The oxford dictionary defines the word Temperament as “a person’s or animal’s nature, especially as it permanently affects their behavior.” Basically it’s your primary disposition, the mood you reside in mostly and the baseline for your emotions, and interactions with all stimuli (including people, places, things and really just the world at large).

Those with a well-balanced temperament are usually recognized by others. In our “microwave”, have things quick and in an instant society, people with patience and a cool head despite heated situations raise their personal stock price significantly, but how do they do it?

I mean seriously, triggers that upset one’s temperament are all around. From the slow grandmother in the grocery taking forever at the self-checkout or to the jackass who cuts you off in traffic, only to drive 5 mph slower than the posted speed limit. How does one really keep a even or well-balanced temperament in such a triggering and more often than not, temperamental world?

Lets look at how Merriam Webster defines the word.

“Temperament (noun)- : characteristic or habitual inclination or mode of emotional response.”

I’ll break it down even further than this one sentence provides because I think it says a few deeper things about what temperament really means.

First, its characteristic which denotes a distinguishing trait, quality or property. Second, its habitual, which denotes that its a habit to display this trait, whether conscious or unconscious. Third, its a person’s “inclination” or natural tendency to act or feel a certain way, i.e disposition. Forth and final, its a “mode of emotional response” or a method/plan of emotionally responding to things.

Lets summarize this definition once again, a temperament is a distinguished and habitual tendency of acting and feeling a certain way. Furthermore , it’s a method or plan of emotionally responding to things to bring thoughts and feelings in alignment with this disposition and baseline way of being.

Most of us can admit, albeit difficult, the first part of that definition seems achievable and its the second part where we get hung up on.How does one keep a well-balanced emotional response to things? Things that are frustrating? Things that are sad and things that just seem to show up right in front of your face or at your front door?

Well, last article we spoke briefly about discipline and what that means to the mind. We established that in order to have discipline , one would need to have the dominating or final guiding influence over his or her own mind.

Discipline is how one controls the mind, and the mind is how one controls temperament.

This is where we will need to utilize all that we have learned previously before in our Distraction series. You will need to utilize both masculine and feminine energy in balance to center your Chi and reenter the position of observer if you have become disturbed.

Meditation is critical in order to have a well balanced temperament. Counting your breaths or the seconds thereof puts one into a deep rhythm that if sustained and prolonged extends further out into the day full of events.

Triggers are things that throw a kink into that smooth rhythm. When those happen, how do we work our way back to center? I say work paradoxically in reference to our work and play article so don’t take it literal because as stated before, often time, trying to “work” or think your way into position of observer usually doesn’t work.

However, there is a one tool that utilizes work and play in balance in order to get back to an even temperament, that tool is simple, its called humor. Humor pierces even the darkest of souls, the angriest of angry and the saddest of sad. I’m one to admit though , its hard to find humor in situations that are annoying, or cause us to be angry or feel despair.

There’s a secret tool for this battle that I’ve been making you wait for, it’s the tool called irony. Let’s discuss irony for just a bit before we summarize how one can have an well-balanced temperament even when triggered by either normal or extraordinary life circumstances.

The Brittannica defines irony as “ [a] linguistic and literary device [or tool], in spoken or written form, in which real meaning is concealed or contradicted.”

Now, Let me quickly show you how we are always speaking and using communication to our selves at all times.

Whenever a event or situation occurs, we process it real time without being 100% conscious of the processes that are happening. If we’re at the grocery store like we spoke about earlier and we’re in the self checkout line behind a grandmother that doesn’t understand the machine or just generally moves slow, here’s what we normally think internally.

“I’m going to get in this line, line number 7, its only one person there, she seems older but it should be fine. Wow, I see why nobody is in this line, she’s taking forever. How many items does she have? Has she ever used self checkout before? Why did she come to a self checkout line? Can somebody help her? I wish I could hurry up and get out of here”

You see, I just wrote out our internal verbal speaking to ourselves to prove that we can, in fact, assume control over our mind through discipline and balance to insert statements of irony. The biggest irony is that our questions contain. real and significant meaning that is already concealed subconsciously. In a moment like the grocery store, simply looking for the irony will expose it quickly. I don’t want to fill in the irony for you because keeping humor subjective is extremely important but I will tell you one thing I personally find ironic about that situation.

Well, I may be revealing my age a bit here but I remember a time where there wasn’t a such thing called a self check out. A time where we all had to count on other people and their speed to get the hell out of the grocery store. We waited patiently in line, maybe not always but we recognized we had no choice. Furthermore, in today’s time we all recognize that our elders and seniors typically take longer to get familiar with new technology or even want to try them.

To this day, I have never seen my grandmother use just one computer or cell phone.

How dope is it, that this older woman is taking the chance and using this computer to ring up her groceries? See how easy it is to find irony? Next, add humor.

Impatience usually is humorous if you search long enough.

Friends, to keep a well-balanced temperament you will need to start your day off with some form of meditation or mindfulness to get in rhythm. Then you will need to be in a relaxed position of knowing when to work and play. You will need discipline to maintain the guiding and final influence over your mind. Again, you will not be absent from other influences and show allow other influences to come in from time to time utilizing your feminine energy of fluidity.

You just need to have the FINAL say over what your mind thinks and how you feel. Not even your own human instincts , whether good or bad should stop this.

Lastly, you will need to find irony in those situations that trigger you out of your rhythm. Trust when I say this, the quicker, the better. If you can’t find irony, fall back on your patience and use discipline to get back to center.

If you’re still impatient, you yourself are living out the very humorous irony you are looking for.

Til next time Friends.

A couple articles ago we spoke about a crafty weapon that was constantly being used in an attention span war against us called distraction.

I hope you’ve had some time to internalize, meditate and realize just a few things. First, the WAR I spoke about isn’t completely abstract or conceptual but a literal war in which most people aren’t aware they are participating in. Second, I hope that after reading my article, the principle of the war on attention span became more relevant and noticeable to you.

Documentaries such as the Social Dilemma & The Great Hack playing on Netflix expose social media companies for what they truly are, capitalist organizations. Not simply “non-profit” organizations seeking to connect people with others around the world.

Though that may be a biproduct of their systems and platforms working as intended, these companies utilize what is called a “attention economy”. Simply put, the longer they control your attention and keep it glued to the screen or constantly checking your notifications, the higher the value of their company is to investors and their biggest customers, (oh no not us friends), their advertisers.

How many times have you spoken about a friend or some product and by some “mystical” or coincidental force, you see an advertisement for that very some product or that friend decides to message you or comment on your content via a social media platform?

This, my friend, isn’t by accident.

The war on attention spans starts as soon as you open your eyes each morning. If you’re like me, then right after you wake, you roll over and check your phone. The difference with me, at least now and is that I have a “philosophy of usage” with each of the technologies and platforms that I use. One of them is not checking them immediately when I wake up.

Here’s why, the body and the brain are a complicated system of components, firing chemicals and synapses constantly.

The body and the brain are malleable systems, simply put, what you feed it, forms it.

If I introduce social media gratification every morning, then the “feel -good” chemicals I need like dopamine start to come solely from social media. Over time my brain recognizes that in order to feel good in the morning or to get started, I need that dopamine hit.

For me, historically, morning have been extremely stressful times. Coming from a lower-middle class family, I’ve been a working man since the age of 16. The morning represents getting up and getting on the move immediately. Coming from the streets, the morning represents recollection and preparation, analyzing what moves I made the previous day, the possible outcomes, prioritizing results and future movements for the day.

In the hood the morning is highly stressful, whether circumstantial or because of a living situation or just the stress and pressure created in the brain.

Like many others, I recognized this imbalance and began to diagnose and treat myself to become better. We had to completely change the brains chemistry by jarring it back into happiness, alertness, and comfortability. To do this, we used external things, one of them is cannabis.

Full spectrum cannabis contains the psychoactive cannabinoid known as Delta-9 THC in high amounts. The effect of Delta-9 THC cannabis in comparison to its sister cannabinoids is considered by some to be drastic. After a user ingest cannabis in whichever form consumed, it immediately interacts with our built-in human endocannabinoid system and starts to take over regulatory functions.

Now, if your asking why I decided to bring in just a bit of science about weed, it’s because I’m trying to expose a truth.

We have become dependent on it for managing too many functions.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a cannabis activist, medical user, and have taken my own stripes when I was arrested in a legal state during this “war on drugs”.

However, I recognized that many where I’m from lack discipline with this plant and instead of helping them and being a great tool, it becomes an ally for distraction and stunts productivity, even those smoking the sativa strains which are known to uplift and give the user energy.

There is a significant battle at hand, one that our parents, teachers, mentors and even police officers were trying to prepare us for, the war of discipline. Without discipline, we will continually lack balance. Even with awareness of problems during certain times, we will be unable to correct issues and unbeknownst to us we will slide more into energetic imbalance like we spoke about last article.

Consider these Merriam Webster definitions of discipline.

Discipline (noun)

“control gained by enforcing obedience or order”

or how about this one

“training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character”

Both definitions seem to be consistent with what we know to be called Discipline, but the one below is where I would like to call your attention, the one calling for personal responsibility.

Discipline is “a rule or system of rules governing conduct or activity”.

Let’s break this down just a bit further, to govern something, as one Merriam Webster defines it, is “to exert a determining or guiding influence in or over”.

I like that a lot, it doesn’t say you will be absent from other influences in whatever form presented but that if you are “governing” your mind to enforce “discipline”, you will need “exert” a determining or final guiding influence over it.

Exert denotes actual effort, it denotes putting forth real strength.

See the truth there? You will need to become STRONGER than other influences in the effort required to guide your mind and make sovereign determinations.

How does one do this?

First, if you are not meditating, start today, with at least 5 minutes. Part of the problem with us today is that we are unaware to many of the influences around because we think we recognize them all. The ones we are aware of, we have a theoretical idea on how their influence works but I’m here to present the case, it’s even more insidious than what we thought.

Social media companies use our primitive wiring against us, poking and prodding at our masculine & feminine energy, driving us for more screen time. Once you start meditating, exerting control over your mind to be focused on nothing but your breath, you can see what ideas, activities, or INFLUENCES pop up to try to take control.

Are you worried about dinner later? Google might take that issue away. Are you worried that you aren’t making enough money in your chosen career yet? Instagram might show you how much better or worse than others you are doing. Are you worried that your creativity or some effort is being underappreciated? Type a post on Facebook and the likes and reactions will temporarily ensure you that you still have the spark. You stressed still? Cannabis can make you still enough to meditate right?

See what I mean?

You see, these platforms and substances aren’t the true problem, its self-control and the only thing capable of giving you that skill, is learning to be the Number ONE influence over your mind.

You will need to tap into your masculine energy and force your mind to be disciplined over time through exercise and training. When you lift weights, you start with 15 pounds and move up to 30 when you’re ready. Similarly, you can start with 5 minutes and move up to 10 minutes of mindfulness or meditation when you’re ready.

You will need to tap into your feminine energy to allow your mind to embrace the moment. The irony is trying to exert strength over your mind by thinking even harder about focusing and “not thinking” doesn’t usually work. It’s a graceful, patient, relaxed feminine position of reception that allows you to enter the position of the “observer”.

In the position of Observer, one can see distractions a lot clearer.

Our chi is of 3 natures in wholeness, masculine, feminine and the position of observer or Source Energy.

If you are trying to rid distractions you must find balance and you will need discipline. Tomorrow morning or even tonight, meditate and tell me what you see.

Peace until next time good friends.

The balance of work and play is critical to being successful ,especially in regards to our own individual happiness and positive mental attitude. The most successful people in history have constantly admonished anyone looking to elevate their position in life to first change his or her mindset from that of a poverty disposition. This make sense conceptually but seems abstract to those who’s bank account amount have not yet matched their enthusiasm or efforts. There’s a delicate balance to work and to play, just like there’s a delicate balance to our Chi of both natures.

If we work too hard and become a workaholic, sooner or later, as history has continually shown us, personal burnout is inevitable. If we play too hard, become unfocused, aloof and float through days, our business or income may suffer , we may gain unwanted addictions, and our imbalance of feminine and masculine energy will become evident to all but ourselves.

You see, playing too hard turns beautiful pleasures of enjoyment into sinful vices of our own destruction and our own conviction, absent from religion. Even worse, sometimes we aid in destroying others around us through our attractive influence.

Instead of planting seeds that based on universal and natural law will bear the fruit of more life, we plant weeds…we plant distractions which more often than not, take more life than they give to us.

Most of us know how to work but as we grow up to become more serious adults we lose the ability to play, at least as the Oxford dictionary defines it.

Play(verb) — 1.

engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

“the children were playing outside”

To play is to participate in whatever activity you choose ,purely for the enjoyment thereof. It needs not to make “logical” or “rational” sense and sometimes the more trivial the better.

Even still, while playing we must resist the urge to turn playful activities into work by insisting upon structure. Let’s be clear, this is a deceptive struggle.

We must move in the fullness of our Chi, working when we work and playing when we play.

Be careful, Distractions still exist but during playing…fullness is key.

A goal oriented person sets a schedule in advance recognizing the WAR waged on our attention spans. He must constantly learn to prioritize smaller battles by not letting the most insidious weapon of influence known as distraction prosper. This, is divine masculine providence.

The struggle is usually in embracing divine feminine energy and learning when to be flexible & fluid with the moments of life, including mundane routine, unexpected events & surprises.

If you can balance your Chi , to experience both natures, and learn to be aware when a moment necessitates prioritizing one over the other, you undoubtedly will be successful in all your endeavors.

Balance is key.