the purity of the moment we’re in.

In fact, the human brain is designed to want more – to create its own problems even when it doesn’t really have any. In fact, the minute we’ve solved one problem, we’ve just created another problem. Maybe you solve the problem of being overweight by going to the gym, but you’ve created another problem, as Manson puts it, “of sweating like a meth-head” when you go. The trick is to like the problems you have. You’ll always be trading one set in for another.

This is why someone can spend $106.5 million on Picasso’s Nude Green Leaves painting, and still feel empty inside. Their brains are going to find something else they “need” to be happy. Not that Picasso wasn’t a phenomenal artist, but if you’re biggest problem is deciding whether to purchase the Picasso or the Monet, you’re likely not going to be happy.

Is your constant pursuit of happiness making you unhappy?

Similarly, people with “real” problems will feel unhappy, but have you noticed that people with less – people who don’t give a duck – often seem free in ways we in the everyone-has-a-smart-phone-and-a-56-inch-flat-screen-in-their-living-room-world can’t fathom?

In the quiet world of Zen Buddhists, and quite possibly our great grandparents, for example, when they were having a bad day – a bad hair day, a bad traffic day, a bad thoughts day, a bad day plowing a field of cow dung – whatever, they’d likely think, “I’m having a crap day,” and that would be the end of it. In the modern world though, we’re micro-analyzing our own thoughts every moment. We feel anxious, and then we start to feel anxious about the anxious thoughts we’re having. “Damn, I’m such an idiot for still thinking that horrible thought.” “Oh, shoot, I just did it again!” You get the idea – an endless feedback loop of giving a duck starts to ruin your day even more than before you started trying to be happy.

In the same way, practicing endless affirmations, trying to be happy only means you seek something you don’t have. If you were already happy, you wouldn’t need to affirm anything, would you?

That relentless focus on trying to be happy only calls to mind all the things that make youunhappy. Whereas, people who just have a crap day and move on, they don’t keep focusing on the crap. And oddly, they are happy.  Crap still happens, as it will in life, but it hasn’t become the source of their future suffering.

Not Giving a Duck and Apathy

Not giving a duck about some things doesn’t mean you are apathetic and you have no goals. Let me explain the subtlety of this nuanced conundrum. Bukowksi’s misery (and alcoholism) isn’t what we’re supposed to emulate. His ability to succeed without trying so damned hard, is. We are also supposed to get, that he didn’t try to hide his misery or his alcoholism. When he was having a crap day, he didn’t plaster a fake smile on his face while he was dying inside. His poetry and his prose reflect this God-awful, but deliciously refreshing truth about him.

If you feel that something vital is missing from your life, yet lack the motivation or drive to go after it, you’re afflicted with apathy. Conversely, if you have always wanted to do something and everyone thinks you’d be crazy to move across the globe at the drop of a hat or quit your job to pursue something that makes you feel absolutely alive, and you just don’t give a duck what other people think – you’re starting to get it.

Aversion and Craving

The constant pursuit of happiness outside of yourself – when you finally make the cut on your sports team, you finally drop those extra few pounds, you finally get the man/woman you want, you finally drive the car you’ve always wanted, you finally live in the house you’ve always dreamed of – this constant pursuit of happiness is what the Buddhists call craving. It’s just as nasty as aversion if you really want to experience any sort of internal peace.

Aversion results from fear – fear of loss, fear of separation, sickness, death, etc. Craving is also the result of fear. It pulls us into dualistic experience in ever-more subtle ways. Attachment to material things (the endless pursuit of happiness) creates suffering because attachments are transient and therefore, loss is inevitable.

When we don’t give a duck, it’s like saying, you know, some days are going to suck, and some days aren’t and either way, that’s o.k.

Three problems—ignorance, clinging/attachment and aversion—are known as the Three Poisons, and a recognition of them forms the Second Noble Truth in Buddhism. Now, don’t start to beat yourself up if none of this makes sense. If you don’t feel enlightened just yet, who gives a duck. That’s o.k., too.

Bukowski had it figured out, though. Don’t try. At least not so hard. And certainly don’t give so many ducks about stuff that doesn’t really matter.

Image: Source Source  Source 

Source: The Mind Unleashed

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22 of The Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken

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Have you ever seen a picture that was more powerful than any of the words you could think of? They don’t come along very often but when you come across one it is something that sticks with you for a long time.

We are constantly seeing photographs on social media that are happy and uplifting, but sometimes we need to see the negative side of life as well. We are sometimes vicious and we take things for granted. The pictures below will make you thankful for what you have all the while making you question your actions as a person. After looking at these pictures you may not look at the world the in the same way.

1. The power of love and peace over weapons and violence. 

weapons

2. ‘Wait for me, daddy’ Claude P. Dettloff (New Westminster, Canada Oct. 1, 1040.)

waitformedaddy

3. A five-year-old gypsy boy smoking. (Gypsy community of St. Jacques, Perpignan, Southern France)

smoking

4. A couple embracing one another in the ruins of a collapsed factory.

coupleruin

5. Mother and daughter reunited after serving in Iraq for seven months.

motheranddaughter

6. Christians protecting Muslims in the middle of prayer during the uprising in Cairo of 2011.

muslims

7. A Russian soldier playing an abandoned piano back in 1944.

russiansolider

8. A Wall inside an Auschwitz gas chamber.

gaschamberwall

9. Contrast between father and son. (1949 vs 2009)

contast

10. The terrifying reality of the hand of a starving boy beside the hand of a missionary.

starving boy

11. Advertisement missing children who are now likely in their fifties or older with parents still looking for them.  

missingchildren

12. Russian soldiers moments before the battle of Kursk 1943.

soldiers

13. ‘Handshake’ above the graves of a protestant husband and a catholic wife in Holland, 1888.

 marriage

14. An old WW2 Russian tank veteran is leaning towards the place he spent his time in the war.

war

15. The aftermath of cyclone Nargis in southern Myanmar 2008. One of the millions left homeless.

homeless

16. A sunset on Mars.

mars

17. A son pulling his alcoholic father in an attempt to get him up.

pulling

18. A firefighter giving a koala water after a devastating bushfire dangered many koalas in Victoria, Australia 2009.

koala

19. A man overwhelmed with grief after learning his brother had been murdered.

greif

20. A 12-year-old boy from Brazil named Diego Frazao Torquato, crying while playing the violin at the funeral of his favorite teacher. A teacher who had taught him the power of music against violence and poverty. 

poverty

21. A heart surgeon after a 23 hour long successful heart transplant.

hearttrans

22. A young Syrian girl, one of the most powerful images I have found from the Syrian Refugee Crisis. 

refugee

What do you feel when you look at the images above? Do these images make you happy about where we are in the world right now or do you feel as if you should be doing more for your community? No matter what you take from these images know that actions speak much louder than words, while not all of these images are negative they all should make you think.

The post 22 of The Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken appeared first on Educate Inspire Change.

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