Often find life is complicated by the number of mixed data and communications we receive.
We then try to digest this outer world message into the way we ultimately conduct our lives.
Some have attempted to construct a simple model.
Ten Commandments
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your fellow’s house: you shall not covet your fellow’s wife, or his man servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your fellow
Bricks in the arts tend to have quite negative connotations \ ie. associated with drowning, rigid, deterministic, controlling. Take https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U as an example
The one I would like to focus on today is the brick connotations in the Wizard of Oz
The story revolves around 1 central character and 3 other characters that are following the yellow brick road to essentially alleviate their problems, as listed below.
Dorothy - Get herself and Toto back to Home
Scarecrow - Brain
Tinman - a heart
Cowardly Lion - courage
It is known that the brick path that they are own will be the one which get them to their destination to solves their worries. But instead of the path itself being some amazing paradise in to the abyss ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcL---4xQYA ), it insteads tends to be quite a boring trail with the characters having to sing tunes focusing on the future "we are of the Wizard....because, because, becauase". The fixed sterile path also gave ample time for the characters to dwell on the reasons why the were seeing the wizard (intrinsically having the effect of honing on their shortcomings)
A few times during the journey they were led of a stray from the path due to an event be that a dog running away, the witch etc but ultimately they got into the castle and after talking the Wizard of Oz they had the remedies to the problem just not in the way they expected. For instance Dorothy always had the power to go home however Glinda (the good witch) didn't tell her before cause Dorothy (herself) wouldn't believe it.
So whats changed for Dorothy ? Does the yellow brick road have magical properties ?
I personally related the yellow brick road as well trodden path where people seek to follow to essentially have a direction in their life, to reach their own personal goals and potentially to also fit in to society. However the questions then become is that if you have your eyes fixed on a illuminating yellow brick do you have direction ? Does trying to conform to a path lead to achievement of goals ? Who decides what "fits" in to society ? In this light the yellow brick road potentially "might" not be as optimal as it is portrayed as in current society.
Bit of a contrast to
Also ff she never left the path would she of got home ??
Although time in one way at a constant speed, by having access to random memories and cognition ability gives rise to a kind of time travel like feature in the mind. We can categorize what part of mind-time we are in using the terms past, future, present. The 50,000 thoughts or so we have each day can be broken in the three categories.
Past
An example of a past mind-space is a movie called Pom Poko by Isao Takahata. The movie highlighted how often our previous life experiences prop up in everyday life situations... walking outside with no shoes, eating pineapple.
Future
An example of a future mind-space is a move called Mr Nobody by Jaco Van Dormael. The abstract science fiction movie presented a world where they was basically a rewind function of life. It reveals the quite stagnating effect of future-mind space on the lead character
Present
Well any part of a movie that isn't a flashback or a fast forward could really be considered a present moment. But for instance this example in Perks of being walflowers will work.
We do need the past mind space as without it we would be a gold fish not really learning anything new each day. Similarly not having a future mind space would mean that things like goals or achievement that cant be acheived in an hour could never be acheived. However, the future-past states are also wear things like worry, fear etc.
It was interesting to compare the musical scores for the different movies. It does seem Past-mind and Future-mind music tends to offer slow melodies with piano, string like instruments with a repetitive melody that does cause your mind to need to over focus on. On the other hand Present-mind music seems to have in this case more of a beat and deep bass. Which kind of makes sense as deep bass and heavy beats is something you actually feel through your body right now and by focusing on it your mind find it harder to wander (unless the song reminds of a past experience). While soothing music is probably more relaxing for reminiscing or pondering.... allows the future and past state to be explored with less of the worry etc.
Present-minded song
Past/Future minded song
Although in truth most songs will fall in a spectrum of discouraging or encouraging present momentness. For instance you can have the ultra extreme cases like
At over 19.30 million Yen, Princess Mononoke (1997) is one of the most highest grossing films in Japan. Although the story has quite a straightforward plot structure with a core man vs nature theme I felt the strong character development of Ashitaka allowed me to obtainl interpretations of my own which may or may not necessary of been the intention of the Director.
Ashitaka is the heroic protaganist of the movie, however he hits a setback at the start of the movie when a demon he goes up infects him with a curse infected by hate. A common approach in practice when people are dealing with their own personal demon is to avoid/ignore/hide or fight (ie. cut hand off).
. Ashitaka approach was more of one of seeking understanding. He accepted the curse as something he had to live with and instead focus on finding the source of the iron pellet which was linked to what created the demon in the first place.
When Ashitaka did searching he discovered that the creatures had been shot by Lady Eboshi. The animal that had been shot by the pellet began to hate and that hate turned a god into a demon.
Instead of the movie being about venegance of Ashitka he took a role in the Iron town and saw first hand what the city was about. He learnt how happy the citizen were and more of how things are not as black and white as potrayed in the more western action films.
Continue to discover more about the world (and indirectly himself) he save a lady called San and stops a war. This is compared to the animal gods which let hate get to them and they turn into demons like the first monster. hen, a woman whose husband was killed by Moro fires her Ishibiya.
Prince Ashitaka got shown the tranquil area of the forbidden forrest and meet some forest god. All the way through the journey I felt that the charcter accepted his full self and had a keen desire to understand the perspective before placing judgement.
Remember the Superbowl kid requesting us all to to change the world for the better. Pretty inspiring yeh. How about changes on a more personal level ? Maybe behaviour/habit/a thought process/a goal.
One of approaches in psycology is known as the "Stages of Change" model. Show in the diagram right One of the key things that it says keep people in the pre-contemplation phase is believed to be people feeling that do not have the control or responsibility to change something. The second phase and third phase of contemplation and preparation sound like nice place for space cadets like myself to set up shop. The action phase is key step as it where the change manifests.....Yay!! But it also requires will-power, commitment and all that ....Dohl !! And maintenance is aftermath of establishing routines.
One of the things I dont like too much of the reasons of personal change is the fact it can sometimes feel a bit like there something wrong and you need to change to be more aligned like everyone else. Just like the change will be that clincher to ensure you have rejoined the sheep herd. But yeh the benefits of change can also by quite rewarding. Be that more sense of freedom, sense of success, more control of your destiny etc. So yeh instead of viewing change as the sheep herding comformism it we could maybe insteead view it as the pursuit for the best version of ourselves.
For instance in the diagram of the colourful circle. I have viewed a change as a tinkering of the colours or just a growth. Ineast of say squeezing the circle into another shape. So what methods are there to assist with the change process ?
Stages 1-2 Interaction with others - The really common way to really understand more about ourself and the world is through interaction with others. A simple conversation between two people can have a profound influence on raising the self awareness of another person about something they are inspired to change, Journal - It is said writting a diaries of day can help to reflect what is actually going leading to potential light bulb moment. Reading - Reading can expose idea or thought they may not have encountered through every day life. Although it more non-fiction book that have this objective, fictional books too can impact. Religious text can also induce people to change but yeh i wont get to much into that. Travelling - Everyday we get expose to things which make us contemplate. Travelling can accelerate this process as taking us away from our comfort zone into an unknown environment can heigten self awareness and consider broader picture on things
Doing something new - Doing an activity you have never tried before can introduce you to thought you have never had before. You probably will contemplate the most if you tried something that you thought you would hate. Speaking of which i should really try being a telephone sales person one day :P
Mediation - Mediation can increase self awareness bringing up things in denial into the contemplation space. There so much material on mediation on the interweb that i wont go any further on this. Mass Media - Just based on the sheer amount of exposure to television, news, pop culture what we take in can effect what we consider we need to change. Like for instance did images such as thismake people contemplate smoking ?
Stages 2 to 3 Pondering - Like over lots of months you can define a project in your head titled "change project 101" and then you can slowly peice away at it when you are daydreaming. Its a very effective approach :D Psycology - Talking face to face with someone who is an expert in the study of human mind and behaviour is a way to question what drives the thoughts, behaviours, habits. It represents probably the most direct approach of attempting to tackle change. Life coaching - Unlike Psycologist life coaches dont tend to be unqualified but seek to find ways of getting someone to be more who they want to be. It tends to be a profession based on sharing experiences and insight. I guess you would put someone like Tony Robbinsin this category. Neuro-Linguist-Programming/Hypnosis/Self Help books - just a few others about preparing for change
Stages 3 to 4 Seeking inspiration - Listening to inspiring music, reading, going on a walk, watching a video, going to a talk, browsing the web the way someone will find inspiration will be unique to them and depend on what they are changing Setting Goals - is probably the most common technique. People say the most common days that people tend set them are New Years Eve and their Birthday. But yeh can always have some mini monthly goals in between the monthly ones :) Learning from other - Speaking to, reading about or hanging around the people that do what you are seeking. Like there between 6 and 7 billion people in the world and alot are keen to assist people. n Cleaning - Alot of people say clean external space means clean internal head space. Therefore it good to be clear of of a tidy room and not thinking of too many other things when trying something new. Keep it simple - Change is hard. Nothing wrong with slow easy change. Remember thisstory / Not that lifes a race.
Stages 5 Practice Practice Practice - committed for the long haul. Setting mini goals - Breaking a change in to mini steps and evaluating along the way some people have found helpful Mindset - Patience, Attitude etc etc. Simplicity - Easier to tackle one thing than 10
