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Mantra
Feb 7, 2007 14:42:53 GMT -5
Post by Tillie on Feb 7, 2007 14:42:53 GMT -5
slb tells us:Not so slb. I am not a female and that is a fact too, so how can you presume to have had more fun than me? It's actually much more fun being a fact you know. We are facts: 'The world is a totality of facts not of things.' Ergo, we all have fun!
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Mantra
Feb 7, 2007 20:08:17 GMT -5
Post by joew on Feb 7, 2007 20:08:17 GMT -5
I have fun. Ergo, I am.
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Mantra
Feb 8, 2007 11:08:58 GMT -5
Post by gailkate on Feb 8, 2007 11:08:58 GMT -5
I exalt you
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Mantra
Feb 9, 2007 14:27:28 GMT -5
Post by hartlikeawheel on Feb 9, 2007 14:27:28 GMT -5
On a more serious note there is a technique which uses two or three positive self-referrential statements which one is to tape to their bathroom mirror and repeat them several times a day.
The claim is that a month of this exercise is supposed to raise one's confidence and self-esteem.
I have questions about this. The first of which is that if one feels uncomfortable with themselves they often avoid looking in mirrors.
And what if the positive statements are, no matter what one has written, translate to "I AM a failure. I KNOW that I am a failure.". "I AM capable of screwing up my life with little effort.", "I CAN turn a silk purse into a sow's ear."
I once asked a colleague which comes first, acting as if or believing as if, and that was in the day when everything seemed black or white to me.
His response was a wake-up call for me - that it could be some of each.
In my experience acting as if is the most effective. Make lemonade out of lemons instead of telling them that some day they will be lemonade.
A friend and I determined to do this for a year and it was quite effective for both of us. At first it felt phony and as time went on it grew into a habit to find the positive.
Once, maybe 25 years ago, I called an old friend, a counselor, complaining about The Packrat and questioning my decision to stay in the marriage. I wanted words of wisdom - magical words to make it easy.
His answer really ticked me off and since I've come to see it as a wise response. "It depends, Barb, on whether you want to stay with him or not. Only you can decide that." Duh. And he gets paid for that stuff? A kid could have told me that. But I HEARD it.
We can make things so much more difficult than they need it to be. Head and heart. Balancing them is the difficult part.
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Mantra
Feb 9, 2007 14:42:31 GMT -5
Post by slb2 on Feb 9, 2007 14:42:31 GMT -5
On that note of phony-ness, I certainly felt phony/phoney when I began interviewing musicians on the phone or in person. The first person I interviewed had won several awards, was a regular APHC musical guest, had won a Grammy, the list goes on. It was the Interview from Hell, surreal for a number of reasons.
But I managed to pull one of my best stories out of that interview. I still (nearly four years later) hear positive comments on it from editors who've read it.
If the guy I interviewed could have SEEN me as I conducted the interview. I was nursing my baby whilst writing down his words. I was actually crying during part of it because he related a story about a bandmate being killed and what he said reminded me of my sister who was a couple months away from dying herself. My other three kids had come home from school and I just shut the door and kept talking and listening while they threw snowballs in the house on the other side of the door!!
Phony? Yeah, big time. But I keep going.
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Mantra
Feb 9, 2007 16:37:17 GMT -5
Post by hartlikeawheel on Feb 9, 2007 16:37:17 GMT -5
Suze, no reference regarding being foney sent in your direction. Just talking about my own struggle to be real. I guess we don't get to be that way until all our fur is worn off. No more velveteen!
Forgive what may appear as criticism, yet I don't think that crying while you are working is anything less than honest. Particularly in the "people business." It's possible that not crying could have been a betrayal of your spirit. Sometimes our live's stories can touch a heart. The sympathy can flow both ways. . .
My daughter surprised me one day in her early twenties when she told me how hard it was for her to work to be real. And I thought to myself that the concept hadn't even occured to me yet at her age.
Still I listen to The 'rat on the fone and I can nearly always tell with whom he is talking to by the tone and attitude of his voice. Even down to exactly which brother!
I need sometimes to ask myself if the differrent voices we use for different people are truly phoney or simply that we can use frisky voices for frisky friends and respectful voices for those whom don't speak "frisky."
Maybe that isn't phoney at all. Maybe carrying more than one set of values is the true measure of deception.
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Mantra
Feb 12, 2007 0:18:10 GMT -5
Post by hartlikeawheel on Feb 12, 2007 0:18:10 GMT -5
So. I've been thinking about mantras and it sent me to dictionary.com which said, "A word or formula from the Veda chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer.
And it put me in mind of referring to disruptive children in the back seat as little thits.
Here came Carly Simon with her mantra of hope for the love and growth of our young.
Let The River Run
We're coming to the edge running on the water coming through the fog your sons and daughters (What an image!)
Let the river run let all the dreamers wake the nation Come, the New Jerusalem.
Silver cities rise the morning lights the streets that lead them and sirens call them on with a song
It's asking for the taking trembling shaking Oh, my heart is aching
We're coming to the edge running on the water coming through the fog your sons and daughters
We the great and small stand on a star and blaze a trail of desire through the darkening dawn
It's asking for the taking Come run with me now the sky is the color of blue you've never even seen in the eyes of your lover
Oh, my heart is aching We're coming to the edge running on the water coming though the fog your sons and daughters
It's asking for the taking trembling, shaking Oh, my heart is aching
We're coming to the edge running on the water coming through the fog your sons and daughters
Let the river run let all the dreamers wake the nation Come, the New Jerusalem.
Oh my.
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Mantra
Feb 12, 2007 0:19:04 GMT -5
Post by hartlikeawheel on Feb 12, 2007 0:19:04 GMT -5
And Till your avatar is just great.
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Mantra
Feb 12, 2007 13:04:58 GMT -5
Post by Tillie on Feb 12, 2007 13:04:58 GMT -5
Thank you, Hart! I've always had cats and dogs together. This is the first time I've had a dog without a cat. I love my dog and perhaps I'll have a kitten sometime next year!
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Mantra
Feb 12, 2007 13:44:14 GMT -5
Post by hartlikeawheel on Feb 12, 2007 13:44:14 GMT -5
I hope your kitten is just like your avatar and just like you. Soft and sweet and with teeth when need be.
I've watched her over and over. Called Marion in today after he had his lunch to see her.
She is also a mantra of sorts - a visual. The balance of heart and head?
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Mantra
Feb 12, 2007 13:46:35 GMT -5
Post by hartlikeawheel on Feb 12, 2007 13:46:35 GMT -5
Will you please say more about your statement that we are facts and not things? I'm lost on this one and it sounds like there is a lot to say about that.
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Mantra
Feb 12, 2007 22:18:46 GMT -5
Post by Tillie on Feb 12, 2007 22:18:46 GMT -5
Will you please say more about your statement that we are facts and not things? I'm lost on this one and it sounds like there is a lot to say about that. Yes, there is a great deal to say about facts and not things. Right now briefly, when the signs (things) blur over, the use (facts) make clear. Regarding Slb2 and Brit on the above posts - Slb2(a woman) says she knows she loves, Brit (a man) says he loves, too. It doesn't matter that this thing called love is either masculine or feminine, as they both "love" which is a fact.
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