In the first two decades of my adult life, I was convinced that I had a problem with work. I could never successfully force myself to stay at a job for long if I wasn’t really enjoying it, not even if I desperately needed the money - and there were times when I desperately needed the money! In fact, until I finally began my own private therapy practice, I had never lasted more than two and a half years at any one job. I never got fired, and in fact, I was a dedicated and enthusiastic professional. As a clinical social worker, I’d worked in private and non-profit agencies, groups homes and runaway shelters, drug treatment programs, foster care, mental health clinics and even a VA hospital for a while. But in the end, which always came sooner rather than later, the limitations and frustrations of bureaucratic work – the time clock, the paperwork, the regulations and excessive caseloads that prevented one from making really creative interventions with clients, and the general malaise of the social service work force, plus the rush-hour commuting in New York City led me to throw my hands up and give notice. These seemed like good reasons to leave a job at the time, yet a creeping judgement in my mind said I was being irresponsible or self-indulgent, that I had a problem.
I took two hiatuses from my chosen field during those first twenty years, both times going into my family’s small home improvement business, once even starting my own house-painting company in Westchester County, just outside of New York City. What I particularly liked about those two stretches of non-white-collar work was that the jobs felt more project-oriented. Small crews of workers would come together – plumbers, carpenters, electricians, painters – and like a team, they applied the skills of their individual trades in harmony (mostly) with each other to transform or build from scratch a new living environment. Then, the various tradespeople would separate until they might meet again on another project. This made sense to me as an efficient way of getting things done, each person invested in the completion of a project, rather than just putting hours in at the same repetitive task day after day, and somehow, the coming together, accomplishing a task, then separating made the work experience more exciting and festive.
It also made sense to me intuitively that work should be fun, compatible with one’s personality and integrated into the "rest" of one’s life, just as "rest" should be an integral part of one’s work-life. I knew all of this in my gut (though before I started doing bodywork psychotherapy, I wasn’t always sure that gut feelings held true wisdom – see the section on "GUT FEELINGS" in my article entitled: "Feeling Human" - coming soon).
I often recall an older man I knew in my teen years named "George", a very kind man who hated his work. He used to say that even though he hated his job, he was okay because of his attitude towards it: "Work is just an 8-hour interruption of my day", George would say proudly. At the time, I thought he was really a sage, and I tried that attitude on for size when I entered the work force in earnest in the 1970s after getting my degrees. It hit me almost immediately, though, once I actually started working, that eight hours was a third of a day, a third of my life! Way too much time to spend in a state of "interruption." As my transient job history evolved, I felt resigned to the fact that I would be a work-force rebel in a world of nine-to-fivers who were responsibly slugging it out in work-days they couldn’t wait to just get through and at jobs they weren’t gratified in.
In 1994, however, I found vindication in, of all things, Fortune magazine! The September 19 cover story of Fortune that year was entitled "The End Of The Job." It heralded the changes to come as the new millennium approached in terms of work-life. "The job is a social artifact", Fortune proclaimed, born of early industrialization and assembly line production methods that were no longer relevant. "We cannot afford the inflexibility that the job brings with it…Jobs discourage accountability because they reward people not for getting the necessary work done, but for ‘doing their jobs." The article pointed out that before people had jobs, they worked in "shifting clusters…in a variety of locations, on a schedule set by the sun and the weather and the needs of the day."
Although no longer for reasons like daylight or weather, but more to do with advancing technology and mobility, and the elusive "quality of life", it has once again become more effective to work that way. Consultants, sole proprietors, temps and subcontractors have become today’s versions of the itinerant craftsmen of the past. Working by the hour is being replaced with working by the project, as it had always been done in most of the blue collar trades.
Furthermore, the article predicted that leisure time, vacations and retirement as they currently are structured would dramatically change. "Without the job, time off from work becomes something not taken out of job time but something taken during the interims between assignments or between project contracts. And retirement? As ever more people become businesses in themselves, retirement will become an individual matter that has less to do with organizational policy and more to do with individual circumstances and desires."
All of these prophetic declarations by Fortune 13 years ago are now commonplace realities in 2007. People do work differently structure-wise, much more independently, solo or in make-shift teams, and it is now the rare exception to meet someone who has been at one job or with one company for ten years, let alone an entire career. (I hadn’t realized that I was part of a pioneering professional class back in the Seventies!) Now, as feature articles recently in the New York Times Magazine have declared, everybody is quitting their jobs.
My favorite essay from the late 90's was in fact entitled, "The Joy of Quitting", written by Michael Lewis. In the piece, Mr. Lewis not only describes the sound economic and creative reasons for regularly changing jobs, he points out that there can be destructive effects from "sticking it out to the bitter end", as we are often instructed to do in childhood. "Finish what you started!" is a common admonishment that so many of us heard from parents, teachers or other authority-figures. In relationships or jobs, this rigid, often shame-based mindset can in fact cause a person to miss or pass up opportunities for greater accomplishment, growth and happiness that could only come by letting go of a current stagnant situation.
Some things have indeed shifted in our attitude towards work during the last decade, and in the ways mentioned, for the better. Yet, a different problem has re-emerged in recent years as part of this transition, perhaps born out of anxiety about not having the security of a "steady job." People, and especially Americans, work too much!
In a New York Times editorial, entitled, "Working Better or Just Harder?", Stephen S. Roach questions the way we are currently measuring the productivity of our work force, which government statistics say is quite high. Since improving productivity is "not about working longer", according to Roach, but about "adding more value per unit of work time", then our "24/7 culture of nearly round-the-clock work…endemic to the wired economy" of "laptops, cell phones, home fax machines…" is indeed producing more quantitatively, but not producing "better", that is more productively. We are all simply working too much.
How much? Well, while there are no statistics for how many hours people log in by logging on at home to do work, a study by the International Labor Organization states that Americans put in an average of 2,000 hours at work ten years ago, which was 83 more hours of work than in 1980. Juan Somavia, head of the labor organization, quoted in a Times article called, "Americans Lead the World in Hours Worked", by Elizabeth Olson, bemoans the situation we’re in here in the US: "While the benefits of hard work are clear, working more is not the same as working better."
Let’s look at the situation from the other side by examining the stats on comparative vacation time taken around the world. The United States has now become the workaholic capital of the world, it seems, surpassing even Japan. Americans, according to the World Tourism Organization, average a measly 13 days off per year, the fewest on the WTO’s list of countries. The next closest countries are Japan and Korea, with 25 annual vacation days. Italy, of course, my ancestral country, is all the way at the other end of the vacationing spectrum with an average of 42 days per year of rest and relaxation, with France, Germany and Brazil about a week behind at 37, 35 and 34 respectively. (I was in Italy two summers ago and it was quite a revelation to witness an entire country’s work force take off for 2 or 3 hours every day at 1 PM. The Italian in me felt the organic wisdom of this break time, but the American in me wondered how they could ever get anything done!)
If all that’s not bad enough, I heard an insult-to-injury statistic announced on WINS all news radio around April 15 that crushingly declared that the average American works 124 days per year just to pay their taxes. That is almost half the work-year!
Some might make the counterpoint that Americans as a whole are making much more money these days, and it’s a tempting argument, but at what price for our wealth, and more importantly, are we happier?
In a Times article entitled, "Pursuing Happiness", Paul Krugman sites a classic survey by economic historian, Richard Easterlin, who formulated what came to be known as the "Easterlin paradox." The survey found that above a very low economic level, economic expansion does not seem to improve people’s feelings of happiness. Working with people around matters of personal happiness, I see this "paradox" validated in my therapy practice all of the time, though why it is considered a paradox, I don’t know. Conventional wisdom has always known that money can’t buy happiness. Conversely, having money doesn’t bring unhappiness either, but while people’s levels of happiness are rarely determined by their level of income, what is true is that as people become happier, and pursue their hearts desires in all aspects of their lives, including work, a common by-product is that their financial lives expand, sometimes greatly. In my experience, money is not the way to happiness, but happiness is often the way to money.
So, what then are the keys to "working better?" In my experience, both as a working person who has been in blue and white-collar jobs, and as a psychotherapist counseling those who struggle with their work-lives, I have found that there are certain essentials.
First, ferret out the mind’s illusion that we must live compartmentalized lives with separate aspects that compete with each other for time, like George’s job being an "8-hour interruption" of his presumed "real life." When a person arrives to understand that their whole life is just one "work", one creation, and that there is no inherent separation between work and play, time suddenly opens up. You are no longer worried that resting and playing are "wasting time", nor are you experiencing work as robbing you of time for pleasure. Several article recently have appeared in the mainstream press recently extolling the virtues of taking naps during the course of the work-day, as the Italians do, and in fact, several major companies have begun providing rooms at the office with pillows and blankets for that purpose. Afternoon nap breaks replacing the afternoon coffee breaks? This represents an excellent organic shift in consciousness, in my opinion. When one is tired, instead of pumping yourself up with caffeine to keep going, you refresh yourself with a little rest.
Secondly, clear out the guilt and other side-effects of rigid childhood conditioning that can make you blindly hunker down and suffer through an ungratifying work-life because you were told that quitting was "bad." If we are growing, we are continually "graduating" from things, and as with formal graduations, we benefit from celebrating what we are leaving by reviewing what we’ve accomplished, acknowledging what is still ahead to do, expressing gratitude, letting go and moving on.
Finally, and most importantly, follow your heart and do what you really enjoy doing. Working can be a pleasurable and creative experience if it is approached as a vehicle for fulfillment, expansion and pleasure. Here’s a quote on the subject from Alexander Lowen, author and creator of Bioenergetic therapy: "Every creative act begins with a pleasurable excitation, goes through a phase of work, and culminates in the joy of expression. From start to finish, the whole creative process is motivated by the striving for pleasure. Not only does pleasure provide the motive force for the creative process, it is the product of that process."
If there is any theme that we will keep coming back to in Full Permission Living, it will be the importance of pleasure - as the essence of life, as everyone’s birthright, and as Lowen says, as both the motivation and the result of our unobstructed creative process.
So, we arrive once again to the famous "pleasure principle" that’s been already referred to in previous lectures and articles in Full Permission Living. Coined by Sigmund Freud almost a century ago, the term identifies one of the main guiding forces in our lives – the instinct to follow pleasure and avoid pain. As Freud and others realized, the pursuit of pleasure is not a frivolous endeavor, but rather a built-in guidance system in human beings to provide direction for self-actualized living. We all know somewhere inside that any task is better performed when it is being experienced with joy and satisfaction. That knowing feeling in our gut is coming from our place of deepest wisdom.
Perhaps, then, we are arriving to the day when we will leave the house in the morning to go to work, or when we are assigned a task to perform at the job, and our loved one’s or boss’ parting words of inspiration will be: "Have fun!"
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query end of the job. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query end of the job. Sort by date Show all posts
IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!
And you're gonna feel fine!
Biblical aficionados might hear those lyrics from the 1987 hit song by R.E.M. as an anthem celebrating the Apocalypse. They might even relish the expectation of being “raptured” up to Heaven at the moment that the End Times come. They might see physical life mainly as a proving ground where one struggles with relationship, money and health issues in an ongoing battle between greed and deprivation, good and evil, righteousness and debauchery, and only holding onto a hope that there is an afterlife reward waiting for those who profess the correct beliefs when the “end of the world” arrives offers the promise of relief.
In addition to prophesies contained in the Book of Revelations almost 2 millennia ago, those revealed by Nostradamus in the 16th Century and Edgar Cayce in the 20th Century, along with many lesser known prophets along the way right up until the present, all seem to likewise point to this moment in history as the tipping point of humanity’s existence on Earth. Even the Mayan calendar, which doesn’t go past our era, is interpreted as a foreshadowing of the end of days for us all.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Or not.
What if what was being presaged by these soothsayers was something else? Not the existential end of humanity as a race, but rather the end of how we’ve known existence, reality, and ourselves for centuries upon centuries of linear time? What if what we’re in the process of discovering about it all is going to leave us feeling not just fine, but truly rapturous?! What if we are in the midst not of a cataclysmic debacle, but rather a great transformation, one so profoundly positive that all that has come before, all that has been familiar, “the world as we know it,” will be gladly let go of?
Have you noticed that everything old is "dying?" Old not as in old age or chronology, but old as in energy, the energy of 3D limited, dualistic, linear consciousness? Don't let the Republican National Convention madness and the rise of Donald Trump fool you. What you are witnessing there, presumably from a safe distance if you're reading this blog, is the old paradigm of 3D limitation in its death throes. Thus the maniacal and futile kicking and screaming in Cleveland and on FOX News.
In fact, what is happening is that we are approaching the final year - 2017 - of a transition that began with the wave of shifts arriving on 12/12/12, and is accelerating at a greater and greater rate right now toward a future that is going to be startling in its awesomeness!
In 3D, it was all about survival. No more. New quantum tools are becoming available, our DNA is literally being restructured (see the work of neuroscientist, Dr. Joe Dispensa), and as a result, said DNA will be working more efficiently in tandem with consciousness. This alliance will lead to more commonplace spontaneous healings, and ultimately the disappearance of illness and disease altogether.
We will experience the end of karma in the days ahead, no longer needing to "work things through" from the past (Which prompted me a while ago to write the post below: "THE END OF THERAPY AS WE KNEW IT!"), and we will discover that our own personal "akashic records" are not a library of who we've been, but rather a pool of energy that combines all of our lifetimes into a well of wisdom and knowledge that we will be able to draw upon at will. Intuition and "planned synchronicity" will replace intellect and logic as our guiding principles. Merely by paying attention to synchronicities, we will be able to invoke them more readily.
Biblical aficionados might hear those lyrics from the 1987 hit song by R.E.M. as an anthem celebrating the Apocalypse. They might even relish the expectation of being “raptured” up to Heaven at the moment that the End Times come. They might see physical life mainly as a proving ground where one struggles with relationship, money and health issues in an ongoing battle between greed and deprivation, good and evil, righteousness and debauchery, and only holding onto a hope that there is an afterlife reward waiting for those who profess the correct beliefs when the “end of the world” arrives offers the promise of relief.
In addition to prophesies contained in the Book of Revelations almost 2 millennia ago, those revealed by Nostradamus in the 16th Century and Edgar Cayce in the 20th Century, along with many lesser known prophets along the way right up until the present, all seem to likewise point to this moment in history as the tipping point of humanity’s existence on Earth. Even the Mayan calendar, which doesn’t go past our era, is interpreted as a foreshadowing of the end of days for us all.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Or not.
What if what was being presaged by these soothsayers was something else? Not the existential end of humanity as a race, but rather the end of how we’ve known existence, reality, and ourselves for centuries upon centuries of linear time? What if what we’re in the process of discovering about it all is going to leave us feeling not just fine, but truly rapturous?! What if we are in the midst not of a cataclysmic debacle, but rather a great transformation, one so profoundly positive that all that has come before, all that has been familiar, “the world as we know it,” will be gladly let go of?
Have you noticed that everything old is "dying?" Old not as in old age or chronology, but old as in energy, the energy of 3D limited, dualistic, linear consciousness? Don't let the Republican National Convention madness and the rise of Donald Trump fool you. What you are witnessing there, presumably from a safe distance if you're reading this blog, is the old paradigm of 3D limitation in its death throes. Thus the maniacal and futile kicking and screaming in Cleveland and on FOX News.
In fact, what is happening is that we are approaching the final year - 2017 - of a transition that began with the wave of shifts arriving on 12/12/12, and is accelerating at a greater and greater rate right now toward a future that is going to be startling in its awesomeness!
In 3D, it was all about survival. No more. New quantum tools are becoming available, our DNA is literally being restructured (see the work of neuroscientist, Dr. Joe Dispensa), and as a result, said DNA will be working more efficiently in tandem with consciousness. This alliance will lead to more commonplace spontaneous healings, and ultimately the disappearance of illness and disease altogether.
We will experience the end of karma in the days ahead, no longer needing to "work things through" from the past (Which prompted me a while ago to write the post below: "THE END OF THERAPY AS WE KNEW IT!"), and we will discover that our own personal "akashic records" are not a library of who we've been, but rather a pool of energy that combines all of our lifetimes into a well of wisdom and knowledge that we will be able to draw upon at will. Intuition and "planned synchronicity" will replace intellect and logic as our guiding principles. Merely by paying attention to synchronicities, we will be able to invoke them more readily.
As judgments, beliefs and fear fall by the wayside, we will all experience "enlightenment," and as Earth becomes a "graduate planet," many more individuals, old souls first, will become masters who can affect or change matter with consciousness, and create things out of energy. It's already happening!
So, strap in, folks - we're headed towards becoming a planet of light!"
THE END OF THERAPY AS WE KNEW IT!"
This is from a post entitled, "CHANGE CAN BE EFFORTLESS," on the Higher Frequencies website of Wendy Kennedy:
"Many of you currently repeat to yourselves, 'I can’t. No matter what I do, things never change. I don’t know how. I know these higher spiritual concepts, but it’s hard for me!' Well, the truth of it is that it can be easy. It can be effortless, but you cling to the old stories of self. Sometimes out of the fear of safety and self preservation. Sometimes out of acceptance or rather the fear of not being accepted. Sometimes you cling to the old so you may maintain the illusion of control. The universe is like a vast and flowing river. You have the choice to effortlessly flow with it or frantically try to cling to the shore.
This is from the recent FPL post entitled, "GIVE THANKS! THE RIVER IS TAKING YOU, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT!":
"One can exercise free will as a human being by swimming against the current, struggling, fighting, ultimately exhausting oneself, or one can turn around, and go with the flow, having a much smoother and faster time of it on this trip called physical life... The key point I've made, however, is that someone on the bank of the river would see that whether you're swimming against the current or going with the flow, either way, you're being taken downstream to your destination, which is self-actualization and awakening to the truth of your oneness with All That Is."
Well, there's a really revolutionary aspect to this, now, folks. Right now, right here, in this home stretch in the run-up to 5D, the river is roaring! The power of the current, the literal energetic rapids thrusting us forward into full 5th Dimensional consciousness, is rapidly altering the process... of process!
Here's more from the Higher Frequencies piece:
"It is not for you to have to mentally solve every single 'issue' you have but rather for you to more consciously and consistently align your vibration. For in truth, no issue is ever solved at the level of the ego, a.k.a the operating system of the mind. Integration happens from the higher level of consciousness or the operating system of the heart. Because of your engrained belief that the ego is in control, most of you will not fully release a lower thought or emotion until you are capable of mentally perceiving it. As you align your beliefs with the awareness that you are a Divine Being of Light having a physical experience, the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief is no longer required. It is simply a matter of maintenance of vibrational alignment. In truth this awareness never was, but as you identified with your egoic self you added a step in the integration process that said, 'I must figure this out.”
Whoa! Now, I've been a therapist in a variety of modalities for over 30 years, and consider myself to be operating pretty far out of any traditional box. But no matter what the approach I employed or experimented with, one thing I always accepted as truth was that the "the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief" absolutely was a requirement for self-actualization.
But I have to admit, I have found myself more and more, especially over the last few years, skipping steps. And it's not because I've become jaded or lazy, but because I have to keep up with my patients who are moving through their evolution at warp speed! The younger ones especially are doing in 2 years or less what took us First Wavers 10 to 20 years! (Take heart, though, 50-somethings, you're moving at warp speed, too, now. You did the job you signed up for, cutting a swath through the jungles of 3D for the First Wavers, the under-30-somethings, and now you're serving the coffee to them as they wake up. Many thanks... to us!)
More on Effortless Change:
"What is the frequency you would like to experience? Joy, gratitude, infinite abundance, connection, acceptance, ease, grace, peace? When you work with the ego, you tend to think about creating a specific form to experience one of those frequencies and usually only in one area of your life. One of the benefits of working [directly] with frequency rather than focusing on form is that the universe assists you in receiving the frequency in multiple forms and typically by expeditious means. Too much of your energy is focused on the masculine 'doing' state and not enough on the feminine 'being' state. I will be _____ when I _____. I will BE something after I DO something else. In higher dimensional existence where there is no time, both [what you desire and what manifests in your life] are simultaneous expressions."
And a bit more:
"As it has been more socially acceptable to be mental rather than emotional, some of you may find this a bit challenging. But as we said, you do know at the subconscious level exactly what the frequency [of joy, gratitude, abundance...] is. It may simply take some practice to identify what that actually feels like in the body. For others, you believe accessing these frequencies will be too painful so you refuse to allow yourselves to open. In your past you have experienced strong negative emotions and as a result have closed down access to all emotion. Your belief is that if you start to feel you will unearth all the pain that has been suppressed. Sometimes you may momentarily experience those frequencies, but it is the pathway to integration and the release of pain. Pain is perception, and you may choose to experience it for thirty seconds or thirty years [Or 38 years!]. It is up to you. If you choose to perceive an experience through the lens of victim/perpetrator then you will experience pain. If you choose to perceive it through that of co-creator, you are able to release any pain and observe the experience from a neutral space."
Okay, so practically speaking, what does this mean in terms of self-work? It means that the proportion of time spent excavating the past from our memory banks and bodies needs to be matched and ultimately surpassed by the time spent practicing, through meditation and focused intention, giving ourselves access to our Higher Selves and Universal consciousness. It means being willing to change, to give up our previous sense of self, our identities, our attachments to linear time and physical limitation, to conflict and obstacles, etc., and leaping into the greater, vast unknown where everything is possible and manifestation is instant.
Are you ready?! If you think not, remember, you're going anyway, so you can only choose to make it more difficult.
If you think you are ready, then remember the Zen proverb:
"You should meditate 20 minutes every day, unless you are too busy, in which case, you should meditate an hour each day."
THE END OF THERAPY AS WE KNEW IT!"
This is from a post entitled, "CHANGE CAN BE EFFORTLESS," on the Higher Frequencies website of Wendy Kennedy:
"Many of you currently repeat to yourselves, 'I can’t. No matter what I do, things never change. I don’t know how. I know these higher spiritual concepts, but it’s hard for me!' Well, the truth of it is that it can be easy. It can be effortless, but you cling to the old stories of self. Sometimes out of the fear of safety and self preservation. Sometimes out of acceptance or rather the fear of not being accepted. Sometimes you cling to the old so you may maintain the illusion of control. The universe is like a vast and flowing river. You have the choice to effortlessly flow with it or frantically try to cling to the shore.
This is from the recent FPL post entitled, "GIVE THANKS! THE RIVER IS TAKING YOU, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT!":
"One can exercise free will as a human being by swimming against the current, struggling, fighting, ultimately exhausting oneself, or one can turn around, and go with the flow, having a much smoother and faster time of it on this trip called physical life... The key point I've made, however, is that someone on the bank of the river would see that whether you're swimming against the current or going with the flow, either way, you're being taken downstream to your destination, which is self-actualization and awakening to the truth of your oneness with All That Is."
Well, there's a really revolutionary aspect to this, now, folks. Right now, right here, in this home stretch in the run-up to 5D, the river is roaring! The power of the current, the literal energetic rapids thrusting us forward into full 5th Dimensional consciousness, is rapidly altering the process... of process!
Here's more from the Higher Frequencies piece:
"It is not for you to have to mentally solve every single 'issue' you have but rather for you to more consciously and consistently align your vibration. For in truth, no issue is ever solved at the level of the ego, a.k.a the operating system of the mind. Integration happens from the higher level of consciousness or the operating system of the heart. Because of your engrained belief that the ego is in control, most of you will not fully release a lower thought or emotion until you are capable of mentally perceiving it. As you align your beliefs with the awareness that you are a Divine Being of Light having a physical experience, the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief is no longer required. It is simply a matter of maintenance of vibrational alignment. In truth this awareness never was, but as you identified with your egoic self you added a step in the integration process that said, 'I must figure this out.”
Whoa! Now, I've been a therapist in a variety of modalities for over 30 years, and consider myself to be operating pretty far out of any traditional box. But no matter what the approach I employed or experimented with, one thing I always accepted as truth was that the "the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief" absolutely was a requirement for self-actualization.
But I have to admit, I have found myself more and more, especially over the last few years, skipping steps. And it's not because I've become jaded or lazy, but because I have to keep up with my patients who are moving through their evolution at warp speed! The younger ones especially are doing in 2 years or less what took us First Wavers 10 to 20 years! (Take heart, though, 50-somethings, you're moving at warp speed, too, now. You did the job you signed up for, cutting a swath through the jungles of 3D for the First Wavers, the under-30-somethings, and now you're serving the coffee to them as they wake up. Many thanks... to us!)
More on Effortless Change:
"What is the frequency you would like to experience? Joy, gratitude, infinite abundance, connection, acceptance, ease, grace, peace? When you work with the ego, you tend to think about creating a specific form to experience one of those frequencies and usually only in one area of your life. One of the benefits of working [directly] with frequency rather than focusing on form is that the universe assists you in receiving the frequency in multiple forms and typically by expeditious means. Too much of your energy is focused on the masculine 'doing' state and not enough on the feminine 'being' state. I will be _____ when I _____. I will BE something after I DO something else. In higher dimensional existence where there is no time, both [what you desire and what manifests in your life] are simultaneous expressions."
And a bit more:
"As it has been more socially acceptable to be mental rather than emotional, some of you may find this a bit challenging. But as we said, you do know at the subconscious level exactly what the frequency [of joy, gratitude, abundance...] is. It may simply take some practice to identify what that actually feels like in the body. For others, you believe accessing these frequencies will be too painful so you refuse to allow yourselves to open. In your past you have experienced strong negative emotions and as a result have closed down access to all emotion. Your belief is that if you start to feel you will unearth all the pain that has been suppressed. Sometimes you may momentarily experience those frequencies, but it is the pathway to integration and the release of pain. Pain is perception, and you may choose to experience it for thirty seconds or thirty years [Or 38 years!]. It is up to you. If you choose to perceive an experience through the lens of victim/perpetrator then you will experience pain. If you choose to perceive it through that of co-creator, you are able to release any pain and observe the experience from a neutral space."
Okay, so practically speaking, what does this mean in terms of self-work? It means that the proportion of time spent excavating the past from our memory banks and bodies needs to be matched and ultimately surpassed by the time spent practicing, through meditation and focused intention, giving ourselves access to our Higher Selves and Universal consciousness. It means being willing to change, to give up our previous sense of self, our identities, our attachments to linear time and physical limitation, to conflict and obstacles, etc., and leaping into the greater, vast unknown where everything is possible and manifestation is instant.
Are you ready?! If you think not, remember, you're going anyway, so you can only choose to make it more difficult.
If you think you are ready, then remember the Zen proverb:
"You should meditate 20 minutes every day, unless you are too busy, in which case, you should meditate an hour each day."
REPOST: GUT FEELINGS
This is an excerpt from a class I taught on the nature of feelings and how crucial it is to be connected to our emotions, especially those that we've come to refer to as "gut feelings."
How do we make the big decisions in life? Whether or not to accept a new job offer, whether or not to go back to school, whether or not to move to a new place to live, whether or not to marry, to have a child, to see a therapist…? How do we make decisions that can’t wait, that have to be decided in the moment? Whether or not to respond to a romantic overture, to return a first kiss, whether to throw the fast ball or the curveball, whether or not to order tonight’s special in a restaurant?
Using our minds through deductive reasoning and checklists of criteria is laborious, time consuming, and finally, when the pros and cons of a situation are about equal, ineffectual. These decisions can only be made by feeling.
"It just feels right."
When we make a decision from our feelings, from our "gut", that’s the accompanying thought, and we are much less likely to second guess ourselves afterwards, and indeed, much less likely to end up regretting our choices. Even major decisions can be made in just a moment, without hesitation. On the other hand, how often have we found ourselves regretting having not followed our gut and said things like, "I should have gone with my first impulse?"
So, what are "gut feelings?" Are they "real?" What are they based on? Superstition? Random, irrational impulses? Or something more definable, even measurable? Science began making some remarkable advances during the end of the 20th Century in understanding and charting some of the very essential purposes of emotions in human beings and how feelings operate within us.
In a science article entitled, "Gut Feelings", in the New York Times a few years ago, Sandra Blakeslee wrote about our "second brain", otherwise known as the "enteric nervous system" located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. "Considered a single entity", Blakeslee wrote, "it is packed with neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce 'gut feelings." She also wrote: "The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery… Ever wonder why people get ‘butterflies’ in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? The reason for these common experiences, scientists say, is because each of us literally has two brains - the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut."
Candace Pert, best-selling author and professor of biophysics, corroborates these findings in her book, Molecules of Emotion: "Recent technological innovations have allowed us to examine the molecular basis of the emotions, and to begin to understand how the molecules of our emotions share intimate connections with, and are indeed inseparable from, our physiology. It is the emotions that link mind and body. Repressed emotions are stored in the body - the unconscious mind - via the release of neuropeptide ligands, and memories are held in their receptors. The entire lining of the intestines is lined with nerve cells that contain neuropeptides and receptors…and may be why we feel our emotions in that part of the anatomy, often referring to them as ‘gut feelings."
Various scientists explain that when the mind perceives that a situation is critical to the well-being of an individual, chemicals are released that stimulate the gut’s brain into action triggering instantaneous hormonal releases. A whole lifetime of accumulated relevant experiences can be accessed without thought. We are compelled to action by an irrepressible feeling, and as anyone knows who has ever been "in the zone", in athletics or any creative moment, there is a clarity and single-mindedness that goes beyond thinking.
Here’s an illuminating passage from the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman: "Sociobiologists point to the preeminence of heart over head at crucial moments when they conjecture about why evolution has given emotion such a central role in the human psyche. Our emotions guide us in facing predicaments too important to leave to the intellect alone - danger, painful loss, bonding with a mate, persisting in a goal. Each emotion offers a distinctive readiness to act."
Goleman continues, "The intuitive signals that guide us in crucial decision-making moments come in the form of limbic-driven surges from the viscera that Antonio Domasio (in the book, Descartes Error) calls ‘somatic markers’ - literally ‘gut feelings.’ Feeling is crucial in navigating the endless stream of life’s personal decisions. While strong feelings can create havoc in reasoning, the lack of awareness of feeling can also be ruinous, especially in weighing the decisions upon which our destiny largely depends: what career to pursue, who to date or marry, where to live…Such decisions cannot be made through sheer rationality; they require gut feeling and the emotional wisdom garnered through past experiences. We usually do not, in the moment, recall what specific experiences formed the feeling, but when the signal of a gut feeling rises up, we can immediately drop or pursue a course of action with greater confidence, and so pare down our array of choices to a more manageable decision matrix. The key to sounder personal decision-making, in short: being attuned to our feelings."
I would extend the scope of Goleman’s statement about the importance of weighing decisions by accessing feelings. I would say that not only our personal destiny but the destiny of humankind as a whole rides on this capacity. This type of understanding and appreciation of the value of our emotions is critical in our world right now, in this time of high technology and super-destructive weaponry. With such instruments at our disposal, making choices only from the calculating mind without the involvement of our heart and gut, without feelings, is frightening indeed. Without compassion, empathy and the wisdom of the heart, how can we run a country, a business or a family without creating a disaster? Indeed, the calculating numbness to feelings which permits all kinds of cruelty and deceit is one of the hallmarks of the psychopathic character structure.
Another factor that is critical in decision-making is self-honesty. If we are feeling one thing, but trying do another, trying to overrule or deny our gut feelings about a situation, in a sense, trying to deny our inner truth, our bodies will tell us. When a person is being honest, aware of their true intentions or purposes, and following them consciously, the body enters into a state of balance at the biochemical level that we experience viscerally as a state of harmony and confidence.
Candice Pert writes: "There is a profound physiological reason why honesty is stress-reducing…emotions bring the whole body into a single purpose, integrating systems and coordinating mental processes and biology to create behavior."
Pert found that the body "gets behind the intention [of an emotion] and does what needs to be done" by mobilizing systems, and enzymes, etc. However, if we are not internally and externally aligned in truth, if we are at "cross purposes…going through the motions…saying one thing and doing another, then…emotions are confused" and the lack of integrity is expressed physiologically as well.
In other words, the body is preparing for one kind of action, while being forced into a different one. A common example would be smiling when we’re really angry. Biochemically, the body is preparing to assert itself in an aggressive way, perhaps pumping adrenaline, tensing muscles for a fight or flight action in response to the anger, yet the face is being forced into an expression of pleasantness, welcome, maybe even delight. This is, of course, the typical "frozen smile" one encounters throughout the rounds of our daily lives, a look that is usually betrayed by blazing eyes or arched shoulders or other aspects of body language which we will be looking at later in this lecture.
"The result", Pert states, "can be a weakened, disturbed psychosomatic network, leading to stress and eventually to illness." She concludes, "Honesty, it seems, is supported by our biochemicals, and it only slows us down to choose otherwise."
Many people in therapy have also experienced the relief and grounded feeling that comes from facing a truth about oneself, even about something they had been quite ashamed of for years. A person will frequently laugh out loud with revealed pleasure when confronted with a previously denied truth about their inner life. For example, after insisting over and over - "But I do want to have a successful career", or "I do want to be in an intimate relationship", if one finally admits the hidden negative intentions that also reside in the subconscious - "Well, actually, I really don’t want to work at all. I just want to stay home and eat and watch TV all day", or "Yeah, relationships are too much pressure, having to listen to someone else’s problems or share my space. Who needs it?!" - immediately comes alignment and relief.
How do we make the big decisions in life? Whether or not to accept a new job offer, whether or not to go back to school, whether or not to move to a new place to live, whether or not to marry, to have a child, to see a therapist…? How do we make decisions that can’t wait, that have to be decided in the moment? Whether or not to respond to a romantic overture, to return a first kiss, whether to throw the fast ball or the curveball, whether or not to order tonight’s special in a restaurant?
Using our minds through deductive reasoning and checklists of criteria is laborious, time consuming, and finally, when the pros and cons of a situation are about equal, ineffectual. These decisions can only be made by feeling.
"It just feels right."
When we make a decision from our feelings, from our "gut", that’s the accompanying thought, and we are much less likely to second guess ourselves afterwards, and indeed, much less likely to end up regretting our choices. Even major decisions can be made in just a moment, without hesitation. On the other hand, how often have we found ourselves regretting having not followed our gut and said things like, "I should have gone with my first impulse?"
So, what are "gut feelings?" Are they "real?" What are they based on? Superstition? Random, irrational impulses? Or something more definable, even measurable? Science began making some remarkable advances during the end of the 20th Century in understanding and charting some of the very essential purposes of emotions in human beings and how feelings operate within us.
In a science article entitled, "Gut Feelings", in the New York Times a few years ago, Sandra Blakeslee wrote about our "second brain", otherwise known as the "enteric nervous system" located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. "Considered a single entity", Blakeslee wrote, "it is packed with neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce 'gut feelings." She also wrote: "The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery… Ever wonder why people get ‘butterflies’ in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? The reason for these common experiences, scientists say, is because each of us literally has two brains - the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut."
Candace Pert, best-selling author and professor of biophysics, corroborates these findings in her book, Molecules of Emotion: "Recent technological innovations have allowed us to examine the molecular basis of the emotions, and to begin to understand how the molecules of our emotions share intimate connections with, and are indeed inseparable from, our physiology. It is the emotions that link mind and body. Repressed emotions are stored in the body - the unconscious mind - via the release of neuropeptide ligands, and memories are held in their receptors. The entire lining of the intestines is lined with nerve cells that contain neuropeptides and receptors…and may be why we feel our emotions in that part of the anatomy, often referring to them as ‘gut feelings."
Various scientists explain that when the mind perceives that a situation is critical to the well-being of an individual, chemicals are released that stimulate the gut’s brain into action triggering instantaneous hormonal releases. A whole lifetime of accumulated relevant experiences can be accessed without thought. We are compelled to action by an irrepressible feeling, and as anyone knows who has ever been "in the zone", in athletics or any creative moment, there is a clarity and single-mindedness that goes beyond thinking.
Here’s an illuminating passage from the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman: "Sociobiologists point to the preeminence of heart over head at crucial moments when they conjecture about why evolution has given emotion such a central role in the human psyche. Our emotions guide us in facing predicaments too important to leave to the intellect alone - danger, painful loss, bonding with a mate, persisting in a goal. Each emotion offers a distinctive readiness to act."
Goleman continues, "The intuitive signals that guide us in crucial decision-making moments come in the form of limbic-driven surges from the viscera that Antonio Domasio (in the book, Descartes Error) calls ‘somatic markers’ - literally ‘gut feelings.’ Feeling is crucial in navigating the endless stream of life’s personal decisions. While strong feelings can create havoc in reasoning, the lack of awareness of feeling can also be ruinous, especially in weighing the decisions upon which our destiny largely depends: what career to pursue, who to date or marry, where to live…Such decisions cannot be made through sheer rationality; they require gut feeling and the emotional wisdom garnered through past experiences. We usually do not, in the moment, recall what specific experiences formed the feeling, but when the signal of a gut feeling rises up, we can immediately drop or pursue a course of action with greater confidence, and so pare down our array of choices to a more manageable decision matrix. The key to sounder personal decision-making, in short: being attuned to our feelings."
I would extend the scope of Goleman’s statement about the importance of weighing decisions by accessing feelings. I would say that not only our personal destiny but the destiny of humankind as a whole rides on this capacity. This type of understanding and appreciation of the value of our emotions is critical in our world right now, in this time of high technology and super-destructive weaponry. With such instruments at our disposal, making choices only from the calculating mind without the involvement of our heart and gut, without feelings, is frightening indeed. Without compassion, empathy and the wisdom of the heart, how can we run a country, a business or a family without creating a disaster? Indeed, the calculating numbness to feelings which permits all kinds of cruelty and deceit is one of the hallmarks of the psychopathic character structure.
Another factor that is critical in decision-making is self-honesty. If we are feeling one thing, but trying do another, trying to overrule or deny our gut feelings about a situation, in a sense, trying to deny our inner truth, our bodies will tell us. When a person is being honest, aware of their true intentions or purposes, and following them consciously, the body enters into a state of balance at the biochemical level that we experience viscerally as a state of harmony and confidence.
Candice Pert writes: "There is a profound physiological reason why honesty is stress-reducing…emotions bring the whole body into a single purpose, integrating systems and coordinating mental processes and biology to create behavior."
Pert found that the body "gets behind the intention [of an emotion] and does what needs to be done" by mobilizing systems, and enzymes, etc. However, if we are not internally and externally aligned in truth, if we are at "cross purposes…going through the motions…saying one thing and doing another, then…emotions are confused" and the lack of integrity is expressed physiologically as well.
In other words, the body is preparing for one kind of action, while being forced into a different one. A common example would be smiling when we’re really angry. Biochemically, the body is preparing to assert itself in an aggressive way, perhaps pumping adrenaline, tensing muscles for a fight or flight action in response to the anger, yet the face is being forced into an expression of pleasantness, welcome, maybe even delight. This is, of course, the typical "frozen smile" one encounters throughout the rounds of our daily lives, a look that is usually betrayed by blazing eyes or arched shoulders or other aspects of body language which we will be looking at later in this lecture.
"The result", Pert states, "can be a weakened, disturbed psychosomatic network, leading to stress and eventually to illness." She concludes, "Honesty, it seems, is supported by our biochemicals, and it only slows us down to choose otherwise."
Many people in therapy have also experienced the relief and grounded feeling that comes from facing a truth about oneself, even about something they had been quite ashamed of for years. A person will frequently laugh out loud with revealed pleasure when confronted with a previously denied truth about their inner life. For example, after insisting over and over - "But I do want to have a successful career", or "I do want to be in an intimate relationship", if one finally admits the hidden negative intentions that also reside in the subconscious - "Well, actually, I really don’t want to work at all. I just want to stay home and eat and watch TV all day", or "Yeah, relationships are too much pressure, having to listen to someone else’s problems or share my space. Who needs it?!" - immediately comes alignment and relief.
GUT FEELINGS? LET'S CLARIFY...
"Gut Feelings" is one of my favorite subjects, and a matter of genuine importance. I have written about it often. So, this morning, after reading Frank Rich's editorial on the current crop of Republicans who claim to prefer operating from "gut instincts" rather than methodical, intellectual assessments, I have to issue this correction.
Here's Frank Rich:
"The ideological sellout, unfortunately, was not the worst leadership trait the last-minute vice presidential pick revealed about McCain. His speed-dating of Palin reaffirmed a more dangerous personality tic that has dogged his entire career. His decision-making process is impetuous and, in its Bush-like preference for gut instinct over facts, potentially reckless."
No, Frank - George Bush, and John McCain are nowhere near connected enough to their inner life or self-aware enough to be operating from their "guts." Not at all. People, including the men in question, and pundits like Rich, who I enjoy reading, are confusing impulsive, ego-based acting out with genuine instinct.
To clarify, here is an excerpt from a class I taught on the nature of feelings and how crucial it is to be connected to our emotions, especially those that we've come to refer to as "gut feelings."
Enjoy the read:
How do we make the big decisions in life? Whether or not to accept a new job offer, whether or not to go back to school, whether or not to move to a new place to live, whether or not to marry, to have a child, to see a therapist…? How do we make decisions that can’t wait, that have to be decided in the moment? Whether or not to respond to a romantic overture, to return a first kiss, whether to throw the fast ball or the curveball, whether or not to order tonight’s special in a restaurant?
Using our minds through deductive reasoning and checklists of criteria is laborious, time consuming, and finally, when the pros and cons of a situation are about equal, ineffectual. These decisions can only be made by feeling.
"It just feels right."
When we make a decision from our feelings, from our "gut", that’s the accompanying thought, and we are much less likely to second guess ourselves afterwards, and indeed, much less likely to end up regretting our choices. Even major decisions can be made in just a moment, without hesitation. On the other hand, how often have we found ourselves regretting having not followed our gut and said things like, "I should have gone with my first impulse?"
So, what are "gut feelings?" Are they "real?" What are they based on? Superstition? Random, irrational impulses? Or something more definable, even measurable? Science began making some remarkable advances during the end of the 20th Century in understanding and charting some of the very essential purposes of emotions in human beings and how feelings operate within us.
In a science article entitled, "Gut Feelings", in the New York Times a few years ago, Sandra Blakeslee wrote about our "second brain", otherwise known as the "enteric nervous system" located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. "Considered a single entity", Blakeslee wrote, "it is packed with neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce 'gut feelings." She also wrote: "The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery… Ever wonder why people get ‘butterflies’ in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? The reason for these common experiences, scientists say, is because each of us literally has two brains - the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut."
Candace Pert, best-selling author and professor of biophysics, corroborates these findings in her book, Molecules of Emotion: "Recent technological innovations have allowed us to examine the molecular basis of the emotions, and to begin to understand how the molecules of our emotions share intimate connections with, and are indeed inseparable from, our physiology. It is the emotions that link mind and body. Repressed emotions are stored in the body - the unconscious mind - via the release of neuropeptide ligands, and memories are held in their receptors. The entire lining of the intestines is lined with nerve cells that contain neuropeptides and receptors…and may be why we feel our emotions in that part of the anatomy, often referring to them as ‘gut feelings."
Various scientists explain that when the mind perceives that a situation is critical to the well-being of an individual, chemicals are released that stimulate the gut’s brain into action triggering instantaneous hormonal releases. A whole lifetime of accumulated relevant experiences can be accessed without thought. We are compelled to action by an irrepressible feeling, and as anyone knows who has ever been "in the zone", in athletics or any creative moment, there is a clarity and single-mindedness that goes beyond thinking.
Here’s an illuminating passage from the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman: "Sociobiologists point to the preeminence of heart over head at crucial moments when they conjecture about why evolution has given emotion such a central role in the human psyche. Our emotions guide us in facing predicaments too important to leave to the intellect alone - danger, painful loss, bonding with a mate, persisting in a goal. Each emotion offers a distinctive readiness to act."
Goleman continues, "The intuitive signals that guide us in crucial decision-making moments come in the form of limbic-driven surges from the viscera that Antonio Domasio (in the book, Descartes Error) calls ‘somatic markers’ - literally ‘gut feelings.’ Feeling is crucial in navigating the endless stream of life’s personal decisions. While strong feelings can create havoc in reasoning, the lack of awareness of feeling can also be ruinous, especially in weighing the decisions upon which our destiny largely depends: what career to pursue, who to date or marry, where to live…Such decisions cannot be made through sheer rationality; they require gut feeling and the emotional wisdom garnered through past experiences. We usually do not, in the moment, recall what specific experiences formed the feeling, but when the signal of a gut feeling rises up, we can immediately drop or pursue a course of action with greater confidence, and so pare down our array of choices to a more manageable decision matrix. The key to sounder personal decision-making, in short: being attuned to our feelings."
I would extend the scope of Goleman’s statement about the importance of weighing decisions by accessing feelings. I would say that not only our personal destiny but the destiny of humankind as a whole rides on this capacity. This type of understanding and appreciation of the value of our emotions is critical in our world right now, in this time of high technology and super-destructive weaponry. With such instruments at our disposal, making choices only from the calculating mind without the involvement of our heart and gut, without feelings, is frightening indeed. Without compassion, empathy and the wisdom of the heart, how can we run a country, a business or a family without creating a disaster? Indeed, the calculating numbness to feelings which permits all kinds of cruelty and deceit is one of the hallmarks of the psychopathic character structure.
Another factor that is critical in decision-making is self-honesty. If we are feeling one thing, but trying do another, trying to overrule or deny our gut feelings about a situation, in a sense, trying to deny our inner truth, our bodies will tell us. When a person is being honest, aware of their true intentions or purposes, and following them consciously, the body enters into a state of balance at the biochemical level that we experience viscerally as a state of harmony and confidence.
Candice Pert writes: "There is a profound physiological reason why honesty is stress-reducing…emotions bring the whole body into a single purpose, integrating systems and coordinating mental processes and biology to create behavior."
Pert found that the body "gets behind the intention [of an emotion] and does what needs to be done" by mobilizing systems, and enzymes, etc. However, if we are not internally and externally aligned in truth, if we are at "cross purposes…going through the motions…saying one thing and doing another, then…emotions are confused" and the lack of integrity is expressed physiologically as well.
In other words, the body is preparing for one kind of action, while being forced into a different one. A common example would be smiling when we’re really angry. Biochemically, the body is preparing to assert itself in an aggressive way, perhaps pumping adrenaline, tensing muscles for a fight or flight action in response to the anger, yet the face is being forced into an expression of pleasantness, welcome, maybe even delight. This is, of course, the typical "frozen smile" one encounters throughout the rounds of our daily lives, a look that is usually betrayed by blazing eyes or arched shoulders or other aspects of body language which we will be looking at later in this lecture.
"The result", Pert states, "can be a weakened, disturbed psychosomatic network, leading to stress and eventually to illness." She concludes, "Honesty, it seems, is supported by our biochemicals, and it only slows us down to choose otherwise."
Many people in therapy have also experienced the relief and grounded feeling that comes from facing a truth about oneself, even about something they had been quite ashamed of for years. A person will frequently laugh out loud with revealed pleasure when confronted with a previously denied truth about their inner life. For example, after insisting over and over - "But I do want to have a successful career", or "I do want to be in an intimate relationship", if one finally admits the hidden negative intentions that also reside in the subconscious - "Well, actually, I really don’t want to work at all. I just want to stay home and eat and watch TV all day", or "Yeah, relationships are too much pressure, having to listen to someone else’s problems or share my space. Who needs it?!" - immediately comes alignment and relief.
Here's Frank Rich:
"The ideological sellout, unfortunately, was not the worst leadership trait the last-minute vice presidential pick revealed about McCain. His speed-dating of Palin reaffirmed a more dangerous personality tic that has dogged his entire career. His decision-making process is impetuous and, in its Bush-like preference for gut instinct over facts, potentially reckless."
No, Frank - George Bush, and John McCain are nowhere near connected enough to their inner life or self-aware enough to be operating from their "guts." Not at all. People, including the men in question, and pundits like Rich, who I enjoy reading, are confusing impulsive, ego-based acting out with genuine instinct.
To clarify, here is an excerpt from a class I taught on the nature of feelings and how crucial it is to be connected to our emotions, especially those that we've come to refer to as "gut feelings."
Enjoy the read:
How do we make the big decisions in life? Whether or not to accept a new job offer, whether or not to go back to school, whether or not to move to a new place to live, whether or not to marry, to have a child, to see a therapist…? How do we make decisions that can’t wait, that have to be decided in the moment? Whether or not to respond to a romantic overture, to return a first kiss, whether to throw the fast ball or the curveball, whether or not to order tonight’s special in a restaurant?
Using our minds through deductive reasoning and checklists of criteria is laborious, time consuming, and finally, when the pros and cons of a situation are about equal, ineffectual. These decisions can only be made by feeling.
"It just feels right."
When we make a decision from our feelings, from our "gut", that’s the accompanying thought, and we are much less likely to second guess ourselves afterwards, and indeed, much less likely to end up regretting our choices. Even major decisions can be made in just a moment, without hesitation. On the other hand, how often have we found ourselves regretting having not followed our gut and said things like, "I should have gone with my first impulse?"
So, what are "gut feelings?" Are they "real?" What are they based on? Superstition? Random, irrational impulses? Or something more definable, even measurable? Science began making some remarkable advances during the end of the 20th Century in understanding and charting some of the very essential purposes of emotions in human beings and how feelings operate within us.
In a science article entitled, "Gut Feelings", in the New York Times a few years ago, Sandra Blakeslee wrote about our "second brain", otherwise known as the "enteric nervous system" located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. "Considered a single entity", Blakeslee wrote, "it is packed with neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce 'gut feelings." She also wrote: "The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery… Ever wonder why people get ‘butterflies’ in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? The reason for these common experiences, scientists say, is because each of us literally has two brains - the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut."
Candace Pert, best-selling author and professor of biophysics, corroborates these findings in her book, Molecules of Emotion: "Recent technological innovations have allowed us to examine the molecular basis of the emotions, and to begin to understand how the molecules of our emotions share intimate connections with, and are indeed inseparable from, our physiology. It is the emotions that link mind and body. Repressed emotions are stored in the body - the unconscious mind - via the release of neuropeptide ligands, and memories are held in their receptors. The entire lining of the intestines is lined with nerve cells that contain neuropeptides and receptors…and may be why we feel our emotions in that part of the anatomy, often referring to them as ‘gut feelings."
Various scientists explain that when the mind perceives that a situation is critical to the well-being of an individual, chemicals are released that stimulate the gut’s brain into action triggering instantaneous hormonal releases. A whole lifetime of accumulated relevant experiences can be accessed without thought. We are compelled to action by an irrepressible feeling, and as anyone knows who has ever been "in the zone", in athletics or any creative moment, there is a clarity and single-mindedness that goes beyond thinking.
Here’s an illuminating passage from the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman: "Sociobiologists point to the preeminence of heart over head at crucial moments when they conjecture about why evolution has given emotion such a central role in the human psyche. Our emotions guide us in facing predicaments too important to leave to the intellect alone - danger, painful loss, bonding with a mate, persisting in a goal. Each emotion offers a distinctive readiness to act."
Goleman continues, "The intuitive signals that guide us in crucial decision-making moments come in the form of limbic-driven surges from the viscera that Antonio Domasio (in the book, Descartes Error) calls ‘somatic markers’ - literally ‘gut feelings.’ Feeling is crucial in navigating the endless stream of life’s personal decisions. While strong feelings can create havoc in reasoning, the lack of awareness of feeling can also be ruinous, especially in weighing the decisions upon which our destiny largely depends: what career to pursue, who to date or marry, where to live…Such decisions cannot be made through sheer rationality; they require gut feeling and the emotional wisdom garnered through past experiences. We usually do not, in the moment, recall what specific experiences formed the feeling, but when the signal of a gut feeling rises up, we can immediately drop or pursue a course of action with greater confidence, and so pare down our array of choices to a more manageable decision matrix. The key to sounder personal decision-making, in short: being attuned to our feelings."
I would extend the scope of Goleman’s statement about the importance of weighing decisions by accessing feelings. I would say that not only our personal destiny but the destiny of humankind as a whole rides on this capacity. This type of understanding and appreciation of the value of our emotions is critical in our world right now, in this time of high technology and super-destructive weaponry. With such instruments at our disposal, making choices only from the calculating mind without the involvement of our heart and gut, without feelings, is frightening indeed. Without compassion, empathy and the wisdom of the heart, how can we run a country, a business or a family without creating a disaster? Indeed, the calculating numbness to feelings which permits all kinds of cruelty and deceit is one of the hallmarks of the psychopathic character structure.
Another factor that is critical in decision-making is self-honesty. If we are feeling one thing, but trying do another, trying to overrule or deny our gut feelings about a situation, in a sense, trying to deny our inner truth, our bodies will tell us. When a person is being honest, aware of their true intentions or purposes, and following them consciously, the body enters into a state of balance at the biochemical level that we experience viscerally as a state of harmony and confidence.
Candice Pert writes: "There is a profound physiological reason why honesty is stress-reducing…emotions bring the whole body into a single purpose, integrating systems and coordinating mental processes and biology to create behavior."
Pert found that the body "gets behind the intention [of an emotion] and does what needs to be done" by mobilizing systems, and enzymes, etc. However, if we are not internally and externally aligned in truth, if we are at "cross purposes…going through the motions…saying one thing and doing another, then…emotions are confused" and the lack of integrity is expressed physiologically as well.
In other words, the body is preparing for one kind of action, while being forced into a different one. A common example would be smiling when we’re really angry. Biochemically, the body is preparing to assert itself in an aggressive way, perhaps pumping adrenaline, tensing muscles for a fight or flight action in response to the anger, yet the face is being forced into an expression of pleasantness, welcome, maybe even delight. This is, of course, the typical "frozen smile" one encounters throughout the rounds of our daily lives, a look that is usually betrayed by blazing eyes or arched shoulders or other aspects of body language which we will be looking at later in this lecture.
"The result", Pert states, "can be a weakened, disturbed psychosomatic network, leading to stress and eventually to illness." She concludes, "Honesty, it seems, is supported by our biochemicals, and it only slows us down to choose otherwise."
Many people in therapy have also experienced the relief and grounded feeling that comes from facing a truth about oneself, even about something they had been quite ashamed of for years. A person will frequently laugh out loud with revealed pleasure when confronted with a previously denied truth about their inner life. For example, after insisting over and over - "But I do want to have a successful career", or "I do want to be in an intimate relationship", if one finally admits the hidden negative intentions that also reside in the subconscious - "Well, actually, I really don’t want to work at all. I just want to stay home and eat and watch TV all day", or "Yeah, relationships are too much pressure, having to listen to someone else’s problems or share my space. Who needs it?!" - immediately comes alignment and relief.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE EGO
The DECLARATION continued...
"That to secure these rights [Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
How utterly amazing are those words, and how beyond amazing is it that those words were used to launch the formation of a country. Government "deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed" for the purpose of securing the "safety and happiness" of the people.
Who wouldn't want to live in a country founded on those principles? Who wouldn't love such a country? In fact, if you look in the dictionary, "patriotism" is defined simply as "love for one's country."
So, what happened? How did patriotism get redefined as blind loyalty to a government, a government that in practice seeks to limit the exercise of our unalienable rights and reduces our safety and happiness?
Well, you see, it's exactly the same process that occurs internally in each individual when the Ego, whose job it is to serve the Self in certain capacities toward the end of securing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, takes over and wants to exist for its own sake.
In early childhood, the Ego was formed by the young human being in order to organize experiences and observations and learn from those experiences in order to determine future actions. The ego, in other words, was meant to be an administrator, not a decision maker. Decision-making was supposed to be left to the Self, while the Ego was "instituted among us," "deriving its just powers from the consent of the Self" in order to "secure our well-being." But when outer life, visa vie our unactualized parents and congested social institutions, slams the child with inconsistencies and cruelty, the forming young Self panics and turns to the Ego for direction, a job it is not really equipped for. This begins the process of over-blowing one's Ego, not unlike the process by which our government became so bloated. After a while, the Ego takes on a life of its own and wants to survive, and as I said, wants to exist for its own sake. The Ego will then actually begin to use tactics to keep the Self in a state of fear and dependence, so the Self will continue to rely on the ever-expanding Ego for protection. I have called this the "Mafia Syndrome," in that the Ego, like the Mafia, forces you to pay it for protection. But protection from who? From it!
In the very truest sense, then, it's reasonable to say that the overblown Ego, just like our current ego-maniacal government administrators, are no different than organized criminals. All of you know this. You know that the taxes you pay, for instance, are not justifiable and used fairly or equitably for the purpose of enhancing your well-being. Your taxes don't bring better schools, or better roads, or cleaner air. Your taxes to a great extent enhance the lives of those who insist that you (not they, by the way) must pay them. In fact, you know that your taxes line the pockets of individuals and corporations who actually invite danger into your lives because you have to stay scared in order for them to stay in control. Everyone knows this. But you pay anyway because you feel terrorized by the "hitmen" of the IRS, who might ruin your lives with their punitive tactics. Just like organized criminals. Just like our Egos.
And let's be very clear: loving your country is not the same as loving your government, and loving your Self is not the same as loving your Ego.
So, what can we do? Well, as I always say, real revolution happens one person at a time, not through politics or "movements." Outer reality, individually and en masse, follows inner reality. As long as we are ruled by our Egos, then life, liberty and happiness will elude us. When we dismantle the constructs of the Ego, the irrational fears and unchallenged beliefs, we will create a different outer reality of true freedom, based on an inner reality of true freedom.
Self-work make the Self work, folks. Then you can calmly and confidently put the ego and the government back in its correct place of securing our safety and happiness. Celebrate your Self on this birthday of the USA.
"That to secure these rights [Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
How utterly amazing are those words, and how beyond amazing is it that those words were used to launch the formation of a country. Government "deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed" for the purpose of securing the "safety and happiness" of the people.
Who wouldn't want to live in a country founded on those principles? Who wouldn't love such a country? In fact, if you look in the dictionary, "patriotism" is defined simply as "love for one's country."
So, what happened? How did patriotism get redefined as blind loyalty to a government, a government that in practice seeks to limit the exercise of our unalienable rights and reduces our safety and happiness?
Well, you see, it's exactly the same process that occurs internally in each individual when the Ego, whose job it is to serve the Self in certain capacities toward the end of securing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, takes over and wants to exist for its own sake.
In early childhood, the Ego was formed by the young human being in order to organize experiences and observations and learn from those experiences in order to determine future actions. The ego, in other words, was meant to be an administrator, not a decision maker. Decision-making was supposed to be left to the Self, while the Ego was "instituted among us," "deriving its just powers from the consent of the Self" in order to "secure our well-being." But when outer life, visa vie our unactualized parents and congested social institutions, slams the child with inconsistencies and cruelty, the forming young Self panics and turns to the Ego for direction, a job it is not really equipped for. This begins the process of over-blowing one's Ego, not unlike the process by which our government became so bloated. After a while, the Ego takes on a life of its own and wants to survive, and as I said, wants to exist for its own sake. The Ego will then actually begin to use tactics to keep the Self in a state of fear and dependence, so the Self will continue to rely on the ever-expanding Ego for protection. I have called this the "Mafia Syndrome," in that the Ego, like the Mafia, forces you to pay it for protection. But protection from who? From it!
In the very truest sense, then, it's reasonable to say that the overblown Ego, just like our current ego-maniacal government administrators, are no different than organized criminals. All of you know this. You know that the taxes you pay, for instance, are not justifiable and used fairly or equitably for the purpose of enhancing your well-being. Your taxes don't bring better schools, or better roads, or cleaner air. Your taxes to a great extent enhance the lives of those who insist that you (not they, by the way) must pay them. In fact, you know that your taxes line the pockets of individuals and corporations who actually invite danger into your lives because you have to stay scared in order for them to stay in control. Everyone knows this. But you pay anyway because you feel terrorized by the "hitmen" of the IRS, who might ruin your lives with their punitive tactics. Just like organized criminals. Just like our Egos.
And let's be very clear: loving your country is not the same as loving your government, and loving your Self is not the same as loving your Ego.
So, what can we do? Well, as I always say, real revolution happens one person at a time, not through politics or "movements." Outer reality, individually and en masse, follows inner reality. As long as we are ruled by our Egos, then life, liberty and happiness will elude us. When we dismantle the constructs of the Ego, the irrational fears and unchallenged beliefs, we will create a different outer reality of true freedom, based on an inner reality of true freedom.
Self-work make the Self work, folks. Then you can calmly and confidently put the ego and the government back in its correct place of securing our safety and happiness. Celebrate your Self on this birthday of the USA.
The Joy of Quitting
Searching through my files for something of interest this morning, I found one of my favorite articles from 1999, called "The Joy of Quitting," by Michael Lewis. I used it for a class I taught in 2000 on "Creating Health."
Quitting healthy? What? Aren't I the one who's always talking about "doing whatever it takes?" Didn't I extol the virtues of the Giants in the Superbowl recently for not giving up with only seconds left? Well, yes, but sometimes doing whatever it takes can mean not only perservering where there's hope and potential, but also leaving a situation that has genuinely run out of juice.
Everyone knows the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." And then there's Kenny Rogers: "You got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away..." Right. That's the difference between a professional gambler and a compulsive gambler. There's perserverance, with courage and wisdom, and then there's stubbornness and masochism, which inevitably exact a high price for little or no return. Sometimes, the healthy choice in life at any given moment is to leave that job or relationship... or political campaign, as the case may be today. (If I hadn't dropped my first major and quit my first college, I'd be an accountant today instead of a shrink who's desperately trying to become a writer.)
Leaving a situation that you once were committed to can be hard, no doubt, even though you may clearly know said situation can't be "fixed." Human beings thrive on change, but they also cling to the familiar. And unfortunately, because of the prohibitions, inner and outer, against quitting, many people only leave a job or relationship when they're really angry and there's been a lot of toxic build up, or when their performance level has deteriorated. How many once great sports figures played one too many games, or fought one too many fights? How many legendary rock stars gave (and are still giving) one too many concerts?
It always comes down to the same thing, doesn't it? Letting go. So much of what makes living in harmony possible is about letting go. Okay.
Here's an excerpt from Lewis' essay:
"Starting with 'The Little Engine That Could,' and trudging relentlessly on from there, the propaganda of childhood is drenched with the message that good things come only to those who persevere. Man's desire to quit what he has started must be very great -- at least to judge from the force with which the message not to do so is hammered into young minds. Perseverance, like honesty, is one of those values that wind up being overrated because no one likes to be seen making the case against them. But people cause themselves a lot of unnecessary grief by caving in to the shame they feel -- or others cause them to feel -- about quitting. There is an undeniable pleasure in ceasing to perform an onerous task. We deny ourselves unnecessarily too much of that pleasure, out of some abstract sense that quitting is bad. The problem with this unthinking bias is simple: finishing what you started is a useful course of action only if what you started is worth finishing. And often you do not know whether it is worth finishing until after you've started it."
You can find the whole essay at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E4D91E3BF936A3575AC0A96F958260&scp=1&sq=The+Joy+of+Quitting%2C+Michael+Lewis&st=nyt
A related blog posting by me, "The End of the Job," can be found at: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/2007/12/end-of-job.html
PL
Quitting healthy? What? Aren't I the one who's always talking about "doing whatever it takes?" Didn't I extol the virtues of the Giants in the Superbowl recently for not giving up with only seconds left? Well, yes, but sometimes doing whatever it takes can mean not only perservering where there's hope and potential, but also leaving a situation that has genuinely run out of juice.
Everyone knows the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." And then there's Kenny Rogers: "You got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away..." Right. That's the difference between a professional gambler and a compulsive gambler. There's perserverance, with courage and wisdom, and then there's stubbornness and masochism, which inevitably exact a high price for little or no return. Sometimes, the healthy choice in life at any given moment is to leave that job or relationship... or political campaign, as the case may be today. (If I hadn't dropped my first major and quit my first college, I'd be an accountant today instead of a shrink who's desperately trying to become a writer.)
Leaving a situation that you once were committed to can be hard, no doubt, even though you may clearly know said situation can't be "fixed." Human beings thrive on change, but they also cling to the familiar. And unfortunately, because of the prohibitions, inner and outer, against quitting, many people only leave a job or relationship when they're really angry and there's been a lot of toxic build up, or when their performance level has deteriorated. How many once great sports figures played one too many games, or fought one too many fights? How many legendary rock stars gave (and are still giving) one too many concerts?
It always comes down to the same thing, doesn't it? Letting go. So much of what makes living in harmony possible is about letting go. Okay.
Here's an excerpt from Lewis' essay:
"Starting with 'The Little Engine That Could,' and trudging relentlessly on from there, the propaganda of childhood is drenched with the message that good things come only to those who persevere. Man's desire to quit what he has started must be very great -- at least to judge from the force with which the message not to do so is hammered into young minds. Perseverance, like honesty, is one of those values that wind up being overrated because no one likes to be seen making the case against them. But people cause themselves a lot of unnecessary grief by caving in to the shame they feel -- or others cause them to feel -- about quitting. There is an undeniable pleasure in ceasing to perform an onerous task. We deny ourselves unnecessarily too much of that pleasure, out of some abstract sense that quitting is bad. The problem with this unthinking bias is simple: finishing what you started is a useful course of action only if what you started is worth finishing. And often you do not know whether it is worth finishing until after you've started it."
You can find the whole essay at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E4D91E3BF936A3575AC0A96F958260&scp=1&sq=The+Joy+of+Quitting%2C+Michael+Lewis&st=nyt
A related blog posting by me, "The End of the Job," can be found at: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/2007/12/end-of-job.html
PL
GET RICH OR GET OUT!
Two years ago, I posted a long piece entitled "THE END OF THE JOB!" It was about many things related to our changing work-life consciousness, and worth reading if you have a bit of time over the holidays. The title itself came from the September 19, 1994 cover story of Fortune Magazine, of all places. Again, worth reading if you have the time. In short, what the Fortune article made clear was something I had already come to realize - that working by the hour at a traditional "job" was not going to cut it any more in terms of providing financial well-being or stability down the road, unless, of course, you were either willing to live a minimalist subsistence lifestyle through old age, or work full-time well into your 70's and beyond.
In 1994, when that article came out, I had just turned forty. I didn't have any fears about getting older. I still don't. In fact, I always have and still do look forward to getting on in years. But what I did realize at that time, as I began my approach to mid-life, was that the country I grew up in economically was gone, a country in which my working-class parents could buy a 4-bedroom house on a quarter of an acre of land, half-an-hour from New York City, for substantially less that I just paid for a 4-cylinder car in 2008! Yep. You heard that right. And furthermore, in my childhood, all of my friends - the sons and daughters of house painters, carpenters, plumbers, garbage collectors, school teachers, deli-owners - all lived in comfortable private houses, as well, and like my dad, the fathers were the only wage-earners in the families. Get it? One working-class level income got you a roomy house, at least one car, a yearly summer vacation and a college education for the kids, if they wanted one. Today? Well, you know the story. Two, three, even four incomes per household barely gets you a living, and only at that if you go into substantial debt to boot.
I took up a mission in the mid-nineties. I began telling everyone, including the people that I advised as a therapist, that they needed to understand not just the realities of their own financial situations, but even moreso that they needed to understand that the infection of deregulated greed and corruption ravaging the body of America's economy wasn't going away anytime soon. Working for a living just wasn't going to cut it anymore, if you wanted to finish out the last rounds of your life at any level of comfort and quality. Nor were you going to be able to live on what, if anything you'd put away for the future. Most working or middle-class people didn't have any kind of significant savings or pensions they could rely on, and even if they did for a while, the debacles caused by the nefarious bank and hedge fund managers and other market manipulators eliminated those modest nest eggs for 95% of the population.
So, what was/is one to do in the face of these harsh realities?
"Invest in yourself" became my mantra.
In a piece I wrote earlier this year, entitled "YOU ARE THE ONLY GAME THAT ISN'T RIGGED," spinning of a brilliant piece of journalism by Matt Taibbi, that's what I advised. If you have a gift, a talent or a passion, then explore it, develop it, express it in the world somehow, especially if it's something that doesn't require working for a wage by the hour. And if you find yourself blocked in that area, then, for your sake, do the self-work necessary to unblock yourself, whatever it takes.
That's how I started on my own track to become a writer 8 years ago. As much as my work as a psychotherapist was a true calling for me, it was nonetheless a by-the-hour proposition, and therefore had a ceiling in terms of its capacity to produce wealth for me. So, in 2001, I began what I now call my "GET RICH OR GET OUT" journey. Simply put, I set myself on a course that would inevitably end with me becoming financially independent, either because I'd become wealthy enough to enjoy the material benefits of western society without having to "work for a living" until old age, or because I had dropped out of mainstream culture altogether and gone off the grid.
I still can't say yet which of the two alternatives will play out for my future. Last week, with the help of the wonderful director/actor/author, Paul Michael Glaser, I held a staged reading of the pilot episode of a television show I created. Last month, a screenplay I co-wrote with someone won Best Action Adventure Screenplay at the Gotham Film Festival. Clearly, I haven't given up on writing as a potential road to abundance for myself and my family. However, last night, I found myself talking with the love of my life about the possibility of moving to Canada sometime in the future to escape the crooks and liars that are gutting this country and make a fresh start in a healthier land.
I'll keep you posted.
In 1994, when that article came out, I had just turned forty. I didn't have any fears about getting older. I still don't. In fact, I always have and still do look forward to getting on in years. But what I did realize at that time, as I began my approach to mid-life, was that the country I grew up in economically was gone, a country in which my working-class parents could buy a 4-bedroom house on a quarter of an acre of land, half-an-hour from New York City, for substantially less that I just paid for a 4-cylinder car in 2008! Yep. You heard that right. And furthermore, in my childhood, all of my friends - the sons and daughters of house painters, carpenters, plumbers, garbage collectors, school teachers, deli-owners - all lived in comfortable private houses, as well, and like my dad, the fathers were the only wage-earners in the families. Get it? One working-class level income got you a roomy house, at least one car, a yearly summer vacation and a college education for the kids, if they wanted one. Today? Well, you know the story. Two, three, even four incomes per household barely gets you a living, and only at that if you go into substantial debt to boot.
I took up a mission in the mid-nineties. I began telling everyone, including the people that I advised as a therapist, that they needed to understand not just the realities of their own financial situations, but even moreso that they needed to understand that the infection of deregulated greed and corruption ravaging the body of America's economy wasn't going away anytime soon. Working for a living just wasn't going to cut it anymore, if you wanted to finish out the last rounds of your life at any level of comfort and quality. Nor were you going to be able to live on what, if anything you'd put away for the future. Most working or middle-class people didn't have any kind of significant savings or pensions they could rely on, and even if they did for a while, the debacles caused by the nefarious bank and hedge fund managers and other market manipulators eliminated those modest nest eggs for 95% of the population.
So, what was/is one to do in the face of these harsh realities?
"Invest in yourself" became my mantra.
In a piece I wrote earlier this year, entitled "YOU ARE THE ONLY GAME THAT ISN'T RIGGED," spinning of a brilliant piece of journalism by Matt Taibbi, that's what I advised. If you have a gift, a talent or a passion, then explore it, develop it, express it in the world somehow, especially if it's something that doesn't require working for a wage by the hour. And if you find yourself blocked in that area, then, for your sake, do the self-work necessary to unblock yourself, whatever it takes.
That's how I started on my own track to become a writer 8 years ago. As much as my work as a psychotherapist was a true calling for me, it was nonetheless a by-the-hour proposition, and therefore had a ceiling in terms of its capacity to produce wealth for me. So, in 2001, I began what I now call my "GET RICH OR GET OUT" journey. Simply put, I set myself on a course that would inevitably end with me becoming financially independent, either because I'd become wealthy enough to enjoy the material benefits of western society without having to "work for a living" until old age, or because I had dropped out of mainstream culture altogether and gone off the grid.
I still can't say yet which of the two alternatives will play out for my future. Last week, with the help of the wonderful director/actor/author, Paul Michael Glaser, I held a staged reading of the pilot episode of a television show I created. Last month, a screenplay I co-wrote with someone won Best Action Adventure Screenplay at the Gotham Film Festival. Clearly, I haven't given up on writing as a potential road to abundance for myself and my family. However, last night, I found myself talking with the love of my life about the possibility of moving to Canada sometime in the future to escape the crooks and liars that are gutting this country and make a fresh start in a healthier land.
I'll keep you posted.
MORE ON "THE RIVER IS TAKING YOU!" (THE END OF THERAPY AS WE KNEW IT?!)
This is from a post entitled, "CHANGE CAN BE EFFORTLESS," on the Higher Frequencies website of Wendy Kennedy:
"Many of you currently repeat to yourselves, 'I can’t. No matter what I do, things never change. I don’t know how. I know these higher spiritual concepts, but it’s hard for me!' Well, the truth of it is that it can be easy. It can be effortless, but you cling to the old stories of self. Sometimes out of the fear of safety and self preservation. Sometimes out of acceptance or rather the fear of not being accepted. Sometimes you cling to the old so you may maintain the illusion of control. The universe is like a vast and flowing river. You have the choice to effortlessly flow with it or frantically try to cling to the shore."
This is from the recent FPL post entitled, "GIVE THANKS! THE RIVER IS TAKING YOU, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT!":
"One can exercise free will as a human being by swimming against the current, struggling, fighting, ultimately exhausting oneself, or one can turn around, and go with the flow, having a much smoother and faster time of it on this trip called physical life... The key point I've made, however, is that someone on the bank of the river would see that whether you're swimming against the current or going with the flow, either way, you're being taken downstream to your destination, which is self-actualization and awakening to the truth of your oneness with All That Is."
Well, there's a really revolutionary aspect to this, now, folks. Right now, right here, as we draw 2014 to its amazing conclusion, the river is roaring! The power of the current, the literal energetic rapids thrusting us forward into full 5D consciousness, is rapidly altering the process... of process!
Here's more from the Higher Frequencies piece:
"It is not for you to have to mentally solve every single 'issue' you have but rather for you to more consciously and consistently align your vibration. For in truth, no issue is ever solved at the level of the ego, a.k.a the operating system of the mind. Integration happens from the higher level of consciousness or the operating system of the heart. Because of your engrained belief that the ego is in control, most of you will not fully release a lower thought or emotion until you are capable of mentally perceiving it. As you align your beliefs with the awareness that you are a Divine Being of Light having a physical experience, the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief is no longer required. It is simply a matter of maintenance of vibrational alignment. In truth this awareness never was, but as you identified with your egoic self you added a step in the integration process that said, 'I must figure this out.”
"Many of you currently repeat to yourselves, 'I can’t. No matter what I do, things never change. I don’t know how. I know these higher spiritual concepts, but it’s hard for me!' Well, the truth of it is that it can be easy. It can be effortless, but you cling to the old stories of self. Sometimes out of the fear of safety and self preservation. Sometimes out of acceptance or rather the fear of not being accepted. Sometimes you cling to the old so you may maintain the illusion of control. The universe is like a vast and flowing river. You have the choice to effortlessly flow with it or frantically try to cling to the shore."
This is from the recent FPL post entitled, "GIVE THANKS! THE RIVER IS TAKING YOU, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT!":
"One can exercise free will as a human being by swimming against the current, struggling, fighting, ultimately exhausting oneself, or one can turn around, and go with the flow, having a much smoother and faster time of it on this trip called physical life... The key point I've made, however, is that someone on the bank of the river would see that whether you're swimming against the current or going with the flow, either way, you're being taken downstream to your destination, which is self-actualization and awakening to the truth of your oneness with All That Is."
Well, there's a really revolutionary aspect to this, now, folks. Right now, right here, as we draw 2014 to its amazing conclusion, the river is roaring! The power of the current, the literal energetic rapids thrusting us forward into full 5D consciousness, is rapidly altering the process... of process!
Here's more from the Higher Frequencies piece:
"It is not for you to have to mentally solve every single 'issue' you have but rather for you to more consciously and consistently align your vibration. For in truth, no issue is ever solved at the level of the ego, a.k.a the operating system of the mind. Integration happens from the higher level of consciousness or the operating system of the heart. Because of your engrained belief that the ego is in control, most of you will not fully release a lower thought or emotion until you are capable of mentally perceiving it. As you align your beliefs with the awareness that you are a Divine Being of Light having a physical experience, the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief is no longer required. It is simply a matter of maintenance of vibrational alignment. In truth this awareness never was, but as you identified with your egoic self you added a step in the integration process that said, 'I must figure this out.”
Whoa! Now, I've been a therapist in a variety of modalities for over 30 years, and consider myself to be operating pretty far out of any traditional box. But no matter what the approach I employed or experimented with, one thing I always accepted as truth was that the "the conscious awareness of a subconscious belief" absolutely was a requirement for self-actualization.
But I have to admit, I have found myself more and more, especially over the last two years, skipping steps. And it's not because I've become jaded or lazy, but because I have to keep up with my patients who are moving through their evolution at warp speed! The younger ones especially are doing in 2 years or less what took us First Wavers 10 to 20 years! (Take heart, though, 50-somethings, you're moving at warp speed, too, now. You did the job you signed up for, cutting a swath through the jungles of 3D for the First Wave, the under-30-somethings, and now you're serving the coffee to them as they wake up. Many thanks!)
More on Effortless Change:
"What is the frequency you would like to experience? Joy, gratitude, infinite abundance, connection, acceptance, ease, grace, peace? When you work with the ego, you tend to think about creating a specific form to experience one of those frequencies and usually only in one area of your life. One of the benefits of working [directly] with frequency rather than focusing on form is that the universe assists you in receiving the frequency in multiple forms and typically by expeditious means. Too much of your energy is focused on the masculine 'doing' state and not enough on the feminine 'being' state. I will be _____ when I _____. I will BE something after I DO something else. In higher dimensional existence where there is no time, both [what you desire and what manifests in your life] are simultaneous expressions."
And a bit more:
"As it has been more socially acceptable to be mental rather than emotional, some of you may find this a bit challenging. But as we said, you do know at the subconscious level exactly what the frequency [of joy, gratitude, abundance...] is. It may simply take some practice to identify what that actually feels like in the body. For others, you believe accessing these frequencies will be too painful so you refuse to allow yourselves to open. In your past you have experienced strong negative emotions and as a result have closed down access to all emotion. Your belief is that if you start to feel you will unearth all the pain that has been suppressed. Sometimes you may momentarily experience those frequencies, but it is the pathway to integration and the release of pain. Pain is perception, and you may choose to experience it for thirty seconds or thirty years [Or 38 years!]. It is up to you. If you choose to perceive an experience through the lens of victim/perpetrator then you will experience pain. If you choose to perceive it through that of co-creator, you are able to release any pain and observe the experience from a neutral space."
"As it has been more socially acceptable to be mental rather than emotional, some of you may find this a bit challenging. But as we said, you do know at the subconscious level exactly what the frequency [of joy, gratitude, abundance...] is. It may simply take some practice to identify what that actually feels like in the body. For others, you believe accessing these frequencies will be too painful so you refuse to allow yourselves to open. In your past you have experienced strong negative emotions and as a result have closed down access to all emotion. Your belief is that if you start to feel you will unearth all the pain that has been suppressed. Sometimes you may momentarily experience those frequencies, but it is the pathway to integration and the release of pain. Pain is perception, and you may choose to experience it for thirty seconds or thirty years [Or 38 years!]. It is up to you. If you choose to perceive an experience through the lens of victim/perpetrator then you will experience pain. If you choose to perceive it through that of co-creator, you are able to release any pain and observe the experience from a neutral space."
Okay, so practically speaking, what does this mean in terms of self-work? It means that the proportion of time spent excavating the past from our memory banks and bodies needs to be matched and ultimately surpassed by the time spent practicing, through meditation and focused intention, giving ourselves access to our Higher Selves and Universal consciousness. It means being willing to change, to give up our previous sense of self, our identities, our attachments to linear time and physical limitation, to conflict and obstacles, etc., and leaping into the greater, vast unknown where everything is possible and manifestation is instant.
Are you ready?! If you think not, remember, you're going anyway, so you can only choose to make it more difficult.
If you think you are ready, then remember the Zen proverb:
If you think you are ready, then remember the Zen proverb:
"You should meditate 20 minutes every day, unless you are too busy, in which case, you should meditate an hour each day."
HOW MANY MORE GEORGE BUSHES ARE ON THE WAY? ASK AN OVERINDULGENT PARENT!
People have given me a lot of lip over the last couple of years because I have given them a lot of lip. In one area in particular, I have taken a strong and harsh position that many people haven't liked - towards over-indulgent parents. I have frequently decried the "generation of narcissists" that said parents are creating, and warned that these seemingly innocuous kids who are used to being the center of the universe are going to do some harm someday. I'm not the only one aware of the real and potential damage. Frank Rich, in this morning's Times, wrote about the enormous damage George W. Bush has wreaked on our country by virtue of his narcissism.
Frank Rich:
"The man who emerges is a narcissist with no self-awareness whatsoever. It’s that arrogance that allowed him to tune out even the most calamitous of realities, freeing him to compound them without missing a step."
Here's a posting from my blog that I put up last May. It that followed a "SIXTY MINUTES" show on the effects of "over-parenting."
Was anybody home last night to watch the "60 Minutes" story" on the new generation of "kids" that have recently arrived to "adulthood?" Man, I've been writing and ranting about this age group and the one coming after them for years now, and getting no small amount of flack for it. I've been begging parents to consider the consequences for the narcissists they're creating, and for the world at large, and admonishing those same parents for their own ego-driven, vicarious motivations that are gutting our kids.
Well, it's hitting the mainstream media now. Here's Morley Safer from last night's show:
"There are about 80 million of them, born between 1980 and 1995, and they're rapidly taking over from the Baby Boomers who are now pushing 60. They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds, and you can take your job and shove it. They are a generation that only takes 'yes' for an answer. And their priorities are simple: they come first."
Now, many who know me or read this blog have heard me talk about the "Joy of Quitting," or the "End of the Job," and "Full Permission Working." I am a staunch advocate of not wasting your life doing things that you don't find fulfilling. And I certainly see the 9-to-5 (now 8-to-8) corporate cog work-life as demeaning and spirit-crushing. But by no means do I advocate remaining a child. I absolutely know that fulfillment in life includes the capacity to be creative and productive in the world, and attaining what Erik Erikson called "generativity," the desire to give back.
Marian Salzman was on the show. She's an ad agency executive who has been managing and tracking "Millennials" since they entered the workforce. "You do have to speak to them a little bit like a therapist on television might speak to a patient," Salzman says, laughing. "You can't be harsh. You cannot tell them you're disappointed in them. These young people will tell you what time their yoga class is and that the day's work will be organized around the fact that they have that commitment. How wonderful it is to be young and have your priorities so clear. Flipside of it is how awful it is to be managing the extension, sort of, of the teenage babysitting pool," Salzman tells Safer.
Her words, folks, not mine -an "extension" of "the teenage babysitting pool." Exactly. One of the questions I've often put to parents is "Who's going to continue coddling your kids when they reach adulthood? Who's going to hire them? And who in their right mind would ever want to marry someone who needs an eternal source of narcissistic supply from their partner?"
Mary Crane offers crash courses for Millennials, trying to prepare them for actual work. She said this on 60 Minutes: "You now have a generation coming into the workplace that has grown up with the expectation that they will automatically win, and they'll always be rewarded, even for just showing up," Crane says.
In psychological terms, by the way, that's called "Primary Narcissism."
Morley was onto it.
"So who's to blame for the narcissistic praise hounds now taking over the office?" Safer asks.
Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow blames...Mr. Rogers! "You have got a guy like Fred Rogers on TV. He was telling his preschoolers, 'You're special. You're special.' And he meant well. But we, as parents, ran with it. And we said, 'You, Junior, are special, and you're special and you're special and you're special.' And for doing what? We didn't really explain that," Zaslow says.
Furthermore, he says that the coddling virus continues to eat away even when junior goes off to college.
"I heard from several professors who said, a student will come up after class and say, 'I don't like my grade, and my mom wants to talk to you, here's the phone," Zaslow says. "And the students think it's like a service. 'I deserve an A because I'm paying for it. What are you giving me a C for?"
Now, here's where the pathology really starts to manifest from this upbringing without autonomy:
"Today," Morley Safer says, "more than half of college seniors move home after graduation. It's a safety net, or safety diaper, that allows many kids to quickly opt out of a job they don't like."
Does that give anyone a chill: "SAFETY DIAPER?!"
"There once was, if not shame, a little certain uneasiness about being seen to be living at home in your mid 20s, yes?" Safer asks Mary Crane.
"Not only is there no shame with it, but this is thought to be a very smart, wise, economic decision," Crane says.
Finally, here's where it gets really sad. This is a young man in his twenties, talking about his upbringing, interviewed on the show:
"Our parents really took from us that opportunity to fall down on our face and learn how to stand up," says Jason Dorsey.
You can find the whole transcript of the SIXTY MINUTES show here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
To find more of my writings on the subject of narcissism, go here: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/search?q=narcissism
Frank Rich:
"The man who emerges is a narcissist with no self-awareness whatsoever. It’s that arrogance that allowed him to tune out even the most calamitous of realities, freeing him to compound them without missing a step."
Here's a posting from my blog that I put up last May. It that followed a "SIXTY MINUTES" show on the effects of "over-parenting."
Was anybody home last night to watch the "60 Minutes" story" on the new generation of "kids" that have recently arrived to "adulthood?" Man, I've been writing and ranting about this age group and the one coming after them for years now, and getting no small amount of flack for it. I've been begging parents to consider the consequences for the narcissists they're creating, and for the world at large, and admonishing those same parents for their own ego-driven, vicarious motivations that are gutting our kids.
Well, it's hitting the mainstream media now. Here's Morley Safer from last night's show:
"There are about 80 million of them, born between 1980 and 1995, and they're rapidly taking over from the Baby Boomers who are now pushing 60. They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds, and you can take your job and shove it. They are a generation that only takes 'yes' for an answer. And their priorities are simple: they come first."
Now, many who know me or read this blog have heard me talk about the "Joy of Quitting," or the "End of the Job," and "Full Permission Working." I am a staunch advocate of not wasting your life doing things that you don't find fulfilling. And I certainly see the 9-to-5 (now 8-to-8) corporate cog work-life as demeaning and spirit-crushing. But by no means do I advocate remaining a child. I absolutely know that fulfillment in life includes the capacity to be creative and productive in the world, and attaining what Erik Erikson called "generativity," the desire to give back.
Marian Salzman was on the show. She's an ad agency executive who has been managing and tracking "Millennials" since they entered the workforce. "You do have to speak to them a little bit like a therapist on television might speak to a patient," Salzman says, laughing. "You can't be harsh. You cannot tell them you're disappointed in them. These young people will tell you what time their yoga class is and that the day's work will be organized around the fact that they have that commitment. How wonderful it is to be young and have your priorities so clear. Flipside of it is how awful it is to be managing the extension, sort of, of the teenage babysitting pool," Salzman tells Safer.
Her words, folks, not mine -an "extension" of "the teenage babysitting pool." Exactly. One of the questions I've often put to parents is "Who's going to continue coddling your kids when they reach adulthood? Who's going to hire them? And who in their right mind would ever want to marry someone who needs an eternal source of narcissistic supply from their partner?"
Mary Crane offers crash courses for Millennials, trying to prepare them for actual work. She said this on 60 Minutes: "You now have a generation coming into the workplace that has grown up with the expectation that they will automatically win, and they'll always be rewarded, even for just showing up," Crane says.
In psychological terms, by the way, that's called "Primary Narcissism."
Morley was onto it.
"So who's to blame for the narcissistic praise hounds now taking over the office?" Safer asks.
Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow blames...Mr. Rogers! "You have got a guy like Fred Rogers on TV. He was telling his preschoolers, 'You're special. You're special.' And he meant well. But we, as parents, ran with it. And we said, 'You, Junior, are special, and you're special and you're special and you're special.' And for doing what? We didn't really explain that," Zaslow says.
Furthermore, he says that the coddling virus continues to eat away even when junior goes off to college.
"I heard from several professors who said, a student will come up after class and say, 'I don't like my grade, and my mom wants to talk to you, here's the phone," Zaslow says. "And the students think it's like a service. 'I deserve an A because I'm paying for it. What are you giving me a C for?"
Now, here's where the pathology really starts to manifest from this upbringing without autonomy:
"Today," Morley Safer says, "more than half of college seniors move home after graduation. It's a safety net, or safety diaper, that allows many kids to quickly opt out of a job they don't like."
Does that give anyone a chill: "SAFETY DIAPER?!"
"There once was, if not shame, a little certain uneasiness about being seen to be living at home in your mid 20s, yes?" Safer asks Mary Crane.
"Not only is there no shame with it, but this is thought to be a very smart, wise, economic decision," Crane says.
Finally, here's where it gets really sad. This is a young man in his twenties, talking about his upbringing, interviewed on the show:
"Our parents really took from us that opportunity to fall down on our face and learn how to stand up," says Jason Dorsey.
You can find the whole transcript of the SIXTY MINUTES show here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
To find more of my writings on the subject of narcissism, go here: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/search?q=narcissism
WHY IS THE CRIME RATE GOING DOWN? EXPERTS CONFUSED!
Of course, the most confused group of individuals in the world are always the experts.
Why?
Well, mainly because what experts think makes them experts is their reliance on dogma derived from formulas, such as "during times of economic recession, crime rates go up." Or "when more people are incarcerated in prison, crime rates go down."
Turns out both of those assumptions by "the experts" are wrong.
According to the FBI, crime in the United States dropped dramatically in 2009, the third straight year of decline, and last year's drops were even steeper than those of 2007 and 2008, despite the recession and despite the dramatic decline in the prison population.
There were words of caution from the experts, though: "It's fabulous news, but I would draw an analogy to global warming: Even if you believe the long-term trend is increasing temperatures, it doesn't mean you can't have a cold year," said Jonathan P. Caulkins, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College.
What?!
Oh, right, another hallmark of an expert is that he or she cannot simply say: "Hmm... maybe I was wr-wro---wrong!"
By the way, here's another stat you might enjoy: in many major U.S. cities, the crime rate went down after there was a decrease in the size of the police force. After!
Well, not to sound like an expert here, folks, but maybe (experts never say "maybe") patterns like criminal behavior follow consciousness and the self-hypnotic messages we give ourselves. More people in prison, more cops lurking about sends out a message not just to criminals, but to all citizens: "Human beings can't be trusted." (Full permission living? Ha!) Likewise, who says shifting economic times means more people are desperately going to turn to thievery and thuggery? Well, if we do, it will be so.
So, maybe the downturns in crime rates is a reflection of an upturn in our consciousness. Maybe we are coming to believe in our own inherent goodness and worthiness, instead of "original sin." And maybe we are actually relieved that the economic paradigm of the last few centuries is coming to an end. (See my post "The End of the Job" spun off from a 1994 article of the same name in FORTUNE Magazine)
Things are changing that's for sure.
In spite of all the rabid, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, proudly ignorant right wing blather, Barack Obama was elected by a large margin in 2008, and will almost certainly be re-elected by an even larger margin next year. (Another uplifting statistic: in a new report by Arbitron, Rush Limbaugh's ratings were down 33 percent since October and Sean Hannity's were down 28 percent.)
Finally, while a few loudly clamoring, religiously zealous baby souls are convinced that the Wave upon us actually is a portent of doom (The Rapture was supposed to have been last Saturday, in case you missed it.), maybe it's just the end of the world as we knew it.
And I feel fine.
Why?
Well, mainly because what experts think makes them experts is their reliance on dogma derived from formulas, such as "during times of economic recession, crime rates go up." Or "when more people are incarcerated in prison, crime rates go down."
Turns out both of those assumptions by "the experts" are wrong.
According to the FBI, crime in the United States dropped dramatically in 2009, the third straight year of decline, and last year's drops were even steeper than those of 2007 and 2008, despite the recession and despite the dramatic decline in the prison population.
There were words of caution from the experts, though: "It's fabulous news, but I would draw an analogy to global warming: Even if you believe the long-term trend is increasing temperatures, it doesn't mean you can't have a cold year," said Jonathan P. Caulkins, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College.
What?!
Oh, right, another hallmark of an expert is that he or she cannot simply say: "Hmm... maybe I was wr-wro---wrong!"
By the way, here's another stat you might enjoy: in many major U.S. cities, the crime rate went down after there was a decrease in the size of the police force. After!
Well, not to sound like an expert here, folks, but maybe (experts never say "maybe") patterns like criminal behavior follow consciousness and the self-hypnotic messages we give ourselves. More people in prison, more cops lurking about sends out a message not just to criminals, but to all citizens: "Human beings can't be trusted." (Full permission living? Ha!) Likewise, who says shifting economic times means more people are desperately going to turn to thievery and thuggery? Well, if we do, it will be so.
So, maybe the downturns in crime rates is a reflection of an upturn in our consciousness. Maybe we are coming to believe in our own inherent goodness and worthiness, instead of "original sin." And maybe we are actually relieved that the economic paradigm of the last few centuries is coming to an end. (See my post "The End of the Job" spun off from a 1994 article of the same name in FORTUNE Magazine)
Things are changing that's for sure.
In spite of all the rabid, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, proudly ignorant right wing blather, Barack Obama was elected by a large margin in 2008, and will almost certainly be re-elected by an even larger margin next year. (Another uplifting statistic: in a new report by Arbitron, Rush Limbaugh's ratings were down 33 percent since October and Sean Hannity's were down 28 percent.)
Finally, while a few loudly clamoring, religiously zealous baby souls are convinced that the Wave upon us actually is a portent of doom (The Rapture was supposed to have been last Saturday, in case you missed it.), maybe it's just the end of the world as we knew it.
And I feel fine.
BEING A COP IS STILL A PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER!!
A police officer in a Brooklyn precinct, one Adrian Schoolcraft, became gravely concerned about how the public was being served. To document his concerns, he began carrying around a digital sound recorder, secretly recording his colleagues and superiors. In excerpts, the 81st Precinct commander, a lieutenant and a sergeant talked about the constant pressure from bosses to push cops to "get their numbers." Precinct supervisors talk about a specific "numbers" quota, warn cops to pick up their numbers, or else, and complain about outside inspections. In one roll call, a supervisor tells officers to stop drawing penises in each other's memo books and drawing graffiti on the walls. There's also an extended speech on the virtues of personal hygiene. The pressure for "numbers" (summonses, arrests, stop and frisks and community visits) was worst at the end of each month and the end of each quarter because that's when individual officers had to file their activity reports. In other words, stay away from cops after the 25th of the month.
Schoolcraft recorded precinct roll calls. He recorded his precinct commander and other supervisors. He recorded street encounters. He recorded small talk and stationhouse banter. In all, he surreptitiously collected hundreds of hours of cops talking about their jobs.
Made without the knowledge or approval of the NYPD, the tapes—made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant and obtained exclusively by the Voice—provide an unprecedented portrait of what it's like to work as a cop in this city.
They reveal that precinct bosses threaten street cops if they don't make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks, but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.
As a result, the tapes show, the rank-and-file NYPD street cop experiences enormous pressure in a strange catch-22: He or she is expected to maintain high "activity"—including stop-and-frisks—but, paradoxically, to record fewer actual crimes.
Here are two pieces, one below, one following, that I posted last year in which I claimed that being a cop, in and of itself, is a kind of psychiatric disorder:
LAW PROFESSOR ARRESTED FOR..?
A renowned Harvard Law professor, an African-American Harvard Law professor, one Henry Louis Gates Jr.
was arrested two nights ago entering his own home. The white police sergeant, one James Crowley 
is trying to not apologize for the mistake, claiming that it was understandable somehow that under the circumstances, he was doing his duty to protect citizens.
Right. Except that after they realized that it in fact was Professor Gates' home, they still handcuffed him and booked him and held him in custody for four hours because they didn't like his attitude! The charges of “loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space” were subsequently dropped.
I've already written and posted and reposted my article entitled "SAY IT: RACISM IS A PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER!" so many times that I will only link to it this time. But now I would like to get even more offensive to the baby souls who blindly love blind authority and live with intense fear of the Other: "SAY IT: BEING A COP IS A PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER!"
Come on: SAY IT!
First of all, tell me which experience you have more often - whatever race you are - feeling really comforted by the presence of police nearby, or feeling intimidated and maybe even harassed? Be honest, even if it's only to yourself.
Personally, I have never committed a crime. I haven't even gotten a traffic ticket in 20 years. Yet, when I see a cop, I feel uncomfortable. I see a person, almost always a man, with a gun and a wooden stick in a militaristic uniform, a man who has chosen a profession, not even drafted, but chosen a career in which the job description includes the possibility of having to kill someone. I think, what does that guy do with that level of aggressive intent inside of him if no crime is being committed in his proximity? Does he offer to help you find a parking spot when you're late to pick up your kids at school? Does he remind you to buckle up for safety or cross at the green, not in between? HA! More often, he gleefully gives you a $100 ticket to go with his "Come on, make my day!" attitude if you dare think about protesting the unfairness of the letter of the law sometimes.
I remember watching The Three Stooges back in childhood, hosted by "Officer Joe Bolton," a kindly-looking actor in a policeman's uniform. My earliest impressions of cops were based on TV fantasies about dedicated cops who loved good people and hated only nefarious criminals. I loved cop shows back then. But I grew up and saw the docudrama "Serpico" (I even met the real Serpico at a lecture in college) and I realized that benign cops were the exception, not the rule. Baretta, Starsky & Hutch, I loved those down-to-earth, uncorruptable working class heroes. (I was thrilled that Paul Michael Glaser directed the pilot of my TV series, City Rock this past December.) But they're not real, folks.
Just to round this out, although I have never committed a crime, I have been the victim of crimes, several, in fact - break-ins and robberies of cars and property over the years, and once, a mugging in which I was jumped from behind by two men, in front of my own home, beaten, knocked unconscious and brought bleeding to a hospital. In that last one, unlike in shows like Law and Order or CSI, no cops even showed up to talk to me for FIVE DAYS!! The cops were on the scene when I was taken to the hospital, but it took them FIVE DAYS to come and pretend to investigate. I even told them I thought I might know who did it, and they basically shrugged, just as they did every time my car was vandalized.
So, scream if you want, whoever wants to, but think about it. That's all I ask. That's all I ever ask.
THINK ABOUT IT!
And don't waste on-line space writing to me about a good cop you know, or about exceptions. There are always exceptions... except when you don't have the change for the meter and you have to urgently run into a coffee shop to pee!
Officer Joe: "Don't worry, Sir, I'll watch your car for you while you run in to take care of nature's business."
Thanks, Officer Joe!
(Yeah, right!) NYUK! NYUK! NYUK!
Schoolcraft recorded precinct roll calls. He recorded his precinct commander and other supervisors. He recorded street encounters. He recorded small talk and stationhouse banter. In all, he surreptitiously collected hundreds of hours of cops talking about their jobs.
Made without the knowledge or approval of the NYPD, the tapes—made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant and obtained exclusively by the Voice—provide an unprecedented portrait of what it's like to work as a cop in this city.
They reveal that precinct bosses threaten street cops if they don't make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks, but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.
As a result, the tapes show, the rank-and-file NYPD street cop experiences enormous pressure in a strange catch-22: He or she is expected to maintain high "activity"—including stop-and-frisks—but, paradoxically, to record fewer actual crimes.
Here are two pieces, one below, one following, that I posted last year in which I claimed that being a cop, in and of itself, is a kind of psychiatric disorder:
LAW PROFESSOR ARRESTED FOR..?
A renowned Harvard Law professor, an African-American Harvard Law professor, one Henry Louis Gates Jr.
was arrested two nights ago entering his own home. The white police sergeant, one James Crowley 
is trying to not apologize for the mistake, claiming that it was understandable somehow that under the circumstances, he was doing his duty to protect citizens.Right. Except that after they realized that it in fact was Professor Gates' home, they still handcuffed him and booked him and held him in custody for four hours because they didn't like his attitude! The charges of “loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space” were subsequently dropped.
I've already written and posted and reposted my article entitled "SAY IT: RACISM IS A PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER!" so many times that I will only link to it this time. But now I would like to get even more offensive to the baby souls who blindly love blind authority and live with intense fear of the Other: "SAY IT: BEING A COP IS A PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER!"
Come on: SAY IT!
First of all, tell me which experience you have more often - whatever race you are - feeling really comforted by the presence of police nearby, or feeling intimidated and maybe even harassed? Be honest, even if it's only to yourself.
Personally, I have never committed a crime. I haven't even gotten a traffic ticket in 20 years. Yet, when I see a cop, I feel uncomfortable. I see a person, almost always a man, with a gun and a wooden stick in a militaristic uniform, a man who has chosen a profession, not even drafted, but chosen a career in which the job description includes the possibility of having to kill someone. I think, what does that guy do with that level of aggressive intent inside of him if no crime is being committed in his proximity? Does he offer to help you find a parking spot when you're late to pick up your kids at school? Does he remind you to buckle up for safety or cross at the green, not in between? HA! More often, he gleefully gives you a $100 ticket to go with his "Come on, make my day!" attitude if you dare think about protesting the unfairness of the letter of the law sometimes.
I remember watching The Three Stooges back in childhood, hosted by "Officer Joe Bolton," a kindly-looking actor in a policeman's uniform. My earliest impressions of cops were based on TV fantasies about dedicated cops who loved good people and hated only nefarious criminals. I loved cop shows back then. But I grew up and saw the docudrama "Serpico" (I even met the real Serpico at a lecture in college) and I realized that benign cops were the exception, not the rule. Baretta, Starsky & Hutch, I loved those down-to-earth, uncorruptable working class heroes. (I was thrilled that Paul Michael Glaser directed the pilot of my TV series, City Rock this past December.) But they're not real, folks.
Just to round this out, although I have never committed a crime, I have been the victim of crimes, several, in fact - break-ins and robberies of cars and property over the years, and once, a mugging in which I was jumped from behind by two men, in front of my own home, beaten, knocked unconscious and brought bleeding to a hospital. In that last one, unlike in shows like Law and Order or CSI, no cops even showed up to talk to me for FIVE DAYS!! The cops were on the scene when I was taken to the hospital, but it took them FIVE DAYS to come and pretend to investigate. I even told them I thought I might know who did it, and they basically shrugged, just as they did every time my car was vandalized.
So, scream if you want, whoever wants to, but think about it. That's all I ask. That's all I ever ask.
THINK ABOUT IT!
And don't waste on-line space writing to me about a good cop you know, or about exceptions. There are always exceptions... except when you don't have the change for the meter and you have to urgently run into a coffee shop to pee!
Officer Joe: "Don't worry, Sir, I'll watch your car for you while you run in to take care of nature's business."
Thanks, Officer Joe!
(Yeah, right!) NYUK! NYUK! NYUK!
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