Don’t be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams. You need to know your personal philosophy of what makes you happy and what’s worth doing.

A business plan should never take more than a few hours of work. Hopefully no more than a few minutes. The best plans start simple. A quick glance and common sense should tell you if the numbers will work. The rest are details.

If you think your life’s purpose needs to hit you like a lightning bolt, you’ll overlook the little day-to-day things that fascinate you.If you think revolution needs to feel like war, you’ll overlook the importance of simply serving people better. When you’re on to something great, it won’t feel like revolution. It’ll feel like uncommon sense.

Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.Present each new idea or improvement to the world. If multiple people are saying, “Wow! Yes! I need this! I’d be happy to pay you to do this!” then you should probably do it. But if the response is anything less, don’t pursue it. Don’t waste years fighting uphill battles against locked doors. Improve or invent until you get that huge response.

When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” — then say no. When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to really throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say “HELL YEAH!”

Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers. Make every decision — even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone — according to what’s best for your customers. If you’re ever unsure what to prioritize, just ask your customers the open-ended question, “How can I best help you now?” Then focus on satisfying those requests.It’s counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.

Watch out when anyone (including you) says they want to do something big, but can’t until they raise money. It usually means they’re more in love with the idea of being big big big than with actually doing something useful. For an idea to get big big big, it has to be useful. And being useful doesn’t need funding. If you want to be useful, you can always start now, with only 1% of what you have in your grand vision. It’ll be a humble prototype version of your grand vision, but you’ll be in the game. You’ll be ahead of the rest, because you actually started, while others are waiting

You have something that people want. It might be something you own, something you’ve learned how to do, or access to resources, space, or people.Find a way to share it with everyone who needs it. Not necessarily for profit, but just because it’s what you’d do for friends, and it’s the right thing to do. If it takes some effort for you to share it, charge a little something for your effort, to ensure that this giving can continue.Start by sharing whatever you’ve got.

Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

You can’t pretend there’s only one way to do it. Your first idea is just one of many options. No business goes as planned, so make ten radically different plans. Realizing the initial choice you made was just one of many brings all kinds of weathered wisdom and insight into your business.

Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?

All bad service comes from a mindset of scarcity. They act like they’ll go out of business if they don’t fiercely guard their bottom line. The short-term thinking of desperate survival blocks the long-term thinking of smart strategy.If you really feel secure and abundant — that you have plenty to share — then this feeling of generosity will flow down into all of your interactions with customers.Of course you should care about your customers more than you care about yourself! Isn’t that rule #1 of providing a good service? It’s all about them, not you.

When someone’s doing something for the money, people can sense it, like a desperate lover. It’s a turn-off. When someone’s doing something for love, being generous instead of stingy, trusting instead of fearful, it triggers this law: We want to give to those who give. It’s another Tao of business: Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way.

Customer service is not an expense to be minimized. It’s a core profit center, like sales. It’s where you should put your best people.Companies focus so much on getting new customers, but keeping existing customers thrilled is a better investment

Three minutes spent talking with them is going to shape their impression of your company more than your name, price, design, or features all combined. This is your shining moment to be the best you can be — to blow them away with how cool it was to contact you. If your customer service is taught to be efficient, it sends the message, “I don’t really want to talk with you. Let’s make this quick.” Do the opposite. Take a few inefficient minutes to get to know anyone who contacts you.

Customer service often starts when someone has a problem, and is upset. When you feel attacked, it’s hard not to fight back, especially when you know they’re wrong. But the best thing to do is to lose the fight. Let them know that they were right, and the company was wrong. Tell them you’re prepared to do whatever it takes to make them happy again.

When one customer wrongs you, remember the thousands that did not. Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person’s mistake.

It’s dehumanizing to have thousands of people passing through our computer screens, so we say things we’d never say if those people were sitting next to us.

If you find even the smallest way to make people smile, they’ll remember you more for that smile than for all your other fancy business-model stuff.

To be a true business owner, make sure you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.

There’s a benefit to being naïve to the norms of the world — deciding from scratch what seems like the right thing to do, instead of just doing what others do.

When you want to learn how to do something yourself, most people won’t understand. They’ll assume the only reason we do anything is to get it done, and doing it yourself is not the most efficient way. But that’s forgetting about the joy of learning and doing.

Never forget that you can make your role anything you want it to be. Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find those people and let them do it.Make sure you know what makes you happy, and don’t forget it.

Those of us with business ideas? We need a company. Not for the money, but because it’s our place to experiment, create, and turn thoughts into reality. We need to pursue our intrinsic motivation.The happiest people are not lounging on beaches. They’re engaged in interesting work! Following curiosity is much more fun than being idle. Even if you never have to work a day in your life.That’s the best reason to have a company. It’s your playground, your instrument, your laboratory. It’s your place to play! Get the ideas out of your head and into the world.

Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury.Whatever you make, it’s your creation, so make it your personal dream come true.

Series : Books in Quotes#1 : If it’s not a hit, switch - Derek Sivers

You can follow the beaten path and call yourself an entrepreneur or you can blaze your own trail and really be one. When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn’t planning on building a major business. He was a successful independent musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. When no one would help him do it, he set out on his own and built an online store from scratch. He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs. In 2000, he hired his first employee. Eight years later, he sold CD Baby for $22 million. Sivers didn’t need a business plan, and neither do you. You don’t need to think big; in fact, it’s better if you don’t. Start with what you have, care about your customers more than yourself, and run your business like you don’t need the money.

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You can follow the beaten path and call yourself an entrepreneur or you can blaze your own trail and really be one. When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn’t planning on building a major business. He was a successful independent musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. When no one would help him do it, he set out on his own and built an online store from scratch. He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs. In 2000, he hired his first employee. Eight years later, he sold CD Baby for $22 million. Sivers didn’t need a business plan, and neither do you. You don’t need to think big; in fact, it’s better if you don’t. Start with what you have, care about your customers more than yourself, and run your business like you don’t need the money.

Derek Sivers is an author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, known for his surprising quotable insights and pithy succinct writing style.Formerly a musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, he sold his first company for $22 million and gave all the money to charity.Sivers’ books (How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his website: https://sive.rs/

Derek Sivers

Anything You Want

The reputation of the stoics was that they were invulnerable, strong and that they use to suppress their emotions but if that they were so we wouldn’t have found so many references and strategies to deal with anxiety. Here are 10 of them.

Ten Stoic Strategies to deal with Anxiety. 

Don’t focus on the goals that are in the distance, focus on the immediate step that is within our control. Do each thing that is front of you like it’s the only thing that matters or it’s the last thing that you have to do, and it all adds up - “Many mickle makes a muckle”.

1. Focus On the Little Thing

Feel lucky to be alive in this moment. You have been given a gift of the present moment, don’t be cynical or jaded and waste this precious life. Everything might not be ideal but it’s the time that we are alive, and we have any control only in this moment so accept it and be grateful for it.

2. Practice Gratitude.

You don’t need to have an opinion about everything. You can accept things as they are or simply ignore it. Look at life objectively and don’t project your own thoughts and opinion on it.

3. Have No Opinion. 

Stop caring about what other people think, do or say. That is the only way to be at peace and experience tranquility.

4. Stop Caring About What People Think. 

Don’t dump your emotions or run away from it. Observe and explore them. They are like a credit card bill, you might not have to pay them now, but it will come later with a higher interest rate charged. So, deal with your emotions or process and meditate over them now and don’t leave it for later as it is going to come over with even a bigger force and magnitude.

5. Process Your Emotions.

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality” - Seneca. All the things that we are anxious or worried about are never going to happen in reality so there is no point suffering for things that exist only in our imagination. You can only have any control over the present moment where you can prepare yourself to address any challenges that you might have. Don’t give up the present moment by being worried about what’s going to happen in the future.

6. Don’t Suffer Imagined Troubles. 

Don’t want to be harmed, don’t chose to feel harmed - EpictetusNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt

7. Chose not to be harmed.

Walking is a way of resting and it allows you to feel refreshed.Only ideas had while walking have any worth - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

8. Go For A Walk. 

Journal every single day. Don't think much about it just make a start.The best time to start journaling was a long time ago, the second- best time is now.

9. Keep A Journal.

Every situation can have two handles or aspects. You can choose to see it as a victim or something that dis-empowers or you can choose to it see it as an opportunity for growth.

10. Grab the Right Handle.

How much more enjoyable would your days be without the constant dread of stress looming over you? Anxiety was one of the main emotions Stoicism was built to handle. In this video best-selling author Ryan Holiday explores 10 of the best time-tested ways that the Stoics dealt with anxiety. ⚔️ Overwhelmed? You’re not alone. Check out the Daily Stoic Slay Your Stress Course: A 13-day challenge designed to reclaim your life from the negative effects of stress and anxiety. Go to https://dailystoic.com/Stress to sign up. The pages of Marcus Aurelius’s private journal are filled with notes to himself on how to ‘escape anxiety’. Epictetus says the ‘most important task in life’ was determining what we could control and what we couldn’t, in an effort to ease daily anxieties. Seneca’s letters are constant reminders to not suffer before it is necessary. And not just reminders, but practical, actionable steps to overcoming both. 00:00 Intro 01:39 1. Focus On The Little Things 02:29 2. Practice Gratitude 03:21 3. Have No Opinion 03:55 4. Stop Caring About What People Think 04:23 5. Process Your Emotions 05:39 6. Don’t Suffer Imagined Troubles 06:32 7. Choose Not To Be Harmed 07:19 8. Go For A Walk 08:27 9. Keep A Journal 09:05 10. Grab The Right Handle ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 🎓 FREE GUIDE to Stoic philosophy: https://dailystoic.com/freeguide 🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/ Instagram: ​https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dailystoic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailystoic TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic #Stoicism​ #DailyStoic​ #RyanHoliday​

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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How much more enjoyable would your days be without the constant dread of stress looming over you? 

Anxiety was one of the main emotions Stoicism was built to handle. In this video best-selling author Ryan Holiday explores 10 of the best time-tested ways that the Stoics dealt with anxiety.

⚔️ Overwhelmed? You’re not alone. Check out the Daily Stoic Slay Your Stress Course: A 13-day challenge designed to reclaim your life from the negative effects of stress and anxiety. Go to https://dailystoic.com/Stress to sign up.

The pages of Marcus Aurelius’s private journal are filled with notes to himself on how to ‘escape anxiety’. Epictetus says the ‘most important task in life’ was determining what we could control and what we couldn’t, in an effort to ease daily anxieties. Seneca’s letters are constant reminders to not suffer before it is necessary. And not just reminders, but practical, actionable steps to overcoming both.

00:00 Intro
01:39 1. Focus On The Little Things
02:29 2. Practice Gratitude
03:21 3. Have No Opinion
03:55 4. Stop Caring About What People Think
04:23 5. Process Your Emotions
05:39 6. Don’t Suffer Imagined Troubles
06:32 7. Choose Not To Be Harmed
07:19 8. Go For A Walk
08:27 9. Keep A Journal
09:05 10. Grab The Right Handle

✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🎓 FREE GUIDE to Stoic philosophy: https://dailystoic.com/freeguide

🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/

Instagram: ​https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dailystoic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailystoic
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic

#Stoicism​ #DailyStoic​ #RyanHoliday​

Stoicism for everyday life. 

For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals. Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history’s great leaders...

🎓 Sign up for our free 7-Day Course on Stoicism, packed with the best Stoic exercises, best books on Stoicism, and more -dailyStoic.com/Start

Daily Stoic

How The Stoics Dealt With Anxiety (10 Strategies)

Everyone has been talking about creation - the scientists, the astrophysicists, the artists, the ancient Hindus and Hebrews but what exactly is it? Is it invention?What is invention?Invention is based on knowledge, previous experiments which is adding to the existing knowledge, which means to invent something new.Example : A scientist in a lab is experimenting and comes up with something new based on his previous experiments.

What is creation?

Man who invented the jet, without the propeller first acquired all the knowledge about internal combustion machinery but that wasn't enough so he waited to get an idea from the previous knowledge and from that knowledge new inspiration came So we are adding all the time to the existing knowledge and then living with the consequences of knowledge

The Jet

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Is invention creation or creation has nothing to do with knowledge?</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Is creation related to man's endeavour or all his experiences or to the duration of time? </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Is it related to war, killing, business, or all that man has acquired?</li></ol> If it is then it's still part of knowledge.

Key Questions to ask

<ul><li>Is creation related to love? i.e love is not hate, anxiety, jealousy or what you see in temples.</li><li>Is love necessary for creation?</li><li>Love which is also compassion..is love and compassion related to death?</li><li>Is love free from all the meanings given by human beings?</li><li>Is love related to death? Is love compassion and death all that is creation?</li><li>Can there be creation without death?</li></ul>Death means ending, Vedanta (as per hindus) - the end of all knowledge. Death means no time, timeless, which is love.So love means compassion, compassion means supreme intelligence, not the knowledge of books and experiences.

Further questions to ask

There cannot be love and compassion without the ending of everything, i.e deathThe result of great profound inquiry into the nature of creation, done with great silence and space is that - The universe is supreme order and that order can only exists when there is supreme intelligence and that intelligence cannot exist without love, compassion and death. Creation is there only when there is love and death. Everything else is invention.

Everything else is invention apart from this

Saanen 1985 - Question #3 from Question & Answer Meeting #1 'What do you mean by creation?' This channel is managed by the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust​​, UK​, and by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America. The role of the foundations was described by Krishnamurti when he said,​ ​'The foundations will see to it that these teachings are kept whole, are not distorted, are not made corrupt. They will not give rise to any sectarian spirit in their activities... nor create any kind of place of worship around the teachings or the person.​'​ We maintain extensive archives of Krishnamurti's original works and all four Krishnamurti foundations are actively engaged in the publication of material in various forms. Our videos contain thousands of subtitles in more than 25 languages, translated by volunteers from all over the world. If you would like to help us with translating subtitles, please contact us at digital@kfoundation.org For more information about J. Krishnamurti and the Krishnamurti foundations: International Site - http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jk.krishnamurti Twitter - https://twitter.com/orgKrishnamurti Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, UK - http://www.kfoundation.org/ Krishnamurti Foundation of America - http://www.kfa.org/ Krishnamurti Foundation of India - http://www.kfionline.org/ Fundación Krishnamurti Latinoamericana - http://www.fkla.org/ This organization is a registered charity. Registered charity number: 312865 © 1985 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

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Saanen 1985 - Question #3 from Question & Answer Meeting #1

'What do you mean by creation?'

This channel is managed by the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust​​, UK​, and by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America.

The role of the foundations was described by Krishnamurti when he said,​ ​'The foundations will see to it that these teachings are kept whole, are not distorted, are not made corrupt. They will not give rise to any sectarian spirit in their activities... nor create any kind of place of worship around the teachings or the person.​'​

We maintain extensive archives of Krishnamurti's original works and all four Krishnamurti foundations are actively engaged in the publication of material in various forms.

Our videos contain thousands of subtitles in more than 25 languages, translated by volunteers from all over the world. If you would like to help us with translating subtitles, please contact us at digital@kfoundation.org

For more information about J. Krishnamurti and the Krishnamurti foundations:

International Site - http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jk.krishnamurti
Twitter - https://twitter.com/orgKrishnamurti
Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, UK - http://www.kfoundation.org/
Krishnamurti Foundation of America - http://www.kfa.org/
Krishnamurti Foundation of India - http://www.kfionline.org/
Fundación Krishnamurti Latinoamericana - http://www.fkla.org/

This organization is a registered charity. Registered charity number: 312865

© 1985 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust

This channel is managed by Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, UK, and Krishnamurti Foundation of America.

The role of the foundations was described by Krishnamurti when he said, 'The foundations will see to it that these teachings are kept whole, are not distorted or made corrupt. They will not give rise to any sectarian spirit in their activities, nor create a place of worship around the teachings or the person.'

We maintain extensive archives of Krishnamurti's original works and are actively engaged in the publication of material in various forms. Please use the links to find out more about our many activities.

Our videos contain thousands of subtitles in more than 40 languages. Fundación Krishnamurti Latinoamericana creates the Spanish subtitles, with other languages translated by volunteers worldwide. If you would like to help translate subtitles, please contact us at digital@kfoundation.org.

This organization is a registered charity. Registered charity number: 312865.


J. Krishnamurti - Official Channel

What do you mean by creation? | J. Krishnamurti

This approach to note-taking was inspired by the 20th-century German sociologist Niklas Luhmann who was a prolific note-taker, writer, and academic. He developed a simple system based on paper index cards, which he called his “slip-box”, designed to connect any given note to as many different potentially relevant contexts as possible. It enables the note-taker to break down their notes into smaller, manageable chunks and organize them into a cohesive whole. This process allows the note-taker to gain a better understanding of their notes and to utilize them in further research and writing.

8 Steps to taking smart notes

Fleeting notes are quick, informal notes on any thought or idea that pops into your mind meant to be a reminder of what’s in your head.

1.Fleeting Notes.

Literature Notes are meant to be incorporated in one’s own writing.Guidelines in creating literature notes:<ul><li>Be extremely selective in what you decide to keep</li><li>Keep the overall note as short as possible</li><li>Use your own words, instead of copying quotes verbatim</li><li>Write down the bibliographic details on the source</li></ul>

2. Make Literature notes.

These notes are based on reviewing the fleeting notes and literature notes and relates to your current work on or interests. The purpose is not just to collect ideas, but to develop arguments and discussions over time.Questions to ask yourself to create them: <ul><li>How does the new information contradict, correct, support, or add to what I already know?</li><li>How can I combine ideas to generate something new?</li><li>What questions are triggered by these new ideas?</li></ul>Once done, throw away the fleeting notes from step one and file the literature notes from step two into your bibliographic slip-box.

3. Make permanent notes.

Add the permanent notes you’ve created to your slip-box. Do this by filing each note behind a related note (if it doesn’t relate to any existing notes, add it to the very end).

4. Addition your new permanent notes to the slip-box. 

With so many standardized notes organized in a consistent format, you are now free to develop ideas in a “bottom up” way. See what is there, what is missing, and which questions arise. Look for gaps that you can fill through further reading.

5. Develop your topics, questions and research projects bottom up from within the slip-box.

Instead of coming up with a topic upfront, you can just look into your slip-box and look for what is most interesting. Your writing will be based on what you already have, not on an unfounded guess about what the literature you are about to read might contain. Follow the connections between notes and collect all the relevant notes on the topic you’ve found.

6. Decide on a topic to write about from within the slip-box.

Instead of copying your notes into a manuscript, translate them into something coherent and embed them into the context of your argument. As you detect holes in your argument, fill them or change the argument.

7. Turn your notes into a rough draft. 

From this point forward, all you have to do is refine your rough draft until it’s ready to be published.

8. Edit and proofread your manuscript. 

Note-taking is like time travel—you are sending packets of knowledge through time to your future self.

I long ago stopped reading books on note-taking. They were always too vague and boring, full of platitudes that had little to do with the world outside

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How To Take Smart Notes: 8 Steps to taking smart notes.

“One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience… Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want.”

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in… you will interest other people.”

“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.”

“Don’t write at first for anyone but yourself.”

Mastering the essential complementarity of compassion and total objectivity.

“The first sign of disintegration — in a writer — is that the writing loses the unique stamp of his/her character, & loses its inner light.”

“In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.”

“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.”

“There is a great deal that either has to be given up or be taken away from you if you are going to succeed in writing a body of work.”

“To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being… what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it.”

“Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.”

“Never write more than two pages on any subject.”

“Sheer egoism… Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.”

“A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.”

“Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”

“The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.”

“You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.”

“As a writer you should not judge. You should understand.”

“You have to tell your own story simultaneously as you hear and respond to the stories of others.”

“It’s by writing… by stepping back a bit from the real thing to look at it, that we are most present.”

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Timeless Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers

The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

The concept of flow

Optimal experience occurs when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness.﻿Consciousness is not a strictly linear system, but one in which circular causality is obtained. Attention shapes the self, and is in turn shaped by it.

Optimal Experience

This, in turn, is related to goals and intentions. These processes are connected to each other by the self, or the dynamic mental representation we have of the entire system of our goals. These are the pieces that must be maneuvered if we wish to improveSelf → Psychic Energy → Attention → Goals & Intentions → Self

Experience depends on psychic energy - on the structure of attention.

The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer. And the person who can do this usually enjoys the normal course of everyday lifePeople who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.

Signs of A Conscious Being

<ol><li>Flow occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing.</li><li>Ability to concentrate on what we are doing.</li><li>The concentration is possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.</li><li>One acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.</li><li>Enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.</li><li>Concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.</li><li>The sense of the duration of time is altered.</li></ol>

How to experience flow ?

Complexity is the result of two broad psychological processes: differentiation and integration. Differentiation implies a movement toward uniqueness, toward separating oneself from others. Integration refers to its opposite: a union with other people, with ideas and entities beyond the self.

People become increasingly complex as a result of flow.

It will be to describe how people manage to join all experience into a meaningful pattern. When that is accomplished, and a person feels in control of life and feels that it makes sense, there is nothing left to desire. The fact that one is not slim, rich, or powerful no longer matters. The tide of rising expectations is stilled; unfulfilled needs no longer trouble the mind. Even the most humdrum experiences become enjoyable. Thus Flow will explore what is involved in reaching these aims.

The last step

When an important goal is pursued with resolution, and all one’s varied activities fit together into a unified flow experience, the result is that harmony is brought to consciousness. Someone who knows his desires and works with purpose to achieve them is a person whose feelings, thoughts, and actions are congruent with one another, and is therefore a person who has achieved inner harmony.

Harmony

What really makes people glad to be alive? What are the inner experiences that make life worthwhile? For more than two decades Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied those states in which people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. His studies re

“Csikszentmihalyi arrives at an insight that many of us can intuitively grasp, despite our insistent (and culturally supported) denial of this truth. That is, it is not what happens to us that determines our happiness, but the manner in which we make sense of that reality. . . . The manner in which Csikszentmihalyi integrates research on consciousness, personal psychology and spirituality is illuminating.” —Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe bestselling classic that holds the key to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance, and true happiness. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow

<ul><li>Thinking in extremes. Using words like always, never, must, should, horrible, perfect etc</li><li>This type of thinking results in extreme emotions and can make a situation worse.</li><li>The key to resolve black and white thinking is to look at reality in a more nuanced manner and get honest with ourselves</li><li>Instead of saying ‘you never do something’ say that ‘she does these sometimes’.</li></ul>

Black and white thinking 

<ul><li>It justifies you.</li><li>It excuses you from work.</li><li>It protects you from feelings extreme emotions like disappointment, sadness etc.</li><li>It helps you feel powerless.</li><li>It kinda feels good.</li></ul>

Why do we think in ‘black or white’

<ul><li>Notice extreme words like 'always', 'never', 'horrible' etc.</li><li>Take a deep breath and slow down.</li><li>Name the emotion - like I feel angry, for example I feel  </li><li>Reframe your thoughts by - </li></ul><ol><li>Use both/and - You can feel two emotions at the same time. Eg I am smart and valuable but i make mistakes too.</li><li>Look for exceptions like "my husband does the dishes sometimes"</li></ol><ul><li>Be specific about the problem. Specify what’s troubling you. Instead of saying 'everything is horrible' describe what specifically is horrible.</li><li>Be accountable. What can be done to help the situation</li></ul>

Reframing black and white thinking

Reframe your thinking to see reality as more nuanced and varied.

Get the free guide to this episode: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/pl/2147654246 Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_medium=YTDescription&utm_source=YouTube Black-and-white thinking is when you take a situation and think about it in an extreme way, you push out all the nuance and turn it into something as intense as possible. You can usually recognize it when you use words like “Always, Never, Perfect, Terrible, Everything, Everyone, Nothing, Nobody, Worst, or Best. The Arbinger Institute calls these “Horribilizations” You take something and horriblize it. Notice how in these situations, black and white thinking exaggerates the situation. A husband says to his wife: “You NEVER do the dishes! I ALWAYS have to clean up after you!” Depressed Young Adult: “EVERYthing is awful. The world is a TERRIBLE place. Climate change is HOPELESS. I’ll NEVER be able to succeed. I’m NO good at math” Someone at work: My boss is the WORST communicator. A young mother: “I’m just a TERRIBLE person” or “She has it ALL together, she’s such a SAINT” Each time, the person takes a difficult situation and makes it horrible. They use the most extreme word. Never. Always. Everything. Hopeless. Terrible. The more extreme your thinking, the more intense your emotions will be, and the more likely you are to be depressed or anxious. But Black and White thinking also makes you helpless to escape that depression or anxiety. And it’s a lie. When you use B&W thinking, you are usually distorting nuanced reality by ignoring the good and exaggerating the bad. You’re lying. If it’s so awful, why do we do it? You subconsciously like black and white thinking because it serves a function in the short term. And like a drug, it makes you suffer in the long term. So what function does it serve? 00:00 Introduction to Emotional Reactivity 00:38 How to Identify Black and White Thinking 02:36 Why do we "like" black and white thinking? 05:52 How to be less emotionally reactive 06:15 How to reframe black and white thinking 07:10 How to think in the gray 10:15 summary of how to be less emotionally reactive Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com?utm_medium=YTDescription&utm_source=YouTube Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Check out my podcast, Therapy in a Nutshell: https://tinpodcast.podbean.com/ Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

health

Health

Get the free guide to this episode: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/pl/2147654246

Looking for affordable online therapy? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_medium=YTDescription&utm_source=YouTube

Black-and-white thinking is when you take a situation and think about it in an extreme way, you push out all the nuance and turn it into something as intense as possible. You can usually recognize it when you use words like “Always, Never, Perfect, Terrible, Everything, Everyone, Nothing, Nobody, Worst, or Best. The Arbinger Institute calls these “Horribilizations” You take something and horriblize it. 

Notice how in these situations, black and white thinking exaggerates the situation. 
A husband says to his wife: “You NEVER do the dishes! I ALWAYS have to clean up after you!”
Depressed Young Adult: “EVERYthing is awful. The world is a TERRIBLE place. Climate change is HOPELESS.  I’ll NEVER be able to succeed. I’m NO good at math”  
Someone at work: My boss is the WORST communicator. 
A young mother: “I’m just a TERRIBLE person” or “She has it ALL together, she’s such a SAINT”
Each time, the person takes a difficult situation and makes it horrible. They use the most extreme word. Never. Always. Everything. Hopeless. Terrible. 

The more extreme your thinking, the more intense your emotions will be, and the more likely you are to be depressed or anxious. But Black and White thinking also makes you helpless to escape that depression or anxiety. And it’s a lie. When you use B&W thinking, you are usually distorting nuanced reality by ignoring the good and exaggerating the bad. You’re lying. 

If it’s so awful, why do we do it? 
You subconsciously like black and white thinking because it serves a function in the short term. And like a drug, it makes you suffer in the long term. So what function does it serve?

00:00 Introduction to Emotional Reactivity
00:38 How to Identify Black and White Thinking
02:36 Why do we "like" black and white thinking?
05:52 How to be less emotionally reactive
06:15 How to reframe black and white thinking
07:10 How to think in the gray
10:15 summary of how to be less emotionally reactive
Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell
Sign up for my newsletter: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/free-resources
Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books
Check out my podcast, Therapy in a Nutshell: https://tinpodcast.podbean.com/

Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. 
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Welcome to my passion project! I’m Emma McAdam, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and my mission is to make mental health resources easier to access. I take therapy skills and psychological research and condense them down into bite-sized nuggets of help. 

As a licensed therapist, one thing I’ve noticed is that most people have no idea of what they can do to improve depression, anxiety, or other mental illness. 

I’m here to spread the message that while mental illness is real, it’s common, it’s debilitating, it’s also treatable. There are dozens of research-backed approaches to treating depression, anxiety, and other mental illness. Change, growth, and healing are possible. Please keep courage! Try one little thing every day to improve your life and health, and things can get so much better! 
I am not currently taking any new clients, but you can find a therapist with my sponsor: BetterHelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell

How to Be Less Emotionally Reactive: Black and White Thinking

How to Reframe Black and White Thinking and become less emotionally reactive

The Second brain is basically a personal knowledge management system which can help unlock the next level of productivity. It is a digital note taking system that keeps a track of all that you read, listen and see. It can then be used to organise your ideas, thoughts which can then be converted into a creative output.There are 10 basics principles of building a second brain.

Building a Second Brain

Creativity is all about remixing stuff. Collect all that resonate with you in one place and combine them in interesting ways and develop the ability to see connections in them which is difficult to see if it’s all in your head."Pablo Picasso: "Good artists copy, great artists steal"

1. Borrowed creativity.

"Our brain is for meant having ideas, not for storing them"Capture any idea wherever you are because your brain is not going to hold it for much time. You can record the voice message if you are busy doing other things.

2.Capture the habit.

Ideas are not single-use. In fact, we can recycle and reuse them over time. So keeping note of all your ideas is important.

3. Idea recycling. 

Don't just categorise the information you've got, but try to link it to the project you are currently working on, so to take the most advantage of it immediately.

4. Projects over categories.

Don't do and even plan to do hard work all at once, since your brain will likely resist doing anything. Instead, do spread your focus and efforts onto several projects, do work in small portions.

5. Slow burns.

It can be really hard to start doing something from a total scratch (e.g. blank piece of paper). But if you've been taking notes and saving all the bits of useful information, it means, you already have a good deal of progress in your work. The only thing left to do is to go through all of your past notes, and maybe just copy & paste. This will make your new project, or task, seem more doable.

6. Start with abundance.

Hey friends, in this video I'll be going over the 10 principles of Building a Second Brain, a productivity system which changed my life completely. FREE RESOURCES Second Brain Week (Free Workshops) - https://learn.fortelabs.co/a/aff_lzltvlhw/external?affcode=58608_oppk6o7y Tiago's Blog (where the bulk of the Second Brain material is available for free) - https://learn.fortelabs.co/a/aff_cdjvlxv4/external?affcode=58608_oppk6o7y 00:00 Intro 01:20 Borrowed Creativity 02:12 The Capture Habit 03:18 Idea Recycling 04:22 Projects Over Categories 05:04 Slow Burns 06:50 Start With Abundance 07:59 Intermediate Packets 10:04 You Only Know What You Make 11:52 Make it Easier for Your Future Self 13:19 Keep Your Ideas Moving 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 🎬 YouTube for Beginners - Everything You Need To Know To Start - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/YouTube-for-Beginners MY CREATOR COURSES 🎬 Check out my free 7 day email course on how to become a part-time YouTuber: https://aliabdaal.com/part-time-youtuber-crash-course/ 🏆 Creatorpreneur - My flagship course for scaling up your creative side-hustle → https://creatorpreneur.academy/course 🗣 Camera Confidence - My self-paced course on how to improve your creativity, career, or communication skills → https://cameraconfidence.aliabdaal.com/ MY FAVOURITE GEAR 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) -https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 🎙 Check out my weekly podcast, Deep Dive - https://www.youtube.com/c/DeepDivewithAliAbdaal/ - It's also available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc. MY FAVOURITE TOOLS 🚀 VidIQ - How I optimise my YouTube videos - https://go.aliabdaal.com/vidiq ✍️ Shortform - The BEST summaries of books - https://go.aliabdaal.com/shortform 📚 Readwise - How I remember what I read - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Epidemic Sound - Where I get my music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound MY KEY LINKS 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com/ 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I’m Ali, a YouTuber, podcaster, soon-to-be author and ex-Doctor working in London, UK. I make videos that explore the strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives. I also have a weekly podcast called Deep Dive (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfo46ZNOV-vtehDc25A1Ug), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets). PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

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