DESCENDING TO THE 50,000 FOOT VIEW OF LIFE
SEEING SOME MORE DETAIL...
Just scan the boxes quickly and go to the discussion to understand how it all fits together and will work: A simpler diagram of this was started at Life - From 50,000 Feet Up - An Overview Of LIfe.
We start with the box at the top where we set aside time for perspective, for without that thinking we could not live a well-thought-out, directed, effective life. With that perspective it is as if you are sitting at the dashboard of a space ship, seeing all that is going on and being able to control all the elements, always knowing where you're going, never confused and stuck in the detail. And, if you look at the box called "systems to support us" we will be setting those up so that various parts of our space ship are run on automatic and/or on designated paths we follow, paths that have certainty and get the job done.
Then, when we set up our guidance system, which is a fully formed Philosophy Of Life, of how things work (and don't work). The guidance system is one that tells us the direction to go with each of our maneuvers.
Of course, we need to be trained in the Basic Skills (the box, lower left) so that we can run things. When we are trained we know how to handle all that is key to running the spaceship and/or finding out how to do things in life. It is then that we have the confidence that we can run things.
That confidence, plus the supporting systems, affect the psychological system. What people don't realize is that the psychological system is solely based on mechanical realities (chemicals, instigators, data bits, electricity), without a mysterious forces or entities ruling over us. (Of course, we need to follow the laws of reality or we'll slam into reality just as we would do with trying to defy the law of gravity.)
This system is essentially the "safety" system for the spaceship. It sets off alarms, which we need to calibrate and adjust when they are too sensitive, so that we can direct our attention to what will affect our survival. We need to be clear that we are the ones who, having been trained in this, direct the systems overall and can change things, though we have some sub-systems that operate so well and so automatically that we need not direct any attention to them. (Of course, we do note if they are "off" and not doing as well as they should be doing, which would then cause us to do an adjustment - one that is strictly mechanical and very doable, for werealisticially have no actual gremlins in the systems - despite the fact that some of the crew believe in ghosts, though none exist.)
Once we feel safe, we can then "cruise" around space and have our adventures and be very, very happy.
But, then, you ask, aren't there too many things to run and adjust...?
TWEAK JUST A FEW THINGS HERE AND THERE...
At the 50,000 foot level we can see how all that the factors that affect us interact and interrelate to each other. We can see how these all interact and affect each other to actually reduce the sensitivity of our "alarm" system, which then reduces the number of negative signals and the intensity of the chemicals that create discomfort for us - and the reduced alarms then cause a "cognition" that has us generalizing that life maybe isn't so upsetting after all, which then has us relaxing more, which then has us...and so on and on - and this was all from intervening with these: doing the Instant Pause regularly and/or taking naps regularly and/or sleeping more hours and/or reassuring ourselves and/or eating less sugar so that the blood sugar isn't spiked so that we don't feel as anxious so that.... For a "picture" of this and a discussion, go to The Enduring Happiness System - All Interrelated And Connected.
The point of gaining this perspective is so that you can see how you don't have to do a 1,000 tweaks, but can only do a few things that will then start a "virtuous cycle", where everything is reinforcing the "ups". Of course, to get to this point, we just have to start doing a few things differently, which will result in our intervening and interfering with the other self-perpetuating cycle called the "vicious circle" (or cycle or "downward spiral").
With this insight you can make huge changes in your overall payoffs in life, but with alot less effort than you might think.
THE PROBLEM WITH LIFE IS...
What creates a problem for us is feeling the discomfort of negative, motivating chemicals and adding more of them by becoming alarmed at having them. (That means that there is a sequence there, where we can intervene in any one spot and lessen the effect and/or get rid of some of the effects completely.)
And, of course, we feel those based on something being wrong so our bodies are trying to get us back to a good level of survival functioning. Emotionally we get most of our unhappiness from fear. But we create so many extra fears that we are hyping the fear mechanism needlessly and uselessly and harmfully, killing our bodies and our psyches.
Fear evolved to get us motivated to protect ourselves from physical harm, mostly. We also have a little feedback loop that is similar to fear where we note the potential for a problem down the road and we want to reduce that potential as fast as we can. But we often place things in that loop that don't really belong there or are of such minor impact that they are not worth any concern at all. If we put the "slight concerns" together with the fears of things that are not really threats at all, we get 95% of all fears that we can just eliminate. Keeping 5% (or less) is not a bad idea, since we need the impulse for some real threat occasionally. And 100% of our chronic fear is invalid, with no sound basis, as it does no good to incite it in terms of our surviving better. The classic illustration of this is the behavior of the zebra, running like the blazes to get away from the lion, and then when the lion is gone calmly grazing again and in peace, knowing that it will be able to respond when it is needed. In contrast, we keep ourselves worried about the lion, reincite the fear emotion for no good reason, and so live a life of fear - needlessly. The Dalai Lama and me to a high degree do not experience fear virtually at all. The people who really understand the mechanism of fear and the irreality of the threats we create from our false beliefs are "free of faux fear" and are at peace except when there are genuine physical threats. (They even handle the physical threats without overreacting, and are able to actually engage their higher brain during the experience.)
Note that we misuse fear to try to motivate ourselves. We use an offspring of fear called self-criticism and a sort of punishment-to-motivate system. Well, what do you think that will do to your alarm system and peace of mind?!! Get rid of that crappola and you'll be back to calmly grazing in life again. (See Creating Happiness No Matter What and also Fearlessness.)
COMING OUT OF THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT
When we stop pummeling ourselves with blame and faulting, we stop much of the hyping of the alarm system and of feeling badly. Learning No Fault will take the sails out of the whole blaming and self-criticism syndrome - and a number of false beliefs will fall by the wayside. And, since the foundation is based on the same thing, guilt and shame will be defused and virtually disappear!
We also can reduce fear by increasing certainty, using Certainty Generators and even creating a Positives Portfolio (to offset the common "negatives portfolio!). We can get rid of most fears of loss by being able to have a perspective, that I call What I Have, For Sure and one of dropping unrealistic expectations so that we no longer experience The Unhappiness Gap. That perspective is also useful for and related to Gratefulness. We often create another "false" sense of loss by not defining what is "enough", so that we have a vague sense of being short of some vague standard of "enough" that is very, very unrealistic and inappropriate.
No one thing, no one realization or epiphany or tweak, will create a leap unto massive peace of mind and happiness, but doing a combination, even without fixing everything, will catapult us into a seemingly "miraculous" change in happiness and security and satisfaction in life, where we are virtually free of fear and simply happily harvesting
"value".
One key purpose of this discussion is to give you the perspective that there is plenty that can be done and that the interactions of what is done on the positive side "multiply" in a virtuous circle, spiraling upward, but not requiring massive changes to attain. You just need to devote the requisite time to following the steps. It will take some time, as would any worthwhile big project, but it is doable and within a reasonable period of time if you focus enough on doing the work, as I suggest (see Starting, And Continuing, Great Momentum On Improving Life, Reaping Huge Benefits As We Go And Even More As We Hit Our Goals.)
SYSTEMS THAT SUPPORT US
(Making things easier and better!)
Planning systems
The "why"
Clarity
How to get there
Feedback loop
Learning system
Thinking, decision making, problem solving systems
Resource access and management system
Operating systems
Rules
Procedures
Organizing systems
Place for everything, quick!
Checklists
Tickles
The notebook reference system
Success system, overall
GUIDANCE SYSTEM
A well-defined, complete Philosophy Of Life (a sort of collection of beliefs, but questioned and screened ones)
PSYCHOLOGICAL
(Where we humans "live")
Fixing, quickly and effectively!
Sufficient safety
Faux fears
Loss
Hardship
Competence, development of
Sense of control
Fixing erroneous beliefs
Personal happiness and satisfaction
Managing one's "state"
Physical
Emotional
Physiological psychology
Systems
BASIC SKILLS TO GET YOU THERE
Use to build from:
Learning
Thinking
Problem solving
Decision making
Time and system for having perspective - to see how it all fits together and to make big positive impacts on life, instead of life being full of little things crammed in willy nilly (Parkinson's Law).
Asking what should I be doing better and what is of the more value that I should be doing? (Always following Life Value Productivity. principles and practices.)
Life - From 50,000 Feet Up - An Overview Of Life - A simpler diagramming without all the detail.
Enough time?
When we look at all the details of life, we can lose our time perspective, wondering how we can ever do all of these things in the time available.
But we do have more than enough time - easily a 100,000 hours. And when we "fix" (optimize the functioning level of) an area, we save huge amounts of time normally sucked up by seeking relief, trying to repair the current situation, distracting ourselves, time when we are incapacitated physically or emotionally... The bottom line is that the time spent constructing the elements of life to work at the highest level is more than paid back and saved because we no longer have to be "putting out fires" so much of the time.
