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Shane Eric Mathias

Goodreads Author

Born

in Los Aneles, The United States

Website

http://www.happinesstree.org

Twitter

MathiasWisdom

Genre

Psychology, History, Science

Influences

Abranam Maslow, Shunryu Suzuki, Kahlil Gibran

Member Since

January 2016

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/semathias

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Growing up in the turbulent 60's and 70's, as an only child, I witnessed what seemed like a world going mad. My family lived in Los Angeles, which was then the epicenter of racial tensions, resulting from social and economic friction, between Whites, Latinos and African Americans. I have early recollections of my father keeping a rifle and pistol within reach, out of fear that our suburban neighborhood would eventually be consumed by the violence we watched unfolding all around us each week, on our small black and white television.

In 1974, The Vietnam war ended, just short of my 18th birthday, but prior to that, my father, in an effort to protect his only son from combat, was studying how to sneak me off to Canada, were I to have been call

Growing up in the turbulent 60's and 70's, as an only child, I witnessed what seemed like a world going mad. My family lived in Los Angeles, which was then the epicenter of racial tensions, resulting from social and economic friction, between Whites, Latinos and African Americans. I have early recollections of my father keeping a rifle and pistol within reach, out of fear that our suburban neighborhood would eventually be consumed by the violence we watched unfolding all around us each week, on our small black and white television.

In 1974, The Vietnam war ended, just short of my 18th birthday, but prior to that, my father, in an effort to protect his only son from combat, was studying how to sneak me off to Canada, were I to have been called into service. My subset of the Baby Boomer generation also lived through the assassinations of JFK, that of his brother Robert as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King. Many of us were too young to understand the implications, but the shock and fear etched on the faces of our parents foretold a narrative that we would only begin to understand many years later.

During my rebellious years, like most of my peers, I experimented with drugs, which then, just seemed like an innocent, generational shift away from the norms of our parents. But our innocence was eventually shattered, as many of our cultural icons began to fall victim to the destructive, drug dependent lifestyle, that for so many, became a legacy of those tumultuous years. Jimmy Hendrix, Van Morrison, Janice Joplin and many other zeitgeist heroes, dropped from their thrones, making our parents' pleas for restraint seem suddenly more credible.

Another feature of those years, which is now sure to never return, was the free love movement. And it was only able to flourish because sexually transmitted diseases were still treatable. The biggest thing a young couple had to fear from an intimate encounter, was pregnancy. Suddenly, the term HIV/AIDS seemed to appear out of nowhere and new cases were being reported every week. Quickly, the disease hit epidemic proportions and from that point on, the days of unbridled hedonism were gone forever.

In the last half-century, I have witnessed and experienced tremendous upheaval and change. Personally, I have gained and lost careers, had many long and short term relationships, been a son, a husband and step parent, faced down death during a battle with heart disease, cared for 2 elderly parents, been a musician, an artist, an engineer, an entrepreneur and now a writer. And still, life is fascinating and mysterious, a fact which I spend many hours contemplating and documenting in my work.

I, like the rest of us am an amalgam of my own personal challenges and successes, superimposed against the backdrop of the social environs I have inhabited. Now, that I have received the mixed blessing of "maturity" I can finally view my life more clearly in the rear view mirror. And my rather neurotic need to make sense of it all, creates an unquenchable obsession to distill events, emotions, behaviors, fears, passions and social phenomena down to their elemental structure. I will sit and study, or ruminate, for hours, if need be, to arrive at a way to comprehend and describe my subjects in crystal clarity. My interests range from science, to religion and art. Human consciousness, sexuality and relationships.

For authors, due to the digital revolution, opportunities abound, but also, a greater number of voices now compete for readers attention and loyalty. Ultimately, sharp, insightful and entertaining content will win the day and it will always be my passionate mission to provide just that.

S.E. Mathias ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Shane Eric Mathias Writer's block is like a form or performance anxiety. You have a certain expectation to generate pearls of wisdom, once your fingers hit the keys and …moreWriter's block is like a form or performance anxiety. You have a certain expectation to generate pearls of wisdom, once your fingers hit the keys and if the results fall short of those expectations, then you freeze.

So, it's really a matter of changing your perspective from one of writing to one of telling. Imagine you're having a conversation with a friend about a subject, in this case, whatever you choose to write about. We don't hear the phrase "talkers block", do we? Because, it rarely exists. Learn to talk with your fingers, rather than write and your block will disappear.

It may take a little practice, but, just by doing it, your brain will understand what you're attempting and get on board. Once that happens, you won't want to stop and the results will amaze you. (less)

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Shane Eric Mathias As I write in my book "The Happiness Tree", available from Balboa Press,

Constructive Solitude is an essential part of a functional happy life. You mu…moreAs I write in my book "The Happiness Tree", available from Balboa Press,

Constructive Solitude is an essential part of a functional happy life. You must spend time digesting and integrating the experiences and lessons of the past days and weeks in order to grow and learn. There are many ways to do this, but they all require involvement in an activity that stimulates the subconscious to bubble up and interact with your thoughts, perceptions and feelings. This is how we integrate the disparate parts of ourselves into a unified whole.

Writing, is a supremely powerful way to integrate our inner and outer lives. When we write, we naturally pull wisdom and truth from deep inside of us. So much so, that often, what appears on the page seems like it was written by someone else, someone with greater life experience.

This is how we come to the realization that we are more than just what appears in the mirror or how we believe our friends judge us, we are actually an amalgam of many heretofore unrealized skills and abilities. Writing puts us in touch with those in a unique way.

There is no better way to reveal the truth of our lives to ourselves and the outside world simultaneously. (less)

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Shane Eric Mathias’s books

Average rating: 5.0 · 5 ratings · 0 reviews · 4 distinct works

	The Happiness Tree: Grow Your Happiness by Cultivating a Healthy, Creative and Purposeful Life it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Man Up it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2016	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Happiness Tree 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How To Make Love to a Woman: Enjoy discovering and increasing your partner’s full orgasmic potential 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Shane Eric Mathias's Blog

Does Immortality Actually Exist in Nature

What might this portend for the future of Humanity. Could we, at the very least learn how to dramatically extend our lives by studying the Hydra? What gives them the ability apparently avoid aging indefinitely?

Listen to this NPR Podcast to hear Martinez describe how he came to discover this enigmatic creature and why he abruptly ended the almost decade long experiment.

Will someone one day pick u

Shane’s Quotes

“On Love"

For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you.

Even as he is for your growth, so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth”
― Kahiil Gibran

tags: the-prophet

1 likes

“Of all the variables in your life, your relationships may hold the greatest power to make you either happy or miserable”
― Shane Eric Mathias, The Happiness Tree: Grow Your Happiness by Cultivating a Healthy, Creative and Purposeful Life

tags: balance, happiness, harmony, humanity, joy, relationships

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“Just as we shine the light of scrutiny on those around us, so must we also use it to illuminate our own lives”
― Shane Eric Mathias, The Happiness Tree: Grow Your Happiness by Cultivating a Healthy, Creative and Purposeful Life

tags: family, friends, happiness-relationships, lovers

1 likes

tags: compatibility, fear, friendship, love-relations, personal-evolution, progress-self-mastery

4 likes

tags: compassion-friendship, life-challenges, love, vulnerability

5 likes

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