A Reader Learns:

    How Not to Use Your Mind And Stay Alive

This collection is dedicated to my psychiatrist, Dr. Ruel Malata of Iloilo City. Feb 17, 2012.

INTRODUCTION

Some authors claim we are no longer in the information age.  We have entered the age of insights. While I value professional help, I believe, to serve the complex individual needs, apart from those of the general population, even the individual contributions that spring from social media, self-published writings, unpublished sharings in circles like café conversations can be given due respect. There is much to be learned from those who take responsibility for their lives be it for health, wealth or wellbeing.

I do not write for the mainstream. I know I don’t have the traditional credentials to be accepted by the gatekeepers of either the medical or the psychological enclaves. I would like to believe I can interest those who are aware of the metaphysical realm. I write for seekers, wayfinders and in general those who have experienced pain or are still experiencing such. I write for those who desire to be less fearful; I write for those who would like to believe that life is worthwhile, difficulties notwithstanding.

My first book “A Teacher Learns” celebrated my experiences with some of my high school students in Assumption, Iloilo. My second book highlighted my garden experiences in my mini garden outside our apartment where we lived for almost thirty years. This third book is about the workings of my mind, basically still thinking like a teacher but convinced that to be truly human one must recognize one’s spirituality.

Now that my classroom years have been officially ended I don’t want to write as a teacher. I believe I can claim credibility for what I write because I am a reader. I know I am but one voice, often irreverent. The establishment would pooh pooh my messages as mere anecdotal babble. But I am convinced that on another level where everybody and everything are connected, I indeed have significant messages. I challenge my readers to test for themselves what I have experienced: that awakening the great spark of divinity in one’s self comes in different forms tailored to the individual.

I dare those who have heard similar small voices from within to strengthen their inner lives. In the near future the critical mass of Redfield will be a reality similar to the dream for change of Greg Braden and the tipping point of Malcolm Gladwell.

This is a book of essays on the workings of the mind as related to the family, social conditionings and health. There are 31 essays that hopefully would tease the reader to take the responsibility of taming the mind. According to Rhonda Bitten, a life coach, it takes 30 days to effect a change. Another author claims it takes only 21 days to shift energy and self-awareness completely.

I encourage my readers to dirty the copy you are reading, presuming you own the copy. You’ll get the most your of the copy if you interact by writing your comments on the page. Underline the lines with which you can relate. Rewrite the lines you cannot resonate with. If you are the violent type, by all means tear the page or the pages that make you angry. However, own your anger. When you have calmed down, resolve to examine your own mind.

For the brave souls who dare to go on a similar self-designed program of self-renewal, I recommend reading a few of the books listed in the appendix. Many of the authors included are female, clearly that is my bias. I have observed through the years that the female speaks from a unique point of view not readily supported by the males.  There are stirrings of the soul that can only spring from a near dejection over doing actual housework or at least managing the household even if you live alone.  In this generation dedicated to women, I would like to call attention to the realities that women have long dealt with but have not seen print until recently. There are a number of women writers who have dared to write about new realities that mainstream society has yet to openly accept. The various authors, both the traditional and the radical ones, will convince the reader that there is no single pathway to health, wealth and well-being.

I wrote this Introduction in January, 2012. So much has been thought of; so much has happened in my inner life. Reviewing Mark Nepo’s “The Book of Awakening” compels me to soften my bias for women writers. I must admit to myself first that I wanted to write something as personal and as uplifting as his book but I can’t. I don’t have his painful experiences or his spiritual depth. I don’t covet his pains but I am inspired to go through my own spiritual journey.

My plan is for the readers to use this book for at least a month, to allow my ideas to percolate and resonate with the reader. I pray you will go back to read the essay that doesn’t interest you at first. I write about the workings of the mind because the prospective readers I believe have been conditioned to use the thinking mind as a template.

I am a staunch believer of lived experiences; that’s why many of my essays are about me, my husband and our only daughter Julie Anne. Dr. Ronald Mann advocates lived experiences: one cannot impart a level of teaching that one has not already experienced and realized. I thrive on ironies in life; my personality does not revolve around congeniality. If any of the narratives don’t sit well with you, at least I have done you a favor. You get a clearer picture of what you don’t want. Don’t dwell on that essay; move to another one. Before you put down the book, can you please ask yourself: “What are you resisting?”

When you’re lost, you can no longer get direction from outside yourself. The world has changed and is still changing in an accelerated pace. Your best bet is to look at your life and listen to silence.

SPECIAL MESSAGE

I write for adults, not for pre-college readers. I write for those who dare to examine their minds. The analytical mind needs help. It can be coaxed to wait for answers. It can be given a pleasant experience if only to convince one that it will be okay even if the mind doesn’t know the answer to every question.

Unfortunately for me this wasn’t so in my school especially during my elementary years. But I’ve learned I can be liberated by taking the risk of asserting that I’m an ADULT now. The young especially know how limited life would be if they limit their learning to textbooks. Life could be so limited when one simply waits for instructions or guidelines. Nowadays even with a plethora of self-help books one cannot go through life relying on external information. One needs to experience and learn for one’s self. One needs to discriminate from among choices.

Learning for one’s self won’t be without difficulties. Social conditioning will put the learner in challenging situations. One will be tempted to keep up appearances; one will have to pretend one knows the answers every so often. One will very often be lured into the easy way out, acting according to the truth of the crowd, not so unlike acting according to results of popular surveys.

My husband and I had a funny experience during the early years of the cell phone. My husband and I went around asking how to operate the cell phone of our daughter who went to a separate portion of the restaurant. We must have appeared ridiculous. To our surprise even the young ones in the restaurant did not know how to operate the phone of our daughter.

On a less mundane level, there is no need to be controlled by answers indoctrinated in fear. There is much comfort, to say the least, in venturing out of routine and the traditional. So much in our lives conspires to upset us, to agitate us. We allow so much and so many persons to disturb us. In short, we continue to allow external forces to dictate to us. According to Dr. Page who is a great advocate for personal responsibility, the age of the guru is gone. To live meaningfully one must assume responsibility for one’s life. This requires learning for one’s needs. The experts and the authorities with their motherhood statements can no longer be expected to solve the individual’s problems with their myriad subtleties and specifics.

The individual’s pain, disappointments, anger are colored by one’s families, educational history, religious affiliations, gender etc. – one’s inner truth especially. The English speaking humanity may be expected to say “ouch” when in pain. But the response can range from the use of ice cubes to a loving touch on the shoulder or a reassuring clasp of the hand. It can be a prayer said from a different country. It can be sent or received via the web. Regardless! The causes and origins of pain can’t be measured by the factory made “one size fits all”. The best life plan is a personalized blue print open to adaptations as whispered by the inner spirit.

What a relief! No more need to figure out everything by means of the intellect working by itself. Everybody has an inner guidance built into one’s DNA. There is intuition. This is not the popular ESP. I refer to an inner voice cultivated by refining the information received from the five senses. It may be information received from books, from the Internet from significant others but with added value from one’s self. It is the inner voice developed by opening up to experiences leading to understanding. It is the inner voice stripped of its reactivity and one’s desire to grasp something or somebody. It is an invitation to be in the moment rather than being stuck in the past or obsessed with the future. The intuition I refer to is a tool for the soul to eventually go back and unite with its creator.

The question then is:”How is your relationship with your inner self?” If you haven’t been paying attention to your core all these years, how can you hear it when you need it?