Because learning about your brain and sleep can be fun . . .
The Bedtime Stories We Tell Ourselves and Others: Part 4 of 4 Lots of people are hungry, hungry to get better. Some are more than hungry; they’re starving. In the United States, the personal development/ self-improvement industry was worth almost $10 billion in 2019. That number represents serious spending. It’s a competitive world out there.…
The Bedtime Stories We Tell Ourselves and Others: Part 3 of 4 Hearing about conflict has a way of making an impression on you. It heightens your senses, makes you sit up and pay attention, gets you thinking about who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s just the kind of thing you want to avoid before…
The Bedtime Stories We Tell Ourselves and Others: Part 2 of 4 Kids are always going through phases. When I was around seven or eight back in the 70s, I went through a phase that lasted for weeks. I wanted to listen to fairy tales at bedtime. That particular phase was before superheroes and after…
The Bedtime Stories We Tell Ourselves and Others: Part 1 of 4 If you asked me ten years ago, hypothetically, “What is a bedtime story?” (and I had a bit of time to think of an answer) I’d reply with something like, “A story is a tale of what happened. It could be either true…
God grant me the serenity… Why it’s a great idea to memorize at least the first verse of the Serenity Prayer. Internalize it upon your heart and mind. It happens to every man and woman too. Sometimes you feel powerless. You feel like you’re a member of the security detail on Star Trek, the crewmembers…
You’d be better off if you had Thanksgiving every day. Not the eating part. If you had a Thanksgiving feast every day you might end up extremely overweight. That wouldn’t be good for your health. I’m referring to the giving thanks part of Thanksgiving, the part where people having the dinner together sometimes go around…
Creating your own affirmations is an effective way to help you achieve your goals if you employ the principles. Taking medicine first thing in the morning is common. It’s easy to remember. It can be done after using the commode, washing hands, and brushing your teeth. You can wait until after breakfast, too. Morning affirmations…
Sleep deprivation can be deadly when the going gets tough. Some people lead a staid, predictable life. Lucky them. They can count on being at home almost all the time.  They’ve got a consistent routine. They’re the furthest they can be from sleep deprivation. Nothing bad ever seems to happen to them. They live…
If you’ve got thousands of dollars to spend on a mattress, save time. Skip this post. Go to one of the mattress stores and have at buying one. You’re a lucky person. This article isn’t for you. If you’ve got a more modest budget, you certainly don’t want to buy any big-ticket item before you…
In a previous post, I compared several weeks of my dream journal to Blue Opossum’s. He responded to the April 12 blog post by e-mail. Blue Opossum is a metacognitive dreamer. He’s aware of a whole lot of his dreams, far more than most people. There are misconceptions in your post, but that is to…
Understanding yourself better using your dream journal (Part 7/7) When you compare your dream journal to someone else’s, you’re probably coming as close as you can to seeing the inner mind of someone very different from you, no matter who they are. They have a different personality, different experiences, and different roles and reasons for…
Understanding yourself better using your dream journal (Part 6/7) Blue Opossum (a pseudonym) is a K-12 educator from Australia. He has an incredibly detailed recall of his dreams and a heightened awareness of the different stages of sleep. He’s got a real gift. Born in 1960, his dream journal, for practical purposes, starts in 1963…
The how and why of understanding yourself better using your dream journal (Part 5/7) Don’t compare yourself to others. Be yourself. Compare yourself to yourself. These ideas find their way into all kinds of creative expressions. There’s a big reason it’s on so many minds. Creators are creative people. Each has a spark or many…