Month: December 2024

by Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)

Written over 350 years ago, this fascinating book is collection of 300 witty and thought-provoking original aphorisms. From how to be lucky to the healthy use of caution, these elegant observations were created as a guide to life, with further suggestions such as cultivating good taste, knowing how to refuse, the foolishness of complaining and the wisdom of controlling one’s passions

A few examples –

“Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.” “A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.” “Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose.” “The best skill in cards is knowing when to discard.”

I’ve adopted this one as a personal motto –

When you visualize or vividly imagine something, the same neuropathways in the brain are activated as when you actually see or do it.   It’s a form of self-hypnosis you can apply to bring about a state of calmness whenever you’re experiencing stress.

Try this exercise. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you begin to feel more relaxed and at peace.  It’s like taking a natural “chill pill”!

1.  Shut your eyes and take three slow, deep breaths.  Picture your emotions of anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, etc. as dark colored shapes with jagged edges that are residing within you.  If you have difficulty creating these images,  just imagine them as physical sensations or sounds.

2.  Now,  experience these emotions as being drawn outside and away from your body.

3.  Gather them them all together and put them in a box. Again, you may do this as a physical or auditory sensation.  Push the box away, and turn your gaze inward, noticing how these negative emotions  are no longer a part of you, and that you have regained control of yourself.

4.  Pick up the box, and hurl it far, far away, perhaps even into the sun, where it burns up and disappears instantly.

5.  Slowly open your eyes when ready and notice how much better you feel!

“Quite without any inductions, you have ‘hypnotized’ yourself into all the beliefs you have – this simply means that you have consciously accepted them, excluded data to the contrary, narrowed your interests to those specific points and accordingly activated the unconscious mechanisms that then materialize those convictions through physical experience. Formal hypnosis merely brings about an accelerated version of what goes on all the time.”

– Jane Roberts in Seth Speaks

A Native American myth recounts that Creator gathered all of creation one day and said, “I want to hide something from humans until they are ready for it:  It is the realization that they can create their own life and their own reality.”

Eagle said, “Give it to me; I’ll take it to the moon and hide it there.”

But Creator said, “No, one day they will go to the moon and will find it.”

Then Salmon said, “Give it to me; I’ll hide it in the bottom of the sea.”

“No,” said the Creator, ” They’ll get there, too.”

Well, then Buffalo came and said, “Give it to me; I’ll bury it in the Plains.”

Creator said, “No, they will get there. They will cut into the skin of the earth, and they will find it even there.”

But then Grandmother Mole came, the one that has no physical eyes to see on the outside but has spiritual eyes and the capacity to see within, and she said, “Put it inside them; they’ll never find it there.”

And Creator said, “It is done.”

“Scientific studies show that people experience similar levels of happiness over the long-term regardless of external events.  Winning millions in a lottery, or getting paralyzed in an accident makes a significant difference for six months or less.  People living in poverty register only a few percentage points less happy than the most affluent, and there is no difference between the middle class and the rich.  In fact, the only thing that makes a difference is chronic pain or consistent health crises . . . . ”

– Dierdra Barrett in Supernormal Stimuli

These findings point to the fact that being happy is more a function of your attitude than it is about your actual circumstances; in other words, happiness is a choice.    A famous quote (often attributed to Abraham Lincoln) puts it this way:  ‘Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be’.