SOS
We live and learn, sometimes, maybe! If the desired result is to change one’s behavior or outlook on the quality of life and living, why does one keep doing the same old stuff, over and over, and over and over, again, absent any positive, long-term result? Here’s a story about two recent experiences.
August 20, 2024
While climbing out of bed this AM noted A-fib…tightness in the throat, upper back, and nape of the neck…and a need for meditation, Heart Mind Entrainment Music, and a chat with dear wife Cindy to sort the wheat from the chaff—chaos—and open a new vision for a niche in today’s world…being grateful for a move to higher ground absent depression…ups and downs OK, depression not OK. Here we are…with Dr. David C. Korten (When Corporations Rule the World) as a self-appointed mentor from a distance and with admiration…help folks move away from sacred money and marketing to family and community. Action plans: finish book, Good Parents! (vision complete, writing in process, target for Berret-Koehler Publishers, www.bkconnection.com); weekly BLOGs on web site www.johnedwindevore.com (1st BLOG 8-18-24); possible video with TED; local presentations as invited and offered; appropriate, invited, Speak Peace (Speak Peace in a World of Conflict, Marshall B. Rosenberg) conversations (observations, feelings, needs, and requests) five days a week at LA Fitness; check out New Economy Working, co-founded by Dr. Korten; practice Speak Peace with Cindy; help transgender granddaughter, Ivy, and grandson, Haley, ASU student; and enjoy life, the new niche, and have fun and play with the family.
August 19, 2024
While at LA Fitness riding a stair stepper (the steps to nowhere) the intuition offers a taste of reality. The 8-18-24 vision is the SOS I have been doing my entire life…create a new OUTER game plan—distraction—and life and living will be “hunky dory,” as Gma used to say, along with the culture messages, beaucoup book messages, and role models. Simply feels like a temporary reprieve, and the negative mind chatter remains. It is now time to start thinking about the next distraction and fabricate the next game plan. Simply a dream of happiness and joy with a new game plan…vision, current reality assessment, and gap closers. Yes! SOS!
What’s the problem? Lots of nice feeling, sounding, presented outer work absent INNER work to resolve the depression issue. This has been the story of my life: find a new distraction, the latest program…military service, education, corporate America, career, health, wellness, new books, new book ideas…and the list is quite long…50+ years of self-awareness and self-development, each new undertaking missing INNER work. However…
In 2001 started a three-year trek to Naropa University to learn to meditate and study the five Wisdom Traditions. Simply was looking for the connection between the body and the mind because the bowling average had peaked at 208. This opened the door to INNER sentinel work that continues. My most recent experiences have been with energy psychology and a bunch of communication and psychology related books. And intuitive awareness fruit showed up today at LA Fitness when it offered that the sterling 8-20-24 vision was missing simple INNER work to move forward from the depression.
My self-prescription for negative “mind chatter” is as follows. Turn on the heart mind entrainment music with earphones, simply sit (meditate) to quiet the mind, and, when ready, begin watching and listening to the “mind chatter,” the stuff of the conscious mind. As the negative “mind chatter” rambles, move directly to heart, mind, brain, emotions, and nervous system coherence breathing and visualize a positive, exciting experience…here are The HeartMath Solution guidelines for Freeze Frame (64-85):
- Recognize the stressful feeling and FREEZE-FRAME it—simply take a time out to take a closer look at the immediate situation.
- Make a sincere effort to shift focus away from the racing mind or disturbed emotions to the area around the heart. Breathe through the heart to help focus energy around the heart area. Keep focus here for at least 10 seconds.
- Recall a positive, fun feeling or time in life and attempt to re-experience it.
- Using intuition, common sense, and sincerity, ask the heart, what would be a more efficient response to the situation, one that will minimize future stress?
- Listen to what the heart says in answer to the question.
Reflect, have a great day, and share your love, gratitude, trust, compassion, courage, honesty, integrity, and prudence for life, living, and America. Observations, feelings, needs, mind chatter, nervous system, and behavior will offer the proof of the puddin’ that INNER work may boost one’s morale and lasting hope for a United States chocked full of joyful families and communities. Let’s join hands and make it happen!
Some resources.
- The HeartMath Solution, Doc Childre, Howard Martin, and Donna Beech.
- Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others, Appendix D, Basic Meditation Instructions, Dr. John Edwin DeVore.
- When Corporations Rule the World, David C. Korten.
- Speak Peace in a World of Conflict, Marshall B. Rosenberg.
