How to End Nightmares and Night Terrors
Before getting to the specifics of nightmares and night terrors, it is important to lay out a foundation and to present the basis for the program which I am suggesting you adopt in order to end your nightmares and finally get a good night sleep. You will not need to reach a higher level of consciousness but you will require greater self-awareness and awareness of the world around you. Continue reading and you should find that your awareness has increased.
What is the battleground? – Your mind during your sleep.
What is battling? - Internal Forces of the Unconscious vs External Forces of the Subconscious
Victory? – Internal Forces exert control over External Forces for the self and Internal Order is experienced for the self (ie. good night sleep).
Failure? – Internal Forces lack control over External Forces for the self and External Chaos is experienced for the self. (ie. nightmares).
What is at stake? - Allowing the External Forces to organize your thoughts creates dependency and thus addiction. Break addictions to end nightmares.
Components of the Psyche? – Conscious mind partitioned into a conscious and subconscious; unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is unfeeling. The conscious mind is feeling.
The unconscious mind takes in all experiential data and crunches it into a program for reducing redundancy for life experience.
The conscious mind is infected by social-based ideologies and partitions to create a pseudo-unconscious which we will refer to as the subconscious.
The subconscious is internal but it is also where social-based ideologies allow the self to be affected by External Forces.
The subconscious forms in infancy once the child recognizes that they are part of a social context and therefore not the centre of the universe.
Some ideologies are productive and necessary (ie. Social Contract) while most are organized by collectives against the will of individuals.
Dreams/nightmares are determined by the unconscious. The unconscious seeks a remedy to the presence of a subconscious. Nightmares are used by the unconscious to rouse an individual into reaching a higher level of consciousness such that they may understand the machinations of the subconscious and then willfully shut it down.
The surest way to end nightmares is to appease the unconscious – a structure of the psyche that only desires good and novel experience for the individual. The unconscious is the ally and an essential element of the self. The subconscious is superfluous, artificial, and requires being consciously controlled. Appease the unconscious by shutting down the subconscious. Shut down the subconscious by getting control over its ideologies. Learn to exert self-control over the External Forces. External Forces determine the formation of ideologies that the subconscious adopts. The subconscious is a deceiver that operates within our own psyches but it is operated by the self. This means that the self can shut down the subconscious and control how the self interacts with External Forces.
Components of Self? – The Self is articulated through knowledge, and that knowledge derives from experience.
Which factors construct experiencing?
Time (You exist)
Space (You exist with awareness of a context)
Purpose (You distinguish yourself as separate from the context)
Energy (You develop your individualism)
Passion (You direct your developmental plan)
Power (You control your context)
Gravity (You resist being controlled by your context)
The Analogy of the Car
Without Time, the car does not exist. With Time, now the car can exist. Space is the road. Purpose is the starting of the car’s engine, thus going from a static to dynamic state (the road doesn’t make a similar alteration). Energy is the velocity of the car. Passion is the direction the car moves in. Power is hitting the gas pedal and accelerating. Gravity is hitting the brakes and decelerating.
Consider the Self similarly to the hypothetical car on the road (or perhaps to the driver of that hypothetical car).
External Forces in the context (context: the road for the car, for example) causes a need to brake and decelerate – to halt development. External Forces are like stoplights which remain shining red but even when changing colors are still controlling flow. Once the car (or driver/self) accepts that the road has red stoplights and once the car (driver/self) adheres to stopping, then a situation is brought about whereby the stoplight is controlling development for the car (driver/self). In turn, the car (driver/self) is left with a limited set of options – obey, resist, or defy.
Obedience to External Forces constitutes an addiction. Resistance constitutes a neurosis (a struggle between stasis and dynamism, or between following the unconscious and the subconscious). Defiance is necessary to assert the dominance of Internal Forces and thus privilege Internal Order. Defiance will end nightmares, but it won’t end provocative dreams. Provocative dreams continue to be used by the unconscious to alert the conscious mind and keep Internal Order in check.
There are mechanisms in our lives that act against us the same way that red stoplights act against the car. When obeyed these mechanisms control the self and compel addiction of the self to its social context.
The External Force mechanism of Time is the Wristwatch.
The External Force mechanism of Space is Media.
The External Force mechanism of Purpose is Religion.
The External Force mechanism of Energy is Sugar (but can include caffeine, salt, etc.).
The External Force mechanism of Passion is Alcohol.
The External Force mechanism of Power is Cannabis/Drugs (legal and illegal).
The External Force mechanism of Gravity is Pornography.
The answer is not prohibition against these mechanisms, but instead is about limited and responsible use, along with increasing awareness. Self-control is the answer and it will allow Internal Forces to dominate. Dominant Internal Forces will bring about Internal Order. Internal Order will end the nightmares.
The Wristwatch is a mechanism used to organize your time so that you defer to the External Forces and don’t organize your time internally (Internal Forces) thereby creating Internal Order.
The Media is a mechanism used to organize your space so that you defer to the External Forces and don’t internally organize yourself in your context.
Religion is a mechanism used to organize your purpose so that you don’t internally organize yourself.
Reliance on External Forces breeds incompetence, dependency, and addiction.
Sugar organizes your energy. How you would start a program that furthers the development of the self will become destabilized by uncontrolled sugar intake.
Alcohol organizes you passions. How you would formulate a goal for a successful future self is destabilized by uncontrolled alcohol intake.
Drugs (from Cannabis to pharmaceuticals) organize your power. How you would push forward to achieve goals for your future is destabilized by uncontrolled drug use.
Pornography organizes your gravity. Pornography distracts you and lulls you into complacency so that you don’t react aggressively to deceleration in your plan for personal progress.
These seven External Forces are toxic to the self. However, total rejection of these External Forces leaves you without the knowledge of how to control their effects. You would become susceptible to having your life plans for Internal Order destabilized by other people that are already ruled by these External Forces.
Infants benefit from eating a little muck from time to time because the weak strains or small amounts of bacteria the children ingest can be absorbed by the body and safeguards can be developed by the immune system. Similarly, the Self requires limited and controlled exposure to weak strains of the External Forces so that the Self can unconsciously develop immunity to the effects of External Chaos.
How to shut down the subconscious and regain Internal Force control?..
Learn Your Rules! In other words, devise a program where you are in control of how you expose yourself to the toxic External Forces. Set up rules that work for you and then adhere to them. The program may require some tweaking (and there may be “cheat” moments) at the start as you feel out your personal program for self-control.
For example, set a rule for yourself that there is only one porn website that you will allow yourself to visit – only one. Another example would be to set a rule for which days of the week you will drink alcohol. Let the rules that you set resonate from within. The rules should reflect what your “Best Self” would choose. The program may need some tweaking at the start. You may set that you don’t drink on particular days of the week but due to a shifting work schedule it may make sense to change the rule so that it focuses on how many days of the week you drink regardless of which day each week.
Are you proud of eating 200g of chocolate over the weekend? Likely not.
Are you ashamed of having a small candy bar after you do a workout at the gym? Likely not, as well.
Therefore, your rule about sugar intake will be connected to the pride and shame that you can imagine your Best Self having when you are being truly honest to yourself in the present moment.
Who is your Best Self? Conjure that Self as your standard for setting your rules. Be honest and decide how much indulgence of the toxic External Forces would lead you to being ashamed if you had reached the level of being your Best Self. Setting up your rules in this way will be the only way to achieve becoming your Best Self.
Hint: you can imagine your Best Self as the self that you would become if you could live for an indefinite amount of time and after you have experienced almost everything that is good for you.
Your Rules being followed will develop you into your Best Self. Your Best Self will be realized once you have mastered a state of Internal Order. Perhaps, there is no life after being a human and therefore a “best self” is a hypothetical construct. Regardless, imagine your Best Self in order to set up the program of “Learn Your Rules”.
If there is more to life than just being a human for a short period of time on Earth, then it might be reasonable to imagine that Internal Order will optimize your Inner Peace. Optimized Inner Peace should provide an experience that is indescribably wonderful. It provides moments of bliss and a total banishment of anxiety or neurosis. I have experienced one moment of Inner Peace (it lasted about four minutes, with two minutes of dreaming and two minutes just after I woke). My experience of Inner Peace would never have been possible without having first banished the horrific nightmares that I suffered for many years.
When Shakespeare wrote of it being better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, humanity revered the words without understanding the true meaning of the message. Being able to actually feel real love only happens with optimized Inner Peace. Indeed, it is better to have had a mere moment of Inner Peace and lost it than to have never had it at all. That moment will live with you forever and you will feel incredible hope in knowing that such a feeling exists. That feeling is bigger than this context of being human for a short time on planet Earth. Whenever, times are tough, you will be able to think of that moment of Inner Peace and know that the troubles are insignificant as compared with the reality that Inner Peace is possible. There is a sense that such a powerful thing must have a greater purpose than being a mere fleeting feeling luckily captured for a volatile moment.
Without being burdened by the dogma of collectivist religious faith, you will have a personal individualist faith developed that will allow you to die in this life with real hope for the future. It won’t matter what comes after your death because either there is something and it is connected to the Inner Peace you knew or there is nothing but your final moments will now reflect on that eternal hopefulness. You will die full and brave instead of empty while riddled with regret and shame. The program of “Learn Your Rules” is bigger than just ending nightmares… it is about living your life in an internally and individualistically meaningful and satisfying way.
The External Forces are merchants of regret and they trade in shame. The External Forces are geared for having you die miserable because they are designed to own your life. The decisions you make when ruled by the External Forces are not the decisions made that would get you to your Best Self. Not getting to your Best Self unleashes waves of regret and quakes of shame. It is a form of Hell to live ruled by the External Forces.
You can win with a plan. The plan is – LEARN YOUR RULES. Set up your rules. Stick to them. Apply your rules against the External Forces (Timepieces, Media, Religion, Sugar, Alcohol, Drugs, and Pornography). Limit your use and control your use of the External Forces through setting up your rules and sticking to them as best you can. Be vigilant in maintaining a baseline. Don’t collapse. Aspire to take two steps forward when you anticipate or have experienced taking one step back. Generally, progress can be step-by-step, but make added effort to do good things for yourself before and after you agree to indulge in External Forces. If you feel like eating fast food, then be sure to go to the gym before or after that toxic dump of a meal. If you go out drinking Friday night, be sure to pound back a liter of water before you pass out and go to sleep. In short, if you are going to abuse yourself also treat yourself well either slightly before or slightly after the abuse. Don’t allow the External Forces to make demands of you without you making demands on behalf of your imagined Best Self. Balance!
I Learned My Rules –
I haven’t worn a wristwatch since I was fifteen years old (over twenty years now). As a result, I can usually guess the time correctly to within fifteen minutes. My conscious mind is allowing my unconscious mind to present a sense of how much time has passed. This means that if my day is a lot more bereft of information or a lot more full of information than the average for that period in my life then I will likely find it more difficult to accurately guess the time. However, if my day has a normal amount of information intake then I probably know the time the entire day without having to look at the clock.
Recently, I walked away from social media (websites, apps, gaming, etc.). It has been incredibly positive. My new rule is to only check on world news through the Associated Press. Avoiding all the partisan yellow journalism allows me more control over the External Forces of space.
I have never followed a collectivist-based religion. This was fortunate for me and simply a result of my Boomer parents having rejected Christianity and become secular as adults. It has always been important to me to know about religions and learn something about religious values and scripture. This education gives me greater self-control over the External Forces of purpose. Atheism is also a collectivist-based ideology and therefore a toxic External Force of purpose.
If I am lacking in any area at the moment then it is in my sugar intake. Uncontrolled sugar intake is extremely dangerous and sugar taxes our organs in a devastating way. We should be fueling our brains with fat and not sugar. I have many “cheat” periods for sugar intake, however I did set a rule to never eat at McDonald’s again and I haven’t eaten there in five years. Also, I have begun a fitness regimen to help compensate for the External Force that affects me the worst. Making a rule to not use convenience stores can be very effective, or setting a rule to not eat carbs after a certain time of day (ie. the evening) can have a marked positive effect.
When I was in high school I used to drink on the weekends to the point where I blacked out. Those experiences didn’t cause me to quit drinking but I did slow down. Later, in my early 30s I began hanging out with friends who were alcoholics. We would go to bars mid-week and encounter the losers that are at bars on a Monday night. This led to back to back violent incidents where I was attacked by drunks. Then I made a rule to not binge drink anymore. I haven’t looked back. I might get shit-faced once or twice a year. I will drink socially when everyone else is drinking but I often nurse my drink. Instead of feeling bad about not getting drunk I usually feel bad about having spent so much money on a pointless alcoholic beverage while out.
I had significant drug binges in my life and I have also had periods in my life where I was on pharmaceutical drugs. I have been clean of pharmaceuticals for over ten years. That gives me an incredible sense of pride, competence, and freedom. I smoke weed occasionally and at least a few times a year I feel like smoking a joint can reboot my brain. I am willing to do harder drugs but only on “special” occasions.
My main “rule” is to not be a pathetic loser by letting substances determine my mood, energy, and thoughts. This is how I find it easy to not drink or do drugs, or rely on pharmaceuticals or caffeine. I’d rather be a winner than a loser in the ways that matter most in life – controlling who you are and what you need.
Finally, like changes to my social media intake and participation, I have recently set up new strict rules about pornography. My new rule is to not use the tube sites. I allow myself one day a week to screen capture content that goes into a folder on my computer and hard drives. The one-day-a-week rule is also used for social media right now, but the next goal is to move that to the first-of-the-month rule. Porn tube sites not only set the pace for your sexual recreation but they also inundate you with toxic suggested material. In addition, relying on pornography discourages you from interacting with real potential partners, and excessive masturbation lowers your overall testosterone levels. Lower testosterone directly leads to lower aggression and it is aggression that drives all human progress. Regardless of gender, without sufficient testosterone you will not have the level of aggression required to push ahead, try new things, and strive for achievement in life.
The External Forces that I outlined (7 categories) are not an exhaustive list. For example, the current push for plant-based diets is an attack on testosterone and therefore a serious threat to human progress. I find the push for plant-based diets anathema but I would probably include them in the “media” External Forces rather than create a new category.
I can’t promise that nightmares will end if you take my advice here. I don’t know your brain chemistry and I don’t know the origins of your trauma. However, gaining self-control and exerting Internal Forces as the dominant for yourself should do wonders for your psyche. It’s so simple – make your rules, follow them, and crush the External Forces. Put individualism first but aspire toward individualist socialism. Individualist socialism is about you working on yourself and being the best you can be and then that will ensure that everyone else benefits maximally from your contribution socially. The socialism that works isn’t collectivist in nature. Collectivism always pervades ideology and ideology always infects our minds through the formation of a subconscious. The dominance of the subconscious in your psyche is likely the reason why you are suffering bad sleep, nightmares, and night terrors. The unconscious mind strives to have you remove the subconscious.
I used to have horrific nightmares including getting murdered brutally in my sleep. It has been over ten years since I had nightmares. I sometimes have provocative dreams that leave a bad taste in my mouth when I wake up, however for ten years I have been the powerful force in my dreams and I exert a tremendous amount of self-conscious control when I am asleep. I communicate in my dream world and can wake myself when I am unsatisfied with what is being presented. I kick ass and so can you!
Walk away from dependence on the drugs and alcohol, on sugar and porno, on religion and media. Getting rid of your wristwatch can be an easy first step into the program I am suggesting. You will quickly find that you don’t need that kind of time reference and you will start to enjoy finding time references in the world around you. I do carry a cell phone but I don’t use it often for checking the time.
If you are suffering from nightmares then I hope you will be thoughtful about my advice and perhaps give my program a try. Nothing is more important than being proud of yourself. Pride in yourself shouldn’t be primarily related to social-based concerns but instead should be about your self-control and self-awareness as an individual.
Individuals First!
What is the battleground? – Your mind during your sleep.
What is battling? - Internal Forces of the Unconscious vs External Forces of the Subconscious
Victory? – Internal Forces exert control over External Forces for the self and Internal Order is experienced for the self (ie. good night sleep).
Failure? – Internal Forces lack control over External Forces for the self and External Chaos is experienced for the self. (ie. nightmares).
What is at stake? - Allowing the External Forces to organize your thoughts creates dependency and thus addiction. Break addictions to end nightmares.
Components of the Psyche? – Conscious mind partitioned into a conscious and subconscious; unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is unfeeling. The conscious mind is feeling.
The unconscious mind takes in all experiential data and crunches it into a program for reducing redundancy for life experience.
The conscious mind is infected by social-based ideologies and partitions to create a pseudo-unconscious which we will refer to as the subconscious.
The subconscious is internal but it is also where social-based ideologies allow the self to be affected by External Forces.
The subconscious forms in infancy once the child recognizes that they are part of a social context and therefore not the centre of the universe.
Some ideologies are productive and necessary (ie. Social Contract) while most are organized by collectives against the will of individuals.
Dreams/nightmares are determined by the unconscious. The unconscious seeks a remedy to the presence of a subconscious. Nightmares are used by the unconscious to rouse an individual into reaching a higher level of consciousness such that they may understand the machinations of the subconscious and then willfully shut it down.
The surest way to end nightmares is to appease the unconscious – a structure of the psyche that only desires good and novel experience for the individual. The unconscious is the ally and an essential element of the self. The subconscious is superfluous, artificial, and requires being consciously controlled. Appease the unconscious by shutting down the subconscious. Shut down the subconscious by getting control over its ideologies. Learn to exert self-control over the External Forces. External Forces determine the formation of ideologies that the subconscious adopts. The subconscious is a deceiver that operates within our own psyches but it is operated by the self. This means that the self can shut down the subconscious and control how the self interacts with External Forces.
Components of Self? – The Self is articulated through knowledge, and that knowledge derives from experience.
Which factors construct experiencing?
Time (You exist)
Space (You exist with awareness of a context)
Purpose (You distinguish yourself as separate from the context)
Energy (You develop your individualism)
Passion (You direct your developmental plan)
Power (You control your context)
Gravity (You resist being controlled by your context)
The Analogy of the Car
Without Time, the car does not exist. With Time, now the car can exist. Space is the road. Purpose is the starting of the car’s engine, thus going from a static to dynamic state (the road doesn’t make a similar alteration). Energy is the velocity of the car. Passion is the direction the car moves in. Power is hitting the gas pedal and accelerating. Gravity is hitting the brakes and decelerating.
Consider the Self similarly to the hypothetical car on the road (or perhaps to the driver of that hypothetical car).
External Forces in the context (context: the road for the car, for example) causes a need to brake and decelerate – to halt development. External Forces are like stoplights which remain shining red but even when changing colors are still controlling flow. Once the car (or driver/self) accepts that the road has red stoplights and once the car (driver/self) adheres to stopping, then a situation is brought about whereby the stoplight is controlling development for the car (driver/self). In turn, the car (driver/self) is left with a limited set of options – obey, resist, or defy.
Obedience to External Forces constitutes an addiction. Resistance constitutes a neurosis (a struggle between stasis and dynamism, or between following the unconscious and the subconscious). Defiance is necessary to assert the dominance of Internal Forces and thus privilege Internal Order. Defiance will end nightmares, but it won’t end provocative dreams. Provocative dreams continue to be used by the unconscious to alert the conscious mind and keep Internal Order in check.
There are mechanisms in our lives that act against us the same way that red stoplights act against the car. When obeyed these mechanisms control the self and compel addiction of the self to its social context.
The External Force mechanism of Time is the Wristwatch.
The External Force mechanism of Space is Media.
The External Force mechanism of Purpose is Religion.
The External Force mechanism of Energy is Sugar (but can include caffeine, salt, etc.).
The External Force mechanism of Passion is Alcohol.
The External Force mechanism of Power is Cannabis/Drugs (legal and illegal).
The External Force mechanism of Gravity is Pornography.
The answer is not prohibition against these mechanisms, but instead is about limited and responsible use, along with increasing awareness. Self-control is the answer and it will allow Internal Forces to dominate. Dominant Internal Forces will bring about Internal Order. Internal Order will end the nightmares.
The Wristwatch is a mechanism used to organize your time so that you defer to the External Forces and don’t organize your time internally (Internal Forces) thereby creating Internal Order.
The Media is a mechanism used to organize your space so that you defer to the External Forces and don’t internally organize yourself in your context.
Religion is a mechanism used to organize your purpose so that you don’t internally organize yourself.
Reliance on External Forces breeds incompetence, dependency, and addiction.
Sugar organizes your energy. How you would start a program that furthers the development of the self will become destabilized by uncontrolled sugar intake.
Alcohol organizes you passions. How you would formulate a goal for a successful future self is destabilized by uncontrolled alcohol intake.
Drugs (from Cannabis to pharmaceuticals) organize your power. How you would push forward to achieve goals for your future is destabilized by uncontrolled drug use.
Pornography organizes your gravity. Pornography distracts you and lulls you into complacency so that you don’t react aggressively to deceleration in your plan for personal progress.
These seven External Forces are toxic to the self. However, total rejection of these External Forces leaves you without the knowledge of how to control their effects. You would become susceptible to having your life plans for Internal Order destabilized by other people that are already ruled by these External Forces.
Infants benefit from eating a little muck from time to time because the weak strains or small amounts of bacteria the children ingest can be absorbed by the body and safeguards can be developed by the immune system. Similarly, the Self requires limited and controlled exposure to weak strains of the External Forces so that the Self can unconsciously develop immunity to the effects of External Chaos.
How to shut down the subconscious and regain Internal Force control?..
Learn Your Rules! In other words, devise a program where you are in control of how you expose yourself to the toxic External Forces. Set up rules that work for you and then adhere to them. The program may require some tweaking (and there may be “cheat” moments) at the start as you feel out your personal program for self-control.
For example, set a rule for yourself that there is only one porn website that you will allow yourself to visit – only one. Another example would be to set a rule for which days of the week you will drink alcohol. Let the rules that you set resonate from within. The rules should reflect what your “Best Self” would choose. The program may need some tweaking at the start. You may set that you don’t drink on particular days of the week but due to a shifting work schedule it may make sense to change the rule so that it focuses on how many days of the week you drink regardless of which day each week.
Are you proud of eating 200g of chocolate over the weekend? Likely not.
Are you ashamed of having a small candy bar after you do a workout at the gym? Likely not, as well.
Therefore, your rule about sugar intake will be connected to the pride and shame that you can imagine your Best Self having when you are being truly honest to yourself in the present moment.
Who is your Best Self? Conjure that Self as your standard for setting your rules. Be honest and decide how much indulgence of the toxic External Forces would lead you to being ashamed if you had reached the level of being your Best Self. Setting up your rules in this way will be the only way to achieve becoming your Best Self.
Hint: you can imagine your Best Self as the self that you would become if you could live for an indefinite amount of time and after you have experienced almost everything that is good for you.
Your Rules being followed will develop you into your Best Self. Your Best Self will be realized once you have mastered a state of Internal Order. Perhaps, there is no life after being a human and therefore a “best self” is a hypothetical construct. Regardless, imagine your Best Self in order to set up the program of “Learn Your Rules”.
If there is more to life than just being a human for a short period of time on Earth, then it might be reasonable to imagine that Internal Order will optimize your Inner Peace. Optimized Inner Peace should provide an experience that is indescribably wonderful. It provides moments of bliss and a total banishment of anxiety or neurosis. I have experienced one moment of Inner Peace (it lasted about four minutes, with two minutes of dreaming and two minutes just after I woke). My experience of Inner Peace would never have been possible without having first banished the horrific nightmares that I suffered for many years.
When Shakespeare wrote of it being better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, humanity revered the words without understanding the true meaning of the message. Being able to actually feel real love only happens with optimized Inner Peace. Indeed, it is better to have had a mere moment of Inner Peace and lost it than to have never had it at all. That moment will live with you forever and you will feel incredible hope in knowing that such a feeling exists. That feeling is bigger than this context of being human for a short time on planet Earth. Whenever, times are tough, you will be able to think of that moment of Inner Peace and know that the troubles are insignificant as compared with the reality that Inner Peace is possible. There is a sense that such a powerful thing must have a greater purpose than being a mere fleeting feeling luckily captured for a volatile moment.
Without being burdened by the dogma of collectivist religious faith, you will have a personal individualist faith developed that will allow you to die in this life with real hope for the future. It won’t matter what comes after your death because either there is something and it is connected to the Inner Peace you knew or there is nothing but your final moments will now reflect on that eternal hopefulness. You will die full and brave instead of empty while riddled with regret and shame. The program of “Learn Your Rules” is bigger than just ending nightmares… it is about living your life in an internally and individualistically meaningful and satisfying way.
The External Forces are merchants of regret and they trade in shame. The External Forces are geared for having you die miserable because they are designed to own your life. The decisions you make when ruled by the External Forces are not the decisions made that would get you to your Best Self. Not getting to your Best Self unleashes waves of regret and quakes of shame. It is a form of Hell to live ruled by the External Forces.
You can win with a plan. The plan is – LEARN YOUR RULES. Set up your rules. Stick to them. Apply your rules against the External Forces (Timepieces, Media, Religion, Sugar, Alcohol, Drugs, and Pornography). Limit your use and control your use of the External Forces through setting up your rules and sticking to them as best you can. Be vigilant in maintaining a baseline. Don’t collapse. Aspire to take two steps forward when you anticipate or have experienced taking one step back. Generally, progress can be step-by-step, but make added effort to do good things for yourself before and after you agree to indulge in External Forces. If you feel like eating fast food, then be sure to go to the gym before or after that toxic dump of a meal. If you go out drinking Friday night, be sure to pound back a liter of water before you pass out and go to sleep. In short, if you are going to abuse yourself also treat yourself well either slightly before or slightly after the abuse. Don’t allow the External Forces to make demands of you without you making demands on behalf of your imagined Best Self. Balance!
I Learned My Rules –
I haven’t worn a wristwatch since I was fifteen years old (over twenty years now). As a result, I can usually guess the time correctly to within fifteen minutes. My conscious mind is allowing my unconscious mind to present a sense of how much time has passed. This means that if my day is a lot more bereft of information or a lot more full of information than the average for that period in my life then I will likely find it more difficult to accurately guess the time. However, if my day has a normal amount of information intake then I probably know the time the entire day without having to look at the clock.
Recently, I walked away from social media (websites, apps, gaming, etc.). It has been incredibly positive. My new rule is to only check on world news through the Associated Press. Avoiding all the partisan yellow journalism allows me more control over the External Forces of space.
I have never followed a collectivist-based religion. This was fortunate for me and simply a result of my Boomer parents having rejected Christianity and become secular as adults. It has always been important to me to know about religions and learn something about religious values and scripture. This education gives me greater self-control over the External Forces of purpose. Atheism is also a collectivist-based ideology and therefore a toxic External Force of purpose.
If I am lacking in any area at the moment then it is in my sugar intake. Uncontrolled sugar intake is extremely dangerous and sugar taxes our organs in a devastating way. We should be fueling our brains with fat and not sugar. I have many “cheat” periods for sugar intake, however I did set a rule to never eat at McDonald’s again and I haven’t eaten there in five years. Also, I have begun a fitness regimen to help compensate for the External Force that affects me the worst. Making a rule to not use convenience stores can be very effective, or setting a rule to not eat carbs after a certain time of day (ie. the evening) can have a marked positive effect.
When I was in high school I used to drink on the weekends to the point where I blacked out. Those experiences didn’t cause me to quit drinking but I did slow down. Later, in my early 30s I began hanging out with friends who were alcoholics. We would go to bars mid-week and encounter the losers that are at bars on a Monday night. This led to back to back violent incidents where I was attacked by drunks. Then I made a rule to not binge drink anymore. I haven’t looked back. I might get shit-faced once or twice a year. I will drink socially when everyone else is drinking but I often nurse my drink. Instead of feeling bad about not getting drunk I usually feel bad about having spent so much money on a pointless alcoholic beverage while out.
I had significant drug binges in my life and I have also had periods in my life where I was on pharmaceutical drugs. I have been clean of pharmaceuticals for over ten years. That gives me an incredible sense of pride, competence, and freedom. I smoke weed occasionally and at least a few times a year I feel like smoking a joint can reboot my brain. I am willing to do harder drugs but only on “special” occasions.
My main “rule” is to not be a pathetic loser by letting substances determine my mood, energy, and thoughts. This is how I find it easy to not drink or do drugs, or rely on pharmaceuticals or caffeine. I’d rather be a winner than a loser in the ways that matter most in life – controlling who you are and what you need.
Finally, like changes to my social media intake and participation, I have recently set up new strict rules about pornography. My new rule is to not use the tube sites. I allow myself one day a week to screen capture content that goes into a folder on my computer and hard drives. The one-day-a-week rule is also used for social media right now, but the next goal is to move that to the first-of-the-month rule. Porn tube sites not only set the pace for your sexual recreation but they also inundate you with toxic suggested material. In addition, relying on pornography discourages you from interacting with real potential partners, and excessive masturbation lowers your overall testosterone levels. Lower testosterone directly leads to lower aggression and it is aggression that drives all human progress. Regardless of gender, without sufficient testosterone you will not have the level of aggression required to push ahead, try new things, and strive for achievement in life.
The External Forces that I outlined (7 categories) are not an exhaustive list. For example, the current push for plant-based diets is an attack on testosterone and therefore a serious threat to human progress. I find the push for plant-based diets anathema but I would probably include them in the “media” External Forces rather than create a new category.
I can’t promise that nightmares will end if you take my advice here. I don’t know your brain chemistry and I don’t know the origins of your trauma. However, gaining self-control and exerting Internal Forces as the dominant for yourself should do wonders for your psyche. It’s so simple – make your rules, follow them, and crush the External Forces. Put individualism first but aspire toward individualist socialism. Individualist socialism is about you working on yourself and being the best you can be and then that will ensure that everyone else benefits maximally from your contribution socially. The socialism that works isn’t collectivist in nature. Collectivism always pervades ideology and ideology always infects our minds through the formation of a subconscious. The dominance of the subconscious in your psyche is likely the reason why you are suffering bad sleep, nightmares, and night terrors. The unconscious mind strives to have you remove the subconscious.
I used to have horrific nightmares including getting murdered brutally in my sleep. It has been over ten years since I had nightmares. I sometimes have provocative dreams that leave a bad taste in my mouth when I wake up, however for ten years I have been the powerful force in my dreams and I exert a tremendous amount of self-conscious control when I am asleep. I communicate in my dream world and can wake myself when I am unsatisfied with what is being presented. I kick ass and so can you!
Walk away from dependence on the drugs and alcohol, on sugar and porno, on religion and media. Getting rid of your wristwatch can be an easy first step into the program I am suggesting. You will quickly find that you don’t need that kind of time reference and you will start to enjoy finding time references in the world around you. I do carry a cell phone but I don’t use it often for checking the time.
If you are suffering from nightmares then I hope you will be thoughtful about my advice and perhaps give my program a try. Nothing is more important than being proud of yourself. Pride in yourself shouldn’t be primarily related to social-based concerns but instead should be about your self-control and self-awareness as an individual.
Individuals First!
