Sober Now

Herein are some ideas that helped me stop abusing alcohol.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Robin Williams - Weapons Of Self Destruction - YouTube


loaded by on Aug 28, 2011

 
Intro song is Bawitdaba by Kid Rock

FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law.

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Robin Williams - Weapons Of Self Destruction - YouTube

 Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiCxqbT2Ru8




Robin Williams on Alcoholics - YouTube




Robin Williams on Alcoholics

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Robin Williams on Alcoholics - YouTube

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtPp_xIpC4




Thursday, October 25, 2012

How to be Happy in 12 Simple Steps



STEP 1 - Show gratitude 

(* There's a lot more to gratitude than saying "thank you." Emerging research shows that people who are consistently grateful are happier, more energetic and hopeful, more forgiving and less materialistic. Gratitude needs to be practised daily because it doesn't necessarily come naturally.)


STEP 2 - Cultivate Optimism


STEP 3 - Avoid overthinking and social comparison

(* Many of us believe that when we feel down we should try to focus inwardly to attain self-insight and find solutions to our problems. But numerous studies have shown that overthinking sustains or worsens sadness.)


STEP 4 - Practice kindness



STEP 5 - Nurture social relationships


STEP 6 - Develop coping skills


STEP 7 - Learn to forgive 

(* Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, pardoning or condoning. Nor is it a denial of your own hurt. Forgiveness is a shift in thinking and something that you do for yourself and not for the person who has harmed you.

Research confirms that clinging to bitterness or hate harms you more than the object of your hatred. Forgiving people are less likely to be hostile, depressed, anxious or neurotic.


* Forgive yourself for past wrongs. Recognising that you too can be a transgressor will make you more empathetic to others. )


STEP 8 - Find more flow

(* "Flow" was a phrase coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1960s. It means you are totally immersed in what you are doing and unaware of yourself. Happy people have the capacity to enjoy their lives even when their material conditions are lacking and even when many of their goals have not been reached.)


STEP 9 - Savour the day



STEP 10 - Commit to your goals 

(* People who strive for something personally significant, whether it's learning a new craft or changing careers, are far happier than those who don't have strong dreams or aspirations. Working towards a goal is more important to wellbeing than its attainment.)


STEP 11 - Take care of your soul

 (* A growing body of psychological research suggests that religious people are happier, healthier and recover better after traumas than nonreligious people. ...

* Find the sacred in ordinary life ...)

STEP 12 - Take care of your body






"The How of Happiness" Sonja Lyubomirsky - TalkRational

By SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY


link: http://lyubomirsky.socialpsychology.org/




Wednesday, October 10, 2012

GeneAutry.com - Gene Autry: Gene Autry's Cowboy Code


Gene Autry's Cowboy Code
Author Holly George-Warren researched the origins of Gene Autry's Cowboy Code and wrote about it in her award winning book Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry. Here's and excerpt:

Gene and Champion

Gene's Ten Cowboy Commandments began to evolve from such Autry-related publicity as the item "Nine Cardinal Rules Govern Production of All Autry Films," which ran in the 1949 press book for Riders in the Sky. As early as August 1947, Gene had pronounced cowboy-code mandates during his Melody Ranch radio show dramas. Gene's PR team promoted his Cowboy Code, which was referred to in the 1948 Life magazine feature, and fan magazines began to publicize the rules as they evolved. Tenets promoting an ethical, moral, and patriotic lifestyle had an affinity to those of such youth organizations as the Boy Scouts, which developed similar doctrines. The rules were a natural progression of Gene's philosophies going back to his first Melody Ranch programs – and early pictures.


Gene Autry's Cowboy Code

1.
The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

2.
He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

3.
He must always tell the truth.

4.
He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

5.
He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.

6.
He must help people in distress.

7.
He must be a good worker.

8.
He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

9.
He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.

10.
The Cowboy is a patriot.

—Gene Autry
© Autry Qualified Interest Trust









GeneAutry.com - Gene Autry: Gene Autry's Cowboy Code

 Link: http://www.geneautry.com/geneautry/geneautry_cowboycode.html




Cowboy Code

Gene Autry's Cowboy Code  

  1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
  2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.
  3. He must always tell the truth.
  4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.
  5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
  6. He must help people in distress.
  7. He must be a good worker.
  8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.
  9. He must respect women, parents, and his nations laws.
  10. The Cowboy is a patriot.







© 1994 Gene Autry Survivors Trust
From Delta Airlines Sky magazine, August 1998.

Link:  http://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs3604/lib/WorldCodes/Cowboy.Code.html


Lawsuit over a dangerous, unsupervised and unsafe drug and alcohol rehabilitation program


This article needs to be viewed with great seriousness.  It has been rumored that Scientology is operating rehabilitation facilities in our area and they keep quiet about their affiliation with their church of L. Ron Hubbard.

The Canadian magazine, Maclean's, on October 8, 2012, published an investigative report called "Scientology's plan for Canada" that implies they have become unpopular in California but are making a massive expansion into Canada. 

They say, "Due to its history of aggressive litigation, news reports on the church, especially in Canada, have been sporadic."  

If you witnessed Tom Cruise ranting and raving about his wonderful church, you know how obsessed these people can get.... .

This is just one facility being sued....  How many places do these maniacs operate???.


............................................

Lawsuit: "Narconon operates a dangerous, unsafe and unsupervised drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.”


By Jeanne LeFlore Staff Writer

McALESTER,OK


The parents of a patient found dead at Narconon Arrowhead this summer have filed a lawsuit against the facility and its medical director alleging 

“Narconon’s actions were grossly negligent, willful, wanton and reckless resulting in the suffering and death of Stacy Murphy, the plaintiff’s daughter.”


The suit also alleges Narconon and ABLE acted together in concert to “tortuously operate a dangerous, unsafe an unsupervised drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.”



Narconon Arrowhead is a nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation center which has been the center of an ongoing investigation after the deaths of four patients. Three of the deaths occurred at the facility in the last year.



The lawsuit alleges that “Narconon’s actions were grossly negligent, willful, wanton and reckless resulting in the suffering and death of Stacy Murphy, the plaintiff’s daughter.”



The suit also alleges Narconon and ABLE acted together in concert to “tortuously operate a dangerous, unsafe an unsupervised drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.”



Filed by trial lawyers Gary L. Richardson and Charles L. Richardson who represent the plaintiffs, the lawsuit alleges wrongful death, negligence, and violation of the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act.


“She was addicted to drugs and she and her parents were introduced to Narconon when they sought treatment for Stacy, the press release states. 


“They were provided misleading information on the Narconon website and by Narconon representatives, which led them to believe that Narconon Arrowhead would be a safe and effective treatment facility.”
 


According to police reports, from October 2011 until July of 2012 three people were found dead at the facility. 
AND THEY ARE INVESTIGATING A FOURTH DEATH.
 

The attorneys also allege that Narconon Arrowhead fraudulently tells potential students that a physician is on staff 24 hours a day. “Instead, a physician is present only once a week.”

 


In the case filed Friday for the Murphy family, the attorneys allege that
:


“Narconon ... and ABLE an umbrella group that oversees the drug rehabilitation, education and criminal justice activities of the Church of Scientology... all rely exclusively on the written 'technology' of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, to address the drug and alcohol rehabilitation needs of students enrolled in Narconon programs.


This despite the fact that Hubbard had no known training or education in the field of drug and alcohol rehabilitation.



................................

Something bothered me about the wording of the article - the patients are called 'students' and the Hubbard philosophy is called a 'technology'... 


It was tempting to change the wording, which was done in a few places, and not the rest because it occurred to me that it must have been the wording of the Narconon Rehab when discussing people under their care.  

Maybe it is a strategy not calling them patients; an attempt to avoid responsibility for the same level of care required of a medical facility?
............
................



Read More @ Source:

Lawsuit: "Narconon operates a dangerous, unsafe and unsupervised drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.” » Breaking News » McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK



Link:
http://mcalesternews.com/breakingnews/x1939586385/Lawsuit-Narconon-operate-s-a-dangerous-unsafe-an-unsupervised-drug-and-alcohol-rehabilitation-program



Saturday, October 6, 2012

synthetic_marijuna_fact_sheet_public.pdf (application/pdf Object)

 

1. What is Synthetic Marijuana? Synthetic Marijuana is a man made drug that is not marijuana.

It was invented to act like marijuana; however, it is more powerful and more dangerous than marijuana.

This fake marijuana, often called Spice, K2 or Legal Phunk, is sprayed on real plant products, like leaves, and sold as incense or potpourri. It is usually smoked,but can be eaten too.

When used, it can be very dangerous. Other names for this include Lava Red, Aroma, Dream, Mr. Nice Guy, and many more.

Beware of name changes as they are changed often as is the chemical make‐up.


2. Where is K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) sold?


K2/Spice can be bought very easily on the internet. They can also be found in head shops, smoke shops,convenience stores and some gas stations.

Government officials are trying to make them illegal, but as of yet, they remain legal.


3. Why is K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) sold if they are drugs and harmful?


K2/Spice are sold in a way that outsmarts state and local regulations by stating on the package that they are “not for human consumption.” Because of this, it is very difficult to regulate and track. It is cheap, easy to purchase, sold as fake (synthetic) marijuana that doesn’t show up on standard drug tests.



4. How does K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) affect you?



People who use K2/Spice or any other synthetic marijuana experience:
 

Fast heart rate Convulsions (seizures)
 

Seeing things (hallucinations) Weakness
 

Dry mouth Passing out (coma)
Death has resulted in some cases!


5. What happens to the people who use K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana)?


When people use K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana), they can have heart attacks, brain damage, kidney failure and scary hallucinations (seeing things) that last for many days.



6. Who uses K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana)?

K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) are used by all people, regardless of age, gender, or status.



Bottom Line: 
K2/Spice (synthetic marijuana) 


A. It is very easy to get. 

B. It is very dangerous and can lead to heart attacks, brain damage, kidney failure and scary images/hallucinations.




For More Information
www.upstatepoison.org




synthetic_marijuna_fact_sheet_public.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Link: http://www.upstate.edu/poison/pdf/news_releases/synthetic_marijuna_fact_sheet_public.pdf

....................................................................................

P.S. This information is posted here because medical marijuana is sometimes used to alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, cancer and 'aids'.  This is a warning to not cut corners and to not use anything but the Real McCoy when it comes to treating your m.s. symptoms.Marijuana has gained the status of alternative medicine... .


synthetic_marijuna_fact_sheet_public.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Quotes: Patience is the beginning of Mindfulness


Patience is the companion of wisdom. 
-- Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)
 
There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. 
-- Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924)
 
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent. 
- Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.  
-- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. 
-- Saint Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)
 
 
Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. 
- Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC), Rudens
 


Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. 
- Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
 
A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience! 
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Love's Labour's Lost, Act I, sc. 1
 
 
 
A very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience
-William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Coriolanus, Act II, sc. 1
 
 
 
Had it pleas'd heaven to try me with affliction... I should have found in some place of my soul a drop of patience. 
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act IV, sc. 2
 
 
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? 
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act II, sc. 3
 
 
How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees. 
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
 
 
I do oppose my patience to his fury, and am arm'd to suffer with a quietness of spirit, the very tyranny and rage of his. 
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, sc. 1
 
 
 
Patience is sottish, and impatience does become a dog that's mad
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, sc. 15
 
 
Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Henry V, Act II, sc. 1
 
 
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience. 
- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act III, sc. 4
 
 

Patience, my lord. Why, 'tis the soul of peace.
Of all the virtues 'tis near'st kin to heaven.
It makes men look like gods; the best of men
That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breath'd.

- Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton
The Honest Whore Part One, act V scene II
 
 
Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms: and he, that will venture out without this to make him sail even and steady will certainly make shipwreck, and drown himself; first, in the cares and sorrows of this world; and, then, in perdition.
- Ezekiel Hopkins,  Death disarmed of it Sting Of Patience under Afflictions.
 
 
Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility; Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; she bridles the tongue, refrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions, consummates martyrdom; Patience produces unity in the church, loyalty in the State, harmony in families and societies; she comforts the poor and moderates the rich; she makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, unmoved by calumny and reproach; she teaches us to forgive those who have injured us, and to be the first in asking forgiveness of those whom we have injured; she delights the faithful, and invites the unbelieving; she adorns the woman, and approves the man; is loved in a child, praised in a young man, admired in an old man; she is beautiful in either sex and every age.
- Bishop Horne, Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions Patience Portrayed


Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.
Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be beneficial.
- Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), III. 11. 7.


Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.
Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.
- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 207.

Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.



Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.
- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude In Reflections And Maxims (1682) no. 234.




Font plus que force ni que rage.
By time and toil we sever
What strength and rage could never.
- Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, II. 11.



Rule by patience, Laughing Water!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), Part X. Hiawatha's Wooing.


Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, Stanza 9.


All things come round to him who will but wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student's Tale, Part I.


Endurance is the crowning quality,
And patience all the passion of great hearts.
James Russell Lowell, Columbus, line 241.


Sua quisque exempla debet æquo animo pati.
Every one ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct.
Phaedrus, Fables, I. 26. 12.


La patience est amère, mais son fruit est doux.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau.


Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non æquus animus solatium inveniat.
There is nothing so disagreeable, that a patient mind can not find some solace for it.
- Seneca, De Animi Tranquilitate, X.


Furor fit læsa sæpius patientia.
Patience, when too often outraged, is converted into madness.
-- Syrus, Maxims. 289.



La patience est l'art d'espérer.
Patience is the art of hoping.
-- Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Réflexions, CCLI.




It is not necessary for all men to be great in action. The greatest and sublimest power is often simple patience.
- Horace Bushnell, p. 443.


Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear;
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
- George Croly, p. 444.


Patience! why, it is the soul of peace; of all the virtues it is nearest kin to heaven; it makes men look like gods. The best of men that ever wore earth about Him was a Sufferer,— a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.
- Thomas Decker, p. 443.


Patience is enduring love; experience is perfecting love; and hope is exulting love.
- Alexander Dickson, p. 442.



It is easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.
- George Eliot, p. 443.



Patience is the ballast of the soul that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms.
- Bishop Hopkins, p. 442.



Dispose thyself to patience rather than to comfort, and to the bearing of the cross rather than to gladness.
- Thomas à Kempis, p. 442.



The holier one is, the more forbearing and loving he is; the more tender and patient and anxious to help others in every way. Think how forbearing and loving Christ is when we do wrong; and there we are to be like Him.
- Arthur Henry Kenney, p. 444.



Therefore, let us be patient, patient; and let God our Father teach His own lesson, His own way. Let us try to learn it well and quickly; but do not let us fancy that He will ring the school-bell, and send us to play before our lesson is learnt.
- Charles Kingsley, p. 443.



Be patient, my friends; time rolls rapidly away; our longing has its end. The hour will strike, who knows how soon?— when the maternal lap of everlasting Love shall be opened to us, and the full peace of God breathe around us from the palmy summits of Eden.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher, p. 613.



When I am about my work, sometimes called unexpectedly and suddenly from one thing to another, I whisper in my heart, " Lord, help me to be patient, help me to remember, and help me to be faithful. Lord, enable me to do all for Christ's sake, and to go forward, leaning on the bosom of His infinite grace."
-- Mary Lyon, p. 444.


We are waiting, Master, waiting,
Wayworn, pressed with toils and strife;
Waiting, hoping, watching, praying,
Till we reach the gates of life.
-- Ray Palmer, p. 613.


Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and not be discouraged at the rests. If we say sadly to ourselves, "There is no music in a rest," let us not forget " there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!
- John Ruskin, p. 443.


Show yourself a Christian by suffering without murmuring. In patience possess your soul — they lose nothing who gain Christ.
- Samuel Rutherford, p. 444.



The disciples of a patient Saviour should be patient themselves.
- Charles Spurgeon, p. 442.



How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 3, line 376.


Had it pleas'd heaven
To try me with affliction * * *
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience.
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act IV, scene 2, line 47.


Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling
Extremity out of act.
- William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1607-08), Act V, scene 1, line 139.


She sat like patience on a monument
Smiling at grief.
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 4, line 117.


He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.
- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Act I, scene i.


Patience is the art of hoping.
- Marquis De Vauvenargues, Reflections and Maxims (1746) no. 251.


Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.
Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 207.


Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.



With strength and patience all his grievous loads are borne,
And from the world's rose-bed he only asks a thorn.
- William R. Alger, Oriental Poetry, Mussud's Praise of the Camel.


I worked with patience which means almost power.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book III, line 205.


And I must bear
What is ordained with patience, being aware
Necessity doth front the universe
With an invincible gesture.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Prometheus Bound.



But there are times when patience proves at fault.
- Robert Browning, Paracelsus, scene 3.



There is however a limit, at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
- Edmund Burke, Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.



Thus with hir fader for a certeyn space
Dwelleth this flour of wyfly pacience,
That neither by hir wordes ne hir face
Biforn the folk, ne eek in her absence,
Ne shewed she that hir was doon offence.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerkes Tale, V, line 13,254.


Patience is sorrow's salve.
- Charles Churchill, Prophecy of Famine, line 363.


Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
- Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming, Part IV, Chapter V.


But the waiting time, my brothers,
Is the hardest time of all.
- Sarah Doudney, Psalms of Life, The Hardest Time of All.


The worst speak something good; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth patience.
- George Herbert, The Church Porch, Stanza 72.


Durum! sed levius fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.
It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience.
- Horace, Carmina, I. 24. 19.


For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.
- Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes, line 352.









Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patience





Friday, August 10, 2012

Define Success to properly set your compass



I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair. In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
- Bertrand Russell

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. ”
― Mark Twain
 
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins
- not by strength but by perseverance."
- H. Jackson Brown 
 “Don't mistake activity with achievement.”
― John Wooden
 “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

 
“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
― Amelia Earhart

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen


Napoleon Hill on Sobriety

Napoleon Hill  was a speech writer for U.S. President Harry Truman in the last Depression. He wrote some famous motivational books and is considered one of the founders of Positive Psychology. This type of thinking has many detractors but "foul water will quench fire", in other words, I look to efficacy as my metric. *

He has a 3 step process to achieve your goals:

1. Write a clear description of your one major desire, i.e., Sobriety
2. Write a precise statement of what you intend to give for your sobriety, i.e., strict adherence to the 12 steps of A.A.
3. Memorize both statements and begin repeating them to yourself hourly.

Whatever your mind feeds upon, your mind attracts to you. You need definiteness of purpose and a clear picture of what you want from life. Sobriety is number one because without it, all else fails.

This may look like brainwashing yourself and that's probably what you are doing to undo all the negative messages you have given yourself over the years.

He has a prayer of thankfulness you say a few times a day:

"Divine Providence, I ask not for more riches but for more wisdom with which to accept and use wisely the riches I was given at birth in the form of the ability to direct my mind to ends of my own choice."

The riches you can enjoy if you take possession of your own mind and direct it to ends of your own choice include:
  • Sound health
  • Peace of mind
  • A labor of love of your choosing
  • Freedom from fear and worry
  • A positive mental attitude
  • Material riches of your choice in the quantity you desire.

On the other hand, the penalties if you do not take possession of your mind are:
  • Ill health
  • Fear and worry
  • Indecision and doubt
  • Frustration and discouragement
  • Poverty and want
  • And a litany of evils like envy greed jealousy, anger, hatred and superstition.









Blogger: Melancholic Alcoholic - All posts

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Anxiety causes self-medication problems...

The ‘Busy’ Trap



Anxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways.
If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have,” or “Better than the opposite.”
It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this; it’s something we collectively force one another to do.
Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs  who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.
Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. They schedule in time with friends the way students with 4.0 G.P.A.’s  make sure to sign up for community service because it looks good on their college applications. I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something was going on to let him know and maybe he could ditch work for a few hours. I wanted to clarify that my question had not been a preliminary heads-up to some future invitation; this was the invitation. But his busyness was like some vast churning noise through which he was shouting out at me, and I gave up trying to shout back over it.

 
Brecht Vandenbroucke
Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular activities. They come home at the end of the day as tired as grown-ups. I was a member of the latchkey generation and had three hours of totally unstructured, largely unsupervised time every afternoon, time I used to do everything from surfing the World Book Encyclopedia to making animated films to getting together with friends in the woods to chuck dirt clods directly into one another’s eyes, all of which provided me with important skills and insights that remain valuable to this day. Those free hours became the model for how I wanted to live the rest of my life.

The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. Not long ago I  Skyped with a friend who was driven out of the city by high rent and now has an artist’s residency in a small town in the south of France. She described herself as happy and relaxed for the first time in years. She still gets her work done, but it doesn’t consume her entire day and brain. She says it feels like college — she has a big circle of friends who all go out to the cafe together every night. She has a boyfriend again. (She once ruefully summarized dating in New York: “Everyone’s too busy and everyone thinks they can do better.”) What she had mistakenly assumed was her personality — driven, cranky, anxious and sad — turned out to be a deformative effect of her environment. It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this, any more than any one person wants to be part of a traffic jam or stadium trampling or the hierarchy of cruelty in high school — it’s something we collectively force one another to do.

Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.
Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. I once knew a woman who interned at a magazine where she wasn’t allowed to take lunch hours out, lest she be urgently needed for some reason. This was an entertainment magazine whose raison d’être was obviated when “menu” buttons appeared on remotes, so it’s hard to see this pretense of indispensability as anything other than a form of institutional self-delusion. More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary. I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.
I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know. Like most writers, I feel like a reprobate who does not deserve to live on any day that I do not write, but I also feel that four or five hours is enough to earn my stay on the planet for one more day. On the best ordinary days of my life, I write in the morning, go for a long bike ride and run errands in the afternoon, and in the evening I see friends, read or watch a movie. This, it seems to me, is a sane and pleasant pace for a day. And if you call me up and ask whether I won’t maybe blow off work and check out the new American Wing at the Met or ogle girls in Central Park or just drink chilled pink minty cocktails all day long, I will say, what time?
But just in the last few months, I’ve insidiously started, because of professional obligations, to become busy. For the first time I was able to tell people, with a straight face, that I was “too busy” to do this or that thing they wanted me to do. I could see why people enjoy this complaint; it makes you feel important, sought-after and put-upon. Except that I hate actually being busy. Every morning my in-box was full of e-mails asking me to do things I did not want to do or presenting me with problems that I now had to solve. It got more and more intolerable until finally I fled town to the Undisclosed Location from which I’m writing this.
Here I am largely unmolested by obligations. There is no TV. To check e-mail I have to drive to the library. I go a week at a time without seeing anyone I know. I’ve remembered about buttercups, stink bugs and the stars. I read. And I’m finally getting some real writing done for the first time in months. It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how best to say it, without getting the hell out of it again.
Related
More From Anxiety
Read previous contributions to this series.
Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.
“The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.” This may sound like the pronouncement of some bong-smoking anarchist, but it was actually Arthur C. Clarke, who found time between scuba diving and pinball games to write “Childhood’s End” and think up communications satellites. My old colleague Ted Rall recently wrote a column proposing that we divorce income from work and give each citizen a guaranteed paycheck, which sounds like the kind of lunatic notion that’ll be considered a basic human right in about a century, like abolition, universal suffrage and eight-hour workdays. The Puritans turned work into a virtue, evidently forgetting that God invented it as a punishment.
Perhaps the world would soon slide to ruin if everyone behaved as I do. But I would suggest that an ideal human life lies somewhere between my own defiant indolence and the rest of the world’s endless frenetic hustle. My role is just to be a bad influence, the kid standing outside the classroom window making faces at you at your desk, urging you to just this once make some excuse and get out of there, come outside and play. My own resolute idleness has mostly been a luxury rather than a virtue, but I did make a conscious decision, a long time ago, to choose time over money, since I’ve always understood that the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love. I suppose it’s possible I’ll lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn’t work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what I’ll really wish is that I could have one more beer with Chris, another long talk with Megan, one last good hard laugh with Boyd. Life is too short to be busy.
(Anxiety welcomes submissions at anxiety@nytimes.com.)


Author photo
Tim Kreider is the author of “We Learn Nothing,” a collection of essays and cartoons. His cartoon, “The Pain — When Will It End?” has been collected in three books by Fantagraphics. 


 Link:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?src=recg 




Sunday, June 24, 2012

Hope for the best and -

 

Get sober one day at a time and before you know it years have passed without you taking that first drink.



Saturday, May 5, 2012

Morita Therapy

Morita Therapy is a purpose-centered, response oriented therapy from Japan,
created in the 1930s by Dr. Shoma Morita.



Morita Therapy can be reduced to three steps, as follows:

  • Accept your feelings;
  • Know your purpose;
  • Do what needs to be done.

“Begin taking action now, while being neurotic or imperfect, or a procrastinator or unhealthy or lazy or any other label by which you inaccurately describe yourself. Go ahead and be the best imperfect person you can be and get started on those things you want to accomplish before you die.”

-Dr. Morita







Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Frank Sinatra Filosofiziz

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra

The Way You Wear Your Hat (1997)

The Way You Wear Your Hat : Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin' (1997) by Bill Zehme
  • I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I've flunked more often than not. I'm very fond of women; I admire them. But, like all men, I don't understand them.
  • For years I've nursed a secret desire to spend the Fourth of July in a double hammock with a swingin' redheaded broad ... but I could never find me a double hammock.
  • Fear is the enemy of logic.
  • The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.
  • [On religion] I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, benzedrine or a bottle of Jack Daniel's.


Tuesday, January 31, 2012

FATHER JOE MARTIN


Father Joseph C. Martin 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Smoking Tobacco is Self-Destructive


startmyownrevloution:

Gotta get them smoking young so it will stick


In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.
-Mark Twain

I've never let my school interfere with my education.
-Mark Twain