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You are here: Home / Archives for philosophy

Why Do We Keep Doing That?

April 3, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

the-thinkerWhen I attended UCLA —

during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene epochs — a story circulated among the undergrads about the ultimate final exam, which supposedly had taken place in a Philosophy class.

As urban legend had it, the students, bleary eyed from sleepless nights of contemplating The Theory of Forms and defending or arguing whether one can indeed step twice in the same river waited while the professor sauntered into the mini amphitheater, faced them square on, dramatically waiting for silence. Then theatrically, he pronounced, “For your final exam, answer only this one question.”

With staged flourish, he turned to the chalkboard and scrawled:

“Why?”

Most in attendance did not expect this, and ascribing to a more crass philosophy — “If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with B.S.” — utilized the full allotted period to elaborate on this ultimate of all queries. After all, a question with such far-reaching bounds must be worthy of many pages and much ink.

Yet, as the story unfolds, the student who received the highest grade took no more than ten seconds to pen his rejoinder, strolling from the room almost immediately, while histrionically dropping his blue book on the instructor’s desk.

Simply, he had written,

“Why not?”

Now it’s my turn: “Why?”

“Why do we do what we do when we know that what we do will move us further from health, happiness or success?”

Before the knee-jerk reply, “I don’t,” escapes your lips, consider these examples. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Change, Intentions, mental health, Newspaper Column, Overcoming Temptation, Weight Loss Tagged With: changing habits, creatures of habit, philosophical question, philosophy, philosophy class, unhealthy habits, urban legend

Finding Four Leaf Clovers – If You Look, You’ll Find What You Need

November 13, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus

 By guest author Dr. Sue Morter, who was  a guest on “Getting Past What Holds You Back” (see below)

There is a purpose for every event that occurs in our lives: service. Everything that occurs serves as an opportunity for us to come to know ourselves more fully as an empowered co-creator of our experience. No exceptions.

In the first three months after my mother, Marjorie’s, passing, I found 69 four leaf clovers. This was not because I was particularly gifted in any way, but rather because I simply slowed down enough to see them. And when I did see them, sometimes three or four at a time, a deep and overwhelming sense of joy slipped in between the crushing grief and reminded me that there was more to the moment than the obvious.

So what was different?

I sat down. I stopped from a pace of running a private practice, managing a staff, traveling to all corners of the country and abroad teaching professional seminars, being one of her primary care takers on the weekends and catching a flight back home in order to return to work and begin again on Monday. I stopped with the notion of everything having to get ‘done.’ I just sat down. I ‘had’ to.

In that sitting down, in the despair of what felt like losing such a beautiful and rare relationship, my mind stopped and it felt as though all that remained was my breath. Literally all I could focus on was my breathing. Everything else fell away. And something shifted in me. I felt an actual physical, shift. Something let go, and something else ignited.

A feeling (rather than a philosophy) — that it really was OK to fully accept my state, trust it, take action from that space or take no action at all, and let go of the outcome — was born.

“One of the reasons that people can’t find four leaf clovers is that they are too busy looking at all of the three leaf clovers,”  a favorite quote of mine, offered by Marjorie.

Part of the reason that we have a hard time getting to what we want is that we are so indoctrinated into what we ‘don’t want.’ But by allowing ourselves to sit down enough to listen within, our perfect path can be known. My business/speaking opportunities and revenues doubled in the year following my ‘sitting down.’ And the results I see in private practice are like I have never seen before. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Guest Author Tagged With: dr sue morter, emotions, four leaf clovers, inspiration, mind body connection, philosophy, priorities, quality of life, relationship, spirituality, thankfulness

Observations after an Accident

November 2, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

This is my 312th column, putting a period on six years.

These thoughts I share every week do not have a “mission statement” or goal per se; however, I always aspire to use the privilege of this space (and your time) to inspire, uplift, and to be supportive in whatever way I can. If I am also able to generate a laugh or two in the process, that makes it all the better. However, whatever my topic, I attempt to tie these dispatches into what I consider the “big picture;” that each of us possesses the ability to be who we wish to be. Whether we indeed want to drop a few pounds, improve our relationships, or just smile more often; the solutions lie not in our actions but in our thoughts, those sparkling connections firing day in and day out between our synapses.

Let’s take that concept a little deeper, shall we?

Our thoughts — to a large extent — are altered by our feelings. If I am angry or sad, my thoughts will be unlike when I am happy or excited. Upbeat folks are more inclined to venture down new avenues than depressed folks; who will lean toward stagnation; both of these due in large extent to underlying emotions. Therefore, it makes sense — at least to me — that the more I accentuate the positive, the more I engage in new behaviors.

Why don’t we do that more often? It’s not that difficult really.

Underneath these thoughts and their triggering feelings lie beliefs. By example, if I believe that life is painful, it’s much more difficult to modify my emotions to find the positive than if I believe life is glorious. Since we are always looking to validate our beliefs, we find “proof” of them wherever we look. One who believes life stinks will uncover countless examples as evidence. Whereby, one who loves life will find an equal number shoring up her philosophy. In effect, what you seek generates emotional responses, altering your thoughts, leading to different actions, adjusting the outcome of your life. Change your observations; change your life.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beliefs, Inspiration, Newspaper Column Tagged With: big picture, bike accident, emotional responses, emotions, feelings, life stinks, philosophy, recovery, relationships, stagnation

Today’s Lucky Number

January 1, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

It’s the start of a brand new year! It’s the perfect time to recommit yourself to moving forward. Of course, ANY day is the perfect day to do that; we just put some sort of arbitrary significance on January 1. Nonetheless, I’ll take what I can get. What is way cool is the date:

1/1/11

It’s rare that every number will be the same. (Personally, I’ve lived through 5/5/55 – but I didn’t remember it – 6/6/66, 7/7/77, 8/8/88, 9/9/99 and will hopefully experience 2/2/22 and 3/3/33 as well as 4/4/44.)

Alas, I digress.

So, what can we take away from four one’s?

First of all, in binary (after all, don’t we all first think in binary?), the number is 15. So, I decided that today’s lucky number must be 15. Anything with 15 in it today will be great! Of course, I could not think of many things that might have 15, so I took a clue from numerology. I admit I know nothing about numerology – except one keeps adding numbers together (or maybe they don’t). Either way, that’s what I did. I added 1+5 and of course the number is “6.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Change, goals, resolutions Tagged With: brand new year, change, january 1, lucky number, lucky numbers, numerology, perfect day, philosophy

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