Photograph by Gerd Altmann
According to the online Cambridge Dictionary Ignorant is: “not having enough knowledge, understanding, or information about something” and bliss is: “perfect happiness.”
So, when you and I say Ignorance is bliss we mean what exactly? That by not knowing we are happy? By not understanding something we live in a perfect happiness?
Of course, the idiom Ignorance is bliss again according to with the online Cambridge Dictionary
How many times did we hear people say that ignorance is bliss? Read it in books and other informational media? Heard it from our friends and family?
Do you agree with this statement?
My Past…
If I were asked that question back in 2008, I would probably answer that yes ignorance is bliss. Of course, back then I followed a lifestyle that justified such an answer.
I was a heavy smoker of tobacco cigarettes, I reach the point of smoking 80 cigs a day! I ate without thinking, calories bad, good or empty we’re not even an issue for me. Processed or unrefined or GMO again not a concern. Too much animal products and little plants were my principal diet. I did all that because I was swimming in nutritional ignorance!
The only exercise I did was when I was flipping the channels using the TV’s remote control.
I will see people exercising, and I got physically tired just looking at them.
Ignorant is bliss as an idiom was a valid point for me back then.
If you find the above description a little bit familiar and you correlate at some level, please read on I promise I won’t waste your time.
My Current Present…
Now I want to believe that I am not so ignorant anymore. There are things that I don’t know, but at least now I have a different point of looking at things. If you read this article and generally you are a person that does it homework, then I bet you are not ignorant too.
Now I don’t consider that I know everything, that’s how I thought back then. The mind of an ignorant person always assumes that it knows everything. It hypothesizes that if it doesn’t fit in his little tiny memory bank that is not valid for further consideration thus rejected immediately.
My new philosophy.
Now I apply the philosophy that I know nothing, and I make a ton of questions to others and primarily to myself until I find everything I need to make an informed and valid decision from buying new running shoes to more severe life-altering actions.
The difference between an ignorant close mind and an open, informed mind is the ability to receive information and process them efficiently keep what is useful and repeat the process until it reached the optimal level of success.
For me now ignorance is not bliss anymore, for me now ignorance is stupidity and stupidity is most of the times, death.
It is more preferable always to hear the truth, even if you don’t like it, than hearing words and echoes that only gently caress your ears and clouds your mind. Truth and poetry are something most people do not like. I learned that the hard way.
Thank you for keeping reading…
I am sure if you read thus far it means that perhaps you are in a threshold where you balance between the “dark” and the “light” side of your life. You feel the urge to explore more about how you can expand your mind and improve the quality of your life. Well, you came to the right place. I write from the heart, and my words are not deceitful.
Maybe you have money problems, who doesn’t? Perhaps your relationship isn’t going the way you imagine it. Maybe your stuck in a dead-end job that is draining you both mentally and emotionally. Maybe maybe maybe…
You need to believe me when I say this, because well you don’t know me at all, that I was there where you were at some point in my life and my little secret was always trying to be on the bright side of my life’s path.
How do you achieve that? Easy, you read, it’s as simple as that. I was always a bibliophile, I pick up this lovely habit from my parents who both of them are avid readers.
The beautiful act of reading…
Reading and writing are how primarily we homo sapiens learn things, we understand through consuming written words on a piece of paper. In the old days it was papyrus in the even older days it was wood and stone tablets, we never stop reading and writing.
When we read we use a lot of our senses and motor functions. Especially when we read a paperback book, we engage more senses than just our eyesight. Every time we turn a page, we get the feeling of the page on our hands, and we can distinguish if the paper is standard or glossy, soft or hard. The weight of the book also influences our perception. This information is delivered to our brain, and new neuron pathways are created, new sensations are added in our beautiful mind. As more neuron pathways are created, we become smarter.
The sound that the page makes while we turn it over also delivers acoustic information via our ears contributing to the genesis of even more neuron pathways, more synapses are firing making you even more aware and smart. Licking our finger so we can stick the page on it and turn it over more also provides stimulus to our brain.
Do you take notes?
Some of us including me like to keep notes on the margins of the book. Some of you might accuse me of vandalism, but that’s how I really read a book. In my opinion, if a book is not filled with written notes all around the pages it means you didn’t really understand it or connected with it.
If I really like a book and do not want to fill it with my notes, I might photocopy it and use that for my reading and let the original one sit on my bookshelf. Please leave me a comment at the bottom of the article if you feel otherwise about this so we can argue about it!.
If we are lucky and we are reading a book where the author uses language that evokes our imagination, then our synapses have an orgasmic party, and our mental ability is enhanced. Amazing harmonic images are generated in our minds giving you quivering emotions from head to toes, from pure intellectual pleasure.
My two cents in…
My advice is to read through your problems or issues. Also if you intend to begin a new project or want to improve an existing one use books as your tool to achieve your goals you set out to accomplish.
In the old days, they were not so many books published comparing with the number of people on this planet and more importantly comparing it with the number of interests that are in people’s heads.
So, if someone wanted to learn for example of how to make candles out of soy
Back then information was scarce, and book publishing was controlled and managed by Publishing houses.
Publishing houses and editors of these homes were “Gods” they decided if your book was going to print or not. They limited the spread of knowledge not because they wanted to do that but because they had to do it.
Publishing books is a business, and it was economically impossible for a publishing house to publish all the books that received.
So back then information was limited because of the way books were published.
A Whole New Ball Game…
Today is a new era, it’s an entirely different scenario. Now every “yahoo” with a text processor and a few computer skills can publish hundreds of books online and even paperback.
Now we have the exact opposite problem, now we have too much information. To be more precise now we have too much misinformation. Now everyone’s opinion or butt is on the internet, two clicks away to be accessed.
Why am I saying all these to you, well there is a reason, of course, I am saying all these to you because now if you want to learn how to make candles out of soy, you can probably find dozens of books that tell you precisely that?
Currently, the problem is not lacking information or misinformation presently the challenge is to be able to discover the information that you are looking for. Information that will give you value for the time and money you spend finding and acquiring it.
Question yourself.
If you have money problems that means you are not doing something right. It says that you are ignorant in some areas. So, stop what are you doing and think. Disengaged the autopilot that all of us at some point allowed ourselves to be in. Just stop and think.
Ask yourself what am I doing wrong? Critique yourself. Take a piece of paper and write down the actions you took and the results you had. Compare it with previous actions and results. Do I see an improvement or not? If I do see improvement how can I improve even more? If not, how can I achieve the levels I desire and set up in the first place.
Changes in your life do not happen unless you are able to admit that something is not quite right, that correctional steps must be prepared to be able to have the results that you wish for.
Once you admit that then you can use reading as your formidable ally.
Read books, in any form and dissolve the ignorance that is hanging about and inside your head like a thick mist that prevents you from seeing your own nose.
Weight Problems…
Back in 2010, I was 100 kilos and 1.74 cm tall (220 pounds and 5.7 inches for my American friends) I was flirting with obesity.
When someone is that fat it means only one thing, I didn’t know how to eat. I didn’t know how to exercise.
One day I saw myself in the mirror, and I just didn’t like what I saw.
If you found the above description a bit close to home, please keep reading.
How did I help myself to get rid of the ignorance that was literally weighing me down? Easy I bought a ton of books about eating right and about running.
In high school, I was a runner, and I was pretty good at it. I was doing the mile in 4 minutes with no real training at all. I loved running and still do. So for me to lose weight by running was the natural choice to achieve that. For you, it might be another athletic activity, cycling, swimming, walking, etc
Even if you never had any athletic activity in your life, I am sure there is one for you out there that you will love doing. It takes a few trial and error efforts, and you are on the right path in changing your life for the better.
Build a healthy habit.
If you manage to break free from the thoughts that are keeping you away from activities that will help you improve yourself, then you are making the first step to escaping from the autopilot mode you are in.
Also, the way you eat and trust me when I say this impacts the way you live. Ninety Nine Percent of your health problems are based on what kind of food you eat.
It is so logical and straightforward, but the big corporations that control food and medicine made you believe that your health is not related to the food you eat or drink. The way they achieved this is by controlling the main media (Tv, Radio, etc.) and of course managing the governments of this planet. Monitoring the political environment are able to pass misinformation that serves their purposes as valid information.
Never stop Searching
I personally I did a lot of research and still get regularly informed from a few valid sources and my conclusion is, do not believe them. Their tactics and their goals are to sell you fast food, sell you processed and refined food, sell your animal products. After you get sick eating and drinking these poisons, they will sell you drugs to counteract the symptoms of the diseases you will get by eating the toxins they feed you in the first place.
My lifestyle now as my food is a concern is the whole plant-based on a ratio of 80% raw food and 20% cooked food.
I will wake up in the morning, and I will drink lot’s of water because when you are asleep for 7 to 8 hours, your body uses a lot of water to repair damaged tissue, to fight infection to fix inflammations and so many other things. The healthy benefits of sleeping is another area that ignorance prevails.
So when you wake up drink lots of water, give your body the fuel it needs.
Eat when you are hungry.
You should eat when you are hungry. Eating three times a day has nothing to do with your physiology and is not something that is a result of our evolution.
Putting food into your body when it doesn’t need it is not a good idea. You are forcing your body to stop doing the programmed chores it scheduled to do and starts digesting food.
Will you ever put gas in your car if you have a full tank? Think about that for a moment because that’s what you do when you eat without real hunger.
Sometimes it’s Thirst.
Most of the times the feeling we have in our stomach is not hunger is most probably thirst. So next time you have that “hunger” feeling have a couple of glass of water and wait for 20 minutes. If you still have that feeling it means you are genuinely hungry, if not then you just wanted water.
My first dish will be around noon, and it will be a seasonal fruit which is high in calories and glucose. For example now that is autumn here in Cyprus we have a lot of grapes and also pomegranate. Both excellent choices both high in calories and rich in antioxidants.
What I usually do is eat a one-day grape and the next day pomegranate.
My second dish occurs around 5 p.m., and it is usually unprocessed, unrefined cooked legumes or starch. I skipped breakfast for a while now, and I do feel great. I am applying intermittent fasting, and it seems to work when I want to shed some weight especially on my belly.
Consult your doctor.
Do not apply any kind of fasting if you are on any sort of medication or you are exercising heavily.
Furthermore, always consult your physician if you want to make radical changes in your eating habits and general in your life.
Some of my dishes are lentils, chickpeas, black-eyed- peas, fava beans, white beans, well I love beans. Many people will say they have a problem eating beans. That’s what I used to say too. It’s not the beans it’s your mental attitude and possibly inflamed gastrointestinal system that is the problem.
Animals are our friends, not our food…
When you eat animal products for many years and is the bulk of your “nutrition” your gastrointestinal system is kinda damaged. I am talking from experience on this one.
What you need to do is gradually start to limit animal products and refined products (processed carbs, white sugar, syrups, etc.) and start increasing your plant consumption (fruits and veggies)
If you want to do this begin small and gradually. If you stick with it, I promise, you will notice considerable beneficial changes happening to you.
Liquid Poisons
Also, deleterious liquids like sodas and coffee are not helping you at all. Try and limit those and even increase your water consumption. You are amazed to find out of how little water people drink. Most of them are in a state of chronic dehydration. Sadly I was one of them, I am ashamed to admit this but back in the days when I pee my urine was always either dark yellow or yellow, and I thought that it was ok, that having yellow pee was a sign of health and that my kidneys were working.
The reality is that when your urine is dark yellow or yellow you are already dehydrated and you need to drink water. My kidneys did not work fine they were overworking to remove the toxins I was feeding my body and doing it under a lot of stress. Our brain, liver, kidneys and our heart are organs that never stop working, we need to pay extra attention to them.
Dehydration.
Your urine should be crystal clear that means you have enough water in you so the body can function correctly. We are 60 to 70 percent water and on a cellular level 90%. Water is our second most important item after oxygen for our survival.
Prefer green tea and herbal teas they are much much more beneficial for your health.
It is a matter of making a decision to educate yourself through the knowledge you get from books. To expand your horizons and to escape the narrow walls of ignorance. Books will help you achieve that if you take your life into your own hands and commit to learning a new thing every day that will help you improve your life.
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