Overcoming Obstacles

In today's blog I want to ruminate on overcoming obstacles.  Very few of us humans do not experience obstacles in our lives, me included.  Obstacles generally create stress and a movement of the self into negativity.  The challenge is to stay in a positive state of mind.  My most recent personal obstacle was that my computer crashed, forcing me into problem-solving mode, due to having this blog and two web sites.

While I have developed my own philosophy regarding the importance of attitudes, and the role of Belief Systems independently, beginning in the mid-70s, I have, since then, discovered a number of books written by different people whose writings, some of my own ideas echo. ( I have, in previous blogs, mentioned some of them, and what they have to offer.)

During the time I was without my computer, I decided to reread two of the books I have, addressing staying out of negativity and, instead, becoming proactive.  One of those was, The Game of Life, by Florence Scovel Shinn; the second was, The Secret of Perfect Living, by James T. Mangan.  While Ms.Shinn left this world in 1940, and Mr. Mangan in 1970, what they contributed to this country's literature on taking control of one's life exceeds that of the contemporary, and popular, The Secret. And, by no means, were they the only individuals putting forth suggestions during that period as to how anyone could overcome life's obstacles.  Personally, however, I have found the above mentioned individual's contributions the most useful.

Like some other books I have read, and written about, both of theirs have to do with overcoming life's obstacles, without claiming a basis in any established Belief System.  If one were to compile a list of them, and their messages, one might suspect that a higher power was trying to get the message through to us humans.  The words of an older song sums up this philosophy nicely: "You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative; latch on to the affirmative, but don't mess with mister inbetween" (Lyrics by Sam Cooke See)

Ms. Shinn's philosophy has its roots in spirituality, but she did not, apparently, identify with any particular religion.  She, as well, had a strong belief in everyone having a personal inner spiritual component.  The many biblical examples/references she uses, as well as her re-interpretation of the meanings of various passages, is quite interesting.  She was able to demonstrate amazing successes by coaching her followers as to how to use her methods to attract what they needed and wanted for themselves, not only financially, but through bringing about changes in personal relationships.

Mr. Mangan posited that each individual is made up of a rational aspect, with which most humans identify, and a subconscious aspect.  He credits the Subconscious with unlimited abilities and powers to facilitate personal health, happiness and successes in life.  I am uncertain if Mr. Mangan had even heard of Freud and his theories, which included an unconscious aspect, but his ideas are clearly not related to Freud's theories. If they had been, he would probably have called the conscious self, the "Ego".

It wasn't until after developing my own philosophy, that I began to hear about those other individuals who had developed their own methods for playing, "the game of life."  Maintaining a positive state of mind, rather than falling into negativity, was a major unifying component in the game of taking control of one's life.  Another major component is/was the importance of the words we use, both internally and out loud.

Both Ms. Shinn and Mr. Mangan emphasized the importance of words, and how we use them.  I suspect that Ms. Shinn was in the forefront in advocating the use of positive affirmations. 

Ms. Shinn's main contribution was her book, The Game of Life.  (As a book title, in my opinion, it has rarely been equaled.)  Books of her philosophy published subsequently were: The Power of the Spoken Word,  Your Word Is Your Wand, and, lastly, The Secret of Success, a collection of talks given by her.  The collection of her four works I have, says, in praise of her: "The late Florence Scovel Shinn was widely known for many years as an artist and illustrator, meta physician and lecturer, and as having helped thousands of people through her great work of healing and assistance in solving their problems."

Indeed, she seems to have had the ability to hold that positive state of mind for individuals, resulting in dramatic positive results, verging on the miraculous, for many of the clients she helped.  As noted above, a primary tenet of hers was that the majority of people are continually undermining personal success and well-being, through the words and sayings they use habitually. 

The book, by James T. Mangan, The Secret of Perfect Living,  re-published in 2006, by his grandson, has to do with a system called, "Switch Words."  (Which I learned about, through a friend, a few years ago.)  A basic tenet of Mr. Mangan's philosophy is that most of us have a war going on inside ourselves between our rational selves (which today we would call the ego), and our ignored subconscious selves. (Progressively, over the modern era, our rational selves, due to our Scientific Belief System Programming, has become increasingly what we listen to.)  The existence of an unconscious/subconscious only began to be acknowledged with the advent of Freud, and the sciences of psychiatry and psychology,  However, its existence still does not receive the recognition it deserves as to its profound importance in our lives and its potential for improving our well-being.

Mr. Mangan held that, as the mind is caught up with being rational and logical, and it's self-importance, it is quick to disparage any inclination to pay attention to feelings/hunches/inspirations, etc.  The unconscious, on the other hand, is essentially non-verbal, and usually thanklessly taking care of its responsibilities.  It is thanks to the science of hypnosis that, even though still generally unrecognized, the unconscious is always awake and aware.  The fact that it is, as well, the overseer of the body's functioning is still not generally acknowledged.  This is verified by those aspects being called anatomic systems.  He also maintained that the unconscious is also aware of, not only the conscious self's superior attitude, but that its functioning Self also, not only, lives in ignorance of its many responsibilities and abilities, but also, mostly as a result, has no appreciation of all that it takes care of. 

The use of the discovered single Switch Words are meant to get the attention of  the non-verbal unconscious self and bring about its cooperation in helping us solve problems and overcome obstacles we all face on a regular basis.  

In using this system, the first task is to recognize that we actually have these two aspects and to understand what is required to bring them together for our personal benefit.  After gaining an understanding of the problem, brought about by this split, he recommended learning some of the main Switch Words, and experimenting with them.

Mr. Mangan's discovery of Switch Words has gained a good deal of interest and reinterpretation in recent years, having been revitalized by Shunyam Nirav, as can be verified by a quick web search.  I would, however, recommending going to the source, James T. Mangan, at least initially, to understand the underpinnings of this approach to taking control of one's life. (For every great idea, that comes along, there usually is someone who comes along. after all the basic work is done, believing they can improve on the idea.)  After testing out the basic system for oneself, one might investigate the reinterpretation of Shunyam Nirav.  I, personally, have not pursued his work, but what I have read, it does not seem to be all that important.

(Both of these books can be found by searching the Internet, particularly Half.com, which sells second hand books.)

A basic fixation, which has permeated Western Culture over the second half of the 20th Century is, "gaming," whether sports or gambling

The message I leave this blog with is that, why not get something positive out of that fixation, by approaching one's life as a game of skill, with rules of play which improve one's chances of winning

Shirley Gallup