Our lives begin with energy.

We wake up feeling alive, tired, depressed, excited, slow and groggy, or exceptionally alight with coming day.

All of these states of being express a level of energy ranging from low to high.

What we all want is to be able to tap into the energy reserves when we need them.

What we want to avoid is being dragged into a tired, unmotivated, and apathetic slump that requires gargantuan efforts and enormous amounts of energy to escape.

To escape the slump requires artificial stimulation, which always leads to a crash, followed by a deeper slump.

…

Stick with the religion:

1. 4 noble truths / contemplation
2. Regular daily exercise
3. Lifelong learning in the arts and humanities
4. Vegan diet / compassion
5. Healthy skepticism.

Follow the five pointed star of the religion and you’ll develop magic powers and everything will be fine.

When you know how you want to live your life but do the opposite, you are plugging up the transit system. You’re constipated with your own shit.

“Living your truths,” versus talking about living your truths…

Do the best you can no matter what you’re doing, were the words my father spoke to me as a growing child. If these words were so important than why was everyone around me, including my father, not living by them?

I had an aversion to those words. In my mind there is no way a person can do their “Best” at everything they do.

My reality explicitly showed me that if you want to be your best at one thing than something else must be sacrificed. It’s a truth I’ve never been able to shake.

However…

I’ve learned, slowly, that it’s not perfection were striving for, but doing better.

Doing our best is not synonomous with being the best. Perhaps this is where I was lost.

No, where I was lost was in seeing people say one thing but doing the opposite.

Fast forward to the present day.

My expectations of myself have changed. What is implicit in, “Do your best,” is the phrase, “Ask more of yourself, because your capabilities almost always exceed your expectations.”

So what are your EXPECTATIONS?

Have you set your INTENTIONS?

It’s a bit uncertain, but what I’ve recognized is a very simple truth, “My life, when things aren’t going well can usually be traced back to a failure of creativity on my part.”

The goal is to create and explore the possibilities, while standing vigilant against complacency.

In this vain it is my path to grow and move toward a mastery of self. Not to master life, but to master my reactions to it. To be in charge, as much as I can be, of my destiny.

One way I do this is by reading, studying, and surrounding myself by those who have figured out something that is not quite clear to me.

I’m exploring and in this exploration I’m using as many resources as I can, without being bogged down in information.

The danger is inaction. I am certainly able to become an intellectualizing garbage can. Creation is possibly my weakness.

To overcome these obstacles I am playing with Philosopher’s Notes and Optimal Living 101.

The main text that I’m using at this time is 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

So what are those Habits?

1. Be Pro-Active
2. Begin With The End In Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First To Understand (Then Be Understood)
6. Synergy
7. Sharpen The Saw

What do you do when you’ve been a vegan for years, and have been enjoying the benefits of the life-style but want to take your diet to the next level.

First you have to answer a few questions for yourself.

• What does it mean to, “Take it to the next level?”
• Have you adjusted your life-style so that any weaknesses that you might have had are taken care of?

Being vegan does not mean being healthy.

There are three ways we learn which I go into more depth in this article, “The 3 Ways We Learn.” Briefly they are, reading and writing, working with a teacher, and experiencing it for your self.

Em, you need to hit the THEM not the You. In the following paragraph say something like, you may love to read and write, always picking up the newest books on… You may love to learn from those who have been through what you are striving to reach for your self. But are you experiencing the changes, the wonders of the journey. When you experience it, then you know your onto something.

I love to read and write. I love to listen to lectures and discourses. But it’s the experience that I want. It’s the experience of a Low Fat Raw Vegan diet that I need to have before I feel completely comfortable in saying that, “Yes, the LFRV lifestyle is the way.”

However…

Short term experiments in diet and lifestyle can give quick feedback loops and are great ways to keep the motivation going.