V
V
The Actualism Way
Disclaimer: This is an outline summary of the way Srid understands the actualism method (dubbed 'actualism way'). See the GitHub repo for details. This outline doesn't replace the Actual Freedom website - which is the primary source of authority for descriptions of the actualism method and the actualism process. Srid plans to enrich this outline further by making it interactive and thereby reference quotations from the AFT website wherever useful or relevant.
V
V
Begin with feeling good as a bottom-line
i.e., be in a good mood constantly. constantly == "each and every moment" (non-stop) and "for the rest of one's life".
Some people may need to start with feeling neutral as their set-point, and then up-level it to feeling good baseline down the line.
V
Why?
*
it feels good to feel good (it is sensible)
*
it makes everything else easier
V
Whilst you are feeling good ...
*
Establish the affective monitoring habit
V
V
Appreciate being alive here
A genuine appreciation can do wonders to your enjoyment level. Feeling good & appreciation can feed back on one another, maximizing enjoyment.
V
*
Constantly & genuinely appreciate the things in your life/ where you are
Build a momentum of such constant appreciation
*
Resurrect your childhood naiveté
V
V
Whenever dipping from feeling good (diminishment),
As an example of diminishment from feeling good: somebody said something that upset you so as to diminish your good mood into feeling bad. When that happens, …
V
First, get back to feeling good
*
Realize how it is silly to waste this moment — the only moment — by feeling anything but good.
V
*
Become aware of feelings whilst neither expressing nor repressing them
Otherwise—and especially if you try to "investigate"—you risk going off track and deep into the bad feelings (rumination, for instance).
V
*
If all else fails, get back to feeling neutral first.
Once you are feeling neutral, then get back to feeling good.
V
V
Second, examine what happened
Now that you are feeling good, examine the 'how' of your psyche, by revisiting what had happened.
V
*
Sincerity is vital to cover all the bases
Thoroughly understand how you got triggered. The beliefs and identities involved. Is it not silly to hold on to them?
V
*
Make a note to nip it in the bud next time
With the information you gleaned from the examination, be prepared so that when future similar triggers happen, you can nip it in the bud (not repress) as soon as they arise, and thus continue feeling good.
V
Once feeling good has been the norm, up-level it
*
By appreciating it!
*
By moving towards the actual world.
V
V
Resurrect childhood naiveté
It is like being a child again (but with adulthood sensibilities, so as to avoid gullibility). Can you live life like this all the time?
V
*
Naiveté makes whittling of social identity a breeze, as it gives a naively optimistic perspective to the whole thing
In particular, whilst being naive - one intimately realizes (due to that renewed perspective of being like a kid again) that one does not have to feel bad (in whatever idiosyncratic way).
V
V
Facilitates being liking and likeable
One likes oneself; and likes one's fellow human beings. And this adds greater meaning to one's life, overriding the various petty desires.
*
That added-meaning revs up desire towards actualism goals
*
Thus, it facilitates up-levelling of the baseline (to feeling great, etc.)
V
*
Not knowing what's gonna happen
There's a spontaneity to being naive. One goes about the world with an openness (no predetermined expectations or prejudices) — i.e., not knowing what's gonna happen next — all the way to having a wide-eyed wonder.
V
V
Establish an affective monitoring (of hedonic tone) habit
In parallel to everything else you do (eg: working), develop the habit of being constantly aware of the hedonic tone of your ongoing mood. This is called affective monitoring or affective awareness.
V
Why?
*
It helps catch diminishment sooner than later
*
It is easier to stay in a good way, than claw one's way back to it.
V
V
Neither express nor repress feelings
Develop the capacity of unbiased observing of your feelings.
V
How?
V
*
Don't repress
e.g.: don't be stoic or "cool"
V
*
Don't express
keep your mouth shut and your hands in your pocket
V
*
Thereon, channel the energy of the instinctual passion towards actualism goals (see next point)
When neither expressing nor repressing feelings, the underlying affective energy is now freed-up for use towards any purpose - which, in our case, is actualism goals.
V
V
Move towards the actual world
Start taking the foot off the break
V
Being Here
V
V
Srid's scale
Similar to Grace's scale but in environmental context, as being idiosyncratically explored by Srid. This sub-tree of the outline, which acts as a mnemonic for Srid, should be considered experimental. It is not advertised on the AFT website.
V
*
aliveness
Simply being alive is enough
V
*
hereness
Fully engaged in this moment. Doing whatever is the most appropriate. Rarely lost in other worlds/ other times.
V
*
delightness
Feeling great! And appreciating being here doing something. Swimming in delight. Here's where I can like myself, finally. And others, as they come by.
V
*
richness - doer abeyant; beer ascendant
(Yet to experience)
*
magicality - PCE
V
Naive Intimacy
V
Grace's scale
V
*
togetherness
doing things together — eg: having a meal together, writing amicable emails to each other, etc.
V
*
closeness - expansion of personal boundaries
Instead of putting on a closed boundary (wherein ‘I’ am the primacy of experiencing), I include others in the field of experiencing such that that boundary ‘expands’ (as it were). Experientially, this translates to considering everyone (and everything) in one’s field of experiencing.
V
*
sweetness
Feeling great! A conscious choice required to side-step the instinctual tendency (of segueing into love) to somehow segue into a naive intimacy (see 'richness' below)
V
richness - doer abeyant; beer ascendant
*
if permanent, one is out from under control
V
same as being naiveté
*
it is naive beer, not loving beer (as in spirituality)
*
magicality - PCE
V
Contemplation
*
(For Srid, time is a fascinating thing to contemplate)
*
Pure Contemplation means the same as having a PCE (apperception)