So we all of us get into grooves or mental patterns some that serve us well and others that do not and of course what we pay attention to and what we do not pay attention to can have a major effect on how we as individuals or as various enmeshed collectives go about our day to day lives.

So what is off the beaten track for you?

For myself for instance I can observe that this weekend is a CUP weekend football wise and many small clubs get that rare opportunity of playing against the so called best that our leagues have to offer, so for those clubs players and supporters they are going off the beaten track.

What else well some of you may have noticed I have not necessarily written any article over the last couple of Friday’s-this has come about through a change in my working hours on Fridays-so where once I had a routine of 10-6 through the night come each Friday I now start at 5 pm GMT each week and this again I for myself going off a well worn routine or off the beaten track-I have not yet adjusted to the change my old routine having been in place for some 10 years.

Another event for myself this week was that I got a cold-not unusual at this time of year-a number of colleagues attended work on Monday sniffing sneezing coughing and come Thursday/Friday I myself have succumbed to this bug that I am reliably informed by a number of folks has swept through the City.  I only mention this because surprisingly enough COLDS and INFLUENZA and so on can actually potentially give some people breakthroughs-yes sounds weird but let me continue.

My daughter and indeed her elder sister are both epileptic and when they were younger we generally had to monitor them a little more closely when ever the sniffles started.  Quite simply colds and influenza can change your body electrics and chemistry and therefore the mental patterns that you usually have can be knocked out of the usual routines or flow-for the girls it made them more susceptible to having fits-I myself a few years ago had a minor condition of bells palsy.  I went to bed having caught the most dreadful of cold or viral bugs and was in a somewhat bad way-bunged up and really feeling the cold and all the usual allegedly hallucinatory man-flu type symptoms and when I awoke the next day halve of my face had stopped working.

I was not even initially consciously aware that it was not working until I find myself with slurred speech and dribbling because my face muscles or nervous system had simply stopped responding or communicating with the mental patterns that they were run by.  Thankfully I recovered after a week or so of antibiotics and so on-but many people are not so lucky and continue for years or even the rest of there lives with there face locked up.  It is a condition that is in some quarters classified as a type of stroke.

So whist bad physical ailments can be induced for some of us by colds and influenza it is worth also considering that such symptoms may also bring about lucid type states of consciousness for some-so if you ever get the sniffles even though you might not feel good about having the sniffles-most of us go into moaning or poor me modes-it can be worthwhile to observe and witness and see if you get any other kinds of awareness shifts also.

What else have I not spoken of-well it really is personal choice as to what people choose to pay attention to but one recurring theme from my writing studies an actually something that I have not practiced is this idea of becoming a ruthless editor-you write a piece and then you edit it-and edit it some more and so on.

I have no idea how this idea came about as useful-it might well be reverse psychology for instance I think I have seen a 71 page book by a guy called ~~Strunk being referred to as a classic and must read for people interested in journalism or writing-one of the annoying things is that yes I have read it, but that many of the authors and lecturer type peoples who recommend this particular book are people who write mammoth tombs-guys like Stephen King for instance, one of the few books he recommends (In his own autobiography) generally stating that he does not rate most other authoritative “how to” books, he himself started as a journalist before moving into the realm of novels and horror fiction.

There are of course many ways to edit any given piece and it can of course help in getting rid of ambiguity in what you are saying and the telling of any message you are seeking to convey.  I think the practice of editing Is worthwhile for folks who wish to improve understanding of grammar and the difference between verbs, adverbs nouns and so on.  I must admit that much of my own attempts at improving my own grammar have fallen short of standards given by the experts, I seemingly do not have the pause and select thesaurus attitude built in.

going back to my days studying Hypnosis and so on-you might call these types of text on page ramblings as being akin to Eriksonian hypnosis (He was a legendary Hypnotist that many modern practioners work is based on-both stage and medical and so on.)

He would basically talk and talk and talk to people with stories and so on until trance like states were induced-at which point he would do his thing whether healing or whatever).  you might liken it to parents telling children the bed-time story where young eyes get tired and sleepy and so on until the kids drift of to sleep.

Of course my own interest in writing these pieces is witnessing and improving my understanding of metaphorical meanings and seeing where I can improve my own awareness in areas where I perhaps have not advance as much as I would personally like.

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well 🙂