Critical Thinking – Breakaway Consciousness

#Quote Of The Day | #Mindfulness | #Thoughts | #Mindset | #Simplicity #QualityOfConsciousness

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”
– James Allen, Author of As A Man Thinketh

Mindfulness & Music | #Health | #Thoughts

Breakaway Individual.com
Zy Marquiez
May 15, 2019

Today I did something I hadn’t done in a long time: I decided to do a full workout without my headphones on to be more Mindful. Admittedly, it took a little getting used too, but it wasn’t so bad since I was reading most of the time.

Because I avoided using my Ipod, I was able to remain incredible focused and stay in the moment while working out, rather than just go through the workout as I nigh always do. This allowed me to focus on my breath, my focus, and my thought process in a way that’s closer to what I would employ with poker than not.

When I find myself breathing deeply as much as possible, interjecting such deep breaths with 4×4 breath cycles where I breathe in for 4 seconds, hold my breath for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds and hold for 4 seconds, I end up being incredibly more focused, getting more oxygen, feeling more energized, and so on.

Al Lee & Don Campbell, authors of Perfect Breathing, explain the importance of a mindful breathing technique:

“This exercise, as simple and innocuous as it seems, is the most important exercise to master. Once you have developed the habit of slow, deep breathing and your body remembers that this is the natural way to breathe, it will slowly become a part of everything that you do. It will become your “secret weapon” when you need an extra burst of energy; it will become your rock when you are feeling emotional shattered; and it will become a peaceful, quiet refuge at times when you need sanctuary.”[1][Bold Emphasis Added].

This approach has never failed me, but it’s something that I need to stay focused on because its easy to fall into the bad habit of breathing with only partial lung capacity breathing in a shallow manner.

Breathing with only part of your lungs, as opposed to employing the entire real estate of your lung capacity, is incredibly limiting because only so much oxygen is going into your system, and as such you will not get the healing and energizing benefits that a full mindful approach will dictate.

For the most part, that was the extent of my early morning, just trying to focus on being mindful and so on. Now to the afternoon.

After receiving a package today that I was waiting for a while, it reminded me that that I needed to give a friend a letter of recommendation. Because of this I had to drive elsewhere. This is crucial only in that when I am driving, I am usually nigh always listening to music or documentaries on my way to whatever locale it is I am going too. Today I decided that I would follow what I did in the morning and forgo the music. In fact, I didn’t even bring my Ipod because I know myself, and I knew that I would probably want to listen to music or something else eventually. This made the drive not only enjoyable, but I was able to think about a lot of things.

When my mind is engaged while listening to music, it’s rare that I think about things in a mindful way. Yes, I myself, just like everyone else, can think while listening to music, but the thoughts aren’t as logical, or as thought-out, or thoughtful as when there’s no music, nor lyrics, each of which can be incredibly distracting, and when combined, are downright disrupting for thought. Of the 700+ tracks on my Ipod, there’s two, maybe three songs that I have no problem employing a mindful approach with. Still though, nothing beats the ability to think clearly when your mind is going at a mile per minute with no end in sight.

These thoughts are shared for consideration when individuals are going about their day and perhaps are having trouble slowing down, focusing, and so on. It’s not something that cost anything, but the net benefits can be quite significant once one’s mind is fully engaged.

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Footnotes:

[1] Al Lee & Don Campbell, Perfect Breathing, pg. 12-13.

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Suggested Reading:

#Quote Of The Day | #Plato | #FakeNews | #CriticalThinking

“Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and a fool.”
– Plato

#Quote Of The Day | #Individuality | #TheRoad | #Journey

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by.”
– Robert Frost

#Book Review: Dialectical Thinking – Zeno, Socrates, Kant, Marx by Tommi Juhani Hanjijarvi Ph.D. | #SmartReads | #Education | #Learning

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 20, 2019

This particular book is a great foray for those beginning to delve into dialectics.

In Dialectical Thinking – Zeno, Socrates, Kant, Marx by Tommi Juhani Hanjijarvi Ph.D., the author seeks to show how valuable dialectical thinking is as he examines the minds of former dialecticians.

To accomplish this, Hanjijarvi sifts through critical data points spoken by the likes of Socrates, Kant, Zeno and Marx. The author does make it a point to supplant additional data and couple it to specific dialectics discussed when the need arises.

For instance, while analyzing Marx’s foray into dialectics, the author delves into information brought about by Engel, Bernstein, Lenin and such.

As the author makes clear, dialectics have extensive uses. More importantly, as the author argues “Dialectics are always about the dynamics of the self.”

Being someone who has had interest in formal dialectics for quite some time, it was quite mentally invigorating seeing the different dialectics employed by the great dialecticians. Moreover, it was also interesting to note where some of their ruminations dovetailed and what paths those notions discussed led them towards. That said, there were times that the text demanded a bit more from the readers as its complexity increased some. Still, what the book offers is plenty even if it might be intricate at certain junctures.

These days, the benefit of thinking from opposite spectrums, as dialecticians do and this book showcases, would be a great skillset for individuals to learn. Rarely do people put themselves on both sides of an equation; people usually end up just simply fostering their points of views without taking the other person’s view into consideration. For instance, the mainstream media is the greatest purveyor of this and shuns anybody who wishes to think outside the box or question anything that is passed off as fact. And if they show two sides to a coin, it’s always to stoke the flames of the divide and conquer left right paradigm that we see manifesting in countless forms.

Of course, in reality, there are many sides to countless issues. This reason is why this type of book is vital, since it helps lay a solid foundation as an introductory volume into the discipline of dialectics.

Thinking unilaterally about incisive issues won’t help people think critically, nor will it help people to think outside the box. Predictably, this prevents individuals from grasping crucial issues at their core.

For those reasons, and many others, this book should be considered for the inquiring individual. In fact, am even going to suggest this book to some friends for homeschooling.

As an introduction to the dialectical thinking employed by some of the greatest dialecticians, this book carries out its premise and then some. Make sure to supplant this book with Socratic Logic and Philosophy 101 by Peter Kreeft, as well as A Workbook For Arguments – A Guide For Critical Thinking by David R. Morrow and Anthony Weston, and you have a veritable foundation for self-directed learning that creates an incredibly ironclad foundation

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Suggested Reading & Watching:

What Is The Difference Between Education & Public Schooling?
Logical Fallacies Employed In Every Day Life
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Weapons Of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
13 Great Reasons To Study Logic
How A Generation Lost Its Culture – by Professor Patrick Deneen
A Different Kind Of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto
Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Philosophy 101 by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
What Is Education? The Elite Curriculum – John Taylor Gatto
Breakaway Guide To Censorship, Disinformation, Logical Fallacies & More
How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
History So It Doesn’t Repeat – The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America With Charlotte Iserbyt
Classrooms Of The Heart [Documentary] – John Taylor Gatto
Sumerhill School – A New View On Childhood by A.S. Neil
Social Engineering 101
Underground History Of American Education With John Taylor Gatto
The True Purpose Of Modern Schooling
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Open-Source Method: Genius Education – Examples | John Taylor Gatto
The Trivium – The Liberal Arts Of Logic, Grammar & Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph Ph.D.
Cultural Literacy – What Every American Needs To Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.
A Rulebook For Arguments by Anthony Weston
A Workbook For Arguments by David R. Morrow & Anthony Wesson
Drilling Through The Core – Why Common Core Is Bad For American Education by Sandra Stotsky & Contributors

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About The Author:

Zy Marquiez is an avid book reviewer, inquirer, an open-minded skeptic, yogi, and freelance writer who aims at empowering individuals while also studying and regularly mirroring subjects like Consciousness, Education, Creativity, The Individual, Ancient History & Ancient Civilizations, Forbidden Archaeology, Big Pharma, Alternative Health, Space, Geoengineering, Social Engineering, Propaganda, and much more.

#Quote Of The Day – #Education | #PublicSchooling | #Edu | #Schooling | #Politics | Government

“Governments don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. That is against their interests. They want obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the work. And just dumb enough to passively accept it.”
– George Carlin

Note: if you wish to know the difference between public schooling and education, please read: What Is The Difference Between Education & Public Schooling

#Quote Of The Day | #Mindfulness | #Reflection | #Thoughts | #Conformity

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it’s time to pause and reflect.”
– Mark Twain