People blog for a lot of different reasons.

• To make money
• To build a reputation
• To express their thoughts and feelings
• To spread their ideas
• To ensure their immortality

The third item in this list, to express our thoughts and feelings, may have the greatest impact on our lives.

Western psychotherapy has it’s roots in the talking cure developed by Sigmund Freud. His clients would visit him on a regular basis and just talk. While it has matured and mutated over the years, talk therapy remains with us and continues to be an effective technique of psychological change.

One of the mutations is the discovery that journaling, expressive writing, has a real and therapeutic effect, both emotionally and physically. Expressive writing, research into which was pioneered by James Pennebaker, leads to many physical and psychoemotional improvements. Among these are improvements in one’s immune system function, decreases in visits to the doctor, decreases in blood pressure, and improvements in psychological health. Interestingly, these are many of the same benefits that arise from the practice of meditation.

It isn’t clear why expressive writing, aka blogging, leads to improved psychological and physical health, but a likely reason seems to be that as you write, you have to think about the material you’re writing about. It is amazing how much of our experience, especially experiences that are emotionally charged, we segment off into little corners of our mind. In the process of writing, we take these experiences out, examine them, attempt to understand them, and write about them in a coherent way. This allows these experiences to begin to be integrated into the rest of the psychological structures and patterns that make up our personality.

The effects of blogging are strong enough that researchers are beginning to examine it as part of an integral therapy program for diseases as drastic as cancer, HIV, and rheumatoid arthritis as well as in relatively traditional areas such as psychotherapy.

Aren’t you glad you blog?

Popularity: 19% [?]

You may have noticed that Adsense ads have begun reappearing on Shards. Last February I removed Adsense ads in reaction to Google’s actions regarding paid link ads. I still believe Google’s actions are less principled than they claim them to be, and that even if I am wrong, their approach was more suited to a totalitarian government than a company who would ‘do no evil’, but I’ve decided it’s time to stop biting my nose to spite my face.

Two things have led me to this decision

• Other people have convinced me that javascript ads such as Adsense uses don’t pass page rank.
• I haven’t been able to find an advertising system that pays near as well as Adsense for a site the size of Shards.

I’m not entirely comfortable with this decision, but believe it is the most reasonable one to take at this juncture.

For those of you who are interested in sponsoring Shards, see the Sponsor Shards page for details. Feel free to contact me with questions or proposals.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The dictionary defines a hero as A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. We have all had heroes in our lives. They may be someone we know face to face. They may be a character from fiction. They could be a figure from history or mythology.

In this podcast I talk a little about heroes - where we find them, and other places they exist that we may not think to look.

 

 Who's Your Hero? [3:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (654)

This episode of the Shards of Consciousness podcast is based on a post I wrote in July, 2007 called Where’s Your Hero?.

If what you hear is useful to you, subscribe to the Shards of Consciousness podcast through iTunes or the feed. Tell your friends about us. Let me know what you think.

Music Featured

Corey&Cosmo - We’re All Stars - Transcontinental Experiment Remix

Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network

Popularity: 17% [?]

A blank page. An expanse of white waiting to be filled by thoughts, musings, experiences. A voice reaching out. An ear listening.

How do you fill your pages?

How do you reach across the spaces, the moments that separate you and I, that join us?

Popularity: 17% [?]

I woke this morning to overcast skies, the kind of gray that, while not depressing, encourages pensivity.

Our lives are an interplay between who we are and what we experience, with the vast majority of what we experience being the result of who we are. Getting, having, is a byproduct of being, the result of Your Beliefs: Your Choice.

A problem arises when we think about who we are, though. There is just so much noise around us and in our own minds, it can be difficult to separate ourselves from it. That’s why we need to periodically Hit the “Pause” button.

I don’t have a page on Facebook. I don’t have a page on MySpace. I don’t Twitter. I don’t FriendFeed. I don’t do any of the social networking sites except StumbleUpon for two main reasons. First, I’d rather connect one to one than in a crowd. Metaphorically speaking, these sites are usually used as fast food restaurants. I prefer the back table in the local pub. The second reason, related to the first, is described well in To Tweet or Not to Tweet. These sites interject so much noise into our lives they make it difficult to know who we are and to focus on what is important to us.

I don’t fully agree with the lightworker / darkerworker dichotomy that has some degree of popularity on the net. If someone every called me a lightworker, I’d tell them to wash their mouth out with soap. If they called me a darkworker, I’d be offended. The connotations of good guy / bad guy are just too strong. Labelling, while necessary to communication, too easily brings a raft of subsidiary beliefs related to the major belief denoted by the label that aren’t productive to hold.

That said, the direction of our work, as shown in Polarity Examples, is important. To know where we stand, to know what we want to accomplish, to know who we are, is important to maintaining focus and growth. To grow the characteristics of a lightworker in your persona rather than being a lightworker will do much in your life.

Technorati Tags: lightworker, darkworker, being, having, Belle Wong, Nneka, Christine Kane, Dave Schoof, distractions

Popularity: 23% [?]

One of the more popular posts on Shards is How To Get Rid of Excessive Negative Emotions

Most people come, read it, then move on. Without input, I have no idea of whether the post was useful to them or not. Occasionally someone will leave a comment. These are usually positive, which, from an ego point of view, is rewarding. Recently I got one that wasn’t so ego gratifying. As would happen with most of us, my first reaction was not positive. My stomach tightened up. Adrenaline began to flow. Hints of anger crossed the screen of my mind.

But then I took the time to stop. I looked at what was happening to my body. I realized my negative emotional reaction was a result of identifying with what I write. I let go, let the adrenaline state discharge, then re-read the comment. I ended up glad it was made because the points the author brought up are important. Many people, maybe most, don’t agree with the viewpoint I express here at Shards. The comment led me to review what some of my basic beliefs are and why I hold them.

1. Our fundamental beliefs will color, condition, and guide what we do, how we feel, and what we see as possible and impossible. If we believe we are purely a result of physical forces, we will have a different life than we will have if we believe we are something beyond the physical.

2. The techniques I talk about here work. If we practice them, we will see results. This is especially true in regards to meditation and belief work. The key is that we have to practice them. Browsing the web and saying That’s interesting or I believe that will accomplish nothing. Action follows belief. If we really believe something, we will act on it.

3. Our emotions are not a part of us. They are something you experience. One of the channels of their creation is the neurochemical reactions throughout our brain and body. We have both a mind and a body (which may be two aspects of one tool). We are neither. If we believe we are a just a body, a product of purely material forces, all debate about free will and personal responsibility is a content free discussion. We can then only be victims. Any I, for that matter, don’t even exist. The I would be as much an illusion as free will or personal responsibility. The nonsense isn’t that we are more than a random assemblage of atoms, but that we are only a random assemblage of atoms. It is the materialistic belief, along with the belief that one person has the right to physically enforce their will on another person, that has caused the majority of the pain, war, violence, and destructive behavior in the world’s history.

4. We cannot avoid an immediate emotional reaction to the things that happen to us. That emotional reaction is as much, if not more, a habit of thought as anything else, though.

5. Emotions are useful. They serve an evaluative function in our lives. In simplistic terms, they are us telling ourselves this is good or this is bad. If the only way to get you to provide food for yourself is the fear of starving, the fear is useful. More useful is to provide food for yourself so you can do something more fulfilling. Action driven only by emotion isn’t useful. Emotions are most effective when guided by thought.

This is honesty. Abdicating responsibility for yourself and your life is not.

Popularity: 16% [?]

the silver moon glides
it’s silent path through the night
the sun hides as dreams
shape the day to come. futures
are lived and discarded. time

a lake we dive in.
not a river, not a stream,
an ocean. we dive
here. we dip cautiously there.
we taste the moments, then choose.

we wake to the light,
dreams fleeing to the shadows,
where they silently
guide us to the life we chose
as the moon silvered the night.

Popularity: 13% [?]

There are three main models of personal growth and development

• The engineering model
• The artistic model
• The gardening model

In the engineering model you use suitable techniques to create a change in yourself that you envision beforehand. In the artistic model you remove things that have accreted to your personality until the you who is already there is revealed, just as a sculptor removes material to reveal the work of art that lies within the block of stone. In the gardening model personal growth is the natural unfoldment of your self as you receive appropriate mental and emotional nourishment in a healthy social environment, just as a plant will grow best given the proper nourishment and physical environment.

In this podcast I take a closer look at the gardening model and how it applies to personal development.

 

 How Does Your Garden Grow? [5:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (800)

This episode of the Shards of Consciousness podcast is based on a post I wrote in June, 2007 called How Does Your Garden Grow?.

If what you hear is useful to you, subscribe to the Shards of Consciousness podcast through iTunes or the feed. Tell your friends about us. Let me know what you think.

Music Featured

Corey&Cosmo - We’re All Stars - Transcontinental Experiment Remix

Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network

Popularity: 13% [?]

The name Luddite was originally applied to a group of British workers who rioted and destroyed textile machinery in the early nineteenth century. They are said to be named after Ned Ludd, a British laborer who was supposed to have destroyed weaving machinery in the late 18th century.

Think about it. We look back on the industrial revolution and see it as a time of technological change that has led to increasing economic prosperity, increased leisure, and the opportunity to engage in creative endeavors.

What did Ned and his followers see? They saw the end of their lives as skilled craftsmen. They saw the food leaving their table. They saw life become long hours of work at boring, repetitive tasks for low wages. Their skills became worthless. Their children had to go to work in dangerous conditions for long hours. The lion’s share of their productivity went to the entrepeneurs who financed the new, higher efficiency mills.

Were they wrong in becoming angry? Much of their destructiveness grew out of the fear that came from the social dislocation that resulted from the industrial revolution. While in the the long run industrialization has led to vastly improved standards of living, in the short run those improved standards benefited only the few. There was no avenue for the displaced workers to renew their skills. Change for the sake of change, change to put money in the hands of a few, had unforeseen consequences whose effects still reverberate.

We see the same things happening today. For the sake of a few dollars, the way we do business is undergoing dramatic change. Multinational companies have splatted (yes, I said splatted) across the planet as they pursue cheaper labor and lower manufacturing costs. Large segments of societies are displaced as urbanization accelerates. Pollution has mushroomed in developing areas of the world. Disease, hunger, war gain ascendancy. Now though, due to the network of interrelationships we have built, problems in one corner of the world affect other corners of the world.

I’m not opposed to change. There are many things we have developed that I wouldn’t want to do without. But using technology just because you can, change for the sake of change is always a bad idea. Appropriate technology is more important than high technology. Responsible development is more important than constant development.

I look around where I live and see a constantly expanding sprawl of shopping malls, parking lots, and the so-called McMansions. Where once stood trees and fields is blacktop. Where once children played, those same children shoot each other.

This is cancer. Cancer is not healthy growth. Society has come to rely on cancer as the norm. Is it worth it? In a few generations, no doubt. But what of this generation? What of our children?

Technorati Tags: Luddite, pollution, urbanization

Popularity: 13% [?]

Lessons From a Goldfish

Sunday in Spring. I love it. The sun has returned, bringing with it smiles on the face of child and adult alike. The apple trees are in blossom. The grass has received its first manicure. Lady Glynis has repaired the ravages of winter on the small fish pond in which we keep goldfish outside. Even with their home frozen over and absolutely no feeding or other care throughout the winter, the fish have not only lived, but prospered, being almost double the length they were last fall and all have survived the winter.

Is it due to persistence?

Terry Starbucker in The Key Ingredient to Sustained Success? Calvin Had it Right

Is it due to resting in the arms of the infinite?

Nneka in Surrender, Powerlessness, and Other Bad Words

Is it due to the power of gratitude?

Robyn McMaster in The Power of Thanks

Is it due to just doing what they were meant to do?

Liz Strauss in Find the Extraordinary in You!

Or is it due to staying in the now?

Michael Weir in Outside your window

Technorati Tags: Nneka, Terry Starbucker, Robyn McMaster, Liz Strauss, Michael Weir, gratitude, persistence

Popularity: 16% [?]