Owner: Life Lexicon URL:http://lifelexicon.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 10:22:57 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This blog is about self discovery. It's dedicated to finding new ways of viewing life. I hope reading it will bring you closer to enlightenment. Site statistics:Click here
How I Conquer Fear 2007-05-28 23:02:00 They say fear is a primal,defensive reaction to the external forces around us. Here's how dealingwithfear explains it.We have many fears-fear of terrorism, fear of death, fear of being separated from people we love, fear of losing control, fear of commitment, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of losing our job, the list is never-ending! Many of our present fears are rooted in what Buddha identified as "delusions" - distorted ways of looking at ourselves and the world around us. If we learn to control our mind, and reduce and eventually eliminate these delusions, the source of all our fear-healthy and unhealthy-is eradicated.I’ve always made it a point in my life to see fear for what it truly is and conquer it. For instance, when I was a child, I was always scared of making a fool of myself in public. I was afraid of being singled me out and being labeled as different. I found myself becoming very reclusive. This I didn’t want. So, I decided to take action! Here’s h
Do You Know Your Brain? Left vs Right 2007-05-23 09:24:00 I’ve always been fascinated with the study of the brain. I’m especially interested in the differences between the two hemispheres: the left and right. They are complete opposites when it comes to learning, taking in new information, and making decisions. Here is a brief description: The left uses symbols, words, numbers, and anything concrete. It works efficiently and shrewdly. It learns sequentially and logically. It’s predictable and knowledgeable. The right? It’s perceptive. Intuitive. Random. A swirl of feelings, sensations, and ideas. Holistic. Spatial. It’s the source of imagination. Silent. My personal definition:The left brain understands the world; the right brain understands the universe. Think about our lives here on Earth. We thrive on communication. We perfected the art of acronyms, protocols, languages, and codes. In our hi-tech society, instantaneous knowledge is the norm. We’re sequential. We live by production cycles, 12-step programs Read more:Brain
, Right
How To Overcome Slowness 2007-05-18 08:21:00 “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”Henry David Thoreau When I was eight, I remember riding in a car with other Cub Scouts. My Cub Master was driving us home after an event at a local church. Before we started the trip, I remember giving him general directions to my home. But as we neared my house, he asked me a question that still haunts me to this day: “Should I turn left or right?” At that moment, my mind went blank. I was shocked and baffled. One second I was talking and laughing with my friends and the next I was solely responsible for the immediate destiny of the car and all its occupants. I felt like Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise. All eyes in the car were on me and I was (and still am) horrible with directions. Why does it haunt me?After some stuttering, I murmered, “I think it’s to the left.” I could te
The Balance Of Love 2007-05-15 00:20:00 Imagine the situation: You’ve just arrived home from work. Much later than you had hoped. You walk into your bedroom and see your spouse lying in bed fast asleep. After getting ready for bed, you lean over to give your loved one a kiss. A little something to make up for the hours not spent together. She wakes up, turns over and smiles. You exchange small talk about the day. Then, out of nowhere “the thing” is mentioned. You always try to avoid talking about "the thing". “The thing” is what you hate talking about. “The thing” is what makes your relationship really complicated. You’re too exhausted to talk about “the thing”. What started off as a small kiss on the cheek turns into an emotional battle of wits. What is “The Thing”?In the story above, “the thing” is definitely something that makes your lover very unhappy with you. It could be anything. Not returning a phone call. Breaking a promise. Spending too much time at work. Showing Read more:Balance
What Is Intelligence? 2007-05-11 12:41:00 Dictionary.com defines intelligence as: the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience Okay. Great. Now that we've taken care of the formalities, here’s my personal definition of intelligence.I believe most people are born with the potential to be intelligent. At a very young age: We have the ability to take in the sensations of the world. We have the ability to recognize what we see, taste, touch, feel, and smell.We have the ability to relate them to our past experiences.We have the ability to store them in our memories.We have the ability to reproduce or recall them.We also have the ability to control our reaction to them. This is what I call the Intelligence Cycle. Here’s a solid example: Say you’re walking by a pastry shop on your way home from work. You smell the aroma as you glance into the store. The mixture of pleasant shock and delight sends your head spinning. For a moment you’re in ecstasy. For just a sec
Self-Parenting And Dating 2007-05-04 09:38:00 Young boys want to marry their mother. Young girls think their father can do no wrong. As a child I also shared the same fantasy. My parents were my idea of perfection. My only ideal. It was easy to love them. How could I not? Between then and now something happened. My parents only pretended to be perfect. They were afraid and scared, but they never shared their feelings. They were frustrated and angry, but never talked about their dreams. That’s when I knew I had to look inside of myself for answers.I've had success using basic reasoning skills to answer my own questions. On the flip side, I also have a nasty habit of asking more questions after the first one is answered. Here's one that sticks out in my mind. Why do I keep dating women like my mother?The answer is simple: the Oedipus complex. How do I resolve this issue?Unfortunately, I needed some assistance for this one. I needed the help of a certain type of woman and I did find her. Over time I Read more:Parenting
, Dating
Self-Parenting and Promises 2007-05-01 11:09:00 Did you ever make promises to yourself? I'm not talking about anything small."I had a really hard day at work. When I get home, I'm just gonna curl up on the couch, flip on the TV and have a pint of my favorite ice cream."I'm talking about major life promises. I'm talking about the kind of promise you'd hear from your father."I'll never let anyone hurt you." Or how about your mother?"I'll always be here for you."Today you're an grown. You're no longer your parents' responsibility. However if your parents are anything like mine, they'd try their darnedest to keep the promises they made to you when you were just a toddler sitting on their lap. Their promises are forever.Part of being an adult is making these "forever" promises to yourself AND keeping them forever. They usually start with:"I'll never..." "I'll always..." "I'll do everything in my power to..." For me, they're not trivial. I only make up rules that improve the state of my mind or body. These are rules Read more:Parenting
, Promises
Am I selfish? 2007-04-30 13:10:00 Self-actualization is the science of knowing ones true self. Over the past 3 years, I discovered the most effective way to reach this realization. It’s simply by interacting with one of the other spiritual beings on this planet. Arguing. Loving. Talking. Disagreeing. Disagreeing being the most important to me. It’s through honest discourse that I find my mind and my voice. It forces me to think about what I truly believe. It shows others my true mind. Together these two actions are what define me. A few days ago, I was struck with a moral dilemma. I work in an ESL school in Tokyo. The lessons are only 40-minute and usually pretty quick and dirty. It’s much like a fast food restaurant. I call it “Fast Food English”. One Sunday, at the end of the day, my coworker was feeling a bit cheeky. He noticed his next lesson included a student who had a stuttering problem. A really bad stuttering problem. Speaking from experience (pardon the expression), having him Read more:selfish
Life Lexicon 2007-04-22 11:48:00 Welcome to my blog! It will inspire those who seek motivation, calm those who seek comfort, and assist those who seek truth. If you're a self-help junkie, then this blog is for you.With this blog, I want to explore the human psyche. I want to question the things that psychologists and self-help gurus believe. The goal here is not to discredit them. Not exactly. I just want to look at their suggestions from a different point of view. My point of view.My life. Well...it's been a crazy journey. Here's a brief resume:Ivy League GraduateKindergarten Chess InstructorEagle ScoutSoftware EngineerActor/Singer/DancerEnglish Teacher In JapanI've been lucky enough to know some very exceptional human beings during my lifetime. The Rich and The Religious. The Honest and The Hypocritical. The Ambititous and The Apathetic. The Wily and The Wise. I've learned a good amount about myself through these people.I dedicate this blog to all of them.P.S. If you poke around a bit, I promise y
A Vision Of Balance 2007-06-07 14:17:00 Goodness Graciousness started a 'Hold the Vision' tag-fest. She wrote: I invite you to blog about your vision of what is possible. If it feels comfortable for you, create a post describing how you would envision the world if it could be healed in its most perfect state. Take a minute to create an imagine in your mind, and share with your readers, what a healthy world would look like. And then tag all your readers with a similar tag! Thanks to Katinka Hesselink for tagging me!!!My vision of world harmony? Well..when I think of harmony I think of balance. And when I think of balance, I can safely say this is NOT it: This commentary appeared in International Herald Tribune on September 14, 2005.In a trend fraught with troubling political and social implications, China will soon find itself with a marriage-age population remarkably out of balance, with about 23 million more young men than women available for them to marry in this decade and the next — what demographers ter Read more:Balance
Brain Physics 2007-06-04 23:46:00 I pride myself on constantly thinking of ways to take disparate ideas from academic, spiritual and/or artistic disciplines to try and derive parallels between them. In doing so I hope to construct more abstract rules/laws/commandments that simplify the world as I know it.Let's take high school physics. I enjoyed taking physics. I gained an understanding of the world ( force, momentum, energy, mass, etc.) I never knew before. However, I very rarely use that knowledge today. I mean I really haven’t tried to predict the trajectory of a cannon ball in ages. Have you? I try to recycle some of these nuggets of knowledge and apply them to my favorite pastime: self – improvement. How do I take two disparate areas of study and make them play nice together? Yes, you guessed it. Using analogies. Example:Let’s take the physics of an object moving in one direction. It has a position, velocity, and acceleration. In order for an object to change it’s position, it must have so Read more:Brain
, Physics
The Genius and Career Evolution 2007-06-19 07:12:00 In my travels all over the world, I’ve befriended many free-spirited, socially awkward, loving, analytical people. The personalities and predispositions of these individuals were much like my own, but they exuded a kind of disciplined intensity that I felt sorely lacking in my life. These are people whom I admire and try to emulate. I want to use this post to draw out a hypothetical career path of a gifted person. It'll show how motivations develop over the course of a person's life time and how one's perception of the world changes over time. Note: The job titles are more of a state of mind than an actual position title.The MathematicianLearns how to analyze given data within a given context. Creates formulas and strategies to deal with a fairly defined and private world including the inner workings of the self.Loves to close out the world. Reclusive. Looks for the perfect solution to any problem.At times, overwhelmed by feelings of distress when encountering a proble Read more:Career
, Evolution
Visualization: The Peak Performance Tool 2007-06-26 21:39:00 I remember my life as a performer/programmer in NJ. I spent most of my nights singing dancing and acting while I spent the day meticulously wading through programming code. I remember, before a show, I’d usually find myself in a hectic, noisy dressing room with actors who were either singing to themselves, reciting lines to themselves, or, worse yet, complaining to themselves. I remember sneaking out of this room and venturing out to the only quiet place in the entire theater: the stage itself. I was so amazed at how a place that could hold such drama, applause, music, and laughter could be so noiseless right before showtime. In this place, I made it a ritual to visualize my role in the show and to virtually walk through all of my scenes. I’d take time to practice my lines and visualize myself as the character. I’d practice standing in my spots on stage while pausing every now and then to gaze at the empty house. I would imagine the seats full of nameless faces Read more:Visualization
, Performance
How To Unpack Emotional Baggage 2007-07-03 00:56:00 When I first moved to Tokyo, I found myself getting lost quite often. I once tried to locate a Kinko’s store in the heart of the city, but instead spent an hour wondering aimlessly through a maze of unmarked city blocks. Before I left my home, I made sure I wrote down the trio of numbers pinpointing the location of that particular business (5-22-1 Shinjuku). When I got off the train, I tried to use the area maps located near the station, but unlucky for me, they were all in Kanji. After spending five minutes standing mystified in front of the map, I decided to do what any red-blooded American guy would do: "wing it". After about half an hour and as I was walking by the exact spot I'd been just 10 minutes ago, I was thoroughly confused and cursing under my breath. I was feeling a bit annoyed with myself, but I quelled my anxiety by taking a moment to embrace the scene around me. I thought to myself, “I’m in Japan. For the first time in my life, I’m living in another Read more:Emotional
, Baggage
Making major life decisions 2007-12-31 13:48:00 If you're anything like me, at some point in the past you may have found it difficult making life-altering decisions. Either you couldn't rely on advice of friends/family or felt you couldn't put all the pros and cons together to make an informed choice. Regardless, you felt lost, unmotivated, and frustrated. If you're the type of person who can argue both sides of any issue, has a close connection to your family, avoids conflict like the plague, or has a problem with commitment, this post is for you.I want to talk about a specific type of monumental choice. One warranting deep, introspective reflection and thought(e.g. changing religion or switching careers). First off, I only want to talk about choices that are solely yours to make. The outcome should only directly affect you. Seco
Form vs Function 2008-05-25 00:51:00 Louis Sullivan once wroteIt is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,Of all things physical and metaphysical,Of all things human and all things super-human,Of all true manifestations of the head,Of the heart, of the soul,That the life is recognizable in its expression,That form ever follows function. This is the law.Life is a work of art. Most perfectionist, intelligent, creative-
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