Blogging reduces stress

One of the reasons I love to blog is the way it reduces stress. It's almost like I get into a flow, and from that flow, I'm able to also express myself--stresses, political views, religious views, perception of people. I used to have a blog about atheism, but now I find myself to be more theistic; I think I'm sort of a Christian, but I'm unsure how exactly to fit God into the whole mix of things. Anyways, I always find that if some idea is stuck in my head--for whatever reason--blogging helps me contextualize it, get a deeper understanding of it, and finally let it go. Your blogging can also be totally anonymous; I once told some relatives about my past blogs, and regretted so much (filtering what you write is annoying, and you can't write about people close to you). You obviously can't get into hate speech; for example, if being a racist stresses you out, that might be a challenge to blog the stress away (don't be racist, it's not nice and totally racist). So start blogging today! You can even do it from a cellphone :) 

Using Mindfulness to Reduce Anxiety and Stress

A big source of anxiety and stress (both are very connected) are thoughts. While this may seem obvious, is it in day-to-day living? For example, when you think about what you will be doing later in the day, do you maintain the awareness that what you are experiencing is just a thought? When you notice yourself worrying, always keep the context of the experience of worrying accurate. You can even put your hands on the sides of your head and say to yourself "this thought I am experiencing is occurring between my hands". Similar to how we are able to watch horrible things on television, but maintain the context that we are just watching television, and this causes us to not be affected nearly as much as we would if we lost this awareness. A lot of people that become very emotionally upset by movies become zoned in so they lose touch with the reality that it's just a television that is being viewed. In other words, it is not the behavior or external environment that is the main problem with suffers of anxiety, but the lack of awareness.

Mindfulness is one of the greatest tools for overcoming anxiety and reducing stress. What causes worrying is the lack of awareness that a thought is just a thought. Mindfulness isn't for running away from problems, but for seeing them as they actually are.

If you have any questions, or want me to further elaborate on mindfulness techniques, leave a comment below. I check comments on a fairly regular basis :)

The imagination can cause stress

The imagination can be a powerful tool for us humans in the realm of abstract thinking. Unfortunately, it can also be a great source of paranoia, delusion, worrying, jealousy, anger. The key is to both recognize what the imagination is and how to use it properly as tool. In other words, it's important to make the imagination work for you, not the other way around. I've noticed both in myself and others that the imagination is such a dominate thing (especially for those with a powerful imagination) that it can overwhelm a person's world. The scary thing is that the imagination can dominate our reality formation to such a point where we see the world through our imagination, instead of senses. This is done by relying on labeling and overwhelming abstract thinking, both functioning in the realm of autopilot (which requires much less energy and frees the soul to focus on forming new habits). Essentially the soul lays down an understanding via the circuitry of the brain, and the only way to undo this circuitry is with awareness of its firing (which essentially rewires this). Mindfulness of our thought process and of the sensory input that triggers them is key to changing the mind so that it works better. Here's a poem I quickly wrote that sums up what I mean. Essentially it is awareness that lays down neural circuits, and in order to change these we need to utilize awareness. In order to change anything, we must first become aware of it.

as the soul pays attention

the understanding is created

that the foundation of habit

is the fazing out of the soul

Better to think of anxiety as a habit, not a mental disorder (which can make the problem worse)

We have been told over and over again that chronic anxiety is a mental disorder, and while there is a certain about of "disorder" in the mind that causes anxiety, this sort of label misses the underlying cause of anxiety and does nothing but put a sufferer down.

In reality, anxiety is caused by certain thinking habits. And when people get so entrenched in emotionally-charged thinking that the symptoms cause an "unbearable" amount of suffering, we (medically) put them on medication and put them through talk-therapy (which isn't totally a bad thing, but I find talk-therapy to not properly get at the heart of anxiety). Anxiety is caused by thinking patterns that occur because of a perceived environmental threat, and if the symptoms get bad enough, the anxiety attaches itself to these sensations, causing the person to worry about their own heath (causing a further perpetuation of anxiety). Anxiety is a bad perceptual habit. What do I mean by this? Well, we can view the symptoms of anxiety (such as sweating, heart racing, tense feeling in chest and throat, sweaty hands, etc) differently, and while doing so, disarming the viewing of these things as being a threat. One of the best ways of doing this is to stop viewing anxiety as a problem. In fact, stop viewing everything as a problem, nothing is a problem, and just become aware of the cause of the symptoms.

Becoming aware of the thought process allows us to view it objectively, and while viewing a thought objectively, it is viewed with a more rational lens. In the same way that if we know we are dreaming during a nightmare, it becomes much less scary, if we become aware that a thought is just a thought, it loses its emotional punch. I've brought this basic idea up in a few other blog posts, but it is very important to overcoming anxiety. Mindfulness in general is what is important in overcoming behavioral problems (which is what anxiety is). To put it simply, our brains functions in two modes: "objective/logical and emotional/reflex". Anxiety exists in the reflexive emotional part of the brain. You see, the point of emotion is largely to allow people to make quick decisions without having to think everything out (such as when people get a "gut feeling"). If you are in your head a lot, and everything seems fuzzy and worry thoughts constantly stream through your head, your brain is engaged in a way that will cause perpetual anxiety and stress in general.

My anxiety used to be horrible (I had bad generalized anxiety and social anxiety, which led to some nasty depression), but I started to realize these two-modes of operation in the brain. To show you what I mean, try this little experiment.

1) Find a particular point around you to stare at (like a dot, or a fixed point that is easy to concentrate
on).

2) Keep concentrating on the dot, whenever your attention drifts (as it will) just bring it back to concentrating

3) Do this for at least 10 minutes (it's best to use an alarm, try not to worry about the amount of time that has passed, because this is distracting)

4) After 10 minutes or so, begin to scan all the objects around you. Look at them with purpose, don't just label them an look through them.

If you do this, you should notice some interesting effects. This is how the brain is suppose to function, this mode is the mode the brain is engaged in when it is relaxed. Chronic worrying causes the brain to have a shift to utilize parts of the brain associated with worrying. This leads to a reduced awareness of the senses, leading to depersonalization and derealization (which is why mindfulness is so damn important for overcoming anxiety).

perfectionism causes anxiety and self-esteem issues.

A belief that the self and/or the world needs to be perfect in order to succeed can lie at the core of emotional problems like anxiety, depression, and anger. When I was very young, I was short (still am), and this caused me to be bullied and viewed as an "outsider" (I was super short for my age). This self-perception (that I was "not normal") caused great distress within me, which lead to extreme anxiety and a deterioration of my self-esteem. In response, I started to believe that in order to get people to approve of me, I would need to "be perfect" (i.e. without fault). And with this mentality, I became my own bully, and the level of self-criticism rose to emotionally painful heights (not to mention that it further pushed down my self-esteem).

The moral of this story is that perfectionism, while it may seem like a good idea on its surface, can lead to an exasperation of an already painful situation. From my own experience, perfectionism gets in the way of fully realizing the potential within. Because at the end of the day, being overly self-critical creates a ton of stress and anxiety, and those things only erect barriers to potential. 

Is everyone crazy? (mental illness and lack of mindfulness)

I've been doing some studying on mental illness (have taken classes on it and am taking one now, plus I have looked up a lot of stuff using Google :P ). And it seems to me that a lot of mental illness is caused by thoughts. It appears that stress-inducing thoughts are bar far the biggest cause of mental illness (aside from being human). And what is the cause of stressful thinking? Lack of awareness (at least in my opinion). When I am aware of my thoughts, and more importantly, aware of the fact that my thoughts are thoughts, they don't cause me stress (like realizing a nightmare was just a dream).

I believe that being in a state of awareness of the present moment (of our senses more specifically) is the intended default mode; but we have been bombarded with nonsense from TV and the internet, plus have been taught to see the world through the imagination in school (they teach you to see history through such a lens, for example). Most people today see the world through their imagination, they are constantly thinking about things that have happened or "will happen" (most people can't predict the future that accurately). I'm not much better (it's hard to stay in a state of mindfulness for an entire day), but I realize that mindfulness causes a shift away from being consumed with the imagination to a more accurate one (the imagination can distort our perception of reality).

I believe people that have thoughts constantly streaming through their heads, not being focused on the present moment, have a form of mental illness that is more common than not in today's world (given how hectic it is, people have adopted this sort of thinking, I believe, as a coping strategy). I'm obviously included in this bunch, but I'm also trying to shift myself out of it. I'm hoping that in time I can make mindfulness the default mode, instead of worrying (I notice that when I'm doing nothing my mind automatically starts worrying).

On a heavy end of the spectrum of this are anxiety disorders and depression (caused by a high volume of stress-inducing thoughts). I hope in time, people wake up from the daymares (like daydreaming) caused our imagination by realizing that it's not real (our brains are not really time machines going into the past or crystal balls looking into the future).

I still struggle with the process of trying to wake up, but I'm getting better in time.

How mindfulness leads to happiness.

While I'm sure everyone has their own opinion on what happiness is, I believe the word "happiness" is interchangeable with the word "contentment". It is a when there are no worries (acceptance of everything, typically being temporary). Many people think happiness is laughing or hugging a loved one, but the truth is that those are not what happiness is, but are activities that can momentarily remove nonacceptance of reality. I believe that an awareness of how things are automatically create a state of acceptance. We don't accept things when we believe they could be different, it is our imaginations that create the nonacceptance of reality. This is delusional of course. Things can't be different than they are in reality (i.e. in the present moment, the only moment that truly exists, outside of thought).

Mindfulness (awareness of the present moment) is the cure to the pervasive delusion in the world that things could be different than they are (which is at the root of unhappiness).

This isn't to say that people should never feel unhappy, but I believe it is important for people to be aware of the source of unhappiness in order to bring themselves out of it (when they desire to).

The way thoughts make us feel...

I believe people (myself included) believe everything they do because of the way the beliefs (i.e. thoughts) make them feel, not because of the information itself. This idea may not seem strange on the surface, but give it some thought--does it feel strange now? If such a thought for you is underwhelming in the way it makes you feel, it's not the thought itself that is underwhelming, but the lack of mutually shared "feelings" between us. Some people might argue against this idea by pointing to beliefs that create unpleasant feelings (why would people want to ever entertain thoughts that make them feel bad?). I would argue that such a phenomenon (or is it "phenomena"?) occurs because of a belief that not thinking that thought would leave open certain vulnerabilities (the feeling of fear is a powerful thing).

Anyways, I don't want this to be a long post. But try to meditate on this idea, it is an incredible awareness (a feeling I personally enjoy, which is why I enjoy mindfulness and the ideas that lead me to it).

Yawning is a great way to relieve stress

The title says it all. Now of course there is some science already underlying it (Google it), but give it a try. Force yourself to yawn several times in a row and notice the results first hand. For me, I also notice a release of endorphins when I yawn along with reduced mental fatigue (seems to give a feeling of euphoria and mental clarity). Anyways, I'm rambling.

Try yawning 20 times in a row, and leave a comment describing your experience.

Believable Day-Terrors

Day terrors occur when we are partially asleep (i.e. not mindful or awake). While it's hard to be fully awake, even when practicing meditation and mindfulness techniques. This is because most of us have become so used to not being totally awake (being lost in thoughts, which are really just dreams that occur while being partially awake). And sadly, this sort of habit leaves us vulnerable to stress and causes a weakening of our ability to be aware (i.e. mindful, awake, and so on).

The scariest of day-terrors are those that we find to be the most believable. Just about any day-terror has an emotional effect, but for the moments that we truly believe the day-terror is really happening, it has an effect nearly as powerful as if it were. Such as if we are worrying about something we plan on doing in the future, and some scenario pops up with some problem(s). The fact that we find it incredibly believable that this event will happen (it being based on a real-life plan), this is why it can cause an incredible amount of stress. I believe this habit is learned by-the-way, but that is a different subject all-together. In short, a day-terror (or "worrying thought") is much more emotionally disturbing if we believe it is real, and the closer of an association with reality the day-terror has, the more "real" it will seem. Whenever you worry about the future, this is a day-terror (it's not real, reality is what's occurring in the present moment as you experience via the senses, anything else is just a thought).

Be mindful.

The type of music you listen to matters!

Feel like I'm stating the obvious here, but the type of music you listen to does matter. Like the types of thoughts we make a habit of thinking, the type of music we make a habit of listening to has an incredible impact on our well-being in the long run. The question is how music influences our emotional well-being (the kind and level of influence). The reality is that people don't like music, but the way music makes them feel. Harm is done to the self if music is used to create anger and/or aggressive emotions (such as rap, metal, and rock music). Whatever emotional states we nurture, the greater they will permeate the soul. Music is big because of the way it alters our emotional state, so keep all of this in mind when listening to your "favorite" music. I suggest listening to relaxing music with inspiring lyrics.

Mindfulness should not be viewed as a skill to master

I claim that mindfulness should not be viewed as a skill to master. The reasoning behind this is simple: if we view it as a skill, autopilot tries to take over for the sake of efficiency. Also this sort of thinking is distracting, because it creates worrying ("am I getting better at being mindful?"). The point here is that it does not matter where mindfulness can take you in the "future", but where mindfulness can take you right now.

Randomness: It's good to view thoughts as they are, the alternative is to allow them to control you. If we view thoughts as they are, we naturally become aware of the distortion of reality that is occurring in our own brains. All thoughts are false in some way (none of us can time travel and/or view events outside of the senses, a thought is cognition based on understood patterns made available by the senses...not superpowers!).

Video games caused my anxiety?

I believe that video games caused my anxiety disorder. In my household as a child, there was a lot of yelling, and perhaps that fueled it, but I believe when push comes to shove, it was the video games. How can this be? Well, it doesn't have to do so much with the video games themselves, but the adrenaline's domino effect on my psychology (and I believe the psychology of many other people). Adrenaline (and other fight-or-flight hormones) makes people fearful by nature, and with constant exposure (all I did was play video games, and I got very intense with them), this can seriously alter perceptions would ultimately affect cognitive behaviors in a huge way. For me it seems that my constant anxious state is both caused by cognition and causes cognition (thus creating a cycle to perpetuate the 'disorder'). The vast majority of video games are addictive because people love the feeling of an adrenaline rush, but the long-term affects of constant fight-or-flight mode isn't healthy. In our society I believe we need to take adrenaline-producing stimuli much more seriously (TV, internet, music, video games and so on). From what I've observed, a lot of anxious people have an adrenaline fix of some sort. It's important to identify your adrenaline fix if you have one, and find a way to get rid of it. If you need that adrenaline, exercise is much more productive (increased metabolism of stress hormones plus the adrenaline fix is satisfied...plus exercise is good for the brain).

Well I'm rambling now, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to leave a comment☺ 

Mindfulness is essential for good mental health.

Mindfulness is an incredible tool that the vast majority don't utilize. I believe we, as a society, are addicted to a reliance on autopilot—mindfulness is the enemy of autopilot (and vice versa). Mindfulness cannot be done automatically. In other words, our autopilot cannot learn mindfulness, but it can learn to remind us to engage in mindful behavior. Before I go any further, let me explain what mindfulness is. 

Mindfulness is an intentional focus on being aware of the present moment. A good way of doing this is to just step back, appreciate the moment with the senses (listen, see, taste, touch, smell), and also be aware of the thoughts that pass through awareness without pushing them away or encouraging them (just let them flow by). Play around with mindfulness, perhaps do some research on it if you don't feel that you have a good bead on it. 

When a person is mindful the brain correctly labels thoughts as being thoughts, and doesn't get all tangled up in them (a person that is aware of the present moment is able to easily see that a thought is just a thought, and not a threat). 

The ability to be aware is like a muscle, use it or lose it. And if you want to overcome things like depression and anxiety, awareness is literally the key (autopilot programming is by far the biggest cause of stress, anxiety, and depression).

If you have any questions about mindfulness, feel free to ask. Poor cognitive behavior is at the root of so many psychological problems, and mindfulness is amazing at getting people back on track (even though it takes a ton of discipline, it is very effective). I believe mindfulness is the kind of behavior that we are suppose to be engaged in—but in the age of information, we are overwhelmed with worry-provoking stimuli. The body in its natural state wants to relax, it takes worrying with a lack of awareness of the present moment (both go hand-in-hand) to stoke the proverbial fire.