Hi Everyone,
In this fireside chat podcast I reviewed what I’ve been up to this week and what I am working on. The one thing I posted earlier this week was the transcript of the “conversation” I had with GPT-4 about world domination, and I discuss my thoughts about that whole thing. But also I talk about the upcoming conference that Tracey and I will be doing at Contact in the Desert in which we are both giving multiple presentations. I’ll just say that I love where Tracey is going in her lecture, and I’ve been privileged that she’s shared her thoughts with me about it. For my part, I am preparing three presentations for the event and here I discuss one of them–which is a theme I’ve discussed here before—what is missing in our public discussion of UFO/UAP?
Although I don’t give a full description of that theme in this chat, I do discuss it to some extent. You’ll also hear me talk about some of the less savory aspects of UFO conference culture and the presence of “grifters,” which never seems to end. I do wonder where the serious UFO researchers are who also are intent on asking (what I consider to be) the right questions, as opposed to the relative banalities around AARO, Congress, “disclosure,” and so on. It’s not that these things aren’t important, because they are. But there is SO much more to the study of the phenomenon of UFOs that is almost never broached, and I do feel it is important to keep reminding the world that there is more to discuss.
Eventually, I get to the title of this talk, which is about maintaining a positive outlook on life even if you are black-pilled to an extreme, which frequently is pretty much where I am at most days. I was recently told by a very good local friend that he considered me to be an extremely positive person, which initially made me laugh out loud. I don’t often think of myself that way. But on reflection, I do agree that he made a point (for the record, I mentioned this to Tracey and she agrees). Despite my frequently negative view of the state of the world and how I often feel we as a species are “a problem without a solution,” I do normally manage to maintain a positive outlook. It got me to thinking why that is, or what exactly it is that I do in my life that helps keep me positive.
So I wrote down what I think are some of the main things I do that helps. Here is my initial short list.
- Gratitude. To me, this is the most important thing. I know it sounds trite, but it is absolutely true in my world that I am frequently grateful for all the wonderful things I am able to experience. In the talk I get into this quite a bit.
- Knowing what I can control and what I CANNOT control. This is another key aspect of life that I have learned over time. in my mind, there is very little point in wasting my mental resources on things that I have no control over. There are things in this world beyond my control that I seek to understand, and hence I will study them. But there is a difference between doing that and WORRYING about them. Once my thoughts on something devolve into worry or anxiety, I try to check myself and ask, “what is all that worrying going to accomplish?”
- Connecting with others. We are social creatures after all and we need people around us who are positive and supportive. I’ve been lucky in that I was raised in a relatively socially outgoing and healthy environment. In that sense, it’s easy for me to enjoy being around other people most of the time. But for anyone, I would say it’s important to have your “team” around you — those people who understand you, support you, love you, and care about you. That team is usually pretty small, but hopefully you can cultivate one.
- Self-care. That means eating well, or as well as you can. Getting outside and being in the sunshine, or the rain for that matter. Doing things you love to do. Getting off the hamster wheel of life every now and then. Boy does that help a lot.
- Focusing on solutions. this is kind of similar to #2, but it’s basically when we are thinking of the world’s difficult problems, it is a good idea to at least try to think of how might the problems around us — whether big global problems or personal problems in our private world — might not just be identified but MITIGATED or even FIXED. Sure, not all problems are easily fixed, but most can probably be dealt with in one way or another.
- Managing expectations. This sounds trite, but I realize that for me in particular it’s very important. As you probably know, I am no utopian. I don’t invest emotional energy in ideas about perfecting our world. I’m just not on that train any more. In earlier years, sure, I was more like that. But time changes us. I consider myself a definite realist about most things. I don’t expect perfection AT ALL. And in fact I find that this is a liberating position. I can still work on improving things in my life but I know that imperfections will always be around. Life is messy and I am sure always will be. And that’s okay!
Okay, those are my words of wisdom, come down from high up on the mountain! 🙂
I do hope you are having a wonderful day filled with the things you love and the people you love even more.
Richard