Raptorsin7

I want to get into therapy to work on unresolved trauma and my depression. Any tips on choosing a good therapist? Are there markers or signs of a good therapist in your experience? Any other thoughts. Thank you.

@Eph75 I'm very committed. I have been trying to improve myself mostly on my own, and with the forum. But I think I need to reach out and get more help. Thanks

@zeroISinfinity I'm not sure if i'm ready for the truth yet though. I think i'm better served focusing my attention on more basic self help for now. Proper diet, routine, making friends, treating my depression. I'm not abandoning the path, i'm still going to meditate and talk to @Nahm. But i need to walk before i can run. My ego is very big. I need this humbling process I think. Were you depressed and unhappy before you found truth @zeroISinfinity? I can feel myself, or consciousness in my eyes when i ask the question who am I. This became clearer during my LSD trip. But I don't know how this helps me right now. I have a lot of inner work to do to heal, maybe i'm just not ready? I don't know though.

@Elisabeth @Red-White-Light I'm very motivated to overcome my troubles so I might not have to be too picky here. As long as they help me grow and overcome my problems that will be enough. How have you guys found therapy has helped you?

@Charlotte That's a cool graphic. Yea my motivation for the gym is definitely extrinsic at this point.

I had a successful LSD trip. I didn't get a peak experience, or a non-dual state or anything. But I realized that I need help. I have a lot of work to do on my mental health, physical health, diet etc. My purpose moving forward is to heal myself. This is the goal for me right now. Therapy, float tank, yoga, diet, gym, coaching sessions. These are the tools that i'm going to use to heal my mind and my spirit. This work is very humbling. Part of me thought i'd walk in here with my meditation practice and hit enlightenment easy. This was misguided on my part. I have much work to do before I can even think about tackling enlightenment. This is all excellent news. I can start addressing the root causes of my unhappiness by taking practical steps, and not holding up some esoteric goal like enlightenment to keep me going. I don't need enlightenment to end my unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life. A big message from my trip was to love the truth. The truth will set me free. I am aware that I lie a lot, but the extend of my lying may be even deeper than i ever anticipated. I'm in 24/7 heal mode from now on.

I find that "I" am always trying to solve my problems. I am consistently thinking about how to improve my life. I think about lists, I think about what i really want to do each day. Aside from structural aspects of my life like school, I am constantly just thinking about how to improve my life and be happy. But if i really think about it, I don't really know what to do because if I did then I wouldn't be seeking happiness. Is there another part of my experience that I can look to on a daily basis for advice how to improve my life? I've heard that people must learn to trust their intuition or their "gut" as they progress deeper into this work. But I don't know what my intuition is saying to do, or i'm repressing the intuition. Is there something in my direct experience that I can turn to for inspiration on how to solve goals, other than more thinking?

This quote is from a post made by the user below. This is truth in my opinion. This really resonated with me. My parents love was always my connection to the divine through Unconditional Love. When my dad cheated on my mom is exactly the moment i felt this fall from grace. Now after a dozens of awakening experiences and integrating the shadow i realize more and more that our pure love as a child was our bridge to the Divine. We just forgot. Want to see how conditioned we've become? Love yourself deeply as a state of being (without per se chasing the emotion). And see how it triggers a feeling of inferiority, shame, fear of betrayal etc. These emotions are ingrained in us after we've felt heartbreak. To not happen again. We don't want to feel Love/the Divine because there is nothing more painful than it being taken from us. The trick is recognizing it was you all the time which was Love. Not your parents. No one else. They just symbolized a part of yourself. @Visionary

@WelcometoReality Fair point. I will contemplate.

@WelcometoReality Because i'm tired of my normal life but i don't want to die so i'm stuck.

@WelcometoReality That's too far for me. Like i read that sentence and my mind thinks my world will collapse around me. So clearly i'm self defeating myself here with my mind. I want truth. But i don't want to die in the process. So i'm stuck haha

@WelcometoReality Sounds terrifying.

Facts. How do i start this process in my direct experience?

So i'm on the come down and still sort of high on LSD. Number one message from the trip that i'm taking away is: I'm sick and I need to heal That is my mission statement or at least it should be. I am really sick and ill. I need to help myself get out of this jam i'm in. I'm stuck. I have a choice to either act from love or fear. Act from love and everything will be okay. New number one message lol: Go find a good therapist that can help deal me with these emotional issues. I think i've done all I can do i gotta look beyond myself for help now.

@Stakres @Reils If you guys pm please post the transcripts or invite haha. Seems like a nuclear level convo in the making

How do you workout for 2.5 hours? Unless i'm in yoga class I find i half ass my workouts a lot and I have difficulty pushing myself hard enough where I feel deeply satisfied after the workout. Sorry to hijack lol but i'm just curious if others have the same problem when starting out in working out/training.

@Fede83 My advice is to find someone online you can talk to through skype. Look for both therapists and life coaches online and find someone who resonates with you strongly. Send them a message about what you want, and see if they give you a good response. @Nahm I think is good. But you have to find someone that you trust and resonate with.

@Stakres Not sure I don't feel love. But the name of the game seems to be love from what i've learned so far. You either get it or you don't. I think we've hijacked the thread enough. We can just continue in PM.

@Stakres Do you know what love is? Do you feel it in your life in almost anything you do? Do you love me?

@Stakres Do you feel in love with life?

@Stakres It means I can walk outside and run 100 miles. I'm pretty sure right now I can't but I know there are people that can do it. I want what they got. I can only speak from direct experience. If anyone asked me am I happy like 6 months ago I would have said sure. And I would not have considered myself depressed. But I see what I'm missing in my direct experience now, so I can see the issue with my old worldview that would have not classified myself as unhappy and depressed. What is your purpose here?' Also you didn't answer my question about your direct experience of contentment and being on the path.

@Stakres Because i'm on a self-help forum trying to improve my direct experience. Not necessarily. Depression also means suicidal thoughts and just not wanting to live anymore. I don't have any of that. I want to feel like superman and run 100 miles with ease. Is that what getting out depression means too? It's based on my judgement. But are we just assuming everyone who thinks they're happy is actually happy?

@Stakres What does content mean? And what does on the path for multiple years mean? I can only speak from direct experience. I was depressed, and am currently depressed. I went to therapy and have taken medication. What worked for me in the past was a number of self help techniques that i basically applied to myself. Where is my pill for happiness, love and satisfaction? Didn't know they taught that subject in medical school. If medicine is so effective and proven, why are you still on the path? Why are you only content? This is the only thing you posted above that is evidence for your position. The rest doesn't speak to the effectiveness of medicine or the scientific approach. Improvement of symptoms of depression is so ambiguous. When I was depressed I would stay up late and cry a lot. Improvement of my depression would have been stopping the crying. That doesn't address the deeper issues of unhappiness and dissatisfaction in one's life. You are talking about giving advice to help relieve symptoms of a deeply unhappy person. Science can treat symptoms. But i'd be skeptical about science's ability to make unhappy person into someone who is in love with their own existence. I'll give you a case study from my own direct experience. My grandma suffers from depression. She has episodes once every couple of years where her moods dips hard. She takes antidepressants and feels a bit better and goes back to being normal grandma. Science counts this as a win. My family counts this as a win. But i can see her direct experience. Her normal is not living life happy, in love, kind, radiating a deep appreciation for life. She goes from depressed back to her normal judgmental, unhappy, busy work. This is not a win. Science counts this is a win. That's the problem I have with the scientific approach.

@Stakres Link studies on depression and unhappiness and medicine's proven track record dealing this stuff. Because I know doctors in my life and people in the medical field. And i'm fresh out of undergrad in a science background where many students were pre-med and so I know how these people approach science and life in general. You didn't answer my question about your own direct experience of happiness and satisfaction. Are you speaking from experience or are you just parroting what your doctor friends tell you about the new age.

@Stakres Lol do you know any people in medical school? Do you think doctors are learning how to make people happy and deal with structuring lives to create more love and satisfaction with their day to day experience? Medical help, i.e antidepressants, can help people change people's feeling but it won't address the question of why people are even unsatisfied and unhappy in the first place. Sure, antidepressants can be part of a holistic plan to improve one's life. But doctors and therapists are unlikely to have a holistic view as how to improve one's life. That's why having a life coach is good because it touches on all aspects of your life. Sure if you find a super star therapist that can do everything then by all means go for it. You are overestimating the extent to which medical help works in this area. We aren't treating cancer here...