Stories We Need to Know by Curry College professor Allan Hunter is extremely fascinating. As a guide to our journey through life, this book uses the wisdom of over 3000 years of literature and myth to explore six archetypes or distinct stages and the way they impact our lives. Its contents are truly transformational.
Indeed, this brilliant book is a true goldmine of practical advice to help identify which of the six archetypes we are currently experiencing. The presentation of these distinct stages of personal development are the result of more than 30 years of counseling, research and teaching by Dr. Hunter. By examining and uncovering the secrets of great literature, Allan Hunter reveals exciting new ways of understanding the worlds of literature and psychology as they affect our daily lives. I highly recommend Stories We Need to Know.

Stories we need to know; Allan G. Hunter, Findhorn Press, ISBN: 978-1-84409-123-2

“Just as we would love to be able to control the weather so that it didn’t rain on our party, we look for ways to control our thoughts…Sometimes it is indeed a wise move to work with the mind’s weather through medication, or a glass of wine, or a strong cup of coffee…but there is something we can do that is more lasting and trustworthy than all of the above–something that gets to the root of our most stormy mental weather, be it stress, depression, anxiety, or frustration. That something is the ancient practice of meditation…Meditation does not make things miraculously different. It doesn’t give us control over the weather. It doesn’t get rid of a stormy mood and replace it with a sunny one. Meditation does something much more subtle and even more magical. It wakes us up and leaves us standing tall in any weather.”

Elisabeth Lesser in The Seekers Guide (ISBN 0-679-78359-8)

“Evolution always transcends and includes, incorporates and goes beyond… This is the personal and societal movement toward wholeness. A healthy person grows into individuality, incorporating the best of inherited and taught behaviors and beliefs, and transcending those parts that no longer serve the mature self. If we try to transcend only, in a compulsion to separate from the past, we end up damanging parts of ourselves-root parts that keep us connected to our basic nature and our place in the world. Yet if we reject the natural urge toward transcendence and turn around, grabbing on to the past with nostalgia, we also do violence to life, because life is also movement, creativity, evolution.”

Ken Wilber in A Brief History of Everything 

1. Ajouter des activités au courant de la journée; prendre une marche avec votre chien; prendre les escaliers; marcher un peu plus loin que requis.
2. Utiliser une plus petite assiette. Manger des plus petites portions.
3. Réduire la consommation de viande rouge.
4. Boire un ou deux verres de vin rouge régulièrement.
5. Vivre vos passions.
6. Prendre du temps pour vous recueillir. Méditer.
7. Appartenir à une communauté spirituelle.
8. Passer beaucoup de temps avec votre famille; vos enfants.
9. Vous entourer d’individus et d’amis qui vous supportent; qui vous aident à atteindre vos objectifs.

Dan Buettner: www.bluezone.com

Simple strategies to live longer according to Dan Buettner: www.bluezone.com

1. Do simple activities throughout your day like walking up stairs, walking further than you need to, gardening, walking your dog.
2. Eat off a smaller plate. Decrease portion size. Eat less and but more often during the day.
3. Cut down the amount of red meat.
4. Drink a glass or two of red wine daily.
5. Enjoy your passions in life daily.
6. Take quiet time to meditate, to relieve stress.
7. Belong to a spiritual community.
8. Make family and loved ones a priority.
9. Surround yourself with friends who have a positive influence and support you.

It’s all about circuitry. You can decide whether you want to run that program or another…If you think ’sad’, this will create a physiological response in your body. But you could decide not to run that circuitry anymore. Your brain is cells. You have the ability to focus your mind on what you want to focus it on. The past doesn’t have to have any power over you. So when you don’t think about it anymore, (i.e. empower your circuitry), it doesn’t exist. When you pay attention to what’s going on in your own brain, you take responsibility for the circuitry you are running, you make the rules of a new game! It’s beautiful. It’s freedom.

So let go of all the old baggage. Make a clean slate for yourself. Choose what you want. Own your own power. Take responsibility for your circuitry!

I experienced and ‘got’ this because I had a stroke and I lost my thinking side (left) for quite a while. You can ‘get’ this without having a stroke. Pay attention to what you are thinking. You are not your thoughts. They are created by a tiny group of cells the size of a peanut. Don’t let this left hemisphere rule your life. Yes, the mind’s job is to keep you safe in the external world but you are not your thoughts. So, pay attention to what you are thinking and decide if those are the thoughts that will create the kind of life that you want. It’s really that easy. Learn to silence the brain chatter and to focus your mind on something else. Allow yourself to move to the circuitry that will provide peace and happiness.

(Summary of an radio interview given by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. It is the story of a brain scientist who suffered a severe stroke.)

My Stroke of Insight/ISBN 978-0-670-02074-4