Somebody’s gonna say, “well, that’s too much, Michael. I, of course, looked through the articles, which so temptingly stated: to lose weight, you do not have to sit on a diet, exercise and apply willpower. I also want to have a slender body, lying on the sofa, drinking a big Maca-cola.
But to think? Everyone knows how to think!
I’ve got a swarm of thoughts in my head all the time, I think, never stopping. But do not confuse mental activity with a rare and amazing process called “DUMATE”.
So, let’s establish what “thinking” is. And the best definition I’ve come up with is this:
Thinking is the ability to stop oneself in the hustle and bustle of flickering thoughts and to keep one defined logical line of thought in mind to find the optimal solution to a particular problem.
Sitting in a chair and thinking about a personal office with a panoramic view of the ocean, a six-digit salary, is called “dreaming.
And sitting in a chair and planning the actions to be taken to make it happen is called thinking.
So “thinking” is a creative process.
To think about what could be achieved if you had parents, for example, richer, better education, if you lived in another time, in another country, you were younger, healthier, etc. is called “inventing excuses”.
But finding time and organizing yourself to be alone and thinking regularly, writing down a plan on paper and concentrating on it every day for more effective action is called “thinking”.
After we’ve defined the word “think” a little, let’s talk about why we need it.
Have you ever noticed how much we do “on the machine”? We wake up in the morning. We shower, brush our teeth, get dressed, go to work. Most of the work we do, too, is “on the machine” and those rare moments when we have to really think about something new to learn – we are most often tense. Then we go home, spend time with family or friends, and the level of questions we have to think about is: meat or fish for dinner.
The problem is, we’ve never been taught to think anywhere.
At school, we were given information and asked to remember it. Do you remember ever being told at school, “Here’s a theory that supposedly explains, like, how an atom works, and it says that negatively charged electrons revolve around the nucleus of an atom, where there are positively charged protons, think about it,”?
We were told, “Learn it.” And then they said, “opposing charges are attracted and the same charges are repelled. Remember, kids.” We were not taught to think.
And, if we were taught at school to think, we would definitely ask the teacher: “Why then equally positively charged protons in the atomic nucleus do not fly away? They have to be repelled because they have the same charge”.
Exactly because we were not taught to think anywhere, we can observe this situation: as soon as the advertising announces that the new shampoo contains ceramics, crowds of women rush to spend money to make the hair look better. No one asks, what are “ceramides”? How exactly do they strengthen the hair? Where can I see clinical trials? Who conducted these trials? Who sponsored these trials? And the fact that this shampoo is twice as expensive doesn’t embarrass anyone. There are KERAMYS in there!
So, we’re talking about why we need to learn to think. We need it so that no one can manipulate us. And for that, we need to learn to see reality as objectively as possible.
And in my last article (about willpower), I touched upon this issue, but in this article we will talk in more detail.
In order to learn how to think for yourself, we have to start with the question: why do I think the way I think?
Who benefits from it so that I can think the way I think now? Think of Sherlock Holmes.
These are simple questions that I suggest you start with. And it applies to any problem.
And… when you honestly start analyzing all your thoughts from this angle, you come to you – BABY. It’s scary: to subject to an unbiased analysis all those worldviews that you’ve followed all your life. It’s very scary.
And from my experience, the older a man is, the scarier he is to do it. I even sometimes think that after a certain age, if a person is not used to thinking critically, it becomes impossible. First of all, it’s because of fear.
It triggers a built-in protective mechanism. It is easy and pleasant for us when everything is clear, and we are scared when there is uncertainty ahead. And even if our picture of reality does not fully correspond to what is happening in reality, as long as we have at least some picture, our brain is calm.
So, where do we start
First we have to make time for this. One hour per day is enough to achieve a good result. But what to do during this hour?
You can type “how the real world works” online right now, and you will find hundreds of sites and channels that will tell you all its secrets.
They will tell you about the world’s behind-the-scenes conspiracies of Freemasons, Jews, Catholics or Liberals. But that’s the way to even bigger mazes. The more you load this kind of garbage into your brain, the more you lose the ability to think structurally and analytically.
I’m speaking from experience. The first book of this kind: I read the “committee of the 300s” somewhere in class 10, and after reading it I had a feeling of “epiphany,” but I was saved by one thought: how does a powerful organization that rules the whole world allow this information to be available even to ordinary schoolchildren like me.
Well, we should start by studying logic.
What is logic, what it is for and how to learn how to construct a conclusion and its basic laws.
And someone will probably think to themselves: why does a normal person need logic at all? Does not each adult person has enough common sense to understand all the laws of logic independently, without the help of textbooks?
Unfortunately, it does not. The difference between a “sane” person and those who studied the logic of textbooks, about as between a street gopnik and a special forces soldier.
Logic is our compass in the ocean of information, which is pouring huge pressure into our brain. It allows us to distinguish the fact of the real world from the flow of someone’s subjective opinions.
I plan to do an article on logic, too, but believe me, in 15 minutes you can only interest the listener to start studying it, but not enough to learn how to use it to the extent that you can not be manipulated.
In other words, logic can help you distinguish between a reliable source of information and an unreliable one.
And based on these sources, you can learn how the real (physical) world works.
To do this, do not go to university and defend your dissertations, it is enough 1-2 hours a day of full immersion and, if you have a good basic secondary education, then in a year you will not recognize yourself.
By the way, have you ever wondered why people with legal education are very often successful, recognized and reach high positions? In the program of legal education they necessarily study logic. It is very important for a judge or a lawyer to have quality analytical and synthetic thinking. This is important for all professions, but in my university program for some reason there was no logic as a subject, although I did not study in the worst medical school.
And to all those who will object and say that there is a spiritual world and it cannot be explained by logic, I will answer as follows: “maybe you are right, but in my opinion, it is reasonable to have a clear understanding of how our physical world, in which we live at the moment, is arranged, before going deeper into the study of the metaphysical (spiritual) world”.
And in this article I do not discuss whether there is a spiritual world or not. All I want to say is that many people are trying to study the spiritual world with a distorted view of the real world in which they live. And they are carried away to all kinds of esoteric worlds, energy systems, astrology and other “spiritual spheres”, where they are tied up for a long time, like in a swamp.
My idea on this issue is very simple: if you study logarithms without studying what is addition or subtraction, the result will be deplorable in both logarithms and addition.
So, logic is the first step. The result is that you open your eyes and cannot be manipulated anymore.
I do not bring the names of books or other sources on purpose, as I do not even urge you to believe me. However, no, I will give you a link to one of them. It will be a classic – a textbook of logic Chelpanov. If it will be difficult for you, then look for a simpler variant, it is even in the Goblin translation. But the main thing is to ask this question, read, listen, watch and draw conclusions for yourself.
That’s it, you can already start to act. After that, go back to this article and finish reading it.
What, you are impatient to read it to the end? Forbidden fruit is always sweet. That’s why diets don’t work.
So, you’ve learned to think. Then please think about the fact that all of us, if we were born healthy, have a naturally slender, beautiful, perfectly adjusted, perfect body. Look at the baby. What a beautiful creature it is.
And all we do in the course of life is disfigure our body.
Look at you in the mirror now. Do you like yourself? Imagine the weight of yourself liking yourself. That would be your ideal weight. It’s not calculated by the formula, it’s not called by your doctor or personal trainer.
You set your own standards.
But don’t tell me that hanging subcutaneous fatty tissue vaults can make somebody like you. Everyone knows the honest answer.
And now, what’s really going on.
Because of the lack of a culture of nutrition, our body, trying to survive, removes from the blood surplus of certain chemical compounds (fatty acids or sugar, which it then turns into fat), which we put in it (thanks to advertising) and puts them under the skin or around the internal organs. In women, they are stored in the lower half of the body – in the legs and buttocks – to preserve the area of the abdomen for childbearing function. And in men – in the area of the abdomen and back, as they do not need to carry children, but to run quickly to get food, it was necessary before.
Once again, in order to EXHALE, it is a perfect, perfectly balanced body that removes and stores excess fat (fat consists of fatty acids and glycerol) in fat cells.
Because an excess of these acids or blood sugar disrupts its biophysical properties (diabetes is an excess of blood sugar) and you need to get rid of them urgently so that the body does not die. So, the excess fat or sugar in your diet, if you follow my thought, literally poisons your body, just like alcohol or nicotine.
But don’t believe me, find reliable sources of information and study these topics yourself.
I understand that the reader is probably very angry. How do you study it, how do you read it? What do you want to read it for? I’m reading your blog, you tell me everything: what and how.
That’s the problem. That we’ve been taught that approach in school since we were kids. They just gave us information, and we took it. But I’m talking about a different approach. I’m just sharing the direction I’m going, and if you want to see a change in your life, you have to develop yourself. You have to have an opinion. It’s not mine.
Yes, it’s very difficult to develop yourself, to expand your scope. And it is almost impossible for those who already have an idea about themselves that they have already figured everything out.
A wise man said that if you are on the path of development, you are always at the beginning of your journey, no matter where you go. And if you see yourself reaching something, you’re already off course. Many thousand years ago on the mountain, it was said as follows: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Forgive me, my dears, for disappointing you, but the magic pill does not exist. From watching one or three episodes, your life will not change, and fat will not disappear from your sides. At best, you’ll have a desire to do something to make it change.
Keep that wish alive, nurture it, feed it with the right information.
Every day, listen or read about how someone has already come this way.
Read about the diseases that come with being overweight. Load this information into your brain, into your subconscious every day.
The key word here is “every day”.
Concluding the article, I ask you to come to the mirror once again and imagine yourself in a perfect, by your standards, body.
Then look again at the issues about diets, exercises and willpower, stop yourself in your life cycle and build a plan according to which you can achieve this.
Change the circle of communication if those around you bring you down, find friends who will move in the same direction with you.
Get all the products from your home or office that are taking you away from your target.
Record the weight every morning and keep track of its dynamics.
Take a step, but do it in that direction. Make a habit of it and the laws of the universe will do the rest. Everything will happen as if by itself. Others have done it. YOU can do it, too.
And for full success, you will need another missing puzzle – learn to be honest with yourself. We’ll talk about that next time.