Welcome to a newer way of thinking=ANWOT

Seven simple steps to ANWOT
A Newer Way of Thinking

I am especially pleased with this stren (mental strength) because it here provides, in abbreviated form, all the essentials to update our thinking to modernity, to “use our best to do our best.”

E=mc² initiated a new era, a world with weapons of mass destruction! For the first time, in our very lifetime, an earth creature has become capable of deliberate self-annihilation. Recognizing the significance of “the bomb,” Einstein expressed his most important insight:

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our ways of thinking. Thus we are drifting towards a catastrophe beyond comparison. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

Historically and currently we focus much of our energy and resources on harmful aggression. We have virtually ignored Einstein’s admonition, the updating of our thinking. Humans are distinguished from all other earth creatures by the degree we create symbols, manipulate them in our mind, and use them to release powerful energy. Only we have the capability to attain substantial control of our life’s experience, to free ourselves from the directions of our genes and our nurturers, from fate and circumstance, to significantly change both the world and our self, for our well-being and/or our own destruction.

The seven simple steps here presented will start the process of updating our thinking to better deal with the requirements of modernity. ANWOT enables us to assume direction of our life’s experience. We can take responsibility to direct our life’s experience, problem-solve instead of blaming others and/or our self, act on reason more so than instinct and habit, and most important, we will transform our mental energy into a weapon for mass construction. The regular application of these seven basic mental skills rewires the way we process information.¹ Each dramatically improves our thinking, more so upon acquiring the additional mental strengths contained in the Guide.

Each of the seven steps here identified are explained in detail in the ANWOT language strens. Periodically refer to this introductory list as you gain an understanding of their importance and put them regularly into practice.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can …. I will ….
We all remember The Little Engine That Could. If not, get the book and learn its great insight. It’s a very short read. Remind yourself, until it becomes habit: The manner I think is my powerful resource to become my very best friend, to attain peace-of-mind, to free my self from control by fate and circumstance, and to make a significant contribution to peace in the world.This first step will generate the energy to accomplish the next basic steps.

Assume personal responsibility for your attitude: Substitute, when reasonable, “I allow …” for “He (she, they, it, God, etc.) makes me …”

Substitute, when reasonable, descriptive words for prescriptive words: “could, choose, prefer, I am wise when …” for “should, have to, must, ought.” Prescriptive words convey the dependency of childhood.

Substitute, when reasonable, analog (continuous) “both…and” words for dichotomous “either…or” words that limit thinking to two categories. For example: Think in terms of the positives and the negatives of each alternative choice, [both] right and wrong, good and bad, me and you, us and them, mine and yours. The manner of thinking we all first learn and habitually maintain (when our mind is undeveloped and we are physically immature) limits us to two categories: [either] right or wrong, me or you, good or bad, mine or yours, and so on. Prejudice and hatred commonly are rooted in dichotomous thinking. Dichotomous thinking tends to distort reality.

Substitute the problem-solving mental response pattern (MRP) for the blaming MRP [and the other negative patterns described in the Guide].

The problem-solving MRP: Given this situation, what will make things better for me and you (us and them), for now and in the future.

The blaming MRP: He (she, they, it, I, God, etc.) did what he shouldn’t have done (didn’t do what he should have done) and therefore he deserves punishment.

Substitute, when reasonable, the positive action word, “energy,” for negative aggression words such as “anger” and “anxiety.” Energy is a neutral action word wired to problem-solving whereas anger instinctively commonly leads to a harmful action outcome.

Substitute, when reasonable, “urgent” for “emergency” and assign priority to “urgent” by adding “high,” “medium,” “low.” Most situations, on reflection, will turn out to be of relatively low urgency in the total scheme of things. Our biologic proneness to react to stress instantly and virtually automatically conflicts with the realities of society’s civil expectations.

Changing our manner of thinking is a skill to be developed through practice. The Guide will provide limited benefits if read as a book rather than a series of skill-building insights that, like all skills, are mastered by application. With repetition, new skill becomes automatic, habitual, and effortless. I believe these mental skills are among those most important to enhance our life’s experience. They update our thinking to become our own best friend, to become chief executive officer of our self by freeing our will from the whims of fate and circumstance, and to actively contribute to peace in the world.

Please continue to the strens that further explain the vocabulary changes that create ANWOT and move on to the strens on self-endorsement, to those that help recognize the eight mental response choices available to our thinking, and the collective wisdom strens that empower us to constructively apply our growing mental freedom.

_________________________

1. provides the energy to accomplish the next steps, to make the beneficial word-switches that rewire the manner information is processed. 2. redirects the energy we waste on blaming to assume responsibility for our attitude, our powerful resource to improve our life’s experience. 3. like 2, shifts energy to assume personal responsibility and replace the dependency and blind obedience to authority necessary in our early years. 4. provides us a clearer understanding of reality than the either…or two category thinking we first acquire that fosters hatred and prejudice. 5. directs information to the action pathway most likely to lead to constructive outcomes. The problem-solving and self-endorsement mental response patterns will prevail causing the negative mental response pathways to atrophy … blaming, guilt, procrastination, avoidance, apathy, substance abuse, phobic anxiety, and stress-related physical pain. 6. diminishes the instinctive fight or flight reaction that is rarely effective in today’s social expectations and permits the use of problem-solving thinking for beneficial action. 7. like 6 fosters problem-solving thinking before instinctive reaction and helps us apply our energy efficiently. Upon reviewing these 7 mental skills, you will recognize the simplicity of upgrading your thinking so that it increasingly works for you and diminishes as a source of harm.