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Mindfulness is the Key to Self-Mastery
So I have been studying personal development for the past five years. After years of trying different things, I believe that mindfulness is the most important skill that I have learned in regards to attaining legitimate self-mastery. Before I dive into the concept of mindfulness, let us define self-mastery. Self-mastery = control over your mind and emotions. Self-mastery is:
• Getting up out of bed at 6 AM to get some work done, despite not wanting to.
• Going to the gym to get your workout in even though it is raining.
• Overcoming the tedium of work when you want to procrastinate.
• Controlling your anger when you want to go off.
• Choosing long term gratification over short term pleasure.
Basically, self-mastery is analogous with self-control. Control over your mind which constantly tries to sabotage you. You have to understand that from an evolutionary stand point your mind only cares about a couple basic needs. If you are able to survive, capable of reproducing and passing down your genes, your mind has done its job. All the lofty human desires and accomplishments you want to achieve take a back seat to these primary evolutionary urges. This is why resistance ensues; your brain tries to stop you from expanding unnecessary energy on things such as:
• Building your goal physique
• Working on your business
• Doing your homework
• Meditating
Because these things are not immediately going to affect your chances of survival, they are just your higher level goals. This is where mindfulness kicks in. Mindfulness is awareness of the experiences that arise in consciousness. Throughout the day we often get stuck in our heads. We get stuck in thoughts about the future,
“I wonder how the flight is going to go…”
We contemplate the troubles of the past,
“I can’t believe that he was so rude”
And in turn miss out on many of the events that are happening in our external world; the texture of the ground on our feet, the sound of the wind, the feeling of sunlight on our arms. The most detrimental thing we miss out on is what’s going on in our internal world.
This general lack of awareness is what makes it difficult to have self-mastery. Self-mastery requires that you understand your emotions and thoughts completely. If we don’t understand how we think, it becomes too easy for us to fall into the same old predictable habit loops. If you aren’t mindful, when something tempts you out of self-mastery you won’t be able to pick up on the subtle rising of the impulse. The un-mindful person follows impulses and doesn’t feel like they have control over them.
• They feel hunger so they cheat on their diet.
• They feel horny so they watch pornography.
• They feel lazy so they procrastinate on work.
• They feel angry so they react impulsively.
The choice to choose
Victor Frankl said:
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
The person who practices mindfulness has a larger space to analyse an appropriate response. After analysing they can consciously choose the option that will most serve them. How to deal with problems that hinder self-mastery using mindfulness Most problems can be solved with mindfulness because mindfulness allows you to slow down the process and take it apart. Often when we have problems we try to remove them with force, if we are feeling tempted by a piece of chocolate, we tell ourselves:
“Don't think of the piece of chocolate”, which in turn makes us think of the piece of chocolate like we do with pink elephants.
Escaping Mental Traps
The mindful person does not shy away or try to obstruct reality, they simply analyse the temptation as if they were analysing an object from the outside. To escape the trap you must first analyse it.
If you were trapped by some contraption you wouldn’t try to yank yourself out of it. You would first analyse it’s mechanics so that you can see a plausible means of escaping. This is what you must do with negative thoughts and emotions.
Temptation
In the case of the chocolate, the mindful person will analyse their thoughts about it. They might find that the temptation arises first from a visual thought that appears in their mind about eating the chocolate. The temptation might then be strengthened by a mental voice that warmly tells them to ‘eat it, you deserve it’.
If you are mindful enough you might notice that this urge was just a mental creation, and you don’t really have to comply with it. You might then notice that the longer you hold it, the weaker the temptation becomes.
Anger
Let’s say that you are starting to feel angry.With mindfulness, you can analyse the sensations of anger without becoming attached to them. You might notice that your scalp starts heating up and that your elbows twitch or maybe your palms start sweating. Observing a bit further leads you to see that the anger slowly dissipates when left alone with no judgments. You might then come to the realisation that like all things in the world, emotions are transient and will never last forever. These insights allow you to regain control over your anger and to not lose control.
PAIN How about physical pain. You are at the gym and are doing a set of squats. For this particular set, you have to do twenty repetitions. At rep number eight you are ready to give up. Your quads are burning and your back is aching. You then decide to become more mindful of the physical pain. You don’t shy away from it but feel it completely. You are at rep fifteen now, you swear that your legs won’t be able to take anymore but you push on. You finish your set and gain a new understanding of physical pain, you learn that pain is just energy. It’s a sensation that is made worse by your mind giving it the label ‘pain’. Your next set will still hurt, but not as much. You are no longer putting unnecessary baggage to pain through your mindfulness.
There are way too many situations in which mindfulness can be of benefit in regards to self-mastery for me to list here. So I will move on to the business of teaching you how to be mindful.
How to practice mindfulness
Many people are under the impression that mindfulness can only be practised with sitting meditation, this is not true. Mediation is a tool that will help you sharpen your mindfulness, but it is not the only way. We use sitting meditation because it provides wonderful conditions for beginners to sit down and learn about their minds without distractions from outside factors. My recommendation is that you practice mindfulness throughout the day, simply by taking moments to analyse experience. This means that instead of getting stuck in thoughts you can shift your awareness to observer mode. For instance, throughout the day you can pay attention to the following things:
• Your breath
• Your heartbeat
• The sensation of the ground on your feet
• Your hands
• The noises that you can hear
• Observe your thoughts
• Feel your emotions fully
• Check your posture
• Drink your tea slowly
Anything can be used as a tool for mindfulness as long as it brings your attention to the present moment and to the experience of life. There are many opportunities that can be used throughout the day to sharpen the sword of mindfulness. You can literally switch it on whenever you want! If you put the effort into work on this skill, self-mastery will become a foregone conclusion. |
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| There are no conversations. |
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| Javier Camara |
There is some information that an actor doesn't need, and that's okay. I can't control everything. I don't want to control everything. Sometimes, you want to control everything, and you want to know the size of the lens and stuff like that. I am so relaxed as an actor because I don't want to control everything. I just want to control my part. |
| Robert Kiyosaki |
Jobs are a centuries-old concept created during the Industrial Revolution. Despite the reality that we're now deep in the Information Age, many people are studying for, or working at, or clinging to the Industrial Age idea of a safe, secure job. |
| Triple H |
Getting ready to wrestle is like getting ready for a car crash. Getting ready to work with Brock Lesnar is like knowing you're going to get hit by a bus and the bus is going to back over you. If I'm going to work 'WrestleMania,' 16 weeks out I have to start training like I'm Mayweather getting ready for a fight. |
| Eugene Fama |
After costs, only the top 3% of managers produce a return that indicates they have sufficient skill to just cover their costs, which means that going forward, and despite extraordinary past returns, even the top performers are expected to be only as good as a low-cost passive index fund. The other 97% can be expected to do worse. |
| Phil Jackson |
I think there's something about wanting to stand in the spotlight. I think the ball is a spotlight, for example, and I think they want to stand in that. I a lot of times see - LeBron is a guy that vacillates between wanting to do that and then wanting to get somebody else involved. |
| Colin Farrell |
I've realized as well after five years of being on the road that if I'm going to four or five months of my life to something even if I'm overpaid, it's four or five months of my life away from home, away from my son, away from family and friends. I better believe in it on some level even if it's a big movie. |
| Dakota Fanning |
I've been very lucky enough to do all kinds of movies. All the movies that I've done have been very different, and all the characters I've done have been very different. I feel very lucky to have been able to do the movies that I've done. |
| Johnny Depp |
If there's any message to my work, it is ultimately that it's OK to be different, that it's good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color. |
| Naomi Campbell |
I like to control everything, and you cannot control everything. You have to at some point say, 'I let go and I'm going to let the cards fall where they fall... For a control freak, it's hard. |
| Dale Carnegie |
If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done. |
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i realized i have trouble expressing myself due to my past experiences and the overwhelming nature of them. my dad left my mom 2 years after i was born. my brother has lived in japan for almost 10 years. my mom was wrongfully fired and unemployed for almost 2 years while i was in college, food stamps was a savior to us. I watched the 'plug being pulled' on my grandpa 3 years ago. watched my dog die and literally take his last breath a year later. my grandma died a few months ago.
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also, even more importantly, i learned that you have to slam the methods when they work. nothing lasts forever and real easy ways to make money back 10 years ago are non existent now.
if you have an edge, fuckin use it
This post is a comment.
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An idea that came from lots of caffeine and appeared to sort of work when I tried it. When alone, with no distractions, try to think of random and creative things. You will soon notice a sort of limitation to the form and rapidity that these things have and come into your mind. At that point, consciously choose to stop and think more outside of the box, with broader shapes and ideas. Feel out the edges of where this new approach can take you and you will soon encounter another wall of sorts past which your mind isn't really creative enough to go. At this point, again consciously stop imagining strange things and focus entirely on your senses and spatial awareness. For me I noticed that by trying to push the limits of the inside of my head I felt a noticeable difference in the way I percieved the "real" world. I felt as though the space my body and mind occupy have been given more room, more fresh air, more fluidity. This was especially noticeable with my hearing, which seemed much sha...
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If we do nothing to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, by the end of this century the Earth will be as hot as it was 50 million years ago in the early Eocene, according to a new study out today in the journal Nature Communications. This period -- roughly 15 million years after dinosaurs went extinct and 49.8 million years before modern humans appeared on the scene -- was 16F to 25F warmer than the modern norm. [...] During the Eocene, it took more atmospheric CO2 to influence temperatures than it does today. In fact, if we don't change our behavior, 2100 will be as hot as the Eocene with much less atmospheric CO2 than was present at the time. A hotter sun means we get more bang for our CO2 buck. "Climate change denialists often mention that CO2 was high in the past, that it was warm in the past, so this means there's nothing to worry about," said lead study author Gavin Foster, a researcher in isotope geochemistry and paleoceanography at the United Kingdom's University of Sout...
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its important we take the word 'need' out of our vocabulary when it comes to money. we dont need money in any form, and saying so even when we dont mean it, ingrains it into our mind. however, despite wanting the money that i get from my job - i cant help but feel like i have something better to be doing
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By Next Week, Intel Expects To Issue Updates To More Than 90% of Processor Products Introduced Within Past Five Years (intel.com) 181
Posted by msmash on Thursday January 04, 2018 @01:40PM from the fixing-things dept.
Intel said on Thursday that by next week it expects to have patched 90 percent of its processors that it released within the last five years, making PCs and servers "immune" from both the Spectre and Meltdown exploits. The company adds:
Intel has already issued updates for the majority of processor products introduced within the past five years. By the end of next week, Intel expects to have issued updates for more than 90 percent of processor products introduced within the past ...
This post is a comment.
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I had a dream that I was taking a test on stuff I learned like 8 years ago and that I didn't know any of the answers.
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There are few subjects relating to spiritual development so
critically important and yet so
incompletely understood as Yoga.
Although the interest in Yoga that started
in the West during the
1960’s has abated to some degree
, the teaching of the various
...
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Guy Robs Someone At Gunpoint For Domain Name, Gets 20 Years In Jail
Yesterday, 43-year-old Iowa man Sherman Hopkins Jr. was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempting to rob a domain name from another man at gunpoint in 2017. As Motherboard reports, "this may be the first time someone has attempted to steal a domain name at gunpoint." From the report:
Last June, Hopkins broke into the home of 26 year-old Ethan Deyo in Cedar Rapids, Iowa one afternoon and demanded that Deyo to log on to his computer to transfer the domain name for "doitforstate.com" to another account. According to Deyo's bio on his personal website, he is a web entrepreneur who previously worked for the web hosting se...
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Just caught up on all of my mail from the past 4 years. The pile I decided to throw away weighed about 30 pounds.
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