Humanity's Journey to Life

Day 234: Practical Self-Empowerment: From Submissive to Self-Directive

What does it take to stand up from being meek? What emerges in oneself and one's life when one start implementing self as directive principle? Continuing with the Practical Self-Empowerment Series, in this hangout we'll be discussing with our guest the process she has walked from being submissive, meek, and avoiding in nature to becoming self-directive, a self-leader and how that has impacted her life and relationship with others.

Watch all the hangouts in this series:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Lite FREE self-empowerment course:http://lite.desteniiprocess.com

Day 233: The Politics of Self Episode 3: A Critical Eye on the News

What is the news media? Who or what are the forces that determine what is news and what is not? What are the consequences of media/news monopoly? With the control and deception that is rampant in the Mass Media - How do you as an individual empower yourself to be able to make sense of what you see and hear in the News, without getting lost in the Hype?
Tune In to get the scoop on how to have A Critical Eye on the News:

Here's a couple nice Charts depicting Who owns the Media:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ZbL5vLTv--/rvbsrgrseidxhnmogbee.jpg
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Tb_z5Fcz--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/lckoza8wfctpe7k9k1de.jpg

Suggestions for further Self Education:
Documentaries/Films:
Manufacturing Consent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JEvxOdMWOU

Outfoxed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P74oHhU5MDk

The War you Don't See, by John Pilger
https://vimeo.com/67739294

The New Rulers of the World, John Pilger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfrL2DUtmXY

PROPAGANDA | FULL ENGLISH VERSION (2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NMr2VrhmFI

The Century of the Self
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7EwXmxpExw

Psywar
http://metanoia-films.org/psywar/

Books:
Public Opinion - Walter Lippman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book)

Profit over People - Noam Chomsky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_over_People

The New Rulers of the World (book) - John Pilger
http://johnpilger.com/books/the-new-rulers-of-the-world

LIVING INCOME GUARANTEED:

What is the Living Income Guaranteed? http://wp.me/P42l71-65

LIG by the Equal Life Foundation:
http://livingincomeguaranteed.wordpress.com/

LIG News: http://livingincome.me/

Media under the Living Income Guaranteed:
https://livingincomeguaranteed.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/sedition-and-media-under-living-income-guaranteed/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BasicIncomeGuaranteedByEqualLifeFoundation

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/livingincome

Twitter http://twitter.com/livingincome

Watch our Live Google Hangouts: http://www.youtube.com/livingincome

Equal Life Foundation: http://equallife.org

Presenting the Fundamental Human Rights by Equal Life Foundation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT8Sfq-pF3Y

Wordpress: http://equallifefoundation.wordpress.com/

Twitter http://twitter.com/equallifefndn

Day 232: Blame Welfare Recipients.. or Implement a Solution?

Think People On Food Stamps Are Eating More Lobster Than You? Think Again

Stories of SNAP recipients using benefits to buy shellfish and junk food abound.
"I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT cards," Rick Bratten, a Missouri Republican who this year proposed prohibiting SNAP recipients from buying seafood or steak, told the Washington Post. "When I can't afford it on my pay, I don't want people on the taxpayer's dime to afford those kinds of foods either."

In Maine and Wisconsin, lawmakers are pushing legislation to restrict SNAP benefits to foods deemed healthy. The Wisconsin State Assembly approved legislation this week to ban junk food and also "crab, lobster, shrimp, or any other shellfish." The bill's sponsor cited "anecdotal and perceived abuses."

Frankly, I don't know how someone could really afford to regularly eat lobster on food stamps. You don't really get enough money to eat comfortably. I mean, sure, you could buy some lobster this week, and maybe go a bit hungry the next. But really, who cares? You can do that with your hard earned wages too if you want. But it really doesn't matter.

For those who would be concerned that individuals on food stamps are eating more luxuriously than you can on work wages, look – the problem of you not being able to afford expensive food on your wages is not caused by someone on food stamps buying lobster. Therefore, the solution is not contained in trying to prevent those on food stamps from buying lobster or what have you. That would actually likely have more of a negative effect. It would take much more bureaucratic oversight to impose stricter limitations on what can be bought with food stamps, requiring more government work, paid by your taxes.

Wages are low because the economy is low because nobody has any money to spend into the economy. It's a vicious cycle that just feeds itself and more and more we feel the squeeze. What boosts the economy is people having money to spend into the economy. At this point jobs can't be counted on to provide enough income to individuals and that's why we have a support system like food stamps. We have a lot of welfare programs in the U.S., taking up a lot of government resources because it is already divided into so many different programs to ensure that it's spent on certain things. So much added bureaucracy and tax money going into a lot of double-work, essentially, filling out and processing applications for each different program.

This is why I support the Living Income Guaranteed Proposal, because it proposes to simplify and streamline the welfare process by providing a basic income to those who need it, to be used to cover all one's primary needs. There doesn't need to be multiple programs with multiple application processes and reporting processes and so on, when it can be done from one platform. And there doesn't need to be restrictions on how/where it is spent. That can be up to the individual, as it is the best way for individuals to learn financial responsibility, by going through the consequences themselves, and studies have shown that when individuals are given the chance they do not generally make poor choices, as some would seem to imply or expect. Certainly deciding for individuals promotes dependency as it does not encourage or provide an opportunity for an individual to learn and develop self responsibility.

So let's make sure that we focus on the real problem and therefore the real solution, and not get caught up in a form of blame game and 'it's not fair' point, like 'if I can't have it then neither can they' I mean, how does that help anything at all? Rather, look at how do we go about creating that which we would like, for everyone, and realize that things don't have to be the way they are. We live in a world where there is plenty, we need to stop getting lost in blaming each other, and focus on bringing about the changes that will actually solve the problems we're experiencing.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed Proposal

Day 231: The Ick Factor that Prevents Self Movement

For this post I'd like to bring through a very important point that came up in discussion after a recent google hangout, which you can watch here: Revolutionizing Social Reintegration. The point was briefly touched on within the hangout, but I want to now go a bit deeper into it, because we noticed that it is really a crucial point that can kind of be overlooked, not only in regard to the topic of the hangout which centered on the prison problem in the U.S., but really relates to any of the problems that we face in the world today.

What I noticed was that when I decided to go deeper into the prison problem and take the time to do research and consider solutions, was that in the moment that the consideration came up to do so, there was initially this kind of resistance, like, 'ehhh, I don't really want to go there' was the essence of the sentiment. What I realized from this is that we tend to see such things as 'unpleasant' and something we'd rather not get involved with, like it's 'too messy' or 'heavy' a problem that it would rather be avoided. But, is that really the case?

I mean, it's easy to look at problems from a distance, and see that things really need to be fixed and that we really need to implement solutions. It's easy to agree to that. But when it comes to really getting into the nitty-gritty, it just seems like it's too little, too slow, not enough impact. Because the mind wants instant gratification. It's easy to see the 'overall' solution for things. Like if you were to consider not just looking at solutions in general to the prison problem, but for example actually working with individuals released from prison, creating programs to assist them to transition back into society, or even just really researching the issue, putting in the time and effort to find materials to read about it, watch videos about it, maybe even write about it, getting to know the actual details of the situation, the history of it, and so on, the mind balks, like it would just be so slow, too tedious, with such a minimal effect.

Who wants to step into that issue with the poverty, the racism, the tension of a tense situation, the reality of people being put through extreme conditions, and individuals shaped by the undignified conditions that we've allowed to exist as a society and who have never really known or learned or experienced what it's like to have a dignified life because they have never had access to it.

What I found with that initial resistance that came up toward going deeper into a point that we tend to see as 'unpleasant', is that that 'unpleasantness' isn't really real. That sinking feeling of, 'gosh, who wants to deal with that' is really just my own perception or projection where I am seeing that thing as negative/undesirable/unpleasant, but in reality it's more like the opposite is the case because those things that we tend to resist, often would be the most rewarding. I mean, why wouldn't you want to be a part of bringing forth solutions in this world? Most individuals out there really want something better and would be unimaginably grateful to have an opportunity to improve their life. Isn't that what we've really all been waiting for? To be able to really find solutions to the problems we face, and bring them into fruition? But it's like we've accepted the idea of this world as 'tainted', 'icky', and we'd much rather just find a new planet to possibly live on so we wouldn't have to actually deal with the whole mess we have here!

Well look, if we can't sort out our mess we've created here, we're just going to create it wherever else we'd go, so in that respect, we don't really have a choice but to sort out what we've got going on here. And we actually have here as this physical reality, is actually a really amazing foundation for living on and exploring what life really means. The problem is not with the world itself, but with the mess we created on top of it. So it's time we got around to actually doing something about it.

So I challenge you, to challenge that voice inside yourself that would tell you 'you don't want to' for whatever reason, because it is precisely that voice that keeps us from moving in this world to do what needs to be done, to fix what we have created. And which would keep us from doing things that would actually be, dare I say, truly rewarding. Certainly it won't be easy and it won't be all rosy and wonderful all the time. But what it comes down to is what are we doing here? Is it really better to keep your head in the sand, and ignore reality while the problems just get worse and have increasingly more impact in our lives? Or would the real satisfaction be in working toward solutions, instead of accepting the way things are, thinking it's just 'too messy' to deal with?

So when you see something that you could do to expand yourself or your reality and that resistance comes up, don't just immediately accept it, have a look and question it because, it may just be turning you away from something that could actually be really rewarding that you would ultimately truly enjoy.

Day 230: Who Is The Real Idiot?

So an interesting point came up in a discussion recently in regard to taking responsibility for where we go into a kind of superiority toward others. An example came up of going into a point of superiority toward other drivers on the road who aren't driving as fast or as 'good' as you and where you would get annoyed like 'come on, what the heck, why are you going so slow??' and maybe try to get around them and such. I'm sure maaaaaany can relate to this point, as you can see it happening all the time on the road, it's a pretty common occurrence.

It's even got to a point where it's like we forget that we're not in a private universe in our car where no one can see us and will totally go into a reaction toward another driver and pull a face, throw hands up in the air and make all kinds of gestures – as if they can't see us right there having this reaction toward them. And in some cases, some people don't care if they are seen and it's like they actually want to make some kind of confrontation out of it. I actually witnessed this the other day while I was just departing a local fast food establishment and there were two cars, trying to get by each other and it didn't go quite smoothly, and one person reacted with an angry face and throwing hands up, and so the other in turn reacted, got out of the car and walked over saying things like 'What – you got a problem??' sort of thing, this being a kind of extreme example because nothing really even happened, they didn't hit each other or anything.

In another moment I remember I was backing down a driveway and then needed to turn into another driveway on the side, and at the same moment someone was coming down that driveway that I needed to turn into. They didn't realize that I needed to go down that driveway, and so had not left space for me to turn into it, and so I had to pull forward to let them out, and they went into a 'what the heck are you doing??' kind of reaction and made a 'nasty' face and threw their hands up, all right in front of me, and in that moment I could really see how going into such a reaction is really totally ludicrous, because I wasn't doing anything 'wrong' or 'stupid' there was just a lack of understanding of what was going on in that moment. Especially with driving, it is difficult to communicate because you can't readily talk to the other person and are limited to simple hand gestures and turn signals that can only communicate so much.

So this brings up a kind of larger point that goes beyond just driving – that we tend to go into a perception that other people are apparently idiots when they are doing something that we don't in that moment understand, or have the context to see what is really going on. And in that moment in our lack of understanding, instead of stopping and saying to ourself, 'hm I don't understand why this person is doing this or that, let me see if there are any factors that I can notice that might help explain what is going on, or what information could I be missing that would make this scenario make sense' we instead go into a reaction toward the other person like there must be something wrong with them or they are idiots with like an assumption that they shouldn't be doing whatever they are doing or how they are doing it – when we don't even have all the information and don't even know what is going on. So who is the real idiot in that?

What such experiences have helped me to realize is that when I go into some kind of superiority reaction toward others – that I am the one being an idiot, because I am not seeking to understand the situation, or possibly find a solution for it, or perhaps consider how I could possibly help another person who seems to be doing something in an ineffective way and I might know of a better way. How ridiculous is it to get annoyed at a situation, which would imply that we don't want such a situation to be taking place, but then not look for a solution to the situation, or get some understanding so that we could see that maybe our expectations are not aligned with reality, and we are expecting that which isn't possible. Like for example when we are getting annoyed at someone who is driving slow – maybe they are old and have poor eyesight and have no one to drive them, or maybe their car only goes so fast.

I myself once had a car that probably wasn't worth the $500 that I bought it for. It had virtually no acceleration and was pretty horrifying to drive, especially when trying to turn onto or cross a busy road, because you have to have eeeeeextra room to get out because the car moves so slow. This would lead to people honking from behind, probably thinking 'There was plenty of space!! Why didn't you go!!' but they did not know that the car could not have actually made it and would have resulted in a car accident.

It's like we believe that all human beings are like super-amazing-perfect skilled beings that are always in perfect physical health, perfect hand-eye coordination, will never ever make a mistake or do something in error – and how ridiculous is this when we know people, we see them all the time, we ARE ONE ourself, and we KNOW that there is FAR from perfection going on here – we've got all kinds of maladies and afflictions that affect our functioning for example, we ALL make mistakes now and then. Bad eyesight from old age affecting one's ability to see. Not being able to afford to have a car in good condition. A new driver just learning and not having it down perfectly yet, I remember my first driving experiences were pretty intense. The list goes on. On top of it, we have created a world where there is little to no support to deal with these kind of problems so that everyone can be in the best health possible, the best car possible, the best driving training possible, not be so overworked that we are driving everywhere in a hurry most of the time, etc, etc. Our expectations are really not in line with the world we as we have accepted it to exist.

So now when you are in these moments where you find yourself getting annoyed and thinking 'what the heck??' realize there is a better way – you don't have to get stressed out in that moment – it doesn't do anything anyway, just wears you out – you can instead start to look at how can I understand this situation? And in this a whole universe opens up. It is such a relief to no longer have to get all worked up and bothered and stressed and potentially causing more consequence, but now I can actually keep my cool and expand myself in looking at what is going on and how I can help in a situation. This has led to some very interesting moments where I noticed details that I would not have if I'd just gone into that reaction and stayed there, and some moments where once I understood what was going on I was able to take action to help the situation along. I can say that this has been a very rewarding point to work on, and that is why I have shared this with you today, so that you might be able to benefit as well from these realizations, have less stress in your life, and create less stress for others as well.

Day 229: The Math is Simple, We Need a Living Income Guaranteed

So I am going through my college classes, math in particular, so going over things like fractions and rations and linear equations. Being that I am now over 30 and have been living life for a while and not just fresh out of high school, and not still living at home with parents, I have actually practically applied a lot of this math within my day to day living, within things like budgeting mainly. And as I go through the course, this is actually the practical application that is shown for this math – is that it is useful for doing your own personal budgeting and such.

So we have here in this math a really cool and useful tool to be utilized in the distribution of resources and goods to everyone, the things that we need and use on a daily basis in our lives. It has helped me to figure out whether or not I can afford certain things, and just how much I can afford to pay in rent for a place to live for example. The problem comes in however when your numbers just don’t add up to being enough to provide you what you need.

It seems strange that we would allow such problems to exist where individuals can be faced with not having enough to cover all our basic needs, where no matter how you do the math, there is just no solution. You would think that we humans don’t even grasp the simplest of math to see that for so many it doesn’t add up. It’s even stranger still that there are those who would seem to even deny that such a situation exists and would imply that it is simply due to individuals not managing their money properly or living ‘within their means. But there is a bottom line that if your income is below that, you just don’t have enough and no amount of money management is going to solve that.

Interesting that we are taught this math in school to help us with finances but not really taught that hey- you might end up not actually having enough to pay all your bills though. I mean, maybe I would have geared up and gone to college right after high school instead of taking my chances with the ‘real world’ and trying to go straight into getting a job, if I’d had any idea that pretty much the only jobs I would have access to would be those that don’t pay enough. At the time, I was afraid to incur a huge college tuition loan, when I didn’t really even yet know what I wanted to do with my life. But if I had known that in the end I would be no better off than I was 10+ years ago, maybe I would have had a different perspective.

However, even then, it is still a numbers game. Even if you have a degree, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you won’t still end up in one of those jobs that doesn’t pay enough. Because over time, those types of jobs have been increasing, and the better paying jobs decreasing. The ones that provide better pay, decent benefits, paid leave, or any leave at all, and maybe some kind of retirement, or even pay raises. When we have heard politicians say they are making more jobs, we should have asked what kind of jobs? Ones that actually will support us? Or treat us as cheap labor?

Our economy is screaming for a Basic Income program like the Living Income Guaranteed. Just look at the numbers. I see more and more homeless on the streets literally every day. I am approached more and more frequently by individuals asking for some money. I see more and more shops closing and vacant buildings. The signs are all around and I don’t want to wait to see how bad it gets. If we are not going to make sure that we have enough jobs that pay enough, then we need a proper support system to make sure everyone has enough for a decent life. It only costs us more to try and help individuals once they aren’t being effectively supported by the system. We have so many costly programs that only exist to try and help the problem after it’s already been created, that often still aren’t enough to keep people on their feet. It is much more cost effective to prevent causing problems that need to be cleaned up. The numbers don’t lie so it’s really time we listened to them and make sure that everyone really is in a position to effectively work out a proper budget.

Day 228: What is Our Responsibility as Consumers?

So, in continuing from the last post, Day 227: Bunions and Self Education, I'm going to now look at in more detail how this relationship to our footwear came to be and namely, what is our responsibility in it, if any? Lately we have a tendency to blame corporations and businesses for the products that exist, but it's not like any product could just be 'foisted' upon us, whether we like it or not. It has to be something we will buy so that the businesses can make a profit because that's how they work.

Even considering all the money and research and effort that goes into marketing schemes and advertising to 'convince' us to buy certain things, in the end who makes the choice to buy it? Who decides to believe in what we see in the marketing without actually investigating it?

We're actually living in a pretty cool time what with the Internet taking communication to another level, where we can give direct feedback to companies about what we would like and what we don't like. The key would be to take an active role in that, and that would actually require a lot of self education, just as for example with myself all my life wearing improper shoes and never realizing what I was doing to myself, until I finally got an understanding of what is actually going on – how the feet actually work and in conjunction with the whole body and how our footwear affects our feet and thus our body and thus our entire life and well-being, and what proper footwear might rather be like.

Now I want to also discuss my own process in terms of how I even got to the point of educating myself on this topic, or even any topic, because this was not something I would normally do in the past, some years ago. Part of that is due to the Internet not being what it is today with information so available. Never has self education been this facilitated and really in the power of your own hands. But just because we have this tool available to us, doesn't mean we are using it to its utmost potential.

When we have the typical ideas and beliefs about what it is we like/don't like to do that are impulsed into us from early on in our lives, spending our free time doing research doesn't really fit into those preconceived notions. It typically has more to do with 'relaxing' like vegging-out to the TV, or maybe seeking a party to get intoxicated and have a 'good time' or being consumed with the hunt for a mate or some such encounter, all the general things that we're shown is what we apparently want to do, and all of which largely goes nowhere and amounts to nothing of any real substance or positive impact in one's life, but rather actually tends to cause negative consequences and generally waste one's time here. Now, I'm not saying to not be social or have relationships or anything like that, that is cool, but obviously there is a balance where your social activities should be positive in nature and not degenerative.

So, it's after quite a process of going through such types of distractions myself throughout my life and learning the consequence the hard way – many years wasted and not much to show for it – that I now see and understand the value in applying myself in practical things that actually have a positive benefit in my life/world, like educating myself on this world and what is here. I mean, obviously this is sorely needed, considering all the myriad problems we face from the global to the personal level, we require to finally get down to educating ourself to how this world really works and what is really effective living.

So I wanted to share the process that has now taken me to this point where I see the validity in taking the time to educate myself, for anyone who might come across this and still be at the point of not seeing this or some similar topic as being something that fits within one's 'prescribed interests' so that one might begin to consider that it is possible to broaden one's perspective and interest for one's own actual benefit.

Not only was it a process to get to see the value of self education, but also to sort out my value system overall, in terms of what I use, what I wear, what I do, what I buy, and looking at, is it benefitting me or not? Because if I was still attached to the ideas that I was in the past where for example what I would choose to wear was more based on fashion/style/look/imagination than actual practicality or whether an item was properly designed to physically support my body, then I wouldn't even be open to wearing properly fitting shoes, because they didn't fit in with 'what I liked'. For example, I can remember seeing here and there some shoes that had a wider toe and thinking that they looked terrible ad I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like that. So that shows how our value system can be so backward where I was actually valuing things that are harmful to me, like seeing high-heeled pointy-toed shoes as really cool for example, and rejecting the more properly designed shoe that would have been supportive!

In essence, this is how we abuse ourselves and our bodies for fashion, for an image, an idea, that has grave consequences for our lives and livelihood. We have some reason, excuse, justification in our mind as to why we simply aren't/won't just do what is best for our body. We lie to ourselves that we're not really doing any harm, and it can seem that way because effects are accumulative and take time to show and progress so gradually.

So within this, you can see how it's actually our responsibility as individuals to sort out our own value systems. To question that which is presented to us as a 'positive' thing to see whether it really is so in reality. The products that are available to us are the result of our own value systems and what we accept and allow. If we want to see a change we have to become that change and find the solutions ourselves, because it is not going to be done for us.

This is where the process of self-forgiveness has come in very handy, to sort out my value system to see where I am placing my value in that which is harmful and correcting that to instead valuing what is actually supportive, and I'll continue more on that n the next post.

Day 227: Bunions and Self Education

So I rather recently discovered that I have ‘bunions’ on my feet. The interesting thing is that my feet have been this way for a very long time, since about as far back as I can remember, though I know I wasn’t born that way. Since I have practically always been this way, I never knew it was some kind of condition, or actually technically a 'deformity', I just thought it was normal for my feet and that they were just shaped a bit differently. It wasn't until I was recently diagnosed as having ‘bunions’ that I began a little process of self education on the point, which has led to some fascinating discoveries.

The existence of these bunions were going to potentially affect my ability to get hired for a certain job, so surgery was advised to me as a possibility. Normally I wouldn’t have considered something as serious as surgery for the sake of getting a job, accept that it sounded like ‘bunions’ is a progressive thing that will likely just get worse over time, so I started to take it seriously, as even though they don’t cause me any pain or seem to bother or hinder me in any way now, I can see how this could lead to serious complications later in life as it worsens, at a time where I might not be so robust to go through a surgical procedure.

I was told and read in many sources that surgery is really the only way to fix a bunion, even though it is not necessarily always permanent. That the bones have become out of alignment and nothing short of surgery could actually correct them. I also was told and read that bunions is a largely hereditary thing, and that certain footwear can support the forming of and/or worsening of bunions.

However I kept researching the point, because I like to really understand something, how it works, what are the factors involved to empower myself to make the best informed decision I can, especially when it comes to the physical body, something that is so important, and yet we usually take for granted. My research led me to realizations of a profound scope that I wasn’t expecting, but yet isn’t really that surprising.

What I came across is the point that our feet are naturally meant to be like a triangle in shape, like when we are born, where the very widest point of the feet is at the end of the toes. This is how human feet naturally form in cultures who never wear footwear. The toes are splayed and make a nice foundation to support us upon the earth, with strong flexible toes. And yet, when we look at the kind of footwear that is available to wear, very nearly none of it is shaped like that. They are all tapered at the toe and widest part is at the ball of the foot. This means that when we wear conventional shoes that we are squishing our toes together in an unnatural position.

Now, to some degree I knew this or knew something wasn't quite right, I mean you can feel how your foot fits in a shoe, and yet I never really questioned it, because no one else seems to be concerned about it, and really like all shoes are shaped in such a way, and it just doesn’t strike you that all of our footwear would actually be detrimental to our health and well-being. I mean, before I researched and educated myself to understand how the foot works, its bones, tendons, blood-flow, all the parts that make it up and how they function, I really didn’t have a concrete clue as to what I was actually doing by wearing our normal, everyday, standard, widely-accepted and worn by most, shoes.

I would highly recommend doing some research for oneself on this point to get an understanding as well. The statistic is that more than 75% of adults will suffer some form of foot deformity and that most of this is caused by ill-fitting footwear. It's only a small percentage that are actually born with deformities.

It was kind of funny because now that I am aware of the harm and damage and deformity that typical shoes can cause, I went to the store to look for shoes that would be properly shaped to fit your foot as it should be, and was taken aback by how almost every single shoe was one that had a tapered toe. But then I brought myself back to reality because it’s not like they just suddenly became like this, they were this way yesterday and the day before that and I wasn’t reacting then. It is just now that I know better, and my perspective has changed.

But so I had to look at now, how did we get here, to this point where 99% or more of our available footwear is actually inappropriate to wear. Even many sports and fitness shoes that are supposed to be really good for you are actually the opposite. It just seems so bizarre, like waking up from a strange dream, like how is it possible that for essentially my whole life, I have been wearing shoes that are deforming my feet, and leading to such physical consequence? How is this possible?

Well one of the essential factors of course is not being educated on what is really going on and how the the physical body works. I mean, throughout my life I have witnessed, interacted with, passed by countless people, probably thousands, and I can’t recall ever seeing one who hadn’t worn typical footwear, tapered in the toe, to have any kind of direct experience or context for how different feet could be. In school we learn a bit about anatomy, but kind of in a bubble, like we learn about the body generally, but not so much in application and in relation to our actual lives and day to day stuff, like for example something as basic as the shoes we wear, and what is appropriate footwear and what are the consequences of improperly designed footwear.

If it was such an intrinsically 'hereditary' thing, meaning that we are genetically prone to it, wouldn't that all the more reason to ensure that our footwear doesn’t exacerbate conditions that we know are prone to form? I also find it strange that when we look at the facts of the improper shaping of our footwear and how it deforms the feet over time, it seems rather pointless to say it is hereditary. It kind of sounds like saying that the body has a hereditary condition to die when it can’t get food, like citing that as the main cause of death when a person would starve, no obviously it was the lack of food that was the main factor that brought on the death. I mean, if you grew a tree in a box, what shape is it going to grow into?

We need to educate ourselves and then take responsibility for how we know the human body functions and how best to care for it, as a living growing thing which allows us to be here and living, especially when it comes to children when our bodies are in the most formative stage and children as yet don't have an understanding of how the body works. What would be cool to see is to have that be a part of our education system where children could learn such life skills and how to support their body, and prevent the very consequences that we come to suffer as adults.

For self education on this point, here's a video that I found to be very supportive in explaining how the foot functions and just what is going on when the foot is put out of alignment by improperly fitting footwear, starting at around 3:40:

Here is a video from a podiatrist that came to this realization that gives a nice overview of the point (I am not an official endorser of this person or their product, I don't get paid to promote it or anything. I am sharing this just for information/education purposes):

Day 226: Caring - What's In It For Me?

Here we're continuing from a previous post - Day 224: What's the First Step to Caring For Real? For reference, here's where we left off from:

Something we don't tend to realize/be aware of is how much of the consequence we face in reality and in our relationships is a result of this simple point of separation, where we've formed a relationship toward each other of not caring, where we have justified even being nasty, spiteful, and even just apathetic toward others, and that's what I'll go into more in the next post to come, to see why is it that we would even want to care about others – to see what difference in one's own life would that make? So until then, you can start to simply become aware of these moments in your day to day living where you actually go into/participate in some form of separation/spitefulness toward another, as that is the first step to sorting ourselves out as a whole, which is going to have very positive results, as you'll see more in the next post.

So, why is it in our interest to care about others? It sure may not seem like it is in the moment, it's so easy to go into a point of spitefulness or nastiness as it's been so accepted as an underlying and automatic part of our nature and behavior. But, within this, we haven't yet effectively connected the dots between our behavior and the consequence of that behavior. With some things in life, consequence is remarkably obvious. Say for example, hitting your finger with a hammer, the consequence is immediate and direct – injury to your finger and most likely a good deal of pain. However, when it comes to human relations, the consequence is often more indirect. But once you see it, is still quite obvious.

I mean, we know that for most of us, ourselves included, life is no 'walk in the park'. We know that we have a tendency to be 'thrown off' by just one person being nasty to us, where we will say 'now my whole day is ruined'. We allow how others treat us, to affect us, and in turn, affect how we treat others. When someone is nasty to us, we become nasty ourselves, and don't even now notice who we're actually being nasty toward. You can see how this just perpetuates and endless cycle round and round, so that the next time you experience someone as being nasty to you – you really have to ask yourself, do I know what is going on in that person's life? What their day was like? What they're going through? Because, it's really usually not about you at all, as you can see for yourself, when you're in the same situation, in a reaction toward something that happened to you maybe earlier that day, and is affecting how you are interacting with others in a totally different moment.

When we stop the automatic reaction of taking things personally, we stop that cycle. Within this, not only do you gain a will power to not automatically get sucked into reactions that would then 'ruin your whole day', and in fact cause more consequence, but you will rather become more aware of what is actually going on in reality, see solutions more easily and have more of an understanding of what is going on around you. You'll have a self-stability to remain calm and prevent unnecessary stress, which can tear down your physical body. And you'll prevent a lot of unnecessary consequence in other's lives, which ultimately comes back to you in a direct and indirect way, through your own immediate interactions on a daily basis, and in general as we're doing less to antagonize others as well.

In addition to this, you develop an integrity with yourself where you know that you are no longer blindly adding to the problem, but are sorting yourself out and becoming the solution, no longer accepting and allowing yourself to justify spitefulness toward others. And this integrity would also come through in your relationships with others and will open up the opportunity to develop more substantial and stable relationships, since you've shown yourself to be someone who is actually trustworthy and consistent, meaning not like friendly one moment and nasty in another.

Here I would suggest taking the free DIP Course to assist and support yourself with getting more into the detail of how to walk this process of sorting out such patterns that we've automatically become that have become such a detriment to our living.

Day 225: The Desteni of Living - My Declaration of Principle

Here I'd like to take a momentary pause from the series I'm walking on 'Caring', to post this Declaration of Living Principle, and to state that, having realized their validity as a guideline of how to effectively conduct oneself in life in this reality, I commit myself to live by the following principles:

1. Realizing and living my utmost potential
2. Living by the principle of what is best for all – guiding me in thought, word and deed to always in all ways direct problems to the best possible outcome for all
3. Living by the principle of self honesty – to ensure I am pure in thought, word and deed: that my within and without is equal and one. Who I am within is who I am without and vice-versa
4. Self Purification through Writing, Self Forgiveness and Self Application – the action of realizing I am responsible for my own thoughts, words and deeds, to forgive myself for transgressions and change myself to ensure I take responsibility for who, what and how I am and through this know that I can trust myself to always be honest with me and so others
5. Living the principle of Self Responsibility – realizing only I am responsible for what I accept and allow inside of me, my relationships and my outside world and so with this responsibility: only I have the power and ability to change that which I see is compromising who I am, what I live and how this affects others
6. Realizing that who I am in thought, word and deed affects not only myself – but others as well and so with Self Responsibility in thought, word and deed – I take responsibility for myself and so my relationships to be Self Aware in every moment and live in such a way that is best for me and so others as well
7. Living the Principle of Self Awareness – to be aware, to see, to recognize my own thoughts and Mind, to be self honest to the extent where I can take responsibility for when I see my thoughts / Mind is not what is best for me / others and commit to immediately take responsibility and change for myself and so for others
8. With taking responsibility for myself, becoming aware of myself – take responsibility and become aware of others in my life, to assist and support them as I am assisting and supporting myself – to give as you would like to receive and do the extra bit every day to see where I can contribute to other’s lives and so my own
9. Living the principle of self trust – as I commit myself to remain constant in my living of self honesty, self responsibility and self awareness, I stand as an unbending trust that I always in all ways know who I am no matter what I face and that in this I know, as proven in the constancy of my living that I will always honor and stand by what is best for all and so best for me
10. Making Love Visible – through me not accepting/allowing anything less than my utmost potential, I support those in my life to reach their utmost potential, to love them as I have shown love to myself by gifting to me my utmost potential, the best life/living experience and show others as I have shown myself what it means to LIVE
11. No one can save you, save yourself – the realization that the tools and principles of Desteni is the guide, but I must walk the path myself. We are here to assist and support each other in this process from Consciousness to Awareness/LIFE and what it means to live – but the process itself, where you are alone with yourself in your own Mind: is walked alone
12. Not waiting for anything or anyone to take responsibility for me and this world – but that I realize I have created who and how I am in this moment, therefore I have the responsibility to change who and how I am and so the realization that we as a collective created how and what this world is today and so it is the responsibility of the collective to change how and what this world is today
13. Honoring the life in each person, animal – everything from the great to the small of earth, that we expand our awareness and responsibility to creating the best possible life for everyone and everything and so ourselves
14. Relationships as Agreements: individuals coming together using agreements as a platform to one-on-one expand, grow and develop as individuals in life and living to support/assist each other unconditionally to reach their utmost potential where the agreement is a coming together of individuals understanding what it means to stand as equals and to stand as one
15. Sex as Self Expression – where sex is an united expression between individuals in honor, respect, consideration and regard of each other as equals, two physical bodies uniting in equality and oneness – a merging of two equals as one physically.
16. Realizing that by the virtue of me being in this world – my responsibility does not only extend to my own Mind / my own Life, but to the minds and lives of everything and everyone of this earth and so my commitment is to extend this awareness to all of humanity to work together and live together to make this world heaven on earth for ourselves and the generations to come
17. I must in my thoughts, words and deeds – but most importantly in my living actions, become a living example for others in my world that is noticeable and visible when it comes to the potential of a person to change themselves and so change their world. So that more people can realize how we can change this world, by standing united in our self change within the principle of what is best for all to bring heaven to earth
18. I am the change I want to see in me and my world – to bring heaven to earth is to bring into being, into living the LIVING PROOF of a PRACTICAL HEAVEN that can be seen and heard in our actions and words. We are the Living Heaven that must come into creation in this living world.
19. Through purifying my thoughts, words and deeds – my inner becomes my outer, so I bring into creation me as heaven into earth, realizing it is not enough to ‘see the change / be the change’ – for change to become REAL it must be a constant, consistent living of me through the words I speak and the actions I live visible and noticeable to all in every moment of breath
20. Realizing that my physical body is my temple – my physical body is the living flesh through which and in which I will bring into being and create / manifest heaven on earth as me in my thoughts, words and deeds and so I honor, respect and regard – nurture and support my physical body as I would nurture and support me as equals: my body is me
21. We are the change in ourselves and this world we have been waiting for: and so I commit to dedicate myself and my life for each one as all to realize this, as nothing will change if we don’t change in all that we are, within and without
22. The realization that for me to be able to change myself in thought, word and deed to the most effective living being that I can be and become – I first have to ‘know thyself’ and so commit myself to investigate, introspect and understand how I became who I am today, to prepare the road before me into self creation of a responsible, aware, self honest and trustworthy person for myself and so for all
23. The realization that for me to be able to contribute to change in this world – I have to get to ‘know thyself’ as this world and so commit myself to research, investigate and introspect the inner and outer workings of this world and align the systems of today to present and give the best possible life for all on Earth

Here and there in posts to come, I will take some of these principles and go into more detail about what it means to practically live what is stated here and some specific ways how I've aligned myself and my living to stand as these principles and in so doing, essentially becoming the change that I would want to see in the world.

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