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    Thanks for visiting. This blog is intended to share some ideas regarding mental and emotional growth, or as I like to call it: Emolvement. This may be the best way to survive the sheer amount of tangible growth ahead. We will be challenged in new ways. To emolve, we will need to use every tool at our disposal including: Self-hypnosis, Self-reflection, Visualization and learning to utilize your Unconscious Mind. We will have to dig deep, because the problematic behaviors are deeply imbedded. Even the examination of words and expressions will lead to the exposure of many that are simply wrong. Others expressions are just time wasting. But, they affect us all; without our conscious knowledge. 

    They are an example of the many Invisible walls that exist to prevent our growth. Most are imbedded in the cultural programming we are subjected to. Others are simple manufactured to maintain control. It's all about power. Many would argue that this just the human condition. I don't agree. The lack of intellectual growth could easily be the result of a self fulfilling prophecy. Once the Human Condition was accepted as fact, growth was assumed to be impossible by many. More recently, there have been attempts to explain the value of consciousness raising and meditation and some are taking action in order to grow. In response to this, I have created the word: Emolvement. Once a word exists, it can become something to be studied. It exists. As a result of this word, the potential for growth has become real. Words have to the power to be positive or negative and we need to know which is which.

    I have taken an aspirational approach to this. I have to as I explore and map an unknown place to me. Since like attracts like, I have chosen benevolence as my north star and this hope outweighs the negative energy my positive energy will eventually attract. 

    For each of us, this journey is about mental exploration. I started it when I came to see that our mental growth and maturity hasn't matched our tangible growth (technology, etc) and the other challenges of our ever changing environment. As a species, we have endlessly tested our physical limits and mental endurance. Endurance in itself isn't growth, but now we can apply it for our growth instead of survival. It is necessary when individuals reach a higher level of consciousness (The ultimate form of growth) because it is uncomfortable at first; since the value of many things may change. Our historical responses to the challenges of living have demonstrated that incremental increases to our mental maturity and endurance are possible. Yet, at the same time, we have left our unconscious and its role in our lives  unexplored. We have no idea of its potential. Therefore, with regard to the unconscious mind, I will assume anything is possible and except no limitations, until I meet them for myself.  I like to think of this as an advancement in organic technology, which is non polluting and doesn't require as many natural resources.

    Most people don't even know their unconscious mind exists. Some fear it and the rest of us are just too busy.  In addition, our goals are constantly changing. We change our minds so often that our unconscious mind becomes confused about what you really want. Once confused about the course you want it eventually just steps back and waits. When we are children, we have a relationship with this part of ourselves. Our unconscious creates invisible friends and helps to guide us away from danger. Once rules are introduced, the unconscious relinquishes it's influence. This relationship needs to be rebuilt. But, people are so busy that they don't have any time for self reflection, let alone take on new ideas like personal growth. Reflection allows us to be self correcting. Without reflection, we need more external controls like the police, courts and sometimes even firemen. We are not able to find the time to even take an unbiased look at ourselves. Therefore, we simply accept things that don't quite make sense, as we drive down our parkways to park in our driveways. As individuals, we simply don't have the time to question much, let alone to develop new mental skills. Society has us facing our limits of endurance, but is all this activity actually helping us to grow as individuals and as a society. Here, I would have to admit that most limits are beneficial to us. Speed limits are a simple example. But, when it comes to the way you think... why accept any? 

    Emolvement is different than evolution in several ways. Evolution is a series of improved physical adaptations to better interact with their environment in a way that improves survival. This usually happens when a superior mutation appears. Those genes and more likely to be passed on to future generations. Over generations, this advantageous trait often becomes the norm. Emolvement, however, is a conscious decision to change oneself, within a single lifetime. This is one way we can respond to today's rapidly changing environment. It might be the only way, in a world where facts are becoming negotiable.  

    I have personally changed the way I think in certain situations. To emolve, I spend time doing intentional meditation. This is also known as self-hypnosis and is a method to essentially reprogram yourself mentally, which can lead to changes behaviorally or possibly even physically. Initially, my goal was to try to eliminate some of my negative programs and replace them with "positive" ones; putting me back into the driver's seat. We all have them. They are patterns of behavior which are much like computer programs. Some of these programs seem innate, while others are learned from an early age. The deeper the program, the more difficult it is to change or remove and this might be disorienting and temporarily painful. The hallmark of these programs is that positive or negative they turn on, without any thought whatsoever.

    

    In general meditation involves the repetition of a mantra in coordination with one's breathing. One only needs to meditate and then replace the mantra with a command. Meditation is an important tool and it's actually quite a simple thing to do. There are many types of meditation and for our purposes I recommend self-hypnosis for making changes. Instead of a mantra I will repeat something like..."I am strong" or I am compassionate. This method is probably one of the more aggressive forms of meditation, since it requires a lot of concentration to be effective. Other forms focus on relaxation. Mindfulness meditation focuses on nothing at all to achieve this purpose. 

    Through these method, we can program ourselves to be any kind of person that we want to be. In other words, we can enhance our personality by working on things like patience or listening more. Usually, when people learn about this, the first thing they want...is to become rich.  But tangible items are outside of the control of your mind. However, it is still possible to use this method to become rich. All anyone needs to do is to think of the traits that will make this possible. Improving one's perception, memory, even traits such as confidence will improve their chance for success. But, our obsession with money is the ultimate expression of our focus on tangibility as dictated by society and if you are fixated on it, you may remain stuck in the tangible world, where things are only what you see.

    With our busy lives; it becomes harder to find spare time. Therefore, I often practice this while I drive or while waiting in line for brief periods. The meditation is easy. Keeping this goal in mind is hard, while we struggle to feed our families and keep them happy, healthy and safe, in the tangible world. Sometimes we must ask, "How important are certain activities'? I found that many of the things I did in my day to day life took much more time than they wee worth. I also discovered that it was difficult to just do nothing. I felt guilty as I took time out for some reflection and dare I say, even some daydreaming. Everyone else was busy. I began to over-clean and then to overthink my lack of activity. People urged me to be busy. I began to notice little things that I did that I could do without and I began to simplify. That gave more time for reflection and even a few thought experiments.

    There is the constant call to all American's to buy things. All kinds of things. It's as if it's in the wind or the water.  We buy things which have only final use... as garbage. We love to buy things. Only later do we realize how much time we will spend maintaining or even moving that stuff around. Stuff piles up. Hoarding can easily be explained by our past. Until very recently it was advantageous to gather as much stuff as possible. It might be needed by you or someone in your circle. It isn't useful anymore but the practice continues. This contributes to the use of natural and unhealthy rates of hoarding. One day soon, we will run out of Stuff and hoarding will have value again. 

    Change takes a lot of time and determination. One day, I realized that I should stop saying, "I'm sorry," whenever I needed to acknowledge a small mistake or injury. I must have said it tens of thousands of times or more over the previous thirty years only to find that I had been inadvertently been putting myself down all of that time. We use that adjective for something in bad shape, like a "That's a sorry excuse." Or, we will say, "That's a sorry excuse for a person." I knew that wasn't a helpful thing to do and this was probably damaging to my own self-esteem through my unconscious. So, I decided to just say, "I apologize," instead. It took me over two years to implement that small change and I still backslide on occasion. All too often, a given word has particular kind of baggage attached to it already. It might  have many meanings, as well. This creates confusion and creates inefficiencies as well. Some are simply hurtful and diminish both parties although the victim can control his/her response. The action is over and the protagonist has already diminished himself. We have many words and expressions simply don't make sense. However, the worst are those expressions which harm us, while going unexamined. Ask a veteran with PTSD is he agrees with the expression, "Whatever kills you, makes you stronger." We blindly accept this as true. But is it? I imagine the expression helped people endure immeasurable hardships and had value in the past. But Today, it almost sounds like propaganda designed to make people work harder, possibly dangerously. We must add evaluation of our choice of words and the choices of others to the process of Evolvement.

    I have also found Visualization to be a remarkable tool in my emolvement. Prayer was the first form of Visualization. In my case it has been essential for maintaining good health or slowing or even eliminating illnesses of many kinds. Obviously, this usually takes too long to be effective for cases of trauma, but it can be applied to the healing process. Simply put, visualization is the best method to speak to your unconscious mind. It uses images to try to reach you in dreams, so we can use images to communicate back to it. A good exercise is to imagine something like a movie screen and then project a red brick wall onto it. Then paint the wall white. It is harder that you think but it is a great way to enhance your visualization skills. Through visualization we can begin to establish a line of communication with that part of us and this can grow over time. If this is something new and it feels difficult, see Visualization to help you learn how. If you want to know more about treating health issues, also see Visualization for Self Healing for a more extensive explanation in this blog.

    Thousands of years ago, we escaped the jungle. Not because of sharp teeth and claws, but because of our endurance (and the ability to sweat). Endurance is our superpower and given a choice, I would probably choose something else. But, that endurance allowed early humans to run down prey. One man could chase after a gazelle for twenty miles. The man could carry water and sweat to cool himself and the gazelle couldn't. The prey eventually got heat stroke and died. That additional protein helped our brains to grow and soon men were following tracks and had no need to see their prey. A lion hunts by smell and will walkover fresh tracks without a thought. As our brains grew further, we domesticated animals. No more running down animals on foot anymore. But, we still need that endurance. We even push ourselves to increase it. The whole of human history is filled of advancements due to our endurance. In the future, Emolvement could be our new super-power and we may need one! Once we begin to explore space, we might need more than endurance to communicate with other beings. We will need to be intelligent in every way possible: both consciously and unconsciously.  

            

    Just a reminder: Success brings pride and pride is the enemy of open-mindedness. Open-mindedness is required for growth and pride kills those caught by it as they begin to believe that they know all the answers. Eliminating pride will re-open the gateway to growth and the final step into positive levels such as neutrality: the gateway to joy.

        

   

    Please feel free to check out the achieve. Scroll through. It's your future. Learning and growth aren't linear. Unfortunately, that is true with this blog. I have tried to maintain a certain order, which has some continuity. I suggest you take a look at the index or just scroll through for specific subjects, such as Visualization for Self-Healing. Ideas come is spurts and often, they need to percolate. If you have any comments, suggestions or criticisms, feel free to them by clicking on the title in the index.