All right, everybody. Hi, again, I'm Eileen Violini. If you can find me online at underscore iViolini. And today we're going to talk about upgrading your WordPress workflow. And if you're, can I see a show of hands? How many here are designers? Good, a lot of designers. How about developers? So people actually work. And how many of you use a local development environment currently? OK, so a lot of what I'm going to introduce to you today is a basic local WordPress development environment moving through staging and then on to production. There are lots of different ways that you can do this. This is a bare minimum way that you can start and begin to work with this type of workflow in your development processes. There are other more geeky options. And I'd like to think of it as a gateway drug. So once you start here, you're going to want to explore other options with command line and different tools. So when we talk about cowboy coding, that's when somebody is, who knows what cowboy coding is? Ken. Donik. Yeah, I think all of us have done a little bit of cowboy coding. So cowboy, yeah. So when cowboy coding is when you are not using a workflow for development that is going to protect your production site from going down. So you might be out on the South 40. You know you're on the South 40 and please raise your hands here if you have done this. If you make changes to the style.css file in FileZilla and push that directly to production without using code editor, yeah. You might be on the South 40.  If you open the index PHP file on production in the WordPress dashboard editor, and yeah, there's a typo there because I did that last minute. And you make changes and hit update. So you're making, yeah. It's just a live site. You might be cowboy coding. And if you think EnQ is a type of fancy barbecue and you make changes to CSS and the customizer, both hands here. I do this every day. And he yells at me for it. So yeah, you might be on the South 40. Getting off of the farm and upgrading your WordPress workflow is going to save you time. So you can be making changes locally and uploading a whole bunch of files. How many of you have been working in FileZilla? And you hit that upload button. And it's uploading everything.  That's kind of like what uploading your WordPress site through FileZilla is like. Getting everything set up and working locally, you'll be able to cut that time down. It goes faster. You can keep track of your changes better and roll those changes back. If you need to redo something, a client has decided that they don't like it. And you're safe. You're ensuring that your production site is stable and you're not pushing things up there that are going to break it. So for terminology, when I talk about a local environment, it's a server that exists on your computer and it's not anywhere that anybody else can see it. It's hosted right here on your own laptop or desktop. The staging environment is hosted on a remote server somewhere, so wherever your host is. And it doesn't have a publicly known URL. So if you're, it might say staging or it might have a bunch of numbers in it or you can throw any type of jargon in there to kind of dissuade people from being able to look at it unless they actually have the URL that you give them. And the remote environment, also called production or live, it's the site that's seen by the public. It's your final site, all your final code, settings, everything, that's what everybody goes to visit. So the big picture is developing locally on the server that you set up on your laptop or desktop, pushing to staging and testing so that you can see what is happening to your code in the server environment that it's going to be living in because there are changes. There are things that don't always work the same way. And then finally moving that staging into production. Tools, to get started with this, you need a local development server with a WordPress install. There are lots of different applications that you can use to get set up with this. Local by flywheel is one, desktop server is one, MAMP for Mac or WAMP for Windows or other options. Geeky options include Docker, VVV or Lando and Calibox. Those are not for the faint of heart. When I came into WordPress, I was a print designer and slowly began to learn more about code and the very first word camp that I ever went to, I attended a contributor day and there were two options. You could go to training and help the training team or you could go to testing and help the testing team. And I thought, well, I already do a lot of writing. I think I'd like to try something different and testing appealed to me because, hey, I can break anything better than anybody. So I figured, let me do that. I spent my entire day trying to download things like Homebrew and set up things through the command line and terminal and set up VVV and this is many years ago. There's a better system for that now so please don't be scared. Go to contributor day if you can. But at that time it was very, very painful and it took me a really long time to get up to speed with these things. I kind of look at it as a rite of passage to be able to get all of these environments set up and working correctly and it's still something that I don't know how to do very well and I always have to ask a lot of questions. So if you start down the road of using this type of workflow and you get stuck, don't give up, just keep asking questions. Some other helpful things in this process, you're gonna need some migration and duplication tools. So DB Migrate Pro is a paid plugin that will migrate your database files and duplicator or WP clone or we also use updrafts plus to be able to take a entire snapshot or backup or clone of your site and version control Git, specifically using GUI tools like Git desktop or source tree and then a repository to put those files. So all of the code files that exist in not the WordPress core but your theme files, your plugin files, everything that's in WP content and admin, all of those things would reside in your code repository and a hosting environment that works with Git. So, oh sorry, that's the staging. So using command line interface and using some sort of configuration tool can also help you get those items from local and staging into production correctly. So for your local environment, it's just like any other WordPress environment. It's a standard WordPress website configured with a PHP version, a MySQL database and a clean WordPress install. It allows you to work offline so you're not connected to the server if you travel a lot or you don't have access to the internet at that time. Having a project that you're working on on your desktop can be really helpful so that you don't have to wait to get online to make changes. You can see the changes quickly and immediately you're not waiting for that time to download that file through FileZilla from your server, make changes, re-upload it. You hit refresh and you can see what CSS changes you've made or in some of the tools, they will allow you to create a blueprint. So if you have specific things that you work with on a regular basis, you can tell it to spin up this site using the same items and plugins and options that you already use in other sites. And I like local because we can put an old version of WordPress up and test and see if so when a client comes to me and says, my site broke and I don't know how and I updated recently, then I can go back to a version or two versions before to see what it looks like in an older environment. Your local site will have a different type of URL than your main website. Local by Flywheel appends dot local at the end of those files and MAMP uses localhost forward slash site name.    So it's a brand new WordPress install. It has the, it should have similar PHP versions. It should have a database. To make it easier on yourself, you'll want to make sure that you name the database. It has the same kind of table prefix in front of it. You can fix it later on. If it doesn't, you can change that but it just makes it easier starting out if your database tables have the same prefix name. You'll also want to change in the config file to turn on WP debug so that you can catch any errors that are happening. So define WP debug true. That's just a little helpful tip. And you have two options to move between local up to staging. You can do it the old fashioned way using FTP. And this is a shot of the FTP and maybe you're just pulling over. So this is your local, all your local files here, the individual files that you're working on. This is pushing out to the site that's on the server. And maybe you only have one file that you made changes in this page template file and you want to push those up and you can move it over to the corresponding file. Doing this creates a lot of agita for me on a regular basis because I never know if I'm getting the right file if I'm getting it into the right folder where it needs to go and it does break sometimes. I like to have everything set up so that I don't have to do that heavy thinking because I'm thinking about other things and I don't want to hear them fire a moment where everything goes down. So taking a little bit of time in the very beginning of your process to set up a sync with Git is gonna save you time later on where you're not worrying about did I just move the right file over. So this is not a talk to walk through how to set up a local environment. But if you're working in MAMP, you'll need to go out and get the latest version of WordPress or whatever version of WordPress that you're working in and install that in the MAMP process. If you're working in a product like local, local will give you options that you can select and you just click through some buttons so it makes it really easy. And then when you're setting things up for your staging site, you'll want to use a tool maybe in the C panel like Softaculus or other hosts like Pantheon or WP Engine will walk you through a wizard to be able to set up those environments for you. But the idea is that once you have something in local, then you're mirroring it out on staging. And when we say we're gonna hook it up to Git, what that enables us to do is that brings version control in. So how many of you have had a client? I've had this happen to me. You make changes in the menu. They get a whole new menu, all different kinds of dropdown, lots of JavaScript actions happening and they're like, oh, I don't know if I like that or not. I think I really want to go with that other version. And you put that other version up there and you don't save the code.  And then you gotta go back and redo everything. So that's a lot of time wasted. Version control will allow you to create a branch and save those snippets and versions of different aspects of your website so you don't lose that work that you've done. What is Git? Git is a free and open source distributed version control system. This is the main Git link and there's an online web book here. So if you're really interested in finding out more about Git, this is the place to start. This talk is not about Git. It's a very high level introduction to it. Git itself also, besides being version control, there's a place where your code is stored. So it's stored in the Git repo and that's a remote storage bucket that you have access to and you can use it to share your code with other team members so you can collaborate together. It's important to note that Git itself is the version control and other products like Git Hub or BitBucket. There's some others out there as well. Those are specific types of remote access to, so Git is the version control and then BitBucket or Git Hub are different products that use Git version control. They use other types of version control but that's where you can use Git and you can use that version control through the command line or through a GUI interface. So like Git desktop or Source Tree and it provides you a way to be able to see what branch you're working in and what changes you have made. If you can note here, there's some red fields in the back here and some green fields. The green field indicates that there's been a line changed in this code. Something has changed here. This is the old version and this is what is being pushed out new.  So whether you're using GitHub or BitBucket, you'll push the code out there. The big difference between GitHub and BitBucket are private accounts. So BitBucket will allow you to have a free private account. You can get private accounts at Git Hub that you have to pay for at first. I think Git BitBucket stops you at like three private repos. But it's the same sort of process that you're working through in terms of you're making changes to your code locally and then you're putting it out into the repo. And then once you are, if your host allows this, if they're set up to do this, so like SiteGround, your very base level is just regular hosting and you have to move up a tier or two to get the Git sync or the geeky options, they call it.  And when you push changes out to your Git remote bucket, it will, you'll see those changes happen automatically on your website. So you've just eliminated that whole step of going in and moving one file from, through FileZilla from one place to another. I'm not gonna lie, this is hard for me to do. It takes a little bit of, there's a little learning curve. You would, it would be to both. So initially you wanna make sure that you're going into staging and you're getting everything in staging first and then staging would roll over to production. Usually you wouldn't wanna push changes directly into production. It's more from just taking that staging site and then making changes to that so that it becomes your production site. And the last step is the database. So dotting your eyes, once when you're in, when you're in, when you're local and you push those changes out to staging, whatever's in local stays in the local environment. So think about it in terms of if you have a database on your production site and your client is making changes to it. They're putting in new pictures, they're putting up new blog posts. If you took everything that you had locally and you just pushed it out into production, you would overwrite everything that they have done in the past, whatever it is, since you've taken a snapshot of that site. I've had that happen to a place that I was working. So that all that, all those files and everything, you know, all that work and everything is just gone. Using a tool like DB Migrate Pro, you can sync the database, you can either pull what's in production and pull it down locally or you can push the files, the database files, posts or images, media files and push those out. But that's really a separate, you wanna think of that in terms of being a very separate deliberate step so that you're not overwriting something somewhere where you don't wanna do it. And again, what happens locally stays locally. So you're in there, you're creating a theme, you're making all your theme changes to CSS and you're pushing those posts into your repo. It's being version controlled, it's being saved in a place other than on your desktop. And then that sync is happening between those code files in the repo and the code files that are being stored on your server to be displayed on the front end. But all along that process, no database files are getting crossed. It's just the code files. What happened to my plugins? So this is something that I always get tripped up on. I make a push and I go to check something and the change isn't there and I don't know why it's not there. And I'm like, I know I did this right. And the first thing I do is think that I've done something wrong in the code. I go and I look in the code. Well, 45 minutes later, I go into the WordPress admin dashboard and it says this plugin has been disabled or you go into the settings and the settings aren't correct. And that's because those settings in your plugins aren't getting transferred over. So I actually have a sticky note someplace that reminds me to go check those things first so I don't waste 45 minutes. And that's a real pain point, I think. And it's a pain point for most people is what you're left doing is when you have a plugin with all of its settings and if you have a lot of plugins, I do a lot of work in Paid Memberships Pro and there are a ton of add-ons to that one main plugin and lots of settings. So that's really tough to be able to keep up with all those changes and things that I've made. You can use a configuration management tool. This is a new area that I'm exploring in terms of trying to eliminate areas in my workflow and my process that create a lot of friction for me. And I'll be honest with you, I haven't gotten there yet, I can't share with you how that works. A friend of mine, Tessa Crissel from Pantheon, she has a talk, I have it in my resources here on configuration management. So that'll be the next area that I'll be exploring. But like I said, it's a gateway drug. When you start doing this, you're gonna be looking at doing more and getting better, or at least that's what I'm doing. Some of the resources I have for you, I have a couple things here on how to use Git. Like I said, this wasn't a talk about Git, it was just the broad concept of it. There are oodles and reams of pages and posts and information on the internet about Git and Git branching and how you should use Git version control and that's not what, that could be an all day long conference, but this was more just the very high level type of thing. For my studio, what we'll usually do is look at having a feature, so different branches. We each will have our own branch that we'll work in, but we will also version out branches, so we might have a branch that's the menu upgrade or a branch that's the adding in the CSS upgrade, so things like that, and then once we've tested those branches and they look good, then we merge them into the master branch. But there's lots of different ways and lots of different thought processes about how you should branch Git. And there's Learn Git branching, Git for WordPress development, WP pusher. This is a tool similar to the configuration management tool and it will allow you to keep the settings synced. It's something that I haven't tried yet, but the WordPress Git course that he has online, you sign up for it and he sends you a different video every day, that's a really great introduction. There's the configuration talk and this is what's available in the Codex for starting and setting up a local development environment. So do we have any questions? Yes. So if a hosting company doesn't have a specific staging area where you can just click a button, which is, can you do, you know, set up a subdomain or something? Yes. And then that will work the same? Yes. You can just manually copy over. Right. And you'll want to check that you have enough space in your account and bandwidth to be able to do that, but that's exactly what you would do. So something like staging or QA as a subdomain off of your main URL, that works. Yeah, Ken. If you have images on your production site, does your staging site have a duplicate of those images or are you referring to the production site images? So you don't have to duplicate the saving space? I'm probably, I think in my workflow at the moment, I'm probably duplicating. And I should, yeah. Think about, yeah. I should really think about doing that differently. But yeah, that's probably how it works at the moment. Yeah. With staging, I'm getting the occasion where you go, I'm using content errors because the same content is in a staging environment and it's in production environment. Although it's temporary in staging, that is a short-term hit on the CEO because the same content is in a few of the forums. I don't know if you have any workflow or any tricks to get around making a site overall with one quick fix and saying this is not a searchable site. We would do robot tech settings. Yeah, in your settings, in the general settings, under. What I'm doing is protecting it behind HTSs. So there is a password known of that component in staging as it says. That's what I can say is that I've been planning that the setting isn't always, doesn't, yeah. They don't have to serve. Yeah, they don't have to, right. But the hd access would be the other answer denied. But the answer to Ken's is you can use the same database and then just change the two options. If it's a new database, like option one and option two are the URLs, if it's an old database, it's one in 36. Just, so the staging URL, you're changing and then everything else would be production URLs and then you can leave all your things there. Oh, okay. All right, I seem to recall reading an article on it and of course now I can't find it. And I think it's by the people made DB Migrate Pro that I thought they had something that I just can't find it. So if you do that, do it in the database first. Just make those two changes. Otherwise your staging set wouldn't resolve. Right. Okay. But then that way the references, the images are going to production and I don't have to look at what's then saved in space. Right. Okay. All right, thanks. Well, what happens if you post up the problem in staging, is it gonna? No. No, don't do that. You have to do it in one. No, so if you post, so in this case you could test something locally. I mean in staging, right? And it would use those, the staging URL and anything that you could add it to it media-wise would have the staging URL. But you wouldn't take that database and put it up. You never put the database that way. You only take the database down. You only take the database down, never up. Unless you're on your side. So, and if you're... On your life side, but those are, that's files. So those are, you're gonna have to do that in both places no matter what. You're just talking about the database and it's really just references to images. That's why the issue is... So you're doing it in both places. That's what you're saying. Updating plugins in both places. Right. Okay. Jason. She was more about saving space. Right. Right. With images, yeah. Just gonna ask if you probably work with clients with a lot of different hosts. If there's hosts that you feel do their staging site better than others. So... Individual features of how they do staging that you like and dislike. Recently I had the opportunity to put a client out in Pantheon and I really liked how quick and easy that was to be able to install their migrator plugin on my client's live site. Hit that migrate button. It generates a machine key and you throw that into the plugin and you have to keep the browser open. But you hit that migrate key and it just goes and it just does it. And I don't have to do all of these different steps and stages. So that was a really big time saver for me and I'm gonna look at how I can replicate that type of thing in my own workflow. It's... Yeah, that is open source. So Updraft Plus has a migrate button like that and it'll work between live site to live site but it doesn't work from if I have to take my client site and pull it down locally. So what I'll have to do is I create a package. It breaks it up into theme files, plugin files, uploads different, it gives you four different packages and then you download those, install Updraft Plus locally and it will, you hit the restore button and it goes and it grabs each of those packages. It makes the process a little bit easier for really, really big sites because it's chunked everything up for you but it's still time consuming. I want just that click, the button, magic thing. Local by Flywheel and their local environment and their hosting is a really, really nice, tight integration. There's a button in there, you hit connect and it goes out and it sends all the files to your site there on that host. But, and WP Engine, I've worked with WP Engine and that's also been very smooth. So any other questions? Does anybody else have a different workflow that they use? But I basically repeat my steps and that's what I was trying to figure out was how it came here because in my dev environment I have contact forms for example that go to me, not to my client but on the live site they go to the client. So I'm not, but let's say I'm updating all the plugins, I'm testing it, make sure everything works but the thing that's nice about a dev environment is exactly the same PHP version and database versions and server hosting, everything's batched up exactly, you know? So then, but then I'm repeating my steps, I'm going through updating the plugins on the live site. But I'm able to do any kind of testing or try some new things. I don't have all the most recent content on the staging site because I'm not even pulling it down because there's no purpose to that unless there's been like some major changes. Right. But it's also, you know, space, space, you know, if you have a space issue that would be a problem. Yes. So there are some downsides too, but I don't know. I was trying to figure out is there a way to have a third level in there so that I can just push things to the live site. But it sounds like you're actually doing some stuff. You are actually doing voice anyway. That, and I do a lot of plugin work so that's a really big issue for me at the moment is trying to find a way that goes easily because I don't like to install and set up plugins on a client's live production site. And usually none of them have staging or QA or anything like that. So. I made me think of both for like that.  But I found like later on in consulting I realized like, oh I should do a change log for client plugins and keep track of the version because eventually what happens is you have that same plugin on dev, on staging, on their staging and this local machine that's other one and you feel like oh I don't know which is which. Oh yeah. And so like if you're not doing some other kind of version control to map these things like it's good to be track of versions and change logs for things. Right. I have, we do something similar. So if we do a customizations plugin or something special in a paid memberships pro register helper plugin will version control those. So and show the number. Because inevitably if I've got one my partner has another one. So that way we can at least be able to say which number do you have. Yes. Just a comment on plugins. So you're talking about how you have changes on your local and it doesn't get pushed to the production. I had the opposite problem because the plugin was really just a portal to a cloud service. So I was local. I thought everything was fine. Things were actually happening on live. On live, yeah. To think, yeah. Okay, was that the social? That was the social. Yeah, and that is something that they're trying to cut now because Facebook and a lot of the social medias are not allowing a massive post from somewhere else. Right. That may not be an issue anymore, but yes, we definitely experienced that. Right, yeah, they're cutting out, being able to post from your website. So, all right, great. Any other questions? No? Do you have a link to your resources on Twitter or? Yes, I will tweet out that link. And if you go to visit it, it is, right now it's on a test site and I'm using a new theme and development environment workflow from Morton Henriksen. It's called WP-Rig. So the site is basic, basic, basic and I'll be making changes and updates to that theme. It uses other things like Composer and Browser Sync. So that's the next stage of my journey about creating a better development environment. So you can keep checking back and see how it turns out. All right, URL. It is iViolini.Sidetrack.Studio. URL for whether or not. Great, thank you everybody.


Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Chappie, and it's time to bust some nuts and bolts because we're gonna be talking about the greatest inventor since the killer and among us, the Artificer. As you may have noticed, this video is a redo of my last Artificer guide, as not only have I played this class extensively between now and then, giving me a new perspective on the abilities and how they synergize with each other, but the Artificer has also been officially reprinted in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything along with a new subclass, so it's the perfect time to attune your years to the grinding gears. As always keep in mind that a lot of this is just my opinion, so if you feel like I must have gotten a few screws loose, feel free to play your games however you want. But with that out of the way, let's begin. And real quick, I'd like to give a brief shout out to my new patrons this month. Dreamfarer, Aaron Lazu, Kiwi Ninja, Karja, DM Dastardly Mimic, Mikal Wells, Michael Murphy, Brandon Parsons, Harry Perry Chicken, Eric P. Stadnick, Epos Fluffles. Thank you so much for pledging to my Patreon, may you never hit L when you're trying to hit Enter. So the Artificer is the Magitech maniac of the material realm, combining the forces of science, pseudoscience, and twiddling your fingers until that magic stick you found on the ground becomes a magic vibrating stick, with the power to slap cheeks until they're imbued with magic, having the knowledge to assemble any Ikea furniture, and possessing enough combat skills to make your party wonder, wait, is the Artificer supposed to be your frontliner? The Artificer is the perfect everyman class for players looking to try it all. The main gimmick of the Artificers are their infusions, special abilities that work like warlock invocations but are applied to objects instead, turning them into bonafide magic items that can do any number of things, from hit harder, boomerang at you, glow explode, tell you why your parents got divorced, fly, help you fly, help you through your divorce, and so much more. Most of them can only be applied to specific items, and they can only be accessed at certain levels, so you'll spend a lot of your campaign trying to find the right combination to fix your broken marriage. Also, in addition to multiple tables of pre-existing magic items that you can build, if you have access to Xanathar's God to everything, you can also build anything from the minor magical item section, or at least you couldn't the Eberron version. Meanwhile, Tasha's erased that paragraph, but that's not going to stop me, because I can't read. It's almost all useless junk anyway, just quirky useless junk, but it's weird how much more the Artificer gets from a book that isn't even about it. In fact, Xanathar's Guide gives the Artificer the biggest power boost in the game if you're using its optional tool rules. See, outside of these tools, almost every kit in 5e is completely useless when you treat them how they're normally presented in the game. But Xanathar's went out of its way to fix the uselessness of tool proficiencies by, first of all, explaining what actually goes inside of a toolkit, and also giving legitimate mechanics to each and every kit, so that there was no more guessing about what something like Cobbler's Tools could actually help you do. Did you know that a person using Cobbler's Tools can build a tiny compartment inside their boot, or that they can fix up everybody's shoes, that they can travel longer distances without resting, or that they can look at someone's shoes and tell all of the locations they've been in through a basic investigation check? That's just with Cobbler's Tools. I urge you to check out the others, it's crazy how much you can do. And the reason I bring this up is because, at 6th level, the Artificer gets a trait called Tool Expertise, which, as it sounds, gives you expertise on all the checks that have to do with tools. At first, you might say, yay, tools? But then you start looking through Xanathars, and you start to realize the scope of what the Artificer is suddenly capable of. And you start to understand that the only useless tool here is you. And speaking of tools, people will tell you that science has no place in our fantasy world, but if your DM is having a hard time explaining the Artificer into your games, one of you isn't thinking hard enough. As counterintuitive as it may seem, nothing about the Artificer actually demands that it be played as a Doctor Evil science nerd. Obviously, the class is built with that in mind, but all the Artificer forces out of you are the mechanics, which involve casting stuff, enchanting stuff, and knowing how to use some sort of tool. Hags would make great Artificers, and my personal Artificer is Twizzle Mist, the high elf enchanter that uses the Artificer's stat block, but is really just a hoity-toity wizard that specializes in using his magic on items because he likes selling shit and touching people's personal stuff in a way that you can never wash off. If you really want to be basic, just ask your DM if you can use a component pouch instead of tools, call yourself a wizard, and boom, you're done. In fact, the book specifically says that an infused magic item can be your spellcasting focus, so enchant a wand, and you don't even need the DM's permission anymore. As for subclasses, the alchemist needs no explanation. The armorer is just magic armor. Artillerist can be a very broken wand, and the Battlesmith's dog can be reflavered as a nature spirit, like a druid's woodwowed companion. Maybe the reflavering stone won't work because your campaign is set in a low magic world, but that's not something that should restrict just one spellcaster. Anything wizard do, I can do Artificer. In addition to all the enchanting and tooling, the second half of the Artificer's levels focus on upping the amount of magic items that you can attune to, as well as giving bonuses for making and equipping them, which makes sense when you put it into the perspective that magic items should play a more prominent role in your game after level 10 than before. That, plus its nature as a halfcaster, put the Artificer in a spot where it can fill any role in the traditional party composition. I'm putting this in error quotes because party comp does not matter, but I know you're still wondering about it. The role you fill will be decided by the spells and magic items that you select for the day, and in true everyman fashion, you can swap out those invocations and spells if you find your team lacking in an area. The only thing that really locks you down is your subclass, which will sort of staple you into a specific role unless you work to get out of it. And speaking of subclasses, the Artificer has four different specializations, as of Tasha's Cauldron, starting with the Alchemist. My personal favorite archetype, the Alchemist turns you into the potion seller of your dreams, able to apply a magical effect to anybody you want through the simple words, hey, drink this, I swear it's not poison. The power of spiking somebody else's drink manifests mainly in the experimental elixir, a brew that you cook up once a day with a menagerie of effects that you figure out once you bake the bottle, from healing to flying to transmogrification to boldness, which I can only assume is alcohol, from adding your intelligence mod to granting temporary hit points to a free cast of heal, every ability in the subclass either heals directly or has the capacity to heal. So the Alchemist is the archetype for you if you want to force your allies to take their medicine. The Armorer specialization is the choice you take if you're about to face Barney the Purple Datasaur, and it places you directly in front of the action, teaching you how to use heavy armor and how to upgrade it into either a Guardian or an Infiltrated design. The Guardian can take a lot of damage straight to the face, and then face punch right back, while the Infiltrator shoots lightning beams, moves faster, and gets the stealth cloak. But what's interesting is that it can still be heavy armor, which would instead cancel out the disadvantage that heavy armor normally imposes, so that you can sneak around in your giant can of baked beans.  Now if you want to address all of your attacks to whom it may concern, and throw all notions of traditional fantasy out the window in favor of the big flump-off cannons, then the artillery specialization is the perfect choice for you.  The cannon then gets three settings, flamethrower, force field, and gun, plus more abilities to upgrade your cannon as you level up. I was being a bit hyperbolic when I said that you'd be throwing fantasy out the window, since the cannon can move around like a creature, but it doesn't have the creature type, so like the steel defender that we'll talk about later, you can reflavor this as like an elemental spirit, or a gnome that pops out of the ground and belches fire at people. There are plenty of ways to do this. Even the poster child, Artillerist V, makes her cannon look like a chicken, so yeah, go crazy. As for fighting, your game plan is going to be largely ranged as you send out your Pokemon to do all the work, so if you don't want to get blood on your fancy brass goggles, then play the Artillerist and watch out for exploded body parts. Finally, the last specialization for the Artificer is the archetypical class option, the choice that epitomizes what it means to be an Artificer, the decision to charge into battle with nary a bucket on your head, but with a giant mechanical bull stolen from Texas Roadhouse. The Battlesmith is the big bruisey type of a family, not suited for tanking per se, but good at surviving some hits and then dealing damage right back, like a fighter or a ranger. While you don't get heavy armor like the armorer, you do get proficiency in martial weapons and a bunch of abilities to strengthen both the attacks that come from you, as well as those that come from your steel defender, a mechanical monstrosity that is theoretically just as durable as you, but comes with enough self-heals to last longer, and it has a penchant for slapping attacks away from its friends, making the Battlesmith a weirdly good alternative for the Beastmaster Ranger. Given that the Artificer is a half-caster, spells were never the only thing that it brought to the party, but if you want to disregard spells almost entirely, the Battlesmith lets you pick up a big mallet and turn your brain off as you play the most dangerous thing ever, a science nerd that gets those sweet gains. But that'll about do it! I hope you enjoyed this video, be sure to leave a like, comment, subscribe, check out my social media in the description below, and maybe support me on Patreon so that I can tighten the screws that rattle around in my head. But yeah, Dabby out.


Free ways the narcissist destroys your health. The narcissist will mess with your mind They will confuse you. They will gaslight you They will sow seeds of doubt within you Making you question your own memory perception and judgment Some days they won't be so bad They will fool you into thinking that they're this kind friendly person and Then out of nowhere They will discard you. You will constantly feel like you're always trying to get it right You're always just trying to be good enough for them. You're always trying to do enough But just when you think you've got it right They change the rules Just when you think you've achieved their desired standards and expectations They move the goalposts They change the rules while you are trying to do something In order to make it difficult for you In order to gain an advantage over you They will throw a temper tantrum They will rant and rave for hours and then at the end of it They will come back to you and apologize When you are around a narcissist You will always be left feeling of balance But we always try to rationalize what they're doing We always try to justify their behavior Because we want to accommodate the narcissist our brains quickly learn the rules around us Our brains quickly learn the way things are or should be done We were preconditioned in our childhoods to be kind and compassionate to be forgiving To always find a way to justify someone else's behavior And it is our preconditioned minds that keep us stuck in these narcissistic relationships You may try to justify the narcissist's behavior You may try to deny what you're really going through But your body is always going to be honest It's always going to tell the truth So even though your mind may be saying that the narcissist isn't that bad Your body will begin to break down When you are around a narcissist You develop all kinds of health problems Even though you may have been healthy before you got involved with them Being around a narcissist will cause you a lot of stress And it will affect your physical body So here are three ways the narcissist destroys your health 1. A constant state of alert They go back and forth from the idealization to the devaluation Which can be very confusing and stressful You're always on edge You're always walking on eggshells You're extremely cautious about your words and actions You're always anticipating When they're going to find something else to complain about You're always anticipating When they're going to demand something from you You're never at rest You never experience a calm state of mind The narcissist is like a parasite They're trying to extract as much energy as they possibly can And this activates your fight or flight response It keeps you in a constant state of alert It affects your ability to heal, grow and rest As an empath You have to keep careful watch for possible danger or difficulties You're always on edge Anticipate in the narcissist's next move And this causes damage to living tissues in the body Which then results in inflammation Which is the body's natural reaction against injury and infection It affects every organ and tissue in the body It affects the brain It causes neurological disorders Chronic fatigue, arthritis and fibromyalgia As well as many other illnesses When you are involved with a narcissist It increases your inflammatory response Which results in inflammatory disease 2. Metabolic rate Being around a narcissist will affect your metabolic rate As the fight or flight response intensifies Your body will try to defend itself And it will do this by slowing down your metabolic rate In an attempt to deal with stress But this can also result in you feeling weak and tired It will affect your ability to think You will feel confused and disorganized You will find it hard to focus or put your thoughts into words You will feel like you're not yourself And you're unable to think clearly As your metabolic rate decreases You will also experience weight gain You will have difficulty losing weight The combination of the chronic inflammation And the reduced metabolic rate creates a psychological effect Where it feels like you're under a spell You begin to lose touch with reality You begin to lack awareness and sympathy It keeps you trapped in the narcissist world Where they then gain the ability to control and influence you As though they have magical power over you You lose control of your thoughts and actions You become so devoted to the narcissist That it seems like they have you under a spell This eventually produces a metabolic disorder Where you continue to gain weight And you could be at risk of high blood pressure and diabetes Free Self-worth and self-esteem As you lose control of your thoughts and actions Your health begins to deteriorate And you develop more and more health conditions The narcissist is not going to have any consideration for you They will only use this opportunity to devalue you They will take advantage of your health conditions And use it to further abuse you They will provoke and challenge you With insult or remarks They will put you down They will try to convince you That your physical health problems are the result of your own characteristic attributes As though you are faulty or defective As though you are not deserving of respect or attention As though you do not have any attractive or appealing qualities As though you are incapable of inspiring love or admiration Which only destroys your self-worth and self-esteem It makes you feel like you are not even worth the time and the energy That it would take to improve yourself It causes you to neglect yourself Empaths tend to ignore what their body needs They focus on everyone else They are so focused on everyone else That they don't realise what's happening to themselves Until they end up with all kinds of physical health problems If you are logged into a relationship with a narcissist Your main focus needs to be on improving your physical health Try to escape from being under their spell Thank you for watching I hope this video has made it with you Please like, comment, share and subscribe If you would like to donate my PayPal link It's in the video description Coaching inquiries You can email me at coachnet.narcsurvivor.uk Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon


Okay, imagine a rainy day and think about how you're feeling about that. Maybe it reminds you as a cold and gray and sad day, right? But as all we know, that rain has a lot of benefit for us. It can replenish rivers, it can grow plants and so on. So it actually depends on our perspective that how we feel that something is optimistic or pessimistic. And you know, that's what we call it the cognitive bias. And you know, it's completely fine to feel sad time to time because, in fact, we have some natural reverse system in our brain that helps us to cope with stress and negative feeling. And one of these reverse systems is called opera system. And if it's impaired, it causes some negative feeling and depression. So let me just tell you some facts about depression. In Europe, for example, three out of four patients with depression do not respond adequately to their medication. And also it takes time, usually six weeks or more, to start to show the benefit of medication. So it's kind of the urgent need to find a fast-acting treatment. And one approach can be to find a measurement of treatment response using optimism. My project has developed an annual model to show optimism or pessimism of tested draw in animal. So in this model, we face the animal with two balls with different materials, including a chocolate as a reward inside. And one of these balls is only available when the animal is injected with tested draw. And the following day, the animals should just choose one of these balls during the several trials. And if the animal choose the balls that pair with the drug more than the other one, it means that the drug causes optimism. Here in the graph, you can see when we inject this red hormone, if you follow the red line, the animal show kind of the pessimistic view. On the other hand, when we inject the drug, in this case, the opry base drug, if you follow the green line, you can see that it's blocked the negative feeling and actually stimulates the reward system and show kind of optimistic view. So using this approach, we can establish that which treatment that patient will respond quicker. And you know that the drug that I use in this model that shows the positive effect is currently in development using patient echelonics. And that's really makes me optimistic about the future of treatment for depression. So in the end, I would like to say thank you very much for your optimistic attention. So we should just be optimistic to fight against depression. Thank you.


The chaos of human consciousness is getting out of hand. So many people are struggling to get by and stay centered on the spiritual path and many don't even know that there is a spiritual path that can be walked. But we are emerging into a new paradigm of being, one in which consciousness is understood as an underlying foundation for existence and beingness. This is the value of the Dao De Ching, which is a guidebook on the underlying reality, illuminating simple truths that can only be understood by going within. As you dive into this video, which explores all 81 verses of the Dao De Ching, translated by us, for you, the modern mind, contemplate the wisdom and hidden meanings, and go deeper into the truth of who you are. The word Dao, which means way, is a way of life that will help you become more balanced, whole, and clear. If after watching this video you're called to go deeper, you are invited to grab a copy of the brand new print edition of this book, called the Dao De Ching, Aquarian Age Edition. This book also includes thorough commentaries to help in understanding and integrating each passage into your life. Use the link in the description to get your own copy, and may this wisdom serve you to make sense of who you are and find your way in life. A Dao you can explain is not the eternal Dao. A name that you can name is not the eternal name. The origin of heaven and earth is inconceivable.  Therefore, living without desires, you dwell in its essence. Living with desires, you dwell in its limitations. Both essence and limitation emerge from one, but differ in name. Together they are the mystery of the void. The dark void is the gate of the mysteries. You know that which is beautiful, and in this you grasp the ugly. You know the skill of the skillful, and in this you find the want of the skill. Being and nothingness give birth to each other. Hard and easy complete each other. Length and shortness measure each other. High and low lean toward each other. Music and voice mutually harmonize. Before and after follow each other. In the same way, the wise live without interfering, and practice teaching without words. The myriad creatures arise, yet they do not decline. They emerge, yet they do not possess. They act, yet they do not claim. They accomplish their tasks, and do not dwell on them. And in not dwelling on them, they do not vanish. Not glorifying the exceptional prevents people from competition. Not overvaluing goods hard to obtain prevents acts of robbery. Not displaying desirable things keeps their hearts from confusion. Therefore, the wise governing will alleviate their desires, satisfy their needs, soften their hearts, strengthen their core. Constantly they keep people free of cunning and desire, and stop those with cunning from interfering. When one acts without interfering, nothing is left undone. The Tao is empty, yet it is never exhausted. So vast it seems to be the source of all. It is hidden, it contains everything. It smooths the sharpness, it unravels the knots. It dims the brightness, it mixes the dusts. So indistinguishable from everything, hidden yet everywhere. You may ask where it comes from, but who can say? It is older than time itself. Heaven and Earth are impartial. They hold things as sacred and then let them go. Without attachment, they regard the world as though fluid, moving between states of sacred and mundane. So as the wise are impartial, regarding people in the same way. The space between heaven and earth, is it not like a bellows, pushing and pulling to create life? But after all has been said, too many words get in the way. It cannot compare to going within and knowing yourself. The spirit of the valley is called the divine feminine. The gate of the divine feminine is called the root of heaven and earth. It flows continuously, only perceptible from within. Utilize it, it is never exhausted. Heaven seems constant, earth seems enduring. Therefore heaven and earth can be constant and stable. It is because they do not exist for themselves, that they may last forever. Therefore the wise put themselves last and end up ahead. They renounce their self-concerns and are held dear by all. Can you see it is because of their selflessness? This is how they can achieve anything. Supreme goodness resembles water. It nourishes all things and gives without competition. It dwells even in places that people disdain. Hence it is close to the Tao. In dwelling it seeks the lowest. In heart and mind with great depth. In giving with tenderness. In speaking with sincerity. In administrating with order. In business with competence. In acting with graceful timing. Because it gives without competition there can be no resentment. Maintaining and overdoing things is not as good as letting them end. Over sharpen a blade and it cannot protect you for long. Nobody can protect palaces filled with gold and jewels. For the wealthy and honored yet arrogant, they surrender to their own calamity. Retreat back once your work is done. This is the way of nature. In preserving the spirit and the soul and keeping their unity, can you be unsplit and whole? In focusing your vital energy and becoming soft and tender, can you be like a newborn baby? In clarifying your mind from dark views and perceptions, can you become clear and immaculate? In loving the people and guiding a country, can you do so without cunning? Like the gates of heaven opening and closing, can you act in that yielding feminine way? To reach a balanced understanding of everything. Can you do it with no cunning or deception at all? To create something and care for it. To produce something yet not possess it. To act upon yet without relying upon. To conduct yet without commanding. This is called the deep inner power. Thirty spokes join on the hub of a wheel, but the emptiness of the hub is the chariot's usability. Clay is used to form a cup. Equally, its emptiness is the cup's usability. Create a room with doors and windows and form a living space. Once more, in its emptiness, the room's usability is found. Therefore, where form brings about advantages, formlessness brings about usability. Too many colors blind the eye. Too many sounds deafen the ear. Too many flavors dull the palate. Racing and hunting make the human heart go mad. Chasing treasures hard to get blocks the unfoldment of the human story. In this way, wise men care for needs and not for desires. This is how they choose one thing over another. Honor and disgrace are equally frightening. High social status is troubling to our center. What is meant by honor and disgrace are equally frightening. Honor works in a degrading way. To gain it and lose it is frightening. Gaining success leads to fear of its loss. This is what it means. What is meant by high social status is troubling to our center. It is because I am selfish that I have worries. If I reached selflessness, what worries would I have?  Look for it and it cannot be seen. Its name is invisible. Listen for it and it cannot be heard. Its name is inaudible. Reach for it and it cannot be grasped. Its name is intangible. These three cannot be understood further. Hence, they form a unity. It is neither bright above nor dark below. It is boundless and nameless and always returns to non-beingness. It is the form of the formless, the shape of the shapeless, the imageless image. This is called the undifferentiated and seamless. When you approach it, its beginning cannot be seen. When you follow it, its end cannot be found. Hold on to the ancient Tao and master the present moment. If you understood the origin of antiquity, you would perceive the Tao's golden thread. The ancient masters were subtle, mysterious, and deeply profound. Within them, a depth impossible to comprehend. There is no way to describe their presence, but we can know them by their appearance. They were careful like men wading across a frozen river. Alert like a warrior in enemy territory. Respectful like a guest. Yielding like ice at the point of melting. Genuine and pure like an uncarved block of wood. Open were they like a great valley. And opaque like muddy water. Who can clear the murky by the caution of stillness? Who can create peace by the care of enduring movement? The wise preserve this state by never desiring for excess. Those who don't seek or expect fulfillment become present and can welcome all things. The wise achieve emptiness in the ultimate, keeping calm and peaceful in their center. The myriad things are always in flux, always in motion and turmoil. Contemplate the return of all creatures coming back to their roots. Returning to the roots means serenity. It's known as the return to destiny. Coming home to destiny brings you into eternity. Awareness of eternity is enlightenment. Not knowing the eternal recklessly brings misery upon you. Not realizing the source, you stumble in confusion. But to know the eternal, you become all-encompassing. Being all-encompassing leads to justice. Justice leads to kingliness. Kingliness leads to heavenliness. Heavenliness leads to the Tao. Tao leads to longevity everlasting, where even death is no threat to your well-being. The wisest leaders among humanity are barely known. Next comes those who are loved and praised. Next are those whom people fear. And next, after that, those who are despised. If leaders are not trusting, then trust cannot be placed in them. But those leaders who are calm, thoughtfully valuing their words, accomplishing their tasks and settling their matters, their people will say, we did it ourselves naturally. When the great Tao is abandoned, kindness and righteousness appear. When shrewdness and deception arise, there is great hypocrisy. When close relatives are not harmonizing, responsible children and benevolent fathers arise. When the country and people are in confusion and chaos, loyal patriots appear. Abandoned sagesliness, discard clever knowledge, and the people will benefit a hundredfold. Abandoned benevolence, discard righteousness, and the people will always do the right thing. Abandoned craftiness, discard lust for profit, and robbers and thieves will cease to exist. These three examples are still insufficient, so practice centeredness, appear plain and simple. Reduce selfishness and diminish desires. Abandon scholarship, and you will worry no more. Over-thinking and you will end all your problems. In the difference between heartfelt and pandering, how much are they mutually apart? In the difference between good and evil, are they not mutually alike in their distance? When people fear something, they cannot escape that fear. This desolation is unending indeed. But do the wise fear what others fear? Do they fear darkness when there is light everywhere? Many people today are steeped in their merrymaking as if enjoying a great feast or watching a view in springtime. But I alone am content to be quiet and uninvolved, like an infant child before it learns to smile. I am alone as if without a place to go. Most people seem to have abundance, yet only I seem left behind. I carry a simpleton's heart. Where common people are bright and clear, I alone am dim. Where common people are sharp and focused, I alone am dull. I surge like the ocean, drifting freely without a destination. Most people have clear motives, but I alone am different from them. I stay outside and honor the nurturing mother. The purest of inner powers follows only the Tao. In its acting as an entity, the Tao is elusive and indistinct. Shapeless and unbound, within it there are forms. Vague and diffuse, within it there are beings. Secluded and unfathomable, within it there are essences. All things within it are genuine. All things within it are truthful. From ancient times until today, its name has never been lost. Through it one perceives all beings primordial beginning. How do I know the beginning of all beings? Intuitively, from within. The Tao brings resolution. Through it the partial becomes complete. The distorted becomes straight. The empty becomes filled. The worn out renewed. Having little is followed by attaining plenty. Gain too much and flow back into confusion. Hence the wise keep to the oneness and set an example for the whole world. They do not show off and thus become bright. They are not self-righteous and thus are prominent. They do not brag and thus receive great merit. They are not self-admiring and thus have lasting greatness. Because they do not compete, nobody can compete with them. The ancients say, being fragmentary is followed by wholeness. How could this be an empty phrase? Once whole and complete, then one returns to the Tao. It is natural to speak little, just as fierce winds don't last all morning, nor do great downpours last all day. Where do these things come from? Heaven and earth, of course. But not even heaven and earth can sustain these things. So what chance do humans have of doing it? Therefore, the way of the wise is to follow the Tao. Become one with the Tao. Those who follow inner power embody their inner power. Those who follow losing find loss in all things. Living as one with the Tao, one is received by the Tao. Living as one with inner power, one is received by inner power. Living as one with loss, one is received by loss. If you do not trust, then you will not be trusted. Standing on tiptoes, you lose your solid footing. With overly long steps, you cannot walk far. Those who show off do not attain enlightenment. Those who boast do not accomplish results. Those who are self-righteous are not respected. Those who brag will not last long. As such, with regard to the Tao, whether excess food or reckless behavior, those who live naturally can see the truth and do not linger there. The true source is nebulous and perfect, born before heaven and earth, silent and void, unique and unchanging, cosmically circulating, yet inexhaustible and endless. It might be regarded as the primal mother of creation. I do not know its name. To designate it, I call it Tao. If compelled to give it a name, I call it Great. Great means traveling. Traveling means far-reaching. Far-reaching means returning. In this way, the Tao is great. Heaven is great. Earth is great. And the King is great also. All creation has these four greats, and the King resides among one of those, indeed. Humankind follows the earth. The earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. And the Tao follows its own nature. The heavy serves as the root of the light, and calmness is the master of restlessness. In this way, the wise walk all day, not leaving behind their heavy baggage.  How could a leader with a vast empire tread lightly upon the world? To be light is to lose one's roots. To be restless is to lose one's sovereignty. The wise traveler leaves neither track nor trace. Good speakers make no faults or flaws. Good analysts keep track without tallies or equipment. Good locksmiths need neither locks nor bolts, but none can open what they shut. Good binders use neither rope nor knots, but their work cannot be loosened. The wise are always good at protecting and never abandoning anyone, always good at saving creatures, and never abandoning any of them. This is called following enlightenment. Hence, a good man is a bad man's teacher. A bad man is a good man's challenge. If one does not honor their teacher or love their challenge, even if they have great knowledge, they still have great delusion. This is the essential mystery. Know the strength of your masculine, but keep to the care of your feminine. Become a riverbed for the whole world. Become the world's riverbed, and the constant inner power will not depart you. Return home to being like a child. Know the white, keep to the black, and become a model for the world. Become a model for the world, and constant inner power will not deviate. May you return home to limitlessness. Know your favor, keep your disfavor. Become a foundation for the world. Do this, and constant inner power is abundant. May you return home to simplicity. Simplicity, like the uncarved block, becomes a tool when it is carved. When used, it is developed for leaders and elders. For as it is said, great carvings arise without shavings. If you intend to seize the world and remake it your way, surely you will not succeed. The world is a spiritual vessel and cannot be interfered with. Interfering will cause destruction, and grasping at it will cause you to lose it. Every being has its place. While some beings advance, others will follow. Some will be strong, others will be weak. Some will destroy, others will be destroyed. The wise see all things in divine order. Therefore, they avoid extravagances, exaggerations, and excess. A leader guided by the Tao does not use weapons to attack the world. In his affairs, he prefers the retreat. After a battle, thorns and thistles follow troop encampments. After great wars, years of famine will certainly follow. Wise souls achieve results, then gracefully stop, not daring to seize more, not daring to seize more through violence. They achieve results without needing to brag or boast. They achieve results without arrogance or violence. That which doesn't follow the Tao is sure to end prematurely. The finest weapons are tools of violence. The average people detest them, where followers of the Tao will not touch them. At home, the noblemen value the left side. Using weapons, they then may value the right. Weapons are ill omens and not fit for good people. If they must be used, use them as a last resort, for peace and quiet are far better for a person's soul. If you must fight, win, but do not enjoy it, and take no delight in the killing of others. For those who delight in killing others cannot find fulfillment on earth. It is very good when a person's higher nature comes forth. It is not good when a person's lower nature comes forth. With the slaughter of many, there is grief and sorrow. Every victory is a funeral, and even when you win the battle, you celebrate by mourning. The Tao, forever without a name, simple and eternal, and smaller than anyone can find. If world leaders could hold to the Tao and people of the world behaved as though guests, heaven and earth would naturally come together, and all of humanity would be blessed. The people would exist under nobody's rule, and yet would naturally live in harmony with each other. There would be no need to force things, and society would adjust itself. In the beginning, all things were one. When the whole was divided, the parts needed names. Names came to exist everywhere. Now there are enough names, and to continue dividing is unnecessary. One should know when to stop. In this way, you avoid danger. The presence of Tao in the world is like streams in the valley, becoming rivers and oceans, always returning back to oneness and wholeness. If you know others, you are intelligent. If you know yourself, you are enlightened. If you overcome others, you are using force. If you overcome yourself, you are using strength. Knowing when you have enough, you are wealthy. Advancing forward with vigor, you have willpower. Without losing your place, you have endurance. Dying without doom, surely you live forever. The great Tao, all overflowing, is able to be everywhere. All creatures depend on it. From the Tao all things were born, and from it all things are given. Its achievements are completed, but never claimed as possessions. The Tao clothes and nourishes all beings, but does not become their lord and master. Constantly without desire, it can be named small. All creatures return to it, and so it can be named great. But because the Tao does not consider itself as great, its greatness is effortlessly achieved. Keep to the great image, and all the world will come to you. Yet you will suffer no harm, remaining safe, secure, and supremely peaceful. Music and alluring food will surely cause people to stop. But the Tao's speech, in contrast, seems bland and tasteless. Look at it, and it is invisible. Listen to it, and it is inaudible. But use it, and it is inexhaustible. Should you intend to make something smaller, you must first allow it to expand. Should you intend to weaken something, you must first strengthen it. Should you wish to abolish something, you must first let it flourish. Should you intend to take away from something, you must first give to it. This is called the wisdom of subtle insight. The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong. Fish should never be taken out from the depths, and accordingly, a state's weapons should never be displayed. The Tao constantly acts without interfering, yet nothing remains undone. If leaders would hold to this, all beings would develop naturally. As they develop, their desires would grow also, and I would calm them down by their natural simplicity of the Nameless Tao. In the simplicity of the Nameless, beings become desireless. Without desire, things become calm, and all the world becomes self-regulating. The highest inner power does not reveal inner power, so it has inner power. The lowest inner power does not conceal inner power, so it is without inner power. The highest inner power acts without interfering, and also without intentional acting. The lowest inner power acts without interfering, but with intentional acting. The highest humanity acts with interference, yet without intentional action. The highest justice acts with interference and also with intentional acting. The highest morality acts with interference, yet if nobody conforms to it, then they roll up their sleeves and enforce it. Hence, lose the Tao and it is followed by inner power. Lose inner power and it is followed by humanity. Lose humanity and it is followed by justice. Lose justice and it is followed by morality. Truly, this morality is the thinning out of loyalty and sincerity. It is the beginning of confusion. Prophets are the embellishment of the Tao, but also the folly of beginning. Therefore, great respected masters reside in the profundity of the Tao, not merely staying on its surface. They reside in its substance rather than staying in its embellishment, hence deciding what to choose and what to reject. All things emerged from oneness. When heaven attained oneness, there was clarity. When earth attained oneness, there was peace. When spirits attained oneness, there was impact. When valleys attained oneness, there was abundance. When all of the creatures attained oneness, there was liveliness. When the leaders of the world attained oneness, they made oneness the standard. All this came from the one. Heaven without clarity will surely tear apart. Earth without peacefulness will surely split in two. Spirits without effect will surely exhaust themselves. Valleys without abundance will surely dry out. All of the creatures without liveliness will surely die out. The leaders of the world without unity will fear their fall. Hence, the honored use the lowly as a root. The higher use the lower as a foundation. Thus, wise leaders call themselves alone, lacking and unworthy. Is this not using the lowly as a root? In this way, reaching great fame is not what it seems. Do not desire to glitter and glisten like a gem. It is far wiser to be raw and rough like memorial stones. The Tao moves through returning. The Tao is used through yielding. All things are born of being. Being is born of non-being. Greater scholars hear of the Tao and endeavor to practice it. Middling scholars hear of the Tao and sometimes they have it and sometimes not. Lesser scholars hear of the Tao and they laugh at it greatly. But without that laughter, it wouldn't be the Tao. Therefore, a saying is established. The enlightened way appears unclear. The advancing way appears to retreat. Smooth way appears bumpy. The highest inner power seems common. Great purity seems stained. Inner strength seems weak. Steadfast inner power seems elusive. Pure truth seems changeable. The greatest square seems without corners. The greatest talents mature late. The greatest music is heard in the silence. The greatest form remains without contour. Only Tao, so hidden and nameless, provides and brings all things to fulfillment. The Tao created oneness. Oneness created tuness. Tuness created threeness. Threeness created all things. All living creatures carry yin and embrace yang. The flow of these vital forces together determines their harmony. In principle, people detest being lonely, orphaned and worthless. However, wise leaders born thereof made for themselves names of honor. In this way, sometimes beings will lose something, and in this they win. Sometimes they will win something, and in this they lose. What others teach, I teach as well. Those who are violent will not have a natural death. This is the starting point of my teachings. The softest things in the world swiftly get through the hardest. Non-beingness may enter where there are no openings. Therein, I realize the benefit of acting without interfering. Teaching without words, effortless action, free of attachment. This is the way of the wise, but few seldom realize this wisdom.  What is more valuable, yourself or your belongings? What is worse, gain or loss? Truly, craving too much certainly leads to great costs, and hoarding too much will surely lead to great losses.  Knowing when to stop helps you avoid danger. In this way, you shall endure long and lasting. The greatest perfection seems insufficient, but its use is never reduced. The greatest fullness seems empty, but its use is never exhausted. The greatest straightness seems warped, the greatest skill seems clumsy, the greatest eloquence seems inarticulate. Movement overcomes cold, stillness overcomes heat. Purity and stillness are guides for all under heaven. When the world has the dow, race horses are returned to work the fields. When the world loses the dow, war horses are bred in the countryside. There is no offense greater than greed, no bigger calamity than discontentment, no worse fault than constant desire for profit. And so, in knowing what is enough, the satisfaction of contentment will bring everlasting peace. Without leaving your home, you can realize the whole world. Without looking out your window, you can behold the heavenly dow.  Hence, the wise do not travel, yet have great knowing. They do not inspect, yet describe the truth. They do not act, yet complete all things. If every day you practice learning, you accumulate more each day. If every day you practice dow, you release more each day. Release more and more every day, and you come to know action through non-action. Act without interfering, and nothing is left undone. In letting go of the hustle and bustle, you receive the whole world. To attempt attainment through hustle and bustle is insufficient to receive the world. The wise are without everlasting heartfelt wishes. Therefore, they make other people's ambitions their own heartfelt wish. To good people, the wise are good. To bad people, the wise are also good, for true inner power is purely benevolent. To people who are true, the wise are true. To people who are false, the wise are true as well, for authentic inner power is truth. For the wise in the world, quietly and humbly acting, float through their hearts calling gracefully. Those around them cannot help but listen and watch, for the wise act and live just like children. In the space between birth and death, three out of ten are followers of life. Three out of ten are followers of death. Those simply passing from birth to death also number three in ten. For what reason? Because they cling to the pleasures and abundance of life. But the one out of ten remaining moves in a different way. They travel through the country, not meeting a dangerous fate. They cross battlefields without wearing a shield or sword. In them, buffaloes find no place to thrust their horns. Tigers find no place to strike with their claws. And swords find no place to insert their blade. What is the reason? Because they dwell in the place beyond death. The Tao creates them. The inner power nourishes them. Matter shapes them and circumstance completes them. Therefore, all creatures cannot help but honor the Tao and likewise value the inner power. Without anyone's command, this happens naturally on its own. Hence, the Tao creates, the inner power nourishes. It lets everything grow and brings them up, shelters them and completes them, nurses them and covers them. It produces without possessing. It deals out but does not depend on. It conducts but does not command. This is called the deep inner power. The world had an origin. It is known accordingly as the primordial mother. Once you know your mother, you may begin to understand her children. Once you understand her children, it is wise to return and keep to your mother.  Open your mouth, increase your busyness, and life will be beyond hope. Perceiving the small is called clarity. Staying yielding and flexible is called strength. Use this insight to return home to enlightenment. Practice this wisdom constantly and you avoid inner chaos and calamity. If I only possessed a single grain of knowledge, I would walk on the great Tao and my only fear would be straying. The Tao is a straight and narrow path but people tend to prefer to meander. This is why the courts may appear splendid but the fields are overgrown with weeds and the granaries are empty. Their clothes are colorfully embroidered and they are belted with sharp swords, overly saturated with food and drink and their property and possessions exist in surplus. They do not know what to do with it. This is like the bragging of a robber after a looting and it couldn't be farther from the Tao. Those well anchored will not be uprooted. Those who hold on do not go astray. In the same way, children and grandchildren worshiping their ancestors will not be interrupted or stopped. Cultivate the Tao within and your inner power becomes genuine. Cultivate the Tao in a family and your inner power becomes plentiful. Cultivate the Tao in your community and your inner power becomes enduring. Cultivate the Tao in your country and your inner power becomes overflowing. Cultivate the Tao in all the world and your inner power is all encompassing. To see the Tao, consider it according to yourself. Consider yourself according to your family. Consider your family according to the community. Consider the community according to the country. Consider the country according to the world. How do you know the Tao within the whole world? By going within, of course.  Deadly insects will not bite you. Wild beasts will not attack you and birds of prey will not claw at you. While the bones are feeble and muscles are soft, a newborn's grip is strong. The child does not yet know the union of masculine and feminine, but they are already whole and their vital forces are strong. They might cry all day long, but not become horse. This is known as harmony. Knowing harmony means knowing the eternal. Knowing the eternal means being enlightened. Overacting in life is called ominous. Engaging ambition with our breath is called violence. Things that are forced grow for a while, then they wither away. This is called not in Tao. That which is not in Tao ends prematurely. Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.  This is what it means to be in the mysterious oneness. Unattainable by approach, neither by alienation. Unattainable by advantage, neither by disadvantage. Unattainable by appreciation, neither by degradation. But those who attain it become honored by the world. Lead others by following righteousness. Be strange when engaging an opponent and master the world without striving at all. How do I know this is the way? The more the world avoids taboos and follows rules, the poorer the people become. The sharper the people's weapons are, the more confused the people become. The more people grow clever and crafty, the more strange things seem to happen. The more laws and regulations that are announced, the more robbers and thieves arise naturally. Therefore, wise men say this, I act without intervening and the people are transformed by themselves. I prefer stillness and the people naturally gain integrity. I act without hustle and bustle and the people naturally become enriched. I am without desire and yet the people by themselves become simple. When the government is restrained and unobtrusive, its people are genuine and pure. When the government is controlling and spies on its people, the people grow devious and divided. Bad luck is what good fortune leans upon. Good luck is the hiding place for misfortune. Those who understand the highest are without rigid guidelines. Principles, once distorted, become strange. Goodness, once distorted, becomes evil. The days of delusional people have certainly existed for a long time. Therefore, the wise are outspoken without offending, pointed without piercing, direct without disrupting, and brilliant without dazzling. In leading people and serving heaven, nothing compares like conservation and moderation. The sign of a moderate person is one who applies timely forethought. This leads to the accumulation of inner power. With inner power, there is nothing that one cannot overcome. This is because when one's limits are unknown, one can possess true sovereignty. When you lead by this mothering principle of power, you and your creations can be everlasting. This is called deep roots and firm foundation, the longevity and lasting vision of the Tao. When leading a large number of people, do so like frying a small fish. Don't spoil it with too much poking. Use the Tao to manage the whole world, and evil spirits will lose their power. Not only will evil lose its power, but no harm will be done to anyone. If the leaders and the people learn not to harm each other, then inner power will return to all. A great country is like a lowland where all rivers and streams flow into. It is like a reservoir under heaven, the receptive feminine principle of the world. Constant femininity by her peace of mind prevails over the masculine due to her calm acting from below. Hence, great countries accordingly go below smaller countries. They humble themselves and gain trust and allies. If a small country does the same to a great country, they too will win the trust and ally of the great country. In this way, some go below in order to win, others go below and are one. Great countries desire nothing more than to unite and bring more people together. Smaller countries desire nothing more than to join and serve the people. For each of them to get what they want, the great countries should act from below. The Tao is the source of all beings' inspiration. It is the treasure of good people and the protection of the bad. Don't reject the existence of those who are not good, but nurture them with your warm deeds and awaken them with your words. Hence, if you are supporting a new leader, do not inspire them with wealth or expertise, but help them to understand the principle of the way. Why did the ancients find the Tao so valuable? Is it not said, those who seek shall find and those who have guilt will be forgiven? In this way, the Tao acts as the most noble thing in the world. Doing without agitation, completing business without busyness, finding taste in the tasteless, being greatness in the small, seeing the many in the few. Answer resentment with inner power. Plan difficult things while being easy going. Do great things while they are still small. All of the world's greatest affairs certainly arise from easy tasks. So, the wise tackle no great challenges and thus they themselves become great. Those who make promises lightly deserve little trust and one who sees easy tasks will encounter much difficulty. When wise people treat things as difficult, they never encounter difficulties at all. What is calm and gentle is easy to hold. What has not yet happened is easy to forestall. The brittle is easily shattered. The tiny is easily scattered. Handle things before they are established. Organize them before they reach disorder.  A nine-story building arose from a small plot of land. A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step. Interfering in life destroys the progress. Cling too hard and you will lose it. Therefore, the wise act without destroying and grasp without losing. Most people self-sabotage, failing on the verge of success. So be careful at the end as well as the beginning and you will never ruin your life's work. Hence, the wise desire not to desire nor strive to attain rare goods that are hard to get. They learn not to learn like others and return to places most people pass by. In this way, they support all creatures finding their natural way, yet do not dare to interfere. The ancients who practiced the Tao did not use it to enlighten people, but wished thereby to keep them simple-hearted. For people are hard to rule when they have grown shrewd and cold. Hence, to use cleverness and cunning to govern people is like a plague. Not use cleverness and cunning to govern people is bliss. It is wise to understand this well, which brings you to the mystic inner power. Mystic inner power is profound and far-reaching. In its use, it offers all creatures a return and they attain great harmony at last. Why can rivers and seas act as the lord of a hundred valleys? Because they lie below them. Humility gives them their power. So wise people, wishing to be above people, must humble themselves below others. Wishing to be ahead of people, they must put themselves behind others. In this way, the wise stand above all, yet the people are unburdened. The wise stay ahead, yet people are unhurt. The wise stay low, and so all the world joyfully supports them. The wise person remains a servant, so the world never tires of making them its leader. Because the wise do not compete with anyone, nobody is able to compete with them. In all the world, everyone calls my Tao great, as if it was beyond comparison. It is only because of its greatness that it seems beyond compare, for if it could be compared, it would be long since insignificant. I have three treasures to which I hold dear. The first is called compassion. The second is called frugality. And the third is called humility. With compassion, I can be courageous. With frugality, I can be generous. With humility, I can be a good leader. But nowadays, most people reject compassion and lose their courage. They reject frugality and lose their generosity. They reject humility and lose their leadership qualities. To lose all three is deadly indeed. For compassion, when used in fighting, always wins and is the most impenetrable defense. When heaven wishes to save you, it protects you with compassion. Great generals are not warlike. Good fighters do not get angry. Those good at defeating enemies do not engage them. And those good at leading act subordinate themselves. This is known as non-competitiveness. It is the inner power of great leadership. It resembles the way of heaven, the most ancient of cosmic principles. On the subject of weapons, there is a saying that goes like this. I don't dare act as a host, but rather play as a guest. I don't dare advance an inch, but rather I retreat a foot. This is called to advance without going forward, to reject without using arms. To throw back without attacking, to capture without using weapons. No calamity is bigger than underestimating one's opponent. Underestimating the opponent will lead to the loss of one's treasure. Hence, when forces face each other in battle, the compassionate ones prevail. My words are very easy to understand, very easy to follow, but so few can truly understand them, even less are able to follow. My words follow rules, my deeds follow a ruler. But people do not understand this, therefore I am not understood. Those who understand me are rare, but in this way I am highly valued. So you must understand, the wise wear plain clothes, but in their hearts they bear jewels. I know that I know nothing. This is the highest knowing. Not knowing that you do not know, this is deficiency. Become deficient of deficiency and you have no more deficiencies. I know that I know nothing. This is the highest knowing. Not knowing that you do not know, this is failing.  The wise have no deficiencies or failures because they have become deficient of deficiencies and failed at failing. When people do not awe at the authorities, then the great authority will become known. When people live without constriction and their way of life is not suppressed, they will not be depressed. Therefore the wise know themselves, but do not make a show of themselves. With self-esteem yet not exalting themselves, they are able to choose what resonates and leave the rest behind. Those with courage rushing into things will lead to death. Those with courage without aggression will lead to life. Of these two, one is beneficial, the other harmful. The way of heaven is winning without competing. It does not speak, but is best at responding. It does not call, but allows all to come by themselves. It is always at ease, yet is best in planning and completes everything on time. Heaven's net is vast and wide. So loose, yet nothing ever slips through. Those who are unafraid of death, how could they be threatened with death?  Who would then dare act unlawfully? In olden times, there were always official executioners. But if you were to stand in for the official executioner, it would be like standing in for a master carpenter.  The people starve when taxes are too great. The people are hard to govern when authorities interfere in their lives. The people take death lightly when authorities strive for life's fullness. When you let go of striving towards life, you receive the fullness of what it means to live. When people are born, they are weak, and when they die, they are hard and rigid. All living beings, including trees, are soft at birth and dry and withered at death. Hence, rigidity and strength are companions of death. Softness and weakness are companions of life. Therefore, when an army is rigid, it will not prevail. When a tree is rigid, it surely will break. That which is rigid and stiff will stay inferior, and the soft and gentle will remain superior. The way of heaven is like drawing a bow, isn't it? It pulls down the high and uplifts the low. It decreases excess and turns lack into gain. The way of heaven reduces that which is having, and supplements that which is lacking. The way of man, however, is different. It decreases insufficiency, thereby offering excess. Who can have so much abundance that they offer it to all the world? Only followers of the Dao. Therefore, the wise act yet do not claim, complete without dwelling on results, and do not strive to appear superior at all. And do not strive to appear superior at all. There is nothing in the world softer or weaker than water, and yet in overcoming the firm and strong, nothing can surpass it. The weak overcomes the strong, the soft overcomes the hard. In the whole world, anyone can see this, yet few can actually practice it. Therefore, the wise have a saying, those who bear the realm's disaster become the whole world's master. True words sound paradoxical. After a bitter quarrel, some resentment may remain. How can this serve towards resolution? Keep your agreements, but hold firm to your inner power, without your inner power, your foundation is made of demands. Remember, the heavenly Dao is entirely impartial, but gives constantly to those who are good. Imagine a smaller country with fewer inhabitants. They may have many tools, but never need to use them. The people take death seriously and do not travel far. They have boats and carriages, without much need for them, and even have armor and weapons, without cause to display them. Let people return to simplicity, making their own food, designing beautiful clothing, dwelling in peace, and enjoying their customs. Neighboring communities may see each other, hearing the roosters and dogs from across the way, yet go their whole lives without visiting each other, completing their lives in peace. True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true. Good people do not argue. Those who argue are not good. Those with knowledge are not always wise. The wise are not always rich with knowledge. The wise do not whore. By doing for others, they themselves have more. By giving to others, they themselves receive abundance. Heaven's way is to benefit and not to harm. The way of the wise is to create and not to argue.