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Meta Process
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Context-independent NH

Hey, dudes,

For those of us who are still putting up with boring courses or disciplines, doing unpleasant work for money or stuck with any tedious activity, environment or people for the moment, managing input and finding time to focus on exercises can be tricky, but we wouldn't be neurohackers if we didn't attempt to overcome these issues to protect and develop our minds.

To draw from my own experience, I find doodling, daydreaming, meditating and writing with your unskilled hand, if you have one, to be useful hacks during lectures. One could also draw, write stories, music and computer programs in the notebook, as in most classes there's freedom to do so.

Jobs are more challenging because they usually require us to be active doing things we wouldn't if we could (let's leave aside the argument that, on a fundamental level, we can), and that's why employers pay us to do them. Some social settings we find ourselves in without an exit strategy that wouldn't cause more hassle demand inner control of input.

Besides minimizing harm, what do you do to turn such situations around and derive improvement from them? Moreover, what are some good exercises we can do in our minds wherever we are? Advanced neurohackers who can point to ways of strengthening specific networks in common paid work situations are welcome to make suggestions, as is any advice based on experience.



Edited By:  Meta Process
Feb-04-12 16:30:38

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Alex
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Re: Context-independent NH

Very common problem! (long mail)

The two main bum situations people get stuck in are school/work and enforced relationships (for example, having to put up with dysfunctional relatives or housemates in a shared living situation).

It's important to work on removing the problem as well as developing strategies for enduring it, or we can find ourselves stuck in the habit of enduring crap for the rest of our lives. The same is true of physical illness; it's fine to take a pain killer for a headache, but it's not fine having to do so every day! Having a strategy for change also keeps us optimistic, which helps keep anxiety down.

The 'biggies' like anxiety reduction are context-independent and the main way people deal with both these problems is by using drugs, alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, sugar and consuming things generally, to stimulate the release of neurotransmitters that ordinarily our activities in real life should be providing. Almost everyone does this. A couple of lines of cocaine can make a dull meeting/lecture/conversation with aunt sally really interesting and keep you awake enough to look enthusiastic, but regular use of anything does take its toll.

The more stressed out we get the more we spend, so working starts to cost more and more as time goes by, bad nutrition habits and sleep interruption start to take their toll and when the health bills kick in most folks on a standard wage end up breaking even (that is to say, they end up with exactly the same amount as a dude with no job on welfare). Not the intended goal, obviously, but an all too familiar one partly because the working dude has so many more debts bills and obligations. This is the 'work slave' trap.

The problem we have to overcome in standard (ie, coerced) work is the payoff between making cash and losing brain cells. The trouble is that as soon as the unconscious knows we are doing something for cash, it knows we're being coerced and up comes anxiety and down goes immunity. Creativity and inspiration drop through the floor and we're left stranded with a bad temper, approaching diabetes, cognitive decline and no mates.

In the short term it does little harm as if anxiety is low we're pretty resilient, and obviously the less anxious we are to start with the longer we can hold out against decline. Good habits of diet and sleep etc can extend our endurance. In the long term though the only answer is to stop doing it, and there are several ways round the problem for those with a creative mind. Some I've heard of are below:

Find something you like doing and get paid for it sometimes. For example computer graphics, programming, maths, fishing, having sex, taking photos, or anything else you like to do that's creative or produces a commodity. If you love doing something and you get very good at it you can usually find someone who will pay you to do it.

Find something you like doing sometimes, that you get paid for (eg work two seasons, play two seasons, or work alternate months).

Rent a large property and sublet so that you get more rent than you spend. If you pwn a property you can sublet each room and live in just one room (communal living room & bathroom).

Do lots of different small things (for example part time work, sell things on ebay, make stuff and sell it on your own site, consider self employment, keep beehives & sell (and eat) the honey).

Get some of your needs free. Join (or start) a LETS system or local employment 'for the love of it' club (people list their skills on a communal database and work for each other for free, greatly distressing the tax office). You fix their computer or their garden fence, they fix your car or paint your house etc. Also join swapping clubs where everyone lists the stuff in their attic/garage they don't want, plus what they're looking for, and you all swap for free.

Cut your wants down to your needs. Why do we need so much money when all we really need is food, water, air, shelter and companionship? Consider other lifestyles, such as travelling in a camper van, or living communally. Six people sharing a house live a heck of a lot cheaper than six people living separately.

Consider big changes as well as small. Where on the planet would you most like to live? What's actually stopping you from going there? Work out creatively how you could make it happen.

Offset the dumbing down effects of school or work by spending all your spare time doing what you really enjoy. Take in lots of comedy and keep laughing; it really does improve your attitude to life when you can see the funny side of most situations.

The first steps out of the work slave trap:
1 Make it a priority to become debt free as fast as possible and stay that way.
2 Plan at least two strategies for getting out of the rut into something better.
3 Study and do what you are really interested in as much as you possibly can.
4 Communicate with others of like mind. Options open right up when you have an international network of supportive friends. If you're fired and inspired and you know what you really want to do, tell people about it!

And finally, trust in your own intelligence and ability to interact. Things turn up. I left the uk in a camper van in 1985 and didn't come back till '98, met some amazing people, did some very funky lectures and workshops, built two houses, got two kids, lived in a barrel top with a tobacco-eating horse, had some great adventures, and disappeared into an abandoned fishing village for four years.  It's amazing the amount of money we didn't need.

Anyone got any other ideas? This is a good subject to cover, as almost all of us find ourselves in such situations at some point in life.
Best,
AR


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Re: Context-independent NH

"Anyone got any other ideas? This is a good subject to cover, as almost all of us find ourselves in such situations at some point in life."

Here's more encouragement for new ideas. Come on, guys, we've all tackled this. smile


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Alex
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Re: Context-independent NH

Hi dude,
We missed the obvious biggie which is providing your own needs. Even going fishing once a week is a start, and there's plenty to be foraged in many areas. Growing your own food is great for lotsa reasons, not the least it tastes good, you don't have to carry it home and you know what's in it. If you have lots of room you can keep fish in ponds and rabbits, chickens & even a goat.

Collecting old stuff, refurbishing it and selling it online works well, plus you can often furnish a home w,ith stuff others have thrown away.

'scuse any typos, the sun is in my eyes. :  )
Unusually nice weather here!
Best,
AR


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Sakiro
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Re: Context-independent NH

Ha, is ironic how in reality all the stuff we try to do to balance/enhance our brain networks, should be doing in a day to day basis and without even trying (because we should leave in a sane society, and growing healthy from the beggining) and now because of the TE, school, bad parents, etc we need to work really hard to make us time to fix that, but we can't take it too much because we could not fitting anymore to the model of TE (8 hours work for example) LOL =)

I think the key is make some hard decisions, i know is not easy, and myself have some problems to make it, but i try to make an insane effort to try to not feel that i'm a victim of society/life, if you don't like your job (money issues or time or whatever) drop it and take a new one, or work freelance, or generate same kind of passive income, etc.

I love how alex seems like he lived/living the life at his fullest based of all the stuff he does, like he is trying to write his own chapeters in his life .. and don't be afraid, just "going with the flow" like Scal said in one thread.

And i see that and gives me hope to someday live it like that!

So maybe i don't have some practical examples/advice for this thread, just a reminder that we all must be aware that we have the power to make choices/decision and discart the stuff we don't need or are blocking our path to entelechy ..

Easy? It depends .. Maybe not .. but hey, easy is not fun =)

Cheers


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Alex
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Re: Context-independent NH

Sakiro Wrote: "like he is trying to write his own chapeters in his life"


I feel more like they're written and now I'm just trying to listen to the director reminding me of my lines. Oddly, I'm the director  LOL  :  )

Most of us experience many of the issues you raise above, and truly attitude towards them is what helps us make changes. Once you realize there is this enormous amount of BS in most societies you also realize you can use some of it or some of it can use you.

It's amazing that intelligent people have manged to develop all the tech and systems we have despite all the BS they have had throughout the ages. If you trace the history of any science you'll see those heroic efforts against the odds, it's been like that for a long time. As society steps out of religious restrictions and hassling us for offending the great god whoever, it steps in to political restrictions and hassling us for offending the great god money. One has simply replaced the other.

But in both cases knowledge and ability really are power  :  )   We can move from being used to being a user, and we can plan our alternative future.
Best,
AR


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