[The Cloud]

There are two basic activities that (almost) every human being engages in: eating and sleeping. From what I've noticed, mostly from my observations of myself and from reading Steve's experiments in these areas, these are the purest areas to look into if you want to find your mentally imposed limitations. Food and sleep aren't just done to meet physical needs; since they are so universal, they are almost always strongly connected to some psychologically imposed needs.

For example, I am retrying polyphasic sleeping right now. If you don't know what this is, search for it in Steve's blog history. I attempted it about a year ago, but even after a month I still could never get past the third day. One problem I had was that I could never settle down and just sleep. Every nap was another torturous opportunity for me to fail. The more I needed it, the harder it became. When I began this time, I realized that it was the attachment to the outcome that was hindering me. When I let go of needing sleep to come, it came. But when I worried that it wouldn't come, it never did no matter how tired I was.

This is a phenomenon that affects my entire life, not just sleep. Things are much easier if you just let them happen, but if you force them they become sources of frustration rather than pleasure. I more clearly witnessed this with my sleep experiment than I ever had before. I believe it is because of the unchallenged purity of the neurosis in that setting that I was able to perceive it with such lucidity.

My point is that if you want to find your limiting beliefs or behaviors, challenge your sleep or your food. Either is bound to produce a very strong observable reaction that will teach you a lot about the thoughts governing your self-defeating behaviors.