AdamH: The biggest thing that’s happened in the last month or so has been an emphasis on continuity of feeling happy and harmless. I realized that my general practice had been to spend time reacting to things that upset me for a while before eventually trying to get back to feeling good, rather than immediately trying to get back to feeling good.
This seemed like valid actualism practice, even though I was aware that I wasn’t doing it perfectly I thought this was a good way to make incremental progress. The problem with this approach was that it basically allowed me to stop making any progress in the direction of self-immolation, because I could compartmentalize myself and my feelings into short periods of time and create a safe space for ‘me’ there. Making it my actual goal (rather than a distant future goal) to be happy and harmless continuously is clearly so much more confrontational of myself, I actually have to change now if that is going to be my goal.
Hi Adam,
What you report appears to be progress on several fronts –
Noticing that you can improve the timespan to get back to feeling good – and you are doing that and “make incremental progress”.
Noticing that you “compartmentalize” yourself and your feelings “into short periods” to create a “safe space”.
Drawing a compelling conclusion from your diligent observations and make “to be happy and harmless continuously” your primary goal right now rather than in “a distant future”.
This is excellent. You know now that merely wanting “to be happy and harmless continuously” is not compelling enough, one needs experiential input of facts (observed data from your own life) to give you impelling intent to actually do it.
AdamH: I think my practice is definitely in the best place it’s ever been, and I can relate much better to things I’ve read on the AFT site. I’m also closely observing the emphasis on not creating new maps and just focusing on maintaining the happy and harmless feelings, the holiday atmosphere, as steadily as possible. In terms of actually doing something about the human condition, it’s clear that this is the only way to put my money where my mouth is.
This is great to hear – the urge to create maps and future action plans and concepts can only divert your attention from the fact that this very moment, now, is the only moment you can actually/ dynamically experience, and any change can only happen now.
AdamH: Where I still get off track is when I want to ‘be somebody’, somebody important. It’s clear how I still have a competing motivation to be recognized, especially in my career and work, and that keeps me from more wholeheartedly committing. I think that by fully acknowledging this and sensibly evaluating ‘will this motivation deliver the goods?’ it is losing some influence. (link)
Ah, several people on the forum have recently talked about the same urge to “be somebody”. It is inherent to being a ‘self’. As a ‘self’ you need constant confirmation from others that ‘you’ exist.
Richard: The self is what one is born with; it grew out of blind nature’s method of perpetuating the species via the instinct for survival. All sentient beings have an awareness of self … all conscious beings know that they are separate from everything else. Unfortunately, with our ability to think, which animals do not have, we transformed this instinct for survival into a will to survive – a mental and emotional operation. This creates a psychological entity – the self – which takes up residence within this body and feeds off it like a parasite. (Richard, General Correspondence, Page 1, 26 Jun 1997).
The solution is rather simple – one can diminish the dominance of the ‘self’ by choosing to transfer the affective energy of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ feelings towards the felicitous and innocuous feelings – and you have already decided to do that –
Richard: Which is why I advise minimising both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ feelings and maximising the felicitous feelings – as far as humanly possible – as a salubrious modus operandi in the meanwhile rather than trying to eliminate them. Not only does this approach have the immediate benefit of feeling happy and harmless as one goes about one’s normal everyday life but it has the ultimate benefit of assisting in the rewiring of the brain’s habitual circuitry before the once-in-a-lifetime event happens which wipes out the identity in toto. (Richard, List B, James2, 22 Oct 2002).
In other words, rather than following the ‘self’-enhancing urge to “be somebody”, whenever it appears, you give yourself permission to put everything on a preference basis –
Richard: A general rule of thumb is: if it is a preference it is a self-less inclination; if it is an urge it is a self-centred desire. (Richard, AF List, 25d, 14 Jan 2004).
Please note – the aim it not to become self-less as in unselfish, but less “self-centred”, more naïve.
If you put everything on a preference basis you soon find out that this self-diminishing inclination makes being continuously happy and harmless much easier and increasingly fun, evincing marvel and wonder.
Chrono said in a recent post to the forum – perhaps you can relate to it –
Chrono: Thus in an overall manner to having more fun consistently the thing that sticks out to me the most is what I can only describe as a persona that’s bent on being sophisticated. A sophisticate. Making things complicated. Setting up an “image” of myself. Being serious. Even the visceral manoeuvring in my thinking and feeling. I found immediate relief in this noticing because only in this way I finally don’t have to be a “someone”. Interestingly, it was one of my major qualms with work that I noticed a while back. It’s not that work itself is majorly difficult, it’s that I have to be a “someone” at work. But it’s actually enjoyable when I don’t. Being a “someone” is a serious business. And this extends to pretty much every aspect of my life. (6 Nov 2025)
It’s a grand adventure.
Cheers Vineeto