How am I expanding my mind?
“The Awakening” by Hy Mayer in Puck Feb. 20, 1915
According to this Wiki-How page I should embark on at least the following:
- Train my mind. …
- Read books. …
- Write. …
- Ask questions. …
- Start Experiments. …
- Exercise my mind. …
- Be adventurous. …
- Start thinking.
- Meditate
- Be disciplined
- Help others
- Test myself under pressure
- Get rid of bad feeling and memories
- Exercise
I want to assume that I do not have to embark on a course that includes every single one of these! However, I do have one objection to the list – getting rid of bad feelings and memories. Those are majorly transformative experiences and to leave them behind seems ridiculous to me. Now, I am not saying we have to dwell in them, but finding the positive in them is something I think is unbelievably vital to being human. I guess I would rephrase number 13 to read “Turn bad feeling and memories into positives”.
Does that make me a Pollyanna? Gawd, I hope not!
Here are some thoughts on each one of the above;
- Train my mind – I suppose I do this, but it seems silly to me.
- Read books – or listen!
- Write – like this 366 posts crap I am doing is an example
- Ask questions – NON-Effin-Stop questions
- Start experiments – yes, this too – often they are not in controlled environments and purely anecdotal!
- Exercise my mind – I rock the brain burpees (wtf)
- Be adventurous – I am pretty sure I do this
- Start thinking – does one stop?
- Meditate – at least once a day
- Be disciplined – Nope, never gonna happen in any traditional way – but in my own way, definitely!
- Help others – as much as possible
- Test myself under pressure – again, isn’t this living?
- Get rid of bad feeling and memories – see spiel above
- Exercise – when I feel like it
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
Blair Necessities 