Path of self discovery

Another translation of a text. This one isn't pleasant at all to those, who need motivation. I don't believe either  motivation or discipline alone is an absolute answer, but here you will need to bow to the her majesty - DISCIPLINE :P

There are two main ways to get yourself to do something.

The first, most popular, and devastatingly wrong choice is to try to motivate yourself.

The second, less popular, and entirely correct choice is to develop discipline.

This is one of those situations where adopting a different approach immediately leads to better results. It’s not often you hear the phrase “paradigm shift” used correctly, but this is one of those. The moment when a light bulb goes on over your head.

What’s the difference?

Motivation, in general, is based on the mistaken assumption that a particular mental or emotional state is necessary to complete a task.

This is a completely false perception.

Discipline, on the other hand, separates activity from moods and feelings, thereby sidestepping the problem by continually improving them.

The consequences are staggering.

Successful completion of tasks leads to internal states that chronic procrastinators feel are necessary to get started on the task.

To put it simply, you don’t wait until you’re in Olympic shape to start training. You train to get there.

When action is driven by feelings, waiting for the right mindset is a particularly insidious form of procrastination. I know this all too well, and I wish someone had pointed it out to me twenty, fifteen, or ten years before I felt the difference.

If you wait until you feel ready to do something, you’re screwed. This is how the dreaded procrastinator loops arise.

At its core, chasing motivation is insisting on the infantile fantasy that we should only do what we feel like doing. The problem is framed as, “How do I get myself to do what I’ve already decided in my mind of doing?” This is bad.

The real question is, "How do I recognize my feelings as irrelevant and start doing the things I consciously want to do without being a whiny?"

The trick is to cut the connection between feelings and actions, and do what needs to be done anyway. You will feel good and energized afterward.

Motivation is the wrong way. I am 100% sure that this false limitation is the main reason why many people in developed countries just sit in their underwear, play Xbox and masturbate instead of doing something useful.

Believing in motivation is a consequence of psychological problems.

Since real life in the real world sometimes requires people to do things that no one in their right mind can enthusiastically accept, "motivation" runs into an insurmountable obstacle in trying to generate enthusiasm for something that objectively does not deserve it. The only solution, other than fooling around, is to forget about this "right mind". This is a terrible, and fortunately, wrong dilemma.

Trying to maintain enthusiasm for fundamentally dull and deadly actions is a form of deliberate psychological self-harm, a voluntary madness: "I love these spreadsheets so much, I can't wait to finally fill out the formula for calculating my annual income, I love my job so much!"

I do not consider deliberate manifestations of hypomania to be the optimal stimulus for human activity. The human brain does not tolerate abuse over an infinite period, so the retribution is inevitable. The body has its own brakes and safety valves.

The worst that can happen is success in the wrong action - temporary. A much better scenario is to maintain your sanity, which unfortunately tends to be misconstrued as a moral failure: “I still don’t like my pointless paper-pushing job.” “I still prefer pie to broccoli and can’t lose weight, maybe I’m just a wimp.” “I need to buy another motivation book.” Bullsh*t. The critical mistake is to think of these cases in terms of motivation or lack thereof at all. The answer is discipline, not motivation.

There’s another, practical problem with motivation. It has a tiny shelf life and needs to be constantly refreshed.

Motivation is your hand on a crank to increase the pressure. At its best, it stores and converts energy for a specific purpose. There are times when this is the right approach – Olympic competition and prison breaks come to mind. But it’s a terrible basis for ordinary daily action, and unlikely to achieve long-term results.

Instead, discipline is like a motor that once started, continually supplies energy to the system.

Productivity has no necessary mental states. For consistent, long-term results, discipline trumps motivation (running circles around it, giving it a flick, and eating its lunch).

In the end, motivation is an attempt to achieve a state of readiness to do something. Discipline is when you do something even when you are not able to.

You feel good afterward.

Discipline, in short, is a system, while motivation is more like a goal. There is symmetry in this. Discipline is something more or less permanent, while motivation is fleeting.

How to develop discipline? By acquiring habits - starting with small, even microscopic ones, gaining momentum, using them to further change in everyday life, building a positive feedback loop.

Motivation is a counterproductive approach to productivity. What is important is discipline.


From page "Psychology, manipulation, influence"
Translation: Laurynas Sadzevicius

Another translation of a text, another list. This one is more pleasant and I hope you'll find quite a bit of yourself in it, enjoy :)

1. A more adequate perception of reality, free from the influence of current needs, stereotypes, prejudices; interest in the unknown.

2. Acceptance of oneself and others as they are, the absence of artificial, predatory forms of behavior and rejection of such behavior on the part of others.

3. Spontaneity of manifestations, simplicity and naturalness. Compliance with established rituals, traditions and ceremonies, but an attitude towards them with a proper sense of humor. This is not automatic, but conscious conformism at the level of external behavior.

4. Business orientation. Such people are usually not busy with themselves, but with their life's task. Usually they correlate their activities with universal values ​​and tend to consider it from the point of view of eternity, and not the current moment. Therefore, they are all philosophers to some extent.

5. A position of detachment in relation to many events. This helps them to endure troubles relatively calmly and be less susceptible to external influences. They are often prone to loneliness.

6. Autonomy and independence from the environment; resistance under the influence of frustrating factors.

7. Freshness of perception: finding something new every time in the already known.

8. Extreme experiences, characterized by a feeling of the disappearance of one's own Self.

9. A sense of community with humanity as a whole.

10. Friendship with other self-actualizing people: a narrow circle of people with whom the relationships are very deep. No manifestations of hostility in interpersonal interactions.

11. Democratic in relationships. Willingness to learn from others.

12. Stable internal moral standards. They have a keen sense of good and evil: they are focused on goals, and the means are always subordinate to them.

13. A "philosophical" sense of humor. A humorous attitude towards life in general and towards oneself, but one's shortcomings or misfortunes are never considered funny.

14. Creativity that does not depend on what a person does and is evident in all of their actions.

15. A critical attitude towards the culture to which they belong: the good is chosen and the bad is rejected. They feel more like representatives of humanity as a whole than of one culture.

​From "Psychological Journal" page, author unknown
Translation: Laurynas Sadzevicius

Another translation of a text with some bitter sarcasm, where it truthfully belongs, since some parents still have no idea. Very short one but very important one as well!!, enjoy :)

1.🧏‍♀️ The child doesn't listen. But then let your child hit you too, when you refuse to buy him ice cream.

2. 🤏He is younger and should respect you. In that case, give him the right to spank his younger sister or brother, kitten or hamster if these are not respectful enough.

3. 😕He doesn't understand otherwise. Just be consistent: also spank foreign tourists, and, of course, aquarium fish (rare blockheads).

4. 😟The child made you worry. At the same time, give it to your sick mother who missed her medicine so that she doesn't forget next time.

5. 🤬He makes you angry on purpose. By the way, don't forget to give your colleague who is always drinking tea from your cup and leaving it dirty a slap on the back of the head.

6. 😤It is harmful to hold in anger. That's right, and don't hold back with your boss or the traffic cop who fined you either. It's harmful.

7. 💢A sincere slap is better than a false forgiveness. Therefore, if you quarrel with relatives or friends, don't compromise, but start a friendly brawl.

These examples clearly show how illogical and harmful the use of physical force is. Being an adult and strong does not mean suppressing the weak. Strength is in the ability to find a common language with a child and educate with words, not with a fist.

From "Psychological Journal" page, author unknown
Translation: Laurynas Sadzevicius

Another translation of a text about apathy, stagnation:

1. Apathy is the absence of desires and emotions.
With apathy, the body has no energy for "deeds." Even if there is a need to move and "solve problems," there is no energy for this, specifically the energy of desires and emotions.

If a car runs out of gas but the need to move on does not disappear, the simplest and most accessible way since ancient times is to push it further with muscle power. After pushing the car for a couple of kilometers, a person usually gets tired, apathy occurs, and the desire to push as before eats him up. You need to find another way out.

2. Apathy is a painkiller for too strong feelings.
Strong and prolonged load on the muscles leads to overstrain and painful sensations. If a person himself is unable to refuse to continue such a load by an effort of will, the "apathy" safeguard is turned on.

3. Apathy is an opportunity to think about a problem without feeling.
After sitting powerlessly near the car, a person can get distracted and stretch tired muscles, thinking about how else to take care of himself. Where to find gasoline, get to a populated area, get some sleep, and call for help.

4. Apathy goes away on its own if you don’t interfere with it.
Medium fatigue goes away on its own if you remove the load. After which you can again freely use the methods that last time led to overstretch and pain. In extreme cases you can push the car if no other way out is found during this time.

5. Apathy is a natural reaction to a hopeless situation.
Apathy takes away unrealistic, harmful desires and demands from a person, and also shifts attention to the need to recover from the stress load. If there is no gasoline and 100 km of the way ahead, pushing the car the whole way is pointless ... and it would be better to understand this.

6. Apathy is the 3rd part of the process of adaptation to the inevitable.
Apathy naturally occurs after overexertion (pushing a car), i.e. manifestation of aggression. Aggression usually occurs after a short disagreement ("It can't be that I forgot to fill up the car with gas") with the fact that everything happened the way it did. But after apathy and restoration of internal mental strength ("to hell with the car, I'm more important than a piece of metal"), a period of restoring connections with the outside world begins, i.e. progress ("I'll look for a village and buy a can of gasoline there"). Together, all 4 parts create the process of experiencing grief or loss. This process can be observed most clearly for a long time in people who have experienced the death of loved ones.

7. Apathy is unfinished grief.
If you feel apathetic, something in your life has been lost (you were late for a meeting, or wasted time looking for gasoline). And now there is emptyness in that place.

8. Apathy is easier and faster to endure when it is safe and warm.
You can restore your strength and allow yourself to feel powerless when it is safe around you. When there are reliable people nearby who will deal with external problems for you and maintain a warm attitude towards you without demanding anything in return (thinking about going to the village for a can of gasoline is definitely easier if being late does not entail serious punishment).

9. Fighting apathy only increases apathy in general.
Spending your last strength on creating the illusion that you have a lot of strength is an activity doomed to failure in the long term, like trying to push a car when you are stuck high in the mountains.

10. Apathy can become chronic if it is too painful or scary to remember the event at all.
Sometimes events in life bring so much pain that it is impossible to cope with it, and there is no time for a full recovery either. Then the only way out may be “pushing this problem away for later or maybe forever.” Only after that, you may have the strength to get out of bed at least. If you apply this to an example with the car without gasoline, then at night in the mountains at minus 20°C it is better to be distracted by what will happen to the car if there is nothing to warm up with and a blizzard slowly turns it into a large snowdrift.

11. Chronic apathy leads to a feeling of painful emptiness.
Yes, unpleasant feelings arise when, six months later, in the summer, you find the keys to that car stuck in the mountains in your jacket pocket. And if the loss is not related to a thing, but to a person, then it is even more difficult. "Maybe I will remember it some other time ... but for now, I will habitually pretend that the car is just waiting for me in the garage and when I need it, I will be able to use it".

12. In between bouts of chronic apathy, "ghosts" of those feelings that caused apathy appear. "I urgently need a car... I have it in the garage... I run there... here are the keys, I open it... aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! It's not here again. Again I'm late, all my plans are collapsing at the last moment, and everything is empty and meaningless. I don't want anything. I can't do anything."

13. Chronic apathy can be overcome by returning to the pain consciously and with the desire to help yourself.

“I can still do something. Throw away the keys, don’t renew the car insurance, sell the garage, and think about other ways to travel around the planet. Maybe the train would be more convenient? I wonder what’s left of my car in the mountains… maybe they threw it off a cliff… maybe the boys from the neighboring village set up a hub in it… maybe they broke it for spare parts. But there are more important things now.”

14. The process of getting out of chronic apathy can be multi-step.
"Oh, damn. In the glove compartment of that car, there was my favorite pen and the last photo with my close friend… I feel sorry for those."


From page "Psychology, manipulation, influence" by Alexander Steshin
Translation: Laurynas Sadzevicius

This time I decided to just make a literal translation of a small, clear, and simple text about the suppression of emotions/feelings, so for your attention:

For some reason, when talking about suppressed emotions, only health and psychosomatics are remembered. Apparently, the popularization of psychology is gradually doing its job, and now we understand that many diseases have psychological roots. However, this is only one of several options for realizing forbidden feelings.

There are many ways to forbid yourself from experiencing a certain feeling or emotion, to pretend it does not exist. We all do this from time to time and on the one hand, this is a common thing. On the other hand, locked energy requires an outburst. If emotions do not find an “officially permitted” outlet, they will choose from the following options:

1. Uncontrolled outbursts.

The easiest way to explain this is with anger and irritation. If we are regularly irritated but try not to show it, anger accumulates, and at some point, any little thing can become the last straw that breaks the camel's back. The risk group includes, of course, peace-loving, polite, and considerate people. In other words, those who fear conflicts and strive to please others, who do not express stuff, but "stuff it up". This mechanism manifests itself very clearly, many films have been made about it, for example, the old but well-known "Enough" (2002) and "Anger Management" (2023).

But this same mechanism works not only with anger, it applies to other feelings too. For example, suppressed fears can manifest themselves in the form of phobias, nightmares, and panic attacks. And sentimental people, who can be moved to tears by some film or story, are usually those who have a lot of unlived sadness inside. I will give a couple of examples.

A woman came to me with panic attacks. After the second maternity leave her relationship with her husband cooled to the point of being neighborly. Attempts to fix something did not lead to anything. She lived in this state for some time, then another man appeared in her life, and she began to think about divorce. That's when these panic attacks appeared. Outwardly, everything was fine and calm, but inside she was tormented by two fears. Firstly, she was afraid to leave her husband for another, because building a new relationship is not so easy, and most importantly, there are no guarantees that everything will work out there. On the other hand, she was afraid to leave everything as is and live her whole life with the "neighbor". It turned out that she was caught between two fears and could not choose either option, this anxiety accumulated for a long time and manifested itself in the form of panic attacks. When, as a result of our work, she was able to cope with her fears and choose how she wanted to build her life, the panic attacks disappeared on their own.

The parents came with an 8-year-old boy. The boy is unsure of himself, anxious, at the slightest thing - immediately in tears. Several times he cried at school right in the class, which caused ridicule from classmates. He entered my office cautiously, sat down quietly on a chair, and tried to make himself invisible. He answered my questions in monosyllables, almost without looking at me. He looked as if he was very guilty before me, and as if I was scolding him with all my might. In the conversation, we found out that his parents forbid him to cry, and that he should be brave and strong because he is a future defender of the motherland (his dad is a soldier). As a result, the child finds himself in a situation where he is not accepted, shamed, or scolded and they try to change him. Of course, this does not help him cope with his tears in any way, on the contrary, despair is added to the fact that he cannot cope. The more he tries to restrain himself, the more he resembles an overflowing teacup, one drop - and everything will spill. It was difficult to convince his parents to allow him to cry, but when they went for this experiment and accepted their son even with his tears, the boy very quickly became braver. It may seem paradoxical, but after two weeks he learned to control his feelings and cope with tears much better.

Summary: if you periodically have any uncontrollable feeling for a minor reason, this means that in fact it occurs to you often and you accumulate it, and you notice only when it becomes uncontrollable.

2. Unconscious actions.

Usually, people don't pay much attention to typos, mistakes, slips of the tongue, and accidental actions, but they probably should. The discovery that these accidents are far from accidental was made a hundred years ago by Sigmund Freud. He described this in his work "Psychopathology of Everyday Life" (1901).

A few years ago I noticed that quite often "accidentally" I can cut myself when peeling potatoes or grating something, or I can walk and stumble over a corner. At such moments, I began to ask myself what I was just thinking about. And then I realized that every one of my minor traumas was connected to the fact that I felt guilty or ashamed and unconsciously punished myself for “bad” thoughts. As soon as I stopped blaming myself excessively, the traumas stopped.

Once my classmate forgot my name, it was strange, because by that moment we had already been studying together for several years. Now I understand that he was mad at me for something.

Everyone who has children knows that tasks that children do not like (emotion – disgust), they tend to forget:
- What did I tell you to do?
- What?
- Go to sleep already!
Or:
- Misha, did you do your homework?
- Yes.
- Did you learn a poem too?
- Oh, no, I forgot...

My colleagues and I joke that if a woman accidentally spilled tea on her husband, there are two options: if the tea was hot, then she was angry with him, and if it was warm, then she just wanted attention.

Summary: typos, slips of the tongue, mishearings, accidental injuries, and forgetfulness - these are not random things. They perform some function and they can be deciphered after learning something important about yourself and your emotions.

3. Psychosomatics.

The third way in which undigested emotions can manifest is psychosomatics, that is, physical illnesses that begin in a psychological state. As if a person would conclude an unconscious contract within himself:
- I'd rather experience these emotions with my body as a symptom, but I won't face them directly, because it's too unpleasant.

Many books have been written on psychosomatics, so I will give only one example:
A child of my acquaintances had otitis (ear inflammation) several times a year. When I got to know them more closely, I understood why it happened. It was difficult for the child to withstand the constant pressures that his parents put on him. At some point, the boy just sat down and closed his ears, which meant: «I can't hear it anymore! I want to stop hearing this!»

Summary: sometimes well-known physical diseases begin with the suppression of emotions.

4. Insanity.

Sometimes mental illnesses are the result of a person not being able to cope with his emotions, or protecting himself from unbearable emotions. For example, one of the psychological theories of the development of schizophrenia introduces the concept of «double connection». A double link is such an instruction that contradicts itself, like «stay there, come here». If you communicate with a person using such instructions, his thinking is sometimes impaired. Especially if it's a child.

As a child, my client had a homework obligation to vacuum the carpet. When he did this, his mom always found something faulty about it, and he felt guilty. Of course, he hated vacuuming and tried to get away from it in various ways. But then they called him a parasite and he was again to blame. It turned out to be such a crooked logic: I'm guilty if I do it, because I'm bound to do it poorly, and I'm guilty if I don't do it because I'm a parasite. In such a situation, it is impossible to get rid of the feeling of guilt, unless you stop using logic. The logic is dangerous: if one thing flows from another, I'll be guilty again, and it hurts. I'd better go insane, so at least I won't feel guilty.

Often a similar story happens with the expression of anger in children. When a child behaves aggressively, they scold him. Then he forbids himself from showing anger and tries not to show his displeasure to avoid reproaches. As a result, such children cannot stand up for themselves at school or in the yard. They scold them again for this. Confusion arises in the child's head: I defend myself - they scold, I don't defend myself - they scold again, whatever I do/don't do - I will be guilty. Children begin to look for a way to protect themselves from guilt. One of the options is to do nothing at all without instructions from the side. Any independent action is considered dangerous and comes at a cost. Depending on the degree of disturbance, the symptoms may range from infantilism and the desire to constantly look for a leading partner to the inability to leave the room.

Summary: some mental diseases have their origin in the upbringing and emotional state of the person.

These options do not contradict each other and do not exclude each other. Nothing prevents an unconscious person from alternating ways or mixing them. For example, if a person doesn't want to go somewhere so much that he accidentally gets injured, this is both: a psychosomatic and unconscious action.

These mechanisms work unconsciously. Moreover, if we recognize them, they stop working. Realizing your emotions is the key to improving your condition and the good news is that this can be learned.

Author: Aleksandr Musikhin
Translation: Laurynas Sadzevicius

This one is about paradox and dichotomy.

PARA comes from the Latin “Distinct from” and DOX means “our opinion”. The word paradox is literally “Distinct from our opinion”. So everyone who says don't ever pay attention to what others think about you, simply says you to be a paradoxical one :D There are many types of paradox and in general, it's a very interesting thing.

Simply put you have to break through the barrier of fear and anxiety that trauma creates in some area of your life. An example can be a gender phenomenon for trans people, you have to care about it until the point where you already don't... Only then you are ok with it... I will describe this in the Greezer paradox later on. It's just firstly I wanted to pay my duty to the paradox itself... As something unexpected and strange. 

Some things don't rely on our opinions. It's good to have them, it's just... not always that they count so much. Criticizing and censoring doesn't count at all, that only stops you from getting desirable freedom, it doesn't matter if you criticize, censor yourself, or others... you demand it from others or you experience the need to share this :D rather a trash (than a treasure) with them... as if there wouldn't be anything better to share. It is a lose/lose situation you want to keep yourself, and others in.. or be maintained by others or keep them in it. And only breaking out of this circle that is supposed to bring you that peace and happiness... will make it true. OUT OF THE OPINION... beyond it.

Ok, now... a simple example is called the Geezers paradox: the idea that people don't become cooler with age, but instead care less about being cool. The paradox is expressed as, "You don't become cooler with age, but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way of being cool"

Get it? You don't need more opinions, more influence... or to give more opinions and influence. Care-less (not careless). That can also be seen as some sort of dichotomy. You need to hold some opposites in you and express them to at least get some trust about your truth being true... And to get some trust at least from you, if not others. Pushing only one side makes you unbelievable, false, scary... some, alienated, detached, inconceivable. If you care about something that gave you huge trauma (and it is rather ok to care about it), you can also heal until the stage, where you don't care too. And until then it's healthy to just stay harmonious in each step until the goal where everything is solved and ok. It's about dichotomy, baby. 

I didn't mention all the other stages of healing here, of course:
- denial. Never accept that you were traumatized in a particular area.
- fight. Opening the wound and bouncing straight into the opposite of what traumatic experience made you identify with. Loads of high emotions and difficult states. People start projects, change countries, and names, leave their non-working relationships, break primitive barriers in this stage, and experience frequent black/white mood shifts. 
- grief. Feeling isolated, alone, detached, pushover, not self, faded, and on. Loads of time alone, scarcity. This stage might be a long-lasting one, especially because it's highly acceptable to be a victim these days, people are reliving the hurt they experienced because of trauma in this stage until it is enough to go to an easier state.
- bargaining. Here people start to talk, measure, still split, and go back into a personal cocoon, and then return they aren't convinced to hold on to older hurt but are not so keen on just losing their pathological border yet, and so on.
- enlightenment. People experience relief and awakening, peace and being whole again but. They drop what isn't theirs, they feel normal and ok and connect authentically. It's easy and warm to be around them.
Very often people in denial will and ARE expressing enlightenment, in this way they justify their unwillingness to experience healing. 
​
Yep...IYKYK 
“The paradox of simplicity is that making things simpler is hard work." - Bill Jensen

And just as animals we require additional measures of safety and security to complete such a metamorphosis... It takes time, an enormous amount of energy, and other resources just for that... and it usually goes without much help but rather much danger from outside. We are vulnerable, and we don't behave or seem like ourselves often... this confuses and makes others question our sanity or morals or whatever else too. Our usual social circle might not recognize us much... and it might be temporary or for long, depending on the situation. It isn't only a gain to dare to become, it's a loss as well... and after all new you mean a new world from within... when this process occurs it breaks you from within, and you often don't recognize either you or your view of your surroundings... You see your new eyes, you hear your new inner voice... they are so fragile and soft yet... or unusually sharp and therefore scary... and this novelty is still hiding and running from the signs of especially bit insecure people... Your heart doesn't know its compass very well yet... people drag it to love them, if they lack love... to respect them, if they lack that too. They accuse you of it while pretending to be virtuous themselves... as if they never changed or simply did it so long ago that this thing you do... seems like an insult of chosen stagnation compared to stability... You also recognize beauty and purity in people and fall for that... so often... with a wish to hold on to that... and incapability to stop in your process... It's so f***ing sad... my friend, so sad.
And you know your old self will be slaughtered for you or by you... And you know, what kind of pain this is, pain and suffering... you know some stuff, and stuff you can not know yet frightens you even more.. just as all people experience turbulent anxiety towards novelty... Even if it's freeing... 
And that's why it is hard...
Why is it essential? Because you may keep being stuck and happy... never lose stuff, never gain new you... but if you want to reach your dream... Your old self must die several times before you become someone who can ACTUALLY make your dreams come true, realistically, eventually, in an unstoppable and inevitable way. So... happiness is overrated... I am in the time and place of my life, where purpose and meaning are everything... and peace and happiness will come a bit later... Breathe in, close your eyes, let go, and jump towards your aim... as many times as it is required to make it. or... it's ok to die trying. 

There is always some time after reaching your dreams... to create a new dream. That it isn't an argument that "I won't have anything to reach after" :) funny but not an argument. 
Neither "you" nor "they" will be ever perfect... although we all are ideal still. somehow. Chill, go, rest,  repeat, and enjoy ​

Recently few people showed me some words in which the prefix para' was replaced with meta- one ooor just what this meta- prefix can reveal to us. I was astounded by these 2:
- metacognition
&
- metanoia
Both words have their option with the prefix para-, accordingly, one would be spelled paracognition and the other paranoia. A little bit more about both.
Metacognition - seems like this one means literally thinking about thinking, some sorta observation from of your own thinking process aside, not from inside. In this way, you could catch some patterns that aren't correct and later work on them. And dear reader, I hope you know, that we are most effective and fulfilled and happy so when we understand things in a way that is most near their objective reality. In this way we make fewer mistakes, we get up faster after a fall, and we are more flexible and gentle and strong and beautiful :) so on. So this tool - going out to observe your own mind's processes and patterns seems solid and valuable to have in your pocket and use from time to time. I made a few images for myself to better understand it.

I haven't dug into this any deeper yet but you can also look up this document if you want some more expanded info: Google doc
Paracognition has mostly to do with telepathy if I understood correctly.

And then there is Metanoia... It was fascinating to understand, what this word means and holds within. First time I heard it on A.Arestovich's video, where he was answering questions from his followers. You can find some descriptions here or here.
As a person, who had to deal with my own leaning to cluster A mess, I instantly recognized that this was the exact correct name for some experiences that I had after starting my first proper coaching process back in 2012. Mostly it was a strange experience because it was not only hard and messy but is scary and it really seemed like temporary insanity... What I found even stranger was that it always, and I mean ALWAYS had a positive outcome and I really felt like a new human being after it.
Why this is important? I think it is important not to fear this... when you are in a proper genuine healing, growing process you will hit periods like metanoia and it is a very good idea to go through it. Especially if you were facing something really opposite before in your life and now hesitate to experience it again... You basically need to go through that barrier or stay stuck in life... "happy", "safe" and seriously stuck.
In fewer words - you have to love the meta- prefix... seems like a really optimistic one. :)
Well, paranoia means a feeling of persistent attention by others.

I will try to bring some little update-upgrade about health. 
First of all, I was literally blown away after watching a TV series called:
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones

It is about various daily life habits that lead to longevity. So, what do you need to live long? Several things repeated in every blue zone on the planet:
- diet filled with plants. The US blue zone is vegan, but other zones aren't. Italian zone was using quite a bit of a pastry and that isn't held as a healthy food but their whole pastry was based on sourdough, therefor it's quite different. Greece used wine and honey often, and again, these were made in a very old method, with no chemistry or quick fix, Greeks blue zonists are big in herbal teas too. Kosta Ricans and Japanese made loads of old recipes as well, not from shops or restaurants. 
- keep being physically active. Italian zone had very steap surroundings that made people keep fit by just walking, the Japan zone had this cultural interior design with no cushions, chairs so on, people squat a lot every day, the Costa Rica zone had people, who did loads of chores without technique, helped them to stay active. 
- close community, plenty of activities together, and care for each other. They played sports together in the US, they danced in Greece, they gardened in Japan, and so on. Siestas, dinner together, visits to the hospital. People gardened a lot, valued theirs loved ones the most.
- having some strong underlying principles, philosophy, in some zones - even faith. Mostly it was communal beliefs like staying together and helping one another, some were practical: standing at the table while only 80% full to not overeat, doing your part that is required, and being grateful. That is what keeps people being motivated and looking forward.

So these are principles that I got from this long time study, I think it's amazing. Not only because of probable longer life but these habits seem to bring happiness and certainty as well.