self-improvement

Where is heaven for you?

This post is a question twofer of responses to two questions initially posed on Quora as written here.

It’s in the same general area where “Utopia” exists.

It’s right next to “Avalon,” which isn’t far from Valhalla and just around the bend from Asgard and down the road from Shangri-la, but more than a stone’s throw from Agartha while one can easily get lost on their way if they get distracted by the gold in El Dorado and miss their left turn at Alfheim. Try not to stay too long admiring the great fields of Elysium, or you’ll never leave. Be sure to avoid the talking snakes if you take the shortcut through the Garden of Eden, and carry a flashlight or gas lantern if you cross Thule. Agartha can get a bit warm if you fall into a deep chasm, so be sure to have spare clothing and have a spear or sword on hand to defend yourself against errant knights while crossing the lands of Camelot.

At any rate, if you make it to Cockaigne, you’ll find anything you need, which should help you if you have to climb Mount Olympus and travel through Arcadia.

Otherwise, keep your compass pointing upward toward hope; eventually, you’ll reach heaven.

Question 2: Is it okay to believe in ancient gods?

If you need permission from others to choose your beliefs, then your issues involve your self-image and self-confidence.

If you already believe fantasies can be real and magic is, then you’re not that different from much of the rest of the world, sadly.

That you ask if it’s okay to believe what you want to believe speaks to a lack of confidence in your beliefs, and that means you’re not sure if that’s what you should believe, and you’re hoping some confirmation by others will help you decide what to believe.

That may be a valid strategy for getting confirmation when lost. Still, it also shows you’ve allowed your beliefs to arise from wandering about without paying attention to the path you’ve taken. Your mind has wandered in an aimless direction, and now you’ve arrived at a place of wondering where you are.

You might want to retrace your steps to understand better why and how you arrived at the place of belief preceding what’s popular today. That you’re aware of earlier paradigms shows you’ve done some investigation into your beliefs. You’ve been curious to learn for reasons that have meaning for you.

Choosing to rest on a particular set of beliefs is just that. You may find your curiosity compelling you to investigate further.

In any case, the ability to choose to adopt or discard any belief at any moment is an exceptional reason to pay attention to how and why one chooses either way, because failing to do so leads to the sort of loss of self you’re experiencing now.

Ultimately, your beliefs are yours to do with what you will. They are “tools” — “useful implements” that allow you to maintain a consistent heading of self-discovery. The more authentic they are as an expression of profound insight into oneself, the more genuine they become as beliefs.

Good luck on your journey.

What do you do if you’re a lost cause?

This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “What do you do if you’re just a lost cause and there’s nothing anyone or you could say or do to change that?”

Stop believing that’s true about you, or resign yourself to a long and slow death while proving you are a lost cause.

Everyone can change, and it always boils down to desire and the effort one makes toward change.

Without a desire to change, neither you nor anyone else can do anything to change that.

First and foremost, you have to want it because that allows you to find the motivation to develop the discipline you need to change to prove to yourself that you’re not a lost cause.

You otherwise are and will always be what you believe yourself to be.

Robert Anton Wilson described the dynamic in simple and entertaining terms that might help, “Within each of us is the thinker and the prover. Whatever the thinker thinks, the prover proves.”

One can only be a lost cause by giving up one’s responsibility to oneself to live one’s best life. No matter how lousy the cards you’re dealt are, you still can make the best of them. Wallowing in defeat is a living a death. Use other people’s disparaging views of you as fuel to change.

Allow those unjust views to anger you justifiably. Convert them into a giant act of rejection and prove them wrong.

Good luck.

What is an example of the barrier of distraction?

This post is a response to a question posed in its full format as follows: “Distraction is a barrier to critical thinking. What is an example of a situation where you have or might in the future encounter the barrier of distractions?”

Referring to distraction as a “barrier” is a misnomer because critical thinking relies on focused effort, while distraction is a dilution in focus.

It would be like describing apathy toward physical exercise as a barrier to physical fitness. The lack of motivation to exercise isn’t a barrier per se, but the reasons for or causes of that apathy are.

It can inhibit effectiveness or prevent resolution not because it prohibits effort but because it drains effort at the moment that would otherwise be required to achieve it.

Distractions occur all the time and every day. This question is an example of a distraction because I’m trying to fall back asleep after waking up at four in the morning and find myself thinking about something I’ve been working on, which has preoccupied my attention to such a degree that I’ve become fully awake.

That’s a problem because it will mean a dramatic loss of energy at about three in the afternoon when I should be working on my project in earnest in front of my computer to record my thoughts and flesh out my ideas more concretely and productively.

To distract myself, I turned to Quora to earmark a few questions I might answer and found this question I am currently answering.

In this case, the distraction has been beneficial because answering this question has drained my focus on strategizing and made it easier to relax enough to feel the stupor return. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fall back asleep soon and get a few more hours to have a productive day when I wake up.

In this case, distraction is a means of helping me reserve energy for tackling a critical thinking activity ahead of me at a time when I will need to focus my thoughts.

In this case, distraction isn’t a barrier but an assistant. (Except for all the typos I’m prone to making with “fumble thumbs” on my phone.)

Distraction can be helpful in many ways, such as when one encounters a mental block and fails to make progress on something. Walking away from the problem can relax the mind and allow solutions to emerge spontaneously.

The word “Eureka” was made famous by the value of distraction in the story of Archimedes when he distracted himself from a problem he was stuck on and decided on a bath to relax.

https://www.livescience.com/58839-archimedes-principle.html

(Dang! One thought leads to another, and a simple answer becomes a long story that wakes me up. Suddenly, distraction has become a problem.)

Suddenly, this question became the example you asked for, which has become a clue for me to end this here.

Hopefully, I’ve given you some food for critical thinking about distractions.

Cheerz

Oh… ya… to summarize, distractions can be helpful, but they can quickly get out of hand if it doesn’t restrain them enough to lose their focus on a problem for so long that it remains unresolved. Short distractions can otherwise clear mental clutter and allow one to refocus their thoughts to make progress on their critical thinking activities.

Damn! Dunno if I’m gonna be able to fall asleep now… Maybe I should have left this question half-answered.

zzzzzzz