Connected and Committed

JOT Day 67, 68, 69 - Three, two one, Contact

Watched the flick Contact with Jodee Foster.

It's withstood the test of time well, I think, given that it doesn't look immediately dated when the first shot rolls out.

I identified with Jodee's character and all the questioning, in her own mind and in the minds of others, of what the bleep do we really know.

I feel like I've been around the universe and back these days myself.

But it's much better than standing still.

My fever broke a few days ago, and then all hell broke loose.

Just when you think things are like this, they're like that.

Ah, change. You are a fickle one.

Details to come as they sort themselves out.

Cuz I can't shut up.

JOT Day 64, 65, 66 - Regardless of our ethnic, religious, gender, or geographic origins

OK, so maybe they weren't such vague flu-like symptoms.

Maybe it was the flu after all.

I haven't had the flu in ten years.

Because ten years ago I changed my diet and stopped eating what was making me sick.

But since I am a simple human, I have been backtracking, back-sliding, back-pedalling slow-w-w-w-ly over the past few months, until here I am, with the incontrovertible evidence.

Immune system compromised. Bam.

At least I know what to do about it now.

It took me 40 years of listening to modern medicine and getting nowhere but sicker fast, but I learned.

And now I pass that information on to those who are interested.

If you are a bit of a left-brained geek like me--I am whip-lashed from the left- to the right-brained part of me on a regular basis--the "facts" in this book might be of interest. I put quotes around "facts" because that is such a subjective term.

There are facts erupting all over the planet all the time--some of them we as a species bump into and name and quantify and misinterpret, and some of them we just allow to be and they sustain us, regardless of our ethnic, religious, gender, or geographic origins.

It's a no-brainer which approach is more effective when the effective set of "facts" is used as criteria.

"The combination of white sugar and white rice...is lethal. The removal of the B vitamins, among others, from the rice causes imbalance, for as the body seeks what it lacks, more B vitamins are leeched from the system in order to digest the white rice. Refined white sugar leeches the same vitamins for the same reason. The combination of refined flour and refined sugar spells double trouble."

~Sugar Blues, by William Dufty

Some of us are the canaries in the coal mine for the species, since this stuff affects us quicker than it does others.

Some people can go for decades until the evidence begins to show up. But cancer gets one's attention pretty quickly, doesn't it? More from Mr. Dufty:

"Figures relating the consumption of sugar in early America to the number of deaths from diabetes have not been compiled. However, Danish authorities do have such statistics, but the medical histories in the U.S. rarely mention them or make any connection between sugar and diabetes.

"In 1880, the average Danish citizen consumed over 29 pounds of refined sugar annually; at that time, the recorded death rate from diabetes was 1.8 per 100,000. In 1911, consumption had more than doubled: some 82 pounds of sugar per Dane annually; the recorded death rate from diabetes was 8 per 100,000. In 1934, Danish consumption of refined sugar was approximately 113 pounds per person annually; the recorded death rate from diabetes was 18.9 per 100,000.

"Before WWll, Denmark had a higher consumption of sugar than any other European country. (The word Danish also means a pastry sugarbomb.) In Denmark, every fifth person suffers from cancer. In half a century, the annual Swedish consumption of refined sugar increased from 12 pounds per head in 1880 to over 120 pounds per head in 1929. Every sixth person suffers from cancer.

"In the Scandinavian countries, statistics date from the day when sugar consumption was relatively low. Nothing comparable exists in the U.S. While the rest of the world lags behind the Scandinavian countries in compiling and publishing such statistics, the point is inescapable: As sugar consumption escalates wildly, fatal diseases increase remorselessly."

I have Danish blood running in my viens, so this bit of information has a bit more impact for me.

I just Googled "yearly American consumption of sugar" and this is what clicking on one listing of the first page of search results produced:

One sweet nation

Posted 3/20/05

Here are some facts about Americans' infatuation with sugar and syrup:

In 1967, Americans ate 114 pounds of sugar and sweeteners a year per capita, nearly all of it as either raw or refined sugar. In 2003, each person consumed about 142 pounds of sugar per year.

Since high-fructose corn syrup was developed more than 30 years ago, consumption of the sweetener, which flavors everything from soda pop to ranch dressing, has skyrocketed. Now Americans down about 61 pounds a year each. [That is in addition to the refined sugar total mentioned above.]

Since 1950, soft-drink consumption per capita has quadrupled, from about 11 gallons per year to about 46 gallons in 2003--nearly a gallon a week per person.

With all that sugar-eating, it's no wonder people don't have much room for their vegetables. In 2003, Americans consumed, on average, a dismal 8.3 pounds of broccoli and just over 25 pounds of dark lettuces (the kinds that are really good for you).

This story appears in the March 28, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.

~*~*~

Now, I'm going to do something unheard of in most human experience: I'm not going to rail against the powers-that-be who created this and many other monsters down through the ages (This and those many other phenomenon have been around for centuries).

That just doesn't fly energetically nor does it work in the results arena.

What does seem to carry the weight of successful "campaigns" throughout history is taking responsiblity for my own actions and choosing differently.

I could denounce capitalists around the globe who see the fastest path to cash and take it by inundating us with messages that tell us how to get happy (and thus produce an awareness of lack that must be unendingly filled [because it's an inaccurate premise to start with] with everything that gets advertised) in a world where messages about us being pretty darn happy just the way we are, are very few and far between.

I don't have a problem with people wanting to make money. There's more than enough to go around for everyone on the globe to live their definition of a very nice life.

I do have a problem with the mindset of some who would have us buy into their own set of fears and muck it up for the rest of us, at our own expense.

There are millions to be made without depriving people of their sanity, their health and their dignity, which inevitably deprives those powers-that-be of their sanity, their health and their dignity.

So I am going to take responsiblity.

For what goes into my body, what I read, what I listen to, what I think.

Because no one else really has the power to do that, anyway.

It all depends on the choices you make and what fuels those choices.

And the spector of getting sick all the time again has a way of making this all very simple.

Right now, I am going to go prepare my own version of responsibility: a pot of brown rice.

And I'm going to continue getting reaquainted with Mr. Dufty's excellent history of sugar consumption the world over. It gets more interesting, trust me.

For instance: in that snippet of a U.S. News & World Report article, did you notice that there is no mention made of WHY that high-fructose corn syrup is in everything from soda pop to ranch dressing?

It only presents its presence as a given, as "America's infatuation".

Now why do you suppose that is?

It's such a fascinating ride, taking one's power back.

I highly recommend it.

 

 

 

JOT Day 61, 62, 63 - War on fear

Nothing like a bout with vague flu-like symptoms to slow you down when you're doing too much.

So I haven't been doing much along JOT lines during these slow-down-and-recuperate days.

But I have been being Jot-like.

I've been noticing where my thoughts begin to flirt with limiting beliefs and rather than pick them up, I allow them to pass by on the screen of my mind and not take up the hook of credibility.

Because they aren't true, any of those thoughts.

We believe lies, and because we believe them, we give them free access to our brains.

Not a wise career move on our part.

And we don't ask for help, believing another lie that we are to persevere and conquer whatever is in our path by sheer will.

Pure baloney.

Certainly there are aspects of what we do that require our individual attention and action.

Bu collaboration could be powering the remainder of our energy and time investments with pay-offs a million-fold stronger and more impactful than what we might be able to accomplish on our own.

This was powerfully demonstrated in the film The King's Speech. He fought getting help from the one person who could provide what he needed, until he didn't have a choice.

And then the magic happened.

Just think how much more magic there would be in the world were we able to get over our fears.

How about a war on fear?

Or better yet and more energetically aligned, a focus on embracing what's real?

There are still millions to be made in that arena.

Unless you believe the lie.

 

 

JOT Day 60 - If not now, when? No, really. When?

Another web page built.

Another domain name purchased.

And an improv workshop located and signed up for. This organization specializes in the kind of thing I want to do, and they offer a sketch writing class when I'm done with the improv training.

I love how the universe works, and I love that I get how to work with it instead of against it, and am reminded of this connection every. single. day.

If you'd like to find out how to do that for yourself, ping me.

It's really not worth waiting anymore.

Any day that's spent in ambivalence is another few decades of numbing out.

How many more of those do you want to endure?

JOT Day 59 - The magic in pixels

I wasn't expecting to get these until next week, but they arrived this morning.

What a fabulous surprise.

 

 

 

It was a magical afternoon, and Josh recorded it all in pixels.

It just depends on who is behind the lens.

Thank you, Josh!

 

JOT Day 58 - I have no idea what I was talking about

Someone asked me how I was doing since the post I did a week or so ago where I wasn't feeling that great about something.

I have no idea what I was talking about.

Seriously.

I can't remember what it was.

That 's how fleeting our problems truly are.

The solutions are in the same plane of existence as the problem.

Focus on one, and you live that reality.

Focus on the other and you live that reality.

Funny how that works.

~*~*~

I'm about to embark on a new phase in my life, and I'm savoring the anticipation of it.

I can physically feel this future approach.

And it's amazing.

 

 

 

 

JOT Day 56, 57 - That's what good coaches do

I've come as far as I can on my own and need some help now for the rest of the journey.

I need coaching to learn how to do what I don't know how to do.

That's what I've come to conclude over the last few days. It's a surrender of sorts into what serves me, and it's exciting as all get-out.

I've been coached before, and I know how amazing the process is, so I look forward to this unfolding in ways I can't even imagine right now.

I've been watching video of other people going through a particular process, and there are shifts going on inside me that I can't describe.

They'll be gelling for awhile before I can put words to them.

And that is fabulous.

Because there is vocabulary that I don't have access to right now, and ways of thinking that are totally foreign to me, that I want from being coached by someone who does know, and is willing to share from the heart.

Because that's what good coaches do.

JOT Day 55 - This changes everything

The thing about a project that is brewed with an intention of boundless action, you just never know what's going to happen. So when, this afternoon, I had the inspiration/inclination/directive to completely redo my brand and website look and feel, fundamentally change it, I hesitated--for about a nano second.

Hesitated, but then acknowledged that this kind of inspiration wouldn't arrive without a reason, and it's pointless to fight it.

It's because of everything I've been building with, and building on, that's providing the momentum to drive this change, and for me to question it is to kill it.

That is always an option, killing it.

And I've certainly done that kind of thing in the past.

It's a convenient way to stay numb, kill your dreams.

That way you don't have to feel the pain of their not being realized, and you also don't have to feel the sweet ecstacy of their being realized.

For some, choosing which hurts more would be difficult.

But that's just not the landscape in this scenario.

It's an acknowledgment of the shifts I'm making, and what I have to offer those who are looking for that experience as well.

So there will be changes to the blissmonger online presence coming soon.

And it's all good.

 

 

 

 

 

JOT Day 54 - Above freezing

I was so excited yesterday about the photo session and all the new ideas I was getting access to because of it that I didn't sleep very well. My system responds like this to big energy, and I have to be careful about not playing music that really resonates with me too late in the evening or the same thing happens.

What a problem to have, eh?

So I got up during th night and did some more culling of articles I've saved about authentic marketing over the past two or three years and ckipped the salient points to include in my right brain business plan.

And I can stop collecting that stuff now. There is no more info needed--just implementation.

Today I watched dvd 7 out of 14 in the home study program that is pushing me steadily onward and upward with my business skills.

I also tweaked the logo look and feel of my site, found a new biz card template ready to order when my pics are available and found some great theme images at istockphoto for my pages.

The fact that the temperatures around here were above freezing for several days in a row made for pleasureably getting outside and walking. I was marveling at how nature does its thing and transforms this white frozen wonderland into green, lush summer. If it were up to us humans, it probably wouldn't happen because we'd find some excuse for the tansition to be late or out of balance.

We do our job of integrating what nature provides, and let nature do its creation thing.

 

JOT Day 53 - Today I was the object of a photoshoot

Today I was the object of a photoshoot.

It was so much fun!

Kudos to Josh for making it so. I can't wait to see the results!

And I found a look and feelf or my webiste that just. rocks. my world.

And a wonderful beginning to my right-brain biz plan--all the marketing/right/people/social media aritcles that I've printed over the last few years are makingtheir way into this artist's notebook document.

So. much. fun.

Sonoma Coast Pinot noir rocks.

And so does my sweetie.

JOT Day 52 - Yes, this includes everything

Since I moved to a new city, I've been putting off finding a new doctor because I just didn't want to.

I loved the one I had, and I had no variable reducing criteria for eliminating the thousands of practitioners in the area in order to find the one I wanted, and so I just let the endeavor simmer   back burner.

Until last week.

Then suddenly it all just sort of came together. I started looking online and I don't even remember what the search word I used was, but there, on the screen was a family practice clinic that employed--midwives? Really??

How progressive.

And it's in the part of town I want to live in next.  What the hell.

I'll see if they take new patients.

Yes?

When might the first available appointment be?

Tomorrow?

Really?

Um, OK.

Turns out I LOVED the place.

No one was in a hurry to see 120 patients that day. My questions and answers to theirs were attentatively listened to. I don't think I've ever had such a pleasant experience in a medical provider's office.

Another example of not taking action until one is lined up with it.

Don't even bother wasting your time and energy on something that will fail until you are lined up with it.

Yes, this includes everything.

 

JOT Day 51 - Spiders aren't just for breakfast anymore

Since I completed my homepage and my first tier 2 page on my new site, I could submit them today to Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines through my SBI account, and now the spiders can start doing their thing.

This is where I need to remember not to focus on the numbers.

Just like with paying attention the stock market fluctuations every day, or hopping on the scale every morning, obsessing on minute web traffic movement will drive you insane.

It's the babysteps of the present economic system, or your body's ability to metabolize energy and use it up as fuel, or usage on the net over time that wins.

I'm also noticing more new thoughts going through my head that I didn't have access to before, meaning they would have felt preposterous. But now that I've practiced thinking more and more thoughts in their essence range, i.e. hopeful and eager rather than doubtful and brooding, my neuropathways are branching out in these new ruts and more thoughts like them can show up because of this mind power flypaper.

It's exciting and empowering and full of possibilities all that rah-rah stuff, but the bottom line is, I feel great.

I'm experiencing steady and increasing relief from the self-talk loops that have played in my mind for decades and are now just as steadily losing their foothold.

I've got relief from what used to keep me up at night.

I've stopped wasting my time and  energy and finally found the solutions I was looking for.

I focus on what works and I see real, lasting results that build over time.

And that is one big bag of chips.

JOT Day 50 - In the clenches

Every once in awhile on this ride of personal growth, something happens.

You wake up and realize that the clenching of whatever it is that's on your mind, keeping you up at night--it's not there anymore.

And it stays away for half an hour, the rest of the day, possibly even the rest of the week, before old thinking takes over again and the clench comes back.

(Cuz the clench does come back, eventually, but the intensity has changed.) 

That lack of clench is the stuff of dreams.

But it's real.

It's like the pull of golf, connecting with the sweet spot on the club during a swing.

It's an addiction of the highest order, and eliminates any angst about sticking with the game that might have been there right up until that swing.

This lack of clench euphoria is stone. real. relief.

And the depth of the relief gets deeper, stronger, more pervasive and lasts longer each time it occurs, to the point of it taking awhile to notice that it's dissipated when it finally has.

But even then, you're on a new plateau from which to be/do/have, so the playing field has permantently changed anyway.

Once you start thinking and acting from a new place, you have access to thoughts and actions that are even more along the lines of what you were looking for, that wasn't available to you in the clenches.

Today was one of those unclench days for me.

And it's interesting that it came on the heels of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day quite recently.

The degree to which the contrast of these two experiences forms their dichotomy is astounding.

But because my focus here with the JOT process is doggedly onward with daily small steps toward what I say and believe that I want, these results really aren't that surprising.

And I'm milking it for all it's worth.

Doing the work but not taking the time to acknowledge and celebrate the results just cancels out the work and you lose traction.

Baby steps in the general direction get you where you're going.

What are you baby stepping? 

   

JOT Day 49 - Time suck ephemora

We all know participating in social media can be a time suck.

Surfing online articles is another.

It's so perfectly and eloquently justified, but it's a time suck.

None of us needs another article to validate what we're doing.

We only need our own permission for that.

It can't come from someone outside of ourselves because permission never stands still outside of ourselves.

It's always changing, depending on someone else's whim.

The permission we give ourselves is what counts, because deep down we know what we want to do and how to do it.

We're just waiting for permission.

Go ahead and give it to yourself.

Save yourself weeks, months, years of delay in doing what would make you feel (and possibly earn) a million bucks.

Today I consciously chose not to pick up another text of any kind until I'm finished with what I've already decided is on my path.

No distractions, not now.

There will be times when I need a break and a distraction will be welcome and useful.

Just not now.

 

JOT Day 47, 48 - Climbing back up the emotional scale

Every once in awhile, I plunge back down for a reorientation with the depths of the emotional scale, down in the bowels of negative emotions that I know do not serve me or anyone else, but in the heat of the moment, they just are.

The thing is, once you've stabilized your spot in the upper registers, this reorientation thing doesn't take much to feel like the world as you know it has collapsed--even just a little bit of contrast in an arena that you aren't used to anymore does that. 

So I vented and fumed for awhile, reached out and spoke to someone who talked me down from the dizzying heights of irrationality, and eventually I felt much better.

Even that small amount of time and energy spent in that space was exhausting though. And counterproductive. I know better. But the experience was great for shoring up boundaries and resolve in many areas, so for that I can appreciate what happened.

Today I am checking out another spot for my Meetup group to meet in, and I took the first step in making an appointment as a new patient with a new health care provider. The Right-Brained Biz Plan book arrived in the mail and I've started reading the exercises that will start using the clippings I've got from magazines.

Feeling like I'm on track and moving in the right direction.

JOT Day 45, 46 - On the move

On the road again but still made time to JOT. Yesterday I got real clarity around articulating my value proposition, or what it is that I do for people. Today I found an authentic affiliate link that will feel great on the new website, which I read another chunk about in the manuel on writing pages. Good stuff, Maynard.

JOT Day 43, 44 - Asking the Right Questions

Usually it's about asking the right questions to get to where you want to go, and then listening to the answers.

Sometimes its about asking the right questions at the right time, in the right mindset.

The blinders and ear muffs are off and you can actually move beyond where you've been.

I love it when that happens.

So never underestimate the power behind never, never, never give up.

Eventually, you'll get there.   

Someone out there needs to hear this right now.

You know who you are.

You're welcome.

JOT Day 42 - Living my life

Home page copy written and run tbrough rigorous analysis checks. Bam.

Excellent conversation around what surrender and vulnerability really are, and what we like to pretend they are. Bam.

Dinner at Chipotle. Bam.