Taking Control of Your Life February 20, 2007
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Consciousness, Personal Growth, Philosophy, Purpose, Relationships, Beliefs, Time , 4 comments
Life is undeniably a pretty complex term. When we look at all the different aspects of a human being’s life, what we are responsible for and what we can or can not control, the list can grow quite long and into many layers of details. Take for instance circumstances, emotions, skills, diseases, other people’s behaviour, luck, success and happiness. How many of these, and to what degree would you define to be within or beyond your control? An even greater question that I’ve been battling lately is the question of how much we as human beings are supposed to take control of in our reality in the first place.
Some books and teachings say that we should just let go of our desires, live simple lives and give up the thought of taking control of our destiny - that everything is going along just as it is meant to, which means that trying to alter things is futile and a waste of energy. In other words, life is meant to be a humbling experience where the solution is simply to enjoy our stay on this planet and live with care and love toward ourselves, others and the Oneness of all that exists.
Another way of thinking is that this whole reality is your own creation and you (read I) are fully responsible of all that goes on in it. Therefore, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of cleaning up to do with all the misery and catastrophes that occur every single hour and minute of every day. This revelation either breaks you if you don’t even have the strength to take care of yourself, or it has the power to create a great human being out of you that actively improves the world - through internal or external means (self-improvement or altruism).
Option 1 resembles more of a theistic approach and option 2 an atheistic approach, but it doesn’t have to be that cut and dried. The underlying question is if you have the full control of your reality or if it’s beyond your reach, found in something or someone else’s control. It’s all a paradox that seems to circle on endlessly when you think about the human levels of consciousness as explained by David Hawkins. In broad terms, people below the consciousness of 200 are denying the responsibility of their own life and need to grasp this revelation to reach neutrality. However, to get past the mid levels and reach unconditional love and enlightenment, you have to more or less again give up the control that your ego and corporeal body has access to. So what then is the answer, should a human being strive for control or not?
I wasn’t able to push this question forward until I started asking myself what the word control really means and comprises of. The traditional explanation would for instance consider having control of a car. It then means that you’re the master of the car’s movements and nobody else is able to influence it. This I would name ‘direct control’ and it follows in suit with the subjective reality perspective that everything is happening due to your own thoughts and actions - that circumstances, emotions, skills, diseases, other people’s behaviour, luck, success and happiness are all within your control.
However, I’m also convinced that ‘indirect control’ is an equally powerful concept and a very acceptable mind-set as well. This is the power of being a master at how you relate towards everything - even though you accept that everything is beyond your control. Your control is therefore strictly internal and in a way, you control the external occurrences because of your own relationships towards them. In this case for instance, cold weather does not have control over you because it does not bother you. You are in total acceptance of your surroundings and thus, you are the one in control. It’s still a kind of control after all even though the outcome is beyond your reach.
So what this all boils down to is a separation between internal and external control. Now if we look at the small list of concepts I presented earlier (circumstances, emotions, skills, diseases, other people’s behaviour, luck, success and happiness), we notice that all of them are within one of our ‘controls’ and that in the end, you don’t have to choose one form of control over the other. They can both co-exist and you just choose one according to the nature of the issue. I’m sure you’ll find out which concepts require direct control and which require indirect control.
Many people find themselves out of life balance when they only rely on one form of control. They get mad at the universe or themselves when there’s no single solution to all of their daily matters that they want to control. Fortunately, there is a solution for how to take control of life, but it takes time and effort to master both kinds of controls for improved life quality.
Or were you more inclined to find an answer to which of the two introduced teachings are more correct? Life isn’t a goal or a destination you strive to reach. It’s a path and an experience where there is no past and no future - only an endless amount of the present moment. Life wouldn’t be very exciting if all our questions were answered, but I hope that you start to recognize the two kinds of controls that you may use and slowly master from now on to make the best of your life and the present moment. This matters more to me than finding answers to all the questions I can think of.
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Polyphasic Sleep Schedule December 27, 2006
Posted by The Probabilist in : [News], Productivity, Sleep, Time, Work , 11 comments
I’m starting my polyphasic sleep experiment on January 1st 2007. Sunday morning is the last day I awaken from my monophasic sleep pattern and my first polynap is in the following night. I finished up an alpha version of my weekly schedule for you to look into. Even though it is mainly aimed to show how sleep and waking time is blocked into a systematic pattern, it also shows what I do when I’m up and fighting the sleep deprivation. 
I’ve separated the week into 14 “days”, but I kept the 24 hour digital system we use over here when I did the text translation into English. A polyphasic sleep pattern works even better with AM & PM since the naps are every day at the same time. I chose 4-8-12 because it will fit in with my studies when I return to taking classes in March.
I then decided that the best place for workouts would be directly after a nap since it’ll surely help to awaken properly. The reason one should eat as early as possible is due to food digestion. Otherwise it will be tougher to awaken and get up since the body feels it needs more time to digest as it requires energy. I’m still tweaking my exercise program and my diet so I won’t get into the details here as they are slightly off-topic, but nevertheless important so that there’s at least some variation to the day.
The toughest part will be night time between 0:00 and 8:00 since there aren’t many other people around that I can interact with. That’s why I felt it natural to do the bulk of my writing and reading at those hours. ESCA stands for Email, Statistics, Comment moderation and miscellaneous blog Administration. The empty spaces are left for socializing, fun & recreation and completing my to do list of tasks that have been waiting for my attention.
This might all seem like overkill, but I really want to establish a sense of purpose for doing what I’m about to, so that there’s no problem in getting out of bed every single time I’m supposed to. If you’re interested in trying this out for yourself, then get your own polynap soundtracks over at this site. I’ll be using the 23 min version.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be adding updates on how I’m doing, that is if I’m still capable of writing readable content when I’m behaving like a zombie. Safe to say, I won’t be jogging around busy streets or driving at all during my transition period. Even reading a book may prove impossible to concentrate on. It’s once again pointless to set any expectations on beforehand. Instead I’ll just face one challenge at a time and try to make the best out of it. The results will then determine which sleep pattern is more feasible and productive to live by. To each its own though.
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