Gregg Braden / Appreciation

Watched/Listened to Gregg Braden's Language of the Divine Matrix on Youtube. I don't agree with all of his conclusions exactly, but the message was fairly clear, that we create our reality from our hearts, and from what we believe in the present moment. I don't smoke or chew Salvia D. often lately. When I smoke it, the smoke seems horribly harsh and my mild bronchitis for the last 7 weeks has been discouraging me from doing so. And again, no new insights. I think he/she/it has told me all I need to know for now, or that I've gotten all that is useful out of the experience. Nevertheless, I haven't given up completely (maybe I should.) But I think I should schedule my experiences, say once a month at most, so that I can prepare properly and get something (somewhat) substantial out of the experience. I had for a time considered using Salvia as a means of coping through a transition to an altered sleep cycle such as the UberMan or EveryMan or Dynamaxion sleep schedules, which are a total of 2 to 3 hours of sleep each day (4.5 in the case of Everyman, with its 3-hour core sleep), but I have serious doubts I'll ever try those. It would be an interesting exercise in discipline, however... maybe there's yet a way I can work up the self-discipline or determination to endure the sleep-deprivation in the first week that is so difficult to get through. Hmm... I still think the somewhat altered-state described in Steve Pavlina's post about his experience with an "Uberman" type of polyphasic sleep schedule was interesting enough to possibly be worth the trouble of getting to, and that I'd learn something from the process. But motivating myself to actually make such a radical change to my sleep schedule? Where does that kind of motivation come from? Maybe if I can convince myself I'll somehow solve my financial problems (high credit card debt at high interest), then I could do it. Hmm. Maybe in that altered state in my free time I'd finally be motivated to do all the clean-up I've been procrastinating about. But that seems unlikely; if I don't do it now, why would I then? I still want to *someday* have a *really* intense Salvia experience, hopefully a "breakthrough", and see where it can take me. Amazing that I still haven't gotten there. Either I'm chicken (but don't feel like it), or it's just not meant to be. I don't think it's impossible to do with my latest extract (which is getting a bit old; I wonder if it loses potency), yet I've only been to the mild hallucination stage. Talking about it makes me tempted to try again, though it's late enough tonight that I'm probably just going to crash for the night and sleep. Lately I'm more interested in non-drug approaches to altering my mental state. Most interesting is Holotropic Breathwork, or breathing circles, or circular-breathing in-general. I think the transpersonal consciousness state is clearly attainable through such techniques, because I'm convinced I was there in February in a Holotropic Breathwork workshop, and that I was at least mildly into that state in a breathing circle since then. Much can be brought up and released (automatically) through entering that state. Salvia doesn't really seem to teach the body anything. It can teach the mind, the person, the consciousness, but not the body. To really learn the lessons we need to learn in this incarnation, we need to teach our bodies and brains techniques for modulating our mental and emotional states. Such as, as Gregg Braden may teach, and many religions may teach, the importance of appreciation. Having an attitude of appreciation is truly powerful, or so I'm led to believe. I can't say I've yet integrated that teaching, and practiced it.