Existentialists essentially say that there is nothing more, and you are really nothing for being a part of the nothing.  Live, die, degrade; the end.

     Transcendentalists say that there can be more to existence if you only strive to achieve it thourgh your actions and lifestyle.  This in several permutations is how we have been presented with most major religions.  They all say that a convening with nature is necessary, the striking difference between these religions being how we are to convene with this nature.  Are we stewards of it, a part of that nature, or are we to have Dominion over it?

     Artists, especially, might say that you are defined by what is around you.  A careful reader may find the connection between this and the existentialist point of view, since this is in essence definition by negative space.  Except, what you get here are the pressures and influences of the world at large molding an individual and either creating a being composed of the interpretations of outside connivings or you find a being of censorship and acceptance to the various stimuli and information they have been presented with (conciously or otherwise).

     Several theories have this general concept of the individual.  Jung's Collective Conciousness, the Modern Object Relationship and the like.  These all presetn very psychology based readings for the composure of man.  Speculations, which are all we have, say that there is more to man than current conciousness.  There are purported levels of conciousness and un-conciousness where there are whole and separate realities for you all their own.  The concept of the spirit allows one to think of a life after death, maybe even atonement, salvation and damnation.  Then reincarnation theories about what you were in a past life, and what you might be in your next as a result of misdeeds, education, and growth as a person (karma).

     There is a more comprehensive interpretation for the function of human persionality, and it is the concentric self universe principle.  This states that anything you know, see, do etc is related to you only in terms of you, therefore everything around you is a function/creation existing solely in your own mind, and ibid for each and every person in existence.  Thus leaving us to believe that the universe as we recognize it scientifically, is composed of b illions and billions of individual realities, whose juxtaposition holds the fabric together for each of us seperately to endure.  Those who wish to see the end will, and those of us who don't won't.  Perspective goes macrocosmic, if you will.    

     This is a much more extreme version of what I earlier referred to as the artist's take on things, because not only are you viewing yourself in relation to others, but you are entirely comprised of all those others, and they being created and maintained by you alone are entirely comprised of you as well.

     Within that aforementioned system of thought visa vie the individual in eternal relation tot he self, you offer almost the same rebuttals to the theory of "GOD": Why do bad things happen?  If there is a god, why would he/she allow such atrocities to occur?  This time, however, since you would have created that god, and therefore are god, you turn to yourself and wonder: Why would I provide X for myself, but not Y?  The answer, simply stated is: What are we when not challenged? Bored.  What are we when not interested or actively engaged in something? Stationary.  What is the constant and prevalent action that man has repeatedly taken?  Boundary pushing.  We revolt, we innovate, we expand, and evolve.  Whatever you call it, it translates to progression.  We change, and change is fundamentally expansion.  Even downsizing is expansion of sorts, just graphed on a different plane.  If a company "downsizes" typically what it is doing is managing its affairs so that the company can survive on a longer time scale.  Thereby time is expanding in relation to the existence of the company.

       Those who fail in their challenges may not necessarily be categorized as having been lazy.  It is possible to set forth challenges in an untimely fashion, or those that are too rigorous.  This is an example of another of the greatest human weaknesses, being a detatchment from acurately recognizing the state of self.  Self doubt, esteem, and similar things are all healthy gauges, but hardly seem to be that anymore.  Now they are more like obstacles in your path.  Pain; pain isn't a bad thing.  Pain indicates that there is something wrong, and that something needs to be fixed.  Remove pain by force and what you have  is a lot of important things that need to be addressed, ignored. 

     The art of challenge.  Teachers are intended to employ this medium, and seldom do.  Dominators similarly are in a position to challenge, and motivate, however typically they pursure their own interests through others, missing their worthwhile oportunities.  Anyone in a period of movement should be very aware of the nature and reason for the obstacles in their path.  Those who turn to anger, in an attempt to externalize or avoid issues resulting from their acquaintance with that obstacle are fundamentally missing the issue at hand.  Therefor, eventhough they may pass the obstacle, it will still lie where it lay.  The key to obliterating those obstacles is learning the lesson.  Mind you not just recitation of morals but applicable knowledge implemented.  The actions and experiences you have enabled for yourself in your past brought you down the road where the boulder lay.  Climb over it, but when you revisit you will find it less enjoyable to re-climb, possibly preventing you from seeing the path from whence you came. 

     You may wonder to yourself why it is that you find yourself (or place yourself) in very similar setting, with the same "sorts" of people again and again.  Quite simply something you encountered wasn't quite dealt with when you tired of it.  We tell ourselves all sorts of lies to inflate our egos.  Things that get inflated, as we all know pop, get deflated, or their helium wears out.  Efficiency, even by our own standards, is rarely attained because we throw too many logs on our fire at one time.  Tasks should be seen through to completion, activites the same.  No procedure is useless, when fully utilized.  No situation, however redundant can not be gained from.  Redundancy is almost like a punishment we give our selves for not paying attention the first time.  Mistake to do not exist.  Being sorry for something does not constitute regret.

     All those discussions concerning time travel are correct.  Change any one thing about a past event and the outcome may be completely extemporaneous.  Each breath you take is a step in your own personal evolution, and deciding to hold it in for an extra second alters everything right down to the chemical composition of the air around you.  Regret, really regretting is the state of wishing something actually undone.  That simply can not be.  Regret is akin to suicide, to regret is to wish the undoing of your own existence, even if by degrees.  As long as you wish for that, no success will ever be appreciated, no happiness truly felt.

     The proper method of enacting these principles of appropriate challenge and overcoming obstacles is not extensive thinking, hyper attention to detail, nor is it drifting.  The key is self awareness.  Differentiating between want and need, comfort and acceptance.  Anxiety, while it can be a useful skill to have is a mutation of what would otherwise be fear.  Fear is an instinctual message intended to be received by a part of the brain able to command our defense systems, not internal implosion.  Anxiety now brings to mind self-destructive behaviour or pre-mature self-permanization.  Unwinding yourself from your entanglements is the way.  Riding the natural flow of your energy wavelengths is the only way to feel self assured, since it is the only way you won't be in constant battle with yourself.  Self respect, and self love will duly follow self confidence (respect here being more important since it inhibits narcisism) and after that you will be in a better position to gain and receive the respect and love of others. 

     Following this concept that everything is a function of the creative process in the brain, who and what are these others?  Why are others needed?  They are other people, with intentionally generated opinions and personalities.  They are there to accompany you, comfort you and most importantly be your feedback mechanism.  You have the groups of extremes, then your own ideological peers, and their reactions to you and interactions with you enable you (or should enable you) to view those things about you that need addressing, and let you know what things you have successfully dealt with.  The reactions of strangers, especially, are wonderful indicators as to whether you come across correctly, or if the messages you send with words, body language, appearance etc are being transmitted appropriately.  Work is often required to reformat the messgaes you send, so that they are understod and not immediately rejected.  Now this does not have to result in giving up parts of yourself, or selling out, or even deviating from your desires.  You have created these areas for reasons.  The most obvious of these reasons being that they are uncomfortable, thusly indicating to you A) that you do not belong there, and there is some lesson to be learned as to wither why you are uncomfortable there or why you placed yourself there and B) there are kinks in the diametric dynamic you have set forth for yourself and you have obstacles to overcome.  The two, A and B need not be differentiated between, nor combined.  B most commonly indicates that you have an erroneous notion of yourself, that you view yourself as something other that what you are, or that you do not present yourself in a manner comprehensible to other people causing undue friction.

     Objective self analysis, biorythms, yoga, meditation, and lucid dreaming are all methods of attaining this healthy of relaxation.  Sayings like "go with the flow" "slow and steady wins the race" "easy does it" and the zen mantras are all attempts to ready the mind or convince the mind that not only is this relaxation necessary, which it is, but that it has already occured, which most times is false.  This technique may work for some people, because it prompts them to act according to this role they set for themself.  But in this instance, the progresses are only linear, two-dimensional, because you have tricked yourself into believing that this progress was achieved when it was really forced.  Addressing issues fully is the only way I could agree with the conclusion of full-fleshed progress.  Deal with your problems, don't avoid them.  A math problem that you can't solve indicates a lack of knowledge in a certain area, and while you may go on to solve many, many other problems, when confronted with problems of a similar nature you will not be able to colve them either.

     Proper self awareness is a subjective process, with a conditional outcome.  It's almost a catch-22 because one has to truly evaluate one's strength, abilities, and self to become truly self aware.  This fact definitely leads some to frustration, and denial poiting them to the quick fizes of discovery: trances, drugs, and psychiatrists.  While all of those things are viable tools for your endeavour for the self, often they can deconstruct what progress you have made, if not utilized correctly.  A trance without composure is just stagnant self hypnosis; drugs without a quest laid out are recreation; a patient who doesn't know how what he/she has experienced has affected her/him and doesn't want to unravel it to its core can gain no resulkts from a psychiatrist's training (not to mention that just because a person chose to become a shrink is in anyway related to their skill at their craft, even despite training).

     For each person the beginning will differ.  For each eprson the journey will require varying degress of effort.  Each person must face the obstacles in their path, and deal with them accordingly.  Achievements made will be shallow and brittle, knowledge will likewise be full of holes unless your methods are extensive and thorough.  For each person the finish line will appear differently, and even then the game of life is not complete; regression is plausible.  Answers may never be the most obvious; 'delve behind the wall Sara, you can't take anything for granted'.  Taking things for granted, especially the capabilities of yourself and the resources around you is the surest way to burrow your head in the sand.  For every action, reaction.  All energy exists always.  Nothing is certain, everything is permitted.  It is ok to think and strive for your own personal success.  The road is ahead of you, the road is behind you, and there are roads and passages on all sides.  The decisions for where you go in your life are your alone.  Fate does indeed exist, and we are each the masters of it.