I read the beginning of an article this morning. It made me laugh. It was a great release. Then I read the rest, and it made me constipated.
I was going to steal the whole article, but I am stealing only the beginning. here you go:
One Thing You Can Do Every Morning to Be More Creative
- STEP 1: Fill up your cereal bowl about two-thirds of the way full (eyeballing it is okay)
- STEP 2: Pour your favorite milk (I choose almond milk—unsweetened vanilla) and fill until the cereal is peeking over the top of the bowl.
- STEP 3: Walk slowly toward your kitchen sink, one foot directly in front of the other. Go slow, taking care to not spill the food.
- STEP 4: Dump your beloved breakfast down the sink.
- STEP 5: Never eat before you create something new ever again.
Breakfast is overrated. Digestion takes a lot of energy. And guess what? You won’t die. It’s incredible — our species got us to this point without Frosted Flakes.
I used to think breakfast was super important. I listened to The Great Internet Teacher (Tim Ferriss) who said I needed to have 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking. Yes, Master Tim.
For 6 months I did this—the exact same breakfast, a thoughtful walk, and a pondering of what I wanted to do that day. Then, I looked up and realized I was nowhere near changing my life in the way I wanted it to.
If you want to be more creative, it makes sense that your default state is creating, not consuming. This has been true for me in the literal sense as well as the figurative. The exercise turns more into a mindset.
The rest of the article, as I said, is gratuitous sludge.
But the idea of looking to give before you feed yourself is quite significant.
A 13th floor look at life
If you look at this scenario from the level of feelings, the 13th floor 1 this upsets a whole lot of “set in stone” ways you keep yourself small, predictable, and never willing to grow.
All the distortions of this perfect world come from the 14th and the 15th floor, mainly the 14th, the floor of words. The words we have been using to explain reality. And to distort the inner map of reality… and to be powerless to the same degree that the inner map is distorted.
I had a big revelation this morning: as I set down to answer the 67-step posts that came in while I slept, I came across with the post of a client who has not grown since I’ve known him.
I responded with more words… no dent was made in the invisible and solid looking shield of his world.
This morning I saw that the words created that world, and that world was not going to crumble by hearing more words.
This world, fixed as it may be, may crumble if he goes underneath the words, the 13th floor, and examines the rather simple dynamic of the seven feelings that any and all human beings have. The eights is something you need to earn.
The seven feelings are a lot like the seven dwarfs: each want what they want, and then you say something about it… on the 14th floor.
But if you can watch the scenes unfold on the 13th floor, you can see that there is not much drama there: it is about sustenance, it is about safety, it is about avoiding the unpleasant and preferring the pleasant, it is about how you look to others, and how you look to yourself.
Easy peasy. No drama.
Want to be liked?
When I can, in myself, see that I want others to like me, for example, I can drop it, because it really doesn’t do anything for me. I will, on the other hand, meet the expectations of others by being civil, but not because I want to be liked, but because I want to benefit from what is bestowed on a group. It is self-interest, but real self-interest. No emotional component.
Like me? Good. Don’t like me? Good. I like me… that is enough for me. Or: I like YOU… that is enough for me.
The clarity and simplicity that reigns on the 13th floor thus transferred to the 14th and the 15th floor, and I am happy, unfrazzled, undisturbed, untouched by the usual drama that goes on on those floors.
When I seem to be procrastinating, I go down to the 13th floor and look around. And I find, ultimately, that what I am not doing is not a priority. So I cancel… and no more procrastination.
I have been able to root out significance as well.
The driver of the shopping van is sick or recovering from a surgery. So I contacted my friend for a ride. No significance. No drama. No nothing. I am going shopping… lol. Life is working, no monkey wrench.
I had been already drama free, but there is drama free and then there is DRAMA free.
There is good life and then there is an OMG good life.
You can only see it in hindsight.
Significance comes from the 14th floor, the words. And the words cause the emotions that live on the 15th floor.
No words, no emotions.
Before I said “OMG good life” there was no elation. There was only being here doing what I am doing. Even keeled.
OK… how the heck did I get here from that “dump your breakfast down the drain” article and creativity?
Oh, just the idea of dumping the breakfast down the drain made me creative? Possible.
But more likely that I went to my 13th floor and saw that eating when you are not hungry, just because you said you would is killing the harmony and orderliness of the 13th floor.
It makes the 13th floor live like society under Big Brother’s eyes… not free to be themselves.
And the misery begins.
Charlie Munger to the rescue
One of Charlie Munger’s saying: get rid of some “truth” every day (is that what he said? lol) is very instructive: Every interference of the 14th and the 15th floor with the natural order of the 13th is one of those truths you want to get rid of.
It is hard to know what is mind stuff, learned stuff, and what is natural. So start with the ones that are obviously cultural. Once you got rid of enough of them, you’ll start to get a sense of what is you (13th floor) and what is undue influence of your mother, of your husband, of doctors, of teachers…
You’ll find yourself on the 13th floor.
PS: The first picture, the wildly beautiful and rich vegetation in the center is a symbol for your 13th floor. It is self-sustaining, renewable, and beautiful. Like the natural world of fully allowed feelings.
PPS: Let me explain the picture from the movie 13th Floor: you see, the invisible part is the source of the visible… and whether that is a two dimensional film creating a hologram, whether it’s a computer program, or whether it is your feeling, the real 13th floor, when you think your thoughts and emotions came from no foundation… then you are lost, and powerless with them. And this is what I teach, this is what can alter your personal life, and the life on the planet Earth.
- Read the books Feelings and Words by my compatriot, Gyozo Margoczi.
And, by the way, I am getting ready to create free webinars to train you, the way I used to train you to connect to Source, train you to feel what you feel.
Everyone needs training. Even i do.
Some of the most amazing insights came when Margoczi, in his email, suggested an exercise of imagining biting into a chocolate with hazelnuts in it.
Hazelnuts
I cringed.
It took me over an hour plus talking about it, to identify the cringing coming from the 14th floor…
When I surrendered to feeling what I felt, without undue influence from words, I actually liked what I felt, and enjoyed the experience.
This taught me a lot about how we are cut off from our feelings.
I’ll announce the webinars… when I’ll ge good and ready… lol.
