Refuse to Cower

How the world sees you is, to some extent, up to you.  You can learn to influence this.  Of course, your basic nature, your inner integrity, cannot be hidden.  But your light will shine forth better if you help it.  One of the things a smart hat wearer does is refuse to be a sniveling coward.  I am not advocating fool hardy and bombastic behavior.  It is wise to be discrete.  But if you cower, your self image will shrivel.  I think it is a good idea right now to discuss what cowering is.  Fear is natural and can be helpful.  We can take a warning from our fear and prepare to face danger.  But to cower is to admit and exaggerate our fear without allowing our mind to think of ways to face and conquer that fear.  Here is a good scenario: A test is presented. A WOW reaction is felt.  You admit the test seems like an overwhelming obstacle.  Then your wise self kicks in.  You take on the test as a challenge.  Even one correct answer is a win.  Being calm will help you dredge up any knowledge or strategies you have.  So you calm yourself. You do not cower.  Most likely you will score higher than you expected.  This simple piece of paper will not bring you to your knees.  You are wearing your smart hat.  You are smarter than you think.  

Baby Your Brain

It is supremely smart to create an environment for your brain to work well.  This means to avoid toxic substances and toxic behaviors.  You might even go so far as to have a sort of "baby talk" time with your brain.  That might sound, at first, ridiculous.  But the higher level of thinking that you want to practice is not reactive.  When the smart, or reasoning part of your brain is in charge you make better decisions and create a much better life. In order for this to take place you must sort out the impulses and reactions that come from the lower parts of your brain, such as the amygdala or reptilian brain. Conscious inner dialogue is essential to a smart life. If your feelings, such as anxiety, are coming at you full force it may be hard to be clear headed.  A little bit of loving self talk, even baby talk, may work wonders in the privacy of your inner dialogue.  Right now Donald Trump has a lot of followers in his bid to become the Republican candidate for President of the United States.  Mr. Trump is making a lot of stupid, vicious, arrogant and even silly statements that these followers are taking in as gospel.  A journalist used a lot of quotes from the infamous Adolf Hitler and attributed them to Donald Trump.  These Trump supporters said they approved of the statements no matter what just because they were said to come from Trump.  These fearful, poor at reasoning people would not be labelled smart.  But perhaps some of them may go to a quiet place and think about the conversation they had with this journalist.  They may be angry at first and dig in deeper with their reactive statements.  But some of them may engage in a bit a sweet talk with themselves.  The vulnerable inner self that we all have is a gentle two year old.  We need to care for them self.  It is the smart thing to do.  So put on your smart hat and baby your brain.  Grow up and take care of yourself and your brain.  You are smarter than you know.