Jeffrey Alexander Martin

Anxiety and fear can help us. They help us avoid dangerous things and prepare for the future, but they can also overwhelm us and stop us from moving forward. It's like indigestion of the heart, mind, and soul. You're made to be able to have anxiety, and to be able to deal with it. It's a skill you can learn. Here is Eli's response to learning it. What is your name? E. R. If, for some odd reason, you could no longer do this type of emotional processing, would you be: very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, or not disappointed? Very disappointed. What is the worst moment from before you knew how to process your emotions? Multiple feelings of being overcome or overburdened by the common stress of life. What is the best moment after you learned how to process your emotions? The best moment is the feeling of being able to let go and release through meditative practice all the emotion and feeling that you have in relation to whatever it is you're experiencing in life at...

Loss is a part of life. The more we're attached to something the worse it feels when it slips away. Our natural reaction is to cage our grief up. But then it only turns to anger and sadness. The way through it is to experience our feelings rather than hiding them from ourselves. Here's an example of someone doing it. What is your name? T. M. If, for some odd reason, you could no longer do this type of emotional processing, would you be: very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, or not disappointed? Very disappointed What is the worst moment from before you knew how to process your emotions? Loss of a child What is the best moment after you learned how to process your emotions? Processing the loss of my Husband How has your attitude changed from before your training to after? Much more positive. Less sad How hard was it to learn to be aware of your sensations and your mind-body connection? This is a very easy process. What was the hardest part of learning? Relaxing, thinking I n...

Hope is necessary for us to continue to put forth the effort necessary to live (Richter, 1957). When we lose that hope, we are built with the ability to regain it. We can choose to process our anxiety, depression, anger, and grief. We can process our emotions, we just haven't been shown how. This is a clear example of someone that is doing it right now. I'll tell you how after. What is your name? K. Y. If, for some odd reason, you could no longer do this type of emotional processing, would you be: very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, or not disappointed? Very disappointed. What is the worst moment from before you knew how to process your emotions? My husband's death. What is the best moment after you learned how to process your emotions? When I feel a negative emotion, I know how to process it. It's wonderful to have a path to follow and not feel lost. How has your attitude changed from before your training to after? I feel good again. I giggle and laugh over silly...

This is the fourth time I'm writing a letter for the future. It's an odd experience because there's a chance I'm still alive, but there's a chance that I won't be. How do I compress down some useful insights and maybe even advice. This has been done many times in history. Some of the greatest minds in history have written letters of advice for family members. I've read some of them. All of them are probably useful. I looked some up, they include:  Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), Seneca the Younger (4 BCE–65 CE), Pliny the Younger (61–113 CE), William Penn (1644–1718), Lord Chesterfield (Philip Dormer Stanhope) (1694–1773), Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), John Adams (1735–1826), Abigail Adams (1744–1818), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), George Washington (1732–1799), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), Winston Churchill (1874–1965), Albert Einstein (1879–1955), Ross Perot (1930–2019), Jeffrey Alexander Ma...

A little before I finished the semester I was talking with a handful of college students about what's the most useful thing they are taking from my class, and if there's anything useful. The answers are both surprising and not surprising based on how I teach. One girl answered, "How to talk to people. Like with speaking and being confident." Another answered, "How to think. You know, like with context and everything." Another said, "Thinking deeper about these things." Good answers. The content itself is important, but the framework that it is put in is probably even more important, which is essentially the skill of teaching. A couple of times over the semester I had discussions in the class about how the students thought the class was going and how they thought it could be better. At the beginning the students were almost unanimous in that they wanted the class to be lectures with PowerPoint presentations and multiple choice exams. I told them rig...