ANOTHER WAY TO READ

Most of us read volumes of words weekly, if not daily.  And for the most part our reading serves a good purpose.  It keeps us informed and helps us run our lives.  However, there's a special way of reading we may not often do that is contemplative.  When we read this way, we rapidly expand and grow.   

When we read contemplatively, we don't just read the material; we engage it fully and at our deepest level.  We read more deliberately and review material as many times as we may need to; we pause to more clearly visualize the material and to relate it to our experience; we ponder not just what was said, but also what wasn't said; we sense and examine our own reactions as well as an author's motives and intentions.  Further, we explore the many directions of thought that may arise from all these deliberations.

A contemplative reading approach allows us not only to absorb information more thoroughly, it also expands our capacity to perceive and think -- we have a high-impact-reading-experience that transforms as well as informs us.

With this approach, what matters is not how much we read or how fast we read, but how much we expand through reading.

Goodness and joy to all, Joseph.

SPREAD AWARENESS ... FORWARD THESE THOUGHTS TO A FRIEND.

ACCESSING YOUR WISDOM

“A wise person does first what others do last.” 

When I discovered this quote I thought it was a brilliant insight.  It supports the belief that a wise person lives best.  For a wise person is one who chooses the best action to take right at the start and thereby lives most fruitfully.

Given this, the key to a great life lies not in all the many good intentions and goals we may have, but in gaining the wisdom to direct ourselves better.  Wisdom streamlines life and keeps us from wasting time and energy going down wrong paths.

Wisdom is a great legacy left to us by many wise persons throughout the ages.  But our most immediate source of wisdom resides deep within ourselves. And we can easily access it by learning to focus meditatively.

This doesn't mean that we have to practice meditation, although it helps. What is needed is to slow down our brain waves to 8 to 14 cycles per second, which happens when we sufficiently slow down thinking. This level of brain wave activity is THE ALPHA ZONE (one of four brain wave ranges we normally enter). In it we become alertly detached, and our objectivity, will, conscientiousness, intuition, and perceptual receptivity can increase. In it we can be more powerfully present and in control -- and live at our MASTER MIND LEVEL. 

At this level our higher mental powers are more readily available and we may live better. Train yourself to enter and live more in this zone. Then you’ll often access your inherent wisdom -- and do first what you might otherwise do last ... or not do at all.

Goodness and joy to all, Joseph.

SPREAD AWARENESS ... FORWARD THESE THOUGHTS TO A FRIEND.