This seems to be a modern phenomena, we are rushing around so much, and doing so much at work, that there is no time to just take time to just be......and how much time does just 'being' take? 5 minutes, 1 minute or an hour? Does it matter?Lives regulated by time...trains , buses, the commute, trying to avoid the traffic or the school run, we can't afford to be late, therefore we continually rush from A to B to C....everything is so far apart, getting places is such a trial, especially on time....! The stress of being late, the stress of the delays, the noise, the crammed conditions, but no time to just sit and ponder....why, because this would make us late.And then we work later, and longer and have to rush home, cook, clean, check email, be contactable 24/7...how do we get time to just sit?I really agree with the statement that Time = Wealth, and currently I am skint!Time to change as there is so much more2 life than this!Peace
Power Napping
or the power of the nap!http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8524549.stmIsn't that stating the obvious?This is something that I have been suggesting (but laughed off and told to stop being ridiculous) at a number of places I worked at in the past. It is madness, you can get so much more from a person by allowing them a little freedom in their jobs, and allowing to follow their natural body rhythms. But of course, no corporation can see this! We are cubical prisoners!
Time to ponder?
Is it wrong to spend five minutes pondering? Why is it so hard to find five minutes to ponder?
Walking to work this morning, I stopped an paused for a moment to look out at the mist over the river. I wanted to stop, just for a few moments to stare and enjoy, maybe two minutes, maybe seven minutes.....just to have the freedom of thought......
BUT....
I couldn't....I had five minutes to get to work for nine on the dot, and I couldn't be late, and I was a five minute walk away from work....I couldn't be free to enjoy the real world beauty surrounding me, and this made me rather upset. What is wrong with pondering, being free in mind even for a few moments....it would have had had such and effect on my mental wellbeing.....but the force of doing the right thing and fitting in to the corporate world was too strong...
.....this is so wrong.....and of course makes me realise that there is more 2 this!
Today's thought....let's have more pondering and idle staring time!
Peace
Why did I start this site?
I had to do it! That is the simple answer! I got sick of the 9-5 lifestyle that I was stuck in. I realised I was no more than a biological robot, with no control over my life. I had brought into the propoganda. Work to live and live to work. I was trapped in the cycle, the cycle of consumerism. I had to work to buy the things that were supposed to make me happy when I wasn't working to buy the things that were supposed to make me happy!At the same time making myself sick and , my health was suffering, my mind was suffering, everything was negative. There had to be more to life than this, there just had t0 be More 2This!!I wanted to change my life around, I wanted to escape. I didn't know how, but I knew I had to escape.After searching the web, I realised that whilst there was so much information out there, it was difficult to find somewhere which wasn't the ***ultra positive selfhelp site, where you have to buy tons or stuff or there is just so much to search through ****. I wanted to find somewhere where the people got me, people understood me.Most of the resources I found (and this included self-help) books, I found quite patronising. They also seemed to focus on how great there lives were, and I some cases they seemed to be written by people who were already living pretty good lives already. I wanted to know more about the journey, about smaller steps I could take to change mylife around, with helpful tips.How to make millions, how to do this and that, turn your life around in 20 days. Maybe I just don't work that way, and actually I am not sure I want a million dollars (or pounds!), I just want to enjoy life, having enough to get by on. There was little out there for me.So I started this site. Well I have started on the journey. I thought that I would like to share it with others, and hopefully provide some inspiration to other people in similar situations.The site might sometimes be negative, sometimes positive, but always HONEST. That is the mantra of this site.This is my journey, you are more than welcome to tag along for a bit or for a while, that is upto you! But all I hope is that you find some of it useful and a guide on your journey.Peace
Time...where does it go?
Where is time going? It is literally disappearing! A fair bit has happened since the last post! I don't know where to start, so perhaps instead of focusing on the past, I will just say that there are a quite a few things happening in the future! I am still working on a new version of this website and I have a few new pieces of music to upload to the new site, including a piece I just finished which I really think is great (well I like it!).I have been reading quite a few books recently and they are all really great. It is so good to be able to finish one good book and start another one straight away.As well as all this reading I have been having a real big clear out of all my stuff, and I am totally downsizing my studio to focus exactly on the work I want to do. As I have mentioned, I will be posting a lot of new stuff when I get my new site finished. I am not sure when this will be as I have just embarked on a 4 month IT contract in London, which is going to suck most of my time in the short term.Not the most exciting post I am afraid, but I will leave with a great quote I have just found.A Senecan praemeditatio The wise will start each day with the thought.....Fortune gives us nothing which we can really own.Nothing, whether public or private, is stable; the destinies of men, no less than those of cities, are in a whirl.Whatever structure has been reared by a long sequence of years, at the cost of great toil and through the great kindness of the gods, is scattered and dispersed in a single day.No, he who has said 'a day' has granted too long a postponement to swift misfortune; an hour, an instant of time, suffices for the overthrow of empires.How often have cities in Asia, how often in Achaia, been laid low by a single shock of earthquake? How many towns in Syria, how many in Macedonia, have been swallowed up? How often has this kind of devastation laid Cyprus in ruins?We live in the middle of things which have all been destined to die.Mortal have you been born, to mortals have you given birth.Reckon on everything, expect everything.
Clone Wars
So I am currently back in the rat race, luckily only for a short period. I am having to do the commute into London everyday and it is currently taking between an hour and a half and two hours each way. Such a good use of time (!).But I have to say how much it strikes me, looking at people on the train, how people are just becoming like clones.They just seem to be doing the same thing day in day out, year after year, there is not a happy face to be seen anywhere. Not a random act of kindness, just misery and brooding anger under the surface just waiting to snap (and I have already witnessed a few cases of it snapping). Just how important is that seat on the train when it strips you of your dignity? how good do you really feel Mr City guy when you manage to get a seat infront of a pregnant woman?Just how important is it to have to wait as someone else goes through the ticket gate instead of pushing in front trying to save an extra second or two?Why clones? Well just sitting watching all these people, all in the same clothes, the same iPods, the same papers getting being feed views on the world from a bias media. Reading magazines about what celebreties are doing, as if you know them and if being famous for being on Big brother really is an achievement to be proud of. Maybe I am being stereo typical, but it is hard to see anyone there thinking for themselves. They are doing a job to get the money to buy the treats to take away the pain of doing the job. Yes i know we need money to live and pay the bills, so we are really in a catch 22 situation. I guess for me it is a case of downsizing, finding more work which is fullfilling, educational, ethical, makes me want to jump up in the morning. Once your basic needs are met, what more do we really need? Friends, Family, experiences, time to think?I guess this is quite a negative post, but it has just struck me how futile life in the west is. Is money making these people happy? I mean truly happy? Are we really free? I mean that is the other thing that struck is just the amount of CCTV cameras....everywhere. Life really is becoming a Orwell predicted in 1984. We are all being watched to make sure we conform, feed media propaganda (in most cases!), lawful protest being outlawed, fighting a perpetualwar against an unseen enemy (war on concept), provided with mindless tittle tattle without which we aren't worthy of being part of society. Fear of speaking your mind. The only safe place is in your head.Yes I have been a clone, trying to buy happiness through things rather than through actions. This has been awake up call for me. Having just had my birthday, I have realised that time is flying by and I am wasting so much of it caught up with this way of thinking. Time to focus on real goals and real experience. Time to live!PeaceNeil
Clear out!
I have been having a big clear out of all my stuff and I am now approaching with trepidation the wonderful world of ebay. Yes after all these years, I haven't sold or brought something on the mighty 'bay. I feel so out of touch with the world. I guess like my Granddad feels when he goes into McDonalds!
I am sure it can't be that hard! I have had a fair bit of success with selling books and dvd's on Amazon and it feels great to see the pile slowly getting smaller. Sadly haven't mad to much money, but every bit helps to clear the debt mountain (ironically the mountain created by buying the items in the first place!). I have come to realise that much of the things I have brough we treats to get me through the miserable jobs I have had in the past. Buyinga book or magazine at lunchtime was an excuse to go out at lunch time and have a little treat to give me 10 minutes of pleasure in a miserable existence.
Sadly I am back in that place right now, but I am managing to get through without the treats (at the moment),instead I am writing in a jounral as an outlet for my thoughts (oh and reading all the books I have but haven't read yet!).
I am also having a studio clearout as I have a fair bunch of stuff now that just doesn't get used. Basically because I do everything on the computer now. I have some great synths/samplers from Native Instruments especially
and my fav!!
Reaktor(which means I can build any synth I like!) as well as Reason which serves as a good bread and butter synth module and Cameleon for something a little bit more 'out there'.
The main redundant item, is my Yamaha AW4416. A great unit (if a little noisy!) which If I was recording bands I would probably keep, but it is one of things (just like computers!) that you pay a real fortune for when they come out and then find that the second hand market values is about a tenth ofwhat you paid! Such is life I guess. I should have followed my own advice and invest in items which keep value(preamps, microphones). Basically applied my guitar buying philosophy to recording gear!
Hmm what a rambling post!
Peace
N