Day 63: Fascinating Insights into How We Think

Today’s extract comes from Words That Change Minds – Mastering the Language of Influence by Shelle Rose Charvet.

Creating Our Model of The World

Every person has a certain number of filters by which they let in certain parts of the real world. In Noam Chomsky’s 1957 Ph.D. thesis, Transformational Grammar, he said there are three processes by which people create the filters of their individual Model of the World.

Deletion

The first process is called deletion. We delete lots of information from the environment around us and internally. In his 1956 paper entitled Seven Plus or Minus Two, George Miller, an American psychologist, said that our conscious minds can only handle seven plus-or-minus two bits of information at any one time, and that we delete the rest. That means on a good day we can deal with nine bits and on a bad day, maybe only five.

This explains why most telephone numbers are a maximum of seven digits. However, while I was living in Paris in the 1980s, they changed the phone numbers to eight digits. Everyone then had to decide whether to remember phone numbers by groups of two, or four, or to simply add the new Paris code, 4, onto the front of their old number. No one had an easy way of keeping eight digits in their head at once. Each person had to find their own way to break it down. People would give out their new phone numbers in their own peculiar manner. It created a great deal of confusion.

So seven plus or minus two bits of information is what we can be comfortably aware of at one time. Using the process of deletion, we filter out lots of things without being aware of it or consciously choosing to do so.

Distortion

The second process is called distortion. We distort things. Have you ever moved to a new place and gone into the living room before you moved your things in and pictured what it was going to look like furnished? Well, you were hallucinating. Your furniture was not actually in the room, was it? So you were distorting Reality.

Two examples of distortion are hallucination and creativity. They are both similar in that the external information is changed to something else. That is what the process of distortion is all about.

Generalization

Chomsky’s third mental filtering process is called generalization. It is the opposite of Cartesian Logic (where you can go from a general rule to specific examples but not the other way around). Generalization is where you take a few examples and then create a general principle. This is how learning occurs. A small child learns to open one or two, or possibly three, doors and then she knows how to open all doors. The child develops a Generalization about how to open doors. That is, until she has to enter a high-tech company and realizes that, to open the door, there is a magnetic card that has to be slid down a slot in a certain way. She has to relearn how to open doors to deal with those exceptions.

Generalization is about how we unconsciously generate rules, beliefs, and principles about what is true, untrue, possible, and impossible. Some women, for example, may have had several bad experiences with men and then come to the conclusion that men (i.e. all men) cannot be trusted. They develop the rule: Never trust a man. People have a certain number of experiences of a similar type and then make a rule or develop a belief.

With the three filters, Deletion, Distortion and Generalization, we each create our own model of the world.

Day 62: What's Your Type?

Day 61: Natural Ways to Combat Depression

from The Naturopathy Workbook by Stephen Langley:

DEPRESSION:

DEFINITION
Mental depression is an affected disorder characterised by altered mood. There is loss of interest in all usually pleasurable outlets such as food, sex, work, friends, hobbies or entertainment. May be bipolar (mood and elation are alternately present), endogenous (without apparent cause) or situational or exogenous (usually self-limiting from disappointment, illness or loss of job or loved one).

SIGNS & SYMPTOMS
Diagnostic criteria include presence of at least four of the following every day for at least two weeks:
• Poor appetite or significant weight loss, or increased weight gain
• Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping for long lengths of time)
• Psychomotor agitation or retardation
• Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, loss of libido
• Loss of energy or fatigue
• Feelings of worthlessness, self- reproach, or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
• Diminished ability to think or concentrate.
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

ORTHODOX TREATMENT
Orthodox treatments of depression suppress the symptoms and don't treat the cause. All orthodox treatments have tremendous and often irreversible side effects.

POSSIBLE FACTORS
• Exhaustion-mental or physical
• Hypothyroidism
• Alcohol abuse
• Recreational drug abuse
• Loss of loved one
• Sunlight deprivation
• Poor nutrient status-vitamins B3, B6, lecithin
• Blood sugar imbalances (Hypoglycaemia)
• Hormonal fluctuations (oestrogen/ progesterone)
• Postnatal
• Food allergies
• Deficiency of amino acids - tryptophan and phenylalanine
• Medication, drugs, the Pill
• Dehydration
• Dysbiosis - candida overgrowth

NATUROPATHIC TREATMENT & MANAGEMENT
• Remove stimulants - caffeine, alcohol, smoking
• Increase Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) e.g. Udo's oil
• Increase tryptophan foods (precursor to serotonin) - chicken, fish, turkey, beans,
avocados, cottage cheese, wheat germ, bananas.
• Emotional healing - counselling (e.g. repressed anger)
• Exercise, yoga, Qi gong
• Eliminate refined carbohydrates and sugar
• Vitamin C (500mg BD with food)
• Vitamin B complex plus extra folic acid (400mcg daily)
• Walnut tea (serotonin) - steep a broken half of a walnut in boiling water, drink several over the day.
• Porridge (oats) for nervous system restoration
• Aromatherapy - clary sage, lavender, rose, jasmine
• Bach Flowers - mustard, sweet chestnut, star of Bethlehem
• Bowel detox - probiotics
• Eliminate food intolerances or allergies e.g. wheat

HERBS
St John's Wort Hypericum perforatum (sedative) 2-4g by infusion TDS (N.B. DO NOT TAKE THIS IF YOU ARE BLOOD TYPE O OR DO NOT KNOW YOUR BLOOD TYPE. IT HAS DANGEROUS SIDE EFFECTS FOR TYPE O. - by Editor (SBW).

HOMOEOPATHY
Refer to Homoeopathic practitioner

Day 60: The Frog Prince

Today, another poem, especially for us single people! My brother and his wife have their work cut out for them - she gets precious little sleep and my brother is not allowed to stay overnight, so she has to deal with them alone until he comes in the morning. The twins are of course adorable and my brother has already changed two nappies and is a dab hand at swaddling them and quieting their crying. I held one of them and she looked at me with her blue eyes (all new-born Caucasian European babies have blue eyes, apparently) for several minutes. They are surprisingly unscrunchy, as often premature babies are still wrinkly when taken out before the full nine months.

The Frog Prince

I am a frog
I live under a spell
I live at the bottom
Of a green well

And here I must wait
Until a maiden places me
On her royal pillow
And kisses me
In her father’s palace.

The story is familiar
Everybody knows it well
But do other enchanted people feel as nervous
As I do? The stories do not tell,

Ask if they will be happier
When the changes come
As already they are fairly happy
In a frog’s doom?

I have been a frog now
For a hundred years
And in all this time
I have not shed many tears,

I am happy, I like the life,
Can swim for many a mile
(When I have hopped to the river)
And am for ever agile.

And the quietness,
Yes, I like to be quiet
I am habituated
To a quiet life,

But always when I think these thoughts
As I sit in my well
Another thought comes to me and says:
It is part of the spell

To be happy
To work up contentment
To make much of being a frog
To fear disenchantment

Says, It will be heavenly
To be set free,
Cries, Heavenly the girl who disenchants
And the royal times, heavenly,
And I think it will be.

Come then, royal girl and royal times,
Come quickly,
I can be happy until you come
But I cannot be heavenly,
Only disenchanted people
Can be heavenly.
by Stevie Smith

Day 59: The Twins (again)

I am off to see the one day old twins soon with my mum. First, another poem. It is either this one or yesterday's that is the twins' mum's favourite poem of mine. I include this alongside the other because I need to get used to giving two presents every time I see them - and probably slightly different presents, as each twin, of course, wants to be unique.

Grimblegromp
He grimaces like a Grombit
when he tries to gremb a smile
and his teeth crockle and brockle
like shinebows on the Nile.

As he tockles throfting brickles
which twackle underfoot
the wimbling Wonchglocks
glatter 'bout a gless-plit brook.

Swanterin swontily
he bruzzes srommy shinshom
brenning brop brish-brosh,
brish-brosh in the crawm.

Day 58: The Twins

Today, my younger brother's wife gave birth to twin girls. Thankfully, the whole family are okay and all is well. I plan to visit them with my mum tomorrow - we are both excited. My mother always wanted a girl after having three boys and now, as a grandmother, she has two! To celebrate, I am reproducing another poem from my book as I think it is my brother's wife's favourite poem of mine and one that I made up for her.

Nonsense
I made this oop fer you’s,
‘cos I know you’s like me nonsense stews
an’ the clock was a-slowin’
while the wind-blown door was slammin’
an I’m sure I heard a howl like a Wholin.
No one believes in Wholins but me,
but no one stays up all night lissenin’ like me,
an I swear I heard a Wholin
howlin’ out your name
saying “Nonsense!”

Day 57: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Firstly, my brother's wife is due to have the twin girls early: tomorrow in fact, so I will be an uncle soon! It's all very exciting and I hope all goes well and will be sending my good thoughts to them all tomorrow.

I finally got a photo from the photo shoot so will upload that soon.

Today's quote is from Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter:

"The main management skills needed for success are:
1. The management of cash flow.
2. The management of systems (including yourself and time with family)
3. The management of people

The most important specialized skills are sales and understanding marketing. It is the ability to sell - therefore, to communicate to another human being, be it a customer, employee, boss, spouse or child - that is the base skill of personal success. It is communication skills such as writing, speaking and negotiating that are crucial to a life of success. It is a skill that I work on constantly, attending courses or buying educational tapes to expand my knowledge."

Day 56: SynchroDestiny

In SynchroDestiny, Deepak Chopra states that Intent Weaves The Tapestry of the Universe

"My intentions have infinite organizing power

Our intentions are a manifestation of the total universe because we are a part of the universe. And our intentions hold within them the mechanics of their fulfillment. All we really need is clarity of intent. Then if we can get the ego out of the way, the intentions fulfill themselves. Our intentions attract the elements and forces, the events, the situations, the circumstances, and the relationships necessary to fulfill the intended outcome. We don't need to become involved in the details - in fact, trying too hard may backfire. Let the nonlocal intelligence synchronize the actions of the universe to fulfill your intentions for you. Intention is a force in nature, like gravity, but more powerful. No one has to concentrate on gravity to make it work. No one can say, "I don't believe in gravity," because it is a force at work in the world whether we understand it or not. Intention works the same way.
...
FOCUSING INTENTION
The best way to focus on intentions is to write them down. Although this may sound like an obvious first step, it is a step that many people ignore. As a result, their intentions remain unfocused, and therefore unrealized.

Go to a quiet place where you are not likely to be disturbed. Write down what you want on all different levels of desire. Include material, ego gratification, relationship, self-esteem, and spiritual desires. Be as specific as possible.

Ask yourself what you want on the material level, in terms of abundance and affluence. Do you want your own house with four bedrooms? Write that down. Do you want to be able to send your children to college? Write that down. Think also of your desires for sensory gratification - sound, touch, sight, taste, smell, and sensuality - anything that gratifies the senses. Write these down.

Ask yourself what you want in terms of relationships. Write down your desires for all your relationships - romantic partners, children, peers, parents, friends, and professional relationships.

Write down what you want in terms of personal accomplishments or recognition. Note what you want on a more universal level - how can you help? What do you want to do with your life in terms of your society, your country, your civilization? What do you want to contribute? Write down what you want when you think of discovering your highest sense of self. Whom do you want to be? What spiritually do you want to add to your life? Write down everything you desire on a single sheet of paper. Add or subtract from the list as your desires change or become fulfilled.

Meditate on what life would be like if all these desires were to manifest...Be patient, but watch for the miracles to begin."

Day 55: The Success Secrets of The Ancients

Today's excerpt is taken from George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon

The Five Laws of Gold

The First Law of Gold
Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.

The Second Law of Gold
Gold laboueth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.

The Third Law of Gold
Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.

The Fourth Law of Gold
Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.

The Fifth Law of Gold
Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

Day 53 & 54: Frogs, roses, chocolates and poems!

On Saturday, I arrived in Sussex whilst my mother was still working, so got the bus to where she lives. The moment I got on the bus, I found a box of chocolates and a chocolate medallion saying You are the Best on it on the seat. I doubted anyone would claim it if I handed it in, so I took it with me to give to David (I shall give him the same pseudonym I have given him in my book Off The Rails) for his birthday.

Mum tells me, whilst we sit in front of the TV and I read her some of my blog, that David does not eat sugar. I suggest perhaps it would be better if I ate the lot myself, but we decide, on balance, perhaps not.

On Sunday, I help mum clear some debris which has become something of a compost heap out the front, on the drive, as builders are due to come Monday and re-pave it. I clear it whilst mum rushes off to work again and I unearth about ten frogs hiding in a fern that mum bought for next to nothing but which took over the place. I re-locate the frogs to the pond, though they wriggle and try to leap out of my gloved hands.

The back garden and front are both exquisite – the back garden is something Monet would have struggled to do justice too, such is its array of colours, especially of the roses: bold pink ones, standing high; red ones, deep and strong; orange roses, of a rare and delightful hue; yellow ones, red-pink ones, white ones…The front garden too – though I do not even know all the names of the flowers – is a splendour, with the eternal, deep-red roses, orange nasturtiums and a carpet of blue star-like flowers growing on the rockery.

I get a lift with David to his party, as mum has to work again and says she will come later. When there, we sit in the garden of the house he has rooms in and share food (I give David his medallion and box of chocolates, although I tell him the fortune that led to them becoming mine) with other guests. Next to the garden is a church and we periodically hear the bells chime the hour. In the corner of the garden is a wild white rose that is perhaps twenty foot tall and a resplendent beauty, climbing a tree that is its neighbour.

We discover that there are many creative types amongst us: two storytellers and two poets, even before the ladies re-join us from admiring more roses in a rose garden. Therefore, David requests a poem and we all oblige, one highly talented man with a voluminous memory reciting a poem by Dylan Thomas (one of the ones to a friend on their thirty-fifth birthday, although David is a few years older). It is an emotional poem; rich and deeply affecting and we all like it so much we request him to read it again, which he does, again from memory.

Later, David sings one of his poems whilst the memory man recites it simultaneously, to great success. We all share a poem (I share Nostalgie, added to this blog on Day 2 or thereabouts) and mum comes with a beautiful lily for David an hour before the end.

Nine days to go before the Twins are born to my brother’s wife! Mum may stay the night with me that night and I may go to the hospital along with her to offer my support to my brother and his wife. Right, crossing the Thames now, so I will sign off and close the laptop.

Day 52: A Parting Present

Marcus Aurelius provides so much good advice, in this humble writer’s opinion, that I will provide a second helping, in the event that I am unable to blog over the weekend. This, also from Meditations:

“When you would have a cordial for your spirits, think of the good qualities of your friends: this one’s capability, that one’s self-effacement, another’s generosity, and so forth. There is no surer remedy for dejection than to see examples of the different virtues displayed in the characters of those around us, exhibiting themselves as plenteously as can be. Wherefore keep them ever before you.”

Day 51: Pause for Thought

I may go down to Sussex for the weekend now, as my friend the writer has his birthday party on Sunday and, much as I love the city, a break to the country is always rejuvenating. I may not blog for the next few days, consequently.

I leave you with a lucky dip quote by Marcus Aurelius from the book Meditations. Aurelius was a Roman Emperor (AD 121-180) yet also a profound philosopher. This is a book I enjoy dipping into regularly.

“When you are outraged by somebody’s impudence, ask yourself at once, ‘Can the world exist without impudent people?’ It cannot; so do not ask for impossibilities. That man is simply one of the impudent whose existence is necessary to the world. Keep the same thought present, whenever you come across roguery, double-dealing or any other form of obliquity. You have only to remind yourself that this type is indispensable, and at once you will feel kindlier towards the individual. It is also helpful if you promptly recall what special quality Nature has given us to counter such particular faults. For there are antidotes with which she has provided us: gentleness to meet brutality, for example, and other correctives for other ills. Generally speaking, too, you have the opportunity of showing the culprit his blunder – for everyone who does wrong is failing of his proper objective, and is thereby a blunderer. Besides, what harm have you suffered? Nothing has been done by any of these victims of your irritation that could hurtfully affect your own mind; and it is in the mind alone that anything evil or damaging to the self can have reality. What is there wrong or surprising, after all, in a boor behaving boorishly? See then if it is not rather yourself you ought to blame, for not foreseeing that he would offend in this way. You, in virtue of your reason, had every means for thinking it probable that he would do so; you forgot this, and now his offence takes you by surprise. When you are indignant with anyone for his perfidy or ingratitude, turn your thoughts first and foremost upon yourself. For the error is clearly your own, if you have put any faith in the good faith of a man of that stamp, or, when you have done him a kindness, if it was not done unreservedly and in the belief that the action would be its own full reward. Once you have done a man a service, what more would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it? That is like the eye demanding a reward for seeing, or the feet for walking. It is for that very purpose that they exist; and they have their due in doing what they were created to do. Similarly, man is born for deeds of kindness; and when he has done a kindly action, or otherwise served the common welfare, he has done what he was made for, and has received his quittance.”

Day 50: Poetry

I had intended to blog this yesterday, however, after working intensively on the computer, my eyes became very painful, so I stopped work for the day. The day before yesterday, I went to a poetry workshop locally and there made a female friend with whom I went to a film. Following on from the poetry workshop, I share with you a poem by Pablo Neruda, extracted from the third poetry book he published, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

Every Day You Play

Every day you play with the light of the universe.
Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water.
You are more than this white head that I hold tightly
as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands.

You are like nobody since I love you.
Let me spread you out among yellow garlands.
Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.

Suddenly the wind howls and bangs at my shut window.
The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish.
Here all the winds let go sooner or later, all of them.
The rain takes off her clothes.

The birds go by, fleeing,
The wind. The wind.
I can contend only against the power of men.
The storm whirls dark leaves
and turns loose all the boats that were moored last night to the sky.

You are here. Oh, you do not run away.
You will answer me to the last cry.
Cling to me as though you were frightened.
Even so, at one time a strange shadow ran through your eyes.

Now, now too, little one, you bring me honeysuckle,
and even your breasts smell of it.
While the sad wind goes slaughtering butterflies
I love you, and my happiness bites the plum of your mouth.

How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.
So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes,
and over our heads the grey light unwind in turning fans.
My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.

I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.

Day 49: Writing Success & General Success

I managed to re-write and submit the article I wrote about recently. Now I wait up to a week to see if it is approved and published.

As a writer, I know few of my colleagues would dream of selling 16 million copies of their book. Even if the title is not one that attracts you, How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie did sell over 16 million copies and is a useful book. Here is another quote, summarizing how to…

“Win People To Your Way Of Thinking

PRINCIPLE 1:
The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

PRINCIPLE 2:
Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”

PRINCIPLE 3:
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

PRINCIPLE 4:
Begin in a friendly way

PRINCIPLE 5:
Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.

PRINCIPLE 6:
Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.

PRINCIPLE 7:
Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.

PRINCIPLE 8:
Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.

PRINCIPLE 9:
Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.

PRINCIPLE 10:
Appeal to the nobler motives.

PRINCIPLE 11:
Dramatize your ideas.

PRINCIPLE 12:
Throw down a challenge.”

Day 48: Colour

Recently, a friend of mine who is recovering from cancer told me that he had a colour therapy session, which he said he found very helpful. Although I am not experienced with this, of course we all know colour affects us deeply. As I have a (rather neglected) book called Colour Healing by Lilian Verner-Bonds, I thought the following may be of use.

“MOOD FOODS
Different coloured foods can be taken in by the body to heal and stimulate health. Eating the appropriate coloured foods can help to rejuvenate and balance the system.
Seek out foods that are organically grown with no additives, as this will keep the colour vibration alive. Processed and junk foods are dead foods. Micro-waving food removes its colour energy, and will create internal disharmony.
Red, orange and yellow foods are always hot and stimulating. Green food can be used to balance the body and is a tonic for the system. Blue, indigo and purple foods are soothing and cooling.

FOOD COLOURS
RED: Gives extra energy * Heals lethargy and tiredness
ORANGE: Creates optimism and change * Heals grief and disappointment
YELLOW: Encourages laughter, joy and fun * Heals depression
GREEN: Improves physical stamina * Heals panic, fear and apprehension
BLUE: Brings peace and relaxation * Helps concentration * Heals anxiety
INDIGO: Puts back structure into life * Heals insecurity
PURPLE: Promotes leadership * Heals and calms the emotionally erratic

COLOURS FOR DIETING
If you are following a sensible diet designed to help you lose or gain weight, the appropriate colour can be used as an aid.

WEIGHT LOSS: YELLOW
To eliminate excess body fat, the colour to use is yellow. Wear it, eat it and drink it. Alternatively, use …meditation, visualizing a rich yellow bloom. Psychologically, the colour yellow does not want to carry excess baggage, hence its use in losing weight. Yellow is the nimblest colour of the spectrum and promotes energy and agility both of mind and body. Wear yellow when you exercise and it will keep you moving and pepped up.

WEIGHT GAIN: BLUE
To encourage weight gain, steer yourself towards blue. Wear it, eat it, drink it and visualize it. Blue curbs activity, which allows the calories to gather and turn to flesh. Psychologically, blue does everything quietly and with discretion. It will not be rushed, creating the right emotional environment that is needed if your body is to be given a chance to increase itself. Blue calms the nerves and the glandular system which encourages the curves.”

Yesterday, I spent ages registering at a prestigious internet site for submitting articles but lost a 600-700 word article I wrote there and then when the page expired. I was furious, but must write it again today. Only afterwards did I notice a button you have to click to save as you go along.

Right, off to the dentist now, where I shall be visualizing blue.

Day 47: Chicken Soup for the Soul

I have made more progress with reading David Copperfield and am pressing on with researching for a contributor spot on a magazine/newspaper. Tonight I will go to choir and look forward to meeting Ania for a drink beforehand.

The following is a story extracted from Chicken Soup for the Soul™ by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.

My Declaration of Self-Esteem

What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.
Carl Rogers

The following was written in answer to a 15-year-old girl’s question, “How can I prepare myself for a fulfilling life?”
I am me.
In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. There are people who have some parts like me but no one adds up exactly like me. Therefore, everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone choose it.
I own everything about me – my body, including everything it does; my mind, including all my thoughts and ideas; my eyes, including the images of all they behold; my feelings, whatever they might be – anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement; my mouth and all the words that come out of it – polite, sweet and rough, correct or incorrect; my voice, loud and soft; all my actions, whether they be to others or myself.
I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears.
I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.
Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts. I can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best interests.
I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know. But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for the solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me.
However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is me. This is authentic and represents where I am at that moment in time.
When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and did, and how I thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be unfitting. I can discard that which is unfitting and keep that which proved fitting, and invent something new for that which I discarded.
I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.
I own me and therefore I can engineer me.
I am me and I am okay.
Virginia Satir

Day 46: Your Body's Many Cries For Water

"In Your Body’s Many Cries For Water by F. Batmanghelidj, M.D., he talks about the importance of drinking at least 8 large glasses of water a day to avoid many health problems.

“Pathology that is seen to be associated with “social stresses” – fear, anxiety, insecurity, persistent emotional and matrimonial problems – and the establishment of depression are the results of water deficiency to the point that the water requirement of brain tissue is affected. The brain uses electrical energy that is generated by the water drive of the energy-generating pumps. With dehydration, the level of energy generation in the brain is decreased. Many functions of the brain that depend on this type of energy become inefficient. We recognize this inadequacy of function and call it depression. This “depressive state” caused by dehydration can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome.”

The doctor goes on to state that chronic fatigue syndrome can be “improved beyond recognition” by correcting the dehydration. Furthermore, he shows anyone wanting to lose weight a simple and effective method: ensure you are drinking plenty of water every day and are not dehydrated, and drink water before you eat (ideally half an hour before) so that your appetite will return to normal. He explains scientifically that the brain often calls for water but as it calls for food at the same time, we just eat and ignore the call for water; whereas when we drink first, we eat less.

The ideas I am sharing from Dr Batmanghelidj, since their publication, have already gained mass popularity in the press and have been widely advanced now by the medical establishment. But few of us do these things.

The most important philosophy in Your Body's Many Cries For Water is to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day to avoid dehydration. The book has many quotes at the start, including this one by The European, London (December 1995): "The water principle has a convincing logic but turns much of current medical practice on its head. Does it work? You only have to turn on the tap to find out."

The doctor adds "The precaution to keep in mind is loss of salt from the body when water intake is increased and salt is not. After a few days of taking 6 [6 is the bare minimum to stop chronic dehydration occurring in your body] or 8 or 10 glasses of water a day, you should begin to think of adding some salt to your diet. If you begin to feel muscle cramps at night, remember you are becoming salt-deficient.

Cramps in unexercised muscles most often means salt shortage in the body. Also, dizziness and feeling faint might be indicators of salt and water shortage in the body. If such occasions arise, you should also begin to increase your vitamins and minerals intake - particularly if you are dieting to lose weight or do not eat properly, including vegetables and fruits for their water-soluble vitamin and mineral content. I have developed a rule of thumb for daily salt intake. For every 10 glasses of water (about two quarts), one should add to the diet about half a teaspoon of salt per day; that's three grams. Of course, one should make sure that the kidneys are producing urine."

For those seeking to lose weight, drinking several glasses of water half an hour before eating works excellently at decreasing appetite - in fact, frequently, we eat when really we are thirsty and not recognising our body's simultaneous cries for water as well as food.

Drink up and let me know how you get on! You can learn more at www.watercure.com

Day 46: Extra News

Yesterday, I went to help out at my choir's jumble sale with Ania where We worked on the men's clothing section. There were some very friendly people there and one woman really was unwashed (referring to my joke yesterday about 'the great unwashed') yet a fantastic character seemingly straight out of a Dickens book.

She wanted an extra large top but we only had a large one at that time and she said (whilst smoking a fag, natch!) that it wouldn't fit her and showed us the area that needed covering. It was considerable. She later told me, whilst I browsed the books, that she came to The Highgate Choral Society jumble sale before when it was held in Highgate, reporting that she preferred South London and that someone had come from there just for the jumble sale.

It was absolutely packed, although the women's clothing had brisker business than we did. I asked my friend on the book stall to find my Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude as the fools at Haringey Libraries don't even stock it in the whole of Haringey. No wonder children are illiterate criminals, hehe!

Amazingly, he found it and brought it over to me at my stall. I am overjoyed. At last, I'm making progress with reading David Copperfield, too. I ended up leaving the jumble sale looking like a bag lady, with six bags stuffed with books, a wet suit and various other articles including a Barbour jacket. Betsy tried to get rid of some lacey black knickers at the end by tossing them in one of Ania's bags, which was funny.

Now I must crack on with researching the magazine market and applying for a contributor post. My photo shoot pictures are still being prepared.

Day 45: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Today, I've decided to share some of the concepts of the time management ideas contained in the smash hit bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. He puts it like this. You can divide a page of paper into four quadrants and then write in the following.

Quadrant 1:
IMPORTANT/URGENT
Activities:
Crises
Pressing problems
Deadline-driven projects

Quadrant 2:
IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT
Activities:
Prevention, production capability activities*
Relationship building
Recognizing new opportunities
Planning, recreation

Quadrant 3:
NOT IMPORTANT/URGENT
Activities:
Interruptions, some calls
Some mail, some reports
Some meetings
Proximate, pressing matters
Popular activities

Quadrant 4:
NOT IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT
Activities: Trivia, busy work
Some mail
Some phone calls
Time wasters
Pleasant activities

Stephen talks about production capability activities as being those that help you prepare for production. Thus, doing what refreshes your creative powers as a writer can be termed a p/c activity, as can preventing problems from occurring by preparation and keeping the machines of production well-oiled.

To be highly effective people, he states, we can be aware of which quadrant we are spending our time in and create a balance between production (or doing) and production capability (keeping ourselves and/or our machinery able to function optimally). Thus, spending most of our time in the non-urgent yet important Quadrant 2 - which does include recreation - brings us the highest long-term efficiency.

Let me know whether this proves useful!

Day 44: I learn about Lakshmi, Goddess of Unlimited Abundance

Last night, I renewed my energies by taking time out to hear my friend Sadie www.myspace.com/sadiejemmettmusic who is an excellent singer and guitarist. The evening was great and even though she was busy talking to her manager about a recording deal, I was happy that things were going well for her and delighted to hear five tracks I never heard her sing before.

The friend I went with is a poet and also a film maker, having made a documentary about her special experiences in India. Recently, she met the love of her life, so she is very happy and that was wonderful to hear. She said she prayed to an Indian Goddess and then it happened! She tells me if I pray to the Goddess Lakshmi (by downloading a picture from the net and praying to it whilst lighting incense) that she can help provide abundance. Lakshmi is the Goddess of material energy and unlimited abundance that is available for everyone; the fruits of the earth, she explains. I'm going to try and get that photo, because she seemed to manifest a man super quick with the help of the Goddesses so they must be worth a go!

After the gig, I went on to a club but it was a bit jarring so we all went home. On the nightbus, I finally read a few more pages of Dickens before a craving overtook me for a lamb kebab and I indulged before going back to bed. Tomorrow I may not have time for blogging as I am helping out at the jumble sale for my choir along with my great friend Ania.