Hansu

@Danioover9000 Im not actually doing future projection visualization, Im only doing self-acceptance visualization at the moment (Lasts for 2-3 seconds, I do it every time I feel "negative" emotion during the day. Amazing tool) But what happens sometimes is that Im trying to visualize, and the image just wont come. Or the overall image comes, but I fail to animate the visualization. For me, the technique requires both visual quality and animation of the visualization to be good. Concentration practice is definitely a good idea. I also found your journal, and I must say the format is nice! Im definitely going to try the excercises and see how my visualization changes @seeking_brilliance Thanks, gonna check it out when I get better internet connection

@Raze@Raze Lol, what a cancel culterous idea. Someone you dont like signed it, so the meaning of the letter has to be negative.

Have they given a reason? Are they afraid of being cancelled?

He is definitely being pushy, which might come unconsciously from his sales background. Just tell him what is your stance and stick with it. If he still pushes, and it feels like he is just using you, make it clear to him and see how he responds.

It took Facebook 16 years to ban hateful ads? Well, better late af than never

This subsection really does bring the worst of my ego out, so I try to avoid writing on it. I figured Im not mature enough to discuss politics, unless its to directly ask guidance with an open mind. It does have a lot of good discussion when it comes to political and cultural movements, and I've learned a lot about those things here.

Yesterday I got a realization that mental substance addiction (So count physical ones like coffee out) and painkillers are basically the same thing. You use them to avoid pain in life. Taking something like Lyrica for back pain is basically a mental addiction. You have a pain, that mentally tortures you until you take the drug. Just like you might have emotional pain in your life that forces you to take cannabis or other substances that are mainly mentally addictive. Any thoughts on this?

I had three back disc injuries before I understood that I have to change. For the first two I just waited them to heal, without healing the root problem. I didnt know there was a root problem, everyone told me that "Its in your genes, everyone in the family tree has these problems" so I just waited them out thinking I could do nothing about it. Fact is, my family tree has no gene problem. It has an attitude and exercise problem Could be same for your friend?

@Opo My memory is that he was given orders like "hold hands in the air" and "crawl towards me" at the same time. Oh, and the cops gun had "You're fucked" encraving.

I wouldn't mind the Sweden model, if they cared for their people. Sweden is practically throwing their elderly under the bus. The only reason I can see here is that keeping younger people alive while letting the virus kill elderly is profitable. Treating everyone equally is unprofitable, that doesn't make money. Who doesn't want to get rid of the lazy ass elderly do nothings in exchange for that sweet sweet young tax money? Thats every finance politicians wet dream in the western countries right now! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52704836 Quote from the article: Im honestly surprised that human rights activists dont seem to react to the ongoing mistreatment. Maybe they idealize Sweden too much because its a northern country. EDIT: I dont think trying to achieve crowd immunity is inhumane, in fact it could be more humane than trying to kill out the virus. But it is inhumane to not treat the most fragile part of your society for something you are deliberately causing

For me, first 4 days were terrible. Then there was couple of days of mild symptoms until they disappeared too. You can try and see if decaf coffee helps. A lot of time addictions are just half of a chemical addiction, and half of a habit.

@Maxman As a child, did you often have authority figures trump your opinions and debate arguments with "I am correct because I am an adult" and with other such unfair arguments?

Long post, sorry about that. TL;DR in the end. So, I watched the "Letting go of the past" video. It really reminded me of The Power of Now, and how important it is to stay focused in the present moment and know that the only thing happening right now is the present moment. Its so simple but so powerful. The second video I watched is the "Power of self-acceptance" and it was a wild ride of emotions. The guided visualization of giving love to the different parts of my emotions and equally loving the things that embarrass, make me feel superior, inferior, sad, shamed etc... made me tear up in joy. With all of the suggested emotions I could conjure a situation from my past that I hate and dwell on, only to give it my unconditional love. It felt like I was reliving those moments, but instead of things going like they went, there was this being with me that understood me perfectly and gave me love when I really needed it. My plan is to get back on track with practicing presence and doing the self-acceptance practice daily. Im going to re-read The Power of Now and integrate the practices back to my daily life. I will also bring back meditation to my daily morning habit, and start to figure out what love is, how it works and building general understanding of love. Like what is self-love exactly, and how can I integrate it into my every action and daily life. @Nahm These are very good points to stay aware of. I dont have a good grasp on what comes from the authentic me, and what is my egos doing, so this is a golden opportunity to start figuring that out just through awareness and direct experience. I dont really want to just "wishy washy" my bad feelings away, but to learn what they are in personal experience and integrate that understanding to my awareness. @IAmTheHolySpirit I think this is true when we go to the absolute root of my problem, but I lack the spiritual maturity to fully understand and integrate this to my life yet. But its a good point on why I need to learn to distinguish ego from the authentic self This thread has been great to me. For too long time I had resistance and made excuses as to why I dont need spiritual work anymore. I even thought "I mastered my mind, now its time to master my body". Ridiculous, I know But now I know exactly what I need to do and why, and it feels amazing! TL;DR: Did a little bit of inner work, cried in joy, found back the reasons and the goals for doing spiritual work, first plans have been made and Im ready to start working my inner self harder than ever

@JessiChell Dont worry about it, all views and suggestions are welcome I believe that at least some of the hatred of myself come from my high school years. I didnt care about other people's opinions to the point that it made me socially dysfunctional in many ways, but when I realized this I did 180, going to the other extreme thinking all the time about what other people thought of me up until just a few years ago. So childhood vows are going to be my first place to look for the reason why I might unconsciously hate myself. @ivory After some contemplation, Im 100% certain that my problems are with self-love. Luckily Leo has a LOT of videos that relate directly or indirectly to love and self-love, so I have a good base material to star working with already. I feel uncomfortable reading this thread, and I take that as the only sign needed to know that this is what I need to work with now. Writing this message and admitting it aloud gives me feeling of relief, which I take as the second sign that this is definitely what I need. Thank you all for your responses!

So, after about 2.5 weeks after going cold turkey, I dont have any gravings for caffeine. I dont feel any improvement on my sleep quality (It was high to begin with) but my tiredness which I think was part of the side effects of the detox is gone. My thinking in afternoon has become more clear. Its also easier for me to perform in afternoon, and Im procrastinating a lot less now. I might come home from store and think "Im gonna cook later" and then before I know it, Im cooking food even thought I already made a decision to procrastinate on it. Its awesome! Its like reverse procrastination! Also, learning during afternoon is a lot easier now. I have no problems reading about German dative plurals in the afternoon! Before the detox I used to just slouch after work and watch stupid shit on Youtube, but now Im actually using my afternoon to be productive. This is awesome! I got everything I was looking for. Now its time to build lasting habits for my afternoons

Thank you all for your responses! @ivory@egoeimai @Leo Gura So, I should start learning and realizing self-love and understanding reality? It sounds like consciousness of what reality is and self-love are interlinked

@wordsforliving Yeah no problem

@wordsforliving Diet is one of the biggest factors when it comes to your energy levels. You could try different diets and see how they affect your energy levels. Diet is very personal thing, for example there is a lot of testimonies in favor of intermittent fasting and how it helps people with their energy problems, but for me it was the exact opposite.

Dont replace a stimulant with another stimulant, thats like replacing alcohol with another drug. Instead, see if your problem is with habits. Habits are a bitch to deal with, and they can be even bigger hurdle to overcome when dealing with addictions than the substance itself. With caffeine tablets you could determine whether the problem is with the bad habit, or with the caffeine itself, and possibly kick them both simultaneously. Alternatively you could see if drinking decaf coffee (Or non-caf tea) helps you with the habit, so you can kick the caffeine first and then kick the habit.

@lostmedstudent Doesn't sound bad at all! Im gonna be trying it out to see what my back thinks of it, hopefully I can start stretching daily too EDIT: Nope, my back absolutely hates it

@herghly I have a problem with having energy to work on research after work, so my goal is to see whether quitting coffee will give me more willpower and interest in doing research work in the evening. According to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_xA70lWrDs this should be one of the benefits you get from quitting coffee

@herghly About 3-4 cups of coffee and 5-6 cups of black/white/green tea a day. The worst side effects lasted for 3 days and practically ruined those days, but the minor effects such as occasional heavy tiredness lasted for few days longer. I've read that the worst side effects can last from 1 week to 3 weeks on average tho. EDIT: Before going cold turkey I dropped from 3-4 cups of coffee and 5-6 cups of tea to 1 cup of coffee and 5-6 cups of tea over a week, so could be that my body was already prepared for the complete cutoff

@herghly After my initial 3 days of cold turkey, Im back to my full capability of working. You could try lowering consumption on friday and then going cold turkey. On the other hand, some people have had good results with using caffeine pills to slowly lower their daily caffeine intake over few weeks and had no side effects from quitting

@lostmedstudent Really impressive progress! Can you post your training and stretching program? I'd love to use it as my template

I've tried keto and fasting, but the best of all ended up being the one they teach at school. Nowadays I eat 5 healthy meals a day (No microwave food, all is self-prepared) with a lot of salad, fish and varying meats and carbs. Ten times better than keto or fasting in terms of energy and well being