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The funny thing is most people would say that they don’t, I find that strange. Even more so when you live in an advanced economy with all the luxuries of the modern world.
Conjecture here, but I feel that it edges on the truth, a whole lot of people fall into a scarcity mindset which limits them and their outcomes. I mean it’s kinda sad, and I think the COVID pandemic was a glaring reminder that many of us in society carry this sickness.
I can’t say what the experience was like for you so maybe you saw something different to what I did; but in Australia things got a little weird, borderline surreal. When the realities of the pandemic set in around about March and April of 2020, people got whipped up into a frenzy and started going on these hunts to hoard all sorts of products. Some examples included: toilet paper, mince meat, canned goods, cheap spaghetti pasta and the list goes on.
I mean it was crazy, store shelves which would never be empty or even have low supply during normal times were absolutely striped bare. People were so desperate and clamouring for these goods that there were a few instances of fights breaking out amongst customers, videos are somewhere online if you want to find them, type in “Woolworths toilet paper fight” into youtube if you’re interested. It got so bad that the supermarkets themselves put strict limits on the number of these products people could buy.
Now you might be thinking, that there could have been a rush for everything in the store as people panic bought. However, that was not the case, the fresh food section among others was completely full like normal and I watched on in good humour. I mean how couldn’t you think it was funny? You have these sanctuaries full of food and homeware products, while other countries have difficulty feeding their population and people are fighting over toilet paper and pasta. Blows my mind.
And that’s the point I want to get across to you aujourd’hui. That acknowledging the good that already exists in your life is the foundation for all abundance.
So maybe the toilet paper runs out. Okay crazy thought here, but you can wipe with your hand can’t you; now people might say that that is gross and unhygienic, but you more than likely have that bacteria killing substance called soap right? Please tell you have soap. Like in India that’s how people go to the toilet, they wipe with their left hand, that’s just how it is when it comes to having no toilet paper. Next, no mince meat, dang I guess a banana or apple will have to do. No cheap pasta, well you might just have to buy rice, actually that was the funny thing; cheap pasta was all gone but there was an abundance, omg that word again, of rice.
And if all else fails and there is nothing left to buy. Just being thankful that things like plumbing and supermarkets exist is something to contemplate. Maybe they might not have anything now, but what about tomorrow?
I don’t have an exact exercise or technique to share with you, but just being mindful of all you do have is the key to realising that the world and the abundance it has to offer is always there, you just have to look for it.
Stay breezy my Hedites.
Posted on August 20, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Okay, I know this says pre-release but I kinda jumped the gun and already posted it on Amazon. Whoops.
But this piece actually was something I wrote not too long ago in 2021, I can’t remember exactly when. But the inspiration for it was, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. Now, the events covered in his book span the entire 27 year war. I didn’t do that, instead I decided to set my story in the second half of the war when Athens decides to invade Sicily and challenge the dominant power on that island, which was Syracuse.
Look I’ve never been to war so I can’t fully capture it, and the account I’m going off is this one dudes. So, if you are expecting 100% accurate portrayal of events, you’re crazy. However, I referred back to the text to get a clear timeline of the campaign in Sicily. This is a work of fiction, I am trying to showcase a veteran soldier who doesn’t agree with what he is being asked to do but is torn by his sense of duty. I wanted to look at how that can impact families and relationships.
It’s a bit of a longer one of mine, but I did get a whole lot of enjoyment out of writing it.
You can find it on Amazon at the moment and I will have it up on Kobo in the next couple days.
Till next month my Hedites.
Posted on August 17, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Okay, today’s lesson and exercise is a great way to build a sense of personal understanding of yourself. This technique does require you to block out a day but I promise you it will be worth it.
So what are you going to be doing? Well, it’s quite simple really, you’re going to stay up all night just like you used to when you were in your youthful party days. Actually, not exactly like your youthful party days. But at least this time, you won’t wake up with a hangover or any pointless regrets.
I usually suggest that you should be reading instead of watching television or scrolling through social media. However, this time you won’t be doing that. No, I don’t want you reading, watching television, scrolling or talking to anyone. Yes, that’s right, not even talking to anyone; I know that might seem harsh but it is supposed to radically restrict yourself to just the goings on in your head.
What you will do, is sustain yourself with a little bit of food (maybe a soup or some other light meal) and abstain from alcohol. Then simply go inside yourself, find that tranquil silence that lies below, write down your thoughts and when the time finally comes, step outside and watch the sunrise. Treat the experience like a vacation, but a vacation inside yourself.
It’s worth noting that since you will lose a night’s sleep, it is worthwhile to carefully plan the experience. Look ahead to the next two months or so and choose a date that allows you the time to do this. If you say you don’t have the time, stop lying to yourself. If you can’t find one day in the next couple months, either you are the busiest person on the planet, which means someone should study you to see the limits of human capabilities. Or the more likely scenario, that you are like other people and trying to make cheap excuses. Who are you in this case?
This type of introspection allows you to see yourself from an angle that you never really consider, one that is free from schedules and deadlines, no responsibilities from your roles as parent, spouse and so on. You’re all alone with you, what a rare experience that is these days.
Don’t stress about the losing sleep, you’ve got a whole lifetime to catch up on that.
Like always if you have any topics or questions you want me to answer, drop them in the comments or message directly.
Chin up my Hedites.
Posted on August 13, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Stop for a moment and think about your actions and why do you do them. What is the main reason why you do what you do from moment to moment? You might come up with a whole range of possible answers but the one thing that I can almost guarantee will link all of them is, the desire to change what you are feeling right now.
Take for instance your actions after a hard day’s work, what might someone do? Classic behaviour I observe is that they will sink into the couch, turn on the TV, maybe pour themselves a glass or two of wine, or more likely leave finish the whole bottle. And to top it off it, they will pull out the cake icing mix or a tub or ice cream for a couple scoops. Now I’m not saying you do these things, but you can see that many people would fall into this category. And more problematic, is that difficulty at work isn’t the only reason why people get caught up in these things, there are endless reasons why.
But take notice that those actions are about changing their current state or feeling. And unfortunately the pain that is causing them to have that desire to alter their mood hasn’t changed and will still remain within. This is due to the fact that suffering doesn’t diminish just because we have pushed it to the outskirts of minds and tried to make it unconscious.
This examination into the coping that people do with their troubles can seem gloomy but don’t fear it. Since that would be turning away from it, and that never works and trust me when I say that there is always a way through it.
So how do we get through it? Well, we face it that’s how. Give all of your attention to the pain not to the event, person or situation that you think caused you to feel that way. Don’t let your mind write a script as to why you are a victim. Take the time to allow your being to be washed by the pain inside of you. Your full attention will create full acceptance within yourself, and this will allow you to survive it without trapping yourself in coping strategies that harm you.
How does this attention dispel that negatively in your life? Well, think of it like this, when you don’t give full attention and acceptance to your feelings it’s like eating only half of a meal then putting the leftovers in the fridge to rot. If you do that over a lifetime, your “fridge” will be full of all these half eaten meals that you left to develop mould which will in turn take up space that could be used for something else. As well as it will have a corrosive effect on your character because you will be holding onto all these half eaten pains.
Remember that full attention creates presence, and presence removes time from the equation. Without time, no suffering or negativity can survive within you.
As an exercise this week, I want you to investigate what you do when you are faced with hardship in your life and then think about if those feelings were to erupt again. What could you do to develop attention towards those feelings instead of retreating into the tub of ice cream. My thing is to use mediation to focus my mind and body, if you come up with something else, please write in it in the comments as I myself am always on the hunt for new methods.
Live a lifetime of love my Hedites.
Peace.
Posted on August 6, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Temptations come in all shapes and sizes throughout our lives and learning to deal with them in a constructive manner can be a challenge sometimes. So, that’s why it is important to develop a tool kit that assists you in those times of crisis. Now let’s add a technique you can use whenever you have a moment like that.
This technique is something I picked up from reading a book called Focus by Daniel Goleman, and I’ve been playing around with it and found good results. To give even more clarity, it wasn’t Goleman who came up with this idea but it was discovered by a bunch of researchers who were studying short term gain over long term gain mindsets and behaviours.
In the experiment, and you may have already heard of it but stay with me here; the researchers sat a child in an empty room with no stimuli and then put a marshmallow on the table in front of the child, hmmm tasty marshmallow. Then the researcher told the child that if they resisted the urge to eat the marshmallow they would receive two marshmallows instead of just the one if they waited for the researcher to run an errand. Many children managed to hold out while others succumbed to their temptations and ate the marshmallow that was sitting right there on the table.
This might seem all like a bit of nonsense but what the researchers found was that the children who waited the fifteen minutes employed a novel strategy to do so. What it involved was so simple it is actually kind of genius; what the children did was they imagined that there was a picture frame around the marshmallow. Now, you might be thinking what the hell would that do, well by observing the marshmallow as a painting instead of a tasty treat, they managed to nullify the want in their minds.
So, this is what I suggest you do. Let’s say for instance that you want to give up smoking cigarettes but as you try to, you develop the cravings from the withdrawals. Well, just picture yourself smoking and then put a frame around it, and just contemplate that image for a while. You’ll find that the cigarettes lose a lot of their attractiveness, I’m not saying completely but at least enough for you to flex your willpower.
This, like all my techniques I share, isn’t an all in one fix, you might have to combine this strategy with others you already use to overcome your bad habits. But an extra addition to your arsenal can’t hurt.
And if you have any issues or questions you want me to cover, comment them down below!
Be seeing you all soon my Hedites.
Posted on July 30, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
And we’re back. It’s been another week and here we are once again, thinking about how to take the pieces of ourselves that are out of place and put them were they belong. It’s a tough task, but together we will figure it out, even if it takes a lifetime.
So, what’s it going to be this time, you might be thinking. Well, by the title you might be able to guess at what it is.
That’s it, plain old simple nerves and anxiousness. That damn scoundrel that robs you of all your confidence and competence, usually only ever in front of other people too. It makes you feel so small… what a drag.
Now, lets murder nervousness and commit a hate crime against anxiety. You ready?
Okay, when you feel that sense of nervousness starting to take control of your body. Usual signs are: sweaty hands, increased heart rate, ears start burning red among others symptoms, that’s when you take the following steps.
Story time, Yay!!! So, recently I was doing a presentation to one of the important leaders in my department, her name is Lee, she was a clinical doctor but became a statistician later in her career. I don’t have a beef with her, but I get the vague sense she doesn’t like me. When I did my presentation I felt the palms of my hands go sweaty and my ears started to flare up (I mean it didn’t help that seven people were in a small meeting room with no air conditioning but nonetheless). I could feel the corrosive feeling that anxiety leaves inside of you, dissolving me from the inside out.
In response I did my classic 3 questions. 1. Are you at ease? 2. Are you currently present? 3. I wonder what my next thought will be? These did slow down the effect of nervousness but it wasn’t enough. I forgot to use the technique I taught you today, which would have definitely helped more. Next time something like that happens, I’m going to be using today’s lesson to calm myself down.
I know you might be thinking, well if your other technique didn’t work fully, then why even use it at all. The answer is this, yes it didn’t completely work, but it did slow the whole negative process down; that could give me the presence of mind to use today’s technique. And it is important to remember that no single technique will work in every situation, and some are more effective than others depending on the circumstances. Life requires you to experiment with what techniques work in diverse scenarios, and sometimes one technique is not enough, a combination of skills and techniques might be the only way to overcome the challenge.
Our goal here is to give you all the tools and skills you could ask for.
That’s it for today, if you have any questions that you would like me to answer, send it to me.
Deuces to my Hedites.
Posted on July 23, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Okay we’ve made it to this point in the whole journey and we haven’t even really touched on goal setting. So, in that case let’s get down to it. I love goals, and those people that say that goals aren’t important are some of the loathsome individuals that exist. It’s like “wow you haven’t even taken five minutes to figure out what you want to achieve in life, no wonder you feel directionless”.
And now you may already know instinctively that setting goals is an important thing or you might have heard something similar from some other source. However, I’ll still try to boil the reason down to something easily understandable. Think of it like this, most people don’t set goals for themselves, and so they go through life in a haze, aimlessly going from direction to direction; barely able to see an arm’s length in front.
Crazy as it sounds, the majority of human beings live like this; sure they can tie their shoes, wash themselves, hold a job, pay bills and maybe even get a college degree; but when it comes to life fulfilment, there is simply nothing there. That’s because they are never looking forward more than one step ahead and they tend to favour the well trodden path. As a experiment, lets boil down the lifetime of an average person from the western world:
-Born.
-Grows up and attends primary school .
-Attends high school .
-Then thinks “well I should probably go to university”, but if you asked them why they wanted to do that, they would say “Argh, I don’t know, everybody else is doing it”.
-After University they think, “Time to get a job”.
-Then time to find a partner.
-Once they stick to a single partner for a couple years they go and get married.
-Then kids come along, which means probably going to need to stop renting and move out of the studio apartment .
-So, the now family takes out a mortgage and builds lovingly little place in the suburbs .
-Both parents work jobs, they pay bills.
-They eventually retire, maybe go on a vacation or two.
-The man usually dies first, then followed by the widowed wife.
Now look, I’m not saying that is the wrong way to live your life. What I’m saying is, you have to have a reason WHY you should do those things, and that’s where goals come in.
So, striving is the only way to build a sense of fulfilment in what you do in life, but specifically striving for something we believe in; and goals are the perfectmechanism to capture that kind of striving. I mentioned earlier how most people go through life in a haze, well goals are kind of like lighthouses. They are a beacon to guide you forward; now you might not always reach the light itself but you will get closer.
It is worth remembering that your goals can change over time, and they should; but people became frightened at that thought. They start thinking “If I have to change my goals, does that mean the effort I’ve put into my existing goals is pointless?” the answer is no it is not pointless, the sheer fact that you are working towards a goal means you are developing your character and skillset, both positive things. They may also say “It takes so much energy to come up with goals, it’s too hard.” The reality is it isn’t, but if you are having trouble I have a strategy for you below.
We’re at the point where you want to learn to construct your own goals, well guess what. I lied when I said I have a strategy for you. Yep, that’s because I’ve got two strategies for you today, wow aren’t you so lucky.
So this first one helps you to make a set of basic goals if you literally have none:
Step 1. Write a list of about 5 to 6 things you love to do onto a piece of paper, they can be activities or hobbies you get a lot of enjoyment out of doing.
Step 2. Next, for each activity or hobby, you want to think about and write down two ways that you could serve your community doing that activity.
Step 3. Once you’ve done that, you will be ready for the next activity below
Okay, this activity is about giving you a WHY behind the goal and what next action to take:
Step 1. On a piece of paper, write 3 columns (Goal, Why, Next Action)
Step 2. Under the Goal column, write your goal (if you did the exercise above, it would be the way you could serve your community with one of your hobbies or activities).
Step 3. In the Why column, write down a reason why achieving that goal would be meaningful to you or others.
Step 4. Beneath the Next Action column, write what would be the very first thing you could do right now to progress that goal, and when I mean right now, I mean right NOW. By the way, the action doesn’t have to be big, it can be a small step forward.
Don’t worry, over time we will cover more unique aspects about goals, but this should be a good start.
If you have a question you want answered, comment it or message me directly.
Posted on July 16, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Okay so it’s almost about that time again when I release my next piece, so for July the piece is called “Only for a night”. I got to writing this one about late December 2020 to early January 2021. At the time I was working at NSW’s Close Contact Tracing; the work was really intense because we were working through an outbreak of COVID in the community.
In my spare time after work I needed something to do to pass the time between shifts. In the end I decided on writing this piece. I can’t exactly remember how I came up with the inspiration for the content but the title was inspired by a song composed by Doolie, which is a young Australian musician, of the same name.
With all of my pieces of writing, I don’t feel compelled to write them in anyway in particular, I just kinda go with what feels natural at the time. Having said that, I’ve noticed personally that with each piece I write, the overall quality keeps gradually improving which is nice, and this story is no exception.
I’m not going to give any details away about what happens because I feel it’s better if you found out for yourself. So, look out on Amazon and Kobo for my newest piece in the coming days.
Like always, more to come my Hedites.
Posted on July 13, 2021 by Jordan Hedi Productions
Jordan Hedi Productions
Jordan Hedi Productions