Day 320: Solitary confinement – The Torture Must End

Solitary confinement does not work. Prison is supposed to be a place to rehabilitate people and get them ready for Life when they are released, but what happens when you confine somebody for decades   and then just release them into the world?

We should have a World based on constructive and supportive methods.

www.desteni.org  

• Mother Jones article- children in solitary:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/juveniles-kids-solitary-confinement-ohio-new-york

• Friend’s Service Committee’s fact sheet : The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice

https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts

• AmnestyUSA

http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/entombed-isolation-in-the-us-federal-prison-system

• American Civil Liberties report:

Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons across the United States

https://www.aclu.org/report/growing-locked-down-youth-solitary-confinement-jails-and-prisons-across-united-states

• American Friends Service Committee: Stopmax Campaign

https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts

• http://solitarywatch.com/facts/faq/

Children in Solitary: A 2012 Human Rights Watch report notes: “Youth offenders often spend significant amounts of their time in US prisons isolated from the general prison population. Such segregation can be an attempt to protect vulnerable youth offenders from the general population, to punish infractions of prison rules, or to manage particular categories of prisoners, such as alleged gang members. Youth offenders frequently described their experience in segregation as a profoundly difficult ordeal.”

Day 304 - How to hide from Life:

 

 

Well, you can’t.

I’m sure many of us have had those days where you simply dread the next day or what is to come. Where you simply do not want to face what lies ahead and want to simply run away and hide somewhere. I had many such moments in my life, where I wished I had a genie to wish the problems away, unfortunately that is not how life is.

Right now I do not want to face tomorrow, because tomorrow we will have to let one of our horses go. I know what is involved - losing someone close to you is sad and painful. I know what is coming tomorrow and I do not want to. But the fact is that tomorrow is coming whether I like it or not.

What can we do in these situations? Hiding is not an option, we cannot hide from life. We cannot choose to not face certain points and events in our lives. But within these events we actually do have a choice – and the choice is how we respond to these events. It’s how we direct ourselves and who we are within all these events and happenings.

So no, we cannot hide from our lives, but we do have choice. To trust ourselves that whatever comes no matter what that we are able to get through it Instead of going into that “ I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it, please make it go away” experience within yourself.

So even though tomorrow is a dreaded day – I will face it head on.

Day 280: Just who exactly is the Real You?

 

 

“The Fascination with the Mind is Mirrored within the Fascination with Movies – Watching the Reels Play. In the Mind you’re a Superhero that Understands things that makes ‘You Special’, where you have ‘Special Skills’ and ‘Special Gifts’. But none of those are in fact Real. They’re just a Movie Reel where you Hide. But, even the ‘You’ that’s Hiding, the one Lost in the Mind – isn’t Real: it’s a Character you Created about You…one of Many.

You have Characters for every Situation, for every Relationship and everything you do. And each Character has different Reasons, Meanings and Values – and you will Dress-up as these Characters in Ways that will Ensure that ‘Your Movie’ Benefits. And ‘Your Movie’ Benefits if you do not have to take Responsibility for the Real Reality.” - http://creationsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/01/day-263-real-eyes-see-reel-thoughts.html

We have created specific characters and personalities for specific situations. Have a look at the people in your life and how you are around each of them. Are you the same or do you change into a different person depending on the situation?

For me when I am in town buying things and interactive with different people I usually become a super friendly character, simply because people are more willing to help you when you are friendly. Another example would be when I was a kid, my behavior would be different depending where I am and who I speak with. I would be different when speaking to a parent or when I’m in church or when I’m with friends. I had many characters for every situation.

And so do we all – we are many characters. We have a character for anger, for frustration, for irritation, for when we do not agree with someone, for when we do not want to do things – really a character for every situation. The question then is who exactly are we really? Look at when you are alone – is that who you really are? Or are we constantly in our minds thinking about the day, thinking about other people, judging other people , creating our own opinions and ideas and beliefs on what we see and wonder around in our imaginations. None of those things are real, it’s all fake.

Look outside. Look at the trees, the grass and the sky. Those things are real. The forests being destroyed, that is real. The oceans being poisoned, the mass extinction of species – those things are real and the real consequences of humanities imaginations. The result of our desires and greed and quest for happiness – the human lifestyle has created so much real destruction.

It’s time we become real and let go of these characters we have created, because these characters and personalities is keeping us all preoccupied from real change. There is unfortunately allot at stake and time will eventually run out. And when it does run out in the end, what will we say, what will you say? Did we do everything we can with the time we had? Or did we waste it all on our imaginations….

90% Of People Cannot Comprehend this – Can You?

 

 

A very subtle yet frightening thing has been happening over the last few years and very few people can see this happening. It can be compared to the old scenario of the frog being boiled alive – as long as the temperature increases slowly the frog won’t jump out of the water. The thing is that very few people can actually comprehend what they read. There is a major problem with people’s ability to effectively comprehend what they read. Now some reading this might not see this as a big issue, but the inability to comprehend information has a big impact on your life. It is simple; if you cannot comprehend what you read then information is basically useless. Words become useless. Education becomes useless.

How did this happen?

People simply do not read anymore. Now reading is not just looking at the words, but to comprehend what is written. We are all used to things like twitter – we want our news in less than 140 characters. We do not want to read allot to gather information. Seriously have

We rely on images to make things more interesting to read. With visual technology progressing we have HD TV, HD movies, Blue Ray and all that in 3D even. We have all that on our cellphones. And then there is Photoshop. With all this at our disposal reading plain text seems trivial and boring. No wonder kids are having “learning difficulties” in school.

The world of entertainment is overtaking the world of proper education. Our technologies are getting smarter while we ourselves are getting dumbed down. I don’t even want to think how children will be in school in a few years from now. Education is bad now, imagine what it would be like in a few years.

We will have a world filled with incomprehensive people. Funny enough – people lacking comprehension are more easily manipulated and deceived. And when the only preferred source of information is watching TV – then TV becomes GOD.

We need to all take a step back and see what is happening here. We need to understand that words are the most important thing in this life – and the ability to read the words and understand the words and comprehend the words is also extremely important. Real power is reading and comprehension so it is up to us to make sure that those skills are perfected.

Day 101 - Anxiety Character Revisited

 

Since my last blog about anxiety it has improved allot, but what i have found is that although its less it still exist within me. Here is an extract on some of the points I worked with:

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to go into the anxiety character when somebody asks me questions about myself because i fear sharing myself to others and that i wont be able to effectively share myself

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to when I lay down on the bed to rest for a while to into this anxiety character - because I fear doing nothing and see it as wasting time

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe that this character is real and has power over me by controlling my actions and who i am

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to go into the anxiety character when i am faced with a new challenge, because I fear I will not be able to walk through it not realizing that I cannot know if im able to do it or not unless i do it and find out

So since then I have found some more points to add  which will follow now:

I forgive  myself that i have accepted  and allowed myself  to live anticipating the worst thinking about all the things that could go wrong within my life

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have the belief that if i am not perfect within who i am and what I do go into anxiety because then that means I am doing something wrong

I forgive myself that I have not accepted and allowed myself to be here in the moment and to realize that if I always worry about the future I  am missing out on my life here now

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to at times suddenly become very anxious thing I have forgot something important when in fact i did not.

I forgive myself that i have accepted and allowed myself to fear forgetting things - especially things that are important - because If I forget it will have consequences and thus I am anxious

I forgive myself that i have accepted and allowed myself to when someone says my name very loudly to go into fear and anxiety that i have done something wrong

I commit myself to stop anticipating the worst and to worry about the future , instead I bring myself here and live in moment dealing with the problems when they present themselves

I commit myself to realize that this is a process and that i am not yet perfect and it doesn't’ mean that i am doing something wrong.

I commit myself to be here in the moment so that I do not miss out on what is here now

I commit myself to stop fearing that i am forgetting things and to instead realize that if i live in the moment here i will not forget things. If im constantly worrying about the future then i will not be here and thus forget what i do here.

I commit myself to to stop allowing events to direct me life such as someone calling my voice loudly, instead i stop the anxiety