Using your subconscious is a key to a better life.

First off, I cannot quite buy everything suggested by author Dr. Joseph Murphy, but he offers a powerful reminder with some excellent advice.  He has a Christian background, but is well aware that other faiths and not just our standard other faiths work because people have faith in some overwhelming belief.

Call me an agnostic (he allows for that as well).  I believe there is some power bigger than me or all of humanity that we can never understand.  He often uses the term "Infinite Intelligence" which to me is close enough to "Mother Nature" for me to accept (and even prefer).

He points out that there are many kinds of healers, some tied to a story book of some sort and others to something akin to witchcraft.  They often get results not because they have the true faith, a secret ingredient or procedure, but because in their subconscious they and their patients had faith.  

It is easy to realize that all humans have two minds or as he says elsewhere, one mind with two spheres.  One is the consciousness that we use to calculate what to do and think.  Our subconscious is more encompassing in that it regulates our bodies (such as heart beat, digestion system, etc.) without normally conscious awareness and it also sorts out much of your concerns when we are not paying attention.  It follows our conscious direction, so we should be careful not let negative thinking overwhelm us.

Here are some other points I feel are helpful to a happy life: 

Give thanks before going to sleep will help set a good mood.  Sleeping allows the subconscious to be active.

Robert Louis Stevenson consciously tried to activate his subconscious to find creative stories.  Mark Twain, another author felt his success was due to his ability to tap his subconscious. 

Fear is a person's greatest enemy.  Fear of failure creates a block that can lead to failure.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Do the thing you are afraid to do and the death of fear is certain."

Forgiveness liberates you.  Murphy thinks it is just as important to forgive yourself.  Most of us carry guilt for something we did in the past and for some that is a heavy burden.  We need to move on with a clear conscience.

Retiring is a big change.  Work for most of us gives a feeling of purpose, if only to support our families.  As I approached retirement I looked for some things to do.  My readers can assume I found blog writing, along with the research required to be a part of my plans.  You would be right, but that really is only part of the day.  I have found two volunteer situations that I look forward to.  I agree with the author that there is more to life than just surviving.  Life is meant to be enjoyed. 

Happiness is a habit.  All habits are maintained by your subconscious.  Negative thinking can also be a habit that you need to consciously fight.

Whatever thing annoys or disturbs you does so by your choice.  Throwing things against the wall or ranting are not as effective as ignoring affronts to your dignity or views.  If you puncture someone else's ego you cannot gain their goodwill.  This is too often is a response to criticism, but is counter productive.

You got this far because you think your life could be better in some way and you are right.  There are many thoughts on the challenge and below is my link to many other approaches.  They are mostly not in conflict and you would do well to consider them.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/12/an-antidote-to-chaos-series-of-rules.html

As far back as 2013 I was conscious that the subconscious played a role in our decisions (not always good) as depicted in the following post:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2013/10/the-art-of-choosing-as-seen-by-sheena.html

James, better known as Jim

I had read "Huckleberry Finn" a few times, first as an adventure story, but later came to appreciate it as a master satire.  

For a few chapters "James" seems to parallel "Huckleberry Finn", but from the perspective of Jim.   Then there is a TWIST,  an intriguing "What if" tangent but I do not want to give any hints.  Percival has changed the timing of the story closer to the Civil War.

Twain had picked up both black and southerner dialects --"n****r" in the the original and in the spinoff Everett was even more vernacular such as "bullshit".  Jim speaks an educated form of English, but only to a few select slaves.  He is very careful not to speak that way in front of any whites.  We don't know how, but he also can write.  Whites are afraid of educated slaves.  The possession of a pencil can be life threatening.

There is a lot of religious skepticism.  Jim has little  faith in religion expressing that it seems to be a tool of the white slavers.  Two con men (also included in the Twain version) use religion as a tool to squeeze money out of gullible white people.

Percival Everett lays quite a lot on the minstrel movement including incorporating the real Daniel Decatur Emmett (who wrote the Dixie song) and his Virginia Minstrels as major characters.  Jim has a beautiful tenor voice just when Emmett's tenor has disappeared.  Here Jim can pretend to be a white putting on black face to entertain whites.  Jim is surprised to learn the minstrel movement is the white's way of mocking their slaves.  While with the minstrels Jim encounters another runaway slave who passes as a white.  Slaves developed a cakewalk to mock whites, but the minstrels misinterpreted and used it in their mockery routine.  

Stephen Foster was another song writer who developed a reputation using the black slave music style, but some claimed he went on to trying to humanize blacks by changing his lyrics over time.  Today we recognize the black influence on music.  Elvis Presley was fairly open about borrowing songs from blacks.  While attending the University of  Guelph I went to a coffee house that had the original singer, Big Mama Thornton for "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog".

There is more violence revealed from the slave perspective including beatings, lashings, deaths, rapes and murders.  The reality contained more violence than Twain wanted to portray.

The last sentence of the book; "Just James"  reminds us this has been a black slave runaway perspective.  Hit me like 'Bond, James Bond".

As a student, Percival Everett played jazz and wrote term papers for other students to help pay his way.  Percival is an English professor at the University of Southern California.  His book, "Erasure"(2001) was adapted to the movie "American Fiction" (2023).

If you enjoy political and racial satire, you will love this book. 

MISBEHAVING THE MAKING OF BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS

Most of us have been reassured that Economics is the most rational of the social sciences, but the practitioners often tend to overlook the human factor.  Richard H.Thaler a few decades ago noticed that many people did not make rational economic decisions often in concert with others (you already knew that.)  Recently I read an earlier book, "Nudge" co-written with Cass Sunstein where the two of them developed the phrase "libertarian paternalism" which seen by some as an oxymoron they interpreted as giving people a logical choice, but also the freedom not to take.

"Misbehaving" is a history from the personal view of Richard Thaler of how rationality is now tempered with other social sciences to better understand economics.  You might have spotted Thaler in the movie, "The Big Short" (2015) as he explained to Selena Gomez some of the factors that caused the Great Recession.

Like other students Richard had been told that all economic behavior is rational, but he started to notice anomalies that didn't make sense.  He felt that often behavior was not logical and people did strange things.  He noticed poker playing friends would bet differently depending on whether they were losing and how close to going home.  The stock market is not always rational.  Studying the issues and allying himself with other economic doubters and other social scientists he eventually helped develop behavioral economics as a serious discipline.

One factor often overlooked by economists is self-control, although Adam Smith was aware of how a lack of self-control could distort spending and saving.  You already knew that as well.

Fairness is a human concept that doesn't always fit in with economic theory.  The most basic economic rule that most people are aware of is the rule of supply and demand.  The price goes down when supply goes up and the opposite when demand goes up.  This can lead to obvious complaints when merchants take advantage of sudden changes such as raising the price of snow shovels just after a big snowfall.  Economists would argue you could have bought a cheaper shovel in the summer, but many people prefer to wait unit the need is urgent.  The sense of fairness acts as a psychological constraint.

The National Football League draft can get emotional.  Rationally the author after a great deal of in depth research is convinced that for most of the time the first picks do not deliver as much value as the later picks.  Yet many deciders will trade away later picks to get one nearer the top.

A common occurrence at both business and households is a budget.  Always made with past information and often concedes mistakes as information changes.

An ongoing concern of the author as he moves from one institution and one collaborator to another is the reluctance of established economists to accept a behavioral factor.  Scientists of different disciplines often find it difficult to collaborate.  Psychologists and economics have different focuses, but gradually he finds sympathetic colleagues that approach the opportunity from different angles.

Today his findings are more acceptable in academia as well as business.  I think most people intuitively know that many decisions are made emotionally and salesmen are pretty adept at exploiting this fact.

He quotes Mark Twain, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.  It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."  Richard Thaler noticed a few accepted things that weren't true.

An earlier book co-written with Cass Sunstein was recommended by British Prime Minister David Cameron To read an earlier review of Richard H Thaler's book, "Nudge" click here:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2016/01/can-nudge-help-you-make-better-decisions.html