I am currently listening to songs from Bloom by Beach House. Try "On the Sea" and "Irene" (which I have worked out stands for "Information Rich Energy's new experience" - but that's just me having fun in my own strange "dad humour" type way.)
Good Morning world. I just took Benjy to school and did a little shop.
I've been working on a certain problem for a long time now. It was the problem of what to do with myself, and how I fit in the world. It just felt wrong investing in a system that didn't seem to work for a lot of the people in it, or the planet it was feeding off of. I've had a good chunk of free time lately so have bent my mind and my movements to figuring this little conundrum out.
Here is what I came up with. BTW, If my solution doesn't speak to you, no worries. This is just how life balances when I run the equation. You are not me, so your solution will be at least a little different, and may be totally different! This is my solution. The fact that it exists, the fact that it has proved possible for me to find a solution that works for me whilst leaving nothing out means it should actually be possible for everyone to find one that works for them. We may be different, but we are all made of the same basic stuff. We are creatures of energy. Good luck, I hope my solution helps yours in some way.
Here we go. It occurs to me just now that when we've got this life thing down, when the properly hard work has been done and the rest is maintenance, the world will sing.
People will play.
It'll be playtime!
No resistance will be felt except that which is necessary - this is called the cost of living. It is the cost of getting up in the morning, and interacting with the world in whatever way feels best. It's a bill we all must meet. It's a ticket which we have to figure out the cost for by ourselves (no one else knows how much living costs you as an individual). We then have to pay for this ticket by making sure we do whatever we need to in order to meet our needs (without actively preventing anyone else from meeting theirs).
If you pretend you need more or less than you do, or get other people to pay your way, there is a cost. Your ability to play is dependant on permission from the people you are allowing to act as your keeper. If you're doing this it's not a crime. It's just something you will evolve out of in time as you increase in confidence and are ready to play more.
If we pay our bills now, then we get to play in the next now. Fully paid up. Bills met. Play time! Until the next bill. Some bills are easy. Some you need to spend a substantial amount of energy figuring out before you can pay them (like this one! It took 36 years, 4 months and 8 days!!! To be fair though, most of that time was spent moping about feeling like I had no idea what I was doing here. When I started to get serious about it it only took about a month). Either way. There is no better use of now than getting on with it, whatever it is.
Cos done is done. Once you figure out how to pay your bills, it's a skill you'll keep. The more your grow, the bigger your bills will be. Figuring out how to pay new bills is a skill worth learning. :)
Sometimes we will overreact or under-react, try to pay too much (pay for other people) or too little (let others pay for us); it's not a sin or a moral crime when this happens, it's just an error in an equation!
There are many ways a piece of string can get tangled, but only one way for it to be untangled. There are many ways you can get the equation wrong when trying to pay the bill for your life, but only one way you can get it right. Total honesty.
Total honesty is easier than you might think. It doesn't mean telling everyone everything. You still get to choose how you interact. It just means being honest with yourself. The way to do that is to feel your own feelings, and accept them as they are. Your feeling are always honest - when we get something wrong it is always our logic (the stories we tell ourselves about the world) that we get wrong. If you are having a feeling and you interpret it as meaning that anyone outside of you is intrinsically bad, I can guarantee that you have got the logic wrong.
Other people may be confused, which can lead to them behaving in unstable or dangerous ways, but none of them are intrinsically bad. People get confused when they feel a certain way and don't know how to resolve that feeling. They can be helped, but not, I think, by anyone who thinks there is something intrinsically wrong with them.
If you feel that anything outside of you is intrinsically wrong, it's actually yourself you have a problem with. You can figure out what that problem is when you stop putting other people's names on your feelings. All of your feelings are yours. All of the information you feel coming in (sight, sound, gut instinct etc) is basically your interpretation of the vibrations which interact with your senses. The feeling of every piece of information you receive is all for you. All else is wave length interpretation allegory - i.e. the stories you tell yourself about your feelings in order to make sense of the world.
If your stories tell you that any part of the world outside of you is irretrievably broken; that's just you rejecting the world for some reason.
According to Einstein we are all creatures of energy, everything is made of energy (E=MC2). According to the the 1st law of Thermodynamics (Thermodynamics is the study of heat and movement, i.e. energy): the sum of heat flowing into a system and work done by the system is zero. A valid interpretation of this law is that whatever you are feeling is resolvable by you. It is your feeling and nobody else's.
Any "problem" you feel you have is made of words. In fact, the words inside of you will be the only reason you ever feel you have a problem. Without words, you would just have a situation which you would just go ahead and deal with. Dogs are great at this. They live in the now because they aren't telling themselves complicated stories about what they feel, they simply feel and respond. It's one of their most lovable traits.
Words aren't bad in themselves, in fact if you use them correctly it means you can handle just about any situation with more grace. You get to use your words to figure out how to paint the world using the wonder-filled pictures you see in your head. Words are only bad when you use them to justify your own otherwise completely forgiveable over or under-reactions; when you use them as an excuse for not honestly meeting the bill of your own natural reactions.
It's not even bad to do this. It's just a bit a dumb. You lie because you're in pain. Your lie ensures the pain will last longer. The longer you lie, the more painful it is.
The 1st law of Thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just transformed. As conscious beings we get to choose how we want to do that. The most beautiful and cost efficient way is to aim to do it in a mutually beneficial way. To do this, you just have to accept how you feel and let go of the idea that you can have any clue about how other people are feeling unless you ask them and then listen to their responses with all of your attention.
The zeroth law of Thermodynamics states that all the things in contact with one another will share their energy. Einstein's theory suggests we live in a relative universe which means that we all share our energy with everything else. When you hide your feelings you hold onto that energy thus stealing it from the the world we all live in now. You can't do this for ever, the energy will eventually eat its way out of you. When you choose to rebalance your feelings by behaving violently you send shock waves through everything. When you choose to digest your own feelings and share the results gracefully, peacefully, compassionately and for mutual benefit, you feed the world, and allow it to respond in kind. If jokes are your thing. Jokes are how you'll feed the world. :)
How do we live honestly? If we feel overwhelmed, it is time to step back. If we feel under-connected it is time to step forward.
It needn't take forever to balance ourselves. Just do it now. If you can't, step back from it for a bit and do it when you feel you can. This is all that is ever required to live well.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed, just transformed. We each have our own energy which has a specific frequency. As human beings we get to choose how we transform that energy. We store that energy in our physical bodies and we experience the part of it available for work (or play) as feelings. If you don't resolve your feelings now they get stored in your body as unsolved equations, as matter - as illness or strength.
If we feel bad it is a negative energy, (a stress or an illness or too much fat) - we have an unpaid debt of some kind.
If we feel good, it is a positive energy, (good ideas or physical strength or muscle) - we have spare energy.
Neither of these states are morally good or bad, they just are. Whichever one you are experiencing you get to make choices based on what you have and what you think you know - and no one anywhere or in any situation has more power than that.
Some people have already learnt to get on with things now - and these are the people who look successful to us. Others haven't - and these are the people who look like problems. It's all just people. And there's always room for improvement - and for helping each other get better at living.
No one plays the game perfectly (it's not possible - there will always be prime number moments - new and unpredictable situations that will throw us off balance - the funny stuff). But some people play with true grace. These people tend to have a great sense of humour. If you want to live well, hang out with these people with the intention of giving as good as you get. Everyone has something only they can give, and it's obvious what it is, it's what they love best. Once you've found your love you can give it gracefully (by asking - and accepting the answers you're given, even when it's a no), and accept other people's best love in return with the same grace.
On a further note, so far as I can tell, we get to live forever. We are living inside a contained system (this universe) wherein energy is never lost, just transformed. The third law of Thermodynamics states that a zero temperature is not possible. Therefore it looks like it could well all just go on transforming forever.
My guess is that when you die you get the ultimate choice of transformation - what do you want to be next?
This means that there is no rush to figure it all out. And when you do, there will always be something else to figure out.
As Douglas Adams said “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
I propose that every feeling you resolve, every energy equation you solve, has this effect to some extent. The nice thing is that when you are paying your bills regularly you'll find you often have a surplus of energy to go on transforming the energy in new ways. And then you really get to play.
So.
We always have a choice about what we do with our energy, and whatever we choose we must foot the bill of our physical existence if we wish to go on physically existing in this beautiful Eden-like world of ours.
It's not so hard. In fact it's as easy as deciding what to do next. To do that, we merely have to consult our own feelings.
Pay any outstanding energy bills as honestly as you can (i.e. let your feelings move you), and encourage the people around you to do the same. When we balance the cost of life to zero, when our deficits equal our investments, then we get to work on making our dreams a reality:
Saving the planet, travelling in space, contacting aliens, teaching dogs to ride bicycles, being a tree for a year, falling in love and raising a family as a valid part of a strong shared community...
Whatever feels like play and wonder to us, we get to try it, and to share it.
The most important bit of my bill was the necessity to resolve my reticence about living in a world which didn't look like it worked properly. I feel I have resolved that and am now free to pay the rest of my bills and play as I go.
Personally, I like problems. I like tasting ideas and figuring out how the equation balances. If I can help others I will, whilst ensuring that I pay my own bills as and when I feel I need to, and encouraging others to do the same. :) I'm like a mushroom, I eat outstanding equations, I feed on doing so, and this makes energy available for new things.
My equation: For any contained system, Now = Energy minus matter.
You are a contained system; as is an atom, the Earth, each galaxy, the Universe, the thing you love - whatever it is. You can apply this equation and make more energy available for your work by shutting down unnecessary equations (ones which will ultimately transform the energy in a way you have no interest in), and then make stronger more direct equations that'll get you where you want to go without so much resistance (do only what you love - your real work, plus whatever is necessary to go on existing in whatever health is needed for you to do your work). The more wisely you invest your energy the quicker you will go.
Spend your matter wisely!
When no resistance is felt except that which is necessary then we will be working at full capacity. When we are all doing this our energy signature will be incredibly strong, we will be visible externally, in a manner of speaking, to other intelligences. What is dark matter? Perhaps it's groups of conscious creatures who are currently working to full capacity - using all the available energy to create their lives, except that which is necessary to maintain existence. This would have the effect of making them invisible from the outside other than via their gravity - the essential cost. And when this happens, they become a giant translucent lens. An eye which distant species may use to see further. :)
I believe the effect is the same when individuals work at this level. Through them, distant worlds are visible.
I dedicate this theory to Khalid Masood, who wrote a very strange article on my Life, the Universe, and Theories of everything Face book page. It took me a couple of readings, but when I finally got it, there was gold in there :). You called it Khalid!
I further dedicate it to everyone and everything that has formed a part of my own personal equation up until this point. Whether you have to put up with me every day, or made something that touched me, or I just glimpsed you in the street one time and was consciously touched by the experience, you are a part of my equation.
And finally to everyone that I try and share this with. If I send it to you directly then my attempt to communicate it effectively to you will have generated both additions to the text, and further realisation of the central idea. Thank you for being you. :)
Final words, if life is all getting too much you can always choose Control plus Alteration plus Delete, open up your own Task Manager, and shut down any processes you don't need right now. If its important, you'll come back to it eventually. :)
