When Did It Become Okay?

October 11, 2015October 11, 2015 / Penny L Howe / 10 Comments

When did it become okay to eat chemically processed food? Food that we know, for a fact is chemically processed, but oh so amazingly convenient – a part of our modern addictive lifestyle and easily available with very little effort on our part.

What is food today in Consumer Land (you know – right here, right now)?

Food (a loose interpretation): Items bought packaged for longer shelf life in megastores and minimarts. Food bought at fast food locations. Food grown and sprayed with poisonous pesticides and processed using artificial methods and mutiple chemical additives for flavor enhancements and longevity.

When did it become okay to make money off of treating and healing sick people? Or worse, not seeing them at all if they haven’t got the right insurance.

When did it become okay to not be able to afford to take your animal to the vet? When did it become okay to buy products (almost everything) with built-in, short term obsolescence … guaranteeing you’ll buy the “new & improved” version?

Not only are too few of us not thinking about cause and effect, even more of us are not seeing beyond our nose, or should I say the view screen of our smartphones, tablets, computers, television, and so on. Not my opinion, just absolutely true facts!

“It saddens me when, as a race, we humans have been given so many advantages and yet our worst emotions still rule us.”~ Plh

Greed (now called profit margins & for us lesser folks, the constant seeking for a “better quality of life”)
Laziness (now called convenience)
Sloth (now called comfort)
Hatred (against anything and everything you don’t like or fear)

And so we’re left with our own personal rationales for why we do what we do, as we each (more or less) contribute to our downfall.

Wake up! Open your minds, your heart and your awareness. We can bring about dramatic improvements, if we want to, or continue to be harbingers of our eventual failure as a human race.

As always – our own individual choice to make.

Penny L Howe

I, in my aloneness, part II – my bicameral mind.

July 16, 2014July 16, 2014 / Penny L Howe / 20 Comments

“introspectable mind-space”

At the risk of having lost a few of you. I’d like to explain the bicameral mind. Julian Jaynes explained this as a different, non-conscious mental schema where volition, in the face of novel stimuli, mediated through a linguistic control mechanism (we made sounds) and experienced as auditory verbal hallucinations. Passing from the right hemisphere of the brain to the left (the introspective thought). He referred to this as man reacting in a bicameral (two chambers involved in creating and accepting a hypothetical idea) manner. The right coming up with an abstract idea and conveying it in an acceptable way to the left side of the brain.

Okay, now having lost the rest of you, I’ll explain. I’m left-handed, placing a stronger emphasis on right brain thinking. Many believe “imagination” (and hallucinations) have their roots there. Point in fact, Julian Jaynes (1920-1997) was an American psychologist who referenced different states of consciousness (I’m simplifying things here) and how they interact with one another from the two halves of our brain. Beginning with the right hemisphere for the bicameral mind.

Most people are right handed which means that the left side of their brain is the dominant hemisphere. Being left handed I’m located in the remaining 3 percent of the population where the right side of my brain is dominant. But even more rare, according to several I.Q. tests conducted at an earlier age, is the possibility that both sides of my brain are dominant, in that they work and play well together.

This is a good thing. I think about everything and explore my thinking thoughts a great deal. And a bad thing, because I find everything has introspective value, as well as subjective.

This has created havoc my entire life, of course. Because almost nothing is viewed as linear, everything has a potential matrix with depth and possibilities attached to it. I’d have made a great theoretical physicist if I enjoyed math a little more, but I digress (another problem for me as I can digress – and do – frequently).

Bottom line. it is ever so easy for me to go to my “introspectable mind-space” and hang out there, quite comfortably. Imagination is real there – you see. And the range of possibilities and potentialities coupled with imagination is … well … frankly unimaginable. But most enjoyable.

Does this mean I’m smarter than the average bear? Absolutely! Does this mean I’ve learned how to use it to my advantage? Absolutely not!

You can see the quandary in which I frequently find myself. I know the answers to some amazing problems but have trouble explaining them to others.

So … what have you learned from this post? Perhaps that I am a comprehensible, multi-talented genius with special gifts of great import. Or perhaps that I’m amazingly long winded without saying a single thing of particular importance to you. If you made it all the way through, I applaud you. If you didn’t … well then you’re not reading this are you?

As for me I’m going to go hang out in my introspectable mind-space. Where all is forgiven and I am always well received.

Good Day!

~ Penny

Because – That’s Why!

September 20, 2013 / Penny L Howe / 20 Comments

Rhyme and Reason

“If there truly is a reason we (humans) exist. We define

it through our creative expressions of understanding.”

~ Penny L Howe, 2013

I know there’s a reason in life and I know there is also a rhyme. So we think and we feel. Two types of things. Thoughts and feelings.

Thoughts for when we think on things, organizing what we’ve learned into pieces of understanding. Feelings for when we contemplate our thoughts expressing and emoting about them. In humans the two are closely entwined. Hard to have a thought without a corresponding emotion connected to it (although I must say, sometimes it does feel as if one can have a very strong emotion with very little reasoning thought being involved, lol).

Summing things up – the rhythms from our heart (emotions) and the thought processes from our mind create the symphony of our life experiences. How we orchestrate them defines who and how we are.

Therefore, we are all artists – creatively speaking, poetically endowed to convert our reasoning mind into beautiful expressive renderings (any art form) from the soul. So how cool is that?

Infinitely! – at least from the view of my eyes.

Have a great weekend everyone! Feel good about who and how you uniquely are. It’s what others “love” about you! Please share yourself – a joyous thing to do!

~ Penny

A dream within a dream

August 23, 2013 / Penny L Howe / 20 Comments

Dream within a Dream

I dreamt of dreaming within a dream. Upon awakening, I was still asleep in my dream. How can this be? How can I know this to be?

To attempt to explain my dream within a dream is to understand. The beauty of each thought, distinct and clear. I could touch my thoughts, a tactile sensation, in no manner limited to the surreal. this not achievable when awake. This I cannot accomplish in my dreams. But in my dream within a dream where reality is not only dispensed in the manner of dreams, playing out emotional recollections and fragmented incompletions of thoughts and emotions – the vista of what is … pales into what is not – but adds also to the element of what may be.

It is the – may be – that allows for a recognition of the possibility of a dream within a dream. Like floating through gravity. As if unfixed in position but poised in another reality, not of my mind’s manufacture. Exploring a universe of unknowns, an infinity of un-thought-of’s!

If my dream state can conjure a dream within itself then surely there can be no limitations of any sensation, so all is an unknown but as I experience, it becomes a – may be. And so I say to you, I dreamt in my dream that I was dreaming.

To experience this is quite outside any possible comparative value of which to relate. I stumble on through collective known words and expressions, doing my utmost to describe something tangibly intangible. A paradox. No, not a paradox. For in a paradox there is a juxaposition of explanation that calls for specific values therefore explained in measured terms. But a dream within a dream, has no comparison to reference.

I am bemused as I think on a method of further explanation. How does one explain an unexplainable experience so that it becomes believable when it is outside the guidelines of what is known?

Unless you say most simply I had a dream within a dream beyond the limits of reality, beyond the realm of the known but within the ‘may be’ of my potentiality, a greater value than that of existing and being. A value more than the sum of all that is unspoken, unrealized and unknown, but may be … one day.

~ Penny

In the eternity of my time

May 23, 2013May 23, 2013 / Penny L Howe / 20 Comments

Philosophical Thought of the Day!

Infinity’s view of things places humanity as fleeting and of momentary importance!

Universally speaking, even as the least of us (humans) dwell on the most, of what we may become, I have determined that in the larger view of things – there may well be no larger view of things.

From the perception of being considered a mere grain of sand located within the cosmic shores of the Universe, I must humbly conclude that the “I” that is me has no potential value lest it be right now within this absolute moment of time.

Here and now I can make a difference.

Here and now I can effect a change.

I can be causation, make a stand.

Should I desire to do so

… or not!

Infinity will carry on quite blissfully experiencing naught but a momentary thought of what I might have accomplished, regarding future potential with the eternity of my time!

“If I could live forever, would I still want to make a difference?”

~ Penny L Howe, 2013

Thank you for stopping by,

~ Penny

I am not your destiny …

October 21, 2012October 21, 2012 / Penny L Howe / 39 Comments

Thoughts

…I am your friend.

Who am I?

I am your Conscious Thought!

I exist to inform, to make you aware.

~ thru sensations

~ thru surroundings

~ thru experiences

I make you known to yourself.

I am not your destiny …

“I am your friend, use me wisely”

~ Your Conscious Thought!

Thank you for visiting me today,

~ Penny

Copyright © 2012 by Penny l Howe

Creative thinking – The Box Outside

September 25, 2012 / Penny L Howe / 29 Comments

Do you think outside of the box? Or maybe the box is upside down and you’re under it (lol). Creative thinking means really changing you perspective in ways you’ve never thought before.

I remember in Marketing 101 (basics) the black box model. Professionally speaking this term is used to analyze the buyer’s buying motivation. It’s called the ‘black box’ because no one is ever sure how the mind works – ergo you can’t see inside so it’s black.

The ‘black box’ model sets up possible scenerios to help you “guess” better (my interpretation on this). I thought it was dumb. It seemed they were taking something simple and complicating the crap out of it. Again just my thoughts.

I suggested that it might be easier to simple ask the customers what they wanted. I did not get an “A” in that class. An interest side note however is that years later when I was conducting independent workshops about marketing basics to young entrepreneurs, half my class was filled with people with degree’s in Marketing. Apparently they didn’t get it either (lol).

I don’t have a box! Never did! Creative people don’t do well with restrictions to creative thinking.

“Like most creative people I don’t fit well into boxes” – Laurell K. Hamilton

“Some of the most wonderful people are the ones who don’t fit into boxes” Tori Amos

“Hollywood likes to put actors in boxes, and it likes to put Asian actors in really small boxes” Sandra Oh

Do something really different today, If you don’t want to get rid of the thinking box (comfort zone) completely, at least move it outside. Then go for it, as in big time…some huge creative stuff!

“If I did have boxes to think outside of … they would be creative ones” Penny L Howe

Thanks for stopping by, Enjoy your day and be creative ~ Penny

The Brain: to bee…or not to be!

September 18, 2012September 18, 2012 / Penny L Howe / 43 Comments

To Bee or … to Be

Some interesting news my friends, you know those chemical messages I keep talking about when I refer to our senses and the input we receive from them?

Well, recent information by Johns Hopkins researchers have linked potential dna “recoding” according to behavior patterns.

It appears that a bee’s behavior patterns (and other living creatures) are linked to the body’s mechanisms and are reversible by the use of chemical tags on their genes.

We are not hardwired, therefore the things we originally understood and were told regarding how our bodies operate isn’t so.

Simply put, the interactions between mind and body (chemical messaging to/from our brains) make our own bodys conditions changeable. Who knew?

these studies do relate to us, the researchers believe, and will shed more (scientific) light on complex behavioral issues in humans, such as memory, stress, learning and most important – comprehension.

So they are suggesting, in my humble opinion, that those physical/mental/emotional “things” going on inside us, are not only affected by our experiences but also how we interpret them. We change or alter (with this theory) how our mind and body functions! We have much more control over ourselves than we knew! How we think and interpret is how we will be.

“Through Awareness and Understanding,

We become who we need … to be” ~ Penny L Howe

***

~ – ~ – ~

For those who are interested there is very specific neuroscience information relating to the latest John Hopkins reseach on bees and their behavioral patterns.

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.3218.html

On a different note but very important. The plight of the bee is serious. In the past 50 years the number of bees on this planet has been drastically reduced. We depend on bees for much of the pollination of our plants. Bees are an important and necessary part of our planet’s ecological system and our own survival.

The loss of so many bees is the result of industry, mass commercialization and pesticides. We can do small things to help.

If you have a garden grow your plants as organically as possible. Try to use less inorganic products in your life. Little things make a difference my friends!

thank you for dropping by,

Penny

Aging Well – The Fountain of Youth, Part 4

August 26, 2012August 26, 2012 / Penny L Howe / 39 Comments

Tomorrow will be the 5th and final post about aging well. But today is THE BIG BOY! The ONE to really pay attention too. So listen up. Or read up, or focus, or whatever it is that you do when you’re actually reading for comprehension and enlightenment. I’m guessing on this one again, but you do occasionally read for better understanding, right? lol

So now if you’re really ready for the big secret to staying young here it is…

YOUR THOUGHTS

There, that’s it. The very first thing to greet you in the morning, the thing that hovers during the day and the very last conscious thing you are aware of before you go to sleep, your thoughts.

So what do you think? Can there really be anything more important in our daily lives than the thoughts we are thinking, NOPE! As in not a chance, nada, negatory, unuh, no way…Get my drift here. Your thoughts shape your actions which shape how you react to your day. So simple. (Oh no another one of those simple things she keeps talking about!)

We are the directors of our own life’s adventures (which can come at us fast and furious) we decided with our thoughts about how we are going to respond.

Our emotions are strong and they influence, more sometimes than we would wish, but the conscious and aware us is still the person that responds. Our emotions tell us how we feel about something, our thoughts give us direction on how we are going to respond.

Our thoughts are powerful. I will repeat this. Our thoughts are powerful. We will determine how we live our life by the action resulting from our thoughts. Always!

I’ve already spoken about “Attitude”. Our attitude is shaped by our thoughts. Aging is something that happens to all living things. This is a truth. But how we age is determined by ourselves.

As children our thoughts are filled with imagination, having fun and thoughts of tomorrow – our reference point – when we are young. As we grow we experience more in life and our thoughts regarding these experiences continue to shape us.

Nothing is more responsible for the shaping of our destiny than our thoughts. They determine where we are going and how we are going to be on our life’s journey.

To age well, I believe it is best to allow your thoughts (as a director would) the freedom to be a child again filled with imagination and fun and hope. Allow your thoughts to think well of yourself and others.

Turn your thoughts away from what is wrong and think thoughts of what is right. Do not let the bad experiences in life slow you down, or stop you. You alone can determine this. You and your thoughts!

And yes, I do truly know of what I speak. And it is true. With much love to each and every one of you, Penny,