Wake Up Brain

True mental illness is a serious issue and it really makes me mad that drugs are being handed out like candy to anyone that has a bad day. I have no sympathy for people that refuse to put forth the effort to solve their issues and rely on a pill to make them happy. If you are unhappy taking a pill will not magically bring happiness. You have to take ownership of your unhappiness and try to resolve it. There are people who really need to be medicated and these lazy people water down the research for how best to deal with various mental ailments. It’s time to for a lot of people to drop the crutch and do a little work.

I think many of the problems we suffer through may be the result of how we have trained our brain. If you think about it you have trained your brain how to think for all of your life. In many cases we have trained our brain to think incorrectly. It’s almost like learning 5 X 5 = 24 when you are young and never realizing that it is incorrect. We train our brain to respond to different types of stimulation when we are immature and many times never go back to update that training. In most cases we don’t even realize that we are having an automatic response that we can alter or control. It is not mental illness it is mental unawareness or laziness.

It is fascinating that you can train your brain to have an automatic response. You might be suffering from stress or anxiety which is the brain’s auto response for the situation you find yourself in. You can change that response and many others by simply realizing you can alter how you think. You can teach yourself to react to various stimulation in the appropriate manner. I think of it in terms of a child. When you are a child you have to learn that it’s inappropriate to throw a tantrum if you don’t get your way. You have to teach your brain to modify that initial response. I think as adults you lose sight of the fact that we are constantly learning and evolving.

I’m not sure what started my journey for knowledge other than frustration. I was anxious at times and it left me stressed out or sometimes the other way around. After reading up on things like stress and anxiety I found some information on training yourself to think. I was very interested in how the way we think can snowball positive or negative feelings. What fascinated me is that if more people simply tried to work on how they think they might be able to avoid things like mild depression. Even better they may avoid having to be prescribed the latest miracle drug for happiness.

I found a good example for how our brains have an automatic response is location of daily use items. Take the trashcan in your kitchen for example. It’s always in the same place so you don’t even consciously think when you head in its direction to throw something away. Try moving the trashcan to another location say in another room. You know that you moved the trashcan but you find yourself ending up in the trashcan’s old location because you’ve trained your brain through repetition that the trash is located there. Eventually you catch yourself having to stop and consciously try and determine where the trashcan is rather than relying on your brain’s auto response.

I found that the way I thought about things was more a result of repetitive thinking then the actual situation. I would get stressed out before a meeting and I never really examined why. When I finally addressed what caused the stress I was surprised. I wasn’t stressed out because of what was expected of me in the meeting at all. I was stressed out because I thought the meeting was pointless and it took a lot of energy for me to actually appear engaged. Once I realized the source of my stress it helped me apply some of the techniques I had read about.

It’s actually fairly easy to train your brain not to auto respond with anxiety or stress in a given situation. Every time you have a negative thought tell yourself that it is silly and you need to stop thinking that way. It sounds really simplistic but it works because you train your brain to stop making you unconsciously respond with anxiety or stress. You just have to make sure that you stop and think about your negative reaction to a situation. You have to analyze it and come to the realization that it is negative and you want to correct it. In my case I realized that my meeting was pointless most of the time. I told myself that it was silly to get stressed out over a meeting just because I was afraid I would lose my concentration. The result was that I relaxed in the meeting and it became less of a drain on me.

A good anxiety example would be when you walk into a store and think everyone is looking at you. Tell yourself this is silly and you refuse to think that way anymore. Break your habit of maybe looking at the ground and look around. You will find reassurance that not everyone is looking at you when you actually look back and notice that other people barely notice you are there. As you work at it you will notice that your brain starts to respond slowly. You will walk into a store and the first thing you will think of is that it is silly to think everyone is looking at you before you get anxious. After some time your brain will adapt. The auto response for walking into a store will be that it is silly to think everyone is looking at you. This will be an unconscious thought because you trained your brain to think that way. So eventually when you walk into a store you won’t have anxiety anymore because your brain tells you it’s silly to think that way.

Once you get in to trying to change the way you think it will bleed into many areas. You will start questioning how you think about everything and why. You will begin to analyze situations from different angles. You will also start to notice your brain’s auto response for various aspects of your life. The perspective in which you think about things will widen. I found that it feels good to be able to understand how I work a little more. For me it almost felt like I was awake after being asleep for a long time.

Per·spec·tive

Recently I have been taking mental notes on perspective in relation to the people I interact with on a consistent basis. What I have begun to realize is that the foundation for how we think and feel about people is largely based on incomplete information. We are presented with some information on those we come in contact with frequently but very often that information is presented in such a manner that a logical conclusion is way off base. I know this isn’t earth shattering but it is interesting to think about.

The way I’ve started thinking about it is like looking at a cube from different angles. If you look at the cube straight on then it looks like a square. If you look slightly off to either side you can see it is a cube. If you look at the point of the cube just right it looks like the top of a pyramid. Imagine if your perspective never changed and you were stuck with on of those vantage points. You would never know the reality of what you were looking at. Every thought or opinion you had would be incomplete but you would have no idea that it was.

When communication is not clear and concise people are able to jump to widely incorrect conclusions. The conclusion is usually generated more out of how we think and feel then out of fact. It’s almost like someone tells you that X + Y + 10 = 30 and you conclude that X and Y are both 10 because it’s a simple conclusion. It never enters your mind that X could be -100 and Y could be 120 or any other combination. I may be making this sound more difficult then it really is but there is complexity to perspective. It reminds of the game I played as a kid where the teacher whispers something to the first child and then each child passes the message along the line of children. When the message got back to the teacher the meaning had become extremely garbled.

Paying attention to others perspective has really helped me realize how important communication is. Not jumping to conclusions is hard sometimes because you don’t realize you don’t have all the information. It has amazed me how small details can make a big difference in how people perceive a situation. Language can be complicated enough without trying to decipher emotion. If you say something in the wrong tone of voice a completely different conclusion may be drawn from what you were trying to convey. I might sigh as I respond to a question from someone and they think I'm being a dick because of the sigh. They may have no idea that I'm just sad because some people think Nickelback has musical talent.

What amazes me is how one tiny misunderstanding can create a foundation for a person’s perspective. If a relative sees me order a burger without mayonnaise they might conclude I hate mayonnaise. They might go so far as to not fix any food with mayonnaise in it when I am around. The truth is I just don’t like mayonnaise on my burger just like they may not like mustard. The problem gets more complex over time as you form opinions of people based largely on what you see and hear. The real information is usually never available to process unless you ask for it. That is if you actually know there is more information.

I am a somewhat private person who must be prompted for specific information. I’m not sure if that’s because I don’t think people are interested in the entire story or if I don’t care what they think. I imagine it is a combination of both. The result is that people I come in contact with have some misconceptions about me. A lot of people don’t get my dry sense of humor or even realize I am often extremely sarcastic. I am a complex person just like most people. I’m not really concerned with being understood but I have found the many pitfalls of people missing my perspective on things.

The result of all this is that I’ve realized that reality is what you make of it. Everyone’s reality is totally different. We shy away from that and try to keep things on a common level but we are all so different. We have been exposed to different information and our perspective on everything is based on that no matter how incomplete the information is. Without all the information our perspective will never be totally accurate. When you stop and think about that it makes you wonder if the next step of our evolution is to communicate on a higher level. Maybe that step is a more accurate level of communication that is direct and without multiple meanings.

That would be sweet!

ADJECTIVE:
sweet·er , sweet·est

Having the taste of sugar or a substance containing or resembling sugar, as honey or saccharin.

Containing or derived from sugar.
Retaining some natural sugar; not dry: a sweet wine.

Pleasing to the senses; agreeable: the sweet song of the lark; a sweet face.
Pleasing to the mind or feelings; gratifying: sweet revenge.
Having a pleasing disposition; lovable: a sweet child.
Kind; gracious: It was sweet of him to help out.
Fragrant; perfumed: a sweet scent.
Not saline or salted: sweet water; sweet butter.
Not spoiled, sour, or decaying; fresh: sweet milk.
Free of acid or acidity: sweet soil.
Low in sulfur content: sweet fuel oil.
Music Of, relating to, or being a form of jazz characterized by adherence to a melodic line and to a time signature.
Used as an intensive: took his own sweet time to finish; earns a sweet million per year.

ADVERB:
In a sweet manner; sweetly.

NOUN:
Sweet taste or quality; sweetness.

Something sweet to the taste.
sweets
Foods, such as candy, pastries, puddings, or preserves, that are high in sugar content.
Informal Sweet potatoes: candied sweets.
Chiefly British
A sweet dish, such as pudding, served as dessert.
A sweetmeat or confection.
A dear or beloved person.
Something pleasing to the mind or feelings.

Whoops, I mean that would be “low in sulfur content” !

Christmas is the time for cheer!

I have so many fond memories of Christmas. I really enjoy the music and the decorations. Lighting the Christmas tree with children or as a child seems to always bring smiles. Watching the same old Christmas shows on TV brings back so many memories. Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown and the Grinch always seem to ramp up the Christmas spirit for everyone. I won’t even start on the joy of Christmas day with all the food, family and presents! Christmas has become a generic holiday for all to enjoy. Sorry Jesus and thanks Santa. I am really glad that it is a time of year were people can just be happy no matter if you a Christian or not.

There are so many things that are positive about Christmas even if you have no association with ole JC. It’s really disappointing that a lot of people can’t bring themselves to embrace the generic Christmas. Santa is not religious in any way unless you rearrange the letters of his name (Satan). The attacks on generic Christmas decorations seems a little silly to me. I’m pretty sure Frosty wasn’t in the manger but who knows. Is it really so blasphemous to embrace flying reindeer and elves that make toys? I know a wreath hung on some lampposts downtown might cause a rift in the time space continuum for some. Wouldn’t a better use of time be to enjoy the holiday and spend time with family and friends? Maybe creating some happiness for those less fortunate might work.

I know a lot of people lose the spirit of the holiday no matter what they believe. The ugly side of Christmas really stuck out this year for me. It’s all about the presents! However, my most fond Christmas memories do no involve opening a box. Numerous times I avoided car accidents the last couple of weeks. People were in such a hurry that their time becomes more important than my life. People pushing and shoving to buy whatever widget little Billy has to have this year becomes the norm at any store. People complain about the long lines and traffic. They let it all get to them and it results in those angered decisions that result in people getting hurt.

Why don’t people learn to shop early or online to avoid the mess? If I go shopping the week before Christmas I accept the lines will be long and that I will be lucky to even be able to park my car. I actually smile at people to try and spread the cheer. I stop in the heavy traffic and let people out even as the cars behind me lay on their horns. Christmas should still be about kindness. I use the extra time it takes waiting in line to relax and reflect on the year. I think it’s important to take a breath and remember what is important. Family, friends and making the world a better place for those looking for answers.

I actually went to Church on Christmas morning and it made me sad. People were more concerned with how they looked and if they could get the best seats. Nobody seemed to enjoy being there as it appeared to be an obligation most chose to suffer through. As the priest spoke and the parishioners responded all I could think about was sheep. Here was a collection of people who could be spreading cheer. They could be using the time to spend with their families enjoying the day together. They could even have sacrificed their time to spend it helping those in need. Instead most begrudgingly dressed themselves to the nines and went through the motions.

When I walked out of Church it had begun to rain. Instead of helping each other it was a free for all to see who could get their car to the doors first. There was no regard for people with children or the elderly. If I had an umbrella I would have given it to the woman with multiple children or the elderly lady who walked with her husband getting wet in the cold rain. It made me sad to be a part of this religious event. It made me sad to even be associated with these sheep. I would have much rather been looking for reindeer tracks at home with the kids.

Bah humbug isn’t a lot different than just baaahh. Next year I’m sure I will be explaining how Santa got down the chimney and ate the cookies that were left out. I will have a smile on my face as the children beam from ear to ear looking under the tree. I will eventually sit back after a meal with family and enjoy my day as Burl Ives sings about red nosed reindeer. I will reflect on the year and hope that I have been able to spread happiness as far as I can. I certainly won’t be joining the sheep on Christmas again because I enjoy reindeer, snowmen, elves and the cheer that they bring. I hope others can embrace all that is good about Christmas next year. Maybe they will catch the Grinch on TV and learn a valueable lesson. I hope they can spread cheer and let the bad things melt away like Frosty because that is what Christmas is really all about.

Christianity For Kids

God - Our invisible Father who lives in space Heaven and waits for good people to die so he can party with them forever. He has all the super powers.


Jesus - The Jewish zombie son of God who asks that we worship and then eat him in order to avoid getting sent to Hell. He can turn water into wine and also has the ability to absolve you of sin super power.


Virgin Mary - The Mother of Jesus who was artificially inseminated by God in order to avoid having sexual relations. She possesses the power to convince her husband that she was just talking to God when it happened.


Holy Ghost - When God and Jesus combine they form the Holy Ghost which is sort of like Voltron. The Holy Ghost has all the super powers and looks cooler than just God alone.


Satan - A red guy with a pointy tail that lives in the molten center of the Earth called Hell and waits for bad people to die so he can party with them forever. He possesses all the powers of sin and can play a mean fiddle.

The Ostrich

We'll call you when you're six years old
And drag you to the factory
To train your brain for eighteen years
With promise of security
But then you're free
And forty years you waste to chase the dollar sign
So you may die in Florida
At the pleasant age of sixty nine

The water's getting hard to drink
We've mangled up the country side
The air will choke you when you breathe
We're all committing suicide
But it's alright
It's progress folks keep pushin' till your body rots
Will strip the earth of all it's green
And then divide her into parking lots

But there's nothing you and I can do
You and I are only two
What's right and wrong is hard to say
Forget about it for today
We'll stick our heads into the sand
Just pretend that all is grand
Then hope that everything turns out ok

You're free to speak your mind my friend
As long as you agree with me
Don't criticize the father land
Or those who shape your destiny
'Cause if you do
You'll lose your job your mind and all the friends you knew
We'll send out all our boys in blue
They'll find a way to silence you

But there's nothing you and I can do
You and I are only two
What's right and wrong is hard to say
Forget about it for today
We'll stick our heads into the sand
Just pretend that all is grand
Then hope that everything turns out ok

Steppenwolf - 1968

It makes me sad to think this was written almost 40 years ago and we still have our heads in the sand.

Suggestions - 2007

If you are the owner of a deli then I would suggest turning off the loud music coupled with loud machinery that prevents me from hearing what the fuck your employees are trying to ask me.

If you have big tits and wear a skin tight shirt without a bra don’t give me that dirty look when I notice you must be chilly.

If you are driving in the fast lane and someone is behind you trying to go faster GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY!!!!! Did you ever think that someone might be in the backseat bleeding to death and that is why they are in such a hurry?

If you 100% believe in Creationism then please join one of the United States military branches.

If you are a ______ where I have to fill out multiple forms is there any reason you need my address on 10 different forms multiple times?

If I am shopping your online store please give me easy access to your shipping charges. It really sucks to find out that your widget is $10 cheaper because your shipping charge is $20 higher than anyone else’s after 15 minutes of typing in my shipping information.

Do not purchase a house with a large well maintained yard if you have no intention of keeping it up. I realize that the $10-$20 it would cost to have the neighbor kid cut your grass would bankrupt you.

If you think that Gay Marriage is one of the top five issues in America please join one of the United States military branches.

If you are a Waste Management Engineer let me reiterate that the trash can never belongs in the very middle of a driveway.

If you are crying about healthcare on TV please do not weigh over 400 lbs.

If you are under 30 and really believe in the current US administration please join one of the United States military branches so you can experience that righteous certainty first hand.

Who you tryin to get crazy with ese?

Illegal immigration has been made into a very complex issue where I can understand arguments on both sides. However, I think the key to the issue is very simple. Say it, “illegal immigration”. The obvious solution is in the name. Well that is if you don’t run a corporation who relies heavily on the illegal part to do business.

Magically appearing in the United States is illegal. If the laws were enforced there would be no issue. Business owners would be punished and it would end the enticement for illegal’s to come here to work. How this point is missed by the average American is beyond me. A logical question then is why do normal people go to jail for fairly petty stuff while people who break the law daily by just being here roam free?

I know that companies ignore the illegal status of the immigrants because they can pay them next to nothing for hard work. That still does not change the illegal part. It does not change the myriad of negative consequences like illegal’s not paying any taxes. It does not change the education problems and health care issues that illegal’s face.

I work down the street from a number of apartment complexes that have caught on fire a number of times. Each time it has been attributed to an apartment housing illegal’s that is over crowded. If I lived in an adjacent apartment and it was proven that I was negligent in a fire then I would be held legally responsible. Yet, these people who are there illegally don’t even have to face being charged because they don’t exist in the first place!

I have read and heard the arguments that if you eliminate the illegal workforce then the price of goods will increase. Why is that a bad thing? That means that immigrants who come here legally can take these jobs and get a fair wage. It also means more tax revenue for roads, schools, and maybe even money for health care. Have you seen how fat this country is? Maybe it would be a good thing if a Snickers Bar went up in price a dollar!

My solution would be simple. Let everyone know that as of 1/1/08 all immigration laws are going to be enforced without question. Let families that are illegal’s but have US born children (pre this announcement) apply for citizenship via a new fast track process if they meet legal criteria. Problem solved by allowing the law to be enforced. If you don’t agree with the current laws then vote to have them changed. If you can’t vote because you are illegal then try and convince the voters to vote for your agenda. Although, don’t be discouraged when you discover that the corporations already beat you to it!