When someone asks you to do something, you do it. That's not a
   request.* You *do* do it, whether you want to or not. Let's go
   through what happens: You're asked to do something. Immediately,
   you respond in some way. You might not *say* anything. You might
   not jump up and do anything. But you respond, always.* How? You
   first have a feeling. And then you think a thought. That feeling
   rules the thought that come next. The thought can calm down the
   feeling and it does but it's slow.* Adding to the difficulty is
   that the very thought you are thinking is being influenced by
   the very feeling* that you are attempting to calm down. So it is
   usually easier to align your thoughts with your feelings, your
   thoughts moving up and down with your emotions.* If you feel
   depressed, it's easier to think depressing thoughts. If you are
   happy, it is easier to think happy thoughts.* If you are angry,
   it is easier to think angry thoughts. Whether they are rational
   or reasonable or irrational or unreasonable aren't important at
   this point. That you are thinking the thought at all in the
   first place is directly linked to the feeling you had just a
   moment before and changes what you consider to be important at
   that point in time. So, you respond. A feeling then a thought.*
   It may be a feeling then an action.* Actions and thoughts are
   interchangable responses. They may look different but within
   your brain, they're nearly identical to each other.* While there
   may or may not be a "little person" within the brain, we play
   out our responses within our brains before we take an actions or
   have a thought, whether or not we are conscious of the process
   as it is occurring. This all happens in a split second and
   happens on a continuous basis throughout the day, anytime we are
   faced with something we didn't anticipate a moment before. Like
   a sudden, unexpected request. POST-MORTEM What feeling prompted
   this line of thinking? I was planning out my to-do list for this
   morning. My mother came out here and had things for me to do
   that I was not prepared to do.* I responded, I observed my
   thinking and feeling processes as I was going along, observing
   what triggered my emotional changes and changes in my thought
   processes. I decided observation was primary importance, braided
   together - of equal primary importance - with achieving her
   tasks for me so that I could return back to my to-do list. I
   quickly organized how to achieve the tasks in the most efficient
   route possible, picking up some papers here, moving these things
   over there, pulling weeds on my way over to filling up a cart,
   all the while observing myself. Finally I completed what she
   asked of me.* As I sat down to return to my to-do list, I did
   not.* Instead, I wrote this passage and this, the post-mortem
   analysis. I could do a post-mortem of the post-mortem as well,
   but I really want to get back to my to-do list. -kenneth udut
   11/17/2014