I think this is important...
Attentiveness and Sensuousness and Apperceptiveness:
An actualist’s intent is a pure intent and discovering how to blend this pure intent – via attentiveness – into one’s conscious life is the process that places one on the wide and wondrous path to actual freedom.
i think i've gotten better at attentiveness lately, but even with 'automatic' (i.e. it's an automatic process whenever i remember to do it, until i get distracted again) attentiveness, it's still easy to go off into some unhappy states.. and hard to get back from them
i think attentiveness provides a good platform to do whatever you want, though, as whatever you do you can only do it moment to moment, and attentiveness is being aware of what one is doing moment to moment.. so any instruction that one can mix into attentiveness will happen as automatically as attentiveness does
so i tried providing a non-verbal instruction to myself such that whenever im attentive i also gravitate towards being happy and harmless. and it seems to work well! it has a particular quality to it - a light warmth in my upper chest and head (i wonder if it's actually endorphins being released as if i force a smile that same region lights up in a similar way). and it's kind of like auto-piloting towards happiness and harmlessness. at least my mood has visibly brightened the past hour and i touched upon a few moments that have been as maximally clean+clear as i've gotten.
it also seems to make dealing with feelings and beliefs easier. before it's like 'ah darn this feeling keeps coming up.. well why's it there? have to figure it out so that it stops bothering me'. with this new approach it's more like 'ah look! my lovely brain is constantly providing possible reasons - entry points into the investigation process - as to what's preventing me from being even more happy+harmless than i'm being right now.' the feelings and 'annoyances' are more like wonderful opportunities to uncover another corner of the human (i.e. 'my') psyche.
it's still easy to not do it, e.g. to get distracted and then forget for a bit, but that can change. although, knowing me i'll forget this for another two weeks then i'll re-read this and be like 'oh this is what i should have been doing the past two weeks eh?'