the lotto club

On my birthday last week, in a somewhat tipsy state, two of my favorites and I sauntered into a Mac's convenience store, each chose some numbers, and bought a lotto ticket.

We didn't win that time, but from there the lotto club was born. I like this idea. A lot.

I feel that I'm doing a lot of stuff to propel my life forward- reinventing myself in micro baby steps. This is what I tell myself I'm doing anyway.

I'm working many angles - improving in my role at my current j.o.b., bettering my appearance, regularly taking courses that propel my business mind & spiritual sense forward, etc. And now the lotto club. Playing chance with intention, regularly.

This rounds out my efforts. It almost feels like an act of surrender. I will playing this game with enthusiasm, visualization, purpose and detachment to the results.

Really, it's just great practice for a way of being...and the end results have lucrative potential.

a self-actualizing mind dump

I'm feeling oh-so-reflective these days...and so i just need to dump my minds inventory online for public record. or my record. whatever. I read an article in synchronicity magazine over a year ago and it's still swirling in my head. Enter mind dump.

If I stopped what I was doing right now and took an inventory of myself, I'd recognize that I have the capacity, talent, direction, mission & calling within myself to work towards my goals & dharma - as do the rest of us. it's less about acquiring that special skill and more about 'actualizing' what we already have. We are the best; we are already enough!

American psychologist Abraham Maslow presented a theory of psychological health through studying people whom he called "self-actualizing", or in layman's terms: healthy & creative.

A self-actualizing person

• is reality oriented
• is accepting of oneself & others
• is spontaneous
• is problem-centered, rather than self-centered
• is detached & needing privacy
• is independent
• has fresh, rather than stereotyped appreciation of people
• has had a mystical or spiritual experience
• identifies with the human race as a whole
• has a few deep, intimate relationships
• has a philosophical rather than bitter sense of humor
  
• has creative resources
• is resistant to conformity
• is transcendent to one's environment.

Carl Rogers, another an influential American psychologist, agreed with most of what Maslow believed, but added that for a person to "grow", they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood).

I guess you can have great seeds & fertile soil - but without sunlight & water nothings going to grow.

In other words though, to self-actualize is to fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of 'human-beingness' we can. And what better way to live than to enjoy being a human to to the max - creating the ultimate human experience for ourselves. fuck yeah. being human rocks!

It's like before enlightenment & ascension comes self-actualization.

thoughts?