WHAT
For starts, The Frugal Explorer Handbook is
a long term Legacy Project, meaning that it is not meant to be a media success,
not even a bestseller. It aims to put together a handbook that would,
hopefully, help people change their lives by changing the way they look at
things.
Like for a fine wine or a classic, I will appeal to the acute purifying effect of time to ensure a high quality product that actually changes lives, so its final form will not be public soon, but I will consistently publish articles in the Frugal Blog to benefit of what the scientific method calls "organized skepticism."
In short, The Frugal Explorer Handbook will be a tool to guide you to activate the explorer we all have within ourselves, and by doing so, improve the way you feel about your whole life.
Like for a fine wine or a classic, I will appeal to the acute purifying effect of time to ensure a high quality product that actually changes lives, so its final form will not be public soon, but I will consistently publish articles in the Frugal Blog to benefit of what the scientific method calls "organized skepticism."
In short, The Frugal Explorer Handbook will be a tool to guide you to activate the explorer we all have within ourselves, and by doing so, improve the way you feel about your whole life.
WHY
People around the world are
unhappy and unsatisfied without any apparent reason.
Even without suffering some kind of illness or endure a tragedy, people are unhappy.
I believe that the reason is this:
Through the news and the media, we have being taught to believe that the world is a dull place where everything is known and predictable, and the only exciting things are murder, violence and gossip.
“It’s always the same,” we tend to think by default, when in fact we know that the opposite is true: the world is an amazing place filled with beauty and mystery.
Albert Einstein knew this very well when he said “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead: his eyes are closed” and “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”
You're not depressed, you are distracted,, as the famous troubadour Facundo Cabral said. People have lost their capacity of feeling awed by the eccentric beauty this world offers.
I believe that the reason is this:
Through the news and the media, we have being taught to believe that the world is a dull place where everything is known and predictable, and the only exciting things are murder, violence and gossip.
“It’s always the same,” we tend to think by default, when in fact we know that the opposite is true: the world is an amazing place filled with beauty and mystery.
Albert Einstein knew this very well when he said “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead: his eyes are closed” and “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”
You're not depressed, you are distracted,, as the famous troubadour Facundo Cabral said. People have lost their capacity of feeling awed by the eccentric beauty this world offers.
HOW
The project bases its objective in the following idea: when you are in an authentic exploring mood, your mind acts differently, and this is not a metaphor, it actually performs in a different way: your limbic system is activated and much of the activity taking place in your frontal neo cortex and memory recall system is shut down.
In other words, you see things without judging and without letting your preconceived ideas and biases interfere; two basic conditions to actually learn anything.
To be completely honest, this changes have not being yet proven by Neurology Science in humans, but they have being identified in other mammals, especially in mice to which exploring is a matter of life and death activity. (NOTE: there is now more scientific data available with amazing turnabouts - check on the Research Progress below for details)
Think about it. What is distracting you from seeing things as they really are? Your preconceived ideas, your fears, your problems, the things you think you already know. Most of that is shut down when you focus on what you are honestly trying to learn
In other words, you see things without judging and without letting your preconceived ideas and biases interfere; two basic conditions to actually learn anything.
To be completely honest, this changes have not being yet proven by Neurology Science in humans, but they have being identified in other mammals, especially in mice to which exploring is a matter of life and death activity. (NOTE: there is now more scientific data available with amazing turnabouts - check on the Research Progress below for details)
Think about it. What is distracting you from seeing things as they really are? Your preconceived ideas, your fears, your problems, the things you think you already know. Most of that is shut down when you focus on what you are honestly trying to learn
Research Progress - September, 2013
Almost a year ago, I called for anyone interested in becoming a Frugal Explorer, (if you haven't already, you can still enroll our small army following this link). Some months after, during the second quarter of the current year (2013), our group surpassed the 100th member.
Since then, we have been working together in a common quest: to learn how to regain our sense of wonderment, and the quest have brought about some crucial leads. Here are some preliminary results:
We live our lives in autopilot mode, which is convenient and necessary; but, we can't learn new things in that mode; we can't activate our sense of wonderment and we can't get a grip of what life is really about. So, the first thing we need to do, if we really are serious about exploring, is to learn how to turn the autopilot mode off, at least for a while.
These posts will give you all the information you need for turning your autopilot off.
Since then, we have been working together in a common quest: to learn how to regain our sense of wonderment, and the quest have brought about some crucial leads. Here are some preliminary results:
We live our lives in autopilot mode, which is convenient and necessary; but, we can't learn new things in that mode; we can't activate our sense of wonderment and we can't get a grip of what life is really about. So, the first thing we need to do, if we really are serious about exploring, is to learn how to turn the autopilot mode off, at least for a while.
These posts will give you all the information you need for turning your autopilot off.
- How to get a grip on life When you go where you always go (to do what you always do) you set your mind in its autopilot mode, and you can’t get a grip on life when you are on autopilot mode (Read more)…
- What can we learn from Nature?
- What we are exploring in this post is something Nature can teach to anyone of us: how to get “The Big Picture”.(Read more)…
- What can we learn from Nature? (Reloaded) We (western) citizens focus in «getting a life» a lot, but what we call “to get a life” actually is getting a routine. (Read more)…
- Curiosity Definition (Exploring 101) Curiosity is not a weakness; it’s one of humanity most fundamental strengths. Thanks to curiosity, inventors learn, explorers investigate and artists find beauty. (Read more)…
- Chris Guillebeau on regaining our sense of wonderment What would you do if you wanted to regain your sense of wonderment (as the one you had when you were a kid)? (Read more)…
- Neil Pasricha on regaining our sense of wonderment Detecting and registering these simple pleasures will allow us to find 1000 awesome things; one awesome thing a day. (Read more)…
- My favorite awesome things My goal was to list ten of my favorite things from the 1000 Awesome Things list made by Neil Pasricha. (Read more)…
- Ben Saunders on regaining our Sense of Wonder What would such an adventurous character advise us, frugal explorer in our quest to find a way to regain our sense of wonder? (Read more)…
- Alastair Humphreys on regaining our sense of wonder Making a small bio for those of you who haven’t heard about Alastair is a hard thing to do; you don’t want to leave any fact out (Read more)…