Tribal living updated to chapter 24

Tribal Living in a World Gone Mad-er The twenty-one 2k addendum
I think this will be a short fantasy post on a could be coming real situation the ultimate test of survival. And what better to survive than the various end’s of the world as we know it, that are coming our way. Not that there is one way to survive all dangers one of the main ways to increase your odds is to have numbers on your side.
This will be more an essay as I of course wrote on the subject in my book. First a little background , I’m currently in the time frame of Mid January 2011. As a bonafide doom and gloomer my opinions on world collapse are pretty set. Now if we are going with the Mayan we are under two years to go. Without that consideration couldn’t we think that the end could come any day?
That’s drastic yet even the blindest a sleepist’s can tell that something is wrong , a very serious, and at this point unexplainable yet possibly related events that point to major calamity or calamities in the near future which is fast becoming the present.
A quick list of symptoms, because to call them signs would be to underestimate the damage and harm that events have caused. In another way to give explanation lets start with the most bizarre to me being the massive bird and fish kills of the first week of the New Year started at 11:30 pm the day before.
The Beebe Arkansas Blackbird deaths, which were followed by a fish kill, then more bird and fish even crab kill’s happening all around the globe. Millions of deaths are not a sign, a sign would of been the birds acting funny. These are more of a consequence of ignoring the signs.
One good out of the death’s in Arkansas is that people became aware for at least a time to a couple of facts. The first one is that no, what is happening now is not normal and never was unless you think mass extinctions are a normal cycle.
Bird kills are not extinction events but they are far more than a sign that something is wrong. Even calling it a symptom is underestimating the impact. So maybe we can pile this all into a lump and call them consequences. At this point I wont go into the possible reasons why the birds and fish died, except for how it applies to we the Sheeple . The second perception that was at least temporarily given to the people , “I think the government and the media lies.” When they came out with the first explanation , that the birds were scared to death by the noise, of the fireworks at twelve, when they reportedly started dying at 11:30.
Most people immediately thought this was bogus. That the government and media business conglomerate that run the show, would actually lie to them is still news to some people, very few but even the most hardcore had to at least consider the possibility that somebody is not telling them the real story. How long the people remember that will depend on if there is any good to 4 to 8 thousand lives lost to start the year.
Or we could say to cap off a really bad year. It would take pages to list the catastrophes of 2010. An Incredibly devastating year by any standards. Millions of human’s were affected by weather. There were major floods on at least three continents. Hardest hit probably was Pakistan. Yet I’m sure if you were in So. America it seemed as bad enough. In Parts of Australia they are still being hit with storm upon storm in a record flood.
At this particular time my internet is shut off , but if it as usual there are earthquakes happening all over the planet. We could fill another page on this post with all the major earthquakes of 2010. Starting with Haiti , on to New Zealand , with some in Japan, Chile and Argentina. Big quakes that kept on shaking for months with powerful aftershocks.
Then there was more weather, reports said over 250,000 deaths from weather. I also followed the news that the Ice caps were near record lows again. I read where this year the methane bomb started going off. This is another issue well past the sign stage. To put it mildly the methane bomb has the potential to end life as we know it, or knew it, because we wont be around if it blows. While not a sign it could still be at a symptom stage , where if we the asleeple noted the dire consequences of a very real threat to existence. If the phrase methane bomb is unfamiliar to your vocabulary I would suggest doing an immediate search on it.
The point I would make is the methane gas releases reported in Siberia and the Arctic ocean, is way beyond a sign that something is wrong. One of my favorite subjects are signs. Using hindsight it is pretty easy to see the signs . Of course by the time you see the signs in hindsight it is usually the time for consequences. The issue becomes academic, which means not a total waste of time figuring out where we first started noticing something different. In driving this is figuring out why the tire fell off. It might help if its an issue that might repeat itself.
However signs are only of real value if you pay attention to them as they happen. If you saw the sign that your ride was kinda shaky and slowed down and stopped to check your tires it might not of fell off. At least that’s what my dad used to tell me.
A good friend told me this story that happened to him. He says he was driving down the highway when he looked in the next lane and saw a tire going down the road. He said he laughed and said “hey someone lost a tire” . Of course the next thing he knew he heard a lot of scraping as his axle hit the ground. The moral of the story is don’t laugh it could happen to you.
If we heeded all the signs we probably wouldn’t need a moral to the story . Like Mark Twain would of said , as a humorist he’d be out of business. A lot of humor would be lost in the world if we quit making mistakes. More than some of us out there reading this post or writing it wouldn’t be here if not for a mistake. A general rule is other people’s mistakes are going to seem more humorous than your own. Except of course your most embarrassing moment. If you can’t see the humor in that episode you really need to rediscover your funny bone.
And when I say you I mean me as well, is there anybody who couldn’t use a few more laughs in their world? Or even a few. A precious few to sooth the savage beast that is the future. Which is what really matters now. The past brought us here we can’t change the past , even our present seems beyond our or anyone’s control. What we do have a say in is the future.
I can accept most of the difficulties facing me personally in the present which is really the now mixed with the near. The now really only counts big at the end. The only time you really live in the now is your final breath. Then again right now is already in the past. So the now becomes this moment, this day , this week, this month and the on and on.
When you live only in the now you miss out on the future. We disconnect from the future as a way of avoiding fear. That’s probably why when the tire started shaking we waited to see if it got worse. Itso facto by avoiding and ignoring the future we become fated to it.



Chapter 2 . WARNING Consequence zone ahead. This is where I am at odds with my doom and gloom self, because I do see amazing possibilities that will occur because of the consequence period . And even though the wheel’s are coming off we still have option’s. My main hope in driving terms would be that if we are going to crash we at least try to hit something soft , instead of something hard. I learned that in defensive driving school. This will be very important as we drive our now, crashing into the consequence zone. that is now our future, but only briefly then like all things become the past. To get off the driving analogies Let me put it in words said by the great W.C. Fields . The scene is him and his daughter in a balloon and the girl says “were a thousand feet up and the balloon is leaking” and Fields say’s “ don’t worry the first 999 feet are nothing to worry about, it’s that last foot that will kill you”. These are things I consider or will use as factors to living for a future, while riding out the present. It is not going to be easy but we know that, but I think if we keep calm and plan ahead we can come through this period, for sure there will be some worse for the ware involved. It will hopefully also make us better from the experience.
So what we are going to do is two fold. One would be to as much as possible make changes now that will help us make it through the coming present , as well as ways to prevent being put in this position again.
As I said I can accept the coming consequences , because I helped make them, not only directly, as in my personal position , but indirectly by ignoring signs and enabling the powers that be to get to the point they have.
The position? Really there are so few of us left with any control at all left for a personal life. It gets harder and harder for people like us . People who want to make a decent living and be left alone. The modified American dream, being able to pay your bills this month and eat. Day in this becomes a more difficult task.
For some I would even suggest becoming one of they, get your position in the conglomerate engaged in world control and learn to take advantage of the situation. For those of you about to join or indenture yourself into the system just remember to never believe or totally trust in the system. Learn the system and how it works , this can be used to your advantage. Remember every stupid law and rule they will impart to you has a way around it. It’s part of the system , after all they make the rules for you to follow not them.
For the rest of us, those that would never be accepted into the power structure we will need to think of something else. That something else will be the main subject of this work, wether it comes out as a post, short story, book or it ends up as my opening show and theme , remains to be seen. Before we go further I should explain my qualifications for writing this book. The real
reason I might be qualified to write a book on this subject is that I also am in this position. My hope is that by helping you it helps me, and that what I do that helps me will help you.
By doing this we are also on our way to becoming a tribal society, where you care about your tribe as well as yourself , and you have a group of people that care about you as well as the existence of the tribe. As this text grows I hope to impart the benefits and in some cases necessities of being part of a group in tune with the needs of the present as well as an eye and a plan on the future. A better future.
I should warn you that this book has not been written yet, I’m not sitting in a paradise waiting for you to join me. This is not a book by a famous smart guy and I’ll never be a guru to you. I might even be wrong in many areas, because this is a learning as well as teaching situation.
To me these are advantages we can use , after all we can not count on the same giant brains that got us into this mess to get us out. I’ve heard it was Einstein who said something like insanity , and Stupidity is using the same thinking that got you into a mess to get you out of it. That is a definite part of this book as we attempt to remove ourselves from under the control of the powers that be and their giant brains.
To do this will not be simply doing or not doing the same things over and over expecting something different . While we will get into the aspect of survival , because at times it will be prevalent , the more important point will be living a life worth the struggle. This will require changes in all aspects of our lives , from mental to physical , even our perceived wants and needs. As we or I learn and grow I expect or at least hope that we will see these needs and wants in there true value. One last warning before we go on. I tend to find that most answers to the problems we face are actually very simple, simple but not easy. I think and I will attempt to make the case that we are way past any easy solutions to the tomorrow’s we now face.
CHAPTER 3. Never write about yourself .
I was warned when I started this book that you should never write about yourself , mostly because unless your famous or it impacts the reader nobody cares. Knowing that I’d like the reader to be aware that I am an important part of us. So are you , which makes us the we. We need each other. So in most terms I will use the singular term of I to mean me as the subject, or experiment. If I talk to much about myself remember I am only the lab rat or guinea pig.
I think it is important to have goals plans and dreams, in a world less mad I would say work to fit the three together to give you the present and future that you desire. We will need more of a motivator than mere survival, that while useful will only get us so far, lets consider survival as only a small thing, as it is.
Survival is a base instinct found in every living creature. In nature survival is seen as mostly living long enough to continue the gene pool. While we add a few extra’s to the definition this is also our main goal. As big brained animals we place preparing our offspring to survive as a part of the process.
In terms of surviving a cataclysmic event, to actually survive , we not only have to stay alive , we must try to insure that the next few generations have at least the chance to survive and continue the life cycle program.
In other circumstances we will strive to survive in a constantly changing mostly degrading planet on the edge. While life is job one there are good reasons to expand our plans beyond , eat sleep breath, all simple now activities , the corner stones of living, and attempt to find sustainable, enjoyable productive life styles .
After all isn’t that what we all want? To survive we must have lives worth living. Then if we get it right we can enjoy the now without having to avoid and ignore the future. What should be obvious is the importance of us making these changes. A very wise saying goes “those who forget the past are doomed to relive it. Now lets add those who forget the future , wont have one.
Is it that bad ? Is it crucial? Is it absolutely necessary? This is a judgement call you will have to make on your own. However as an author who would like you to keep reading I will spend a chapter or two on some of the possible future events that might have to be survived. As we read on I hope to categorize and quantify the fears and repercussions the events hold on our future. Also a guess at how long before these future events smack us in our now’s.
In keeping with the title of course we have to consider my friend and becoming constant companion December 21, 2012. As part of writing this book I have decided to E- publish Twenty-One 2K the Handymans guide to 2012 , first on my blog and then into e-book form.
I had higher hopes for it but I think the best course is to just put it out there and hope someone see’s it , maybe even read’s it. What matter’s is in writing the book, and I hope in the reading of the book, the conclusion would be that there are too many possible events and coincidences occurring in this time frame to just ignore it.
2012 aside, because I’m not going to try to convince you on that, I made my case in the book. We will have to look at survival in terms of surviving a great event , as well as surviving with out it, This would be a rapidly increasing series of events escalating into a degenerated probable extinction type of scenario.
Now we can only survive an extinction by avoiding it, very important to remember. I also think the stakes should be considered, while we contend with getting through the now . Don’t we have to consider future life and their goals of having a now. If we are barely making it now , as a society as a species, what will the next generations have to do in a worse environment with more competition for depleted resources. Once again I may be overstating my case but as usual the entire future is counting on us to ensure there will be one.
We owe it to life, all the genes and history in us that goes all the way back to mankind’s beginning. We owe it to the planet and all life on it.
Enough of that I know that most wont act out of duty. I think in this case the only motivator strong enough is fear. It’s sad of course that we wouldn’t do it for love, or for future generations, or because it is the right thing to do morally.
The trouble with using fear is that it is a shifting emotion , spread into most of our now lives. I can come up with a list of fears every morning just to get in my car and get to work. Then there is my list of fears for work. Then after work I come up with a new list of fears , that last until I am home and if I don’t find any new fears from the event of the day, I simply go to bed knowing I will tomorrow start a new and improved list.
CHAPTER 4 MORE FEAR ITSELF, Fear can be useful, like pain it can give alert that something is not right. But chronic fear like chronic pain overloads the system thereby negating any useful message. We as a society are already in chronic overload when it comes to fear , before fear can be effective we have to eliminate the excesses, clean our minds of unneeded fears that waste our time and energies, so we can get to the fear that counts.
Notice I didn’t say remove fear from our lives that would not only be impossible it would be impractible and foolhardy. Without fear you won’t survive for long at least. In a way the reason we have to be so attentive to babies and toddlers is that we haven’t taught them the fears they will need to be on their own. While we like to think our loving parental design including siblings would only pass on the good fears , such as if you touch fire you will get burned,. We have to remember the human side passing on hereditary fears, these are quite possibly what you will call bad fears. These include personal phobias , fear in it’s worse state as well as other than natural fears , like the fear of God/authority, which equals retribution.
Phobia’s mostly involve our avoidance mechanism’s, if we are afraid of heights, stay on the ground. The interesting thing about avoidance techniques is that it really helps the fear which is the problem to become more ingrained in the psyche. And if avoiding one thing helps it quickly becomes a major part of your coping tools.
I am totally unqualified to help you if you have a major phobia , yet I still can help. The first step which will help with all the fears and degrees is to classify them and rate them, in order of their chances of impacting your own life.
Just an example after 9/11 people were or some still are afraid of terrorist killing them in America. We spent trillions and gave up our last freedoms to guard ourselves from this possibility. Yet if you look at the statistics you are more at risk of dying from peanut butter than terrorist attack. More people die from peanut butter related incidents than terror.
Not to mention the fear and energy we put into making the air safe to travel while millions get killed on the roads. These generalities show that fear can be controlled transferred and most importantly manipulated. Surprisingly this is a good thing, because if it can be controlled then it would go back to being the survival tool it is meant to be.
A good or easy way to control fear is to examine it. First off is it a real fear do you fear something relevant to your life? Then examine even list your response’s to said fear. Then list how you would or could respond to the fear.
First lets look at phobias your own personal fears. Most are abnormal responses to normal occurrences. We all have them it’s the degree to which they impact our live’s that matters. A good way to judge the degree of your fear is to face it. A mild phobia can usually be overcome by purposely encountering the thing that scares us. The stronger the fear the more important it would be to break it up into stages, if it is heights don’t start with sky diving, start with standing on a book, if you have to close your eyes. Then when that becomes comfortable open your eyes and look around then up and down, relax your body knowing if you fall its only inches. Hey if you think that was easy try standing on one leg, if that’s too scary use a wall or something to get support. When you can handle that try a chair or step ladder stepping up and down, working your way up as you feel comfortable to achieve a level of security in your mind do to circumstances you might encounter in the future. Another good exercise is walking on a board, place a 2x4 on the ground and walk the length of it, try not to fall off, use your imagination as you look at the board picture the ground around it say a few feet below , then walk it, then work your way up to your desired height goals.
I may type like a writer but I am and have always been a working man , and have worked off the very top of 40 ft ladders , as well as from ropes off the tops of buildings. The main thing that will get you to those heights with the ability to function is the belief and trust in your body and mind that you can do it. Its not like I don’t have a fear of heights , they can be dangerous and hurt a lot. As I told one customer I don’t mind height’s but I’m not real crazy about falling. Falling could actually be the root fear to most fear of heights. Isn’t that what scares us most about heights ?
So if you fear falling which is of course another natural fear unnatural in that it controls your actions we now need to focus on controlling that specific fear. This should be quick and easy after all once you fall the important thing is landing well. We only fear falling because of the ensuing landing. So to help control our fear of falling you work on landing. My first suggestion would be to learn from the pros , any martial arts training will involve landings. The next step up would be floor gymnastics getting confidence in your body is a good way to overcome the fear of falling.
If your agoraphobic you can practice at home. All you really need is a soft secure place to land. If its major sit on the edge of a bed and slowly allow your back to fall onto the bed. Analyze the procedures you used in a controlled fall. How your arms back and neck all have to work together to protect your vital areas. The body knows how to land. Do to bad habits it can forget so as you practice falling backwards tell your body if its not doing it right and repeat the exercises until it does.
It’s nice to have incentives if you desire to do something a fear prevents you from doing this will help motivate you. Another side effect of controlling your fear is more self-confidence, if you can take one little step you can do a bigger one next time.
In heights that would be to fall forward the scariest part of the whole falling fear. Again if its debilitating start on your knees in a very soft place. Again do a slow motion controlled fall this time frontwards. Allow your body to do it’s thing again correcting bad habits through practice until you have the confidence that should you fall you can land in the best possible mannor.
What we are doing here is called starving the fear , we are indirectly working on the fear of falling by gaining confidence in both our balance and our landings. Then once you gain control and confidence in your balance which comes from the mind with body , you actually will fall less , reducing the fear into a manageable and useful tool you can use in your life.
I picked heights because it is one of the most common and natural fears people have. Most phobias are best dealt with in the same techniques , examining the fear for its impact on you and finding out the real fear or root fear involved, then in stages personally facing and controlling the levels of fear until they lose the impact they have on your life. I think fear will play a huge part in the future so I will spend lots more of your time as we work through the different types and responses to the fears including fear itself in the next few chapters. I think it will help if we learn the difference between natural and unnatural fears and how we can recognize the differences, then of course find our best responses , especially to the Unnatural fears. I think it will help us in the long term to be able to respond to the fears imposed on us by society as well as the ones created in the inner mind.

CHAPTER 5, Sorry Mr. President. In one of my top five favorite speeches President Roosevelt , FDR, said “ We have nothing left to fear but fear itself.” We of course have plenty more to fear than just plain old fear. Nowadays most of the awake-ished crowd will all tell you that fear is just the distraction, to keep you from noticing what is really happening.
Redundant as it sounds, and is, most fears are designed as buffers to what really scares us. We get unnatural fears because they attach themselves to older fears usually going back to a perfectly natural fear.
Because of this and circumstances each individual must classify their own fears. Its easier to start with natural fears , do they involve survival , are they a tool passed on a human trait that we all have ? Fear as a survival tool is why humans have lasted as long as we have. We weren’t always top of the food circle , we developed these fears mostly as a response to being prey. Then we learned that by controlling these fears we could move onto a safer position that of predator.
This was like the puberty of mankinds rise., as well as a flaw that is responsible for the negative impact we have brung on the planet as a species. To compensate for our fear of being eaten , we kill to preempt being eaten. First we had to become the top predator , we did this by eliminating the competition , first to our own selves then our supply , until we began to domesticate animals and farm , where we developed a sense of ownership and we learned to protect what we considered ours. So the fear of being eaten led to the creation of possession , transferring the fear part of being eaten to the fear of loss. The fear of loss , disguised as a sense of protection is a main catalyst to war’s and even a driver for greed. as well as most killing.
We become possessive in order to mask our fear of loss. While there are a few times this fear may help for the most part it is a negative emotion thats spreads into all aspects of our life often becoming a controlling factor in our decision making.
I would classify the fear of loss as in itself an unnatural fear, connected to a real fear. Which makes it a fear almost uncontrollable. It can disguise itself even from the individual , mostly through entitlement , whats mine is mine. Often the more you care about possessions and the gathering of them , the more intense the fear of loss becomes,. A vicious cycle. Soon we acquire possessions to protect our possessions.
This emotion , which fear is , is far to ingrained in society to actually remove or even control it. However if an individual desires to gain control of this part of his psyche it can be done quite simply, Simply but again not easily.
The best way to control the fear of loss is through the reduction in our sense of possessions. Start by evaluating your things. Keeping in mind that a possession’s value is because of what it can do for you , and what someone will give you for it. This can start the process of reducing the fear of loss by prioritizing the need of a possession.
A simple example me, My neighbor thinks I’m crazy because I haven’t armed up to protect my stuff. My answer is always that nothing I own is worth risking my life for, or taking anyone elses life to protect. I like my stuff but it is all stuff, mostly replaceable, hardly any of it essential, none of it worth a life , mine or anyone elses.
Being poor maybe helps , realizing that nothing you have can not be taken away , realizing the futility of possession, after all possession implies a permanence that can never be fulfilled. Ownership in itself is only an illusion.
If possession is holding you down , you feel caught in the endless circla of aquiring and protecting pass the point of any real personal needs, something you have to evaluate for your self, then a simple cure and even a test of yourself would be to give away some of your things. Make sure they are useful and get to someone who will benefit from them. Start with the redundant things you have multiple’s of and learn the benefit’s of being a positive impact on society , while relieving your self of the burdens of possession, all working towards the main theme , getting yourself lean and mean and ready to take on the future.
Stripping away the extra fears as well as bad habits will be very influential in determining just what that future will become. I think it’s fair to say that we will need all the help we can get, and the best effort we can give. By reducing unnecessary and counter productive fear , and learning to control and use fear as a sense we begin the mental conditioning that we will need in a world gone mad-er.


A side note before we move into other areas we will need to work on ,,, if you have debilitating fear’s please get help. Professional is good (Sort of) if you can afford it , and you get lucky enough to find someone who just doesn’t load you up with a drug habit. If you need help don’t start with your family doctor unless its to ask for a reference to somebody trained in the field. Avoid any doctor that prescribes you blanket drugs to get you moving, they may help at first but will quickly become an even greater problem in the short term.
This is crazy but if you have internet , and your reading me , I would suggest looking for chat lines with people suffering the same problems as you. By talking to others it will help you evaluate the degree of your problem, as well as gaining the experience of the various treatments. Then decide what you think is your best course of action. Another plus is that it is virtually anonymous. This holds a benefit over talking it out with friends and family, because it often involves very personal matters, best not shared, sorry. Later you will probably find that you need to confront friends and family to solve the issues.
Another plus would be is you almost always come away from the encounter feeling that insane as you are there are a lot of people crazier than you. Then you can also realize that to some degree we are all crazy.
One thing for sure , and it counts toward all I have to say, is that ignoring and avoiding the problem only makes it a greater problem , we are past the point of hoping this will all just go away. Not only will avoiding problems not solve the problem it will add other problems and negatively infect our future decision /living process.





CHAPTER 6. Face to face with the future.
Why I started with fear is because emotional training takes long term training . Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of time, not that we are running out of time, time I am sure will go on.
Before we move into the future it would be nice if we had time to analyze what that future most likely will challenge us with. Yes this is where controlling fear will become necessary. It isn’t the only tool we can use , or will need. Not mentally or physically or if you have one a soul.
Another useful tool that you will want to use is goals and dreams. Which means we almost have to foresee two future’s into one acceptable one. Which entails planning and will need faith, in your goals and in your abilities to accomplish them. Body mind and soul. So to give you the best possible future I’d like to consider us in training. Here’s the complicated part, what exactly are we training for. This will be a good time for documentation, some for the record now and then, before and after list.
Actually it will be two lists. One the list of what you want the future to be, the other the list of how you really see things as happening. Be honest in both, consider your dream future and list the attributes you have that can achieve your goals. List also the challenges and difficulties you would encounter achieving your goal. Actually look for the things that would or could prevent you from achieving said dream goal. If you find an obstacle that you can’t overcome alter your plans.
I mean your never going to be a pro-football player if your 5' 3" inches tall and a girl. There’s still millions of things she can do, she would be better set directing her energies elsewhere.
I think it’s always important no matter what stage of life or predicament your in to have and keep a dream goal. A large piece of your psyche goes dormant, which is a vast source of personal energy when we lose our dreams. Creativity strives on dreams.
Plus when we load our mental survival tools in the old box we will find that creativity will be one of our main tools. Creativity will not only be a necessary skill it is always a positive coping instrument.
Plus it’s fun and easy to use. Simply said many times creativity creates creativity. The more you do it the more you can do it. It’s like a muscle the more you work it the bigger it gets.
For now we’ll work on two forms of creative exercise. The first is very easy , look for something everyday that you have never seen before. ( old joke try the kitchen)This will cause your mind to look outside it’s repetitive habits. Instead of closing your mind in you consciously open it to the world around you. This is also training for the eyes as well as other senses. The more you have to look the more familiar you become to your surroundings as well as changes as they happen. Looking helps you be creative because your looking for something new.
If circumstances reduce the size of your world , I would suggest pictures as well as non required reading. Especially agoraphobics, looking at beautiful sceneries can be used as incentives to make positive changes. Another practice is looking for things you’ve never seen in old pictures. This works good both in familiar art as well as old photos. If you look at a photo and it brings a feeling this is your mind creating an emotion. As for non-required reading as always go for the classics. I’ve said it way to much but there’s a reason the books are classics.
While there is no time to waste , we all have time that goes to waste, these wasted times are a great time for reading as well as practicing creativity. I’ve found no wait is as long if I have something to read. This not only helps us be creative by mental stimulation, it also in itself is being creative , learning how to use otherwise wasted time.
Of course to use time properly, because we cant actually save it we can create lists to help us maximize and focus our energies. Which brings us back to the two lists, and what to do about them. We will get back to creativity as well as fear controls in the more intermediate stages to follow.
At this point I am curious what your other list looks like. Of course it will be different than mine as well as different than your friends and family. It may be oversimplified but we all see the future on a sliding scale with good on one side and bad the other. Actually a better way of thinking would be two meters one that registers positive energy and the other negative. These two meters balance them selves out into a third meter that is our overall perspective of the future. If we take a creative mental step back we can visualize hundreds of dual meters giving signals to the brain that we used to react to external and personal stimuli.
From the conclusions to this process is where your future lies. Good and bad, or if you like positive and not so positive. In achieving dreams and goals it often helps to maximize the positive and minimize the negative. In combining our dream world with our real world we will at times , examine the negatives, and look for positive alternatives.
Well also work on utilizing and refining your list as circumstances develop. Well also add in lists of things we will need for the future , tools and skills to be learned. Well start by adding a list of the things that will be useful in the future which gets mad-er as we go.
CHAPTER 7 Defining Success.
As yet we have set no defining goals for this book or our future. The book in general has a rather wide focus on getting us in shape mentally and physically for a very interesting time span rapidly approaching.
Most writers would of started with why you need this book , I am still young and dumb in the writing business so I tend to put it down as it comes, but hopefully not as I make it up. The self help tips are almost all things I have picked up in reading. Personalized to work for me of course. I’ve found as a usual rule if I get one or two really good ideas out of a book it is worth reading.
In fact when we get to lists of things you’ll want to have books will be a large part of your tool kit. For now I would suggest collecting books , on sale or through thrift stores on self help and do-it yourself topics. Any medicinal books from first aid to healthy living might provide valuable information if you have it when you need it. These books in a future gone mad-er will be as valuable as food supplies and hand tools. This is because they will be stores of information that you can learn from and put into practice when we get to the future.
Hopefully you wont need to bring this book because you will have gotten the message that the best chances of surviving , living in and maybe even succeeding to your desired level all depend on the actions you have already or are about to take. As it says on my book resume “ I’m just looking for a job I can do in my underwear, and not be a total prostitute”.
In truth my goals are even more self-centered, I actually would like to save lives. In dreams I could see millions of people waking up and demanding change , and making the sacrifices and hard choices , necessary to right our crumbling world as we know it. Yet if I could even help two people . You and me, this book or your time would not be wasted.
Which leads me to another precondition I self imposed, that this book is not about waking people up. I’m sorry but as the saying goes no more singing lessons for the pig. As in of course teaching a pig to sing not only wastes your time but it also annoys the pig.
Time is too valuable to be wasted , even in a normal life cycle the thing you learn at the end is that life was just too short. So time spent out waking up the masses is time not spent in preparing yourself to walk the walk.
Plus you may be doing them a disservice. Maybe they are better off asleep? Unless you can offer them a positive alternative, what good is it to them to know that they are virtual slaves to a crumbling corrupt system in place to give abundance to the few at the cost to the many?
Or better yet try getting them to acknowledge that something is very wrong with the environment , and the coming changes to weather patterns are going to change and effect our lives are already affecting millions of people all around the globe. Then tell them it is going to get worse? Nobody will listen , trust me? I’m glad you didn’t, people will listen just ignore you. Or egads laugh at you, and yes avoid you.
I’ve beat my head against that wall all my life , you feel like it is your duty, you absolutely would like to help your friends and family. Especially when you see how simple it would be to make the changes in our lifestyles that would ease the burdens on the future. At least way back when we first had our awakenings.
I will hammer awakening in the next chapter , what is more important is to try a different tactic. Lead by example. If you make positive changes in your life people will notice. It may take more time for them to see it, but that is their wasted time not yours.
As you become a healthier more rounded person . People will notice, not only that they will want some of it themselves. This could even work as incentive, imagine the jealousy from your family alone, should you be a healthy happy person. When they ask you why you are healthy and happy then you are in the position to impart your views to a receptive audience.
Just don’t be arrogant, a favorite of mine and soon to be yours is when someone asks you how you stay or got so thin , tell them how you gave up fast food and started eating fresh foods as local as possible. Tell them how much better you feel without gmo’s in your diet. They may even ask what gmo’s are. If they look at you and see how much healthier you are , your words will carry a lot more weight in their thought process. Especially if they think that you have a secret way of getting healthy, and of course feeling better.
If you like them suggest an exercise plan tailored to their condition and goals. Something similar to what I will suggest for you , starting at the basics, later to get into more intermediate physical training and exercise regiments.
CHAPTER 8. Self Physicals.
This should be added to your future list as a guide to notice improvement. Your grade on your perception of your health. Starting with your limitations, I always ask a few basic questions to determine people’s level of health. First can you touch your toes, can you see your toes? This is one of the most basic exercises, and very beneficial to pursuing more advanced health training.
Before you discount the importance consider that Jack Lalaine said that if you only do one exercise make it touching your toes. It not only increases heart rate and blood flow it stretches muscles and improves flexibility which decreases pain.
This is my favorite method. Stand with you feet separated a few inches, yet parallel. Bending the knees as you bend over reach as far down as you can comfortably go with your hands toward the floor. Hold this position for a few seconds, then extend your reach until you can feel the stress , hold that for another few seconds and then slowly bring your body back to its upright position. Then put your feet together and this time locking your knees bend over until you can feel the stretch discomfort, hold it then come back to your standing position. Don’t push this one but as you do it continually you’ll find your self getting closer to the floor naturally. Then separate your feet and repeat the first bent knees toe touch , this time taking a little longer in both stretch positions. Then as you return to your upright position reach for the ceiling with your fingers extended, hold this for seconds and then relax, shake it off and your done.
Those twinges you felt are areas you will want to work on for increasing flexibility and strength. As this is just the beginning I would suggest starting with a moderate long term plan , that keeps in mind the personal goals you have for your body.
One good thing about doing this way is that you can do it very low budget. If we get it right you will naturally add and increase your workouts because you see and feel the positive results. To each their own but a good starting point is three 15 minute workouts a week followed by one good physical exertion. Coupled with your daily stretching this is not a high impact life change. I think one good way of keeping up the regiment is to make your big physical activity of the week enjoyable. Look for something along the line of physical entertainment.
Since survival might play a part I would suggest riding your bike. The bike that is of course part of your survival equipment. This can be used for a lot of healthy enjoyment and give you the benefit of getting used to alternative transportation. Adding a sport can be a good way to enjoy your workout. This has the benefit of being a planned activity, much harder for the mind to blow off, than say jogging in the rain. Look for one in your comfort zone , even bowling is exercise, especially if you maximize the effort you can get benefits from that.
And never underestimate the positive reactions to plain old walking. This can be turned into hiking which is really just walking in a lot more fun places. Walking is very good as a fifteen minute workout as well. The important thing in the short workouts is to use as much of your body as you can, along with increasing your heart rate and requires more strenuous breathing.
I like to walk in circles because as you get in shape you can slowly increase the size of the circle which increases the impact of the workout. As your overall health improves you can start targeting the specific areas you feel the need to work on. While you will set your own goals a general plan should include better breathing, and more body control , which entails strength and flexibility. While I maybe should of started with breathing exercises we will get more into that in the intermediate stages . When we start learning to maximize our workouts to get the most benefit from them.
CHAPTER 9. Take a Deep Breath and Hold it.
Because of its importance I will throw in what I think is a most basic breathing exercise. As I cannot possibly know your health now or your goals I think this exercise can be done by anyone anywhere.
As I write this I am aware that we all have our limitations and our liabilities. It will be important as we get more inter-moderate in our plan to be able to distinguish between them. For now a handicap would be a limitation , though to them it would be a challenge. It is something to be dealt with and overcome. A liability is more temporary and usually involves mental attitude and learned behavior. They are also something to be dealt with and overcame.
I heard in a movie a character who said someone once said “ Good things happen in litle stages, and take a long time to come, while great things happen all at once in an instant.” Very true but I think you can more control the good things, If you do the work. And since I’m quoting movies that quote others “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”.
I cant think of a better first step than a breathing exercise. This one is basically a TM breathing technique. If you are lying down lay on your back with your arms straight at your sides. If you are sitting sit straight up aligning the spine with the neck. If you are standing assume the position , feet parallel and inches apart back straight, arms at side.
First step release all the air in your lungs that you can. Breath out . Then breath in through the nose as hard as you can for a four second count. (One thousand one , one thousand two) . At four hold that breath for another four second count. Next exhale through the mouth force the air out for another 4 count. Then hold the exhale for four more. Then repeat the exercise one or two more times . On the last exhale don’t hold for four just simply begin breathing normally. Of course shake it off and your done. If you want to maximize your time this is a good exercise to use after or before the stretching exercise.
One of the main things we can work on is our lung power. I exercise to breath better , and the better I breath the easier the exercise is. While all the things we have to change will matter , I put breathing as right up there with eating as to importance. Maybe more. Before you can climb your mountains you will need to build your wind power.
I hope I’m not going to slow for you , there is a lot that needs to be done , and a lot of items for we to consider putting on our list of future needs and wants. Really we are making multiple list entries that will hopefully get us to where we want to be , some happy place ?
I remind myself of an ad “ The future of Tomorrow, Today”. When I think of what our future will be I always start at what the experts said it would be like now. The two just don’t go together , I mean where is my hovercar? Ok that’s ranting but Arthur C. Clark said we’d have them by now. Not to pick on him but his vision of the future has been totally wrong. Not just him , I read “The book of Predictions” from the book of lists series, where they asked all these famous smart people what they thought the future would be like by the millinieum. This was in 1986 . Not one of the smartest minds in the world saw this. Crazy as it seems its like there are parelel universes with one being bizzaro land, only this is bizzaro-ville central. My point was supposed to be that if these smart people were so wrong , what chance would I have of picking the coming future ? Still I think I will be accurate and say the best thing to prepare for would be anything. Except this wastes a lot of energy and time that could be spent working on our own futures list. My theory is that we have to work on both lists and can even at times cover two birds with one list. An easy example will be diet.
Everyone knows by now that this will be one of our most immediate concerns , no matter which future you see or want. My personal goal would be to move the one I see into the one I want , or as close as I can get.
In part two we will start getting into our survival list , things that we need to make our lives livable as well as give us self sufficiency. I live on a fault so disaster preparedness is not that shocking , but there are basic lists that everyone should have , altered to their surroundings ,. Then there are things you will want just in case .
One of the things on everybodies list is food supply. I applaud anyone with stored food , but if their was one thing I would say to stock up on its SEEDS. This year again I will attempt to become a farmer. One more time I will give a shot at growing my own. I think this will be done in video performance piece style.
As I finish this chapter there is snow covering the yard and it’s a cold January day. In farming terms of timing this is planning season. As a farmer I am as green Acres as you can get, I have the heart, but I can see I’m doing something not quite right.
As we progress I’ll try to get some better ideas and pass them on. We don’t have time to watch the plants grow now. Keep in mind that you can have no self dependance without controlling your food source.
Just to create a starting point, be conscious of where your food comes from. Theres lots to consider but the easiest way to put it is to localize your diet. Get your food from as close a source to where you are as possible. Starting at home. It is better for you , the planet, and your local economy.
Not that we could ever be truly self sufficient or would even want to be. I see a lot of potential for co-opt farming, which would be a great place to add tribal instincts. Which gets me to the title of the book,. To me it’s simple that as a person you don’t survive you exist until you don’t. As with all nature we think of survival in the terms of passing on our dna to a new generation. This all requires help. Yes even cloning , takes outside interaction, dependancy on others.
So another important part of our list will be finding and connecting with people with hopefully the same general purpose as you. This is a two edged policy here. Your looking for people that can help and support you , and so are they.
My beginners advice is that to have a friend be a friend. Imagine what you think a good person to have as a friend would be , then be that person.
I can’t wait to get into some of the more intermediate things but these are the essentials I will cover and add to as I write and you hopefully read on.


CHAPTER 10. Back to listing.
Part one might of been co-titled you have to learn to walk before you can run. In a normal world this works really well. Where we can we will learn the small steps to break the old habits and patterns that negatively affect our so-called lives. As an important note we will find later is that what is true of running doesn’t always work. There’s only one way to learn to swim for instance, you got to get wet.
Soon we can start working on our wet skills. Farming is a good example of a wet skill , we can visualize it , read about it, even see what it looks like , those things help but the only way to really farm is to get into some dirt. So now to our list we will start adding skills that will be considered handy to essential in both our future worlds, the one we want and the one we have.
First lets start with what we call the survival list, things that you would need in a disaster, plus things that you will need to further your self-sufficiency. These are tools , skills and supplies . Due to your location and special needs there will be items you will want that aren’t on this list, thats ok because this is just an example, your own list is the important one. Keep this list available because it will grow as we learn.
First I want you to go out and buy three years of food. And enough bottled water for the same time. Of course to maintain our life style we’ll need gas, to run our orv and all our gas tools for that same period. To me this is crazy but I hear people tell me this is their plan to be backed up as we call it for however many years they can afford.
I’ll get to the errors in this thinking as we go, first lets start out smaller and with more effective reasoning. A good way to start is look for the disaster or catastrophes that are the most likely to occur in your own area.
Looking around the world at the responses to the ongoing calamities of 2010 we see aid groups stretched to the limits already. The more affected areas the longer response time and available help will be. It is not unreasonable to think that should something happen we survivors would be left to fend for ourselves.
In these economic times it is enough for some of us(me) to get food on the table today. But a little stocking of food when there is extra money is not a bad thing. In The U.S. I would think if you have enough food for a month you could live through being saved by FEMA. Personally I think everyone should have at least a three day emergency supply of easily prepared food. Once again it depends on your location and situation. A weeks worth is better , which would mean a months worth for our location would be optimal. For this survival food it is always recommended to buy meals in a can. Though expensive MRE’s from the military are probably best because of the ease of use and longer shelf life.
Since we have some time to back ourselves up I suggest getting your can supply through on sale and dollar store methods. Look for items with as much nutrition as possible, after all you may have to live off the nasty stuff. Right away this adds another item to the list multi vitamins., it will help and maybe proove essential to have vitamin supplements to replace the ones we get in our normal diet.
I suggest multi - vitamins preferably with iron, because not only will you need to supplement your diet , this will not be the time to get sick. After almost every disaster this year there has been some form of killer disease to follow it.
Its important to remember that this supply of food is only temporary, and as we work towards self sustaining lifestyles we will hopefully laugh at the thought of being backed up for a week. Because as you farmers know and we learn canning and food preserving we will learn to grow our own food cache to last for first a winter then seasons.
This also illustrates the difference between a walk running skill , farming and preserving food, and a wet skill, gathering the stored goods. With a wet skill it’s usually a good start to just wade in, and get the nuances later. A couple of hints though, before you buy cases of a food make sure its worth eating , and priced right. Read the ingredient label, try to get as much bang for the buck as possible.
For a change high calory foods will be a good thing. Carbohydrates also good. Don’t worry to much about vitamin content because this is the job of the multi-vitamin supplements. A warning on vitamins is there shelf life. You will need to update your supply because the vitamins lose there potency fairly fast. In fact this is why I only suggest taking vitamins in emergency situations.
For everyday life a balanced diet can supply you with almost all the vitamins necessary. When we get to diet we can discuss where to get the best sources of the vitamins you need. A good rule of thumb is to get your vitamin needs as fresh as you can, which means in the food you eat.
CHAPTER 11. Weight in gold?

If you are from a large country as I am it would do good to learn the lessons of the Russian people after the fall of the Soviet Union. Simple things we take for granted become highly desired articles. Not to attempt to profit from a disaster but we can use bartering of our cached Items to supplement our own food supply , and maybe for trade for emergency items we may have overlooked.
So I guess on our list of supplies toilet paper will be up there , as a valuable trade Item as well a useful commodity. Other things that will be highly valuable , especially considering the current prices , will be to stock up on toiletries. I would always suggest buying on sale and dollar store a reasonable supply of these items, Toothbrushes, sealed multi-packs, toothpaste, shampoo, bar soap, mouthwash, disposable razor blades, Petroleum jellies, skin lotions. Feminine needs will be highly sought , even some of the non essentials, makeup and perfume will be tradable goods. They wont take up as much space as storing food but after a week or so they will be an article people would trade their weight in gold for. Of course why would you want gold , unless you could trade it for something else.
Which brings me to a different section of the list, who and what do you or can you trust to steer us right in these interesting times? Why did that come up now? Because I mentioned gold, the main reason I try to give up waking up the masses is my competition. Not that they know more than me, or because of my ego ,it could be because people actually listen to the others,.
They have always been there but doom and gloom has now become too big business. A very crowded market stretching from the History channel to the farthest reaches of the internet there are thousands of faces and voices pushing their version of our current doom, all with of course a version of who to blame, this is I think the key to being a successful and profitable oracle of doom.
Since doom has become entertainment a lot of the principles are the same. First you need a target audience and sponsors. Two of the biggest money makers are government gone wrong and cataclysmic world devastation. And of course hybrid’s of the two. Another huge audience can be gotten by putting god into the mix. This has worked since at least the last great flood. For us more anonymous types there are small profits to be made in internet video’s.
I guess at this point I should acknowledge my target audience. It’s always been the same , whoever would watch read or listen to me. Sponsors I totally doubt it. My motives are to help both of us, even though this book will be a free E-be it’s like I have always said “ A dream job is one where you get paid to do something that you would do for free”.
My motive is pretty plain, I want to write. I think before we follow or even trust any leaders , talking faces, internet heroes or anonymous wakeup warnings we have to examine their motives as well as their methods. In fact with leaders the best way is easy don’t follow, lead. As for the talking faces always consider who their sponsors are. On commercial outlets its pretty easy to find their motives by the products they sell. Which gets me to gold, I think one of the first warning signs of who is bringing you the message.
Scamming 101 would be to tell you that your currency is about to fail and you should transfer your savings into gold bought from my sponsor . First off what a racket, you have to admire the greedy rat bastards. They make money turning your cash into gold, then they make money turning your gold back into cash so that you can actually use it.
Its important to realize the intrinsic value of gold, it is only worth what someone will give you for it. Except for its non corrosive properties it has very little real use. It is hardly more value that paper money , even Americas Promissary notes. Yes as investments it has gone up pretty steady in our life times. But just like the housing bubble sooner or later someone has to be the one who pays the most for an object. For instance the house flipping of the late nineties , into the 2000's , anybody could see that sooner or later someone would be stuck with a house they paid way to much for, how could gold be different. Its highly priced because people are willing to pay that price. The ounce of gold you buy today for over a thousand dollars would be worth a meal for you and your family if push comes to shove. If said pushing and shoving does come what do you think the value of a thousand dollars of food would bring? Or better yet a thousand dollars worth of toiletries for trade and use.
If collapse happens it always brings black markets. Long before order is restored and our view of commerce, ala the box stores are reopened, the mostly illegal black market systems will be in affect. While there Are good and bad about this the worst is unregulated profit do to supply and demand. Like with the gas industry , since they control the supply and make the prices our choices are to buy it or not. Since our life styles currently depend on their gas we know that whatever they charge for it we will have to pay.
So in a world gone mad-er anybody with an essential item has the power to be greedy. We will have oil companies running the show, but that’s not why we are here though both oil and black markets , in fact rising inflation can all be countered by reducing our demand for their supply.
As we get into more details we can talk more about energy supplie’s mostly on producing our own. The only real way to counter our susceptibility to paying and needing black market goods is to prepare before hand , if you have it ready you wont need it.
Toiletries fit this category, another essential is first aid equipment, plus basic medicines, antibiotics, cough and cold medicines, pain relievers, in a variety from aspirin to as much extra strength non aspirins as you can get. Packaged bandages , get real ones, gauze rolls and tape., and duct tape very good item, antiseptics, are very important and will need a chapter by itself. For now I would suggest ointments for cuts as well as sprays to disinfect. Alcohol and peroxide, Skin care such as lotions, and if possible a supply of aloe. This will be in the farming section but it is one of the best salves available , and can be grown indoors. That’s right the best source of aloe comes from the plant.
I am sure I have missed some important things for this list, so to help I would suggest reading your first aid books looking at their list’s to add essential items. Items that would or could save you and your’s lives. How much more valuable can something be?
Here’s another surprisingly good investment clothes, mostly focusing on the basics, think of wearing the same pair of socks for a week, or a month, or most likely give them up. The same with underwear . These are not essential but would be highly sought extras. Underwear would be a hard market to sell because of the sizes needed but one size fits all bags of socks would easily come in handy. Another market item to consider will be t shirts. T shirts bought at thrift stores and stored clean would be a worthy trade Item.
If you are new to thrift stores don’t go crazy, look for the clothes on sale that’s where the real thrift is. Warm long sleeve shirts will also trade well. Since you don’t know who might need them look for larger sizes , better too big than too small.
This also crosses our own disaster list. Along with our other stores should be our own auxiliary supply of clothes, at least a week’s worth, better a month of clothing you have in an emergency.
Its not like you need clean clothes everyday but hygiene will become a factor. Don’t count on being able to wash your clothes for awhile. A good supply of clean clothes will be one less thing to worry about, and a strength to trade from.
As always be reasonable , later we will even get into some emergency cleaning methods both for ourselves as well as clothes. I think it would be horribly wrong to try to make profit from disaster, especially if it comes from me. So while we are trying to merely survive comfortably , this will also include our lack of necessity for their items. After all a black market under a better name would be an open market. Where prices are driven by value and need. So they will also be important assets as a market establishes itself .

Chapter12. I think all the items listed above in our soon to grow list are things that eventually will get used. Here’s something to remember for food supplies as well as most goods they have a shelf life . If you have years of food stored be very careful or expiration dates. Before the food goes stale on the date restock your food supply. Important thing here give that food away before it expires. The same with the durable stuff , if you find you have an oversupply of stuff you will never need , give it to someone who needs it.
Something I have been wanting to ask , how much food can you safely store. Soon we’ll get off preparing for disaster preparing and get more into improving our futures. I think it will be more in the canning and storing of food as farmers , that we should think of in food collecting.
First though I want to talk about lines. What is healthy preparedness , and where does it become obsessive paranoia? People always look at me when they ask that. I think there has to be a balance , along the lines of “everything in moderation, nothing to excess.” I think in an extended disaster something taking years to recover from your best and really only chance is to be able to grow your own food.
It will take less space to save seeds than can goods you’d only eat if you were really hungry. On to seed storing, the important thing is seeds, but secondary only barely is what kind of seeds you store. Here in America there are no regulations about labeling of seeds. Due to loopholes organic seeds don’t have to actually be non- modified. Including terminator seeds, plants who’s seeds are sterile. The first choice is to supply the immediate , collect food seeds , even through dollar stores.
If you can afford it get organic and heirloom seeds .
Soon we would get our own supply of seeds from plants we grew , from plants we grew. I would think that will be a big thing in becoming self sufficient or less dependant on something that is soon to become important for our list food.
Now this book really isn’t your typical reading for the true survivalist types. That said I hope that we can get to points that could help them as well. Plus hopefully we can learn from them as well.
I think what I’m trying to point out is another perspective on the ant and grasshopper story. The ants, In a real world situation would be the one with the year supply of food , verses a lot of hungry grasshoppers. Now the ant had two choices he could of shared his supply or defended it.
Desperation would almost force the grasshoppers against you, the ant in this story would of had to probably kill his friend or neighbors to protect his food supply. As we get into protection we can consider armaments but ask yourself who and what you are protecting yourself from.
I would consider those things when you decide how much food backup you require. If you have the funds consider that in a real emergency a lot of people will be very hungry. Be prepared to give away your long term supplies of food, but try to control it’s release as much as possible. If done right this is a chance to be a hero and make friends.
If your thinking of sitting on you food until the very end, consider how much that food would be worth if you were not alive to eat it. If giving it up sounds hard try bartering it getting as much useful goods as possible. If your going this route do it fast , get rid of it before things get really desperate. Consider this if things were that bad you will surely have to consider going mobile. This will alone reduce your supplies to what you can transport.
This leads to another kind of disaster kit CHAPTER 13. Good bags.
the TGTHOOD bag. This is another important survival item. If your not from this country or planet this is “the get the hell out of dodge” bag. This leads me in part to an absolute essential book Sun Tzu’s the “Art Of War” . You can get this on line , the thing with it , you really have to study the book its not one to learn on the go. I bring it up now and will reference it further because of it’s wisdom . There is no instance of a country having benefitted
from prolonged warfare. This is just to show that although this book was written long before modern warfare, the things it says are still true.
Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured
by the larger force.
So what the cowboys called holing up should and probably will be your last defense. There could be situations to arise where the best tactic will be to run. The GOOD (get out of Dodge) bag should be of carry-able size. If your healthy enough I suggest a dufflebag. As always refine it to your needs including the weather as is. This bag should have clothes, a sleeping bag, a travel shaving kit complete with small sized shampoo’s and soaps, plus of course toothbrush and toothpaste. with a few first aid items , some cash, and some canned food items , along with some out door camping equipment for cooking. A good knife, scissors, matches , lighter’s, flashlight, a role of ductape, some string or mall rope. Remember you have to be able to carry this maybe for a while so you want to keep it as essential as possible. If you keep your documents such as birth certificates and car titles in a fire safe box I would suggest storing the two in the same area so if you can get to one you can get them both. This is a bit morbid but in this bag place , hide if you can an old or non-used piece of identification. If you require medicines have a few doses set aside in the GOOD bag.
The good bag would come in handy not only if you have to get out of dodge , it would be greatly helpful in a personal emergency, such as fires , floods and other related disasters. After tornados here in my woods people lose everything in an instant. If they have a good bag after the disaster they are already on the road to recovery. I guess this adds chapters to the book on storage , most depends on your circumstances and environment. Since it has dual emergency purposes the Good bag should be accessible and protected, as much as we can of course.
I think if you can afford the price and space, a metal container would be a good place to keep it. While you don’t really need a safe if you have the space I would consider an old metal cooler , or even freezer. Not a perfect seal so we would keep our bag wrapped twice in plastic trash bags. And wrapped in a blanket. These bags will come in handy. In fact we will include a box of black as heavy duty as we can afford trash bags in the good bag.
Later I hope to attempt some survival exercises, where we get into important areas like fire building and camping on the go. On these little journeys most of them will come with the good bag. So we will be adding handy items to the bag as we go.
There’s a lot of living off the land that are rather objectionable to us civilized urbanites, however you do what you have to do to survive. Killing critters we would never do for practice, and it certainly is in no way a sport or recreation. But there are other aspects of survival living that we can and should know how to do anyway. There’s three things I’d like to start with. The first and always best is fire making. We will learn how to do this with things we have in our good bag and then without. The second handy skill will be shelter building. First we will work on temporary shelters, then work on Concealment. Which will work into the third basic, traveling off the grid. I think these again might be better told in video form, over time if we have it.
Of course these will help in emergencies as well as if the world keeps getting mad-der.
For now though our goal isn’t really survival anyway, that’s what you do when you have to.
Our goal is way above merely living through the near future, its to set us on a course to turn that future into the one we want.

CHAPTER 14. Consoling the unconsolable. Back when I cared I was out there , at least in my mind, telling people about all the things headed our way. That’s kind of what my first book is about. So as I say we don’t need to get into how mad-er the world is or will, could get. I will say this for every end of the world as we know it scenario I could find I could think of a way to survive it. Now there are some things just too big to worry about, in those cases the best thing is acceptance. This acceptance should be very short lived and analyzed with intensive scepticism.
Once again we are back to lines or degrees. Mostly these are individual choices we make, coming from our past decisions on what we can’t control. Of course I’m plagerously close to Saint Francis of Assisi. But how do we get this wisdom to know the difference.
It’s partly my own perspective but I think we the people use this saying too much. Accepting the things we can not change becomes mental storage area where we place all the things in our lives we just don’t want to deal with. It might start with very real areas such as “Everybody talks about the weather but who does something about it?” This spreads into every aspect of your life from the mailman to the traffic jam. This carries over into our personal lives, here it becomes very harmful to our selfs and others. Especially in this area its important to note that everything here , shouldn’t be in the “ can not change box” in your brain.
The only things comfortably in this are should be things where there are no choices. Because in your life as go through there are always choices , because every minute of the day , maybe every second of our lives we make decisions. Breathing is a decision, as is your heart beat,. While called involuntary decisions we can supercede them , , you can hold your breath or alter your breathing consciously the same with the heart with practice.
I Prefer to think of them as conscious and unconscious decisions. Since that’s probably been done lets think of them also in natural and extra natural decisions. It s a natural decision process that controls all the important aspects of our life. The blood flowing in our body , from air that is absorbed through the lungs, that are fueled by energy created in our stomachs, pumped to muscles controlled by the brain. These are also categorized in un - conscious decisions. Even though this is not entirely true is it, because we have the power to consciously make these same decisions. Everything that has ever lived has natural decisions it is the building block of life itself , the means and desire to continue.
So a natural decision would be one made for the good and continuance of the self. So natural decisions are also conscious decisions. All self protection comes from here. This would be the root reason for all our decisions in a life cycle. A nice example is fight or flight. All life has this , the response we get to stimuli. When confronted by a sense of danger or confrontation all beings will respond either in fight or flight.
It has developed in man from his predecessor and back since life began. So it fits what you can classify as A primal urge. This urge Un and subconsciously makes decisions at regular intervals constantly. If you want to test your fight or flight a basic is to stare at a blank wall . As you focus on a small area by not moving your eyes you will begin to feel messages moving in your brain. Usually 28 seconds is normal. The message will be to move your eyes, your brain should tell you to look left or right up down, along time ago this was to protect us from predators.
To keep it simple (so even I can understand it) , during our awake periods the eyes and other senses send data to the operating center we will call the mind. Our senses must constantly feed our information center where the input is analyzed and evaluated. When our fight or flight has received this information it makes a decision of wether we are safe or not. Most of the time we are safe , and the process just repeats itself. If danger is sensed from this information it causes the necessary reaction to the information it has received. If this flow of information is stopped the fight or flight, basically activates the fear /danger signals in our brain. Naturally we compensate our senses to basically pacify the impulses or warning notices if we don’t.
. Over time our fight or flight has gotten tired of looking out for predators so man has found it necessary to create , art stems from this source. In order to satiate the eyes and ears our minds look for something interesting to fill the required amount of input to reset our fight or flight.
This almost alone is the reason behind the rise in popularity of moving pictures. Before this we had to manually, and repetitively satiate this urge by moving the eyes and refocusing our attention twice a minute at least. Once the urge has its input we are free to refocus our attention back to what ever else we are doing. Which is fight or flights soul purpose is refocusing continually, its job is to look for danger, it does this for our own good and is the key to any instinct involved in survival by reaction. It even has the power of over riding your conscious thought process and is faster.
If you’ve ever jumped involuntarily at a spider this is your fight or flight. In danger it overrides all other thought processes in the body and takes control. In a way it has Marshall law control over your body. This control in a natural way is then over ridden by the conscious thought process’s as fresh data is evaluated and more action or not is required from the mind and body.
CHAPTER 15, If we ever need it it is a life saving tool. But like all tools you have to know how to use them. If you are not familiar yet with your own FOF urge I’ll suggest a little get together exercise.
First sit or stand or even lay down on your back. What matters most is that you become as still as you can. Start a kind of mental timing on your own urge process. When you feel that urge to refocus that is FOF . Starting with the eyes manually reset fof by being conscious of it sending the all clear message to your brain. Keeping your head still focus your eyes on different objects in your line of sight. Do it slowly and focus on different areas of your sight area.
A more advanced technique would be to use your periphial vision , focusing your mind to see the entire area of your vision instead of a specified spot. A beginners method is to put your fingers in front of your face, I usually use one finger from each hand . Look at those fingers spread a few inches apart until you can see them both at the exact same time. Extend your arms straight in front of your face, then watching both fingers spread them apart do it slowly focusing on watching both fingers at the same time, without moving your eyes at all. Take your arms straight to your sides, parallel to your shoulders. and when you can see both fingers that is perephial vision. Using periphial vision with out moving your eyes focus on different objects within your entire field of vision, noticing when you have rst your FOF clock.
Next close your eyes and work on your other senses. Hearing is connected as well. Listen to the sounds and notice how identifying noises also resets FOF. Identify a sound in your mind then listen for another sound for your mind to evaluate, Do this to also help become more aware , by listening to all the sound in your present environment. Almost every moving object makes a sound, and since were on a spinning planet there are limitless sounds to be categorized in our mind.
Now throw in your other senses for danger, smell. Just be aware of what you smell. Breath in and let your mind tell you what it is your smelling, then search for other scents in the air, identifying as many as you can. This can be done anywhere and whenever you get out in nature practice this. You will be amazed what goes on in the world when you look, listen and learn.
Not only have we gotten in tune with our FOF we learn a skill or two or three that will be used positively as we become more aware of our own surroundings.
Another point I might of made would be this is another lesson on fear itself. It may be the reason we have it but it is a natural fear one we just have to work with because it has proven itself useful in the past, and will again in the future.

I would say to get back to acceptance that we can accept fight or flight as something we can not change because we know it is in our best interest that it is there. We evaluated it in our mind seeing it for what it really is then make a conscious decision to use it for our own advantage, as a mental tool that it is. A natural decision.
CHAPTER 16 Now lets look at the category we will call extra-natural. These are decisions we make over and over , usually with the preposition we are doing what is best for ourself. These decisions are based in root on self preservation. Thats why they are natural, our mind will generally pick the action it feels gives it the best chance of survival of the Self. They tend to go beyond life or death and into areas like relationships and work. Preserving and protecting our sense of possession.
I could do a chapter on a definition of possession but I think I’ll go with George Harrison and “ All through the day I me mine I me mine I me mine.” I’m sure in its origins it had to do with food , making sure you got the stuff in your belly. It would quickly have spread to tools and then people . Only later pushing itself into ownership and entitlement, With Agriculture and then city living.
The closer we lived together the more this urge dominated our psyche. I think in part as a transfer of our fear of being eaten. The urge of possession also formed other emotions good and not as good. Personal love you feel for a person in general comes from the sense of protection. As does jealousy, rage , gentleness , even charity, along with of course greed.
First I think it is a mistake to label these emotions as good and bad, because its not so much the emotion as it is the direction you allow them to have in your decision process. It almost always comes down to the control the emotions have on the self, which we choose to give it. Mostly I guess it’s the volume the emotion has that factors into our decision making . The squeaky wheel is probably the one, that will fall off, so we focus more attention on it.
Probably one of the healthiest ways to start would be to get in touch with our emotions, I know your thinking touchy feely stuff coming on.
Maybe later , what I have in mind is a two part exercise . First we need to do another list and harder yet grade ourselves , just like we did our physical condition. This should be done in an objective way , examining emotion with out feeling them.
All emotions are real and a basic reason they are their. As we are learning fear itself was placed into us as a survival tool. Emotions all stem from self preservation. Before you can control your emotions it’s helpful to understand them.
Make a list of the emotions most prevalent in your life. Then on that list think of a time you have used that emotion , we can start with anger, because its very common . And is one of the easiest to lose control of. Lets look at it’s root why is it survival tool and what are its qualities. First when you get angry this is in response to your brain that it is time to fight, so your breathing increases sending oxygen to your muscles increasing heart rate and stimulating the adrenal glands. In primal terms you are preparing to attack. However most psychopathic or extreme violence occurs when anger becomes rage. This amplified anger takes control of the mind decision processing , once again a Marshal law type overide of your psyche system. It not only over rules all other emotions and moral codes , it takes complete control of the body.
Anger and rage were refined emotional and physical reactions to give the self it’s best chance for survival. If you are to a point where you have to defend yourself , anger and even rage could be the main difference in survival.
Then there is the not so good side of anger, it is not designed for long term or repetitive use. The reactions anger causes on the mind and body are designed for short term use only. In a way anger sacrifices long term health for short blasts of energy. If overused it causes the heart to over work, leading to health problems as well as mental overloads. Like any emotion the more you use it the more dominant it becomes in your mind. Like almost All things it’s a decision we make as to how an emotion affects us.
CHAPTER 17, The beauty of simplicity.
Since we are on anger we’ll continue working on it. Later we will give the same test to all the emotions on your list,. So this could take awhile.
Mentally go through your recent history of times you felt or reacted to your own anger. I say recent because dragging up old stuff in your mind isn’t that beneficial , plus were thinking about now , what affect it has on your life today. I don’t have to tell you that sadly no matter what has happened in your past, you have to if not let it go , which is and will be part of the exercise, but to learn and plan to keep history from repeating itself. Not for the benefit of the past , its because the future is much more important.
I wonder if brain looping is a real term. Because the mind is constantly looking for input , when it cant get new stuff it recalls old inputs, memories. Like habits we allow voluntary decisions to be made involuntarily , or for ease of proccessing in the mind we loop, or make one decision process over and over. We turn the decision over to the part of the brain that keeps the body running. Like I said we choose to breath , because it’s a no brainer. Because this decision is so easy yet vital it is a complete section of your brain.
Just because we are not in that big a hurry let me explain this brain function quickly. It’s the number 13 tag. Used to be in underware when you bought a pair it said inspected by number 13. It would be like staring at lines of underware and placing a tag on each pair. Now think of how crazy it would be if you actually had to care about every pair.
So part of #13's job is to make the thousands of decisions that would be too much for the conscious mind to handle that keep our body mind system running. It is also the transmition between the mind and the body. If we want to run our mind sends a message to move the apropriate muscles and increase or decrease breathing and heart rate, #13 makes it happen.
Talk about brainlooping however our now called #13 is also responsible for most habits, which is like a looped reaction . However since habits are responses both physical and emotional we are succeptable to predictable behavior.
So an important question would be is our anger level appropriate to the situation. It may be a judgement call but upon further review would you react in the same manor. Think about what it really was that made you angry and why. Consider how much response , say level of anger that particular incident provoked in you. Grade it , do you think it was too much or not enough. Then consider something else that has caused you anger, and grade it similarly, get enough of these incidents to start to see the pattern in your emotional control.
Things to look for are balance and moderation. As you list other emotions and grade them the same way you’ll begin to see patterns on how you react to external situations of life. This will work great as we get a better picture of the things we hope to see in ourselves. By accentuating the positive , minimize the negatives.
The last question to grade yourself on is true or false , was the emotion called for , and do you think you reacted in the correct manner. While true or false applies as a learning process think about what in hindsight you could have done differently or better. So now you get to the essay part.
Just to let you know , one of the many problems in my life have been repeating mistakes. So while painful, remember that what is important is to improve ourselve’s not be perfect. The last thing we want is to rid ourselves of emotion, the trick is just to use them properly and with the right volume level.
Another thing to consider is purposely choosing to have that emotion as the reply of external and internal input. Because there are many times when the correct response will not call for emotion at all. Often for our own benefit we can choose not to respond , which automatically reduces the stresses on the systems in the mind body soul complex. Believe it or not here comes the hard part the field work.
For the next day week or year or so , as you go through whatever you consider a normal day, mentally grade your emotions as they happen. Don’t write this stuff down in fact once you evaluate the emotion , finding why you had it, how much energy went in to the emotion, was it the right emotion, and was it a positive result. Then if the emotion is pleasant you may store it in memory , and if negative , store it in your need to improve box.
Then as you get into further studies look for situations that require an emotional response and attempt to pick which one and how much volume you think would be premium for the situation at hand.
For extra study as you mentally list your active emotions , look for looping emotions. Yes the ones you have over and over. The worst being reused emotions stemming from a single event. The longer an emotion lingers or more it reappear’s the more it is corrupting your emotion skills. Especially as you become more in tune to your emotion skills you see that often we allow our previous emotional response to influence our present response which affects the future responses.
CHAPTER 18, Often this is seen most in anger. You woke up read the news went to work , came home and in the middle of the night got up because the babies crying and killed your family. Now in order for the mind to do something like that it would generally be done in a rage. While since it was at a seemingly calmer moment. To get to this type of rage it would take compiling the things of that day that angered you , including the anger at your lack of being able to retaliate or resolve the anger episodes. Starting with the news of the day you see things that anger you that you are helpless to prevent, at work you may have been pressured or abused as to your own definition, which because of your responsibilities you felt you had to take , to keep your job support your family and deepest down be a man. Or really to prove your adulthood as perceived usually do to your social and family accepted guidelines and gender.
So he becomes submissive which increased his anger because he feels humiliated at what he feels he does, that is beyond his control. This add’s resentment toward his family because he takes it so they can maintain their lifestyle. For food on the table on up he swallows his pride , which is not a tasty meal and controls his anger until the end of the work day and brings his emotions home , all the while contemplating an endless horizon of today’s repeating itself for his foreseeable future.
One of the most common excuses given by men that kill their younger children is the baby wouldn’t stop crying. From what we seen above wouldn’t we say that this mans actions really stemmed from his feeling trapped which when the baby cried triggered his fight or flight switch into alert status. Because he felt he was trapped already with his job and life the baby was a danger , if he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t get up early to go to work early so he could get done early , so he could get to bed early , to get up early . In the bottom line his mind decided it was time for fight. In a way he decides to fight his way out , and chooses the easiest object to defeat , in his mind. He couldn’t change the way the world treats him or his job especially with a child to raise.
As the child cried the mans mind probably found ways to transfer all the anger in his current self into being the fault of the child. In essence he finally convinced himself that it was the right course of action. A normal human would of course overide this on moral code, so he would have to rationalize that we was doing it for the child’s own good, even though it would be his own interests he was trying to protect . He would in his hyper state , as his mind does its mental safety check , his anger would finally overide his other emotions and thought processes and switch his brain over to fight. Causing the FOF to send the appropriate messages to his body to attack , in our case the baby.
This in court is described as un-thinkingly acting. Which doesnt work because by killing the child it show he made a plan , which means he made the choice to act. That makes it premeditated.

CHAPTER 19,RAGING Against the dawn.
This was a hypothetical example, and no children were harmed during its construction. It I felt is an extreme use of emotions , but it is highly common and becomes more prevalent in our society as accepted behavior. Accepted as how what got the story rolling in the first place. By resenting feeling that you have to accept things begins the process of anger and resentment, building until a final exaggerated action.
We are going to take a slightly different tactic here. Its quite common In these situations professionals would tell you that you should release your anger say on a wall or phone book. Break your hand instead of hurting the child. If it was just a temporary single emotional response , a reaction to the baby crying , even those actions would be extreme. Our fellow by the way would have overridden this thought on grounds he needs his hand to work. A side issue it would of been pure logic for him to then kill his whole family . Usually out of self-defense.
As a single incident with no prior history involved lets look at a reasonable reaction instead of a violent one , from punching or kicking of inanimate objects to much much worse and more permanent responses.
A main part of Tribal living will be treating others as you would like them to treat you. I might have borrowed that from another source , but only because it is such a basic truth. Not to mention it can be useful in what a positive reaction would be.
As an example we’ll use the baby crying ,first we should isolate the proper emotion and then evaluate it and determine the correct volume of emotional and physical response needed.
To do this the mind needs more input , I feel in most situations it helps in dealing with foreign stimuli to emphasize with that stimuli. Also bring up past history and responses to the stimuli. Then think of the positive reaction to conclude this episode and resolve the conflict .
Thinking in hindsight and from an uninvolved analiticle perspective. Like we did with our own emotional list, what would be the most natural emotion in this situation? Worry or fear of course, after our fight or flight aroused us from sleeping our mind started collecting data, first identifying the exact cause , in this case the noise , which it would search from memory collections of past noises until it recalls the right noise , baby crying.
Probably before you even begin to wonder why the baby is crying your mind is sending you data of past similar incedents , setting the level of emotional response it thinks will be necessary. If the child has never cried at night the emotional level would be higher than if it had a recent history of crying recently. These past histories would begin to formulate possible reasons for why the baby is crying now.
Constructively we go threw our list of why babies cry. What I like about babies is they know what they need, but being small and not physically developed they only have a few ways of communicating with us. I tend to think , only think that at this point until they learn verbal kills they are mostly telepathic. In terms more useful they are learning to comunicate with us, which can be frustrating because we don’t use mental comunicating as they do.
So after we go threw the simple check list , is the baby hungry? Does it need changed? Does it need love? Or is it more serious , illness injury, or threatened.? Each one of these possibilities in your mind should present the responses both the physical reactions, feeding changing holding or more specified reactions to danger to the child as well as the proper emotional response that is constructive for the situation. In a tense situation almost all your emotions would come into play.
The proper or positive reaction would be to choose the correct emotion and the level of that emotion , that would help you resolve the conflict.
In this case fear would be the initial emotion, which with further analysis of the situation would lead to the use of more specific branch emotions in the psyche. Fear should trigger concern , which would lead to further data collecting done out of love for the child. If their isnt a physical reason for the childs crying consider his emotional needs. Balance those with yours and it becomes too easy , one night’s sleep verses your childs whole life. With self sacrifice, which is an extra natural emotion the night’s sleep is considered lost , or given as a gift to someone else’s needs and wants.
By emotionally giving his nights sleep away voluntarily as a reasoned decision might have changed the mans whole life. And certainly would have prevented an extreme response. Just to say , so he stayed up with the baby but went to work anyway. Then when he felt the days stress coming on he calmly noted or apologized to his boss/situation that he was a little stressed today over worry that his child was allright.
While you can’t help some people , this would of also told his boss that he was a human capable of stress. This would of seeded the bosses level of empathy and triggered his emotional response. In a way this would of course of been a more positive response to his and most all job situations, he would of sprung the trap he felt he was in.
Maybe as he was up all night he devised a calm rational presentation of what his greivances are , and the solutions to his problems, along with bargains he’d be willing to make to improve his performance and perspective of his job situation. He might of even considered his bosses side of the situation. Empathised and considered the changes his boss would want to see in him.

If he would of read this he would of used the Ghostdog’s way of the Samurai. He would of considered the worst that could happen and how he would react. Then he would of considered his possible realistic best result of his planned encounter. Often this can set the volume of his emotional level and even decide if the encounter occurs at all.
Because of the seriousness of the encounter if his grievances are percieved as real and important enough he formulates a planned controlled encounter with his situation, using the best mental resources he has available. H e would of then chosen his time and place for battle or encounter to give him as much advantage as his situation entails. Thanks Sun Tzu.
Then as he went to work he would of thought calmly about his reactions to the possible reactions of his situation. If his decision was that he was in a situation he could not accept he would of begin making mental plans on moving into a new situation , to be trapped in.
Now say he was getting ready to join our tribe, what would we suggest he think about? We would want him to ask himself to be sure of what his problems are, to be honest and consider if it is his job that is really bothering him, and not the repeated mental habits he developed in his own mind. A real hard question that must be asked is who is responsible for this real problem?
A little hint to give is most mental traps are self derived, we make our own trap including finding our own bait. Most of the time , beyond money this is what really bothers us in work, and relationships. So it is part of our primal urges that we strive to be a part of something continual within our species , beginning from the tactic of safety in numbers.
Once again this urge once we stopped getting eaten began to work in other mental areas in the premises that if it works for this , it will slightly modified work for that. Which I hope I have already explained, which lead to our more complex emotions, into the mess in our heads today.

Believe it or not I have another exercise that with repeated practice will help in mostany job or relationship situation. First we have to start small a concept to practice in a non vital area. This one to me can actually be fun. A forewarning this fun is usually only funny to you so keep it nice , under the do unto others rule. Also consider the witches rule , when you cast a spell it comes back to you times three. So as you play with someone elses mind remember how much you like it when they play with yours.
CHAPTER 20, KISS MY WHAT? Before we begin it is time to add another must have book for anybody especially us. Dale Carnegie’s “ How To Win Friends and Influence People”. Now most say that the Bible is the first self help book, but Carnegie invented the modern form of all self help books in any section of self improving . There is nothing I can tell you about how to deal with others that he didn’t put better. The best I can do is use one of his techniques to show the importance of reading that book. The world would be a so much nicer place if we all read his book.
I think the first misconception people have when I suggest his ways are that they tell me “ I’m not going to kiss anyone’s butt” well “I” am not asking you to. Neither is he.
My biggest point is there is hardly ever either or situations. There’s always alternative solutions or alternative responses. In survival terms we look to Sun Tzu again and transfer it to less lethal practices. Choose your position on the battle field and to always take advantage of special circumstances. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
That of course is major overkill but part of the practice lesson actually involves deception.
Find a trivial item that bothers you involving a work place individual or friend that is not in a superior position or closely related. This lowers the importance of the issue to while important , it wouldn’t be something life or liberty or happiness involved.
Say you pick a habit that someone has that bother’s you. It will help to study this habit and your reaction. Look at both sides of the issue, do you think objectively that your concern or anger is merited? next step is consider the solutions and if and how they would affect you and your target practice. This is good practice for decision making for long term consequences
Remember first off if it is someone else’s personal habit that you try to change, often the problem you have with them is your problem not theirs. Or actually it would be two separate problems and the trick would be in changing their problem into something that is no longer your problem . Or of course you can rationalize that you can accept their behavior as part of their persona , by accepting it you finalize the emotion store it in your memory as the response to that stimuli and move on. , the lesson to learn here is that instead of trying to control someone else’s actions , we concentrated on our own perceptions and emotional control.
Before you make this resolution consider the other person’s motive for the action. A good point to look for , do you think the habit they have is aggressive or simply an unconscious learned habit. The latter might be best sited to the forget and move on category, as long as you feel you aren’t doing a disservice to yourself and the person of interest. Is their habit a threat to their quality of life , or yours? Consider if you can help them by getting them to unlearn their habit. A good way to judge this is do you think their habit holds them back in social situations. do others besides yourself comment on this habit.
If you decide it would be in both parties best interest then it is time to start gathering more information on the specific issue. Is the habit physical , such as one of the most common a hand or body reflexive movement, also called ticks. Is it mental, such as a trouble in the decision making or even a repetitive word tick, such as “You Know” or even the tendency to use four letter words in normal speech situations.
Or is it social the way someone reacts repetitively in certain situations, these are much more complex , it would be best to practice on something easier, unless you feel that the habit bothering you is a form of aggression. Because most often if you are to let this one slide the aggressor will mentally perceive it as a victory for themselves, which can stroke their ego into wanting more victories. They can be placed in the same category as bullies. As we know that would put the root cause for their habit back into unresolved fear issues.
There are ways to deal with these people without getting into and trying to change their psychological makeup. Plus it is very dangerous ground to play in anybodies mind ,. I feel like I have to give you a possible resolution for this aggressive yet non-violent behavior.
CHAPTER 21. FOR EXAMPLE PURPOSES. I’ll look at two I feel annoying to most . Say someone who likes to slap people on the back or grab an arm. This is in primal terms a challenge, they are testing you to see if you are an alpha dog, or they are the alpha. As the pro’s would say the person has to reasert their virility because of deep seeded fears of inadequecies. Often these pro’s suffered at the hands of the people they diagnosed.
As we have been trying to learn all emotions and action’s can be good or bad depending on the amount and timing of them. So in most situations in a group situations, over times leaders will assert themselves into the group. Bad is when there are too many alphas we get the term “Too many Chiefs Not enough Indians”.
Don’t we all want to be at least occasional alpha dogs? Wont there be times we can benefit from this trait? And aren’t there hundreds of times where we can be thankful we are not in charge? In our own minds we take the role of both Chief and Indian . If say we are to plant a seed or plant in our yard or even pot inside our house. The alpha or chief would make the final decision of where exactly to put the plant, while our indian or beta would take over and do the physical work involved.
If you like your boss it is probably because you admire the alpha tendencies he displays and his reaction to stressful stimuli. A good boss once told me when I said I had a problem “if it can be fixed it is not a problem’. This lowered my stress level and I was able to more calmly look at the situation, could it be fixed , yes , so how to fix it , and then fix it, no problem. The alpha dog was the one with the answer to how to fix it. Because your Alpha dog is a big part of your ego , it can be used for self-confidence as a energy boost if you are performing an act that requires your ultimate ability. Basically you want your Chief to support the indian in you. As a musician you practice practice practice, the beta in you , that is graded by the alpha in you . The Indian doesnt think he is ready to perform until the Chief says he’s ready.
Both are important parts of your mind, body soul complex, while I’ll put aside for now the stinkin’ prodigies that seem to have a natural ability far above their training . (Jealous Much)? If we are to have any real lasting success in our lives, as in living a dream it will take the cooperation of both your Chief and Indian personas.
A quick example , when I was learning to play guitar I knew I was the worst ever, but I also knew that if I stayed with it , and practice and got better always , eventually I would find someone else worse than me. This took both my Chief encouraging and even drill sergeanting my Indian in me as needed to keep me focused on my objective.
I think the number one waste of guitars is due to people who play a week or two and then give it up because they think they are no good. This is bad chiefing , if they would of had a good chief for it they would have told themselves that it takes years of playing to really know if you are bad.
Now if his chief would of said we could play but there are more important things to spend the time it would take to learn the guitar could spend for something I like more. if it then presented the other activity it might of actually been for the better of the self.
Never ever should you give up easy, but once you do it’s important to move on to the next dream. You have to use creativity not only in the amusement of the mind , but for responses to situations in your life, like say the aggressor we were talking about. As we find with exercise, that energy creates energy , the same with creativity, the more you practice being creative the more creative you become. Like a habit except that it is a positive mental function requiring single new responses instead of unconscious decision’s. habits are mental shortcuts that corrode brain functions and overlap emotional responses. Creating is a mental exercise that sharpens the functions.
It’s very important to remember that in each and everything is the capacity to create. Art is a great expression of the process but we actually create in all aspects of life. When you think of something to say you are creating . Voluntary learning is a form of creation, you create the need for information then find the input you desire. Problem solving is only a slight variance the problem is already their the creation is in solving it. With the goal of once you solve a problem it no longer is a problem.
The first step is to gather as much information on the subject as you feel necessary. Just to chief you up , consider Sun Tzus advice , paraphrased “ if you know your enemy as well as yourself , victory can be assured. But never attack until you already know your going to win.” In our case we are looking for the response to the aggressor that will prevent further attacks on our ego and body.
Know your advisary since enemy at this point would be an overreaction. Try to find their motives , do they do the offending behavior subconsciously or consciously? If possible learn their history is the problem with their learned behavior, and importantly here is it just a difference between your learned behavior and theirs?
Try to find the level or volume of their tendencies. This can come from a lot of sources , but consider how the offender reacts to others in your circle, do they have the same level of discomfort with the offenders action as you?
Often if the aggressor seems to only use his tendencies on specific individuals from his sense of a weakness in the other he can exploit. This can lead you to having two problems, one your advisaries behavior and two your response to it. Keep in mind while he is exhibiting pattern tendencies, so are you.
We have to know that the first move is up to you , to look at your past responses , they didn’t work or you wouldn’t have a problem. In fact the major problem is yours because you are being affected by it to the detriment of your being which is your life Time And emotional involvement.
There is a lot of acquiring information in the exercise, as a mental shortcut learn about your target at the same time you learn about yourself. If you wisely chose a habit to change learn the physicalities of that particular habit. In both cases be sure to abjectively examine the exact thing that bothers you and why.
Another part that will be on the test is searching our own mind body soul complex for physical and mental habits, I.E, subconscious repetitive behavior. Use the same critical eye that you used to examine the others habit and look for your own. Then look for the root causes and the overall effect your habits have.
Because you are basically trying to help, learn techniques for unlearning habits that if and when you have your confrontation you can offer as positive problem solving. Learn at least a few different methods for breaking habits both conscious and subconscious. Then practice these techniques on yourself.
As I think one of the main points in this book is that we are all creatures of habits this should not be hard. While there are almost always major habits for now we’ll look at stopping some minor ones. These are basic tactics that we can learn to adapt to our needs.
I think the first thing everyone tries is transferance. Taking your impulses from one action to another. In real words you trade one habit for a hopefully less distracting habit. Now before you give up or trade habits remember that you haven’t solved the problem just moved it. Not that it don’t work it can, the thing is to work it so the final habit you have reflects positively on yourself. Psychologist from Freud on up have done work on this subject , in their minds this is where you get your feet wet , on learning to work on the human mind. Which leads us to add a quick item to our survival list self Pshyco-therapy books on mental health and the classics , writings and phylosiphies of the so called greater mind’s on the subject. You don’t have to agree with them but take the time to learn their theories.
CHAPTER 22. So once you learn from the masters , you will be able to devise your own method for habit problems as well as figuring out the aggressor’s behavior.
TRANSFERENCE. The main methods to use if you seek to transfer one habit for another is to pre hypnotically suggest to your mind that when the habit impulse comes to you you will give another reaction instead.
This is ok with say a body habit or even obsessive reactions. This requires knowing the habit and being able to counter the subconscious decision. I think it is unnatural to simply trade movement habits but if you do make a series of planned counter movements. Say if you subconsciously scratch a certain area. When you consciously become aware of this you command your body to make another subconscious movement, the stupider the better, say every time you see your self scratching the area , you tell yourself to instead pat your head. Then the next time tell it to rub your stomach. Each time coming up with a new movement. The psychology behind this is that you wear the habit down using itself against it. It also helps to incorporate as many other mental tasks into the habit , basically overworking it until the mind decides that it would be easier just to forget the habit.
Incorporate other areas of the body even to standing on one leg. If you keep it up the subconscious will give the habit up , because it’s basic job is to run the body as efficiently as it can. A side note this also gives encouragement from ego , which doesn’t like watching you dance around on one leg patting your head.
With a speech or thought disorder transferring is best done by implemiting a pause once again pre-consciously telling yourself that as you start to exhibit the familiar pattern you give yourself the necessary time in your mind to substitute a different conscious response instead.
As in the basic counting to ten before you react . You can also mentally slow down your speech pronouncing each word and syllable at a controlled speed. Often it helps to say the words you are going to use in your head first. With impulsive speaking habits this often works to our betterment. Not that we need to sensor our thoughts but it will help if you critic what you are about to say. Ask your ego if it is happy with it, or could you think of something better or a better way of saying the same thing.
This also can help with habitual swearing , putting in a pause for the mind to present alternatives, words more fitting to the level of the conversation. I say never use cuss words as verbs , or at all unless you really mean them or need them, at the time. Mostly do to the positives of using your mind to find the right words to communicate exercises the brain, while repetitive speech atrophies brain functions including creativity.
In this case we can transfer a conscious brain activity that has been co-opted by the subconscious and transfer it back into the part of the brain that is supposed to control it. This requires retraining the mind to consciously control our speech process along with our impulse tendencies.
These habits are mostly basic , unique by the extremity of action and volume they have on the individual and his social circle.
When you get into other areas it requires researching into past experience and even hidden psychoses that are not for the lay person to try to change. For this our best tactic would be to first find the problem’s in our own pshyce, part of tribal living is using the help and support of others.
Is it as easy as going to a doctor and telling him fix it? Of course not, I only brought that up because I suggest a lot of things to try first before you get your mind worked over by the pro’s.
I am sure I have aid this before but if you discover you have a problem do not take it to a family doctor unless it’s to reference you to an affordable professional mind doctor. Because of the benefits of naturally working through and resolving your problems first see if you are in the range of being able to help yourself. Since billions around the world including yours truly deals with a degree of depression will use it as an example.
Ironic that I went to a family doctor to get diagnosed as suffering from depression. When the doctor after talking to me for two minutes told me his diagnosis , I put the pieces together in my mind that he was right, due to the patterns of decisions and emotions that made up my history as well as in making current decisions. I went to the doctor because my heart had been beating very hard for a few days . I was having anxiety attacks. This was the obvious symptom. Now the reason you don’t go to a family doctor for depression is His habit , you find the illness prescribe a drug and then move on to the next illness.
To make it worse some doctors are paid to subscribe certain brands of drugs, so you are now at the mercy of whoever currently is paying your doctor to prescribe their drugs. This naturally leads to problems , not to mention possible mistreatment there are the effects and side effects of each drug, plus the body naturally builds up immunities and tolerances for any medicine. So the dosages have to constantly be changed to fight the bodies natural resistance. The side effects of the drugs are countered with more drugs to counter the side effects, spiraling until the person becomes dependant entirely on the right mix of medication in order to function as close to normal as possible.
So now were not only depressed we have new addictions to deal with. Not that some don’t really need to be medicated , and even institutionalized for their and the public’s well being. As the wise man Richard Pryor said , “ he went to a prison to shoot a movie and met some of the people inside, and all he could say was thank god there are prisons.”
So there are people who really need the meds but something as important as our mind should not be diagnosed and treated in a two to five minute office visit. And while I appreciate his pointing out my problem I should probably sue him for giving me experimental drugs.
I thank my mind body and soul for deciding that for me personally there was a much better alternative , sometimes its as basic as just not doing things the easy way . Often the easy way is a mental deception used to benefit the present , at the expense of the future.
I think I am finally getting to the point of tribal living , not only our circles of people , but also the many different thought processes , emotions , conscious And unconscious thinking the whole ball of wax is like a tribe , all working for the benefit of the one, Hopefully.
Since we started by going backwards with our emotions learning the root emotions of the mind , we can now reverse and start working on our flower emotions , the more individualized or specific traits and tools in our mind.
This leads us actually back into our exercise , because to deal with both the aggressor or habit to be changed we need to get in touch with another persona of our self.s . The Actor. We all have and subconsciously or consciously use the tool constantly in our selfs and in dealing with others.
So the next part of the assignment requires learning and then using the actor in a controlled planned action. First what are the actors natural jobs in your self. Inwardly the actors more positive aspects are called faith, when you tell yourself it will be alright or give encouragement that you can do something .he also handles deciete, So yes the actor is your own personal great liar. If we have a devil inside it is the actor.
Now before you get ready to kick out the actor remember he is a learned skill and in his rational he is lying to you for your own greater good. The negative is its major concern is the now , and can be used to reinforce repetitive habits. It doesn’t control habits, but encourages them due to the minds need to operate in the now, as efficiently as it can , or the easy way. In junkies their actor
tells them to think of the now , if the mind voices concern of the future the actor then tells the mind that it can easier deal with that problem in the future , leading to the “ I can quit anytime” stereotype. A simple solution is to call on another characteristic emotion of the actor Courage. Simple but never easy. The actor is the one that gives us the emotions we don’t really have. The calmness in a situation , that you don’t really feel is the actor stroking your emotions to give you the best chance for a solution in an emergency. At base the actor is an artistic release, his qualities come from the same function as creativity. For better or worse he is your happy face you put on to go out in the world.
CHAPTER 23,. So we in the next part of our workout get to use our creativity to give our actor a get acquainted exercise. To make it a full mind workout we will attempt to use it in resolving our two problems from earlier , changing someone’s habits and discouraging and removing aggressive behavior towards yourself.
The first part of the exercise would be attempting to adjust your specified target to help change an obviously unconscious detrimental habit. The goal is to at least make someone aware of their habit without hurting their feelings are causing future resentments. It should be a resolved issue .. Create a way of broaching and talking about the subject that will not cause a defensive reaction in your target. Use your actor to set up the situation and guide you through the information you wish to get included to your often friend. In fact let your actor think of that person as a good friend especially if they are not. If they are not one of your side goals is to make them a friend you want to keep. Wether or not they are a friend or family treat them like you would like to be treated in the same situation.
Two points to consider is that we, even if we didn’t like it, we would want to know if it was important enough to be causing a problem. And second nobody likes hearing about their problems from others. While what you do is up to you one of the best ways to make changes in ourselves as well as others is to get them to see the positive results the change will make. So when possible use the carrot over the stick. Another way to keep the exchange positive is to ensure your target habit that they are not the only one to have this or comparitive, even worse habits not only found in all other’s but in your self as well.
Sometimes your actor can dispense information by giving it as a private secret to the target. Often this is done by giving a personal account of dealing with the issue that you had. This works in two ways , personalizing your advice lends it authority, as well as it can reduce the actor in the other by defusing his defensive rationalizing. Look at ourselves . When we try to assert positive changes they are immediately met with reasons not to change. Defensive mechanisms designed by the mind, played by the actor to prevent danger to the self through change. In order to make changes in ourself and others we have to out think our defense. So part one is basically eliminating a situation that causes you stress , and helping someone else , then making a new or better friend, using and honing your own coping tools, especially creativity, empathy and yes the actor.
PART TWO will be using creativity and the actor in you to deal with repeated aggressive behavior . Any psychiatrist or psychologist will tell you that aggressive tendencies are related to deep seated insecurities and are the product of bad repetitive habits. The way their mind conceives the best course of action using the one size fits all reasoning.
Just they probably wouldn’t put it that way. For learning purposes, try to learn some of the history of this person. Remember just like you they all have different reasons and personality malfunctions.
This is also a luxury to have the time to figure out what makes the bully tick. Often in life you don’t have that kind of time and will have to react to varying circumstances , with your own tactics which will be learned practiced and ready to use because you used forethought now.
While in almost anyone’s life there will be a conflict involving physical violence for most of our lives we deal with the fear of it. This can be good it is no fun to be hurt physically or mentally.
Sometimes in the long run if its just a beating . Like a one time fight no guns or knives it might be less harm to you than the mental pain caused by the stress of avoidance , along with mental worth issues. This probably didn’t come from Freud but have you ever considered inviting a little controlled physical pain into your life. It could help in at least two ways , with a side benefit of being exercise. That’s right take a self -defense course to start. This is funny to say but if your fear is the pain and humility of being hurt face that fear specifically. Take a boxing lesson, get in the ring , give a few punches and take a few, this is a great chance to learn yourself in a controlled situation with others of your same ability.
After all we can dispatch our aggressor hopefully using creativity and the actor to out think and nullify their tendencies using many different approaches, they are just practice now. However unless you withdraw from society your going to encounter similar situations your whole life from cradle to grave.
For learning purpose we can learn about bullies but from our real goal would be to be able to confidently handle situations as they occur , and more importantly to lose the fear of these situations.
After all the real problem is the effect they have on you. Especially if this a constantly recurring problem. With all outer world problems the first place to start fixing is within. Often our reaction to their aggression is the reward the bully gets from the conflict. More or less they feel their alpha dog by making you their bitch. Lose that reward and they will stop the aggression. Or so they say. If you think or know that violence is a real threat this should change your tactics and reaction.
Visualize the different approaches and their results. Be honest with your self you may actually have to use one of them, so if it comes down to it and your visualizing a spinning back kick to the head make sure you have a chance and training to do one. Remember that bullies know karate to.
The same way with using psychology on them , this has probably been tried on them since grade school. Two big questions you should consider, how far will this aggressor take the situation, and, how far you would be willing and able to go in reaction. I have yet to advise violence and in dealing with people in your circle (home , neighborhood, workplace, hangout)a violent or physical encounter even threatening of such only adds problems , because now you have a prior issue to always compensate for. Or error in haste and repent at leisure.
1. Know your enemy, including if they are one. Look at their motives, are they dealing with emotional insecurities manifested by repetitive bully behavior, or are they psychotic , doing what they do for the thrill and joy it brings their ego? Remember that the tactics and reasoning they use on themselves is unique, because they are individual’s just like us. A trick for us as we deal with the bully is to try sympathy , and empathy. If you can see their pain and even understand there rage you may find the key to helping them overcome their tendencies, which would diffuse your situation with them, fixing your problem by helping them.
2. Know yourself. Since we are in the process of becoming one , in mind body and spirit. Get truthful with yourself , why would someone pick you to pick on. We all have vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Now this is off the wall, but just for practice try making fun of yourself. Think of it as a Your Mama contest where you pick out the weaknesses in your opponent and then take a verbal shot at that weakness. If you were your opponent what areas you see in yourself would you attack. For extra points Think of a defense to your own attack. Give yourself the comeback. After all this is where the points are scored twice as much. This is because in a verbal battle defense is twice as hard. As a humorist this is my territory, you basically have to consider your options, do you protect? Say I’m not that bad. Or even innocence . Or do you counter attack? I may be this but. In humor and as I’m finding in writing , saying just the right thing at just the right time is the easy part . Once you know what you are going to say. You have to always be ready, because humor is looking for the absurdity of a situation. The humorist’s code is to be prepared , learn a few million jokes , then study up on current affairs, actually think of good retorts to things people might say, then wait, and wait until someone sets you up. Sometimes this can take years to get off one good joke, but this time you can be lucky because the plan is to use that line first on yourself , and then in a real world setting. Go Tribe.
Never underestimate the power of humor, but always remember where you are when you use it. In other words judges rarely like it , in fact most authority types see it as a sign you don’t respect and fear them enough. That don’t mean you cant use humor , and indeed seeing the humor in tense situations can actually give you the confidence to make it through the encounter. It’s just that it takes practice and common sense as to when to let it loose , verses the private laugh, keeping it to yourself.
3. Know the heavens and earths. As I’ve said Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is not a book to be read, it must be studied. Now I doubt most self help books use the book as a reference or guiding philosophy in dealing with others. That’s their loss eh? Know your enemy , Know yourself, and know the heaven and earth and your victory will be assured.
In the heaven and earth we are including our surroundings into the contest. Where your conflict arises, which is your battlefield. Know the rules of the area, which determines the type and scale of your planned encounter. Look for advantages in those circumstances. Knowing the heavens is picking the right time which can be used to our benefit.
One last word from the master, never attack until you know you will win. So don’t go out there and get beat up or humiliated just because I told you to. Prepare a plan so good you know it will work , then have a back up plan or two in case it fails.
Heres what I would call a back up plan. Of course part of the exercise is to use creativity and the actor to overcome a situation. So this one while not the prettiest can actually work in a wide terrain of bully situations.
Surrender ultimately , I like to use this line about fighting . “ I know girls that can beat me up” this negates the challenge for the aggressor, if girls can beat me up what will he get to prove by beating me up ? Now if it was physical I would take it to another level. If say someone grabbed me or punched even in the arm I would take a dive. After all I don’t like violence so instead of escalating or retaliating I would graphically concede. Over- concede ham it up. Say for a punch in the arm , you think they may have dislocated your shoulder, show some agony, call for a doctor. If it was a serious punch go down and stay down, this one be careful not only in falling but if the aggressor continues aggressing you may have to know how to fight your way off the ground. A tip go for vital areas.
Most of the time the aggressor will be shocked you went down so easy , then scared he might of really hurt you . In a work place scenario this will work a lot better than a physical confrontation. Then you have an advantage he is afraid for his job or freedom. Of course since you are now in control you would be able to forgive them , with maybe just a little warning about future occurrences. If you want a little extra fun where a sling or brace to work the next day, and watch the aggressor as you explain the brace to your co-workers that you slipped, or ran into a door. Don’t overplay it and let it go fast but have fun.
Not bad huh , well just think what you can come up with. There may be times when you have to defend yourself , and we will get to that in a future chapter ,for now though , where I said above about vital areas let me give a few examples . Because I don’t want to leave you lying defenseless on the floor. The head is full of vital areas to exploit , scratching the eyes , palm to the nose , even grabbing an ear and yanking can slow someone down. Then there’s using the hand fingers extended into the blade look , and going for the throat. If you cant reach this area don’t be afraid to go for the groin , with your arm elbow fist or knee. With a little practice I have found that you can get someone’s attention buy grabbing hold of their ribs where the ribcage ends. If you can get a grip on a rib or two this leaves them very vulnerable to breaking the ribs which could puncture their lungs. These are self defense moves and while you don’t want to use them you do want to know how to use them. Like fight or flight they can save your life.