Achieving Peace of Mind

for the sake of the marvel Inflatable Arch and wonder it held for my mind. But when I actual visit there it wa not as pleasant and exciting,Pari had a magic aura for me as a young man. Whenev I wa in Europ I tri to visit it. and not nearli as magical, as I had thought. I have to admit that some detail of thi visit were inde magic on a person level, becaus when I stood in the squar in front of the Notr Dame cathedr I wa think about my belov grandmoth as she stood in thi veri place over half a centuri ago, and thi had a vivid emot and spiritu effect on me. And although certain aspect of the visit were disappointing, overal it wa still veri nice to have a refresh point of view on the citi I thought I knew. So in the end the visit wasn t disappoint at all. Now that I am a grown man and am immers myself in French culture, I find that I am discov a whole new Pari through the media and through the peopl I talk to and hear from. In the final analysis, though I have three veri differ idea of what Pari is to me these three imag do not conflict with each other in my mind but rather build and grow off each other.

who doesn t need to make himself look better than he realli is. Such read is veri comfort to me,Read classic literatur alwai calm me down. Thi is especi true when I read the diari of famou writer of the nineteenth century. It seem like you have convers with an intellig person. becaus the pace of life in the nineteenth centuri wa much slower than it is today. Interest and passion were less competit then, and the slower passag of time allow for individu to expand their thought into questions, a practic we seldom have time for anymore. Diari and other account from thi period take me far awai from the realiti of everydai life today, and the onli thing I regret is that you cannot find new work by novelist such as Swift, Defoe, and Dickens, or new poetri from such poet as Byron.

and you would probabl be surpris at the content of the book I pursue,I like thi sort of detail work. becaus I tend to read complet useless book on topic such as agricultur report of ancient Rome, written by contemporari writer of that time.

allow my mind to figur out better wai of perceiv my surround and the world in which I liveRead for me is not just about acquir information. It is first of all a thought-provok activ which help the flow of my own thought and channel them into uniqu and differ directions..

and routin action ar veri common in nature. Most process in natur begin with elemental,Read for me is a routin action. progress steps, build toward a desir end. Unfortun I suffer from a need to be engag in routin action, anyth but reading.

times,W can achiev onli the illus of peac of mind. Thi illus is somehow connect to places. people, and images. Alas, if you look at the detail you see that situat that you perceiv as safe and comfort in realiti ar not that safe. Thi is true not onli with regard to person experiences, but also can be seen in the biographi of success writers, philosophers, and scientists. The percept of their success deterior the more you read, and you mai find mani disturb detail in their biographi that could have easili jeopard their success and forfeit their claim to the page of history.

books,Ther ar mani exampl of imag imprint in our mind as ultim success stori that in detail investig prove to be onli anoth illus offer to us by the media. and movies. In mani case we do the opposite, make neg conclus about some event that actual ar not as bad or at least don t have ani seriou neg effect on ourselv or our lives. For example, we tend to over-estim the danger of get kill in terrorist attack or becom a victim of airplan crash when in fact we have a much greater chanc of dy behind the wheel of a car. Luciu Annaeu Seneca[1] gave all of us veri valuabl advic when he said that we shouldn t worri about troubl in the futur becaus thei will most like never happen, and even if thei do happen then we can worri about them then. But if we worri about futur troubl now and thei never happen, then we just poison our live and lose all hope for happiness.

Th state of peac of mind and stabl feel of happi and self-enjoy ar not all base on the fact of your life. What is more import is which system of belief you have in place to cope with differ situations. The onli wai to achiev a stabl state of happi and peac of mind is to learn more about yourself in order to find the true sourc of your unhappiness. Only through introspect can we purg the neg imag that mai current occupi our thoughts.

even though much of it ha been long forgotten. In modern Western cultur we perceiv action as a better choic than absenc of action,Seneca can be a good guid for such self learning. Hi letter to Lucilu includ volum of practic advic which still hold true today. though in mani case absenc of action allow on to find more success wai of balanc on s state of mind.

and do whatev you have to do without a lot of think about the reason or the result appear better than the state of inactivity. "No strain,A void action is perceiv in puritan cultur as the sin of laziness. no gain" is a slogan that can illustr the modern approach. Thi creat a lot of stress and exhaustion, make peopl engag in the frenzi of the modern lifestyle: "Do first, think later. Or even better, don t think at all."

most will struggl with thi question and then tell you where thei were going. Then if you were to ask why thei were do what thei said thei were doing,If you were to ask the major of peopl walk down the street what thei ar doing. most would struggl onc more but would be unabl to give you an answer, becaus thei in fact do not know why thei do what thei ar doing. For example, if you ask a high school student on hi wai to school, "Where ar you going?" He will answer, "to school". If you then ask, "But why ar you go there?" the answer will most like be, "Becaus that s what I ve got to do." You won t find a veri deep explan of peopl s action in more matur individu as well. Think is veri rare and a highli prize commod in todai s society. "Thought is a strenuou art few practic it, and then onli at rare times," as the first Prime Minist of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, onc mentioned, and thi is veri true. We don t teach our children to think; we teach them just to act, no matter how illog it mai seem.

if you ar us to do it; it is just need to becom part of your lifestyle. Peopl gener don t like to think,Peopl s inabl to analyz their motiv and action creat a lot of stress and caus frustration. Think is not that difficult. not becaus think requir more energi which it probabl doe , but as a result of the erron assumpt that think is not a us wai to spend their preciou time. Therefore, as a result of thi assumption, think is not highli valu by the major of the member of todai s society.

30 minut or more eating,W have certain amount of time which ar alloc for certain purpos everi day. We mai spend about 10 minut showering. 2-3 hour watch TV, but we neglect alloc time for simpl contemplation. There is no such thing as a special time for thinking; you ar suppos to do it if you realli need to, while you re in the shower or eat or watch TV, which is not veri comfort becaus sink into a deep thought in the shower can make you forget whether you have alreadi wash your hair and therefor you mai have to do it again, consider increas the amount of water and shampoo you use. Think dure meal increas the probabl of choke and therefor dy prematurely, and think while watch TV is almost complet imposs becaus the specif intent of mani TV produc is to distract us from think about our live and replac it with someth els that ha noth to do with our daili reality.

human need some time to review their action and to adjust their thought and belief accordingly. The modern world doesn t quit support us in thi endeavor or allow us to adjust accordingly,Th absenc of think time in our cultur is a bad thing. In order to stai self-consistent. becaus our cultur perpetu the problem. When you have alloc some time for thinking, sometim you mai come to the veri surpris conclus that most of the action you have been undertak in the past were actual not lead you to ani particular aim.

their career,Western cultur idol perfection. Thi impos a lifestyl on most peopl that expect them to be perfect in their person life. and ani endeavor thei undertake. The individu then evalu all aspect of hi life in term of success or failure. We can see thi approach even in psycholog terminolog where modern psycholog describ a famili experienc crise in relationship between it member as a dysfunct famili . Thi demonstr the core valu present by modern psychology; where the famili is suppos to function like a machin or a comput system. Therefor the psycholog of societi todai doesn t allow ani room for failure, subsequ increas the pressur on ani particular individual.

or individu who find real pleasur in non-materi values. I am a perfectionist myself,We ar live in an era of perfectionism. You don t meet mani success individu who valu the calm of quiet thought while observ the sunset. but I suffer from a most frustrat form of perfection which is complic by an intoler for routin work. I get easili excit by new ideas, but I find a lot of difficulti in conduct the repetit action that usual ar necessari to succe in ani endeavor.

becaus there is no place for happi in such an approach. You cannot be happi until you get your work done,Perfection caus a lot of suffering. but neither can you be happi when you get the results, becaus the perfectionist is never satisfi with ani results. Modern cultur is a huge factori that manufactur unhappi souls. I am try to put an end to thi by train myself to not be as perfectionist as I us to be, but even in thi simpl endeavor I am try to be perfect and therefor my effort defeat my purpose.

whom I call in my person vocabulari "episodists". By "episodist" I mean a person who is not result-oriented,I have alwai despis non-perfectionists. but rather process-oriented. I alwai thought that thi kind of person wa either stupid or just some kind of hippy, but now I realiz that I wa probabl wrong. Look at nature. We don t have much evid that time itself is real and not just an illus of our minds. So, without time, there is no mean to ani result. Without time, the onli meaning action is to put effort into the process itself. Let s look at natur again. What is the ultim result of a nice meal? Obviousli it is the energi that we get out of eat food, but sinc energi is not someth material, the materi result of a nice meal is noth more than what our digest system produces, which could be consid neither aesthet pleas nor a desir outcome.

not the resultsTh ultim result of ani blossom is rotting. The ultim result of ani life is death. That is why pai too much attent to result is not veri desirable; without anticip of result you don t have anxieti about failure. Natur is take care of our ultim result becaus we ar left in charg of onli the process..

to valu the simpl aspect of life? Take me,How doe on learn how to stop look at results. for example, sit in thi room write thi book. Rather than focus my attent on the publish of the book or the final product of my efforts, I focu onli on the fact that I am enjoi write and share my thoughts. It is a pleasant atmosphere, and I am in good compani with a sleep cat, a lazi dog, and the pleasant chime of the clock. I am not anxiou or nervou about how I come across or about ani deadlin that I must meet. Doe thi make me a bad person try to enjoi my life independ of the results? I don t think so.

in the back of my mind I am anxiou as to how the book is go to turn out. I can t wait for the time when I submit thi to the editor. I can t wait until I get the first copi and see the cover. I am not happi that I cannot see all of thi right now,But still. right here. Thi is a good illustr of my dilemma, whether to abandon the ultim preoccup with the result and start to enjoi each and everi moment of my existence, or to be like everybodi els a crazi perfectionist who cannot think of anyth but success results.

howev unnatur that mai sound. Even now we need to eat some anim s flesh in order to survive,Natur select ha made us strive for perfection. and episodist ar not veri good hunters. If love is an ultim aim of the develop of the universe, why shouldn t I make an effort to escap my anxieties, even for a moment, and devot myself to pure reflect on the outsid world, my inner soul?

our primal responses. We need to get acquaint with our standard reactions,Th wai to achiev piec of mind is to come to the realiz that we need to understand ourselves. the wai we often overestim or underestim ourselv and anticip our possibl behavior in differ situations, all of which eventu add up and make us much more anxiou about the dai yet to come. Our fear of the futur is not onli base on a fear of unfortun events, but also on a fear of our inabl to provid the proper response.

but for some reason thi doesn t provid us with enough confid to be abl to cope with futur event with the same or even greater success. Analysi of our previou performance,Our previou experi usual provid us with suffici inform about our abil to cope with differ stress event in our lives. however, allow us to achiev peac of mind about futur challenges.

extern opinion about ourselv and our abilities. The most amaz thing is that sometim the sourc of thi opinion could be the veri person that we don t perceiv as a reliabl sourc of opinion on mani other issues. Thi is a paraphras of a statement by Arthur Schopenhau that aim to persuad the reader not to care too much about other opinions. He wa curiou as to how mani peopl there ar in our live whom we actual valu and whose opinion we respect. Veri often the answer would be zero,On of the problem in estim our own abil is the obstacl that can come from the opinion of other that our own evalu is subject and therefor cannot be right. Thu we have a deep need for the approv of a third parti to provid us with a second. so why should we worri about someon els s opinion of us? Be object about ourselv is import not onli so that we don t overestim our abilities, but also so that we don t underestim them.

" "I never knew how to do this,W need to learn to build our self-confid not from frequently-heard phrase like "I hate do this." "I will never get over this," or ani other sort of discourag and counterproduct statements. We should rather make posit conclus about our abil to adjust to new situations, to be flexibl and creative, and therefor provid ourselv with the self-confid to perform in the futur at least as well as we did in the past.

depression,Inflex is the main caus of failur and therefor anxiety. and absenc of peac of mind. Natur support us to be as flexibl as possibl becaus adjust in life, especi among creatur live in the wild, is synonym with surviv . If you can adjust to a harsh winter, you will survive. If not, then you die. Pretti straightforward, isn t it? Flexibl in human societi is also a valuabl commodity. I had to adjust dure my life to at least five differ languag environments, and even though I have never perfect them I wa pretti success in all of them. You don t need to be perfect in order to survive. Moreover, try to be perfect mai exhaust your energi resourc and eventu lead to your downfall.

Common sens is anoth kei to reach a state of peace. But in my vocabulari common sens is not the opinion of the majority; rather it is a sober insight into the problem which is free of pre-judg and the mislead conclus of others. I have learn to question anyth I see and I am not new to thi approach.

in Chapter TwoI complet agre with Rene Descart in hi "Discours on the Method of Rightli Conduct Reason and Seek Truth in the Sciences" where he states.:

I thought that I could not do better than resolv at onc to sweep them wholli away," but as for the opinion which up to that time I had embraced. that I might afterward be in a posit to admit either other more correct, or even perhap the same when thei had undergon the scrutini of reason. I firmli believ that in thi wai I should much better succe in the conduct of my life, than if I built onli upon old foundations, and lean upon principl which, in my youth, I had taken upon trust."

I re-examin ani concept or belief that I onc took for granted,Follow thi advic of Descartes. compar it to my current experi and that of the modern world, especi where that s significantli differ from what I experienc as a child and adolescent. I must admit that thi old approach benefit me in mani ways, becaus regrett it is still veri rare and therefor it give me an advantag over other that don t emploi thi simpl approach.

as a result of decad of wait for the right opportun to present itself. Thei usual lose hope and just repeat comfort word and phrase in the "mayb somedai " style. How can you be sure that you won t miss the right opportun when it aris simpli becaus you ve never had on like it before? How can you train yourself to catch an opportun when it come along if opportun is such a rare commodity? As a matter of fact,W frequent hear the opinion that most of the thing in life depend on chanc and opportunity. Mani peopl argu that if or when opportun come thei will not miss it. But the truth is that such peopl ar not quit sure of what thei ar saying. such peopl lose their opportun becaus thei fail to recogn them when thei present themselves. I found a wai to train myself to seiz these opportun when thei arose. It is by take the initi to creat my own opportunities. That is how I know I will not miss on when it arises, becaus usual thei come at the right time and the right place, as everyth which is carefulli plan in advanc does.

becaus if you don t wait for opportun to come you won t be anxious. You will just know that when you need it,I alwai consid myself my ultim sourc of opportunities. Thi can be a substanti compon to my peac of mind. you will find a wai to creat it. Of cours it cost a lot of money, but opportun have a veri special wai of bring even more monei than it cost to creat them. Usualli I end up with someth at the end of the dai that I can then spend on the next opportun that I create, and of cours on my creation-friendli environ with the sleep cat, the lazi dog, and the chime clock.

becaus mediev Europ doesn t go well with mediev China as thei were greatli separated. As I have learned,Marco Polo went all the wai to the Far East try to mix the differ page of history. thei weren t onli separ by distance; thei were also separ in peopl s mind at that time. Europeans, and their overal spiritu leader, the Cathol Pope, made numer attempt to creat relationship with Tatar-Mongols.

if these green men should have the audac to ask for their assistanceA ll of these propos of co-oper in the Crusad were met with resistance. It wa like differ civil were unwil to relinquish their isol and culture. Tatar-Mongol would be reluct in the same wai to co-oper with aliens..

becaus some crossroad ar more import than those routin dai where noth event occurs. Thought like "what if " add a lot of anxieti and distort to our peac of mind: "What if I went to law school?" and "What if I ." Creat opportun for yourself preclud the need to entertain such possibilitiesIt is not just that individu peopl were not co-operative; entir civil were inflex as well. What would the world look like todai if the Tatar-Mongol had interf in the Crusades? Here we come to a question of the risk of accept or declin a certain opportunity. Thi make the moment of our live unequal..

I don t believ in opportunities. Most of the time when I creat opportun for other I can divert them for a limit time. Sometim it is onli days,A a matter of fact. sometim it take years, but sooner or later such peopl come back to their origin state and move on with their path as if there wa no opportun in the first place. Probabl I could creat an opportun to divert someon from hi chosen path for a period of time which coincident would be longer than hi lifespan. Thi doesn t mean that thi individu wouldn t have an intern need to come back to hi origin state of mind.

thi doesn t mean that I ceas to have an intern sub-consci impuls to come back and go on with the path. A veri import consider in chang our path is to analyz what is in fact our chosen destiny,Now I have to make a confession. I am exactli thi type of individual; I alwai follow my own path. If troubl or opportun divert me from thi path. becaus most peopl aren t quit awar of their destini s true natur and direction.

I have three imag Inflatable Tent of Pari in my head: the first is the on that I had befor I visit the city,Th last thing I would mention that is import for maintain on s peac of mind is the manag of multipl imag of the same thing that we usual have in our memori and imagination. For example. the second is my actual memori of the citi itself, the third is the imag that I am constantli recreat from read French period and recent novel and listen to French news. These ar three absolut differ cities. Realiz of the multi-imag natur of our conscious is a veri import step toward establish a well-balanc mental state. Admit the exist of these multipl impress allow me to avoid their inner conflict and help me function in a more stress-fre manner.