Alan Watts on breathing

I like to listen to Alan Watts. Once, I heard him say something to the effect that the best possible practice he would recommend is for people to spend a year on their breathing. That didn't make much sense to me initially, but I now recognize that this a powerful means of retraining an overactive amygdala.

Fridays

Friday is vrijdag (without the capital) in Dutch. Free day. And so I once thought that on Fridays you didn't have to work.

I've decided to institute that policy. On Friday's I'll do exactly what I like. That's how I used to live life as a child, and I remember those days fondly.

At first I was about to devote this first day to refining and/or progressing my philosophy. But I approached it as a chore, and so the intention didn't sit right with me. 

It takes a bit of work and effort to live spontaneously, it seems. More practice required . . . every Friday.

2nd half of August, 2018

It all boils down to my having an over-active amygdala, I've decided. And so the only thing for me to do is to retrain it. That's all I need to do to solve my world's problems!

How nice to oversimplify things. Makes life a breeze, that does.

I have a briefcase devoted to self-organization. It is crammed with papers loosely sorted into sections. Every time I look at it my hands start to sweat.

I need to simplify what I do (hence my propensity to over-simplify). What say I leave my briefcase closed? What say I gradually build up a manageable, doable, routine that leaves me sane?