Philosophy

6 Minute Meditation

FrostyLeave a comment

6-minutes-meditation.png

Almost everyone I know who is successful has some sort of a daily meditation practice. Yet this is one habit that has been difficult for me to adapt to my routine. There are many types of meditative practices, and one of the challenges has been to pick one that suits me and fits my time slot.

I recently found one that was 20 minutes and it was quite good. I have distilled it down to about 6 minutes (2 minutes each section) and here is how it goes:

6 Minute Meditation

6 minute

 

And that is it. You can do this in your mind, like how the monks do it, or you can do it on a journal by writing things down.

 

Source: mindvalley

Groundless Fear

FrostyLeave a comment

GroundlessFear

It’s opposite day today. What you were told is bad for you, is actually good for you. Before you get carried away and jump off a high place, let me clarify. I am not talking about doing stupid things that might take you to meet your maker. I am talking about the everyday practical challenges that make you afraid. Afraid of trying out something new, change, embarrassment, rejection, failure.

Our brain is wired for survival. And a good rule of survival is that familiarity is safe, and the unknown is to be feared. On top of this, conventional wisdom is generally wrong. I will argue that fear is nothing more than an opportunity to grow.

Philosophy of Fear

Stoicism – besides being one way of being associated with the “hipsters” – offers practical solutions to life’s big problems.

Go ahead and have a listen to this 9min reading of Seneca’s Letter # 13, which is titled “On Groundless Fear”. If you don’t have 9min, then listen at 1.25x, or 1.50x. Then do yourself a favor and bookmark it or download it to your phone. It will come very handy in future, I promise.

For your convenience, here is a very short summary on how to deal with fear, based on Seneca’s Letter # 13:

  1. Remember the times you handled a challenging and fearful situation in the past. You can do it again.
  2. Perhaps this thing that you are afraid of will never come, so why worry. And even if it does come, it will pass, so why worry.

Cure for Fear

There is only one cure for fear, and it is action! Something can only be “new” for the first time. Ask yourself: “what is the worst that can happen?”. And if the answer is not that big of a deal, then go for it. Chase the storm, go to where the fear is.

Change is about conditioning. Compounded over time, it becomes habit. Which further compounds to become personality. I suggest the following very simple conditioning to not be afraid:

Do one thing every day that scares you

Start with simple things, then increase the dose daily to push your limits. Depending on the individual, asking for an extra cream in your coffee might be a cause of fear. Or, for the brave, bungee jumping with your arms tied around your back might be fearful. Whatever it may be, do one thing daily.

Don’t Let Things External to You Bother You

FrostyLeave a comment

Don't Let Things External to You Bother You

Invictus by William Ernest Henley, is an inspiring poem. It is a little depressing, but the bits that I like are towards the end:

…I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul…

I read somewhere that the secret to being happy is realizing that you have very little control. Little control on how others think, how others behave. And no control on how the universe unfolds. Therefore, I try not to let things external to me bother me.

Things Internal

I do care about things internal. Care a lot about things internal. I control my thoughts. These become my habits. Which becomes my personality. Internal things are easy to control. This attitude prevents ego-inflation. And besides, if I focus on personal corrections and growth, there is little time to bother with what others have to say or think.

Past Mistakes

The best thing about making a mistake is that all you have to do in order to move on, is to allow time to pass. Mistakes happen. The “Hakuna Matata!” philosophy applies well here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB5ceAruYrI

Make mistakes and take the “Kaizen” approach: incremental improvements by monitoring and tracking your mistakes. Do what you have to do in order to move forward. Without mistakes there would be no evolution.

Regrets

The worst thing that can happen in life, is a regret. Don’t be in a situation where “you wish you had done that”. Have a “go for it” attitude with every opportunity. Especially when you are young. The principle of compounding is in your favor, and you cannot afford not to go for it.

You miss every shot you do not take

Victim Mentality

The worst disease is that of the mind. Believe that you are in control of your decisions, and yours only. Life is complicated, with a lot of moving parts. Others are not “out to get you”. People act in their best interest and not everyone’s state of consciousness is at the same level (more on this below).

One way to not fall for this trap, is to keep your mind occupied. An unoccupied mind wanders and looks for faults with others. Be an observer of the world, be curious, travel, communicate, think. Keep a positive energy that radiates all around you and is a beacon for others. If you let it, the victim mind set will consume you, rotting from within. Not only affecting you, but the people you love.

States of Consciousness

There are excellent articles written on this topic, and the idea is more akin to spirituality. I am interested in the practical aspects of this. You can read the full article here, but I will summarize it very briefly. Consciousness has stages, and you work up the steps to a higher state of consciousness.

  • Life Happens “To Me”: this is the victim mindset mentioned above. Everyone is out to get me, and I don’t understand why.
  • Life Happens “By Me”: I am in control of my decisions and actions. In control of my thoughts. I choose all the good things that happen to me, as well as all the bad things.
  • Life Happens “Through Me”: I am so in-tune with the universe, that without putting any effort, the universe delivers in my favor.
  • Life Happens “As Me”: to be honest, I am not entirely sure what this one is about, but I guess at this stage of consciousness, there is not separation of “me” and “the universe”, we are all one.

Everyone starts at the first stage, and has to evolve up to the higher ones. It is our responsibility to realize these stages, realize where we are and work our way up, and realize where the other person is and help him do the same – do not argue and do not ignore.

Empathy

Empathy goes a long way. I always thought empathy was listening to the other person’s problem and offering a solution. While this is correct in the sense the final step is to offer a solution, but there is one crucial step in between. And that is to just listen and empathize. Try to, try hard to, put yourself in their shoes and see the situation through their eyes. Then agree that it is a difficult situation to be in. Agree that it really sucks. Once you are in sync, then you are qualified to offer a solution. A genuine hug will do all this in a hugely efficient manner. Leverage a “crisis” situation as an opportunity for growth and consolidation.

I will end with an awesome quote to tie everything together:

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own – not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Lord of the Gaps

FrostyLeave a comment

Lord of the Gaps

In science and technology, energy is carried by either a charge, or by a “Gap”. This is called hole carriage. This framework is the reason we have semiconductors, which is the reason we have our beloved tech gadgets.

Achieving any goals is life if not a “journey”. This idea is tossed around a lot: “it’s a journey, let’s just start and see where it leads us”. Sure, this is a good way to get started, but I am afraid it accomplishes little after that. The better approach would be to look where you want to go and then find a template to base your path off. Find people that have taken this path and learn what they have to share. Start with the end in mind.

Part of this process is the Gap. By creating this circumstance for your desired outcome, you are in effect forcing your environment to carry you to your desired end point. It is beautiful.

Crisis is a form of Gap: it takes you out of your comfort zone and you must discover your “hero’s journey” to find a solution. You can create mini-crises to simulate this end goal in an efficient manner. Put yourself in a challenging situation and learn from it. As an exercise, try to do one thing that scares you everyday. This can be as little as asking someone out or as big as swimming with sharks.

Conversely, if one slacks off, then undesired Gaps are created by the Universe. These Gaps will be filled by others more capable of deserving the opportunities. It is one form of survival of the fittest. Be aware of this and Stay Frosty!