Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Calculations of divestment

It is fairly easy in this country to have too much.  You can see homeless people that push a grocery cart that is over-crammed with stuff so even they can have the problem of having too much stuff. Of course, one of several problems with too much is that the oversupply might not include items that are very much needed.  Don't think it is impossible to have too much and need different items at the same time.


There are events along the line of life that tend to mark changes.  One of them is the children's entry into school.  When your youngest begins school, the tools for toddlers such as play pens, cribs, and potty chairs can go.  The tv shows about hoarding and other prompts help people resolve to get rid of the stuff stored in the basement, the attic and the back room.


Some of our neighbors organized a rummage sale and invited all the other houses in our development to sell on the same day.  The sale ran for two days and one estimate of the total cash earned is $10,000 for all houses in total.  We sold a Brio water table, a maze like a train set but filled with water instead of train tracks.  The best we can figure, it currently sells for $200 but we took $10 for it.  I quote that just to show that the retail value of the goods exchanged might be much higher than the estimate.


I think the ways things go with material divestment is funny.  Say, I have an old computer monitor that is just taking up space in the basement.  I would like to get rid of it.  I carry it into my garage where other goods are also sitting, waiting for inspection by prospective acquirers.  When I get it to the garage, the question arises: should it have price tag on it?  If you had been in the basement, and said you would get rid the monitor for a couple of dollars, I might have handed you two on the spot.  Now that I am in the garage, I ask myself

  • What is a good price?

  • How much will someone be willing to pay?

  • How much is the monitor "worth"?

  • How much are neighbors charging for their old monitors?

I might put a tag saying "$10" on it.  Later, somebody walks into the garage and looks at it and offers me $5 for it, for this item I might have been willing a few minutes ago to pay you to haul off.  But, now, I am evaluating this offer: hold out for someone else who might pay $10 or take the $5.  It is a wonder that I get rid of anything.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Monday, June 29, 2015

Write!

You remember the 3 R's: reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic.  For a couple of hundred years, the concept of learning to read, to write and to do arithmetic calculations has formed to backbone of basic education.  Generally, if you read, you are taking in the words of someone else [sure, could be your own writing but mostly it isn't].  If you add, subtract, multiply or divide, you are following the steps required.  But when you write, it is you coming to the fore.


In writing, you think the thoughts, you choose the words and you make the symbols for your words.  In writing, you paint with words.  Generally, you don't make up the words' meaning or spelling, although I did make up the word "pessimum" in my dissertation (it's the opposite of 'optimum', meaning 'the best').  You didn't make up the format for placing writing on a page or the rules of punctuation.  In writing, you are trying to use a restricted set of tools to get your point, your mood, your feelings across.


Whether you are thinking of politics or cutting your grass, your thoughts and the way you think them are unique.  The way you decide to express yourself is yours alone. It can be quite satisfying to take an idea or a memory and put down some words that pretty well express your thought or what happened.  If you feel as my sister does, and writing just does not appeal to you, maybe doing some sketching or snapping some photos might be of interest.  Putting one of several very functional apps on your iPad or phone and just speaking into it for a minute can be fun.  You can create your own podcast these days and email the sound file to dozens of friends.


Just deciding what was the highlight, or the lowlight of your day today or yesterday (can you remember what happened yesterday?  Prove it!) can show your life in a novel angle. I tried listing three good things a day for more than a year and learned that there are such things every day.


Especially when we are young, we have the job of writing resumes for job applications. I think it would help us all if we copy Twitter or scrapbookers and slowly build up an archive where people can look through our writing or photos and see what we have had on our minds and what has occupied our time over the years.  Just open up Word or a blank email and jot down what is own your mind.  Repeat for 100 days and see what you think.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Sunday, June 28, 2015

What is a pen worth?

I try to carry a pen and paper with me all the time.  I get ideas for this blog and quickly forget them.  Sometimes, the same idea comes back to me but sometimes I think it gets lost for good.  Besides, there are times when I want to remember someone's email address or a phone number, information that doesn't have much to remember it by.  A pen isn't the easiest thing to carry in a pants pocket.  It can slip out when I sit down.


Most motels have a small pad and a ballpoint pen in the room.  Sometimes, we walk off with their pen but basically, I like Bic pens and I try to keep one that works well handy.  


When I was a kid, the introduction of ballpoint pens was a big deal.  Until them, pens had liquid ink.  "Fountain" pens were able to suck up ink from a bottle and then "cartridge" pens could be loaded with a plastic cartridge of liquid ink about the size and shape of an AA battery.  If you look with a little effort, you can probably still find all those types of pens, including actual quills that can be dipped in an inkwell.  You can still find "space pens" that write in zero gravity and in very cold or hot temperatures.


What is interesting to me is the helplessness that quickly descends on a person who needs to sign a charge receipt or record a phone number or a date and time but has nothing to write with.  I have never actually used my hand to write something on but plenty of people turn to their palm or arm.  I can usually find a scrap of paper but a pen?  


Image result for ballpoint pens Image result for ballpoint pens


The fancy version has 8 parts while the simpler version, two if you count the cap.  I read while studying quality control that engineers identify 200 characteristics of a ballpoint.  It is a mark of modern civilization and something we take very much for granted at the same time.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Saturday, June 27, 2015

Tired enough to see clearly

The book by Bessel van der Kolk, "The Body Keeps the Score", is wonderful.  Gripping and a little difficult at times because it is about traumatic experiences and how people heal from them.  The reader gets a clearer and clearer picture of the process of stashing away something that is too horrible or frightening to bear and then slowly digesting the experience.  Many deep traumas come from childhood experience, battle experience in war or domestic violence but being the victim of crime or a bad car accident can affect the mind, feelings and body, too.


Several times in the book, the author mentions "Yoga and the Quest for the True Self" by Stephen Cope.  I respect the author enough that I wanted to follow up on the Cope book but it is not available in Kindle, my main source for books since they are delivered immediately and take no space, besides being quite a bit cheaper.  I realize my local libraries loan books for free but I like having my own copy and I like the convenience of highlighting important parts and sharing the highlights with followers on Twitter. I have even gotten to the point of making use of both audio and print versions of a book.  The audio gives voice tone and tells things that print doesn't but sometimes a name needs to be spelled out to make further research possible.


I ordered a used copy of the Cope book and read it on our recent trip.  In some ways, it seems to be the typical story of a lost soul, pining for answers and understanding of both inner identity and dealing with life's issues.  Cope worked at Kripalu, a famous yoga center in western Massachusetts for quite a while.  He tells the story of a man who was the main resident guru during that time.  This man sought higher levels of yogic achievement, to the extent of being so focused on his practice that he forgot to eat and needed constant care from others.  After a long period of working and teaching yoga, Cope got the idea that "this whole thing is probably much simpler than we make it."


He goes on to say that he found he was tired of practicing, tired of meditating, tired of eating right.


Such a reaction is fine, it seems to me.  We can search for peak experiences and we get peak experiences, often when we don't expect them.  Discipline and application are fine and necessary but there will be periods when we have to just sit and be where we are, not especially enlightened, not especially charmed or excited, just breathing.  We can't help that we are built for excitement seeking, for striving, for achieving.  But the times when we tire out, when we don't want another delicious bite or any further thrill, those are fine times to notice that sight, and touch, and balance and friends and many other ordinary, everyday things are, in fact, marvels.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Thursday, June 18, 2015

The future is a good place to play and fantasize

In the future, pigs will fly.  Well, shipments of them are probably flying now in airplanes.  No, I mean, pigs will develop wings and be able to fly under their own power.


If you are a cautious user of words about the future, you might ask "When?"  When will pigs fly?  Many predictions are made without a date or termination point.  All statements are about the past, the present or the future.  Of these three times, the future is the easiest to shoot the bull about.  I can make all sorts of crazy statements about what is going to happen at some unspecified time.  If I use my imagination or hire some good imaginations, I may be able to spout language that really gets you frightened or hopeful.  You may spend the rest of the day or the whole week thinking about pigs flying, or the stock market rising or collapsing.  If you ask for more detailed information, I can plead the difficulties of specific predictions while maintaining a serious expression.  I can explain that the exact development isn't clear but that pigs will fly "soon".  "This development will take place soon, very soon."


I may be right.  Just because I act confident and you have faith in my honesty and knowledge about pig aviation doesn't guarantee that I am wrong or kidding.  You really should give me some credence since you have already lived through the past and you can see that pigs are not flying above you right now.  Therefore, the only time left for porcine flight is the future.  The future is the only time you are going to have to be on flying pig alert.

 

If my pig flight predictions get to be yesterday's news and people stop paying attention to my statements, I will look for something more arresting, more exciting, more arousing.  I don't have the budget just now for much of a parade and hullabaloo.  I can't interest the local cheerleaders and marching bands to accompany banners with images of winged sows and boars.  I crave attention and the power and respect that goes with it.  When you get tired of hearing about pork in the sky, I will need a more gripping prediction, maybe something about Putin or bacteria or robots.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

What are they called?

There are several of them.  What are they called?

  • "channels" on Roku, as on broadcast television not "stations" as on broadcast radio

  • "services" from Google, no, "products", 'no", apps, in Wikipedia; "services and tools", actually all of these names for the multiple Google possibilities can be found right on Google's own pages

  • "apps" for iPad and iPhone


The reason this matters is that using a good name for the multiple possibilities makes it easier to recognize and remember that there are multiple possibilities.

 

We have two television streamers, machines that connect wirelessly to our router and extract from the internet some signals of television.  They are both connected to our tv and after pressing the right buttons on the correct remote (we are working with 4 of them), we get the selection.  Not the straightforward, old-fashioned broadcast tv, like NBC and CBS but more specialized signals such as Netflix and Amazon TV.  The first streamer we got was a Roku and we got it simply because the envelope for returning a Netflix DVD through the mail advertised those two organizations as possibilities.


We had already been alerted by a Wired magazine article entitled "The Death of Television".  That was a typically sensationalistic title but the point was that streaming by Roku and other streaming organizations, television free (so far) of ads, was very attractive and was and is pulling many of those who used to watch the standard broadcasts away.

Our other television streamer picks up the signal from Amazon TV.  Unlike the Roku, it seems a little harder to understand the organization.  Roku makes clear that there are quite a few channels that I can add to my Roku array but many of them have a monthly or other fee associated with them.  Amazon has a large selection of movies and tv shows that are free if you buy the Amazon Prime deal.


The point is that many re-runs, such as Cheers and Ballykissangel, as well as a large number of original shows are available only through streaming.  If you are not looking for movies or tv outside of the broadcast channels, you might be interested in the Google services/products/apps.  They are all free and they include widely different activities, such as shopping, maps including of the ocean floors and "Scholar", a search engine of academic, university and professional research.

If you are looking for something different, try the app store on an iPhone or iPad.  There are over a million of them.  Many of them are games.  Quite a few are "productivity" apps, such as word processors or audio recorders.  I use the Weather Channel app several times a day.  I like the by-the-hour probability of precipitation.  It helps me plan my day.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Numbers beguile

I was reading through the new Brookings Institute study on the value added by certain colleges.  Their report makes very clear what steps were followed in the analysis of their data.  Basically, get the average lifetime earning of college students with certain majors and compare that number with the average lifetime earnings graduates of a given college.  The result is an estimate of the value of going to that college, the amount of boost that college will supposedly give to your lifetime earnings.


There are many angles where a suspicious and doubting person like me can approach such a study.  This same general idea is behind quite a few "value added" studies, including attempts to put a figure on particular teachers as to their ability to add value to students in their classes.


What struck me as I looked at various colleges and the figure the analysts associated with them was how I was being sucked in by the numbers.  Here is a college estimated to add $50,000 to my lifetime earnings and here is one that will add $150,000.  A doubter can be told, honestly, I think, that these are just the way the figures fall out, that nobody fudged the data for or against any college.


One way that statistically grumpy people might begin to try to get unsucked by the data is to ask about variances, also about extremes.  The main approach of correlational analysis is to use what I wrote: averages.  So, just for my sake, what are the five or ten lowest lifetime earnings of graduates of that college in that major?


In matters of education, it doesn't hurt to keep in mind that I myself might not do my homework in that major.  I might be under the spell of a little redheaded girl, my father and I might be in a continuous battle over what I should major in.  Despite the difficulties of conceptualization and of measurement, there is still a large component of my life that rests with me alone: my feelings, my interests, my diligence, my drinking, my ability to eat right, sleep right and clearly discern what my internal compass directs me to do.


Numbers are popular these days and our machines can churn out more numbers in one minute than you can digest in a week.  I think of the book "How to Measure Anything" by Douglas Hubbard.  Mr. Hubbard does a good job explaining how to go about gathering evidence on just about any question.  Of course, that type of specialist gets paid big bucks to render an opinion on slippery matters, such as "Is the morale of my employees rising or falling?" An executive, a leader, a politician or any person responsible for a collection of people needs an average, a summary, a general feel for the tone of the group.  The morale or lifetime earnings of an individual are of little help.  But it is helpful to remember that in many cases, averages and other summary variables are approximations, estimates and as such, are myths.  They can be helpful myths but they are human constructions.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Monday, June 15, 2015

There ain't nothing

Sometimes, when my wife is away on a trip, I still set the table for two or pour two glasses of milk.  Most things like that are the result of habit.  I know she is not there but habit takes over, the table looks right set for two and it is only after a time that I realize I made a mistake.


Maybe you have heard of Occam's Razor, a principle from logic and philosophy that one should only consider as few things real as possible.  Thinkers discovered that if I realize there is no elephant in my room and I begin to think of my lack of elephants as are real thing, as elephantlessness, something that the government might tax and that religion might praise or condemn, I can get into trouble thought-wise.


The poem "Antigonish"(1899) flirts with such trouble:

Yesterday, upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today,

I wish, I wish he'd go away...

When I came home last night at three,

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall,

I couldn't see him there at all!

Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!

Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door...

Last night I saw upon the stair,

A little man who wasn't there,

He wasn't there again today

Oh, how I wish he'd go away..

Even little kids will ask how he could go away if he is already not there. You can get a whiff of the difficulties that can come from reifying nullities.  Critical thinkers and investigators like to ask "What is not being said?"  Of course, normally just about everything is not being said but what they mean is what is expected to be included but wasn't.  Mystery writers, from Conan Doyle on, have made use of the fact that the watchdog DIDN'T bark, deducing that the dog knew the intruder and thus narrowing the number of suspects.


You know the court oath that one should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  That is often the goal: all the information that matters and nothing that purports to be relevant information but isn't.


I have read some of Frank Close's "Very Short Introduction to Nothing", which is mostly about vacuums and outer space where matter is very sparsely distributed.  Thinking of that book, I found that Amazon has 212 pages of books related to the word, title, subject matter of "nothing".


In modern educated English, a double negative is often taken to mean the opposite of negative.  "There ain't nothing" = "it is not the case that there is nothing", so there is something.  However, in some places, times and groups, double negatives are considered to be simply twice as negative as just one.  I suppose triple negatives (I ain't never going to not...) are even more emphatically negative that a mere two of them.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Sunday, June 14, 2015

Questioning and Critical Thinking

Teachers and other educators often aim for students to think critically and to question things for themselves.  However, as with many things, the Greeks had a good idea when they stressed moderation.  Too much critical thinking can lead to cynicism, doubt that undermines energy and tiring instability of purpose and action.  One professor I had liked to talk about "analysis paralysis".


Working with a group of hypercritical students, such as some adolescents, armed with questions and scepticism, can quickly show the difficulties of striking a balance between asking for reasons or evidence and going too far in doubting for the sake of doubting.  With both teens and adults, it is not unknown to work at putting off a unappealing task with an unending series of alternative suggestions and inquiries as to need and justification.


I even find the problem of high levels of questioning in myself.  I don't want my body weight to get too high.  I am short and I want to avoid being cubic.  I am older and my body burns fewer calories while my tongue and sensors continue to relish all sorts of food.  In fact, as my knowledge of foods and cooking increases, there are more foods to add to the large assortment I already desire.  This is an internal wrestling match that happens several times a day.


I sit down to a breakfast of a mixture of uncooked oatmeal, natural unsweetened applesauce and Greek yogurt.  It has seemed to me that foods with more protein keep me satisfied longer but am I remembering that effect correctly?  The nutrition panel on the yogurt container gives protein figures that don't match the information on our other Greek yogurt container.  Are the figures correct?  Maybe they are cooked or fraudulent. Does protein from dairy products do as much good as protein from soy?


It only takes a second for questions to cascade into mind.  I soon have questions about my questions.  I know that human knowledge is limited on many important subjects.  It is very difficult to separate what is known from what is being promoted by special interests and pushed by Grandma who still remembers what her grandmother used to tell her.  Maybe I would have been better off if my parents had created a kid who didn't have a knack for questioning, somebody who learned one version of the facts and just kept them close to his heart, no questions asked.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Saturday, June 13, 2015

Little umbrellas

Hats, sun, skin and aging

Besides weight problems, hair problems and problems with energy levels, older people tend to be conscious of their skin.  I don't know as much about skin care as many women do and I certainly don't have the history of lotions and potions that many women do.  But my dermatologist is making it clear that over time, that big bright ball in the sky and its rays are getting to my skin.


The doctor has what looks like an oil can but it is actually liquid nitrogen.  When he finds a spot, usually on my forehead that qualifies for attention, he squirts me with his can.  It hurts like blazes and the pain grows more intense over a minute or so.  After that, the outraged skin throbs a bit and I go back to merely feeling attacked.


As I tell my doctors, I got most of my medical education from watching "Scrubs" and "Grey's Anatomy" so I know that Izzie came very close to dying from metastasized skin cancer. The American Cancer Society gives a figure of about 10,000 deaths expected in 2015 from melanoma.  I just read that 1 in 40 Caucasians get melanoma while only one in 1000 Blacks do.


I have not been a hat person but after I got a skin treatment a couple of years ago, I am getting more conscious of the need to protect my forehead and increasingly exposed scalp from the sun.  The treatment involved smearing a cream on my forehead and scalp.  I did a poor job applying in my hair but where the cream finds skin that need replacing, it turns the area bright red.  After a while, about a month as I remember, the red skin is gone and new, healthy skin is in place.  Other older men know why my face carries big bright red blotches for a while but I frighten little children.


I find that visored ball caps protect my scalp and forehead well.  In addition, I can use the visor to cut glare while driving.  The sun often gets low enough that the car visors don't help.   I am becoming the traditional old guy who reaches for his cap as he starts to go outside.  There are a number of slightly different cap styles and I am getting to know them.  I like caps with a medium deep head covering and a curved brim in white or khaki.  Dark colors are an invitation to too much heat.


--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Friday, June 12, 2015

Results of meditation practice

My friend read "10% Happier" by Dan Harris and has been meditating some.  He has an original mind and is an accurate observer so I was eager to ask him if he noticed any result of practicing meditation.  He said he is more conscious than he was of what is going on in his mind.  That is exactly what the much discussed mindfulness is - awareness of what is on the mind.


You might think there can't be much to being aware of what is on the mind.  If it is on my mind, how can I not be aware of it?  That is a little tricky to answer although the answer matters and is genuinely important.  However, the Buddha himself is said in some sources to be doubtful that he could explain what he had discovered about his mind in a clear and convincing way.  As the meditation teacher, Karen Maezen Miller, wrote recently, paraphrasing the Buddha, "there is a good chance you guys are going to screw this up."  


My friend could see that it is difficult to describe the result and the value of sitting still for 10 minutes concentrating on a single point and one's breath.  Greater awareness of what is on the mind in the sense of mindfulness is greater awareness THAT  the mind is currently occupied with a given subject, that one thing or another has slipped the given subject to the top of the thinking pile. The "that" is specially treated in the previous sentence because the whole point of mindfulness is getting a little perspective, a little objectivity, a little distance.  In that little distance, there is a chance to ask oneself if the topic, the subject, the worry, the hope is what ought to be thought about just then.  If the thinker wishes, that is the moment when a different choice or tactic or topic can be brought to mind.


My friend brought up an aspect of meditation results that is completely original, as far as I know.  I have read many sources but none before him have mentioned what might be called the time of the thought development.  He twice mentioned "EARLIER".  As one is thinking about, say a worry or a hope, at what point in one's cogitation one thinks about WHETHER one wants to deal with the matter probably matters.  It is like a nightmare: the earlier I recognize I am having a nightmare, the less the horrible story develops.  It is like a hope: the earlier I recognize I am hoping I won the lottery, the sooner I can begin to console myself with the actual probability instead of getting entangled in a pipe dream.


Just to let you know, this friend is Dr.Larry Riggs and our communication took place over his Apple Watch, the very model of a modern communicator.


--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Thursday, June 11, 2015

On not going through it all again

At this time of the year, I remember moving from the Baltimore-Washington area, where I was born and had my own schooling, to a much smaller town with less traffic, less humidity and plenty of promise.  


When I realize how many times I have reflected on what was indeed one of the great changes in my life, I am reminded of my dissertation.  As was typical of many things in my life, my dissertation was not a typical one.  I had to explain the idea to my advisor to persuade him it made sense.  During my orals, I had to explain it again.  When applying for teaching jobs, I had to explain it several more times.  It got to the point where I really did not want to go through it all one more time.  Many years have gone by and now nobody knows or cares what it was about.


It has always intrigued me what a big deal the dissertation is at one point in time and how completely unimportant it is later.  You may know a few people who wrote master's theses or doctoral dissertations without the slightest idea of what those papers were about.  In many cases, if you get a copy of them and read through, you still won't know what they are about because they are filled with technical language and advanced concepts.


I have been writing this blog most days since 2009.  So, when I realize it is the anniversary of my coming to the upper Midwest of the US, the part that was the "Northwest Territories" at one time, I realize that I have thought about coming here, my younger years, the ups and downs of it all, enough.  Here is a web page of several blog posts about leaving the East Coast, coming to a small Midwestern city, and teaching college.


In the case of the dissertation or Lynn's dissertation or our moving here, it isn't that I have really exhausted all the angles.  One of my most advanced philosophical friends said the other day that really putting one's mind to work on the subject of his ball cap could encompass the whole world and everything in it.  So, in the case of a long paper or a big move or even a random day in the life of……, I could launch all poetic and encyclopedic but I don't want to.  Just what my sister wrote the other day after reading my reasons that people would be happier if they wrote a blog:

Dear Bill


Here are all the reasons I don't want to write a blog:

1.     I don't want to


Yours, Sis



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Fidgets and itches and worries, oh my!

Sometimes when I try to meditate or try to go to sleep, I get fidgets and itches.  I can feel a bug walking across my scalp.  My lip is touching the blanket or the puffed-up pillow.  It is too sensitive and each breath gives me a little alerting poke when I don't want one.


The best solution to quieting all this is to suffer: don't move, don't adjust.  It's ok to make a few basic obvious corrections.  If I am not lying on my side but am actually on top of my arm, I need to move.  But beyond that, just suffer.  Let the bug walk on my hair.  Let the ankle itch.  Just take the wave of little difficulties and self-important little problems and needs and let them stew. Let them grind, let them assert themselves, let them send urgent messages of really, really needing to be tended to, responded to, paid attention.  After about 2 minutes, the whole yapping bunch tends to nod off.


The excellent "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor asserts that many of our thought and emotion circuits run through their missions in about 90 seconds.  I am writing here about physical sensations, not thoughts or emotions but again, 1 ½ to 2 minutes of silent, still patient acceptance is often enough to quiet the internal kids:


When my brain runs loops that feel harshly judgmental, counter-productive, or out of control, I wait 90 seconds for the emotional/physiological response to dissipate and then I speak to my brain as though it is a group of children. I say with sincerity, "I appreciate your ability to think thoughts and feel emotions, but I am really not interested in thinking these thoughts or feeling these emotions anymore. Please stop bringing this stuff up." Essentially, I am consciously asking my brain to stop hooking into specific thought patterns. Different people do it differently of course. Some folks just use the phrase, "Cancel! Cancel!" or they exclaim to their brain, "Busy! I'm too busy!" Or they say "Enough, enough, enough already! Knock it off!"


Taylor, Jill Bolte (2008-05-12). My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey (pp. 151-152). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


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