Let's start by acknowledging our world can be so fast paced you literally can let so much data flow to your feeds or devices, etc through your own curiosity and selectivity .. that you can easily rationalize it and drive yourself mad, entirely by accident.

Now lets be honest and take a look at ourselves and begin to allow ourselves to wonder how this kind of thing may have a role in our lives, or if it does- it's time to think about it again, but in a new way because the last time didn't work.

or maybe you just didn't have the correct variables and perspective framing laid out in your head yet.

Often, and I know this may feel ridiculous, but many people miss out in a big big way on processing or experiencing a situational resolution or are stalled in their overall personal growth- because they are ashamed of validating themselves, and of hearing themselves validate their inner voice, out loud. This is ** extremely ** common in our world.

So common odds are greater than 50% that you have this affect you to a degree, and odds are it's such a deep wound that you won't even be able to tell it is there, or you will immediately say no it's not. These are your hints that you have work to do, when you're feeling fearless.

Or if you're up against the wall continually day in and day out, you can't wait any longer, you just need to start ** validating your inner voice and growing that sense of inner security and sensibility ** because you have waited too long, and risk bad things if you continue to live each day in emotional denial.

To make matters more complicated, many mental illnesses can be eliminated entirely by lifestyle changes to sleep, diet, mindfulness practices, and therapy.

Sounds like common sense to me, but if you're experiencing the thick of something, it sounds like someone hates you and wants to make you suffer or is trying to make you die.

The associated fear from having a problem like this is real to the person, and this is why they seem so strange to you. They're suffering in a world created by their own mind and experiences, that have yet to be resolved.

That's it! They're not mentally ill. They're just ** suffering . ** and quite a bit. Also, a great many mental illnesses would be partially resolved by adding in vitamins and good food and doing nothing else besides quitting alcohol.

Alcohol, and we will talk about this at some point elsewhere in a more detailed article but make it easy to understand about what happens from the moment you sip, to the time the alcohol is cleared, but later, and just know for now- that alcohol is ** literally ** the metabolic waste product created during the energy production cycle of the bacteria we know as “yeast.”

Did you ever wonder what the fuck it actually is ? Does it matter? yes. Not right now though.. But yeast produces alcohol after it finishes its life-cycle and makes more yeast. It does so via the conversion of sugars.

But the point here, is alcohol is the byproduct. Keyword here is the prefix “by” in Latin that means “created in the way of or next to something else, as a result of that other process, but not intentionally sought out or necessarily even desirable.”

So, we've as a society been chugging a thing that's made when another thing is made. Well yeah eventually we just went after that thing, but What does alcohol do to the human body?

It kind of... suspends all normal operation, and then acts like draino for all the vitamins and minerals and nutrients in your bloodstream, brain tissue, and your fatty tissues that your body stores nutrition and power, stamina and the rainy day supply of vital life force in...

Well, alcohol acts like liquid plumbr or draino on all that.

So I have to say I have been Sober 100% from alcohol without even a desire (minus one time for five minutes in the first month while walking past a store and having just had an argument)

But I walked by and convinced myself “NO” and “I LOVE YOU” and “YOU'VE COME SO FAR” and I just kept adding days.. Now its been over 2 years and its beyond second nature, there is no thinking about it, and no trigger even discussing or recommending drinks to people who still do it, if the topic comes up in a social setting.

So having been sober since June 31st, 2018, I can tell you it was holding me back in ways I cannot even get into here right now, because I want to write about it elsewhere more thoroughly, and I can try to remember to add that here, but I will likely share that in this blog, so just wait around for it-

But if you have PTSD or something going on, just fucking be honest with yourself and if you can try to stop drinking (its really hard to be honest here and this is one reason the addiction continues) it blunts registration of the actual stuff you'd need to understand to see yourself..

So this is your invitation instead, hey if you drink and you have anxiety or trouble sleeping, try stopping drinking for 2 weeks. or 10 days. or 7. Pick a number you like, and don't plan to drink after, just plan to drink if you really feel like its going to kill you if you don't, give yourself the option to drink but expect not to drink and experience “something new” instead.

If your willpower is strong enough you will have a new experience emotionally the next time you get stressed and successfully avoid drinking. Congratulate yourself by saying I love you, you did the right thing for yourself.

You're going to be here a lot longer now, and you're going to be a much more effective useful better person because of this.

I hate to say it so bluntly only because of the negativity it brings on, but alcohol is a biological poison to the human body.. There is literally no way around it.

But , this article was about reducing stress, and likely if you drink, at this point me telling you so many reasons not to drink has probably got you reaching for a drink if you didn't pour one to read this article. (and depending on the time of day.)

Point is trust me you are better off.

But don't get mad, try it ! If I'm wrong, then you can get mad, that will be fun logically argument wise because I know I'm right, and I can be gentle with you until you see it. LOL (also, this does not apply to very many situations in life.)

So don't think I get off on forcing my perspective on people ... I don't .
> Life is not one size fits all, what works for me may send you into an absolute disaster spiral. Also keep that in mind.

But about those damned notifications, just get rid of them.

And don't forget to try talking to yourself for personal growth !

About that.. Much personal growth because they are told “they're crazy if they talk to themselves.” sometimes the only way to hear something clearly enough in a therapeutic or self-referential context is literally ** to say it out loud. **

Give yourself permission to say things out loud, it's not crazy – it's expressive. And if it's important enough to say out loud, when you are ** all ** by yourself, it must be pretty fucking important. So Justly, Let it out.

---

“now is the time to bring back away messages.”

^ the inspiration for this post

---

The Chronological Imperative: (and above and around the story-time-associated-details painting a more thorough picture / cross slice of another implication into common vectors of stress in the 21st century in regards to attention and focus, lifestyle diet, etc) find those, they're all peppered everywhere in here.

Okay, back to The Chronologically Oriented Response to the Article Suggestion of turning off notifications to increase focus and ones general effectiveness:

Well duh, how do you expect to get work done with all those pinging noises, popups, and notifications of different kinds in various places?

I temporarily (very temporarily) went insane (for about a day) and decided to just disable notifications entirely.. It was a bold move, but it was the result of sitting around watching my mood as I'd use my tablet, phone, or laptop- and how it would devolve to internal feelings of anxiety, worry I was forgetting something (I was,) – and other similar feels.

Well, I will keep this straight forward – that's from trying to focus and having too much going on, and also trying to focus on that. You are destroying your brain.

and you are more accurately destroying your ability to concentrate, and actually if you continue the process far enough, you will actually destroy your ability to create anything yourself, ultimately- because you will be unable to focus, and even if all distractions are removed from a room, you will be in experiential “soft-state” of PTSD based on your habituated brain patterning (yes “what your body is expecting your day to go like because of the habits it formed releasing all those stress chemical signals in your brain)

but more importantly to know that until you therapeutically re-pattern- (and you can do this yourself or with a friend), you don't have to pay a professional- it just is more, intimate and faster if you do it yourself- professional therapists that are intuitive enough to UN-pattern things like this and advanced enough to not take notes, and not practice by the book- and do so in security, progressively- until they retire— are in the rarest echelon of therapist. Most of them are following treatment protocols designed for prisoners of war, or inmates, and they're roughly 140 year old process flows as well, so they are not appropriate for therapy.

So, until you re-pattern your entire mind, anything you do like say, check your email for work (if it's on your phone) you will be stressed until you re-pattern, because the phone used to make notifications..

So that's about the extent of it, but perhaps I'm lucky to have realized this, perhaps it was all the work I've relentlessly put into myself non-stop, for the past 20 years.. Hard to say, but probably both in some combination.

Here's what I can tell you after 3 years of not using notifications (except very selectively for email) and only in one program, and only some of the time.

I feel a LOT better. I sleep better, I think better, and I can have my own “new” thoughts, instead of just reacting to stuff and having that been my day. I actually have the freedom to think about things I've never thought about, and choose the topic I'm thinking about myself, without looking at ANYTHING, or having to tell anyone about it, or feel worried I'm going to be pulled away from my discovery fun time. It is glorious.

I am more productive in every way, and have a lot more fun doing it.

Oh, or also, I don't feel that I'm going to have to be held accountable to someone for having been curious and reading about a particular thing, which is something I was experiencing to a very mild degree. It's a (social media consequence- it is a neurocognitive ** bleed ** through symptom), its an associative barrier being crossed between the domains of social pattern recognition, self-identity and habituated behavioral association.

So, just a thought, turn off the notifications if they bug you. It may sting at first you may worry, but you are not missing anything. That's the PTSD letting you know it is there, and if you are able to pull away long enough to think through your behavior and want to be happier, try pulling the plug on all your notifications.

I can't predict what will ultimately happen, but I really cannot possibly even fathom going back. My focus is too precious.

Also, because people do dip-shit things when they feel threatened or attacked, I'm not talking about you, and I'm also not a doctor, so don't take anything here as medical advice.

Also in general this is good advice for anyone, even the author, who does not live on a high horse, and is so fucking humble you'd literally be shocked if you understood how UN-shakeable that was...

Learn to be responsible for your own damn life, and when you fuck it up, that's your fault. Learn from it, and then take a break, watch other people fuck up for a bit so you can get some free mileage, and then try again differently. To repeat the same way is just not going to work. Bring in new ideas.

It is also real important to mention that if all this is new information, you should probably just get a therapist for a little while, it is helpful if you're ** new ** to self improvement.

Also, any little thing that improves your life, no matter how small- is worth doing.

All the best and know you got a friend in this, even if we never talk – I care, and wish the best outcome for you. There really are people out there like that. I am one of them.

My friend Jameson posed this question yesterday. My answer, was terrible-

but likely not nearly as bad as some of the others.

my answer was terrible:

one always arrives on time and fully cocked-n-at-the-ready, the other one smokes a fuck-ton of pot and falls asleep mid river or near the banks often, and relies on a most unusual hunting strategy. he falls asleep until his prey bump into him from either an accident or the current of the moving water, and then he snaps the shit out of them and gobbles them up like the little surreptitious happen-chance river Doritos they are.