― mary baker eddy
Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. Wikipedia
(Contributed by Sarah Flynn and Val Kilmer)
The Weekend University Get early access to our latest psychology lectures: http://bit.ly/new-talks5 We sleep for a third of our lives. For millennia the Tibetan Buddhists, Toltec-Mexhicas and Sufi mystics have used that lost third for waking up to their highest potential through lucid dreaming. In this talk, lucid dreaming teacher Charlie Morley will explore how this ancient art is now being studied by modern day neuroscience and how these studies have been as insightful for the mystics as they have been for the scientists. Lucid dreaming can be used to consciously direct the dream so that we can learn, train, meditate and gain answers to some of life’s biggest questions while we dream. Sourced from over 10 years of teaching the subject, Charlie’s talk will open you up to the possibility of engaging deep change while you sleep deeply. The talk will include an overview of the history, science and practice of lucid dreaming from both the Western science and the mystic traditions as well as explorations on how to engage the wider holistic benefits of lucid dreaming and conscious sleeping which these practices offer. Charlie Morley is a bestselling author and teacher of lucid dreaming & shadow integration. He was “authorised to teach” within the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism by Lama Yeshe Rinpoche in 2008 and has since developed a holistic approach to dream work called Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep and written three books which have been translated into 13 languages. He’s spoken about lucid dreaming at Cambridge University, “Buddhism and Youth Culture” at The Houses of Parliament, is a regular expert panellist for The Guardian and has been named one of The Next Generation of Meditation Teachers. In 2018 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship grant to research “mindfulness based PTSD treatment” and continues to teach on retreats for armed forces veterans. For over 10 years Charlie has run retreats and workshops in more than 20 countries and continues to teach internationally. Links: Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks5 Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ Charlie’s website: https://www.charliemorley.com/ Charlie’s books: https://amzn.to/325nGXY
“At some point you don’t know how NOT to be aware. You are aware all the time. When that happens, there’s no meditation, because everything is meditation.”
–Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (born 1961) is a teacher of the Bon Tibetan religious tradition. He is founder and director of the Ligmincha Institute and several centers named Chamma Ling, organizations dedicated to the study and practice of the teachings of the Bon tradition. Wikipedia
BY MINDA ZETLIN, CO-AUTHOR, THE GEEK GAP @MINDAZETLIN
(Inc.com)
Need to get creative? Begin by improving your mood. That’s the surprising message from bestselling author and performance expert Steven Kotler. In an excerpt from his new book The Art of Impossible, Kotler describes a fascinating experiment where a neuroscientist and psychologist teamed up to find out what happens in the brain during moments of inspiration–“aha moments.” What they learned can help you when you need a burst of creativity of your own.
The researchers began by trying to induce aha moments in subjects by giving them remote association problems, also called “insight problems.” In this case, the problems were a series of puzzles in which subjects were given three words and asked to find a fourth that could be combined with all of them. For example, what common word can be combined with “pine,” “crab,” and “sauce”? The answer is “apple.”
Some people solved these problems analytically, by running through a list of words that fit with one of the words and testing them against the others. But others got there through a flash of insight–an aha moment–in which the answer suddenly appeared to them. The researchers wanted to know exactly what was happening at those moments so they scanned people’s brains as they worked to solve the puzzles. What they discovered is that a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC, lit up right before their subjects were about to have an aha moment.
One function of the ACC is to decide, when different parts of the brain are sending different signals, which of those signals to pay attention to. If a creative or odd or “long-shot” solution to a problem is bubbling up somewhere in the back of your mind, the ACC can choose to focus your attention on that solution. In other words, it can seize on your most creative ideas and bring them to the forefront of your mind.
When you need creative energy–when you’re designing a new marketing campaign or trying to come up with a new product, for example–activating your ACC can really help. And you can activate your ACC by improving your mood. “When we’re in a good mood, the ACC is more sensitive to odd thoughts and strange hunches,” Kotler writes. “If an active ACC is the ready condition for insight, then a good mood is the ready condition for an active ACC.” Or, to put it another way, if you want to be more creative, get happy.
How do you get happy, or at least temporarily happier so you can be more creative? Here are a few ideas:
Paying attention to the things you have to be grateful for is one of the most effective ways there is to lift your own spirits. There are many different ways to practice gratitude, but here’s the one that works best for me. Mentally list three things in your life that you’re grateful for, which could be anything from the love of your spouse or partner or children, your health, the beautiful tree outside your window, or the fact that the corner deli happened to make your favorite type of soup today.
Most of us are familiar with focused-attention meditation, in which you focus on your breathing, or on a word or phrase, or on scanning your body, or on some imagery in your mind. These are all useful techniques for decreasing your own stress and improving concentration. But if you want to activate your ACC, you need a slightly different approach, Kotler writes. “Divergent thinking requires an open monitoring style of meditation.” In open monitoring meditation, you don’t work to focus your attention, you simply open yourself to any thought, any emotion, or any sensation that comes to you, without judgment. Once a thought or feeling arises, name it and then let it go.
Exercise is one of the most reliable mood boosters there is. It lowers the stress hormone cortisol, and increases happy-feeling neurochemicals such as endorphins. You’ll increase the benefit if your exercise takes you outside where there is nature–a walk in the park, for example–which also has proven mood-lifting benefits. “Plus, the time-out that exercise provides works as an incubation period,” Kotler writes.
Although this isn’t one of Kotler’s suggestions, connecting with a friend or loved one is often a great way to improve your own mood. There’s even evidence that such connections can improve your longevity.
There’s a small but growing group of Inc.com readers who get a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or idea. Often, they text me back and we wind up in an ongoing conversation. (Interested in joining? You can learn more here.) They tell me that reaching out to their friends and loved ones, even when they’re struggling with work overload, is one of the best things they can do to help themselves.
So take a few moments to perhaps call one of your loved ones or engage in some chit-chat with one of your office friends. It’s also a chance to talk about your project a little. That might be enough to jump-start your creativity for the task ahead.
Inc. helps entrepreneurs change the world. Get the advice you need to start, grow, and lead your business today. Subscribe here for unlimited access.
(Contributed by Michael Kelly, H.W.)
“… the experience of the self is always a defeat for the ego.”
― Carl Jung, Mysterium, para. 778.
Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology and religious studies. Wikipedia
Issued on: 17/09/2021 – 18:04 (France24.com)
Text by: NEWS WIRES
A failure to slash global emissions is setting the world on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday just weeks before crunch climate talks.
His comments come as a United Nations report on global emissions pledges found instead of the reductions needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change, they would see “a considerable increase”.
This shows “the world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7-degrees of heating,” Guterres said in a statement.
The figure would shatter the temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement, which aimed for warming well below 2C and preferably capped at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
“Failure to meet this goal will be measured in the massive loss of lives and livelihoods,” Guterres said.
Under the landmark 2015 Paris deal, nations committed to slash emissions, as well as to provide assistance to the most climate-vulnerable countries.
But a bombshell “code red” for humanity from the world’s pre-eminent body on global warming in August warned that Earth’s average temperature will be 1.5C higher around 2030, a decade earlier than projected only three years ago.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that emissions should be around 45 percent lower by 2030 compared with 2010 levels to meet the 1.5C goal.
The UN said on Friday that current pledges by 191 countries would see emissions 16 percent higher at end of the decade than in 2010 — a level that would eventually cause the world to warm 2.7C.
“Overall greenhouse gas emission numbers are moving in the wrong direction,” said UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa in a press conference.
But she said there was a “glimmer of hope” from 113 countries that had updated their pledges, including the United States and European Union.
These new pledges, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, would see their emissions reduced 12 percent by 2030 compared to 2010.
Big emitters
With only 1.1C of warming so far, the world has seen a torrent of deadly weather disasters intensified by climate change in recent months, from asphalt-melting heatwaves to flash floods and untameable wildfires.
The Paris deal included a “ratchet” mechanism in which signatories agreed to a rolling five-year review of their climate pledges in which they are supposed to display ever greater ambition for action.
But many major emitters have yet to issue new targets.
That includes China — the world’s biggest emitter — has said it will reach net zero emissions by 2060, but has not yet delivered its NDC that would spell out emissions reductions by 2030.
Meanwhile new targets from Brazil and Mexico were actually weaker than those they submitted five years ago, according to an analysis by the World Resources Institute.
The UN report was a “damning indictment” of global progress on climate, particularly by G20 nations, responsible for the lion’s share of emissions, said Mohamed Adow, who leads the think tank Power Shift Africa.
“They are the countries which have caused this crisis and yet are failing to show the leadership required to lead us out of this mess,” he said.
Time to ‘deliver’
Another issue on the table at the Glasgow summit will be a pledge as yet unfulfilled — the pledge by wealthy nations to provide annual climate funding of $100 billion from 2020 to poorer countries, who bear the greatest impact of warming.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Friday said progress was “disappointing”, with developing countries receiving $79.6 billion in 2019.
It warned that the target for 2020, which saw the world shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic, would be missed.
“The fight against climate change will only succeed if everyone comes together to promote more ambition, more cooperation and more credibility,” said Guterres.
“It is time for leaders to stand and deliver, or people in all countries will pay a tragic price.”
(AFP)
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”
Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed “Iron Mike” and “Kid Dynamite” in his early career, and later known as “The Baddest Man on the Planet”, Tyson is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Wikipedia
By Red Hawk
Socrates exhorted His disciples to do so;
every Master including Jesus, who called it witnessing,
has taught his disciples to observe themselves,
so they might come to know themselves. On the other hand,
I am no Master and I say, Don’t do it for God’s sake!
They never tell us the terrible trouble it brings,
how we will never sleep easily again
in our unconscious self mad habits, how
what is now unconscious, hidden in us
will be revealed, like
opening a locked cellar door, turning on
the light and what you find down there
is a county asylum crawling with inmates,
some wrapped in torn filthy sheets, others
naked and drooling; they are clawing and scratching
to gain position on the stairs, to escape, and
standing calmly in their midst, dressed
in robes of Light, is an Angel around whom
most of them huddle weeping, whose gentle touch
upon their fevered brows calms and soothes them.
This is what I am warning you about: never mind
the swarming iunatics, they are everywhere, but
once you have seen that Angel in your midst
the sorrow and longing will tear at you and
trouble you all the days of your life.
(from the book Self Observation by Red Hawk)