Answer for question 4242.

[sabotabby]

[Error: unknown template qotd]Lack of introspection and self-consciousness.

The reason should be obvious.

Comments

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Nightsight cat's eyes to match my whiskers. Longer? No (unerotic): more tail! Warmer fur. Better hearing and my sense of smell back. Less big stripes; they give you away at once at preying.

[sabotabby]

You don't have a sense of smell?

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Not at the moment I don't. I have The Cold of Death (though I just praised the old carcass for fighting it off bravely, I feel somewhat less moribund today albeit still so much ill) but I have a theory on the smell of cardboard boxes&cats!

[elsewhereangel.livejournal.com]

I'd like a soupcon of Dewey's unalloyed daily joy.

[sabotabby]

My point exactly.

[ironed_orchid]

Ability to sleep 16 hours a day (and not have people tell me I should be doing something else).

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Me too

[sabotabby]

Me three.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

OMG that would be divoon.

[sabotabby]

Right?

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

With human consciousness, the only way out is through: using our brain to investigate what kinds of activities, including meditation, can bring us the unselfconscious flow experience and then to schedule them.

The agility of a rat would be nice, although I'd have to think a while about accepting the balancing help of a long, hairless tail.

[sabotabby]

See, unselfconscious flow goes badly for me, if it can even happen at all. Very. Very. Badly. If I were a cat it would be fine, but as the particular type of human I am, it is not a good thing to court.

A tail would be nice. I've always wanted a tail.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

This comment really intrigues me. At first I thought you meant it was hard for you to achieve the flow state, which, well, of course it is for everyone, though of course some more than others. But then I thought maybe you mean that when you do get into a flow state, your actions or decisions cause bad results in your life. If so, I have an almost unseemly curiosity about it. For me, the flow state goes with great intuition, useful synchronicities, all the stuff it's supposed to bring, although sometimes the synchronicities are tests of a sort, far less pleasant than useful.

It'd be cool to hear in ranges most humans can't, as rats can, too.

[sabotabby]

It's hard to explain.

On a specific level, when I've tried to meditate or get into a flow state, my brain doesn't so much shut up as go into strange violent sequences. This can be okay if I'm channelling them into writing, but doesn't so much help with relaxing or de-stressing. Usually, though, flow state doesn't happen for me at all.

But on a more general level, anxiety for me is a survival instinct thing. If I start to relax or live in the moment, that's when the bad decisions start to happen or I become incredibly unproductive. I sort of need to maintain a balance between anxiety and terrified paralysis in order to function like a normal person.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Such a sensible answer. My mother always puts it, "how nice to be a hamster."