All cultures have theories — or myths — which attempt to cross the barrier between mind and spirit. The ancient shamanic tradition of the Toltecs in Mexico is an interesting example.

We each have a personal myth, a story which builds gradually from our parent’s stories, our cultural myth, and many other factors. In this story, we are the main character, other people are secondary characters. They, however, have their own stories, which are usually radically different from ours.

Society is built on resolving the clash of these personal myths. Civilizations are constructed to preserve collective and national myths. When powerful people’s inner stories meet in dissent, whole continents can dissolve into war.

Such is the power of our personal story. Most people are not in command of their story because it’s formed from a ragbag of inherited ideas, and pressures from all manner of influences. This leads us to devalue ourselves and splits us from our essential authenticity. Instead of living in a heavenly realm at peace with ourselves and the world, we create our own hell on earth.

That is the thesis of Don Miguel Ruiz, a Mexican medical doctor and surgeon, who grew up in the ancient shamanic tradition of the Toltecs. A near-death experience in a car accident led him back to his ancestral roots to try to explain what happened. The result is a quite wonderful synthesis of 21st-century psychology and perennial wisdom.

In his book, The Voice of Knowledge, Don Miguel, distils the entire tradition of his people into four principles, or agreements, as he prefers to call them. At first sight, they could be taken for a boy scout’s creed : tell the truth, don’t take things personally, don’t jump to conclusions, and do your best. But this would be to miss the point. Used as talismans of action, the Four Agreements become a powerfully transformative path to happiness.

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

The crux of this philosophy is that everybody’s story is a tissue of lies which undermines our authentic heart. It distorts our lives into grotesque defence mechanisms against perceived enemies “out there”. There is no need for this. By using the four agreements to connect with our authenticity, we become the creators of our lives. We transform ourselves into artists of our very existence.

Don Miguel Ruiz has produced a classic of transformative literature.

The Voice of Knowledge — A Practical Guide to Inner Peace, by Don Miguel Ruiz.

At this time of year many of us are preparing our bodies for the rigours of the summer season : getting into last year’s beachware, increasing stamina for all that air travel, looking good in public.

We sometimes neglect our minds though, forgetful that they need a bit of routine maintenance and TLC as well as the physical envelope.

Here’s an excellent checklist of how we might go about it :

1. Choose your direction
2. Make it happen
3. Slow down
4. Lose the negativity
5. Break your routine
6. Play to your strengths
7. Get out of your comfort zone
8. Surround yourself with inspiring people
9. Take control
10. Keep it fresh.

Number 8 might also include reading inspiring authors, watching inspiring films etcetera.

The list was compiled by Lizz Brocklesbury of www.themindgym.com

The low information diet is a concept used in Timothy Ferriss’s new book, The 4-Hour Workweek.

If you think about it, information is the bane of our lives. It pursues us everywhere, via billboards and Blackberrys, cell phones and laptops. Information never stops, it seeps into our brains, jams out all useful activity and crashes any tendency to creativity. Most of it is useless, irrelevant, biassed, deceitful, deceptive and damaging to our health.

The problem is, information makes us feel important, connected, in league with “where it’s at”. If we don’t get any, we’re sure to look inadequate at the XYZ Conference. We never stop to think that the XYZ Conference is just another vehicle for more useless information, as is that so-vital podcast, video hookup or blog post (present post excepted because of its essential nature).

Ferriss’s chapter with the same title as this post is the best eight-page sequence in his book. Alone it will change your life. If you’re a Techmeme groupie or a news junkie, read it and learn about “selective ignorance” and the trial one-week media fast.

Refuse to be mediated, concentrate on that personal task in hand. Only your work and activity is worthy of your attention. Everything else may be relevant to others, but will kill your effectiveness and utility if you indulge in it.

This is a very interesting book which makes some contribution to the goal of a more efficient future. Don’t be put off by Ferris’s extravagant CV, you don’t have to do all of that. Four hours of Ferris should be enough to transform your working week. Maybe even reduce it to 20 hours or so.

We’ve known for a long time that a short afternoon nap can make a major difference to our work performance, especially if we’re involved in mental work.

Now, a new book by Harvard University sleep expert Dr Sara Mednick, Take a Nap! Change Your Life, describes the simple process of taking a nap as a “lifesaving habit”. She claims that snoozers make fewer mistakes and have boosted brainpower. One of her experiments involved one group taking a nap, another group drinking a mug of coffee (200mg of caffeine), and a control group taking a placebo.

They were then given a series of tasks, including typing and spatial skill tests. The coffee drinkers performed much worse than the placebo takers, while the nappers performed best of all. So the common assumption that coffee will keep us going through the day has probably been fed to us by the coffee industry.

Dr Mednick, a psychologist and research scientist, has accumulated a lot of evidence that a simple siesta in the afternoon is the best medicine for a happier, healthier life. People who sleep for 30 minutes at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower chance of a heart attack, according to a lead researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health.

In another study, recently published in Nature Neuroscience journal, the good doctor put 30 well-rested people through the same set of tasks four times in the course of a day, starting at 9am through to 7pm.

Performance dropped by 50 percent in those who stayed awake all day. However, the volunteers who took an afternoon nap kept up their performance throughout the day.

NASA has also made a contribution. Tests conducted by them show that astronauts who took a brief snooze doubled their alertness even if they were not tired before the nap. They also increased their work productivity by at least 13 percent.

The ideal time to nap apparently is between 1pm and 3pm which enables the most restful kind of sleep pattern for boosting performance.

I suggest you hedge your bets and take a nap now.