• Despair: A Shortcut to Bliss?

    by Alexander Becker

    You want to improve your well-tuned productivity? You look for ways to lose the last two pounds of body fat? You want to squeeze even more energy out of your already fine-chiseled, self-designed body? Most of the advice and tips and useful how-to guides are usually targeted at the eager and the curious and at the ones who are willing to improve their own situation and lives.

    Now, what about the people who are lost, often at the lowest end of consciousness. The people who are without hope and far from curious about optimizing their average productivity level from 80% to 85% efficiency?

    We're talking about the very first step to get someone out of absolute misery into conscious misery with a possible exit. What's the first step necessary in order to get you up and running again? What has to happen to make you want to come back?

    Analysis of your self results in what you already know, you are down, at the bottom of your experience. How to proceed from there? Sure, the second and every subsequent step are comparably easy once you get going. Where is the first step? How is it made? Is it even possible to make that first step alone, on your very own?

    What about the possibility of bliss being found even below the level of despair, the level from where you don't want to evolve. What if you refuse to come back because you have found bliss -- beyond all that external misery? What about absolute despair as a shortcut to enlightenment?

    Why would you want to traverse all the painful levels of consciousness when there is a perfect way, you take the opposite direction, you dive deep and deeper, through the dark, only to finally emerge as a new, enlightened being.

    The beauty of this approach is that even the well-tuned, the fine-chiseled, and the self-designed may benefit from such kind of thinking. See what you can find at the very bottom of your spirit, explore it, and make it your personal shortcut to bliss.

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  • Learn to Trust Your Inner Voice

    by Alexander Becker

    How old are you? Aren't you old enough to finally trust yourself?

    You feel like not exercising today? You feel like really overeating? Maybe there is a big project that is labeled important and thus would have to be treated first, with top priorities... but you feel like not touching it today?

    You are old enough. Listen to your instincts and do not always assume that your inner voice is a lazy one. Your inner voice, your instincts are guiding you. Why would you accuse yourself of attempting to cheat? Do you really think you are that bad?

    On the other hand, you may fear your inner voice could tell you to double your efforts -- how would you react to that?

    How many times did you give in to your feelings of not doing something at that particular time and on how many of these occasions did you beat yourself up, drowning in guilt, only to later realize that it was just right to not pursue that project on that day. Funny how the day after came along the last bit of input that I would have ignored if it hadn't been for my day off... and I thought I was lazy...

    The amazing thing about instincts is their effectiveness, they work... instinctively. It's like an additional sense -- but only when carefully observed and trusted.

    Take advantage of your inner voice and test it with minor issues at first. Act according to your instincts, preferably on difficult decisions where your conscious mind would suggest doing the exact opposite. Go with your instincts and evaluate what turned out to be different compared to the conscious-mind-only method. You will notice how your instincts contribute to your sensory input and -- once trusted -- are an important way to achieve clarity and stable decisions where the mind-only way would be still guessing.

    Respect your instincts and learn to trust your inner voice. Why would you assume that your inner voice is wrong? Why assume that your inner voice is bad in the first place?

    It is easy to ignore the inner voice, sometimes it is even easier to keep up the discipline than to break it. You have to constantly evaluate your actions. Do not let your habits run you and prevent you from optimizing your environment and your decisions. Do not stick to a habit because of the guilt that is associated with taking a day off. Stick to your habits because your mind and your instincts tell you to do so.

    Listen to your inner voice. Trust your inner voice. Rely on your inner voice.

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  • Eat as Much as You Want: Experiences with the Warrior Diet

    by Alexander Becker

    One of the advantages of the Warrior Diet is the clear and simple distinction between what is allowed and when: Undereat for 20 hours and indulge in overeating the remaining four hours -- each and every day. It is easy to adhere to the principles and to defeat potential attempts to cheat -- refined sugars, for example just aren't allowed.

    Certain other diets prescribe exact times for exceptions or specific amounts that basically invite you to eat some more or some stuff that would be off, but... seems to be... with some stretching of the rules... and so on.

    After eating according to the rules of the Warrior Diet for more than five weeks now, here are some impressions, in no particular order:

    • Weight: Although I don't follow the Warrior Diet to actually lose weight, it definitely works to get rid of some bodyfat (Hofmekler calls it "stubborn fat" in the book) if you combine the diet with physical training.
    • Undereating: Absolute undereating; only water, coffee, and fruit juices seem to work best for me in terms of alertness, energy, and overall well-being throughout the day.
    • Overeating: I eat as much food as I ate during the first half of the year all in one month and I still lost some weight; in excess of four pounds over the first three weeks. Overeating, and especially the included compensation feels very real and converges with my take on moderation.
    • Coffee: I stopped drinking coffee, the compulsive, repetitive, hourly coffee, half a year ago. Since then, I only drank a cup or so once a week. Now, on the Warrior Diet, I drink coffee again daily, one small cup in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Drinking that black bitter dervish on an empty stomach feels great, in contrast to what you and I expected. It really supports the undereating phase.
    • Food groups: I am still eating vegan, no meat, no dairy -- all warrior... My eating vegan is an ongoing experiment and I am happy with the results so far. As of now, I experience no deprivations or deficiencies. (Note: The Warrior Diet is not about eating vegan.)
    • Diet composition: A week on all veggies and almonds feels great. Extraordinarily great. I ate an average of 200g almonds each day and I even lost weight. (I even felt great after eating more than 400g on one single day -- don't try this on any other diet, you probably don't want to try this at all...)
    • Exercises: An intense workout on an empty stomach, right after work, in the evening just before preparing the big meal feels amazing and leaves me with even more energy than I brought home. I don't even feel hungry after exercising.
    • Cravings: The body seems to crave exactly what is nutritionally necessary. It's always amazing to see the vegetative functions working so well.
    • Instincts: Eating vegan, my instincts aren't too bloody... but I am taking care of the almonds and the fat intake and I believe that all instincts respond and react the way they should.

    Conclusion: I still and highly recommend the Warrior Diet for everyone, for physically active people as well as for the 24/7-in-front-of-the-screen crowd.

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