Hello,
In this week’s edition, I offer a critical explanation of how you can move forward with assurance after the vision you have crafted for your future — your plan for the trajectory of your life — becomes unobtainable. Then, I am joined by neuroscientist and Harvard researcher Dr. Baland Jalal, whose expertise as one of the world’s leading researchers in sleep paralysis makes him a foremost authority on the subject. From the archives, I offer my thoughts on the transformative nature of a sophisticated approach to prayer.
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Advice
When Your Ideal Future Is No Longer Possible
You are always contrasting two models: what you think is happening versus what you want to have happen. You feel anxiety wherever there is a deviation — when what you want to happen is not what is happening. You also experience a sense of curiosity as well; you are impelled to explore. But anxiety surfaces first. The larger the magnitude of the unexpected occurrence, the greater the amount of anxiety.
Perhaps you have three plans to get from the unbearable present (what is) to the ideal future (what should be). If two plans produce outcomes that are not what you envision, you still have one remaining option. Those are minor distributions that produce a certain amount of anxiety and exploratory behavior, but this becomes a matter of switching plans. If the third plan works, you are able to maintain the same vision of yourself and of your future.
However, if the third plan does not work, your potential to move forward and away from the version of the unbearable present is no longer feasible. You have conceived yourself as a person with a set number of potentials and with a vision of the future (i.e., your story about yourself). Everything you have done up to this particular point has been predicated on the notion that your ideal future is where you are going. When that changes and your ideal future is no longer possible, you are cast into chaos.
What is to be done when the events that you gave determinate significance because this particular plan has been cast into chaos? To mitigate anxiety and regulate your emotions, you must discern who you are, what you are to do, and where you are going. This is achieved by modifying your version of yourself. When a major distribution as such occurs, there must be a new ideal future.
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“An Evening to Transform Your Life” Tour
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In his five-episode series “Vision & Destiny,” Dr. Jordan B. Peterson outlines not only why you need a vision for your life but also how to create one which will guide you through your future. Though challenges will inevitably arise, it is possible to discern the difference between the type of vision best suited for you and your path forward. Begin with episode one, “Understanding Vision,” to learn from Jordan how to, first, decide what you want. Stream “Vision & Destiny” exclusively on DailyWire+.
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Psychology And ‘Pinocchio’
Pinocchio, a puppet, tries to become a real boy. In the beginning, he is a marionette. Carl Jung explained that is your habitual state of being: Something else is pulling your strings. Even the idea that you are autonomous is the consequence of something else pulling your strings, so for Jung, what you needed to do was find out exactly who and what is pulling your strings and decide if that is the direction in which you want to go. That is what happens to Pinocchio in the story.
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Dreams, Nightmares, And Neuroscience | Dr. Baland Jalal
In this episode, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with researcher, neuroscientist, and author, Dr. Baland Jalal. They discuss human embodiment, the rubber hand experiments (which push embodiment beyond the physical), the deeper functionality of dreams, sleep paralysis, and a potential theory to explain alien abductions.
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On Prayer | Jordan B. Peterson
When you pray, you might ask if you are communing with the better part of yourself to determine how you should orient yourself in the world. If you take a sophisticated approach to praying, you formulate a question and wait for an answer. You must open yourself up to your prayer, which is to knock so that the door will be open. Doing so is not merely leaving yourself open to intuition or revelation; it is, rather, more than what you can attribute to yourself. You are communing in order to receive wisdom. In this way, prayer is useful and necessary to orient yourself properly.
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Thank you for reading,
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
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