“A parent shaming us by comparing us unflatteringly with a sibling; a boss humiliating us in front of colleagues when a task isn’t up to their expectations; a partner repeatedly complaining about some household task we haven’t done yet: these are all attempts to “light a fire under our ass” in order to get us to achieve more. Most of us have had this ploy used against us so many times over the course of our lives that we’ve internalized this motivational strategy.
Our inner critic punishes us verbally when it thinks we’ve under-performed. It castigates us for being lazy when we haven’t gotten around to starting some task. Yet despite all this internal criticism, most of us still have a hard time motivating ourselves to do things. When self-criticism fails, the answer is usually more self-criticism. “How,” we might wonder, “would I get anything done if I didn’t give myself a hard time?” Source: https://www.wildmind.org/blogs/on-practice/the-self-compassionate-way
“When I was in college, I went off to the mountains for a weekend of hiking with an older, wiser friend of twenty-two. At one point, my friend described how she was learning to be “her own best friend.” A huge wave of sadness came over me, and I broke down sobbing—I was the farthest thing from my own best friend.
I was continually harassed by an inner judge who was merciless, relentless, nit-picking, driving, often invisible but always on the job. I knew I would never treat a friend the way I treated myself, without mercy or kindness. My guiding assumption was, “Something is fundamentally wrong with me,” and I struggled to control and fix what felt like a basically flawed self.
Feeling not okay went hand in hand with deep loneliness. In my early teens I sometimes imagined that I was living inside a transparent orb that separated me from the people and life around me. When I felt good about myself and at ease with others, the bubble thinned until it was like an invisible wisp of gas. When I felt bad about myself, the walls got so thick it seemed others must be able to see them.”: Blog: “Something is Wrong with Me” – Tara Brach
I’m guessing that Emitt Rhodes is the greatest 70’s musician you never heard of. I have been a ‘fan’ of his since middle school. I thought I was sooo very sophisticated for liking this kind of album when I was that young. Truth is, he reminded me much of my hero of that time, Paul McCartney. Turns out I’m not the only one — many referred to him as a ‘One Man Beatles’ who played all the instruments himself ala McCartney in his first solo album…
Here’s what the Wikipedia has to say about Emitt’s early career:
“The Merry-Go-Round had a recording contract with A&M Records when they disbanded in 1969. Rhodes recorded songs at A&M to fulfill that contract, but A&M decided to not release them at the time. Rhodes then decided to go out on his own and bought equipment to make a recording studio in his parents’ garage. Rhodes recorded his first album (Emitt Rhodes) in that home studio. He got a recording contract with ABC/Dunhill Records, which released his album as well as the next two albums he recorded (Mirror and Farewell to Paradise). Rhodes got a $5,000 advance for Emitt Rhodes, which he spent on recording equipment.[citation needed]
His first album was a critical success – Billboard called Rhodes “one of the finest artists on the music scene today” and later called his first album one of the “best albums of the decade”. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard charts. The single “Fresh as a Daisy” reached number 54 on the pop chart. Rhodes opened at the Troubadour nightclub on February 9, 1971, concurrent with a large earthquake that struck the Los Angeles area. An ad that ran in Billboard said “That wasn’t an earthquake, that was Emitt Rhodes opening at the Troubadour!” Meanwhile, shortly after Emitt Rhodes was released by Dunhill, A&M decided to release their old recordings of The American Dream, which confused record buyers. Mirror was released in 1971 and did reach the top 200 on Billboard‘s album chart. In 1973 Dunhill released Rhodes’ final album, Farewell to Paradise.[1]
Rhodes wrote all of the songs on his albums. On Emitt Rhodes, Mirror, and Farewell to Paradise, he played all of the instruments and sang all of the vocals while recording himself in his home recording studio. He used a four-track recorder for the instruments for Emitt Rhodes and transferred those to an eight-track recorder to add the vocals. He used an eight-track recorder for Mirror, and Farewell to Paradise. The mixdown engineer on Farewell to Paradise was Curt Boettcher, the producer and musician who is best remembered for his work on the “soft pop” albums by Sagittarius and The Millennium.[citation needed]
Rhodes’ contract with Dunhill called for an album every six months (six albums over three years) – a schedule that was impossible for Rhodes to meet, due to writing all of the songs and recording each instrument and vocal individually by himself.[1] Dunhill sued Rhodes for $250,000 and withheld royalties because of his failure to deliver albums on the timescale required by the contract. Emitt Rhodes took nearly a year to record, the album Mirror took nine months, and Farewell to Paradise took over a year.”
Bankrupt, Rhodes faded into obscurity for over 35 years. I looked for this documentary made by an Italian fan for over two years and found it yesterday morning. Curious? Dig in…
You can read more about Emitt’s life here and here and in the links below:
In the US, the very same blood test can cost $19 at one clinic and $522 at another clinic just blocks away — and nobody knows the difference until they get a bill weeks later. Journalist Jeanne Pinder says it doesn’t have to be this way. She’s built a platform that crowdsources the true costs of medical procedures and makes the data public, revealing the secrets of health care pricing. Learn how knowing what stuff costs in advance could make us healthier, save us money — and help fix a broken system.
When most of us think about how we came to our political views, we often give a straightforward answer. We believe our stances on taxes, immigration or national security are shaped by those around us — our friends, parents, teachers. We assume our life experiences are the root of our political ideologies. But what if there is something deeper in us that drives the music we listen to, the food we eat — even the politicians that we elect? This week, we explore the role of biology in shaping our political identities: Nature, Nurture And Your Politics
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For all its viral coverage, celebrity fans and massive, 125 million person-strong playerbase, Fortnite is not without its issues.
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Early in June, various sites published a story about a nine-year-old girl who was apparently receiving treatment for being addicted to the game. This led to a slew of similar articles advising parents what to do if they feared their child could be suffering from something similar. A large number of them called out Fortnite specifically.
It’s all very well trying to remain calm as a parent, but when you have a baby who has thrown porridge all over you, a three-year-old whacking you all with a toy tractor, a six-year-old who refuses to dress for school, and two minutes to get everyone out of the house, how can anyone channel their inner Zen in moments like these? Could mindfulness make you a better, calmer parent?
As the nineteenth film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring a star-studded cast and all three Phases of the franchise referencing either an Infinity Stone or Infinity Gauntlet, Avengers: Infinity War promised great things – but did it live up to expectations? In truth, it did and quite frankly, I had a blast when I […]
Bright, shiny objects! 
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