TECH JOY

Jonathan Robinson (2019). The Technology of Joy: The 101 Best                                                  Apps, Gadgets, Tools and Supplements                                                for Feeling More Delight in Your Life.


Robinson is a "psychotherapist" but does not list his credentials nor can i find them on any website...he is the author of 10 best selling books at the time of this writing, and has been a speaker for Fortune 500 companies like Google. 

In this book, Robinson explores various "technologies" which he defines as "the application of tools and methods for achieving a specified result more efficiently" (page 1). He bases the selection of these technologies for joy on Mary Seligman's acronym PERMA from positive psychology: P = pleasure, E = Engagement (losing yourself in an activity), R = Relationships, M = Meaning, and A = Accomplishment. 

There are six sections of the book that cover the joy technologies of: (1) drugs and supplements, (2) high tec, (3) psychological techniques, (4) happy apps, (5) alternative energy methods, and (6) body. 

He writes conversationally as if speaking directly to you and includes much of his personal experience using these technologies (he has tried almost all of them). There is a helpful section on evaluating the various technologies to see if they are "good for you." He encourages us to ask ourselves does the technology increase: closeness to others, peace, joy, awareness, compassion, health, wisdom, and does the technology align with our values. Other factors to consider are: time it takes to use, cost, and potential addictiveness.


Some of my personal favorites that i tried or would like to try are: 

savor 3 good things/blessings each day before you sleep

place orgone accumulator (he explains how to make this simple device based on William Reich's writings with steel wool and cotton) on the body where you need healing 

use bright lights for an energy boost instead of coffee

hand and foot massage for general relaxation instead of alcohol

aromotherapy--e.g., lavendar for sleep instead of sleeping pills

dry infared sauna instead of hot tub

tingler for scalp (low cost and pleasurable sensations) and acupressure ring for fingers and toes instead of drugs

5 rhythm dancing of Gabrielle Roth instead of routine exercise



                                                                            JOY

                                                        (Jerusalem Artichoke in bloom)





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS Wayne Dyer (2003). There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. Dyer earned a Doctorate of Education in Guidance and Counseling, and is a prolific author. His first book that i read in the 1970's, Your Erroneous Zones, profoundly influenced my thinking as a teen.  The theme of this book is that there is a spiritual solution to every problem, that problems are illusions created in the mind by incorrect thinking, and that the solution to these mental problems is to change our thinking in light of the spirit (defined as an energy/intelligence that is the source of all life, i.e., God). Some might call this "spiritual bypassing," ignoring the body in favor of the mind and spirit. The first half of the book is lessons from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Dyer suggests that low frequency is associated with the "negative" and faster frequency with the "positive" [for me, at least musically, lower frequencies don't imply negative emo...
Read more
Image
TURN ON Timothy Leary (1965, 1999). Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out Leary was a University Professor at Harvard who is best know for his experiments with LSD. The book is part lectures, part interviews, and part essays. Given all the media hype about Leary, i was surprised at how much common sense i encountered, and how much he speaks to learning, hope, and love.  He begins with a chapter on how to start your own religion (to invoke the rights of the first amendment in US law) with family and friends, a tribe of people living together in community with their own laws...a place where sacrament is consumed (it need not be LSD, but anything that is spiritually meaningful to the community, something that binds the community together in ceremony)...a place preferably in nature where one feels protected and nurtured.  The BIG ADVICE is to drop out of society's robot world/mind, and turn on to God/Goddess (the Spirit), nature, and the body and mind, and tune in (dropping back into socie...
Read more
Image
BODY WISDOM  Therese Bertherat (1989).  The body has its reasons: Self-awareness                                                           through conscious movement.  Berherat takes us on a personal journey in learning body wisdom /awareness using Ehrenfred's method which is radically different than the medical model/method she learned at University. The story unfolds as "sessions" of practices, and the end of the book reveals several "preliminaries" on how to cultivate body wisdom. Among the many practical lessons are:      pause after exhaling to let the body use oxygen before inhaling again--this allows the              body to rest/relax with every breath.      because all parts of the body are integrated, working with one par...
Read more