Want to know one, simple way to be happy? (this implies that there are more than one)
Acceptance.
Writings
Merry Christmas to you, whoever you are. Have some emotional encouragement wrapped in cryptic rhyme.
I’ve decided to start illustrating my poetry by finding cool images on Flickr and writing about them. Here’s the first one.
I invented another terrible joke…
What does a bodybuilder do when he or she doesn’t know the answer…?
Shrugs.
There are some dreams worth telling other people about.
Here follows one.
A little like this.
I dream vividly. Often about the end of the world (yes). My dreams rarely make much sense. But often, everyone dies. I have been a lucid dreamer in the past (I practiced) and though I don’t generally talk about the occasionally worrying stuff my subconscious mind throws up, two days ago I had an imaginary encounter. It was with an evil black planet and it is worth talking about…
As in most dreams, the imagery is like recalling a memory but even less reliable. Very vivid, but what exactly happened, I can’t say. The ominous image that I have swiped off of Google is a good summary of what I saw bearing down on me.
Obsidian Planet
A great obsidian black planet had taken up residence in orbit around the earth, and moved through the sky, slowly at first. It began to pick up speed every time it repeated a trip across the horizon. Every time it became visible, it’s gravitational pull would increase and I would become disorientated. Like that feeling you get from freefall or negative gravity.
As it sailed by, there was screaming,the entire world was screaming. Like the kind you hear as a rollercoaster takes a dive, except everybody everywhere. It was almost Armageddon every time it passed by. And with every increasingly fast sweep, it drew closer and larger. Right to the end of the dream where it nearly completely obscured the entire skyline, and darkened the sunlight to a pale eerie glow. It seemed to have grown in size to eclipse the Earth and was swallowing us all up.
The dream ended, as always, just before impact, and as the gravitational effects where almost completely disorienting and sickening. Everything was moving so fast. And then nothing…
Fucking awesome. What a way to die.
But what the hell could this mean?
This isn’t the first time I have dreamt about giant planets colliding with the Earth. The last I recall was of a purple colour and grew smaller and larger in a yo-yo like motion, one minute it was small, the next, looming and massive. Back and forth it went. That dream also ended just before impact and there was screaming.
But do they even have to mean anything?
Lucidity and Dream Interpretation
There are those who believe in dream interpretation. I think that there is some credence to this. It’d be nice to think that all of this vivid imagery and ridiculous mental subplots could be studied or understood. Perhaps we could use it as a kind of self administered psychotherapy and diagnosis. I think it would be more of an art than an exact science. Perhaps as tenuous as many of the other fields of psychology.
SIgmund Freud was a believer in dream interpretation (amongst other esoteric things)
Me? Though these dreams are enjoyable and therefore perhaps therapeutic, I use them for inspiration. In dreams it feels as if you have been there. It feels authentic.
And if you can control your dreams (in some way) through lucidity, you can have almost any experience. I have been to many places and met many people in my mind. I’d go far enough to say that through exploring my dreams and directing some of them, I have learnt a lot about myself and had quite a few important realisations and changes in perspective. It seems funny to write it.
So it’s not just entertainment or your own private disaster movie, but an exercise in directing imagination. And Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge (and I don’t know about you, but I agree)
Still, lucid dreaming is a skill, and is one I have neglected of late. There are many people who do it far better than me and take it more seriously. I’m just taking occasional trips to what Maxwell Maltz (of Psycho Cybernetics fame) described as ‘the theatre of the mind’. And it’s pants destroying fun.
If I followed up on the cues my nightmares were giving me, I’d be one hell of a music video/short film writer.
Something for the future perhaps…
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”
- Lewis Carroll
Image Credit: Psygnosis
Today I had a moment of total realisation that shook the very core of who I was and forced me to examine the years I have left on this planet. It was a realisation about the passage of time and it was caused, funnily enough, by a video game about police helicopters (yes, really).
I could explain how it affected me, but I think it were more useful to you if I first explain why a game about police helicopters affected me so much. And how that relates to similar experiences you’ll have had/will have as you get older.
And we all get older…
Humans block time into segments using memories as milestones.
Or perhaps put another way; memories are like reference points in how we measure the ethereal phenomenon of time.
Bear with me, I’ll explain…
Today I was researching an article for a major gaming website about Psygnosis, a now defunct Liverpool based games publisher and developer. The company is much beloved by me and countless other gamers who grew up on the epic digital storytelling that this little firm churned out over the years. One of my favourite games they released was G Police, a shooter for the Playstation.
As of this date (at the end of 2011), G Police was published a little over 14 years ago. For me, as a 23 year old, this means that this game came out over half of my lifetime ago.
To you, 14 years may not seem like a long time, but for the less experienced, like me, it really is.
Its simple maths…
If you are 80 years old and you divide life up into 4 chunks, each one is 20 years.
If you are are 20 years old and you divide life up into 4 chunks each is 5 years.
- Ugly but I hope it conveys my point
(Note I’m not saying we divide life into 4 chunks, it just simplifies it a bit)
You feel/perceive each chunk in the same way, but a lot more time passes between chunks for the 80 year old. Therefore a chunk of time for an older person feels the same, but in physical terms, is represents a lot longer span of time.
And it’s why when we get older, time seems to speed up. The chunks are getting bigger!
Memory is selective and unreliable. Your subconscious may record everything, but what you can feel, regardless of the length, feels the same. Time, in the objective sense, remains the same, but our perceptions change.
Why I almost fell off my chair…
What today’s gaming related realisation meant for me is that the chunks I measure time in are growing in size as I age.
Or to put it another way, time has put me a lot further away from that 1997 milestone than I had realised.
Our lifetimes are marked by the memorable milestones of our lives
Our intuitive feel for time’s passage is made up in milestones lodged in our memories. The strong feelings and good times associated with this game mean that G Police was one of my milestones.
Today the perspective it gave me was literally shocking.
I think this is a preview of the shock that very old people get when they realise how long has passed between now and a certain milestone.
Life’s not short, but it’s fast.
And it gets faster.
When was the last time you were shocked by such a realisation?
Here’s a simple exercise in love and compassion for those who fear falling out of touch
- image credit: Bayhaus
There are times when you may feel out of touch with the world or the people in it. Or when you may feel the tendrils of nihilism creeping into your perspective. In times like this the solution can come from simply reconnecting or reattuning yourself with the living landscape. And an easy way to reconnect is with human beings, which are usually easy to come by and not too hard to empathise with (you are human, right?). And if you happen to be in a place with people all around you, you can try an old but effective spiritual exercise to make this connection…
It is easy. Here’s how it works.
Regard each and every person around you for a two seconds or so, and focus on this individual only. Give yourself enough time to notice them and form a first impression, but not enough time to overanalyse them. In the time that you regard them, notice their entire person. If there’s something about them that stands out, use it to identify them in your mind (eg. ‘this woman has a red hat’). Now, regarding the woman in the red hat, repeat this simple mantra silently in your mind…
“This person wants love, doesn’t want pain“
At first this may seem to be a strange thing to do, people want love, it’s obvious, right?
Just give it a shot anyway. The aim is to go beyond the intellectual understanding of the phrase to really feeling and knowing it. You may find that after enough repetition, that you start to appreciate the sentence far more deeply than the words convey here.
For me this practice works every time. My compassionate side feels a sense of pity at the idea of this person, who I do not know, suffering and in pain. I, like anyone else, have been through terrible pain, and such a strong thing is easy to emphasise with in others. Thus the idea of pain bridges the gap between us.
It also reminds you of what you already know. Everybody is human. Sometimes we dehumanise and de-empathise with these people who get in our way, as we rush towards our next appointment. We still see them as people on some level, but as we may temporarily regard them as obstacles or something less than what they are. We are focused on GOING PLACES! Be this on the street, in our careers, waiting to buy groceries, or any other situation you can envision…
The practice means to take your perspective of off yourself and put it onto others. However, it focuses only on their better nature, which we very often neglect to see, whilst going places.
Image Credit: Alaivani
Deep down you may know the good in people, but sometimes a conscious reminder is required. And if you do hate humanity I am amazed that you are reading this article. Maybe it is what you need to see.
This practice is also an excellent way to spend some time in mindfulness, which is certainly a great use of time that you may feel is otherwise being wasted as you walk along, perhaps passing judgements between fleeting glances or lost in idle mental chatter.
It can be used at other times as well…
I have found that it works with people who are quite trying or difficult to be around. If someone is on the verge of receiving the sharp end of your tongue or perhaps a well timed punch to the chin, try to hold back for a moment. Remember that this person, despite evidence to the contrary, only wants love, and doesn’t want pain. Don’t give them pain, give them love.
Your beliefs can serve you and others.
P.S: It may be obvious, but the pain I describe here is gutwrenching emotional agony and heartbreak, or huge physical injury. Not the kind of pain you inflict upon yourself for a reason, such as running a marathon, getting a tattoo, employing a Dominatrix or anything else… 
Some suggestions for the practice:
- Try it on a day when you have a lot of walking to do in public places. Regard all the many people who you walk by and may never see again. All of them, looking for love and shying away from pain.
- Try it as a pattern interrupt during an argument. Stop shouting and recognise the person for who they are. Once you’ve stopped shouting they usually will too. It’s no fun trying to argue with someone who won’t participate in the conflict.
- Try it on someone who is causing trouble to others, but not directly to you.
- Try it retrospectively after an argument with a spouse or someone close to you. Right when you are seething with anger or full of sadness. It can help to diffuse the emotion.
- Remember the mantra.
Sometimes I forget that I
Have the luxury of time
As I chase the next moment,
Hurry after more feeling,
Rush after more life
*
Sometimes I forget that whilst the sun shines
And I can breathe the air
This time chasing moments
Gets me nowhere..
