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If you follow the link you find my essay on Personal Development - Island Theory.
I wrote about it in my blog before.
- 6th of March about Islands
- 22nd of March about Islands
- 27th of March, the story of the Prince and the Magician
Please leave comments and feedback, I am looking forward to a great discussion.
Volker Ballueder
Islands, Islands - Inseln.
Years and years ago, as some wondered why I write about islands on facebook, I came up with a theory that life is like going from one island, one level to another.
You start on one shore, going into the water, life, and struggle to reach a piece of land - an island. Now, after you reached the first island, you can get a breath of fresh air, relax and have reached some kind of “higher” level. However, you would not be happy with the first island, because you aim to be at the other shoreline (if there is one, but I come back to that later).
So as years go by you go from island to island reaching a higher level in your life. More experience, more confidence, more fresh air if you like, and you just enjoy reaching them. But then you have to go back into the water to reach a new level. Some people like the island they achieved and stay, but I am a person that needs to move on and find a new island.
Now, one point to make is that NLP, TA and other techniques, meditation, Buddhism and career/personal development give you new tools in order to reach new islands quicker or easier.
As an example I used that I am almost at the level that I jump from island to island using some jet skies. However, my aim is to get airlifted, have a yacht or fly. The higher I get on the level ladder, the better the tool, the quicker the way to the next level. It is almost like a race where you chose or learn to use different tools and the speed gets quicker as you move along.
The other point is that each level is giving you great satisfaction. Happiness. And, you do not know how long/wide the ocean is (N.B. nothing is linear). Is it just from Calais to Dover with a few islands or are there more islands, e.g. we are going from NY to London, or even further. This ocean might never end until you either get insane or you reached a level of the magician (you remember the story from Bandler and Grindler in Frogs to Princes about the islands ,-)).
So, whatever you decide to do, be patient, collect tools on the islands, go into the water to reach the next. Never give up, the sky is the limit really.
Currently, I reached a new island. I know what I want, how to get there but the water is still deep and dangerous. But I am up for it. Let me breath for another few weeks, then I will be out there again to reach the next island!
Have a fabulous night!
Hello,
Podcasting becomes more popular. Not only for my main work which focuses on optimising search engines, but also for me going to work and a lot of people out there who travel a lot and get less time to read as e.g. they have to focus on traffic, get travel sick reading etc.
So, I found some podcasts on Spirituality, got them from Eric Putkonen, whose website is http://www.awaken2life.org/. Quite interesting, tonight I listened to him saying that for him, meditation is to sit down on a busy day and let go. Not about enlightenment but purely to let go and relax in a busy and hectic environment. He does not even use breathing techniques as he likes to keep it as simple as possible.
I understand that and agree. Keep it simple - do not worry if you “mediate right or wrong” - as it is for you to understand and benefit from.
Eric’s website mentions in a quote that “we are all enlightened but some of us remember” - that gives me to think. Would that imply that we are actually all enlightened but the once who practise to find where the roots are, where we are coming from, who connect with their inner self, those are the ones that remember. So remembering is nothing else than connecting with your roots? That makes sense too.
I will write to Eric that I like his thoughts. Thanks Eric for making my journey tonight some valuable time for some valuable thoughts.
Have a good and peaceful night/day.
When I was graduating from Highschool pretty much 10 years ago I used to play Doppelkopf, a German card game, on a regular basis.
Now, for some reason, I decided to download a computer programme of Doppelkopf and enjoy playing it. What I find interesting that certain ways of playing it still trigger a behaviour in me. Certain ways of playing, me winning a set or the other player not playing right, still get me to shout out some phrases as if these people were real or I was still playing with my old mates.
Before you think I am crazy: those imprints in my mind, the anchoring of certain behaviour that gets triggered by a way a situation is played are fascinating. It is great to see that it works, ergo you can use it to trigger a positive behaviour in the future by creating anchors or imprints now.
Just another proof that NLP works ,-)
Hello,
My partner Jen said to me the other day that, during a girl’s night out, her and some friends discussed whether one does ever know when the right time is to get married and when to have kids.
She came home and shared the thoughts and I, whilst jogging last night, realized, what most of you probably already realized, that in terms of change management, humans change as well.
Not a great revelation I suppose. But here we are. 6 months ago I liked my bottle of wine, my nice diner and could not be more comforted by having food and nice drink. Now, shortly before the wedding, I drink about a glass a week, run about 20 K (in total) a week, do weight training and cannot tell you what a difference vegetarian food makes to my diet. Wow - that is a lot of changes.
One never knows what comes next. Another trigger in life lets me set sail to India or Tibet to get enlightened and my partner might want to move to New Zealand for good. Would one make those decisions together, can one make those decisions together? Will one ever know the other person? When is the right time?
The right time is always in the now. The Power Of Now - by Eckhard Tolle, describes it nicely. There is never a good time but the actual now. Because we do not live in the past or future. All decisions, all feelings are at this very moment. NLP taught me that if you start thinking of e.g. buying a new car and really get yourself hyped up for it, feel it and imagine driving it, then you have already bought it. All you have to do now is the action and physically buy it.
So, is there something like THE right moment. Yes, there is. It is now. But this now changes, in “human terms” every second I suppose - if we want to put a measuring on it.
We all have the right to change and the will and motivation to change. We need to constantly develop ourselves, have different wants and needs. Out of that we create our now which nobody would ever be able to predict.
However, with a little of common sense and stability I guess we are reasonable in what we are doing and caring and loving towards our partner.
I would like to dedicate this entry to Jen, as without her, I could not reflect my thoughts as well. Her love shows me every day, that the now is what I want. And, if I could, would like to have the NOW forever.
I did not notice that Dan Millman wrote more than this book. I finished it and would like to add some more comments but also I ordered his other 2nd book; Millman wrote a book which takes out bits and pieces of his book and then discusses them. Would he write a blog for me?
Guess not, as he has his own blog. Visit his website: http://www.danmillman.com/ - a lot of questions are answered there. And, looking at his page, that is something where I would love to end up in years. Inspiring people, giving advise, writing books and make a living from it. My respect, Mr. Millman!
Lets get back to the book:
Once you make your choice, do it with all your spirit. Don’t be like the evangelist who thought about praying while making love to his wife, and thought about making love to his wife while praying.
I love this rather common phrase, because deep down it shows commitment. You either do it or you do not. You do not take on a job you cannot do or would not try everything possible to finish it, would you? Do not do anything lighthearted, rather not do it at all!
Then Millman talks about Happiness and Money. Which I like because I would love to have millions of GBP in my bank account however happiness is more important. The difference between being wealthy and being rich.
Happiness = Satisfaction / Desire
“If you have enough money to satisfy your desires, Dan, you are rich. But there are two ways to be rich: You can earn, inherit, borrow, beg, or steal enough money to meet expensive desires; or you can cultivate a simple lifestyle of few desires; that way you always have more than enough money.”
Whatever you desire in life, if you keep it small (denominator in the above equation) then the happiness gets greater by same satisfaction - that reminds me of my maths class at university. Or, you have lots of money and can satisfy a lot. But the problem will be you have more money (increase in satisfaction), your desire grows and then happiness does not grow. So if you have a lot of money try to keep your desires small.
I reckon Dan is right to keep your desires simple and modest and you are easier pleased ergo your happiness is higher. It makes sense - the less things to worry about, the less things to aim or strive for, the less to worry, the more to live for!
While it is difficult to just pick out some of Dan’s quotes there is another thought I enjoyed.
“You do have a terminal illness: it is called birth.”
So often you hear people that have cancer for instance and say “I make every day as nice as possible and live it as if it was my last. I have nothing to lose.” - We all are in that situation. We only have around 75 years on average on this planet. Let us all make the most of it, the most of NOW. The power of NOW. Why wait to make decisions and wait to be something we can be today. Start changing your life today, there might not be a tomorrow!
Dan describes very vividly at the end of the book how death appears and what happens to your body. It is eaten away and becomes dust. End of story.
Not quite because that is “just” your body. You live in it, you nourish it and vice versa but at the end of the day it is your thought and your soul that makes YOU. Luckily I have never experienced it but if someone has an accident that results in a body damage. Sure, life will never be the same, but the person stays the same. The body changes but the mind does not. One stays oneself; if you lose an arm through an accident you still are the same person.
I leave you with those thoughts for the weekend. It is important to understand that the conscious and the mind explains what you feel, how you feel, what you like and wish for. But the body has little or no influence. One could go as far to say that the body is just a protection around our thoughts and keeps them protected.
We decide with our mind, willpower and motivation what we like to do.
I tell you about fasting tomorrow.
Whilst reading the above book, after recovering from a flu-like cold, I came across a nice story which I like to reproduce here. I am sure Dan Millmann would not mind me copying this passage and publish it here:
An old man and his son worked on a small farm, with only one horse to pull the plow. One day, the horse ran away.
“How terrible,” sympathized the neighbours. “What bad luck.”
“Who knows whether it is bad luck or good luck,” the farmer replied.
A week later, the horse returned from the mountains leading five wild mares into the barn.
“What wonderful luck!” said the neighbours.
“Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?” answered the old man.
The next day, the son, trying to tame one of the horses, fell and broke his leg.
“How terrible. What bad luck!”
“Good luck? Bad luck?”
The army came to all the farms to take the young men for war. The farmer’s son was of no use to them, so he was spared.
“Good? Bad?”
This story fascinates me as it shows in a simple way that there are always two sides to look at. A situation has its positive sides and negative sides. A car accident can lead to you missing a plane that could have crashed if you were on board. Things in life happen that might prevent us to get into worse situations although they look like being bad situations themselves. There is always something that could be worse and something that could be better.
Everything has a purpose - is said in the book. And it is up to us to make the best out of it. Sometimes the worst situations bring out the best in people. It is not by accident that people who are pushed to their boundaries usually perform the best.
Whatever you do in life there are different views to it. A bad situation could prevent something worse. A good situation easily turn into a bad one. And a bad situation can turn into something good. Never forget, it also depends on your map, your territory, of what you make of things.
Have a good night.
Another Sunday but something is different - it is sunny outside, almost too hot and isn’t it the first ever real sunny Sunday this year in the UK? Lovely.
Das Wort zum Sonntag - the word of Sunday (? not sure if that would be a good translation) or better the lecture of Sunday.
I have been thinking a lot about how much is going on in my and other people’s life. What are we here for and why? The path of life, destination and sense. Does it make sense?
Of course it does. Discussions with various people about “should you change a bad situation” in order to get a better or should you stick to it - at least for a while - to find out whether you can solve it and - if you can - learn anything from it. Are you meant to be in the situation to learn something about yourself?
What about the saying of “we are already where we are supposed to be and whether the situation around us changes, we are meant to be in the situation where we are and have all necessary tools to live in our life” - then this means it does not matter where we work, live, play as we are ourselves and the outside does not matter?
It is a tough call - a call I would not be able to make - but what are those teachings and ideas want to tell us? Surely not indifference?
From my point of view we are born into a life that was chosen by us but which we influence through our own motivation and energy. Latter reflects back to the Secret. So therefore coming into a “bad situation” might be reflected down to yourself as an energy you sent out to come into that situation, a fear, being afraid of. Looking back in my own life I could show you at few examples, try it out for yourself.
However, if you are in those situations you have asked for yourself - conscious or unconscious - then you are there to deal with it to solve a problem within you. As you need to get your energy right inside you in order to get it corresponding on the outside, a positive world where we like to be.
We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us.
(William Butler Yeats)
Ergo we can conclude that our energy direct us in life and get us to the point where we are supposed to be; negative situations to learn from and positive situations to enjoy. I would go as far and conclude that if we are treating other people with respect, love and happiness at all times, even if they are rude and bad to us, we gain more energy from it and make a difference. Not at least to us. And maybe that is where the thought plays in that “we are already where we are” - because if we are happy within us and know where we want to go and where we feel best, then the outside becomes less important, doesn’t it?
Have a great, sunny, Sunday.
Dear Reader,
It seems to be on Sundays when I have some time. Maybe not loads but I was away again all week and only now finished the book “Memories, Dreams, Reflection” by Jung.
On page 369 he writes “Hence I prefer the term “the unconscious”, knowing that I might equally well speak of “God” or “daimon” if I wished to express myself in mythic language. When I do use such mythic language, I am aware that “mana”, “daimon”, and “God” are synonyms for the unconscious - that is to say, we know just as much or just as little about them as about the latter. People only believe they know much more about them ….” - he describes the advantages of calling the unconscious God/daimon by getting a better objectification or personification.
If the common unconscious, the overall knowledge of the world, is resembled in terms like God or mana, would that mean that we represent our knowledge just in different ways but as long as we believe in the theory of someone watching over it or someone keeping it we are safe. Then we believe in one way or another that the knowledge is kept and accessible for everyone? Do I really understand what Jung wants to tell me there?
For years I used to believe in God but, going through puberty, I decided it is not the thing I can believe, it did not make sense. I now, almost 15 years later, discover that what people call God is the unconscious, the common knowledge represented in one figure? Is the daimon Hillmann talks about (see entry 10th of June) maybe the knowledge giving to us as well. And if we start questioning our own daimon we get to know the unconscious and ourselves?
Why not stand up to our daimon and ask him/her why we are here in this world and what knowledge s/he got for us. It reminds me of a passage of the bible where people question God about the reason he put certain strains upon them.
Is it to believe in any of the theories or is it to help us understand ourselves? Not to become insane thinking about the here and now? Finding a reason of being to make our life worthwhile?
Jung mentions he sees himself as the one that asks questions and that this seemed to be the purpose of life. Has every unconscious a reason for everyone’s life? Is that the daimon then or God who leads our way? Or is it all about trusting in yourself but knowing that the knowledge is kept somewhere if you need it?
ballueder
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