INTJ Psychic Health Guide
Meditation
I do it often. At least 2 times a day. GEnerally for 15–20 minutes, minimum. I time myself at work, school, places so that I know when I’ll be alone when the down times are so that I can stop doing anything, breathe, pause and look at the wall, let my thoughts detach from my consciousness—-see them free float, identify them, recognize them as just thoughts.
Sleep Schedule
I also make it a point to control my sleep cycles. For 20 years I’ve worked diligently on maintaining my own schedule as something that served me rather than something that ran me. It may not be a conventional schedule but I kept track of what works for me and what happens if I don’t. I’m also of the 10% who are nocturnal so I’ve worked to alter my professional schedule so that people stop expecting me places at 8–10am. In fact, it’s better if it’s later than that. I get most of my work done from midnight to 4am. It’s been that way since I was a child—-writing through the night—-my error in the past has been trying to go places (school, work) after I dozed off at 4am.
I try to sleep in as much pitch black aside from candles as possible. No outside lights. No electronics in the bedroom—-no TV, no phone, just bed, candles, a few books, everything else is pushed out into other rooms. Occasionally if I’m having a bed day (schedule them—-tell no one—-simply choose a day to disconnect and not answer the phone and sleep at least 12 hours. Luxuriate in sleeping. My personal best is 19 hours of Grade A sleep.) where I spend the whole day lounging in bed, I’ll roll the TV to the bedroom door so I can see it from there. But generally, like an errant (mental) piss happy pet, it’s not allowed past the threshold.
Avoiding Information Overload
I don’t watch TV, I don’t listen to the radio. One TV promotes false values and morality so when I do engage entertainment I put on my This Is Not Real Filter. Most people get lost in entertainment; I can enjoy it but I don’t absorb it, let it into myself, relate to it as related to me. I am and It is. Separate. Reality and Not Reality.
Radio, I found several years ago, while listening to it instead of TV watching is repetitive. It’s a Playlist so if you listen long enough and have an eidetic memory like I do, then eventually you have it memorized. I used to sit there and name the songs and commercials before they would come on in perfect sequence. While I may’ve enjoyed the music I soon found that it preoccupied my attention or distracted me from whatever I was doing because I’d be mentally ticking off the next tracks.
Candlelight
I’ve rested, been in my house and bedroom and even dorm rooms under candlelight for over 25 years.
While there is also space, a spiritual meditative space, simply the act of having a quiet flickering light in my spaces lowers the chaotic energy. Reading, writing, sleeping, sex, simply being, cooking, it’s always to my attention to be drawn to the gentle flickering, the energy. As a meditative guide, a candle can be focused on to mentally mirror one’s inner self as the flame and simply be present with that. Again allowing one to understand that one’s thoughts and one’s self are not the same things. Your thoughts are the byproduct of your consciousness, not the origin. It’s one of the first things I teach in all of my classes so that the participants can look at their (or others’) thoughts without having to wholly identify with them.
If you have issues with people, pets, etc. and candles and safety in your space, solve the problem to get your peace. Don’t explain away your peace because the problem exists. I’ve found that pets respect candles and people can be gently explained to that this is how your space is—-and if they have a problem with it, they’re more than welcome to leave and not return. I place my mental peace and tranquility and choices above all other concerns. I practice into action: putting myself 1st in some fundamental things.
Though I buy them by the case, free-standing or 7 day glass encased one’s I also have a few electronic ones that are good for a work desk/office, travel, etc.. A new travel one I have is this soft touch light thing that’s also a Bluetooth speaker—-it has three settings of white light and then 6 other colors, all by touch, it was like $15. I mention this because of the next point.
Colors
I’m also conscious of the colors around me, on me. I decided this winter to not keep wearing a black coat or a dark colored one—-I got a red jacket as a gift from a non=profit, a windbreaker, but I’m generally dashing on and off trains and then right into buildings…and always overheated except when in A/C so with a suit jacket, sweater or Under Armour workout Thinsulate under it, I’m fine this whole winter.
I say that to show the jacket is fine but I noticed so many people in NYC in black coats. Sometimes dozens in my immediate vision. A brown or grey here and there but all black. Variations of course but still black. And I thought—-that’s not how I feel inside, how I want my energy to be seen or muffled. Let there be color!
Years ago when I was a teenager my mother went away to a training seminar on color composition and came back with wheels and books and charts—-she owned a modeling firm/fashion agency and was getting more and more into the design aspects. Of course, that meant she did my colors. Based upon height and light and skin pigmentation. So I know my colors. So I dress accordingly. Knowing that I often get compliments because I “look” right to the casual eye. Which means I often look my best to others and to myself in mirrors.
This of course further translates to my space, bags I carry, ways I decorate my space, objects I buy, the way I visually treat myself and my space. My interior spaces are often complementary and attractive and relaxing to the eye which makes them even more relaxing when coupled with candlelight.
Plants
Over the years I’ve always adorned my spaces with plants, first my childhood rooms, then dorm rooms, then apartments now houses. You can never have too many plants—-I try to have a minimum of 6–12 in every new space and then build from there. It’s odd on one hand to have so much plant life outside and then bring it indoors but I also bring in rocks, branches, I have glass bowls of water or miniature fountains than run all the time. Something, nature within the space.
Smells
Light incenses or my personal favorite, a heavy stock pot that I put cinnamon sticks, sugar, honey, potpourri in and leave on a constant low simmer on the stove. Generally, every day I simply add fresh water and the smell permeates the entire house.
Music/Sounds
I deliberately play music sometimes but turn it off other times, resting the space in silence. or a favorite thing I do is I play audiobooks, but not like a whole collection—certain books, my favorite authors, Toni Morrison, Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love or other CDs, and I put it on low and just let them talk—-the beautiful things and stories they’re describing permeate my space. A friend who came over to my house once observed that I was the only person they knew who would have a chapter form Paradise or Song of Solomon by Morrison as a track in a Music Playlist so a song would change to her and she to a song.
Sometimes I put John Coltrane's A Love Supreme on repeat for an entire weekend and just have the volume high enough so it’s this constant whisper (Level 1 or 2) in the background 24/7. I just let such a piece fused in love and chaos and order simply deluge the space.
But the trick is to keep these things on constantly, unceasingly so that it becomes part of your atmosphere and therefore quiets your thoughts as your monkey brain, your egoic self is distracted by taking in the information, therefore, being unable to do too much else. Like when you’re breathing—-I often tell students/people when they’re talking too much or lost or erratic to Breathe. You can’t focus on your breath and think/talk. Taking control of your automatic systems means that you have to be presently conscious. Music/audio is similar to that and wonderfully in a book passage suddenly I’ll stop and hear something amazing, delightful, beautiful.
I do as many things as possible on all sensory levels to get my attention focused or dispersed or still. I do this consciously. I’m rarely stressed out—-I’m not even sure what that means, I’ve never felt that feeling because I have such peace spaces to return to.
#KylePhoenix
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