In the Middle of the Night

It was playing with risk for fun. Why did people stand around, watch, and get such pleasure from seeing someone else take risks? Because everyone wanted the experience of a brush with mortal danger. They experienced the thrill of watching one person, all by himself, totally on his own, take his life in his hands and fight the fear. Here is the good stuff, however: You don't have to be that person who, while actually thinking about something else, just nods your head like a marionette. You should train the brain to rely on what you are being told by people and remember what they say. It all starts by establishing a presence in a simple way at the moment: By repeating them in your head, follow the words being spoken to you. For instance, imagine that someone is asking you the following: I want to go to a movie tomorrow called Memory Maverick. It's about a guy you can't forget about. He's hired to penetrate a rival by a company known only as 'The Department. But because he can't forget, the organization is starting to make his life miserable. All you have to do in this brain exercise is repeat everything in your mind that the person is quietly saying. By doing this, you will naturally improve your cognitive function and recall more. Anger (150) has a lot more energy than Fear or Desire, and so the energy of Anger can be very useful--not the form of anger itself but the energy of anger in which they become angry over their predicament in life and being the victim. This anger can be used in a constructive way as a turning point away from defeatism. Pride (175) moves them out of hopelessness and into doing something as a matter of pride by taking action and beginning to move up into caring for themselves and their position, and this then is the move toward the next energy field of Courage (200). Courage to tell the truth is the crucial step in recovery. We see the powerful effect of the first of the Twelve Steps in Alcoholics Anonymous--the admission that one is powerless over alcohol or drugs--which now allows for the capacity to face, cope, handle, and be appropriate. It represents reempowerment.

The world is then seen as an opportunity, and for the first time, there is the benefit of an open mind, and the truth now has a way to enter the mind. Pride (175) can be utilized to move the person up into Courage (200) and to look at the facts. Doing so provides encouragement to move up to the next position, Neutrality (250), that of letting go of resisting the facts and being released from that resistance in order to begin to view the world as an okay place. This inner release allows the person to experience inner freedom to explore, expand, and then move up to the Willingness (310) to say yes to life's opportunities, join in the exploration, and agree to align with it. This is what made those shows so compelling. It was the flying symbol of being in control of your own life and taking responsibility for your split-second decisions. You too can barnstorm, by making breathtaking passes at things you want. The point is not to crash and burn, but to muster your courage and get really near the thing that scares you the most. Give yourself a thrill by calling someone you never thought you would have the nerve to call. Inquire about a job that is out of your reach. Nominate yourself for a position to which you are sure you would never get elected. Tell a parent or authority figure you're planning on being a great success one of these days. Swoop and roar down the field of life for fun, feel your engines burn and the ground rush past. Then pull up sharp and leave it all behind. It works because it exercises simply by asking your brain to remember details. The more complex the details, the more exercise your brain will get. You should practice taking photos in your mind to recall even more. You could see a picture of Mel Gibson, for instance, as he watched the movie Maverick trying to remember something. Or you could get an image of an agency building in your mind and scenes of evil men in suits that torment the hero. Any pictures and definitions you develop will help you become a living dictionary of breathing mnemonics.

To be more present. Recalling more of what has been said. Showing individuals that you care for them and their lives. Easing disagreements as they occur and in greater detail, you remember the problems. At Willingness, the person thus develops the capacity to see the whole recovery process in a world that is friendly, and they view Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery programs as promising and hopeful. They feel optimistic that, yes, they will recover. Acceptance (350) is a very powerful energy field where they realize the inner power to make these decisions. Confidence, a feeling of adequacy, and transformation occur through experiencing that the world is harmonious. On the one hand, life has presented the person with a problem, but on the other hand, it has also provided the answer. A merciful God provides the solutions, so although they may have an addiction, there are hundreds of thousands of people around who have found the answers and are only too willing to be helpful. The person moves up to Reason (400), and energy is poured into education to understand the science of addiction and its impact on mental health, incorporating many medical resources and useful philosophies into one's self-understanding. With the letting go of the intellect's focus on acquiring knowledge, the person begins to value their beingness, and an energy field of lovingness (500) emerges, which is in a completely different paradigm of spirituality, gratitude, and coming from the heart. The person has committed to an energy field that is healing by joining one of the 12-step groups, whose energy is innately healing. Through that willingness then comes acceptance of the real necessity to be in an energy field that is nurturing, supportive, understanding, and unconditionally loving. This kind of barnstorming is a wonderful, courage-building game. The point is not to be brave enough to crash into anything, the point is to approach something (or someone) you are really afraid of and make a close pass. It will put the hero energy back in your heart. You will feel the thrill of rushing at the thing that seems so big and scary and then at the last second swerving away and not crashing after all. This is the kind of play that all young mammals do in their preparation for adult life and its challenges. In their contests of dominance, they act like they are going for blood, but at the last minute they stop.

The point of such play, for animals or humans, is not to win at any cost, nor to injure ourselves or others, but only to practice the thrill of coming close to the real thing. It ripens our skills and bravery. Like barnstorming, it may only be a game, but we know, when we have tested ourselves and lived through it, that we can go on to the real contest. Testing yourself is important preparation for the time when your bravery will count, when the stakes may be real. They translate their ideas into photographs, emotions, relevant concepts, and even tastes and smells as individuals talk. Take it seriously with this training: When you're always with them, you'll feel better about your connection to people. A fantastic professor named Matthew Clark: He told me about a great concentration exercise that you can have practice. It's easy: you put a metronome on at a slow speed and then practice click coverage. These neurotic activities will help us concentrate on tasks that have been automated for our brains to do. The enhanced concentration generated by neurotic exercises allows you to improve your memory skills by zeroing in on your environment. To be straightforward: memory is not improved in any direct way by this brain exercise. But for enhancing focus and presence, it is excellent. Also, the simplest is the ultimate brain workout to improve overall cognitive function. In that field, people know they are in a safe space and that staying in it ensures their sobriety and thus survival. With that experience come the Joy and the beginning of experiencing an inner serenity and seeing the perfection and oneness of the energy field of which the person is now an integral part. THE TWELVE STEPS: REMOVING THE BLOCKS As was said, the lower energy fields are like the clouds that block the sun--the sunlight of the spirit, as it is called in AA. That sun is always shining; The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous have been applied to every human problem, to wondrous effect.

It can be very beneficial to apply these very same steps to overcoming addiction to anything. One can, for example, substitute the word ego for alcohol in step 1. In this article, we apply the Twelve Steps to the Map of Consciousness and show a typical process of recovery. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous Don't wait for the big day to learn how it feels. Play around with the concept now. It may only be in the barn of your imagination, but the same principles will train you to defend yourself in the ultimate contest. If you don't get used to taking little risks in a playful way, you may lose your nerve and back off just when the chance of a lifetime is about to show up. Even on smallest risk-takings, it is crucial to consciously recognize that you have taken a risk. When you know that you have taken a risk - even if it is one of the silly, little ones suggested earlier - you get to put that experience under your belt. Remember how scared I was to. It does you no good to take the risks and then minimize them in your own mind. Take full credit for them. Savor them, put gold stars next to your name and then add them to your resume as a grown-up risk-taker. It includes nothing more than a simple drawing that follows certain simple principles. Why is it such a powerful exercise to build a Memory Palace? It builds upon your spatial and visual memory to build a Memory Palace. It's both a perfect memory repair and an autobiographical lesson in memory. The Memory Palace training exercise works sort of in reverse, as far as mind exercises go. Since you're accessing visual memory signals outside of your consciousness that is normally blueprinted in your subconscious.