Thinking About Feelings. Feeling About Thinking.

 Coming soon.

Under construction.

It was December, 2019. Covid-19 and the word, pandemic, were not yet in our lexicon. 

"Northern California wildfires" were, however, a newsworthy phrase that, though we were safe from these tragedies on the east coast, had become an almost daily personal threat.

I had one of my four "honorary" daughters, Taylor, and a boy and a girl godchildren twins out there. Every day. Sometimes moment by moment, ceaseless text messages were filling my inbox.

Taylor was terrified, overwrought -- and -- potentially suicidal. On top of that, her messages were driving me a bit crazy, I felt at times. Certainly they were not only keeping me constantly alert but STRESSED more than I could healthfully manage.

Survival Of The Fittest: What Does That Mean In Modern America?

 COMING SOON!

How Two Schools Of Thought On Emotions Divide Our Congress As Well As Our Most Intimate Relationships

Under construction now.

Ever wondered how a McDonnell or Barr or Marjorie whatever got to be like THAT!!

Or maybe you know others like THAT personally?

If your answer is "YES" to either or both above, what are YOU doing to help change the toxic dynamic?

As this blog (and the other two related) rolls out it's new directions, pre-book publication, circa 2022 (After publication we may again revise.) --- a major intent of all will be to help provide you with viable pathways for "transforming the dark side" yourself and in each and every venue you can hope to influence.

That's your job from here forth, if you are a follower of the blogs I write. If ever the idea of being a socia INFLUENCER, we'll be showing you how, on a one to one level -- over time.

That's what I/we "want" from you. That's what matters for me/us in providing the materials of this blog.

Let's start with the "why" behind what I write hete

The fact that there are two main schools of thought on emotions that might be considered central when trying to understand the divisiveness of our Congress -- might lead some of us to explore some new and improved options for approaching some of our near ceaseless deadlocked situations in that arena and right back into your backyard your living room -- and your bedroom.

Curious? Read on.

For an expanded discussion on how to and what to do we will return later. NH ZOP has plans in the making, our drop in the bucket strategies, now in progress.

Long time coming.

For now our objectives are still in the blueprint stage. Our focus directed to the notion that...

One school of thought holds that our emotions are essential guideposts for daily living. That's the perspective most apt to contribute to genuine problem solving, problem solving taking in human essentials at their most comprehensive.

Much like buying into the need for masking, social distancing and VACCINATIONS to fight off the spread of covid-19.

The other school of thought on emotions postures that emotions are bothersome aspects of humanity that must done away with as quickly as possible. The constituent denying mask mandates of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida are an example of this.

Your concerns that your child might contract the covid-19 virus while attending school simply do not exist.

As many of us recognize, particularly adherents of the first school, all sorts of communication breakdowns and hostility are bred from this dissonance of perspective.

What might this mean? And how might the facts of the matter be reconciled?

In Transactional Analysis (TA) we call the circumstances that  bring this divisiveness about DISCOUNTING, the process of minimizing or ignoring data that is relevant to an individual, a situation or the solving of a problem. 

Gaslighting is one extreme example of this phenomenon called discounting. In this scenario, a conscious, determined effort to dismiss what another person's emotions and judgment hold to be true, is made with the intention of undermining the other's person's confidence and reliance on their own personal perceptions.

Most discounting is unconscious, however. The initiator, typically unaware of the process in motion. We all do this some of the time, even the most conscientious of us, devoted to our complete-as-possible devotion to fact finding.

Conversely, at its most extreme, discounting is the manifestation of psychosis. 

More frequently, discountiing goes on behind the lying and denial we see today, prevalent in our culture, used, most destructivly as justification for violence, along with other deviousness.

"How do people get this way?" Groder puzzled over the prisoners he worked with in his early days at Marion Federal Penetentiery, leading to his establishing the Asklepeion Therapeutic Community there, eventally known to have the lowest recidivism rate in federal corrections, circa late 1960s.

If I were to ask him again, as I did back in the early '80s, "How do our politicians get this way?, he'd probably tell me again, as he did before --

"Convicts and High Leadership People" (HLP) often have the same basic personality structure. However the former, the convicts, play out the dramas of their lives with antisocial rules, grounded in ignoring only the most useful of information, while the former, the HLPs, play by commonly accepted social rules. In this way, they are rewarded by society.

Gains not necessarily made ethically. But so what? Eh?

When we incorporate our GRAD theory into the mix regarding emotions, we open the door to a deeper understanding of this phenomenon and the lethal, mortally wounding effect "discounting" can potentially have, especially as part of a larger pattern. 

In my unpublished manuscripts, my Random House Trilog, I discuss these phenomena at length and how to reverse the negative patterns.

Conversely, how healthful, liberating, empowering, even personally and collectively transforming, are the wide-range of antithetical pathways for humanity available to us, once we know where to seek.

I want to explore this POWERFUL and PROFOUND notion with you on the two schools of emotions. And how utilizing the information we are offering can turn your life to the good, better, best!

My new fantasy/historical fiction book, Camelot Disrupted, Book One, Lost Hope Regained, due out in 2022???, will depict what I/we are suggesting that can help turn up the positive volume for you of your life's satisfaction and your relationships and tone down the negative, even way down!

In time, if you heed: your good sense, the wisdom of your own emotional intelligence and the wisdom, expertise and guidance I, personally, and we, the board members and active retreat center and community members of NH ZOP, have to offer through our programs, projects and extensive, personally-tailored, collection of road maps for the journey.

We'll have you soaring in no time, provided you do your part. And stay healthy!!

More on the way.

But I'll give this one piece in the meantime ---

GRODER WAS A FIRM BELIEVER IN THE NOTION THAT THE PROBLEMS IN OUR CONGRESS COULD -- MOST IMPACT FULLY BE RESOLVED IN THE --- BEDROOM!!

Not on the steps, as some like Marjorie..would have it.

What do you think about that?

“Original Elite” —Mss Study Group Class Part One -- Culminates With Life Saving Success!

Also read:  Anastasia Commenting On Taylor: "I Was Afraid She Was Going To Kill Herself"

We are amazing!

Pandemic syndrome symptoms plaguing you?

2

Feeling agitated, driven by fear and urgency, mental fogginess, lack of motivation, unfinished – not yet even begun -- GRIEF healing -- resentment, isolation- threatened by civic unrest and violence and on and on – in the era of the pandemic and Trump?

Consider this ...

Taylor (not her real name), a long-term NH/ZOP Board and community member, was still, three years after, struggling to manage and heal from one of the Northern California wildfires of 2018 that had consumed her home, leaving only a pile of ashes where the marriage and family life she had once worked so diligently to create, were also part of the rubble. 

Emotional devastation, hopelessness, despair and suicidal ideation were never far from her mind.

In February, 2020, just weeks before covid-19 pandemic lockdowns was mandated, I, unknowing of what lay ahead, set out to guide Taylor through Part 1/10 of my unpublished Random House Trilogy  to help her save her life.

My belief was that if I could teach her to healthfully deal with her intense, survival-driven emotions and acting out behaviors, I thought I could help her turn her life around.

FYI: Thinking clearly about emotions, especially those telated to survival threats, real or imagined, generally feels as life-threatening as emotions can be!

Often they are experienced as terrifying, to be avoided, minimized, denied or repressed. Anything to get away from them.

Learning to " think about these feelings, feel the truth of what you are thinking and manage them effectively was quite the challenge I hoped to help Taylor surmount.

When we began, Taylor could do none of this.

Actually, as a pandemic survivor, you too probably already know about this difficulty yourself, and/or are learnng, more or less effectivly, that living under constant concerns for survival, as people are doing world-wide, can be pretty terrifying for real.

So how do YOU or I manage it?

Especially when the imminent threat is gone but you still feel TERRIFIED, as did Taylor for three, long, harrowimg years.

Almost FROZEN with fear, confusion and anguish!

Now, the NH ZOP Board Members who made up this "Original, Elite Mss Study Group" with Taylor are celebrating and, alongside her, developing skill in this area. 

Mastery will still take time. 

Imagine how incredibly life changing this has been for all of us!

Especially these past eighteen months!

That's also the story about how we came to title one of our next important initiatives, The Mindful Cult Of GRAD.

It was those feelings: fear, terror, loss, abandonment and rage for starters -- that seemed most apt to derail Tayloe.

And, of course, that same bundle of hard to manage, pandemic-evoked emotions challenges most of us.

Now -- get this -Taylor ASSURES ME - eighteen months after her having completed what I intended to be only a  five or six week class/study group that continued for all the eighteen months of the pandemic -- We Won!!

Begun just !! two weeks prior to our initial covid-19 pandemic lockdown March 16 -- the combination of this class and our twice weekly Pandemic Survivors Support Group, NOT ONLY SAVED Taylor's Life-- as I set out to do, but additionally, with her diligence, courage and trust in me, built on our 31 year!! relationship -- I was able to succesfully guide her to put her life on a path of ascending to BE and DO her best possible.

And, to even learn to enjoy life again.

WOW!! 

All that during the pandemic as we, along with everyone else is and was fighting to come through severe adversity.

So, as of last Friday -- 

I am pleased and proud to announce I graduated Compassionate Warrior Woman In Training, My Taylor!!

Look for details on how you, too, can now qualify for participation in the NH/ZOP Mss Study Group Class, Part II, beginning this week, Friday, September 3, 10 a.m. to noon.

For additional information on our Mss Study Groups/Classes and other projects, contact us at: MountainWomanRJ@aol.com.

More to come.

If A Mindful Cult (Of GRAD) Can Exist, We Are It!

Answer, Short Form: 
With a lot of help from our friends.

Coming Soon!

But Where Are The Men?

And, if we be "IT," we want you to know all about us and how you, too, can find your way out of the "dark." 

Be it the Mindless Cult of --Trump OOPS!!! -- my bad -- I meant the Cult of the Dark Side, the darkness of the pandemic, or the darkness within yourself, we've got a method for moving beyond.

Check us out. Here's a place to start --

 "How Did We Get Here, Part I?" 

More to come.

Can The Word "Cult" Be Used Other Than Referencing "Dark" Doings

Update in progress (9.27.21)

My answer is YES! 

My NH ZOP Board Members, on the other hand, aren't quite so sure. Their same reservation goes for my use of the word "counterculture."

"Expect pushback, says Taylor, if you are going to be using those words in hopes the general public will grasp the uniqueness and awesomeness of what we have been doing for decades and are doing now."

Wikipedia suggests scholars consider both these words, cult and counterculture, various usages to be controversial. I am aware of the potential -- and -- remain undaunted.  I am choose to use these words to provocatively make our anti-dark side project a bit noisier than its been for awhile -- and -- noticeable!

To Taylor I respond -- "Simply asked, Taylor, do you think I would be going to all the trouble I am presently, if I didn't want to be noticed! 

That's my "new gig," so to speak, I tell her, redirecting "My authentic self is invisible to the naked eye -- and I'm going to keep it that way!!!" script and survival script -- as per GRAD theory -- I've been living onto a new path.

Script-free! And, believe me I've earned this accolade!

So there you have it!

My board members and I discuss the issues at hand here. We will want to explore the subject further, more in-depth and offer our various rationales for using these words or not. 

Herein lies the potential for an enlightening conversation and we dig in to it energetically, assured that each one's view will be respected. If cult-like can be used to describe the passion of our discussion, we are certainly displaying its positive attributes.

Here's another angle in favor of my use of the word.

A cult can refer to a group of followers or supporters who are highly dedicated -- we are that!! -- to a piece of artwork.

Yes! What we are doing through our Mindful Cult of GRAD is a work of art!

I think this is what I hold as a vision for our community-based, beautifully crafted approach to how to fix what presently ails our country and the folks that comprise it by creating and working to sustain small "zones of peace" through our various projects and programs. 

One further comment. Then I rest my case:

Most commonly, according to wikipedia, a cult is a social group typically defined by its unusual .. philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular ...goal. 

Well, we certainly are that a group defined by a most unusual perspective:

Trust in one another and in our group to each have the "courage" to keep talking truth to power, truth to one another.

The words which we find most commonality are --

Affliliation, movement and group

Amy Ryan (2000) has argued for the need to differentiate those groups that may be dangerous from groups that are more benign.^[15] Ryan notes the sharp differences between definitions offered by cult opponents, who tend to focus on negative characteristics, and those offered by sociologists, who aim to create definitions that are value-free. The movements themselves may have different definitions of religion as well.^[16

End of subject.

We are to be: The Mindful Cult of GRAD and proud to be!

But What Is The Cult Of GRAD?

Also see: Work (Mostly)  From Home -- With Anastasia

And how can it help YOU stand up to the Dark Side?

You will want to know -- and - we will want to "tell" you more of the awe of our adventure, as I've (Anastasia) lived it, along with many of my students and supporters. My new book in progress, Camelot Disrupted: Book One, Lost Hope Regained, due out Fall, 2022, will take you on a fantasy adventure of what it means and is like to devise a life path based on the principles of GRAD.

But alas, our adventure cannot be known by the mere "telling -- and -- even in fantasy, the story can not be told in full of the living it, until the book is ready. Still the real deal is known through the DOING, the experience, the living it, the BEING it.

This is our challenge here -- how to translate, for your understanding, transforming experiences on the level of the body, the mind and the spirit.

We are contemplating the subject of it now.

That's why I'm writing this, worrying some about the doing of the description, Mindful Cult of GRAD.

3:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

11:30 a.m. Sunday morning

I am standing back, looking at the complexity of the topic here and considering options about how best, now, to use this blog site to meet unfolding objectives. 

Maybe one or both of my/our Blog Talk Radio shows?  

In online discussions you can join?

With myself and what NH ZOP has now defined as our permanent Council Of Elders? 

(Meaning those of us on our Board of Directors who made it through the pandemic year past (one, Lisa Boyer, now deceased from ovarian cancer)?

In an almost miraculous fete of collective resilience, support, love and transformation, given the circumstances of each one of us and the pandemic, as our backdrop. we are here now to pass on the gifts.  

The principles of our GRAD theory practiced in the exceptional community approach that has gotten our small group of NH/ZOP dedicated members through our pandemic ordeal are a remarkable example of people working together, body, mind and spirit, to survive as winners through our pandemic ordeal.

We wish we could make it easy to follow us. We will definitely keep trying because we know that what we discovered through the pandemic, in the amazing way we have been able to manage it is something you are likely to want too, for your own.

You just keep reading. We;ll keep writing and soon speaking out more. After awhile we'll find our ways to one another, if we're going the same direction -- with a dedication to truth telling and truth listening at our basr.

More to come.

Replacing The Mindless Cult Of The Dark Side

With the Mindful Cult Of GRAD 

Under Construction

Welcome To The World Of GRAD 

An adventure in learning how to live by the principles of our Truth or Dare GAME and our exceptional community approach to "longevity and well-being", especially in times of "survival" stakes, if they fit for you.

 The members of the NH/ZOP Board of Directors developed a unique synergy, applying these principles and practices, up against the pandemic.

Our net gain: Emotional, spiritual and relationship health, gratitude and much more.

Find out the more!

Coming soon -- a menu of opportunities for traveling with us.

YOUR entry point:  

1. Take and score our "Where Is Your Compassionate Warrior Hiding? inventory;

2. If your score on this imventory is "59" or less, you may qualify to be vetted for one of our currently very limited Pandemic Survivors Support Group spaces, attend our Mss Study Group or play in our Truth or Dare GAME.

3. Contact a NH ZOP Board Members to arrange for your qualifying opportunity @ MountainWomanRJ@aol.com

All potential, new participants in our programs and events are heavily vetted for likemindedness, particularly regarding each having a strong investment in truth, reconciliation and healing, i.e. personal transformation through conflict resolution, one of our key requirements.

YOUR Next Step:

A personal one on one conversation with Anastasia, tailored especially for your objectives, wants and needs.

Under construction

Look for details on how you can obtain 
our "travelers' guidebook" (original version} pictured above