All posts by Seymour Lovejoy

Author, composer, musician, publisher, creator, catalyst, student of awareness.
Perspectives, Tools for Evolution

Learn to Love by Seeing How You Learn to Hate

I know it sounds strange, but the Evergreens suggest this and it makes sense, with an explanation. What they say is: Pick someone and find a fault with them, then another fault, then another fault.  What you’re doing is building up hate for that person, just by fault-finding.  So, hopefully, knowing this, you’ll start doing the opposite, i.e. stop finding fault and start looking for things to like. This goes along well with one of my favorite sayings: “You don’t have to forgive someone if you don’t take offense.” For sure we’ve been taught to find fault and take offense, but we really don’t have to live that way from now on.

Here’s a good exercise, then.  First of all, be watchful of what you think when you see people you know and don’t know. Find something likeable about them, even if it’s something small.  Smile at them.  You’re seeing more, you’re loving more, and you’re in joy more. What a gift to the world!

Seymour Lovejoy

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Illucidations, Tools for Evolution

Your Conversation with The Universe

Everything you experience, from your waking life, dreams, and other states of consciousness, is “the Universe” talking to you.  Your response in moment  to moment choices, conscious or otherwise, is you talking to “the Universe”.

A simple statement, perhaps, but within it are some very profitable concepts.

What do I mean by “The Universe”?  In this case, I mean “All That Is”. I could say “God”, but I would mean “All That Is”. What if what you’re experiencing is unpleasant or painful?   You would then have to examine the choices you made to be at that place and that time. Then use that as a lesson. Make choices which allow you to express a more enhanced version of yourself. Make changes in yourself. That is you responding to “The Universe”.

Mental and emotional experiences are as real as physical experiences, and mental and emotional choices are as significant as physical choices. You can take advantage of this by using your imagination, your creation slate,  to experience things more in line with a more enhanced version of yourself, whatever you decide that to be. Bottom line, focus your consciousness where you want it to be. Add focus time (chosen experience) where you want to learn and grow.

Take/make 2 experiences and call me in the morning.  🙂

Seymour Lovejoy

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Tools for Evolution

Get the Most Out of Life

So what does that mean? For me it means “Optimize your choices moment to moment.” But how do you do that?

According to the Evergreens, if you establish a connection with your inner self and your guides so that you recognize their guidance, they will make suggestions pointing you in the direction which you and they established for this embodiment/“lifetime” prior to making your appearance. Their guidance is happening all the time, but primarily on a subconscious level. So how can you make it more conscious?  Give it conscious focus.

Observe your feelings and thoughts. How do you recognize their guidance? First of all, know they won’t push, they will just suggest, not necessarily with words, though.  Get familiar with your feelings and the feelings you get from others. The first connection is with feelings, then, when you’re more familiar with your feelings, feelings can develop to ideas, which, as you trust more, are optimal moment-to-moment guidance.

A suggested exercise was given with the indication that 33 consecutive days would bring noticeable results.

Lying in bed just before sleep, imagine a face of someone looking down at you with a smile, and bid them adieu until next time. If they’re not smiling, find something within yourself that makes them smile, then bid them adieu. This concretizes your emotional connection.

And that’s just the beginning.

Are you willing to get started and keep it up for 33 days? I know you can.

Seymour Lovejoy

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Perspectives, Tools for Evolution

Hmmm…

As I was passing by the kitchen desk the other day, an 8’5 x 11 sheet of paper fell on the floor. The title was “Affirmations to Stay Connected to Universal Energy”. It looked like something I copied from somewhere to post on the wall. Interestingly, the paper it was printed on was paper stock I used 30 years ago. We’ve lived in the house 30 years. Anyway, I asked my wife if this was posted somewhere and I didn’t see it.  She said she didn’t recognize it! Hmmm….

Who knows where it’s been, but it’s interesting that it’s relevant now… and just after I’ve started a new practice to connect and consciously work with my team of guides.  Hmmm…

See below.

Coincidentally, I have several recordings of the Evergreens (Silverthistle was one of them) on my phone, one of which is about connecting with your guides and inner self and it has come up in the playlist more times that I would expect over the last month. The other day I noticed that the player had been accidentally set to Random, as opposed to the “usual” order… It’s interesting that Random would repeat that recording so many times.  Hmmm….

Hope you have a day full of wonder. Hmmm…

Seymour Lovejoy

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Affirmations to Stay Connected To Universal Energy

I am increasing my awareness of energy.
I have a strong internal connection to my higher self.
My best decisions are made when I am connected to my inner wisdom.
Once I have made a decision, I follow through with appropriate action.
I take time to reflect on important decisions.
I trust that my process is taking me to a higher level of living.

 

Illucidations, Perspectives, Tools for Evolution

Enhancement is Advancement

Generally, we think of advancement or progress in terms of mankind. However, The Entirety (All That Is) is inseparable from mankind, and we know what ecology tells us, how the Earth is affected by the things we do. Technological progress may not be progress for the ecological whole.

So what is true progress? What makes things better all around? Not just inventions – invent-ing. Creative enhancement on all levels: physical, mental, emotional for the benefit of others and the Earth. Be inventive. Find new ways to enhance your life and the lives of others moment to moment. Look for beneficial options in the moment, then act.

Do you realize that demonstrating love or joy is an enhancement to All That Is? (And it’s free and available now!) When you feel loved or joyful it enhances your life, and others around you benefit from it. Pass it on.

Mental and emotional ecology advance physical ecology.

Light, Love & Joy,

Seymour Lovejoy

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Illucidations, Perspectives, Tools for Evolution

Benefit the World Right Now

How can I benefit the world, you may ask? (Go ahead… ask!)

What IS “the world”?

Good question.

The world is our environment… where we live, but more than the physical planet we call Earth.

The world includes all living things, and all dead things, all elements, everything we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, our thoughts and mental environment and, for that matter, things we can’t sense and the source of all potential.

So that being the case, everything we say and do and think affects this larger “environment”. There’s a common saying that reflects this concept: that a single butterfly flapping its wings in Africa affects the entire world.

So, with this perspective of “the world”, any loving thought or deed, benefits the world.

So, wherever you are, at any time, you can do something or even think something that benefits the world, whether you’re alone in a room, in front of a computer, or in a crowd, or out in nature.

And, of course, the more “Minutes of Focus” you put into benefitting the world, the better you get at it and the more benefit there is, and the more people involved in the same thing increases its effectiveness.

Do you see the power you have? A good thing to use wisely, right?

Seymour Lovejoy

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Illucidations, Perspectives, Steps

Steps

Steps are phases of focus. The term “minutes of focus” has been used by proponents of focus, and often their sales, like “10 minutes of focus a day will create a new you”. I like to use it as a measurement of where you spend your time… as in, “Rate your activities in ‘Minutes Of Focus’, or “MOF’s.”, if you will. It’s a simple way to categorize, quantify or measure what you have experienced, i.e. by accumulated duration. The directions of focus measured in minutes of focus, when placed in order by total, as a report, will be a clear indicator of the personality you have accumulated to the present.

Then, of course, you can choose a new set for the future.

Before I started writing this, I decided to google the term “Minutes of Focus” and found a site for the book “Focus Manifesto” (http://focusmanifesto.com/) that has a Zen approach to a calm, creative lifestyle. It appears to be very clear, as one might expect from thousands of MOFs in Zen practice.

This begins a series of blog entries under the category of “Steps”. These can be steps forward, back, or to the side, mine and those of others, mankind even, factual or conceptual. I hesitate to label anything as a step forward or backward, proffering an opinion, as it were, but generally I would consider peaceful creative living, love and compassion as forward, and warring, hateful injurious activities as backward. But, hey, the world is unlimited in expression, and, of course, there’s the old saying “10 million idiots can’t be wrong”. I would hesitate to call anyone an idiot (unless,  perhaps it’s referencing a clinical condition) because even an idiot, has a large number of MOF’s in some category and could be considered highly experienced and very knowledgeable in that category, all things being equal. And we’ve all been “idiots” and we still dabble in “idiocy” on occasion. Right?

Seymour Lovejoy

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Illucidations, Perspectives, Tools for Evolution

Live Efficiently: Train Your Subconscious

Your subconscious can be your friend or your foe. It’s simple: If you are “at odds with yourself”, it will slow you down. If your subconscious is in tune with your goals, you’ll get to them faster. Conclusion: program your subconscious so that your subconscious assists you on your path.

Your subconscious is your programming, the images of your physical and mental experience up to this point plus the feelings accompanying them. What’s gone in has already gone in, but how you respond to it and the significance you give it can change. You can reprogram your operating system: You version 2.0.

So you have two simultaneous programming activities: adding new features and fixing old bugs. The highest priority bugs to fix are the ones that slow you down the most. Some of those are fear, believing you’re all alone, and believing you can’t do something, or believing that something is impossible.

 Fix the bugs-

Perhaps my favorite response to someone believing something to be impossible is: “How about existence itself?” If you can believe that we and other things exist, which is a pretty strange and fantastic all-pervasive phenomenon, if you ask me, how can you rule out the possibility anything else? As creative beings we surpass our previous assumed limits daily. Once you’ve accepted that anything is possible, you can start to expect and look for open doors and guidance in tune with your goals.

Spending time and consciousness on fear is inefficient with respect to achieving goals, because it focuses on what you don’t want, versus what you do want. What you think is what you get. Karma is designed to help us learn to make choices that benefit ourselves and others. Focusing on something draws it to you, so if you focus on what you don’t want, it gets created so that you can learn to release that fear and learn to not put your attention there again. Put your focus on beneficial things, things that enhance life.

So you think you’re alone? You’re just missing a letter and a space: “all one”. If you invite your guides to participate in enhancing your life and the lives of others, and listen to the thoughts that pop in and watch the happenings around you’ll see clear evidence that there’s more going on behind the scenes on your behalf than you previously realized, and you’ll laugh at how you thought you were alone.

Adding new features

Now that you have a team to assist, make it easy on yourself and the team. If you believe you have to do “a”, “b” and “c” before you get to “d”, you might be overlooking a simpler, “fast track” solution that may be presented to you as your day unwinds. (Watch for it!) However, at a minimum you will have to have the mindset and the skills that “d” requires. You can’t plant an apple seed and expect an orange to sprout, though if you give someone an apple, they might give you an orange. If you want to win a vocal contest like “The Voice”, you have to be able to sing well and be “likeable”, do what it takes to audition, and exceed peoples’ expectations. As you see, though, there’s always personal work, focus time, getting ready to qualify, developing skill, confidence and personal traits that people can resonate with.

So think about it. How can you apply this to you?

–Seymour Lovejoy

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Illucidations, Perspectives, Tools for Evolution

Where’s your focus?

Based upon what we’ve individually achieved, it seems rather apparent that in order to accomplish anything, a certain amount of focus is required, i.e. time focused upon an activity, cycles of repetition, learning, training the subconscious in the direction of our goal, getting to the point of adeptness where your subconscious takes care of the details and, humorously, not as much conscious focus is required! Like walking.

However as my Tai Chi Teacher, David Cheng, said, “Whenever you do anything, do it with consciousness”. He gave the example, “When you’re driving, just drive.” as opposed to listening to the radio, talking or thinking about something else. Doing things with consciousness is being “the watcher”, watching yourself do what you’re doing, and watching the thoughts that pop in, recognizing thoughts that are guidance, and using that guidance to enhance your activities.

OK, so we have this faculty of awareness that we can focus to accomplish things. What do you want to focus on? What do you want? … As opposed to need. Need is another topic.

If we’re talking about what you want, we’re talking about a value system. What do you value? What is most important and what is less important. Your whole life rotates about what you give importance, and the beauty is that it’s configurable. If we give “spirituality” a high value, then “Divine Will” and being of service to All That Is become a focus. The Teachers say that Divine Will is, simply, that All That Is be enhanced. So as instruments of Divine Will, creative delegates, our job is to enhance our lives and the lives of others, thus enhancing All That Is. It’s doable by anyone and everyone in the moment, and on the big stage we call life.  In fact, if all you do is appreciate and be kind to others, and appreciate life and all it has to offer, you will have added great value to the world.

A values system is the DNA of your life. I suggest that the most efficient and beneficial primary value for one’s lifetime is to enhance life itself — your life and the lives of others, from individual atoms and cells to the whole and beyond. This benefits you and the world. Let that be your primary mission and the primary criterion for your choices and actions. Then create and do things within that structure.

But for efficiency’s sake, take the shortest path to your goals. The Taoists say “Do by not doing”, i.e. use the minimum effort necessary to accomplish the task, or, at an esoteric level, create the environment where it manifests itself. The Evergreens talk about “protocol”, i.e. the necessary steps to accomplish something, and advise us to create a path minimizing those steps, by not assuming you have to go through a, b, and c to get to d, and by not imposing an expectation of difficulty in any of those steps. If you connect with your guides and trust in your moment-to-moment intuitive guidance, you can ride first class on a luxury jet from a to d rather than walk barefoot through the desert. The right doors will open at the right time and you’ll know to walk through. Similarly, the Hindu concept of Advaita Vedanta suggests that by putting your consciousness at the goal, you will be there. All good advice. Take the luxury jet. Be joyful and watch and listen. Make sense?

Seymour Lovejoy

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The Workbook

THE WORKBOOK – Premise 1

Premise #1:     There is but one All-That-Is and All-That-Is-Not which we will call “The Absolute”.

(Ed. Note: In 2006 and 2007, Gloria produced 8 Workbook lessons, Premises 1 through 8, as a work in progress. They included suggested readings and questions for self examination. My responses are included inline in blue.  For your convenience, the text of the reading assignment is provided below the lesson.)

Reading Assignment: Session #18, Page #159, Paragraphs #5 & 6
Page #164, Paragraph #6 and Page #166, Paragraph #1
Additional reading:    Session #Tue-3, Page #2

(Ed. Note:  The suggested readings for this lesson are included below for your convenience.)

Session #18, Page #159, Paragraphs #5 & 6

The “temple”, the word, simply is a descriptive word to give you a sense of structure.

            It is true we have a building which has been described to you. And this building is accessible to you, each of you, any time. You simply must come to feel that you are in it. You recognize yourself as a part of it. You are a part of us and we are a part of you. There is nothing mystical. There is not irreverence, certainly, for we do indeed acknowledge The Absolute, the Cosmos Cause, as God.

            But that god demands no worship of us. It is! If we choose to worship, we do so to satisfy a longing, a yearning, within ourselves to become more nearly aware of our beingness. Our teachings are intended that our postulates, our novitiates, become self aware, become knowledgeable of their beginning, their meaning, their creative powers. Each of you is a center of creative power. Our beloved Judith has given you certain information all as part of the thrust of our teaching. As you become self aware, you grow in our temple. You pass through the steps of initiation.

Page #164, Paragraph #6

As I said earlier, there is but one Source from which this universe sprang, and if you must worship something, then let it be that Absolute , that fixed center of beingness, which produced the divine cell. Now the word “divine” is used, not out of reverence, but as a definitive word to make you understand that it is singular in nature, that it is a unity of being. The Absolute which gave birth to this universe does not need your worship. That Absolute is going to do its own absolute thing, in your colloquialism.

Page #166, Paragraph #1

But each of you in the physical condition come out of a group of beings. The single sole source of life is that Absolute of which I spoke earlier. Between you and it are innumerable levels or spheres of being, of beingness which is expressed through individualities, people. Your Source will at times seem to be a single unit. But you witness this in your every day physical life where a group of people operate as a single unit. The very word “people” is a singular noun meaning multiple occupation. The Source is a singular noun, but is comprised of multiple identity.

Session #Tue-3, Page #2

STUDENT:           Thank you — yes it does. One further thought: you spoke of your spiritual physical self. With coming to us as you do, we very greatly appreciate because we do want your help. This one thought: I’m speaking out with no background whatever — when you are not in the spiritual physical sphere, then are you one of the great masses of energy of spirit?

SILVERTHISTLE:     We are all one of the great masses of energy. You at this particular moment have a certain portion of your facility for attention focused into this reality you call physical planet Earth. But you are at all times functioning in other REALITIES as well. The links between the consciousness of the separate realities are so nebulous as to be immaterial to you most of the time. You do enter consciousness into other realities from this reality in the DREAM STATE and at times in MEDITATION, but the unit of energy which ultimately joins with another and another and another unit of energy which ultimately becomes a solid form to you, is still outside the scope of your present technological understanding. We will from time to time refer to these units of energy by the term “ERT”. At a latter time we will have a lesson in the disquietudes of physics.

STUDENT:           Last time, Silverthistle, you said happiness was not a permanent state. So I was wondering about the other states, such as the importance — in comparison to happiness — of compassion, hate, and humility. (phone ringing)

SILVERTHISTLE:     Is it your wish that I continue with the answer to your question at this moment?

STUDENT:           Yes, please. (requested to repeat the question) Last time someone spoke of happiness, and Silverthistle said it was not a permanent state. So I wanted to get his opinion on other states like love, hate, and humility.

SILVERTHISTLE:     These are STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, and consciousness is not a constant thing — you use “permanent”. There is not such thing as permanent insofar as states of being are concerned, with the exception of the ultimate NO THING. That ultimate No Thing from which all things are born is beyond the state of description, especially to your finite mind. But your state of consciousness, while inconstant, continues to cycle, and thus to some degree is permanent on a temporary basis, which appears to be a dichotomy, but it is the best

way to describe it to you. No one in any consciousness remains constantly at the same level or intensity of any emotion. The most humble of consciousnesses is not always as humble at one time as it may be at another. There is no one that is without pride at some time.

STUDENT:           Thank you. That does clarify my question. I have been reading the SETH material — do you know Seth?

SILVERTHISTLE:     I know of that which you speak, but to me, Seth is not an individual but a state of being.

STUDENT:           I was reading where he said Jesus had reincarnated three times.   Do you concur with that?

SILVERTHISTLE:     No, I do not.

STUDENT:       Thank you. Silverthistle, speaking of Jesus and the disciples, have any of the other DISCIPLES in the Christian teaching and Bible — have they been reincarnated?

SILVERTHISTLE:     Yes they have, and some are incarnate now. At the time that we go through the series of lessons on cosmology, the matter of Jesus and the nature of the Christ will be brought forth. Those lessons are to be presented to you by another.

STUDENT:           Silverthistle, this is Bill talking. Do you have an organized society or something similar to that as we have here on earth. We would like to know about marriage, family, children, and modes of transportation.

SILVERTHISTLE:     (SPIRIT PHYSICAL, LIFE IN) Yes, we have a structure, an organization if you will, and indeed in this sphere in which I now exist, we have a structure very similar to the physical world in which you live. We have family, we have sex, children are gestated, there is birth, education — there are all those things which you have and many more, but what you see in the physical, as for instance a flower, may appear as a beautiful melody in my sphere.

                   As for modes of transportation, we are not limited by the condensations of energy which you meet as resistance in your existence where you may walk through a darkened room and stub your shin against a table. A solid object which you call your leg has come against a resistance in a form of a table. All have resistances in our sphere also, but not of that kind. The resistances, as I can best describe to you, are resistances of the mind and of the heart.

                   The physicality of our realm is molded by our THOUGHTS, and thus can be changed in the instant. (MANIFESTATION IN SPIRIT PHYSICAL) Thus we must be more careful about what we think than you, for your physical world has been thought by others as well as yourself. As I construct a physical object through molding energy into a form, when I meet with another in my sphere, the mental attitude with which we meet each other then affects this thing which I have created, and it thus becomes changed as necessary. If I want to be in the vicinity of a particular person, I need only think myself there. I do not have to get in a vehicle and travel through space as you do.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Gloria’s response to the premise:

It is beyond human power to conceive of anything that has no beginning and no end, but here Karansa is asking us to give credence to the idea that such a “Causeless Cause” gives of Itself to create everything we know. In other lessons, this is explained more fully as a “No-Thing” which emits some of Itself which becomes “Some-Thing”. We cannot know “No-Thing”, but we can know “Some-Thing” because that has definitive parameters.

Since the beginning of recorded history, man has known that there are powers in his world over which he has no control: stars, sun, moon, fire, flood, etc. Experience seemed to indicate that these powers could be placated. He knew that he himself was respected, appreciated and perhaps revered for his own powers that exceeded those of lesser powers. Thus it would seem only logical that if he pleased the powers beyond his control, they would look kindly upon him and bless his efforts. Evolution brought about the anthropomorphic god in man’s image which man could not only conceive of but also understand to some extent. So worship developed.

Then technological advances showed man that these things he worships also have beginnings and ends. He now believes that even his own sun is going to be extinguished at some point of time in the future. As this becomes apparent God must then become less physical, more mystical, and man has developed a belief in a god that is eternal, all powerful, but still anthropomorphic.

We didn’t understand how you came to this conclusion. Especially “must”. Perhaps you can restate the statement is a different way to see your train of thought better.

Various world religions have given their gods odd shapes, sometimes many-headed, many-armed, etc., but still anthropomorphic.         Some cults have grown into worship of snakes and other earthly animals.

The word “cult” has an unnecessarily negative connotation which can be remedied by the use of the words “religious sects”. Also, they are worshiping the deity or spiritual essence that manifests through the animal.

Man has now come to that stage of self awareness that he is asking the questions: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What’s the purpose in all of this?” “Is this all there is?”, etc. The teachers are telling us here that another “leap of faith” is due. It is time for man to start working with self awareness towards developing his full potential, that this is an ordered Universe with purposeful intention, and man has his role to play in the overall picture. It is time for man to consider the possibility that “All-That-Is” is not the be-all and end-all of Consciousness.

I’m reminded that President Clinton was quoted as saying “That depends upon what you mean by ‘IS’!” 🙂

There is also an “All-That-Is-Not”, a beginning before the beginning, a limitless source of beingness, that needed/wanted (we can only surmise motivation) creation for Its own unfathomable ends.

Betty suggests that “All-That-Is-Not” could be enlarged upon a little more as pure potential and suggested the metaphor of a blank artist’s canvas, and that the motivation could be “to experience”.

Caveat: “All-That-Is” being bound or sourced by “All-That-Is-Not” seems like a dual perspective which, though satisfying to “simple minds” such as ours, should be considered merely a model as well.

We don’t even know if motivation is the correct perception, but from our diminutive standpoint, it’s all we can conceive that makes sense to us.

While The Absolute does not need our “worship”, apparently there is value in our appreciation, as in later lessons we are told this builds the higher realms. What is important to us is that we are The Absolute – not all of It, but a direct part of It, and it is that part of us that gives us the power to realize all our own potential.

How about “What is important to us is that we are The Absolute – not all of It, but a significant, inseparable part of it, and it is that Absolute part of our nature that gives us the power to realize all our own potential.”

Practice assignments:

1. What do you perceive or conceive as “God”?

The all-encompassing, which includes all that is immanent and all that is transcendent. On the other hand, there is a perspective that perhaps nothing exists other than consciousness, that all that seems to be real is a construction within an amorphous playhouse called the mind. There are certainly indications that there is something out there other than self, but there is no other than self to verify, from the perspective of oneness. Duality is a convenient perspective for a limited awareness.

2. How much of this belief has been taught to you, and how much have you “divined” for yourself from your own experience?

It has been presented to me, I’ve examined it, it makes sense to me, and rings “true” or at least is satisfying.

3. Describe an experience in which you perceived a greater power at work in your life. To what did you attribute this apparent power?

During career week in high school, when asked to choose a tentative career, I chose “Systems Analyst” from a “Careers In Math” pamphlet since it made the most money. I didn’t really know what it was. I forgot about it, then 6 years later found myself in a Systems Analysis class and realized I had been guided. Having been enthused by Edgar Cayce readings, I assumed that I had created it by planting a seed and made choices which allowed the seed to sprout when the time was right. Whatever set of laws which governed experience seemed to be consistent with the Law of Karma as I understood it.

4. For your own information, determine what may make you feel guilty, and evaluate whether or not this feeling of guilt is appropriate to the situation.

I choose not to project guilt and not to propose/create a guilty situation. I endeavor to live in harmony.

 5. If you are studying in a group, share as much of this as you can with others. Writing down your thoughts as you do these assignments will be of great assistance to you in your later studies. Dating them is also a good idea.

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