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The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

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Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#51

Post by allisthemoist »

pcmaffey wrote: post #37
allisthemoist wrote: post #13

Called Paths to Power, it emphasizes the importance of neutrality: The world is not fair or unfair. It simply is. The more you can suspend judgment, the more you can learn and grow your power. Not to be cynical about this approach, but having studied some of these concepts from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective, the idea of utilizing the perspective of Beginner's Mind to "grow your power" is a gross misappropriation an…

Attachments to fame, money, and power inherently limit your power. This is why you always see cult leader types who use "real" spiritual tactics eventually fall into an ego-trap. If you are truly "on the path", you will eventually be challenged to drop your ego. It matters not how you got onto the path, but how you respond to each challenge.

Very much agreed.

The very beautiful potential consequence of this kind of teaching is that it will get more and more people onto the path regardless. And once you are on the path you will recognize the suffering inherent in the pursuit of wealth, fame, and power.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#53

Post by wiredfool »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #14
akovaski wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand how your baby makes it difficult to take 15 minutes to meditate, because I would imagine you were sleeping in increments longer than 15 minutes. So why is this? Is the baby waking up when you wake up?

> Is the baby waking up when you wake up? It's more accurate to say that I wake up when the baby wakes up - I hear her start to stir because she's hungry/awake, and that rouses me. But yeah, she also tends to wake up when one of us does in the morning, unless we're very quiet, since she's just about slept out at those times. I tend to also let my wife sleep in and take care of the kid in the morning, since she takes…

Between three kids 2.5 yrs apart each, I think I went more than eight years never getting a reliable night sleep at home. Maybe once or twice a month did I manage to fall asleep and not get woken up for some reason.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#54

Post by chris11 »

manibatra wrote: post #41
dominotw wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind sharing how long you have done this for.

5 months. I started with meditating and running for 5 minutes each and increased it every two weeks or more whenever I felt like it. As mentioned doing 15 minutes of each now. Got my dad to do the same. I actually made him start with just 1 minute of each. He is upto 10 minutes after a month. Plus has started weight training. He is 60. I guess the main takeaway is do the smallest possible interval you can ( have no e…

Is this from the tinyhabits program? It sounds like BJ Fogg's method for creating new habits.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#55

Post by manibatra »

chris11 wrote: post #54
manibatra wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 months. I started with meditating and running for 5 minutes each and increased it every two weeks or more whenever I felt like it. As mentioned doing 15 minutes of each now. Got my dad to do the same. I actually made him start with just 1 minute of each. He is upto 10 minutes after a month. Plus has started weight training. He is 60. I guess the main takeaway is do the smallest possible interval you can ( have no e…

Is this from the tinyhabits program? It sounds like BJ Fogg's method for creating new habits.

Not sure where I read it and I have not heard of the tinyhabits program. Will surely have a look.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#56

Post by akovaski »

coldtea wrote: post #39
akovaski wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand how your baby makes it difficult to take 15 minutes to meditate, because I would imagine you were sleeping in increments longer than 15 minutes. So why is this? Is the baby waking up when you wake up?

At that point (with the baby etc), you want to use ALL the time you get the chance to sleep. You are not gonna waste 15 minutes meditating, nor do you have the courage to... It's like asking why one can't go surfing/running/whatever after a 14 hour work shift. Yeah, you still have 10 hours left in the day, but you hardly have the power at that point...

I would also recommend sleeping for the sleep deprived (I don't even meditate), but I just wanted a clarification on the idea that GGP couldn't find 15 minutes in a day to do something.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#57

Post by alanwatts »

allisthemoist wrote: post #13

Called Paths to Power, it emphasizes the importance of neutrality: The world is not fair or unfair. It simply is. The more you can suspend judgment, the more you can learn and grow your power. Not to be cynical about this approach, but having studied some of these concepts from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective, the idea of utilizing the perspective of Beginner's Mind to "grow your power" is a gross misappropriation an…

All that depends on how you define "power".

Judging by the chart under the Self Mastery section, it seems the author defines it as growing your physical, emotional, and mental energy.

Such a result could be argued to be in correlation with the Buddhist proposition of letting go of attachment and desire.

By letting go of preconceived notions, concepts, opinions, or the desire to have power (dominance) over others, we then have all of that energy available to us for creative means which would have otherwise been wasted in anxiety, or saṃsāra.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#58

Post by chris11 »

manibatra wrote: post #55
chris11 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this from the tinyhabits program? It sounds like BJ Fogg's method for creating new habits.

Not sure where I read it and I have not heard of the tinyhabits program. Will surely have a look.

You should, I went through it and found it really useful. The main ideas in the program is to start extremely small then celebrate and consciously practice doing that habit for a few days. The tiny part is literal, he suggests taking the smallest possible unit and making sure it's less than 30 seconds. For instance if the habit was brushing your teeth you would just need to consciously practice brushing one tooth. And then the celebration is equally tiny, such as just saying "awesome" when you consciously do something.

It sounds kind of corny, but it's effective. The idea is to get your brain to automatically associate a new habit with a really tiny action that will instantly give you a reward. So if you wanted to create a habit of brushing your teeth after getting up, you'll do it without much though even thought you only consciously brushed one tooth when you were trying to create the habit.

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#59

Post by duaneb »

dang wrote: post #29
Animats wrote: post #27

This looks like an attempt to monetize an evangelical Christian concept.[1] From the article: The ideal attitude is what she calls Abundant Thinking — a mindset that gives you the creative agency and grit to reach your vision — and, on a daily basis, to design your own life. When Verresen first meets most of her clients, they’re in reactive mode. It’s like they’re in a movie, acting in their job and life without know…

Lest anyone dive into religious polarization around this, it's worth pointing out that such psychological doctrines have a long history, back through Norman Vincent Peale and Napoleon Hill to the New Thought movement of the late 19th-early 20th century [1] and a whole kaleidoscope of religious splinter groups. Many of these were Christian, but mostly marginally so; a famous example is [2]. Then there's the New Age wi…

Not to mention existentialist philosophy, which again can be theist (kierkegaard) or not (too many to count).

Re: The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

#60

Post by duaneb »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #7
dsugarman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 hours is not enough sleep

It is for some people, and it isn't for others, which is why this kind of generic advice is amazing if it fits you exactly, and awful if it doesn't. I can function on six hours, but not well. I also can't easily take 15 minutes to meditate in the morning, because I have a two month old baby I have to help care for in the mornings. This somewhat limits my ability to meditate and exercise.

Six hours feels like you can function, until you can't. I think i remember seeing that people who could reliably function with just six hours exist but are vanishingly rare.

Juat be honest with yourself.

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