Actualism flow diagram

Yeah that makes sense, I think the problem was that I took the arrow coming out of the ‘see silliness’ box to imply that the silliness has already been seen. But I can see that there is essentially 3 possibilities from the ‘see the silliness box’, :

1 - silliness seen
2 - cannot see silliness
3 - got triggered again by looking

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Beautiful!

Wow! @claudiu you have done it!
This looks awesome . I just have to look a little deeper to
find a few new suggestion ( just kidding ), because you have spoiled us with your generous and open compliance.

Cheers :slight_smile:

And now we have a link to the flowcharts from the article page :slight_smile:

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Putting a few of the banners together may elucidate this point:

  • Enjoyment and appreciation are facilitated by feeling as happy and as harmless as possible.

This says that enjoyment and appreciation - that is, the actualism method itself - are facilitated by feeling as happy as harmless as possible.

Hi @Claudiu, is the below point somehow “high lighted” on the diagram?, I was surprised to just read that from your own older post! It was a shocker again for me.

That means that feeling as happy and harmless as possible is not the actualism method. It merely facilitates the actualism method - it makes it easier to enjoy and appreciate.

This may be hard to accept at first because of its utter simplicity and counter-intuitive nature. What do you mean that the method is to enjoy and appreciate? I thought the method was to do all this stuff (realizing this moment is the only moment of being alive, a firm awareness of ongoing feelings, a deep-dive investigation into feelings, eliminating/minimizing the social identity, minimizing ‘good’/‘bad’ feelings, maximizing felicitous feelings, being naivete, etc…), all so that I can enjoy and appreciate!

Not so. All that stuff - which is well worth doing by the way - is not the actualism method, but rather, it’s that which worked to allow feeling-beings in the past to apply the actualism method.

This means that, so long as you are enjoying and appreciating being alive, you don’t have to do any of that stuff! Of course sooner or later you will find yourself sidetracked by this or that and then it does indeed come in handy to realize this is your only moment of being alive, pinpoint the moment of stopping to feel good, seeing how silly that is, and thus getting back to feeling good and thus enjoying (which is what the actualism method is). And, once there, you may find it sensible to investigate (not the actualism method itself) so that future occurrences of the same don’t sidetrack you again (so that in the future you can continue to apply the actualism method more consistently).

Further, it means that whenever you are not enjoying and appreciating, you are not applying the actualism method.

It is amazing just how much it takes to get this point. It took me maybe three years since my first exposure to actualism? And then I forgot again until this year. It took me two trips halfway around the world for this point to stick =P.

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Yes, that’s why only the green box of the diagram is labeled the “actualism method” :slight_smile: Note that everything else (pinpoint moment of not feeling good, seeing the silliness, investigating) is outside of that green box.

And that’s why the diagram provides the quotes that enjoying & appreciating being alive is the actualism method.

I’m not sure it could be any clearer!

I am going to read this everyday, “until the cows come home” ! :slight_smile:

Maybe, under or to the left of eaatmoba, you can write : "this and everything in the green box is the method and everything outside of the green box, to the right, is to help you to get back to the green box ". I know that is too wordy, but something along those lines, to save someone else 3 years of searching :slight_smile:

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You mean like something like this?

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I think the visual depiction of the other things being outside of the green box, and their arrows leading into the green box, already makes this as clear as it could be :slight_smile:

Well you were able to figure it out in only 12 days :smiley:

I don’t think the issue is that the diagram isn’t clear enough in this regards… it’s that the idea is so mindblowingly simple that it takes multiple repetitions of seeing it, in different forms, with some time in-between, before it clicks.

So in my consideration, adding more words that say the same thing to the diagram, will be pushing too much in the ‘redundant’ direction.

I could plaster the words “the actualism method is specifically only the enjoying and appreciation portion of the diagram” 30 times all over it, but it would not help convey the point… rather it would just make people ignore it.

Rather it’s that someone has to be sufficiently engaged and motivated, from their side, to peruse the materials thoroughly enough and to put it in practice, that it finally clicks for them. The diagram doesn’t exist in a vacuum – there is the AFT site, this forum, the diagrams, simpleactualism, etc etc … a sufficiently interested person will go through it all and if they are uncertain they can always post to ask for clarity, at which point an on-the-fly verbal explication from one of the members, will help resolve it for them as best as it can.

It’s not that I’m not open to suggestions anymore for the diagram - I am - but I don’t think this one in particular will help.

However if others chime in with similar concerns then I may reconsider!

In any case I’m glad to see it has clicked for you!

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Ok after all that I changed my mind :smiley: new diagram:

actualism-v11-v6-draft4.drawio (1)

May be this one can stay:

image

…but for me this one is too much, helping to clutter the diagram:

image

At most, the same concept could be added under the title “The actualism method” of the green box in parentheses, replacing “Enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive” with, for example, “(consistently enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive is the method!)”.

thank you Claudiu, that is very helpful .

I am not sure if I have figured it out, but at least I have the right kind of questions/curiosity so I can figure it out, hopefully(honestly speaking, with sincere intent here) in less than 3 years :sweat_smile:

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I like to share something not directly related any changes to the diagram, but about “figuring” things out, in applying the method.

For the past 3-4 days, “I” was trying to enjoying and appreciating this moment ( but I was very unsuccessful and feeling miserable about this inability and also in general). Then it dawned on me this morning ( around 5:30 am ), that the basic feeling good @geoffrey ( which “I” was skipping) is the basic of eaatmoba.

And when this morning, I re-allowed feeling good, the eaatmoba came about by itself.

But for clarification and being honest with myself I ask here if what i am doing make sense or even ok or not?( “I” am not easily willing to give this up, btw) :slight_smile:

Here it goes:
I try to be aware of how “I” feel, by paying attention to my lower belly area( area of naivete) and if there is anxiety or unease, I try to “clean” it (use the “tools”) to get to feeling good again. I also bring up “Happy feeling” from my lower belly to my head with inhalation and, take “feeling good” from my head to my lower belly. ( kind of like chakra stuff, but I am not too familiar with nor have I practiced that in the past in any significant way).
And this immediately brings me back to feeling good :slight_smile: .
I did this, this morning and for about 20 minutes or more( i am not sure how long it was, i.e. there was less time awareness) I was feeling very giddy and jovial, with some slight body movement, something that I had not experienced or that i can not remember experiencing before.

I feel like I can “look for” the sincere intent and some naivete and haietmoba, in the lower belly area; and a feeling of warmth, trust and everything is safeness ( lesser need to fight the world ) can be found there for me.

p.s. I will post this in my Journal as well . :slight_smile:

I thought so too at first, but I found it dissatisfying to take away the green title text.

This way I see it as:

  • “The Actualism Method” title indicates everything in the green box is what the actualism method is.
  • The “Enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive” subtitle serves as a clear descriptor of what the actualism method is – namely, enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive.
  • Then the quote, additionally, serves as an extra confirmation that the actualism method precisely is that consistent enjoyment and appreciation.

And even this level of repetition was apparently not enough, as Frank pointed out! So now we have a “Note” reminder as well to make it even more explicit.

Even so, I am sure people will still miss it, because it is so simple to grasp.

All that is to say, for me in my consideration, it doesn’t rise to the level of too much clutter.

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OK, no problem

Thanks you Cluadiu :slight_smile:

So @claudiu
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Is that mean, we want to feel good, great, delight, EE; so we can EAATMOBA !!!

It seems obvious, but it did not intuitively jump at me.( surprise surprise )

That’s why I am studying and memorizing your diagram, especially about the
part about getting back to feeling good tools, as you suggested, which I think is
one of the most important, if not the most important, and yet so simple that it slips by
the “ego”( for ego’s own benefit), to prevent “me” from feeling good :slight_smile:
AND this is the entry point that most beginners would need help with, both for
maintaining their interest and succeeding in applying the method.

Ego wants to “invent” false methods – e.g. being in the senses for feeling good – of “feeling good”, so as to not “allow me” to actually feel good; for actual feeling good would mean go against what ego does ( which is to keep “me” unhappy, so I search for “more” ) , and ego’s ultimate demise, because “I” would see that the ego( i.e. “me” or “I” itself) is unnecessary and the actual source of all “my” and humanities problems.

Thanks Once Again Claudiu :appreciation:

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This is really cool people, pat yourselves on the back.

I think I can relate to having traversed all of the these different pathways at one point or another.

I would add one personal scenario not quite covered by the diagram.
In the pathway of “I’m overwhelmed by emotion” → “Stuck” → “Set If aside”.
There is another route I have taken which is to seek medical advice, in acknowledgement that I am not feeling well in a more abnormal way.

Medical intervention via medication and therapy (CBT) have helped contribute to getting back to a better normal/neutral baseline.

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Such as the practices discussed in Supplementing actualism with conventional methods, since that falls outside the sphere of the usual actualist practice that the diagram is intended to summarize, I think it could be added as a question, or as a posibility to be considered by the reader.

Yes, thanks @Miguel for the link I haven’t read that topic yet. I am not necessarily implying that my example needs to be included in the diagram. However, from the diagram it doesn’t make it seem like there are alternative methods to get from stuck to neutral, unless I am misreading it.

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