Food supply 101: Top 12 cheapest foods to stockpile

An emergency stockpile can greatly increase your chance of survival if Shit Hit The Fan. But creating a stockpile can easily drain your grocery budget if you’re not careful.

Luckily, some of the best foods for stockpiling are extremely cheap, so you can buy them in quantities enough to last you several months. Here are some examples of cheap foods to stockpile:

Rice – Rice is a staple food worldwide. It is also a versatile ingredient as it can be paired with various foods or cooked with various ingredients. When stored in an airtight container, rice keeps for six months. Rice is also cheap when bought in bulk.

Pinto beans – Pinto beans can be cooked in bulk and used in soups and salads. Pinto beans are a cheap way to keep bellies full, too, since they are rich in carbohydrates, fiber and protein. Like rice, they will also keep for several months if stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry pantry. Buy pinto beans in bulk to save money.

Lentils – Lentils are another legume that should be part of your emergency stockpile. They give you lots of calories, carbohydrates, protein and dietary fiber. Lentils are typically used in soups. But they also make great additions in potato salads, roasted vegetable salads, curries, and other savory dishes.

Oil – Don’t forget to stock up on oil since you’ll need it to cook. Having oil on hand will also give you more variety since you can use it to make marinades, sauces and salad dressings. Choose healthy oils, such as coconut, sesame and olive oils.

Flour – Bread is a staple in various diets worldwide. But bread can quickly go bad and moldy. So instead of buying ready-made bread, stock up on bags of flour. Flour is the single most important baking ingredient. If you have flour, you can make whatever bread or pastry you want.

Cornmeal – Cornmeal is the main ingredient in cornbread, a staple in Native American diets. Cornbread will sustain you in a pinch. You can also use cornmeal to bread fish and chicken. (Related: Have a taste of frontier survival cooking with cornmeal pancakes.)

Chickpeas – Chickpeas or garbanzo beans are a staple in the Mediterranean diet. Like other beans, chickpeas are also high in protein and dietary fiber. Buy chickpeas in bulk and store them in airtight containers for long-term storage.

Pasta – Pasta is a good source of carbohydrates. Pasta also makes a great vehicle for hearty sauces, meat and dehydrated vegetables, among other ingredients. Because pasta is dried, it can keep up to two years past the expiration date printed on the packaging. Opened dry pasta will keep for one year.

Oats – Old-fashioned rolled oats are a pantry staple. You can buy them in large bags and store them in a cool, dry place for long-term storage. Oats are also a versatile ingredient. You can use them to make overnight oats, no-bake granola bars and muffins, to name a few.

Powdered milk – Forget about stocking up on cow’s milk, which will inevitably go bad even when unopened. Stock up on powdered milk instead. You can use powdered milk to make all sorts of ingredients, such as evaporated milk, coffee creamer, yogurt, hot chocolate and cottage cheese.

Meat – Meat can still be part of an emergency stockpile. For long-term storage, you can either cure meat with salt or portion it into airtight containers and place them in the freezer. You can also dry meat to make your own jerky. Check with your local grocery store or butcher for money-saving deals and promos.

Dried foods – Don’t forget to add dried fruits, vegetables and herbs to your emergency stockpile. These foods ensure you still get to eat healthy foods when Shit Hit The Fan. The best part is, you can dehydrate foods yourself. Stalky and starchy foods, such as potatoes, carrots and unripe bananas, are great for dehydrating. Follow this guide to dehydrate your own foods.

10 Simple Ways to Live a Less Stressful Life

Stress is a major problem for many people — a hectic, stressful job, a chaotic home life, bills to worry about and bad habits such as unhealthy eating, drinking and smoking can lead to a mountain of stress.

If your life is full of stress, there are some simple things you can do to get to a more manageable level.

Now, your life will probably never be stress-free. That’s not desirable (even if it was possible) because stress is something that challenges you and helps you grow—when it’s at a reasonable level. But when stress gets too high, it causes you to be unhappy and unhealthy.

One of the keys to success is taking a realistic, gradual approach to change. How do you do it? One change at a time. Change one habit a month and gradually, over the course of a year or two, you will find you have made long-lasting changes to many things in your life.

Not all of these tips may work for you. Each person is different. Pick and choose the ones that you feel will be effective for you, and give them a try. One at a time.

1. One thing at a time. This is the simplest and best way to start reducing your stress, and you can start today. Right now. Focus as much as possible on doing one thing at a time. Clear your desk of distractions. Pick something to work on. Need to write a report? Do only that. Remove distractions such as phones and email notifications while you’re working on that report. If you’re going to review email, do only that. This takes practice, and you’ll get urges to do other things. Just keep practicing and you’ll get better at it.
2. Simplify your schedule. A hectic schedule is a major cause of high stress. Simplify by reducing the number of commitments in your life to the essentials. Learn to say no to the rest — and slowly get out of commitments that aren’t beneficial to you. Schedule only a few important things each day, and put space between them. Leave room for down time and fun.
3. Get moving. Do something each day to be active — walk, hike, play a sport, go for a run, do yoga. It doesn’t have to be grueling to reduce stress. Just move. Have fun doing it.
4. Develop one healthy habit this month. Other than getting active, improving your health overall will help with the stress. But do it one habit at a time. Eat fruits and veggies for snacks. Floss every day. Quit smoking. Cook a healthy dinner. Drink water instead of soda. One habit at a time.
5. Do something calming. What do you enjoy that calms you down? For many people, it can be the “get moving” activity discussed above. But it could also be taking a nap, or a bath, or reading. Other people are calmed by housework or yard work. Some people like to meditate, or take a nature walk. Find your calming activity and try to do it each day.
6. Simplify your finances. Finances can be a drain on your energy and a major stressor. If that’s true with you, find ways to simplify things. Automate savings and bill payments and debt payments. Spend less by shopping (at malls or online) much less. Find ways to have fun that don’t involve spending money.
7. Have a blast! Have fun each day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Play with your kids — that can take your mind off everything and can be really hilarious. Play sports (with or without your kids). Board games are fun. Whatever you choose, be sure to laugh.
8. Get creative. Throwing yourself into a creative activity is another great way to de-stress and to prevent stress. Consider writing, painting, woodworking, playing music, sketching, cooking or making pottery, interior design or building things.
9. Declutter. Take 20 to 30 minutes and just go through a room, getting rid of stuff you don’t use or need anymore or find a better place for it. When you are done, you will have a nice, peaceful environment for work, play, and living. Do this a little at a time — make it one of your “fun activities.”
10. Be early. Being late can be very stressful. Try to leave earlier by getting ready earlier, or by scheduling more space between events. Things always take longer than normal, so schedule some buffer time: extra time to get ready, to commute, to do errands before you need to be somewhere, to attend a meeting before another scheduled appointment. If you get somewhere early, it’s good to have some reading material. 

The Science Of Fear: How The Elites Use It To Control Us & How To Break Free

Fear is one of the most powerful tools the elites have at their disposal. Using the mainstream media, politicians and others who want world domination can inject fear into the public at the drop of a hat, making them easy to manipulate and control.

Aristotle once said: “He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” Fear is a powerful weapon, and it’s been used globally for the past few months.

People have shown that the instant the media tells them to live a life scared in their homes, they will comply in order to “stay safe.”

Whether the virus is real or not, is not the point. The elitists must keep the public in a constant state of panic in order to control them.

Unafraid and compassionate people are impossible to control.

Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the propaganda was injected into schools to eliminate critical thinking.

At school, we were taught to think in certain ways. They taught us what to think, but not how to develop our thinking. And everyone was taught the same. If we thought in different ways than our classmates, teachers would tell us we are bad students.

They would give us bad grades and might even expel us from school. Therefore, as students we learned to compromise our thinking so as to get away with trouble. – The Bounded Spirit

The other hard truth most will not like to hear is that if you are still stuck in the left vs. right paradigm, you still haven’t figured any of it out yet. Left vs. right only exists to give us the illusion of choice.

It’s time to question what we’ve been programmed to think, and it should start there. The fear of not electing the right candidate drives people to polls to vote for evil every year. (The lesser of two evils is still evil.)

Politicians are being elected by persuading the masses through the use of fear while journalists influence public opinion by terrorizing people’s minds.

Fear is the best weapon of all great manipulators. It can move people to do anything, no matter how nonsensical it is. Take, for example, the COVID-19 scam.

People are still terrified of a virus that even the government has admitted isn’t any worse than the flu. Why? Because the media, the government’s lapdog, is telling them they still need to be afraid.

The elites have learned to manipulate the public’s emotions to their advantage. With global media corporations in place, controlled and operated BY the elite, they can amplify that fear quite easily.

Turn on the news, open a newspaper and you’ll see this.

We have been taught to be distrustful of the mind, however, and of our thoughts. This has been by design and has been perpetuated through society by the elite of this world who understand the power of thought and the nature of the mind.

In fact, most of us have been through a long period of mind-programming since we were born to separate our mind from itself so that it does not know or experience this truth. – With One Breath

Obey. That is the name of the game of control. And controlled you are if you do not recognize how innately powerful, creative, and safe you really are. This life is not all you are, but it is everything you’ve been taught to believe.

Our emotions are energy and they all have a frequency. The closer you are to the bottom, the easier it will be to manipulate you into obeying and complying with tyranny.

Sweden’s Senior Epidemiologist: Wearing Face Masks Is ‘Very Dangerous’

Sweden’s top expert on the coronavirus has warned that encouraging people to wear face masks is “very dangerous” because it gives a false sense of security but does not effectively stem the spread of the virus.

“It is very dangerous to believe face masks would change the game when it comes to COVID-19,” saidAnders Tengell, who has overseen Sweden’s response to the pandemic while resisting any form of lockdown or mask mandate.

“Face masks can be a complement to other things when other things are safely in place,” Tengell added. “But to start with having face masks and then think[ing] you can crowd your buses or your shopping malls — that’s definitely a mistake,” he further urged.

Tegnell has consistently spoken out against the use of masks, last month declaring that “With numbers diminishing very quickly in Sweden, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport.”

“The findings that have been produced through face masks are astonishingly weak, even though so many people around the world wear them,” Tengell has urged.

“I’m surprised that we don’t have more or better studies showing what effect masks actually have. Countries such as Spain and Belgium have made their populations wear masks but their infection numbers have still risen,” the epidemiologist also declared.

Sweden, which didn’t enforce any mandatory lockdown order, has seen its coronavirus cases and deaths slow to a trickle.

“That Sweden has come down to these levels is very promising,” Tegnell has said, adding “The curves are going down and the curves for the seriously ill are beginning to approach zero.”

As Newsweek acknowledgedearlier this month, Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate is lower than those of Spain, the UK and Italy, countries which all imposed lockdowns.

Sweden’s GDP fall of 8.6 in Q2 2020 is also significantly less severe than the 12.1 average experienced in the Eurozone, leaving the Scandinavian country in “much better shape than the rest of Europe.”

Reference: Summit.news

11 New Symptoms Of The Collective Awakening

During the run up to 2012 the world was fascinated by the idea of the shift, that is, an awakening that first takes place within the individual, then radiates outward into our communities and societies at large, changing the world for the better.

At that time, attention was mainly focused around the personal dynamics involved in this, including the work of navigating the upheaval and turmoil that precedes inner peace and profound transformation.

Much of this shift was triggered by newfound awareness of the corruption and deception in our political and social institutions. The pain of realizing that the material world is built on lies left us with no place to go but inward.

We explored meditation and energy healing, radically altered our diets, opened our minds to different ways of thinking and relating to the world, embraced ancestral wisdom, and we fearlessly answered the call to purge, heal and connect.

The energy around this was very intense, but it inspired a tremendous sense of wonder and creativity.

But, as all things do, the flow in this new space began to ebb, and since around 2016 it has felt like a major regression happened, taking us back into the dense, murky energies of cognitive dissonance and willful ignorance.

So much so, that the last few years has had many of us wondering what the hell the point was in all of this. We began to doubt that our willingness to change had any real value in a world so hopelessly shipwrecked in the shallow end of the pool.

When 2020 began, nothing had substantively changed in the world around us, and for many of us, this muddled our sense of purpose and direction. Many of us fell back into old habits and old pursuits. Business and pleasure.

And then all of a sudden, boom! Here we are.

No denying it now, the train has left the station and everything is being exposed.

All of the darkness, depravity and evil that we’ve been collectively covering up and ignoring for generations is squealing and squirming in this flash of bright light.

The powers that be see what’s happening, they’ve revealed their hand, and they’re pulling out all the stops in order to maintain the illusion of control.

Indeed, we find ourselves in quite a vulnerable position, and since we’ve been quarantined from all of the distractions that’ve helped to blanket us from reality, we can no longer avoid the truth.

A new awakening is happening now, and this time it is global. We can no longer numb ourselves to this.

“We numb vulnerability — when we’re waiting for the call… This is the world we live in. We live in a vulnerable world. And one of the ways we deal with it is we numb vulnerability… And I think there’s evidence — and it’s not the only reason this evidence exists, but I think it’s a huge cause — We are the most in-debt … obese … addicted and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history.

“The problem is — and I learned this from the research — that you cannot selectively numb emotion. You can’t say, here’s the bad stuff. Here’s vulnerability, here’s grief, here’s shame, here’s fear, here’s disappointment. I don’t want to feel these. I’m going to have a couple of beers and a banana nut muffin.” ~ Brené Brown

As the awakening rolls forward, it’s taking everyone with it. How it ends is anyone’s guess, and since we’re all along for the ride, it may be insightful to connect some of what we’re feeling to the bigger picture of the change that is coming our way.

Perhaps You Can Relate To Some Of These New Signs Of The Awakening?

1. You see a clear connection between the chaos in the world and the inner turmoil you’ve been diligently working to transform.
2. You just don’t do fear anymore. It no longer has the pull on you it once did. You know yourself to be spirit.
3. You understand that the universe is mental, and that your thoughts are the most precious tools of creation. For this, you readily notice when your mind is slipping from the present moment and when it tries to engage you in fear. You have the power and determination to bring it back into alignment with your purpose and mission.
4. You’re learning how to powerfully use your voice to contribute to the awakening and to help those who cannot speak for themselves.
5. You don’t play sides, and you don’t choose a team. You watch, observe, and disengage when you see people acting out on agendas that are not their own.
6. You see the futility and danger in belief systems, and you don’t bow to authority. You stay firmly grounded in what is real and what can be verified by your own experience. You are your own master.
7. You give people of all beliefs the freedom to expose their fear, anger and confusion however it may surface. You don’t judge, debate, or try to correct people who don’t see the world as you do.
8. You care for yourself first so that you may have more power to care for others.
9. You deliberately work to foster connection between yourself and others, above and beyond the superficiality so prevalent in public discourse.
10. You fully trust in this process and accept the fate of the world as part of it.
11. You recognize that your most powerful task is that of letting go.

Final Thoughts

The stakes are incredibly high right now and the future of human freedom is at stake. This is not hyperbole.

The Great Reset [which is the New World Order] is coming our way, and while the globalists, central banks and international agencies would like to hijack this and steer us toward a new form of technocratic worldwide Orwellian slavery, the human race has never before had such a true opportunity to free itself from their chains.

It’s game on people, time to play your part.

Trump’s ‘Warp Speed’ Funding Now Includes HIV Vaccines For Bill Gates And Dr. Fauci’s Pet Projects

President Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” which has basically given a blank check for government funds to be spent on vaccine development for COVID, now is funding HIV/AIDS vaccine research as well, according to the pharmaceutical trade publication, FierceBiotech.

Ben Adams reports:

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is launching a new clinical trial network to seek out and add thousands of volunteers to major clinical tests for vaccines and monoclonal antibodies against the pandemic.

The so-called COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network (COVPN) was borne from the merger of four existing NIAID-funded clinical trial networks: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, based in Seattle; the HIV Prevention Trials Network, based in Durham, North Carolina; the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium, based in Atlanta; and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, based in Los Angeles.

While continuing to push for that long-sought vaccine for HIV prevention, as well as for other infectious diseases, they will now also focus on their new COVID-19 roles.

“Establishing a unified clinical trial network is a key element of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which aims to deliver substantial quantities of a safe, effective vaccine by January 2021,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. (Emphasis added)

How clever! After years of spending hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. government funding to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine with no success, now they can utilize the fast-tracking emergency authorized funds for the COVID vaccine through Operation Warp Speed to continue their quest for an HIV RNA vaccine.

The funding will be used to start more than 100 clinical trials in the U.S. and around the world.

In a statement, the NIAID said:

“The network will use a harmonized vaccine protocol developed by the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public-private partnership.

“This will enable analyses of correlates of protection across multiple vaccine trials. The network is expected to operate more than 100 clinical trial sites across the United States and internationally.” (full article)

One has to wonder where they are going to find all these “volunteers” to participate in so many vaccine trials?

We know from the history of past HIV drug trials, that many children who were the ward of the State were enrolled to these trials, because they had been removed from their parents and put into Foster Care, where the state has total control over their lives, including enrolling them in experimental drug trials.

The 8 Key Elements of Resilience

Resilience is defined as the psychological capacity to adapt to stressful circumstances and to bounce back from adverse events. Resilience is considered a process to build resources toward searching for a better future after potentially traumatic events. Some of these resources come from our inherent potential and some from what we learn about how to endure hardship. The ability to bounce back requires being empowered to make decisions that promote personal well-being. And like sobriety, they must be frequently reconfirmed (Southwick & Charney, 2012).

1. Pursuing a meaningful goal. Resilient individuals find a calling and dedicate themselves to what gives life purpose. Pursuing a meaningful purpose may involve stress and pain in the short run but over the long run brings meaning (e.g., raising children, seeking personal growth, training for a marathon). People with a sense of purpose feel less anxiety and stress (Hagerty, 2016). As Nietzsche remarked, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

2. Challenge assumption. Resilience requires creativity and flexibility. Traditional beliefs should be examined in the light of new experiences and ideas. Creativity requires one to consider many perspectives to avoid being imprisoned by one’s habitual thoughts. In the aftermath of major life struggles, where fundamental assumptions are seriously confronted, it can lead to positive psychological change (Terdeschi and Calhoun, 2004). In a sense, change represents the death of who we once were. For example, psychologist Lyubomirsky (2013) notes that a rewarding life after divorce requires not only leaving your spouse but also leaving your past self behind.

3. Cognitive flexibility.  Resilient people tend to be flexible in their way of thinking and responding to stress. An important component of cognitive flexibility is accepting the reality of our situation, even if that situation is frightening or painful. Acceptance is a key ingredient in the ability to tolerate highly stressful situations. Avoidance and denial are the most common counterproductive coping strategies that can help people temporarily, but it ultimately stands in the way of growth.

4. Growth through suffering. Resilient people generally meet failure head-on and use it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Nietzsche famously remarked, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ In his book, Antifragile, Nassim Taleb (2012) writes, “Our antagonist is our helper (P39).” Thus, we can view any experience of emotional pain as an opportunity that will strengthen our ability to better deal with any future pain. However, when we medicate away our suffering we miss the opportunity to grow.

5. Acting despite the fear. Courage is an important aspect of positive psychology that allows one to overcome personal limitations and pursue a full life (Seligman, 2011). Courage is not a matter of feeling no fear. Courage is acting despite fear. Courage is the strength in facing one’s destructive habits. For example, the courage of an addict overcoming his or her addiction or the person abused as a child overcoming deep psychological traumas to become a loving and productive adult. Those who move forward in the face of adversity increase their inner strength.

6. Emotion regulation. A prominent view in psychology is that our emotional lives are shaped by our values and judgments (Solomon, 2007). It’s the basic premise of modern cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). This is also one of the basic psychological principles of Stoicism (Robertson, 2019). Much, if not all, of our thinking, is up to us. We can liberate ourselves from destructive emotions such as anger and hatred by developing a capacity to choose how to interpret the situation. Our ability in managing the flow of thought and the capacity to visualize the future contribute to happiness.

7. The feeling of agency. Agency (the power of me) is an internal resource that often enables resilience. The sense of agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and shape their life circumstances. By exerting free will, the person expands his options and freedom. When feeling free and self-determined, we generally flourish. Believing that things are beyond our control is a recipe for helplessness.

8. Social support. Resilient individuals draw strength from their social networks. They also provide social support to others. The availability of social support reduces anxiety and stress. After all, it feels easier to face adversity when you have a close friend that you can rely on. When you have strong social support, you don’t have to use as many of your own personal resources to cope with adversity. Those relationships give you a profound sense of emotional security and the feeling that someone has your back no matter what.

References

Hagerty BB (2016), Life Reimagined. Riverhead books.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2013).The myths of happiness: What should make you happy, but doesn’t, what shouldn’t make you happy, but does.New York: Penguin Press.

Robertson, Donald (2019), How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, St. Martin’s Press.

Seligman, Martin E. P. (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York: Free Press.

Solomon, Robert C. (2007). True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling Us. Oxford University Press, USA

Southwick, S. M., & Charney, D. S. (2018). Resilience: The science of mastering life’s greatest challenges. 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Taleb, NM (2012) Antifragile, New York: Random House.

Tedeschi RG, Calhoun LG (2004), Posttraumatic growth: conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psych Inquiry, 15(1-18).

6 Ways to Make Getting Up Early Work for You

To accomplish a big goal, such as launching a new business, writing a novel or starting an exercise regime, productivity experts will often suggest getting up early. You can get a lot done in a quiet house with no distractions or interruptions. While this is sound advice, it’s easier said than done.

“You might think getting up earlier is just a matter of discipline, but it actually takes much more than that,” says Julie Morgenstern, time management expert and author of Never Check Email in the Morning (Touchstone; 2005). “The truth is, your entire ecosystem has been built around sleeping later.”

When you try to change your morning routine, several obstacles will stand in your way. It’s possible to overcome them, however; the key is to start the night before. Morgenstern offers six strategies to make getting up early work for you:

1. Change your mindset. Many people fight going to sleep because they want to get more done – they have separation anxiety from the day. But Morgenstern teaches her clients to think differently.

“Consider sleep the beginning of the next day,” she says, adding that this mind shift can change the way you look at sleep and make it exciting. “Sleep becomes an active element; you’re charging up your battery.”

2. Adjust your bedtime. Many of us are already sleep deprived, and stealing another hour of sleep will just set you up for failure. The only way to be successful is to go to bed earlier. Determine how many hours of sleep your body requires and count backwards from there.

“Getting up earlier requires a fundamental shift in your neuro-pathways,” she says. “While the change makes total sense to you the day before, actually doing it the next morning is hard work and requires you to break a lot of patterns.”

3. Adjust other nighttime activities. You’ll also have to adjust the time you eat dinner as well as after-dinner decompression activities, such as reading, says Morgenstern.

“You’re not being realistic if you say you’ll get up early but then don’t build everything else into your day” accordingly, she says. Also, eat dinner no less than two to three hours before bed, which is optimal for being able to fall asleep and sleep well.

4. Prepare for your morning activity. Sometimes what keeps us in bed isn’t fatigue, but the fact the morning task we’ve planned is overwhelming. To make these activities less daunting, prep the night before and organize your equipment. Set out your gym clothes, yoga mat or running shoes, if you’re planning to exercise. If you’re going to be on your computer, tidy your home office, and preprogram your coffee maker. 

“Starting something new can feel complicated,” says Morgenstern. “Take the time to prepare and you’ll increase your chances for success.”

5. Turn off electronics. At least 90 minutes before bed pull the plug on electronic activities, such as watching television, checking email or social media or reading on an e-reader.

“Science says it’s a source of energy and over-stimulates us,” she says. “It’s like drinking a Red Bull before bed – there’s no way you’ll fall asleep.”

She suggests replacing it with something relaxing, such as listening to music, drawing, or prepping meals for next day.

6. Create a pre-bedtime routine. Give yourself peace of mind and time to unwind by creating a calming pre-bedtime routine. For example, make a ritual of checking the windows and locks. Dim the lights and stretch. Or take a leisurely walk.

“This routine will help you fall asleep quickly and easily,” she says. “It will also significantly increase your chances of getting up in morning.”

Answering Yes to These Questions Could Mean Your Emotional Intelligence Is High

Do you display emotional intelligence (EQ) when working with others? How would you know? Over the years I’ve found that EQ does its best work when things get a bit hairy due to opposing personalities and agendas, a stressful work environment, or when your buttons are pushed.

As leaders, when we are being impulsive, shortsighted, reacting with anger in the heat of the moment, or not making decisions in our “right minds,” we are sorely lacking EQ. 

People with emotional intelligence have the learned capacity to process a situation gone bad, get perspective, and hold back from going to that “bad place.”

By processing over things with a rational and level-headed mind, you’ll eventually arrive at another, more sane conclusion. 

That begs the question, how can you assess your own EQ as a way to measure yourself against its desired behaviors? Simple. Ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. Do you respond to people and situations instead of reacting?

There is a difference. In reacting to a stressful moment that’s going south fast, you may end up clouding your thinking and judgment and escalate what should’ve been a manageable dispute into an all-out war. But by responding, rather than reacting, emotionally-intelligent people step back, create space to consider the situation from all angles, and decide the best approach to handle things. 

2. During conflict, are you able to cut through the drama and stick to the facts?

In emotionally-charged moments under pressure-cooker environments, a person with high EQ will explain the outcome she is hoping for and will ask for other ideas for solutions with an open mind. This typically leads to a constructive discussion that may resolve an ongoing issue to everyone’s satisfaction.

3. Do you take in the whole view of the problem and look at all sides of the issue?

People with emotional intelligence look at all sides of the issue and tap into their feelings and those of others to choose a different, and better, outcome. They seek out varied perspectives and solicit opinions of others before acting.

4. Do you manage your emotions better than most people?

Self-control is a personal competence developed in every person. The question behind self-control is: Can I manage my emotions and behavior to a positive outcome? Emotional intelligence expert and bestselling author Daniel Goleman explains:

Reasonable people–the ones who maintain control over their emotions–are the people who can sustain safe, fair environments. In these settings, drama is very low and productivity is very high. Top performers flock to these organizations and are not apt to leave them.

Self-control gives one the capacity to be present, calm, and focused during times of high stress. It’s a necessary virtue with long-term payoff.

5. Are you naturally positive and optimistic?

Emotionally intelligent people are positive thinkers who don’t get caught up in things they can’t control, like obsessing over politics or Covid-19. They put their energy and effort on the things within their power — the things that matter most in life, like their business and relationships. Because they’re naturally optimistic, you may find that they are physically and psychologically healthier than those with a negative outlook on life

A Letter To The Future

I do not write these words for my contemporaries. We are the damned. It is our lot now to watch as the lamp of liberty is extinguished, our burden to bear witness to the final flickering of the flame of freedom.

No, I don’t write these words for my peers; I write them for those yet to come. The inhabitants of that future dystopia whose birth pangs we are experiencing. The remnant of once-free humanity who might—through some miracle I can’t even imagine—come across this electronic message in a bottle.

I know that it’s almost hopeless. That the chance of these words surviving the coming internet purge are slim at best. That even if—against all odds—this message does wash up on your digital shores, the chance of these words being understood by you is even slimmer. Not because you don’t understand English, but because you no longer use these words I’m writing: Freedom. Humanity. Individual.

Still, I am here to record the end of an era. So I will press on in the hope against hope that someone, somewhere in that future Digital Dark Age, will have eyes to see and ears to hear.

The darkness is descending.

Let there be no mistake: We all know this.

We know what it means when 17 million Americans—a full 10% of the workforce—are added to the unemployment rolls in a mere three weeks. When they are joined by millions more newly unemployed ex-workers all around the globe. When modern-day bread lines stretch for miles in the heart of America’s once-proud cities. When the phony baloney fiat funny money debt rises to over $24 trillion and the Fed’s Sovietization of the economy is complete.

We know what it means when police start shooting people dead for not wearing a mask. When drones police quarantines from the sky and robots police lockdowns on the ground. When governments admit to tracking every movement of every citizen and begin internal checkpoints where digital immunity passports determine who may pass and who must stay in their home.

We know what it means when billionaires start telling us that only their new experimental mRNA vaccines will be able to release us from this nightmare. When they threaten to mark us with invisible ink tattoos to ID the vaccinated. When they tell us that we will not be able to buy or sell or participate in the economy until we can prove our “immunity.”

It means that the Corona World Order has arrived.

Oh, sure, some still deny it. But they are only fooling themselves. They’re afraid to admit that it’s true. Many are still under the old conditioning that told them to bleat “conspiracy theorist” at anyone questioning authority.

We have a name for that kind: “sheep.” Or, sometimes, “sheeple.” The masses in our day are kept in the pen by the jackbooted sheepdogs of the police state and led along by the political puppets who act as their shepherds. Occasionally a wise old-timer in the flock cottons on to the game, but the shepherd has only ever fleeced the flock, so he resigns himself to his fate. Why struggle? It’s mostly painless.

Never did the sheeple suspect that someday the shepherds would lead them to the slaughter.

It is a term of derision, of course. “Sheeple.” But I like to think that it doesn’t just speak to our stupidity. It speaks to a naivety, an innocence. We are trusting and gentle creatures by nature. Peaceable. Cooperative. That is nothing to be scorned. If it weren’t for the predators in our midst, our failings would be counted as virtues.

But I am not here to say that. I am here to say this: Resist! Struggle! Fight!

You are not cogs in a machine, despite what the shepherds of your day may be telling you. You are free and beautiful human beings. You are not born under the authority of another. You choose how you live your life, not some bureaucrat, not some police robot, not some “immunity checkpoint” algorithm or QR code.

You do not need permission to buy or to sell or to assemble or to speak your mind or to leave your house. You are not an “asymptomatic carrier” of whatever virus your misleaders are telling you to be afraid of. You do not have to shelter in place because someone in a white lab coat told you to.

I want you to understand that, once upon a time, the government didn’t have the right to know where you were, who you were meeting with, what you were purchasing and what you were doing 24/7. Hell, the government didn’t even have the ability to do that.

I need you to know that there was a time when you could leave your house when you wanted. Travel where you wanted. Buy and sell as you saw fit. Meet your neighbors. Rally. Protest. Party.

Live. As free human beings are meant to live.

Oh, what am I saying? These words. This language. It makes no sense to you, does it? These concepts don’t exist in your time, do they?

You go where you are told to go. You stay home when you are told to stay home. You shut up when you are told to shut up. You think what you are told to think. . . . You don’t think what you are told to not think.

I can’t blame you, after all. You’re trusting and naive and peaceful. Like a sheep.

But oh how I weep for what you have become. I tried to avert it. Please believe me. I really tried.

But the lamp of liberty is being extinguished. And I am bearing witness.

I don’t know if history is something you study anymore, but in case it is not: UK Foreign Secretary “Sir” Edward Grey made his observation about the lamps “going out all over Europe” at the end of the so-called “Twelve Days.” According to the mainstream history books of our age, that was the period during the summer of 1914 that the British government was said to be trying to avoid a World War. We are asked to believe that this prescient remark proved Grey to be a sage diplomat who was wracked with grief over the pain and suffering that he sensed was about to be unleashed upon the world.

But this is history-by-the-winners of the worst kind. In truth, Grey was himself one of the conspirators who were actively working to bring about the First World War. What’s more, the source of this quotation is in fact Grey himself; it was first recorded in Grey’s own post-war memoir. Any tears he may have shed over the snuffing out of those lamps were crocodile tears, to be sure.

One can well imagine that the history books of your era will record that Bill Gates made a similarly portentous remark at the onset of this corona crisis. Gazing out the window of his $127.5 million, 66,000-square foot-Xanadu 2.0 mansion in Washington State—the then-epicenter of the US outbreak—Gates’ post-coronavirus memoir will no doubt tell us that he remarked to an underling, “The lights are going out all across the globe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

But his memoir will no doubt fail to inform us that he was smirking as he said it.

To my children, or my children’s children, or whatever remnant of once-free humanity happens to unearth these words in that God-forsaken future we are goose-stepping into: I’m sorry. I failed you. We all failed you.

But remember this: As long as the blood of your forebears flow through your veins, the lamp of human freedom shall not be extinguished forever.

Let it shine, dear sheep. Let it shine.