Who The Bleep Are You, Anyway?Written by Steve Gillman
Self-identity? Who are you really? We identify with many things, but this is just a process in our minds. In fact, this identification causes us to suffer. Your favorite basketball team loses, and you suffer as though YOU lost. Your car is damaged and it feels like YOU are hurt. Somebody attacks who they think you are, and it is as though they could actually reach inside and poke at your true self. Is there a way to escape this unecessary drama and pain? Perhaps, if you can see what you are not. Seeing this clearly can free you from much of suffering that comes from identification. Try this simple meditation. A Meditation On Self Identity Get comfortable in a quiet place. Close your eyes, relax and take several deep breaths, breathing through your nose. Let your breathing fall into a natural pattern. Allow tension to drain from your body. Now begin by asking: Where am I? What am I? Who am I? Let these questions sit for a moment in your mind. Be aware of your body. Think of your leg. If you lost it, would you cease to exist? Are you your leg? Go through parts of your body, asking "Am I here?" "Is this my self?"
| | Don't Forget These Memory TricksWritten by Steve Gillman
What's biggest problem with memory tricks? Remembering to use them, of course. There are many memory techniques that work well, but you'll forget them when you need them most - unless you make using them a habit. So when you take time to learn a technique, use it until it becomes automatic. Here are some to try.Using a Story-List I went to a party as a child. There was a game that involved looking at a table covered in 15 various items. After a few minutes, we were taken to another room, and each child was given paper and a pencil. We had to write down as many items as we could remember. I recalled seven or eight, but one boy won prize by remembering all 15 items. Years later I learned why he won. His father taught him a simple trick that none of us other kids knew. The technique is to tie items together in an imaginative story. For example, what if you want to remember a list of following things: Soap, milk, honey, fork, and flowers. Start a vivid story in your imagination, adding each item to it as you go: At sink, you reach for SOAP. The soap dish is full of MILK, so you wash your hands in that. Then you comb HONEY into your hair with a FORK, and finally pick up a bouquet of FLOWERS and smile at mirror. Say each item while mentally reviewing your "movie," and you'll remember all five things, even next day.
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