A race for the sun

We take a solo flight

There is no other way

There is no other fight

If we’re lucky we enjoy life more

The course we choose always matters

Our control comes from the core

In the sun’s progress the old us shatters

Our time is left behind

A future undefined

…..

The race is won together

The end is always near

Quickly on the same page

We lose our nervous fear

If we’re lucky we enjoy life more

The path we choose always matters

How we roll comes from our core

The checkered flag is left in tatters

Our time’s no more behind

The future crossed the line

…..

If we clash and toil

And blood begins to boil

We must work hard each day

Make life turn out okay

I’m disqualified for plain insight

But not going by the books

Only the moment tells what is right

Without empathy leaders become crooks

Let’s prove our love is fine

Our time is on the line

At times I may seem incredibly dark

The institution seems so very bright

Not recognizing the confusing spark

Explosions you thought would erase the light

I remain so calm and try to express:

My thinking’s not wrong

With bad sense behind

Forget all the rest

Look into my mind

I can find peace

I can find fire

I can find pathways to dreams that inspire

At times I may seem hidden from the dark

The institution keeps me overnight

Not recognizing a walk in the park

Emotions you missed were pure out of sight

I remain calm still and try to express:

My thinking

My thinking’s not wrong

Common sense can be blind

Forget all the rest

Look into your mind

At times you say I do this just for a lark

The institution is not always right

Not recognizing the truth, cold and stark

Devotion you block while spirit you fight

I remain so calm and try to express…

Love and Space

Goals match how we live

Achieve if we strive

No matter what we give up

Let us face

Souls, standing apart

Separated always

but still close at heart:

We are distanced in space

It is

Who we know

It is

Where we go

Love from afar

It is

Who we are

Be safe like a Star

When the corona virus began to have more impact on us, I was thinking of today and living in the moment.  I still am.  These are some tweet-poems stuck together.

I have this picture that I took on March 11.  It was serene, similar to the picture at the end of this post which I took even before that.  Since then, I have been thinking about how much the world has changed and I want to post something.  This ‘poem medley’ also starts off with the power outage that we had a few weekends ago.

Windstorm revelation…

Soaring

Almost here

*SMASH*

Darkness falls with

An electric thunderclap

A charged series of explosions

Echo into the night

Our grid shuts down to total

Pitch black silence

Ideas go cold

Appliances stop grumbling

All lights vanish

Into another

Disturbing

Power outage

As the storm rages outside

my head is also filled

with a series of bursts

Unexpected blasts

of the day’s events

I’m compelled,

Some will see this differently than me,

I have optimism and faith in the resilient spirit,

Meditate on now

Reflect and plan throughout the day

I still like the breeze on my face

as I walk down the stairs

Other times, I want to get back under the covers

And forget about my cares

We are as strong as life

as safe as our dreams

Everything we imagine is just as it seems

I’m upset that we often recognize the moon only for its ties to the night,

I rejoice when I see the moon in the day,

I enjoy that vision,

It was cool today until the gravity of the world came down,

What a heavy day,

Lucky to have blue sky to fall back on,

You are the one

to make things turn out

Break the chain

Extinguish pain

Power stays within closed doors

Still with our connections

Isolated but involved

in networks

You have the key for me

To endless possibility

To work out destiny

and end suffering

Outside there is light

For which we fight

Inside your bright days

Enable peace

The world changes around me

like any other day

I walk fast

and briskly turn a corner

I run into an old friend

Sunshine

I’m aware: it won’t last

never does

Yet we always meet again

Vintage moments happen at any time,

If we fixate on negatives we miss a chance to help the world,

Flatten the curve

The economy bounces

Wash and distance routinely

As culture renounces

Cycles of waste

Monthly losses

All adding up now

Light falls so swiftly

Rebounding soon somehow

Agents of health

Healing quickly by learning

and not getting sick again

We all bear the burden

I’ve sunk to a new low

Hit the past day’s horizon

Pulled deep with the undertow

Across the space the sky’s on

I raise my cup to life

Drink coffee as I’m climbing

The day cuts like a knife

Impeccable in timing

As I rocket past

Through blue or grey: a blast

Darkness fades

A rebirth to years of

Cycles turning

Once closed to all light

Forever I’m learning

Not always aware

And never returning

The same as the night

Horizon

A vision seen like clay pottery

Intricate design

Grey

Orange

Bright and dripping

Gold

Pouring rivers of molten lava

into flowing thoughts

through the trees

into the center of the Earth

You and I

Taking rehearsed dives into the dark

Into the night

Time

Full of Life

Day fades into night

The joy of bright sunlight outside

flowing through open blinds

throwing warmth on the room

is absent

I’m surrounded by darkness

creeping in corners and under doors

Electric lamp has a shallow reach

But energy pervades

And I resonate with subconscious current

Dreams arrive now

Or moments later

Depth to the depth

When shallow I’m hollow

A breath in and out

Time moves and I follow

Then in the West

We call out Apollo

His best must be left

In grooves that we follow

Daybreak has all of the plans

At night dreams start all over again

Lighting the way

Everyday

A test to the test

In fire I wallow

A splash of wisdom

A dash of defiance

I aim to be close to

Established compliance

I can’t complain

but we do need change

To challenge the system

And set a new stage

So today

I buck history

Mine and the world’s

Try to redesign meaning

Of words we’ve unfurled

Bright ideas, dark days

My optimism is pure

Work and believing

Confess to the rest

When shallow we’re hollow

A breath in and out

Success proves how to follow

Guessed to be best

The world shouts a loud call-out

The rest must be blessed

In grooves that we follow

Daybreak has all of the plans

At night dreams start all over again

At the height of day

I work and pray

Success at the test

In fire I wallow

Smoke is rising

Flames are twisting

I waver like a leaf in the heated breeze

No surprise

I’m resisting

To get past pain and find progress beneath

Our future is uncertain

and alternates positions

Staying strong in only one:

A stem of

Cool and calm visions

IPreface

I have decided to start a writing project.  This could turn out to be something for blogs, an all-out book, or something towards a university degree…  I will have to see where it takes me.

This introduction took me a few hours to write, but a lifetime to prepare for.

Update: I have written Chapter 1 and moved on to the Chapter 2, but I have decided to hold off publishing until I have more of the book assembled!  Still, the introduction here is a quick glance at my history and philosophy, that you should find interesting enough?!!

Balancing Mood for Greater Productivity:  Optimism and Empathy – Strategies to Manage Life

By Mike Scott

Introduction

Intense productivity and good health derive from the ability to balance mood.  I know this from experience.  I want to share with you what I have learned about balancing high levels of energy such as mania and hypomania.  I have had success by turning these potentially troublesome moods into a consistent calm attitude from which I have been able to generate productivity in the workplace and at home.

You might ask, “In what way has this guy been productive?”.  It is about perspective.  I have fought through one heck of a lot.  Perseverance became a major factor that enabled me to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree with a psychology major while I fought off manic and mixed episodes in bipolar disorder for the duration of my undergraduate studies.  I was hospitalized several times.

I have not had an episode since 2001.  Within a decade of taking my degree, I completed my electrical apprenticeship.  I worked for close to fifteen years as an electrician.  I spent four years as an electrical foreman in data-wiring and had multiple, hard-earned successes in large construction projects.  Again: determination got me through.  I sustained injuries and worked through pain for many years.  Due to the physical dangers for me in the field and the industry demands that threatened to compromise my goals in mental health, I left the electrical trade.  Years before this, I had started working on my goals in psychology again.

In 2011 I submitted a paper on goal-pursuit.  I was told by a prominent researcher from a top U.S. university that a PhD should be within my reach.  By the time I left electrical work in 2015, I had already started casual hours in support work for mental health.  I have had success supporting adults, youth and children with special needs for over five years now.  This can be gritty work, with emotional and physical challenges.  I also coached over a dozen sports teams and won nine championships as a coach in minor league baseball.  Yes, this is just kid’s stuff to some, but with new responsibilities in the new millennium and learning from my problems in the 1990’s, I have found better ways to balance mood… and generate productivity.

I suffered a lot from episodes over those years, and I learned how to stop escalating into mania.  I did this by managing physical health, taking medication for mental health, and using all sorts of cognitive strategies.  New insights allowed me to manage triggers that otherwise would have set me off.  They are no longer triggers.  My newly balanced and calm demeanor has helped turn many difficult situations into productive ones.  This has been noted by family, friends, co-workers, clients and supervisors.  My energy is about patience and reason.  At the same time, I have electricity.  I quietly buzz with productivity, and systematically accomplish goals.  I find grounding by getting tasks done and discovering new perspectives to balance mood while appealing to common sense, spirituality and humor.  The certain edge that I have, landed me in research with the University of British Columbia.  In 2016 I was published as a co-author for a study on “Effective self-management strategies in bipolar disorder”.  The team’s research has been respected by the government of Canada with an award of distinction.

Meanwhile, I have worked through challenges in my home-life successfully.  I went through a divorce.  It was a mutual split.  I remain close with my kids and they have adjusted.  I do everything I can for them.  I gave my ex-wife the home, to settle quickly, and to provide for them.   Almost a year after moving out, I became romantically involved with my new partner, and in 2014 I moved in with her, her two kids, and her father.  I work extremely hard for all parts of my family, and we are doing considerably well.  The four kids get along and are making progress in school and in new occupations.  My partner and I are very happy together.  I work steady, take care of the kids, handle most of the household chores and help my wife’s dad run what is basically a small hobby farm.  All these experiences are ways that I have been productive, while avoiding mania or depression.

Now, if you are still interested, I hope to tell you how I have most effectively balanced mood, to create productivity over my lifetime:  Being confident and kind helps me find more productivity!  Optimism.  Empathy.  It’s simple.  It seems like a no-brainer!  Why can’t people get this?  For me, being optimistic increases productivity because it builds a bias towards confidence to achieve.  Then, more often: we achieve.  Being considerate increases productivity because if we help others, others are more likely to help us!  It seems straight-forward.  There is something else about caring, when the world gets involved… and the universe.  There are so many surprises and challenges that every situation is different.  Optimism and empathy have enabled me to have many successes in life.

There is one complex discussion that plays a big role in this book and it may be hard for some people to appreciate initially.  I will be using many of my own experiences to describe the psychology which I have based my operations-plan on for most of my entire life.  I will explain and support why I feel that some mechanism occurs, and events can unfold, perhaps like karma or synchronicity and in some ways, it can work for us.  By having respect for life, such as in procedures in goal-pursuit and in creating routine or ceremony:  Life rewards us with serendipity – as if hard work and good intentions have dynamics that are stronger when we recognize and respect value beyond the surface.  I find this connection to be very reassuring.  It is about visualization of outcomes to some extent.  It keeps me level in difficult situations.  I will point to a direct correlation between certain moods and productivity in this type of transcendental work, and how this is enhanced by confidence, care and respect.  This is where I would like to explain balance from, such that you might attain the same sense of stability too, even amidst possible turmoil.

We balance our life towards goals.  Social feedback and the environment can aid or blockade goal-pursuit.  Our own belief-system and how we react, is where all the dynamics start.  On top of the most essential building blocks of physical and mental health, respect for life may determine mood more than anything else.  We can build moods of productivity with optimism and empathy.  I will explain how.

******

Picture taken by my Dad

As I lay down after what seems like a thousand years,
I’ve accomplished what I’ve needed,
Escalated a million times,
And come down heavy here,

I’m feeling no pain since I’ve been back,
Killing time until we’re dead,
It’s an emotional lecture
I’d speculate
How to maintain a pain-free head,

The way is clear,
Find the path,
My head is clear,
What a blast,

I’m feeling like a train on the tracks: fast,
Finding guidance from you instead,
It’s not just conjecture
I anticipate
How we always get ahead,

As I charge up and energize, I’ve no more valid fears,
I realize all we carry,
How we’ve lightened spilling-skies,
And stayed so steady here

This poem is from 2014.  It’s out of the archives. I finally have pictures to match…

*****

I’m hoping and I’m confident for the

Future, hanging by a thread and still safe

My dream was on hold and subconsciously…

I left it like marigolds to be saved

For the spring, to dry in a newspaper,

Headlines reading: Drastic change is needed

And a waft of earth mixed in with pungent perfume,

A sharp joy familiar from another life,

Seeds in time need space – In some sense starving,

For rebirth, like a continental drift

Driving plates of earth into new mountains,

Necessity for action altering

The landscape, dangerously alone with

Unavoidably complicated results,

It is not that I’m crazy or even,

Secretly in love – it is that my world

Would flip with some unknown consequences,

Yes, for all moments satisfying – Even

After a long while and at once broken

Off, pieces of another life hang like

Uncertain segments of sidewalk dripping,

Off the edge of an earthquake, Could it be

Consumed – an edible shoelace of cheese

On the pizza of life,

Real sustenance,

Or would it be wasted and shrivel up,

Prepared to spend time covered in food wrap,

Forgotten in the far back of the fridge,

To spend its eternity alone once

Again, without the earth and teaming road,

That once made it whole?

Delivered with maturity, its value

Could really be reclaimed,

New roads paved, an emptiness

Filled, satiety of scenario

And the landscape once again level, Night

To follow, but awakening to a

Content system: Business- thoroughfare

At once resuming – It is a vision,

Or is it just simply the winds of change,

Enveloping a tired world, swiftly

To be swept right up, forcing the divine

Action of a society? – Invoke:

Swarming feats of brilliant engineering,

And eventual, and still quick triumphs

For the ones previously thought to be

Left behind,

Strong…

Now: Does she inspire me?

Truly and without isolation – One

Possibility with the infinite

Similarities to every other

Love, real and imprinted in time, Surreal,

Once drawn into my creative current,

Unusually focussed, yet correct

And productive state of mind, for which I

Would change a world in hopes that I could find

The best way possible to carry on

And still perpetuate our existence,

Orange flowers blooming with centuries of

Genetic change curing previous flaws

In the stems of our garden, a hybrid

Strain, and pick up where we left off today