The Thinking Shelf

It was a weird shock to me when I had my first critical thinking course in college--this was immensely useful! Why didn't they teach this to me in public school? Aha, but there lies the rub---public schools aren't there to prepare you, they're there to delay your competition in the world, keeping you ritualized and ignorant of things you need to survive.

The first book "Effortless Attention" is very "dry" becuase it is a collection of reaserch about attention and its physical effects. If you want to know why you feed tired or irritable after working hard with non-physical labor, this is the book for you. The next book "Critical Thinking" is about the tactical software of questions and standards we should use while thinking.

It's funny that there
are books to teach you
thinking. Yes, you
have to practice it!

       

A Summary of research
about the physiological
and neurological effects
of attention.

The Meditation Shelf

Okay, maybe its a little strange to start off an anarchist-related blog with a post about meditation. Meditation refers to any of a family of practices in which the practitioner trains his or her mind or self-induces a mode of consciousness in order to realize some benefit. There doesn't have to be a religious component to meditation, and many people have reported many benefits to the practice.

I like to think of meditation as a form of "idling" for your brain, or a "reboot" of your brains pattern-recognition-prediction engine. In a future world where you may not have easy access to "companion media"---because you're no longer buying cable or satellite television, you're going to find yourself thinking (and sometimes, obsessing) more than merely experiencing someone else's idea of what should be entertaining you. It'll pay to have this skill for yourself.

Kabat-Zinn's "Wherever You Go, There You Are" is my favorite of this shelf. I don't recommend the binaural mixes--while they do induce some mental states, its far better to be able do DIY with meditation because you'll be wanting to do it whenever you have spare time or idle moments. Meditation: The Stresskiller.

In politics, you're going to find people who purposefully wish to engage your fear and your anger to cause you to make bad decisions.  If you build your foundation of stress management skills now you can be focused and correct with your response to any form of agitation by mind provocateurs.

If Kabat-Zinn isn't your choice, check out some of these other meditation books: