Archives: IQTuneUps

Today, do something positive, no matter how small, that you probably would not normally do, and, in fact, do not really want to do, but  know that you should do.

It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Straighten out a tablecloth, empty the trash, dust a shelf, or do anything that is small and easy to do.

Do this as much as you can stand, and gradually watch yourself becoming bolder and doing bigger things.

See if you can get a momentum going.

Ask Yourself:

How far can this go? How far is it from “here” to “sainthood?”

What would I become if I did all the things I should do as effortlessly as I just now straightened this tablecloth?

What is the difference between habitually doing something correctly and consciously making the decision anew to do something correctly? Which feels more alive and empowered?

What is the difference between a trained monkey doing a job correctly and a person consciously attempting and FAILING to do the same task correctly? Do I want a large part of my actions to be “monkey perfect?”

Given the artificiality of this exercise, would proper motivation support more rapid change in my actions? What would that motivation be?

Why haven’t I done “all this” already? Will I?

Create a list, taking no more than five minutes, of all the people you have not forgiven for their words and actions that have negatively impacted your life.

If you recall someone who has done only minor things–that’s okay–list them, too. This is your chance to get ’em.

After five minutes, consider that the list is finished.

Ask Yourself:

(If you have to, it is okay to merely pretend that you know the answers to these questions.)

Why did I forget to list certain persons that only now come to mind?

Did I feel guilty while doing this list? If so, why? If not, why not?

Were there certain people that should have been on my list, but I just could not bring myself to do it?

Did making this list strongly evoke some of the feelings I have about these people?

Is there a part of me that is always, subconsciously, carrying a grudge or festering or actively rerunning negative memories?

Is there a relationship between forgiveness and my physical well-being?

If I am not on this list, why not? Or, if I am on this list, how can I forgive myself for everything, now, immediately?

What would it feel like to forgive myself? Can I practice at least having that feeling while I am trying to forgive myself?

If I could forgive, completely, all of those on the list and never again think about their past actions, how would that change my life? If there were such a button I could push that would magically accomplish this, would I push it? Should I? Could I?

What is the way, even if I do not do so, to “push the button?” How much effort would it take? Would it be worth the price? What is it costing me to not push it?

Read the following title of a famous children’s story:

“GOD RELAX PANDA TREE BURRS”

This title means nothing to most people when first encountered.

Now, think about the well-known story of a small girl with golden hair  who has trouble with a family of furry creatures.

Does the title mean anything to you yet? Okay, just in case, here’s the title of the story when directly translated from the above:

“Goldilocks and the Three Bears”

The first six lines of this story are written below in this strange form of language. Your exercise is to translate them as we have translated the title above. Here they are:

Wands apron at I’m, share wasp alit toe grill. Dish lit toe grill hat lung go den bland coils. Beak cost offer lung go den bland coils, purple culled hare “God Relax.” Won fond moaning, God Relax trolled inn two hay fur rest necks tour howls. Beef oar lung, God Relax wasp lust. Cow fuzz sheep goring two fainter whey hum?

The rest of the story is provided below, but first,

Ask Yourself:

Is there any meaning actually contained in the words of the sentences?

Why is it that the words only have to faintly suggest or sound close enough for me to assign their “real” meaning to them? Why is my intellect so forgiving?

When I read a normal English sentence, is my intellect also forgiving? How much am I helping out when I read a sentence? How often am I filling in what is supposed to be there?

How often in my daily life do I project meaning onto sensory input that simply is not there? Am I bending life’s input to fit a story I already know and am bent on telling to myself? If so, how does the story end?

Do I assume that my interpretation is reality, based on my best guess?

Is it possible that I could suddenly see that life, as I presently know it, could present quite a different story? Is life’s secret just waiting for me right before my eyes? If I knew the true story of life, could I make this old life suddenly transform into a grander tale?

When bad things happen to good people, do I apply a story of mine to their experiences, so that I feel comfortable?

My imagination is powerful enough that these faintly suggestive sentences could trigger my interpretive abilities. But what chance do I have of reinterpreting input that is not in the least faint, but instead is traditional and conditioned input that, right from birth, I have been taught to know to have a very precise meaning? Am I strong enough to see things with a clear eye? Can I see a ball roll across a floor with the same awe as a seven-month-old baby? What story does the baby tell about the ball?

Who wrote my story? Why do I want to tell it?

Now here is the rest of the story for those of you who want to have more “aha” experiences. Enjoy.

Rafter ha lung twine, God Relax frowned alit toe cod dodge. Inn slide dot cod dodge, God Relax fond tree bows aft pour ridge. Hare lung fur rests troll hat mead God Relax berry hung glee. Caulk shucks lee, God Relax toasted dipper age inn debug boll. Disparage wash toot hurt! Show God Relax tested boar cage frontal udder bolt, aunt disparage wash two colt. Fond dally, God Relax trusted disparage frump deterred bulge, audit wasp juice ripe. Beef oar Yukon blank, God Relax deflowered disparage. Aft oar treating, God Relax sadden as mall chore. Dismal jar grumbled true pits! God Relax felt hoard hone deaf our. Locking err owned, God Relax spurted abet roam. Dare wore tree bets witch pillars. Clam ink win delighter bet God Relax falter seep. Wind God Relax worse leaping inner bat, twin comb tree hock glee ferry creep chairs. Daze creep chairs wore burrs.

Delighter bore sat, “Soon booty ache almond purr edge!”

Departer born shod, “Shack displace ought!”

Deem Martyr burn shed, “Brogue yore char, tooth!”

God Relax hoard debars load verses. Quack lick affix, sheep lapped true abet roam dwindle, hand debars ware how tough lock.

MURAL: INDIA VENT OFT RUBBLE RUNT QUACK LICK AFFIX!

The next time a person is angry at you or at least is being angry at “whatever” in your vicinity, imagine that a loved one of yours to be standing behind you, and that you are preventing this anger from reaching your loved one.

Have the attitude that this angry person’s “blast of negativity” will be blocked by you before it can touch your loved one. Your attitude here is to be one that is symbolized by a mother who places her child behind her when a threat is perceived.

When you try this, just mentally picture yourself shielding a loved child from the anger. Try this as many times as possible. If you feel uncomfortable about another’s negativity, then that would be a clear sign to try this experiment.

Ask Yourself:

What does my innermost, calm, and wonderful self have in common with my imagined loved one?

What part does my imagination play in my emotional life now? When someone is angry around me, am I finding myself imagining that some sort of negativity is affecting me? Can I put this “me” “behind my skirt” by bringing forth a “shielding effort” with my imagination?

What benefits can I realize from using my imagination during intense interactions with others? Can I find strength to deal with these energies without resorting to a knee jerk pattern of victim-hood?

When I am angry, how often do I “spray innocent bystanders” with my feelings? What can I do to focus my emotions, and at least aim at the proper targets?

What words would I use to describe the parts of me that I would like to shield from these kinds of attacks? How can I recognize those parts of me being active in my personality? How can I support the manifestation of my innocent, tender, inner child?

What would it be like if I always had a shielding, protective shield in front of me like this? What would my life be like if I had NO safety concerns? Would that kind of life be worth a great effort to bring it about?

When I am angry, is there a part of me that is NOT angry? Is there an aspect of my mind that remains aloof or unaffected, non-interactive-but-observant?

When anger has passed through me, is the “real me” already “there” waiting for the “calm me” to take the place of the fading “angry me?”

Am I my emotions, or are they events that happen to/through me?

If I take away all the inner and outer experiences that happen to me, then what’s left? Is that me?

Find a personal rule-a bad habit-that you can break. This breaking of the habit should be known by you, as deeply as possible, to be a positive, life supporting, good, thing to do.

For instance, you might know that your group of friends would not approve of your associating with a particular person. Now, break this, or some other, bad rule.

Choose something that is relatively easy to do. It could be the smallest of your bad habits, and the breaking of it could be in the slightest of fashions, but at least DO SOMETHING!

Ask yourself,Are my habits “rules” that I have written for myself? How can this be true when I do not remember writing most of these rules?

How did I feel when I broke the rule?

What part of this did me the most good-the breaking of the rule or the good thing I did?

Who wrote most of the rules that I follow in my life?

If I agree with a rule is that the same as writing it?

If I break a bad habit, is that the same as breaking the underlying value it was expressing?

How do I directly affect an unwanted value I have-instead of merely “fighting it” every time it “figures” out yet another way to manifest in my thoughts, speech, and deeds?

How easy is it for me to recognize my faults and the values they express? Could I sit down, and in a very short amount of time, list all my major bad habits and the values that support them?

When I do wrong, who is it that determines this? Why would that “person” allow me to do the wrong in the first place?

Look into your own eyes in the mirror, and say these words:

“I love you entirely and completely. Everything I have ever been or done has brought me to this moment.

My virtues have been expressed, and I have been able to see how that has affected my life and personality. AND, my faults have manifested lessons that have been presented to me for my consideration, and that too has resulted, to whatever degree, in the accumulation of wisdom.

For better or worse, I am a product of ALL that has ever happened to me, and I accept myself at this point in time completely.”

Note how you feel during this exercise. Repeat until you get bored. Then repeat again the next day.

Ask yourself,How do I actually feel when I do this exercise? Why? Would I like to have a different feeling?

When I say “I love you.” to myself, how is this love different from the love I have for others in my life?

What is the long-term payoff to repeating this exercise daily?

What is the impact of accepting and recognizing my weaknesses?

What is my emotional reaction when I consider my weaknesses?

Which represents the greater source of “profit” in my life: my virtues being expressed in my thoughts and actions or the growth I have achieved by “blundering” and subsequently being affected by the reactions of those around me?

If I were able to come back in time as an eighty year old person and speak to the person I am now, what would I say about my progress in life so far? How much love would I express to myself?

What feelings would have right now if I could hold myself in my arms at the various times of my life? What would I say to the person I was as a child, pre-teen, teen, young adult, early adult, etc.? How forgiving of my mistakes would I be?

Can I allow myself to feel this way only a short time after a “blunder?” How about instantly?

Can I ever hope to do this for myself if I am unwilling to do this for others?

An ancient story.

Two friends long ago spent their days together. One friend was a skillful harp player, and the other listened skillfully.

Whenever the one played a song about a mountain on the harp, the other would exclaim, “There it is-the mountain whose song you play!”

And when the harp was singing of water, the listening friend would shout, “Here is the very river!”

So did their days pass until, at last, the listener grew ill and died.

The friend cut the strings of the harp and never played again.

Uncounted years have passed, but still to this day, the cutting of a harp’s strings is a sign of true friendship.

Ask yourself,Who has loved me absolutely without fail, without faltering, without the slightest judgment of my qualities?

Who listens to my song?

Who loves every experience, every emotion, every thought, every sensation I create so much that it all is completely accepted without question?

Who sees as real what I manifest?

Who is my audience, my fan, my admirer, and my great lover?

Who never leaves my side no matter where I go, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter what I feel, no matter what mistakes I make?

Who watches me even to my last breath, my last thought, and my last sense of individuality?

Before whom do I do all these things completely without shame, without secrets, without the slightest qualm of having this companion at the worst moments of my life?

What does my lover see in me?

What is my lover’s name?

The next time something “bad” happens to you that is completely not your fault, despite your innocence, pretend that you have to find some way to convince a fair minded person that what happened WAS actually and entirely YOUR fault.

Have an imagined conversation and offer whatever proof you can “come up with.” Try to see yourself as an utterly necessary aspect of the experience and that it could not have happened if you had not explicitly and implicitly participated in the event in ways that were “causal” in nature.

Ask yourself,

Is it possible that everything that happens is my doing? Why don’t I know it?

How did my last thought happen without my active “permission?”

What part do I play in my interpretations of my experiences? What’s the difference between interpretation and “actual facts” and assumptions?

Is there such a thing as an accident?

What part of me rejoices that it has been victimized?

If I were to ever be absolutely certain about the “fault of the matter” would I have to be a mind reader?

Can I prove that I can read my own mind? When I have any thought, where in my experience-at what “level,”-do I experience the meaning of the thought as opposed to experience the “words” with which the thought is composed? Why don’t I experience meaning as separate from the events of my life? Should I? Can I? Will I?

If I take responsibility for everything that happens in my life, how would I explain the infinite vastness all around me? Where is the dividing line between what I control and “all the rest?”

What parts of my nightly dreams am I NOT responsible for?

Is “all this” inside my head-like a dream?

Practice supporting the lives of those around you. Put your attention on supporting their potential to do good to manifest strongly in their lives.

Do this by mentally imagining how they WOULD BE FEELING if they improved their actions, thoughts, personality, etc. along the lines that you might hope for them.

Imagine the exact feelings. Get as precise as you can. Go back into your own life, find those same feelings-however faint they might be-and, if you have to, magnify them to get a solid grasp of what it would be like for others to wildly succeed at being, well, genius saints!

Do this.

Do this all day long, day after day, year after year. Never stop doing this.

Do this. You must!

Do this until your thoughts automatically and without effort are focused on positive support for the lives of others-even your dream thoughts!

Do this!

Start now!

It’s the right thing to do, and you know it!

Drop everything else. Just do this!

Why are you sitting there wasting time? Stop reading and get to it!

Stop!

This is it. There’s nothing more to be said. Get at it. Every second is precious!

What is the deal here? Why aren’t you practicing? This is it-there’s no more exercise instructions.

I give up. That’s it for me.

You win.

Ask yourself,How do I react to strong, bold commands to be better-even when they come from as deep and as wise and as loving and as well intentioned a source as Edg Duveyoung? Do I, like, just want to hit him or what? What part of me resists external pressures no matter how much I agree with the intent of the persuasion?

Just what is it about inner-directedness that so easily wins over the same directions coming from someone else? How can I harness this concept to bring out my own goodness?

Taking the first part of this exercise seriously and ignoring the fatuously fanatical exhortations, what part does empathy, compassion, and emotional support play in my life?

If I were perfectly wise, how much more of this would I do in my ordinary life?

What is the immediate payoff to practicing the use of these emotions?

Considering the feelings (not the causes of the feelings) is it possible for me to wish for others what I do not wish for myself?

If a genie appeared and told me, “Go ahead, wish for anyone-other than yourself-to become a genius saint, and it will be instantly so” how would I feel about that? If I were a genius-saint, THEN how would I feel about it?

Look from object to object within your view-people included. Try to find the two objects that are at the ends of your like/dislike spectrum; one object is, well, objectionable, and the other is highly desirable. Judge these two by the same standard such as “cash value” or “physical beauty.”

Now scan recent memory and try to come up with two experiences you’ve had that are, again, at the opposite ends of your like/dislike spectrum.

Now imagine two experiences that have NOT happened to you, but very well could happen to you within the near future that are at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Continuing, see if you can easily pick out from your entire life two experiences that are at the top and the bottom the list of your life’s spectrum-your highest point and your lowest point so to speak. Don’t strain, just get a couple of experiences that are “up there” and “down there” or “close to it.”

Finally, imagine two events that you think are almost certainly impossible and extremely unlikely to happen to you, but by a remote chance, (if you got lucky or unlucky) COULD happen, and if they did indeed happen would be at the opposite ends of your dislike/like spectrum. These experiences should be normal human everyday experiences. Don’t go for the “wild stuff.” Keep it fairly probable-don’t think about winning the lottery or getting attacked by genetically engineered pit-bunnies.

Ask yourself,How does my question “What is the worst experience that has happened to me in the last few days?” result in the fairly immediate reply “I had a small tickle in my nose and almost had to sneeze?” Where does “tickle” get understood by my brain as “worst?”

How does my mind understand what I am saying to it? How does it pull something out of memory for me almost instantly when I have had so many experiences?

How does my nervous system create a list of “everything that’s happened to me,” order it into a like/dislike list, and then report back to me one of the ends of the list-all within a flash of time?

Is memory a miracle constantly happening inside my head?

When I have considered such a wide spectrum of real and imaginable events, why was my mind so “accepting” of the “bad” thoughts about the negative ends of those lists? Why don’t I have automatic processes that turn my attention away from most bad “things” or, at least, create a strongly noticeable feeling of discomfort? Why do I feel so invulnerable and safe from any consequences from having negative thoughts?

Is perception a form of love? When I perceive anything, do I in fact love it-in that I allow it within my mind-as if it were an invited guest in my home?

How is it that I can entertain so many different kinds of thoughts within my mind so graciously? Am I the “perfect host” at a “great big thought-party?” Do I stroll among my “guests” amicably accepting them in a supremely nonjudgmental way? Am I a “thought saint?”

When my real life loved ones do something that angers me, why am I unwilling to “amicably accept” what they have done? What happens to my “thought-party” then that I’m suddenly tossing a guest out of the house or wishing he/she would leave? Why can’t I have those thoughts and be gracious still?

Why can I think about incredible negativity, and yet desperately want to get out of my mind the rather tame thought, “My thighs are fat?”

If I can read the following sentence without much flinching or squirming in discomfort, why is it so hard to have other thoughts about my loved one’s behaviors? “Thousands of children die every day.”

How do I decide when a thought is not “just a thought?”

Am I prejudiced against my loved ones? Do I have a double standard for thoughts?

What kind of parties do I throw? Are they more like tea parties or keggers? How often do I invite “God thoughts” to my parties?

If I were going to throw the best thought party I can imagine, whom would I invite?

Would they come?