Thursday 28 April 2011

Casio Watch

I love Casio watches and have a fond memory attached to them because my Dad used to wear the exact same kind when I was a kid. Who cares what they represent. Though I choose to not wear a watch because otherwise I would be looking at the time constantly, I see it only as a restriction because it allows us to see when the day is coming to an end. Though with the Casio kind, I hold no stereotype attachment, only a smile on my face when I remember saying to my Dad, 'whats the tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmeeeeeeeeeeeee daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad?!?!'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/28/casio-f-91w-watch-design-hipsters-al-qaida

Self holidays

I think we forget how good life really is. And yes I know, I have said this before.

I mean, it takes a smile from someone else, a compliment from another for us to remember what is good about ourselves. For us to start appreciating who we are, because we are ultimately too hard on ourselves. That feel good feeling should be everyday, and we know that!

You could say it's euphoria; today someone said they feel 'all confident now' after receiving some kind words. It does amaze me what may be said by another, the words will flow and you won't even think too much about them, but to another those words mean the world and make their day. A smile has the same effect; doing a job which involves sitting down and observing the world go by, you tend to take note with people's reactions to things. You see the slight wince in their eye or the sudden perk to their expression.

There is a fine line between making it all up and really meaning what you say. Of course, every word can be manipulated but is that really the ideal. How long can you keep up the appearance? It is much more refreshing to just listen sometimes and really take in the person standing infront of you. A lot of the time, people tend to rush their conversation, be it in haste of aniticipation towards something else or, in pure excitement to another. Listen to them. I mean really listen. Look at them and listen. A lot of the time I find people look, but they aren't listening and looking hard enough. They only see the surface. Are we too involved with ourselves or are we struggling to come up with the next thing to say? It sounds accusational, I just think sometimes we forget to put ourself in the other persons position. What may be natural to one can seem like a quite intimidating experience for the other who partakes. Perhaps we should be giving ourself patience as much as the other person, we do find it easy to forget what a past life was like. It can hit us in the face because of course, who really does want to remember a time when new things were daunting and somewhat confusing to take in and accept. We all wear masks, we all put on the brave face. We all take that deep breath before walking through THAT door. I think we should give a little credit to what is going to be behind that door, whether what is there really listens to you or not I think it best to give thought to why it may behave in the way it does.

I feel it best to tell people what is really going on in your life. Even if you think what you are doing is uninteresting, someone else may not. I don't like this fear people attach to themselves, when they are talking about themselves. There seems to be this air in proving our worth, in a way selling ourselves to seem the most desirable. Where does it all come from? Some over sell and some under sell-making the unattainable desirable because they are unavailable. Though ultimately I think they are just scared themselves in putting one out there...

Harsh perhaps, but I do say don't hold back. Wouldn't you rather come away from a time and think, yes I did all I could rather than, what a shame I should have said this, or have done that...As black and white as it may sound, life is now and not tomorrow in a sense. I suppose patience in those times will allow us to make the most of then, have the present with the power to get the most. Fear only holds us back. For new experiences, perhaps think about how long they will last for, whether you know if they will involve some sort of uncomfortable experience or not-following it through may lead you to a new outlook on things. And who knows where you may end up then...

Cheap Eats

"This is all a preamble for GPP's Live Below the Line campaign in the first week of May (which the actor Hugh Jackman is fronting, to highlight US cuts in foreign aid). They're encouraging people to raise both money for GPP's charitable partners, and awareness for the 1.4 billion people worldwide who eat for less than a quid a day. "One pound, or $1.25," says Elisha London, GPP's UK director, "is the World Bank's definition of extreme poverty."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/28/food-and-drink-poverty

Stage light

Gorgeous.

When you start conceptualizing a set, do you always start the same way? If so, what is your realization process like?
My design process always starts with listening to the music over and over and over again until it is in my head to the point where following songs becomes an almost subconscious task. That way I can concentrate on the dynamics, the feel and the emotion of the music and the lyrics. At the same time I always have a meeting with the artists themselves to discuss how they want to be perceived and to determine if there is any particular aesthetic that they are interested in. I see my primary role as creating an environment for the band's live performance and that is determined by a combination of physical objects (lights, trusses, video screens, risers, complex sets, etc) and soft components such as video content, lighting programming, etc. To envisage that... I keep listening to the music and literally imagine the combination of elements necessary to create that onstage world. I then move on to drawing sketches and finally building models using a 3D design package on my computer. By the time I send out drawings to the band/management for approval the design is usually fairly complete in my head in terms of physical structure. Obviously the system then has to be programmed, content has to be created and the environment brought to life.


http://www.salon.com/life/imprint/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/04/27/radiohead_andi_watson_imprint

Wednesday 27 April 2011

I have been told, an hour a day...

"Stress hijacks the higher brain, handing the controls over to a primitive part of your gray matter that distorts stressors and setbacks into life-and-death affairs. Play has a remarkable ability to interrupt the anxiety cycle and restore sanity. It builds coping resources by increasing positive mood and breaking up the mental set that locks in obsessive associations. Play reboots your brain, as it recharges positive mood and vitality.

Brain surgeons have to carve into craniums to bring back healthy functioning. Play can do that without a scalpel. A host of studies we never hear about underscore why it's a good idea for grown-ups to lose the masochism and cut loose with regular bouts of task-less enjoyment. Engaged leisure experiences build coping mechanisms, increasing resilience by building confidence and connection with others. They increase life satisfaction more than work by satisfying core psychological needs, such as autonomy. And they help develop risk-taking skills that allow you to break free of habits that fuel stress.

There's no success like recess -- that once (and still) critical part of your day. A landmark study by Alan Krueger and Nobel-Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman analyzed how 4,000 Americans spent their time and found that people are at their happiest when they are involved in engaging leisure activities.

Happiness, it turns out, depends more on how you play than on your business card or the car you drive. That's not the message we get every day. We're led to believe we'll be terminal slackers and wimps if we dare to step away from the grindstone. But the produce-till-you-drop social norm is not only a fiction; it's also completely counterproductive to work effectiveness, particularly in the knowledge economy, in which the source of productivity is a refreshed and energized brain. Studies show that performance goes up after breaks and vacations. The best predictor of personal satisfaction is satisfaction in your nonprofessional life. So if you don't have a non-professional life, chances are you may not be too satisfied...

For Nao Kumigai, badminton is sport, art, refuge, teacher and friend. "When I'm depressed, or don't have confidence, or fail at something, I know I can get over it with badminton," says the Los Angeles restaurant and hotel product salesman. "In business you have to have confidence, or you can't sell. Badminton gives me that." When he's on the road for business and has a spare hour, he's on a local court, blasting shuttlecocks.

Physical exercise and the act of learning or practicing a skill cause massive changes in the brain that result in improved health, memory and problem-solving. Engaged play interrupts the flow of stress and builds up emotional resources to help you cope, such as a sense of mastery and social support.

You would think that if there were a source of happiness as reliable as engaged play that riot police would be posted outside martial arts studios or pottery classes to hold back the hordes. But mythology, stress and, no doubt, a plot by antacid makers prevent an outbreak of sanity. You can override these forces of life denial by opting out of stress and rumination with the transformative power of play. You don't have to take the pounding of work and stress without letup to be a valid performer. You are entitled under current law to actually live your life, no matter what the social pressures say. And when you do so by playing more often, you're happier, healthier and more connected to the authentic life beyond the obligational yoke.

I recently saw a man in his forties walking down the sidewalk on my street -- head down, lost in thought, doing the adult shuffle. Suddenly, he broke into a series of hops, straddles and jumps. Local kids had chalked in a hopscotch pattern on the cement, and he leaped right in. After his last hop, he straightened himself out and continued walking, never once looking back to see if anyone saw him. He had a bounce in his step."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-robinson/work-life-balance_b_838217.html

Your hidden agenda

Living in the present is the best way to navigate, meet and experience life. This means not living in the past (yesterday), not projecting into the future, not having a hidden agenda and not attaching yourself to any story you or someone else has created.

Our personal stories grow out of the labels we have -- I'm a father, a veteran, poor, a Harvard grad, etc. -- which is what we create and walk around with that defines our actions. And our agendas are tightly woven with our personal stories.

When we consistently open ourselves up to new possibilities, stay open to new trajectories and discover new solutions, we stay fine-tuned to the nuances of life and its many opportunities and challenges. Being in the present will keep us safe and happier.

The question is this: how do you know whether you're in the present? Have you ever crafted your response while someone else was still talking? Whoops. And how about feeling like you were being talked at instead of being heard? Welcome to not being present. With agendas come blinders to seeing what's really going on.
Ask yourself the following question: "Am I willing to let go of my hidden agenda?"

Our agendas outline what we hope to get out of various situations. If you're willing to let them go, you are living in the present. If you're not, you're hiding.

The truth is that your hidden agenda is not really hidden. Whether you realize it or not, your hidden agenda is just as visible as, if not more than, your to-do agenda that you walk into a meeting carrying. So why bother?
I admit that at first it may not be an easy question to answer honestly. Or that you may not like the answer you get if you do answer honestly. So here's a little help with that. If the answer to the question is "No," then the investment in your current story is greater than the desire to create a new one. By staying with the old story, we can't be fully in the present. And by not being fully in the present, we miss out on possibilities and opportunities.

Consider the hermit crab. At some point it grows. It needs a new shell, a bigger one. In between the old home and the new one there is a period where the tiny little crab is completely exposed, vulnerable, a tasty, tender, shell-less morsel for some bird of prey or other hungry creature who is simply trying to get ahead and stay alive.

So what could possibly prompt the little crab to leave its safe haven and expose itself in such a risky way? Possibility. The possibility of more life.

The stories we create for our lives, the stories that are created for us, the stories that attach to our old stories, keep us in the past and can determine our future. We outgrow our stories every day. If we are in the present, we go in search of a new story every day.

However, be forewarned. As we get ready to leave our shells, our emotions naturally heighten at the prospect of leaving the familiar and the possibility, no matter how remote, of impending danger in the unfamiliar. At that moment, it's easy to disconnect. That's when you can whip out the question, "What if I had no hidden agenda?" That question will keep you connected to what's at hand.

Changing the status quo happens when you have no hidden agenda. Changing the status quo is necessary to get and stay ahead.

Meeting the status quo with no hidden agenda is where the new tools are found to keep yourself -- and your story -- fresh and your edges sharp so we can navigate the space between the old and the new. Between the familiar and the unexplored.

At some point we have to meet the new without an agenda to be able to truly see all the possibilities. Look at something you're facing right now. Can you see a hidden agenda, and what are the possibilities available without it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-arie/are-you-brave-enough-to-l_1_b_849720.html

Love grip

"Love without the fall, love without the risks, is just another piece of propaganda, just like the presumed security of arranged marriages or, for that matter, the American invention of a zero-casualty war. Love is what gives our life intensity and meaning, thus full of risks, in my opinion worth taking." For the philosopher, the other threat to love today is the liberal dogma: one that denies love its importance by making it another extension of hedonism and consumerism...

Badiou refutes the romantic notion of fusion and the dissolution of oneself in the other's gaze. He insists that love is built on the alterity between lovers, and says – in opposition to religious thinkers – that children are steps along the way, not love's final destination.
For all these reasons, Badiou links love to revolution and resistance: a revolution because it implies contradictions and violence; and a resistance to today's tyranny of puritanical lecturing, hypocritical public confession, naming and shaming, and the ultimate fantasy – the infallible hero."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/07/love-tiger-risk-philosopher-golf?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Fix up, Look Sharp

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html?_r=3&hpw

Puzzling creatures

We all know, but we all have to be reminded. 

I suppose it is like those self help books, they are telling us what we know from right and wrong-there is a particular path we know we have to chose, to follow. I think we on the one hand, are unfortunate beings. We only learn from experience. We only learn until it is too late. But without that, it wouldn't really be life. Which makes it the most beautiful part...

When I hear from friends, family, about their troubles and their day. I sense their frustration. I of course like most human beings want to say, it will all be ok. But that can be quite patronising, as we never know what will happen to us. One can only empathise with what they are going through. I always say, when reaching an ultimate low, as strange as it may seem to say this, in a way-the low can be a good thing. Once you find yourself feeling small, things can only get bigger-you can only get bigger, and grow. Certainly, there are factors which can bring one to feeling a bit lower, but we could look at everything with that respect. We could always say, this is amazing, oh but if this were here or if I had that-it would be even more perfect. And the same goes for feeling so awful, we know there are always external factors to make the matter worse. Nonetheless. The low is also a gift. Without this low, there would be no groundwork, no foundation to source the high. Everything we do builds from one thing to another. How else would all the wonders of the world exist. We all have developed from ideas, thoughts, progress. The same goes for when you feel most trapped by yourself. On one level it is a cage, but on the other it only represents a great butterfly about to feel the sky.

Like I say, unfortunately we are beings who learn all of this when it is too late. Well maybe not when it is too late, but perhaps after the experience, and when we know already. You could say it is when we have had a breakthrough and can clearly decide and see what needs to be done to make matters right again. And to have recognised our process. We need to find ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to give one time and patience (one of the most hardest things perhaps). It would seem life is one big chase for happiness. Everyone differs to how much we feel that strong sense of happiness everyday. We are fluctuating creatures. I think we find that level of happiness when we have found a great deal of ourselves. I don't think it is impossible to carry on without knowing who we really are-how would we represent. I have always hated having to write about myself, and now I can see why. It becomes hard, because most of the time we aren't sure who we really are. What are we really doing with ourselves? Perhaps it is why many people make lists. Self-assurance. To regulate where we are all coming from. 

It brings the idea to mind that, yes we are all people, we thrive from interacting with others. Our own development is encouraged by bouncing off from other people, be it people you get on well with or don't. It is the people in our lives that give indications to which direction we wish to go. It all plays with their involvement, unless we decide to take ourselves away, to cut ourselves off and form something else for the individual because all that links to everything existing at the moment, is too overwhelming to bear for any given emotional reason-most of which I believe to be linked with fear... For some, yes, people do get into situations where they can't quite seem to see any way in which they could get out of, to increase their own happiness-without hurting others. But all in all, I don't think things can always be seen so solid and in doom. The world for doesn't always have to feel so trapped. A past time comes to mind when you interact with your parents, at any given age. Sometimes they can provide the gift of reassurance when something you feel isn't quite right. They manage to, in their own words tell you, all is going to be ok. Of course, only later when the matter is resolved you entrust your faith even more in the parent and see they were right all along. Though it took for one to experience by themselves to believe the facts in their faith. 

A great amazement of all is when you look at someone, and they seem to know you so well. Sometimes they seem to know you more than you know yourself. They spit out what you are thinking, what you are feeling without being able to put your finger on it yourself. When you have a problem, someone else almost always has the answer-so why can't we figure it out by ourselves? I remind myself of my 'part 3' theory I have recently blogged about. That part 3 is always being discovered. We can't always look in the mirror and find it by ourselves. The only way to grab hold of it, is to get out there and experience. Whether the experience is trying something new, going to a different location for a while, hanging out with those you know, those you don't know or simply spending time with yourself. Most of the time we are adapting to our own bodies and mind. I think we know the answers really of what is next to come-sometimes we have to piece things together and almost work through the experience of going through the motions, our emotions. We are all puzzles, we piece our moments together and make a clearer picture. Lets call it, being aware. The following will sound like a riddle, so please bear with me.

To seize what we know, and reflect what we 'already' know then all the more can we achieve.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

I prefer not to say religion, or cult

Can we create a rational, evidence-based spirituality? Many interesting thinkers, from Richard Layard to Sam Harris, are working on just this project. As Layard said at the RSA this week: "What I think I'm arguing for is a new secular spiritual culture...a new moral culture based on reason, using the new science of happiness."

Of course, Christians also think their religion is rational and evidence-based. The evidence, for them, was the empty tomb, it was Jesus appearing to his followers on Easter Sunday. The evidence was all the signs, wonders and miracles attributed to Jesus and his followers up to the saints of the present day. We stopped believing in this sort of evidence in the 18th century, thanks to the development of the experimental method, and to rational sceptics like David Hume and Voltaire, who took great pleasure in showing up the superstition of popular miracle tales, and the incoherence of using Bible quotations as 'proof' of Christianity's truth.
 
Under the attack of scientific rationalism, Christianity tried to re-define itself in more rational terms. The 18th century Deists, for example, pointed to the perfection of nature, and asked if such perfection could have been created without intelligent design. But thinkers like Hume argued that creation was, in fact, far from perfect. Most created beings live lives of want and suffering, and nature seems to care very little for its creations. And after all - what about the Dodo? Why did God create it, just for this pathetic creature to die out? The wonders of nature could be much better explained through the idea of what Hume called a 'blind principle' of creation, or what Charles Darwin would later call natural selection. Life is driven by our selfish genes and their blind struggle for replication, and in this struggle there are many casualties who don't make it. There's no higher intelligence out there guiding events, just the brutal struggle for survival and reproduction.

I personally find this unpersuasive, because I don't think a narrow Darwinism is an adequate explanation for human consciousness. Our conscious rationality seems unnecessarily sophisticated for the quite simple job of survival and reproduction. It is excess to requirements. I agree with the ancient Greek philosophers that our conscious rationality means we can not merely survive and reproduce, but know ourselves, change ourselves, and find happiness and fulfilment. This Socratic optimism gives me some faith that there is a higher intelligence, and that consciousness is the fulfilment of some higher plan or programme. I also think, as Andrew Marr put it in his Start the Week interview with Sam Harris, that there is something in humans that loves to worship creation, to glory in its existence. Birds don't sing purely to attract mates. That's a narrowly Darwinian view of bird song. Sometimes birds just sing, to celebrate life and worship creation. Likewise, humans don't dance purely to attract a mate.As Lady Gaga pointed out, sometimes we just dance.
However, I don't believe in a personal afterlife, nor do I believe in the perfection of creation. I don't understand why one of my best friends from school has been condemned to a lifetime of paranoid schizophrenia. I don't know why God would do that to someone. But why do we assume God is perfect and all-powerful? Is it possible that we're in some sort of beta version of creation, and that God is still ironing out some fairly major glitches? Is it possible that God is Himself going through various versions and upgrades - and that human consciousness is part of that upgrade?

The Stoics had a rather bleak view of the matter. They believed in a cosmic plan, and believed consciousness was a part of that plan. But they also thought that, according to the divine plan, the universe would expand until it reached a certain point, and then everything would be engulfed in flames and be sucked back into a tiny point. And then everything would explode back into creation, and the whole programme would run again, exactly the same as before. Eternal return, as Nietzsche called it. Many physicists today believe something close to this. It all seems a bit pointless and wearisome, if it's true. It's nicer to think that the Vikings, Jews, Christians or Marxists were right - that history is moving to some sort of grand final conclusion, and the series will end with a bang, rather than the daytime TV monotony of eternal re-runs. But then how could time and history simply end? What would we do then? What would God do, once the programme was finished?

By the by, have a listen to this great take-off of the astronomer Brain Cox, on the comedy radio show Down The Line. I like the caller at 11.34 who says whenever she looks up at the stars she just "feels a bit sick".
Anyway, I'm getting a bit off my point. So Richard Layard, Sam Harris and others are trying to create a rational, evidence-based spirituality. Layard says he wants "a new secular spiritual culture - we need something which uplifts the spirit, inspires people and makes them feel part of something bigger than themselves". He speaks of the west's terrible failure to find a secular replacement for Christianity. He says: "The job of our culture should be to promote the altruistic over the egotistic parts of our personality. But so much of our public culture encourages the exact opposite - excessive individualism."

He hopes utilitarianism can become our new secular morality. He says: "I believe in Bentham." But he thinks the 18th century, for all its enthusiasm for enlightenment and happiness, went a bit wrong, because it became "excessively individualistic", so really he's closer in ethos to Victorian philanthropy, though without the Victorians' belief in "hellfire". The person he really reminds me of is Matthew Arnold, the author of the Victorian classic, Culture and Anarchy. Both are, in their different ways, fans of Hellenic philosophy - the cognitive techniques for happiness taught by Layard's movement, Action for Happiness, come in large part from Stoic philosophy, while Arnold's great hero was the Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius.

But the difference between Arnold and Layard is that Arnold thought Hellenic philosophy would only appeal to the intellectual elite, while the masses needed something more emotional, symbolic and communal - Christianity, in other words. Only Christianity, he thought, was capable of giving the masses culture and saving society from anarchy. He turned out to be wrong: British society survived the decline of Christianity without any major social revolts, thanks, I suppose, to consumerism, TV, the development of the mass leisure industry...or perhaps because of the welfare state and the increase in economic and educational opportunities for ordinary people. But that's not enough, says Layard. We need a better culture, to develop our altruistic side and free us from egotism, "the greatest cause of suffering".

It seems to me there are five challenges to this project to develop a secular, rational and evidence-based spirituality for western society:

1) What if the scientific evidence increasingly tells us that free will is an illusion, and that our lives are determined by neuro-chemical processes beyond our conscious control? That, after all, is what the neuroscientist David Eagleman argues in his new book, which I reviewed here. In that case, the science of happiness ends up with what I called an 'amoral landscape', in which we can no longer blame anyone for their actions. The science of happiness would also end up with the mass production of happy pills. And would there be anything morally wrong with that? Would it be fine if we spent our lives blessed out on soma? I would argue that would be morally wrong, because we would have failed to develop our full potential as human beings. But it seems that, if you think the point of life is simply to experience as much happiness as possible, then the easiest way to achieve that is by taking as many happy-inducing chemicals as possible.

2) Creating a science of happiness begs the question of how you define happiness. Is happiness one single, homogenous thing, as happiness measurers say it is, or are there many different types of happiness, with some types of happiness perhaps 'better' than others? Jeremy Bentham thought all happiness was equal - he would have argued that Xbox was better than poetry, because it made more people happier. John Stuart Mill disagreed, and thought that some forms of happiness were 'higher' and 'better' than others. He thought poetry was better than Xbox, and therefore we should educate people to appreciate these higher forms of well-being. But if you think that's true, then happiness measurements are simplistic and reductionist, because they don't differentiate between different types of happiness - which jeopardises the whole 'science of happiness'. I asked Layard, at his RSA talk, whether he agreed that Xbox was better than poetry. He thought it was, as the Evening Standard reported here.

3) The science of happiness can be just as naïve and myopic in its use of 'evidence' as Christians can be with their talk of miracles. Layard argues that the evidence is clear that the best way to be happy is to be nice, good, and socially progressive. But, as Andrew Marr said in his interview with Layard at the RSA, you could equally use the evidence to argue for quite a different society. Marr pointed out that the societies typically held up as happiest - the Scandinavian countries - don't just have the biggest welfare states, they are also typically the most ethnically homogeneous societies, and that's why "Danes and Swedes are readier to contribute where only Danes and Swedes get the goodies". People are prepared to pay more taxes when the people receiving social benefits are from their own culture and race, who they appear to trust more. There's also evidence from Robert Putnam that the least happy communities in the US are the most ethnically diverse - because people trust each other less in such societies. Now you can make other arguments in favour of multicultural societies - that they are more just, or economically stronger. But the 'science of happiness' might actually suggest we live in smaller, more conservative, more religious and less ethnically diverse societies. I'm not saying we should live in such societies. I'm saying that if we religiously followed the happiness evidence, that's where it might lead us.

4) There's a limit to what science can tell us. We can never exactly be sure what constitutes the Good Life, and can never create a perfect science of well-being, because we can't really be sure why we're here, or what happens to us after we die, or if there's a God. There's an inescapable uncertainty about the point of human existence, which science cannot eradicate - and I don't think it ever will.

5) Finally, most importantly, rational science - like rational philosophy - lacks the strong emotional, communal, symbolic and ritualistic power of the major religions. Marr, again, made this point well to Sam Harris - he said, if I remember right, "do you have an army of chaplains ready to spread your new morality across the world?" And of course, he doesn't, and neither does Layard. The science of happiness lacks what Simon Jenkins unhappily called an 'infrastructure of joy'. Action for Happiness has fewer followers than the Jedis. There are no happiness centres, no secular churches, no songs, no myths, no narratives, no martyrs, no rituals, no holy days. Nothing to connect our rational prefrontal cortex to the deeper limbic springs of our being. Nothing to bring us together to combat the great sickness of modern times: loneliness.
The challenge is to create new forms of togetherness, new forms of culture. But it's also to incorporate older forms of culture, including religious culture, into a harmonious multicultural society. Because right now, the best cultures for happiness that we have are, according to the evidence, religious cultures - although unfortunately these religious cultures seem to be rather exclusive and intolerant of each other. I hope Hellenic philosophy can become a meeting ground both for religious cultures like Catholicism, Islam and Judaism, and for the secular science of happiness - because all these cultures draw on Hellenic philosophy (particularly Aristotle, but also the Stoics) and use similar ideas and techniques. But any revival of ancient philosophy faces the same problem as utilitarianism or the science of happiness: a lack of communal rituals and forms of togetherness.

We tried to make Marcus Aurelius' birthday (on April the 26th) a new festival day for fans of Stoicism, and held our first Aurelius conference in San Diego last year. But the event will go uncelebrated this year - an attempt by me to hold a similar event in London attracted little enthusiasm from other Stoics. Instead, next month I'll go to Hay-On-Wye, and to the How the Light Gets In festival, to hold a workshop on street philosophy with the London Philosophy Club, and see if we can take another step towards developing a popular mass philosophy. Come and join us - the event is on Tuesday May 31st, at 10.30, and there's going to be a philosophy treasure hunt around the town during the day, complete with street theatre and secret missions...Not exactly a replacement for Christianity, but it will be fun, nonetheless.

Have a great Easter weekend,

Jules

Politics of Wellbeing, Tytherton Road, London, London N19 4PZ,

Lessons learnt

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12935895

Death before us

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13192687

Monday 25 April 2011

A Novel Idea

We all have moments when we are working out what to do with ourselves, whether it's something we may consider small and simple-such as walking the dog, having that second cup of tea or deciding that the night out tempted by your friends is something you just don't fancy right now. We all spend so much time debating if what we chose is right, wrong-do we have a passion for it or has whatever we may be doing with ourselves right now fallen into our hands because it was easy-it's always easier to go with what we know already. If I could say anything about living, then I would say a lot of it covers patience, choices and answers-but we are only going to source them by getting out there and experiencing, be those experiences good or bad. I always say whatever we do we shall learn from, we just have to recognise within ourselves when those experiences become dangerous, if we carry them on in an abusive sense; it's within one self to recognise when to take the danger away, whether to walk away, but always smile with it.

Lets just say the following words will flow, like a diary of experience, lesson and worth. Everything in life is an adventure, It just takes time to realise when your journey really begins…


So we all have passions, we all have dislikes. Every day we wake up, we have our routines, our preferences. Yet everyday something will change, whether it's meeting a new person, trying something new or even our bodies becoming something different to what we knew before. Every day we become challenged by our own selves-it feels like there are three parts to us in a way. One part being the human body-physical functions, the basics. Second part being our brain, our thoughts-our knowing what we feel is right and wrong, it's what makes our opinions, choices and characteristics. And thirdly, the subconscious. The part of us, which holds how we flow, treat people-I would say it's the part we always end up learning about once everything has already happened. They do say you only learn when it's too late-I would say this human part is what instigated that idea.

I think we all need to accept that not everything is within our control. The sooner we do that, the better. Most of the time we are battling. Not with other people. But ourselves. I would say we battle with part 3 of us everyday. Lets call it our inhibitions. We are always protecting ourselves, lets accept it. We do not like to get hurt. Why feel pain? Emotionally. We all know its not what we want. But. There is a difference between protecting yourself and putting yourself out on the line. I myself am a very big mechanic to all of that. But once you start letting in, once you start pulling that wall down that we all put up in front of ourselves-things really do start to get better.

We all live in fear. There are so many kinds of fear as much as there are so many different kinds of love. We will always have fear don't get me wrong. But most of all, we fear ourselves. We fear how we can make ourselves feel, without even really wanting to feel scared. In a way, I always feel like two people. There is the person who knows already, and the other I discover daily and feel is the one I truly want to show to the world and experience it with. I am always impressed by our own ability to know what we want to do, but there is always that part of us which holds back. That is fear. Which is why most days I take a moment to ask myself, why am I worried? I vision it all like a mental checklist. There were times say, when I was in a club. The music amazing, company great and dancing gorgeous. But there were seconds I would get a mental mind flash and say to myself, oh my god something is wrong. But was there really anything wrong?! There actually wasn't. Unfortunately it was my part 3 saying to me, something is wrong-because that was all I ever knew. To feel extreme happy was alien, I suppose my subconscious was telling me to go back to that place which I always knew-but there was never a way out there. The new world I had discovered was so intensely amazing-sometimes without even wanting to we bring ourselves back to a place we so passionately hated. Though it is good to go back there in a sense now and again. We only learn by reflecting on the differences we experience. I would say it brings us to an understanding of our own growth and appreciation for what we have achieved. To what we have achieved in ourselves I must say. I suppose it was from those moments I started to recognise I had found a place, a new place which was unfamiliar-but felt really good, and so it was then that my true journey began.

Thursday 21 April 2011

What's your stride?

What Rinpoche described reminded me of what author Milan Kundera philosophized about in his book “Slowness,” a slender volume I ironically sped through in a night. Kundera explained how we live in a highly sped-up culture, and that our need for speed promotes our forgetting. If you want to forget something, you will speed walk. If you want to remember something, you’ll slow down your steps. Kundera warned that speeding up your life keeps you from remembering daily details like “Oops! Forgot to pick up more soy milk,” and keeps you forgetful about life values and how to live your most enjoyable, passion-filled life.
The next time you find yourself racing quickly down the street, know that you’re not only running to your next appointment, you are also literally running from contact with your truest feelings, needs and insights.

There are some smart inventors trying to create more fancy-shmancy devices to save you more time. But we don’t need any more “time-saving” devices that quickly morph into schedule-, mind- and feeling-clogging devices. Instead we need more “time-savoring devices,” which help us to slow down, sit still and become more mindful of who we are and what we value for a fulfilling, happy life.

http://crazysexylife.com/2011/super-busy-use-these-time-savoring-tips/

Coffee art!

http://www.salon.com/food/great_coffee_art/index.html?story=/food/feature/2011/04/11/coffee_art_contest_slideshow

Slut Walk

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/20/slutwalk-united-states-city_n_851725.html

No-one should come between

This story makes me really sad. It also makes me appreciate everyone in my life so much more.

http://www.salon.com/life/life_stories/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/04/20/lost_a_best_friend_gained_a_husband

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Desk space

There should be a law where if you have headphones, you are allowed to work and listen to music at the same time. It is a shame that it isn't recognised in most working environments that music is such a motivational tool. Even when we walk to work in the morning, on days when I don't listen to music the world becomes a different place. I forget that people in the city cannot hear what I do, and feel what I feel as well. I believe that If music was pumped into the streets of London, around where ever you may work-attitudes would change and our approach to each day would be totally different.

Of course there would be arguments to which kind of music should be played-mine lies with classical music, scores of rhythm and sparks of sound to motivate us on our way.

Adult innocence

'Here is another thing you can do. Remember your carefree days as a child. When you were a child, you were not plotting so carefully. You were not thinking so much about what others might say or do in response to what you say or do. I suggest you return to that time in childhood and remember what it felt like.

Then try relating to others with some of that simplicity from childhood, some of that innocence. This is just my idea. I'm no psychologist. But sometimes when I am too confounded and my thoughts are racing, this is what I do. I approach people simply again, as a child.
Remembering childhood relieves us of the burden of knowing what will happen next. We have no idea what will happen next. We're just kids!
Think of childhood. Forget the rules. See what happens.'

http://www.salon.com/life/since_you_asked/index.html?story=/mwt/col/tenn/2011/04/19/quick_relationships

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Forgetting we are human-is this all too familiar?

I suppose most of my blog posts recently have been telling the world about other peoples stories, instead of writing my own. So I apologise.

http://crazysexylife.com/2011/i%e2%80%99m-not-sorry/
I think it gets to a point, where we all make excuses for ourselves and for other people. Perhaps 'sorry' is the most appropriate word to use without having to dribble out an extremely boring and irrelevant explanation to reason how we feel. Who are we really reasoning for?

Ourselves?

It is questionable whether most of the time, deep down we know that the particular circumstances we apologise for-we really don't care about that much at all. I am sure we all value the true importance compared to the tiny things we get ourselves worked up about. I hope we all aren't making too many excuses for ourselves, and other people-to justify what we think we shouldn't feel.

Looking after yourself

Considering there are so many health scares these days, when it comes down to bras-a simple item of clothing, how paranoid do we have to be in order to prevent all risks leading to health scares?

http://crazysexylife.com/2011/hidden-dangers-of-conventional-fabrics/

Monday 18 April 2011

Drugs

I wish we all had a better education to use them properly, responsibly. I think it is important to remind ourselves we are humans, yes, but we are bodies like machines, a robot as such. Our bodies are made up of chemicals which can be topped up and reduced with external substances, and of course naturally balanced by ourselves. Our biology.

Though I must admit, I think there might be a place in our brain perhaps which doesn't become controlled by our natural mechanics. Of course, there are the scientific terms-the conscious and the sub-consicous. Though, that gift, I suppose is the part that makes us most human of all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/23/psychedelic-research-on-t_n_549337.html

Pleasure

http://www.salon.com/books/nonfiction/index.html?story=/books/int/2011/04/16/compass_of_pleasure_interview

Creative block

I am not sure if this makes sense to me, or whether this method would work for me either. I suppose we can't say no without trying!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-markman-phd/increasing-creativity_b_849886.html

Lyrics of the day

I'll show you all the places I'm dreaming of.
I'll take you to the Ocean,
I'll bring the Sun
We are seventeen,
we are just begun.
I have loved a five four and then some
but you are the one
the one, the one, the one, the one, the one, the one

Wake up in the morning,
we're paralysed.
We'll fly into the garden
like butterflies
There will be no blood
and there'll be no pain
I want to fall in love with you
again, again, again,
again, again, again, again, again, again, again

You have stolen all my senses
There's a fever in my heart
and you are taking my defences
You are pulling me apart
Forever we're young and we are dying
and we will be spilling all our blood
So I will take away my feelings
I will be an animal
An animal

I'll tie you in my arms,
I will smother you
We'll tell each other lies
like we tell the truth
I'll colour in the sky and I'll colour you
I want to draw on your skin
again, again, again
again, again, again, again, again, again

You have stolen all my senses
There's a fever in my heart
and you are taking my defences
You are pulling me apart
Forever we're young and we are dying
and we will be spilling all our blood
So I will take away my feelings
I will be an animal
An animal

We will run away from danger
We will run away

You have stolen all my senses
There's a fever in my heart
and you are taking my defences
You are pulling me apart
Forever we're young and we are dying
and we will be spilling all our blood
So I will take away my feelings
I will be an animal
An animal

Friday 15 April 2011

Song of the day

Because this tune is so nice:

I heard, that your settled down.
That you, found a girl and your married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things, I didn't give to you.

Old friend, why are you so shy?
It ain't like you to hold back or hide from the lie.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited.
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I'd hoped you'd see my face & that you'd be reminded,
That for me, it isn't over.

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best, for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I remember you said:-
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead, yeah.

You'd know, how the time flies.
Only yesterday, was the time of our lives.
We were born and raised in a summery haze.
Bound by the surprise of our glory days.

Adele Someone Like You lyrics found on http://www.directlyrics.com/adele-someone-like-you-lyrics.html

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I'd hoped you'd see my face & that you'd be reminded,
That for me, it isn't over yet.

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I remember you said:-
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead", yay.

Nothing compares, no worries or cares.
Regret's and mistakes they're memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I remembered you said:-
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I remembered you said:-
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead, yay yeh yeah

Adele. Someone Like You.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

How connected are we? Alone/Seperated.

'We think that we are separate from each other, and we are not. We think we are separate from the whole of life, and we are not. Tim is an integral part of the whole, and everyone and everything are also an integral part of the whole and, therefore, one with Tim. Separateness is the conceptual story we tell to make sense of life, the story of who we are, and when we get sucked into it we are not conscious of our deeper being. This is when we cause suffering to each other and our world. Waking up is the recognition that there is no other, that every person or situation is not separate from our essential nature.'

Of course you can accept this, appreciate this. But where is the balance? If we know there are notions of being 'alone', yet we are all still connected-where is the right in thinking we may be 'telling ourselves' something to make more meaning?

Isn't the balance knowing who we want in our lives, and not depending on people for what 'values' they provide in our lives? Knowing we can 'be' as our self, but accepting the importance for them to exist in our lives too?

Is this 'being' why many of us follow what is now seen as the convention, or expectation of humanism to find 'the one'?

Or am I just missing the point? I am sure most of the above I haven't really answered or explained well enough.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-and-deb-shapiro/you-are-not-alone-here_b_847086.html

This article is worth reading for the comments as well.

Street hug happiness?

I think I would be a little thrown off. Though who are we quick to judge, of course we would receive the hug if it were from someone who we knew, but to receive a hug from a stranger? Well, I suppose it seems a less harmful or should I say, risky, way of human contact compared to those who enjoy say, a 'one night stand'. Who are we to refuse the embrace from someone unknown, when there is more danger in spending the night with someone quite unfamiliar?


Don't you think it's funny when our animalistic instincts over ride our affectionate ones too?


'"Action for Happiness is based on the principle that kindness breeds happiness. It encourages people to perform small acts of generosity – from hugging to holding open a door, saying sorry or giving up a seat on the bus.


The group says it already has more than 4,000 members from 60 countries, and hopes millions of "happiness activists" will march forth to spread goodwill around the world.


"It's a movement for radical cultural change, away from a culture based mainly on self interest to one based mainly on promoting the happiness of others," Layard said.


The group's launch in a London conference venue resembled a festival of positivity, attended by throngs of chatting people and representatives of groups ranging from the Happy City Initiative to marriage counseling service Relate.


Inside, attendees held a moment of mass meditation. Outside, a group of "guerrilla huggers" dispensed physical contact to surprised but mostly welcoming passers-by.


Many of those involved think they know the reason for unhappiness – in our hyper-connected world, many of us are starved of human contact.


"We don't have enough touch in every day life anymore," said Majella Greene, 43, a graduate psychology student and one of the guerrilla huggers. "Young people and people who work remotely don't have enough contact with other people."


Her group sets out to remedy that by sweeping down on busy urban locations and offering hugs to office workers and lunch-hour shoppers. While some rush past – "I'm anti-hug," says one man – many stop for a quick embrace.


"It's easy to be cynical about it, but why not?" said James Cowan, 29, a marketing worker. "It puts a smile on people's faces."'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/action-for-happiness-uk_n_848052.html

Body perspective

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galia-slayen/the-scary-reality-of-a-re_b_845239.html?ncid=txtlnkushuff00000002

Thursday 7 April 2011

Marriage

Recently, I could really really see why people get married. Marriage I suppose is a way of someone saying, I really am going to stick around. How odd. Like, why would we doubt that anyways. How silly?! I could really understand the commitment that came with it and why people would want that. Because It does represent how strong love is. Wow this feels really mental writing that I understood marriage. But don't get me wrong, I may think that, but of course at the end of the day it is all just really a symbol. Some people like symbols, some don't. But the symbol isn't about status. It is an expression. We make our own rules. I think most married people forget they can too.

Perhaps that is why people get divorced so often, or marriage doesn't quite work out. Is that why most freak out and believe marriage isn't for them-because we forget to make our own rules within the relationship? After all, isn't it the individual desires from one, the perspectives and view points from another which set us apart, and bring us together?

Maybe, we forget what type of relationship we can potentially set up for ourselves. At the end of the day, you could say there is no harm in establishing something new, if those involved know where they stand-people usually find something isn't right for them by doing so, or imagining so, or having feelings which clash with their natural instinct in feeling for someone. I suppose we will only know by trying, and of course if it doesn't agree with us-there is no harm in accepting that too. I am sure that for those involved, they will understand and accept differences between the ideal type of set up for one person, and those for another as well.

Friday 1 April 2011

Quality of life

'Here is one way you can begin to make changes. Make a list of the things you are most unhappy about in your life. Here, why don't you do that now? Just make a list of the things in your life you are most unhappy about, and pick the one thing you would most like to change. I wonder what that would be. Would it be your job situation? Or perhaps your unstable finances? Your mortgage? The condition of your house? The unresolved questions with your partner?

Look at the things that are bothering you the most, and ask which ones you can change today, or this week. You may not like your job, but it takes time to change jobs. However, there may be certain aspects of your job that you can change, like your environment -- your regular chair, vehicle or work area -- as well as your commute, what you eat while at work, whom you eat with and the quality of your relationships with other people at work.

Your mortgage is another thing that would take time and effort to change. But you may be able to improve your house with paint or a new gardening project, so that while you are in it you are happier. Look for tangible changes that are relatively easy and inexpensive.

If your health is bad, you might take some simple steps to start improving it. You could exercise with an exercise group, or begin walking regularly, and try eating some new foods that make you feel a little better, and get a checkup to see if your nutrition is adequate and if any medications you are taking can be altered to make you feel better.

These are the kinds of changes I suggest you make. They are incremental changes that may not bring immediate rewards, but will slowly improve the quality of your life.
In making small changes, we also learn to pay attention to more subtle things, and this in itself can be an improvement.

These are things you can do.
For the time being, change what you can change, and let the rest be.'

http://www.salon.com/life/since_you_asked/2011/03/28/boyfriend_from_prison/index.html

Bruised Brain Theory

Taking time out really helps. And also what does really help is when others remind us of what has happened in our lives, to have shaped us as one self. It is good to be reminded that, what one person considers they have 'coped' with, or may see it as something that 'hasn't affected them', the way they have handled those situations-may have killed another.

And therefore I will in my own words call what can only be imagined as 'The Bruised Brain Theory'-we forget that whatever happens to us in life, it does affect us, though at the time or after we may not consider it to. What we experience shapes us. It can knock us off our feet and shake us up, a bit like when something quickly happens and it takes you out of your place. The nearest thing I could compare it to is perhaps an accident, lets say, a bike accident, or when you fall over. You become shaken up by a rush of adrenaline. We frequently forget that our bodies act like machines, and as much as there is the subconcious-we flow by a system of chemicals in affecting how we respond. I suppose what I am saying is, when stressful or traumatic problems may arise, the image comes to mind of a bruised brain. Even though after the sitation has taken place, we forget that we do become overwhelmed by certain events in our lives. And those events are essentially damaging-lets say, brain trauma. A bruised brain will always be triggered by anything which can link to those particular unfortunate moments. It would be within this moment whether it be yourself or another individual you know-accept the reminder that it may be time to slow down, time to take a moment, time to accept, grieve, be and reflect upon what was and what is now.

It all might put things into a little perspective for you.