BipolarGrowth

Experience works in fundamentally the same way for you whether solipsism is the case or not. Holding a certain belief is not awakening.

The Queen of Bhakti ?

Most coaches these days are recommending a 200-500 calorie surplus for optimal muscle gain without gaining an unnecessary amount of fat. I would question if you’ve really been eating 1,000 calories per day though. It is very easy to underestimate calories, even if you are trying to track everything. Foods often have more calories than they say. Make sure to track all condiments, oils, butter, etc if you want accurate numbers.

Nice man. Great job. Keep it going ?

You’re likely going to be far healthier doing exercise rather than avoiding it. Things like running or deadlifts might do damage in some ways, but it is usually susceptible individuals or people who have trained consistently for many years who have problems. There are always lower impact alternatives like cycling, swimming, or substituting exercises on a machine when barbell exercises like squat or deadlift are hard on your back.

Gryffindor

Thanks for this ?

I’m interested in getting a mild boost to my memory. Preferably it would be something with little to no side effects and fully legal in the U.S. The main purpose for this is that I find myself occasionally having a word right on the tip of my tongue, and it might take 15-30 seconds on average to remember the word I’d like to use in the situation. This happens rather infrequently, but it’d be nice if I wouldn’t have to break the flow of my speech or supplement a weaker word for the situation to keep the flow going. Any suggestions?

I’ve been following much of the general advice that is given on this YouTube channel. I think that Greg’s methods and advice are very beneficial for people who want to improve their physique. He mainly recommends intermittent fasting for the first 4-6 hours of the day, focusing on strength improvement in the key compound exercises, and eating in a caloric deficit. The advice is really easy to follow. I also think he has a point that most people are focusing too much on protein as a macronutrient as natural lifters. Having either carbs or fats too low can easily crash testosterone, especially while practicing a reduced caloric intake. Having high protein but low fat or carbs while also in a deficit will make dieting quite hard to follow as foods will not taste nearly as good, and your body will be craving those other macronutrients as you are not consuming enough for optimal functioning. He recommends 0.8g of protein per lb. of body weight as a general ceiling based on the results of some scientific studies. Intermittent fasting allows for an easier time reaching a caloric deficit for me and many others. Starting to exercise again was a great decision. I used to really enjoy weightlifting when I was 16-17 years old. Getting back into it again has given my life a lot more balance than just focusing on spirituality/awakening all the time. I’ve got way more energy throughout the day even in a caloric deficit, and I am way more productive and driven than before I started lifting. This is the difference in my physique from May 2nd to May 27th. After photo is in the next post due to image file size constraints.

To be fair, I looked like this at age 17, so I think that is what has helped the progress come so fast.

I was eating somewhat healthy, but not really. I just didn’t have much of an appetite naturally. Lifting and intermittent fasting has helped to give me a more normal appetite and fix stomach pain/nausea. Tracking macros and calories has shown me I was eating way worse than I would’ve thought before.

This is what my workouts were this week. I update every set/rep each week with the goal to go up 5-10 lb. on every compound lift. “Track your lifts of you won’t stay on track.”

This is in better lighting obviously.

This is in the same lighting as the before photo.

The first mystical experience was somewhere around 5-7 years old. I know it was before age 8 because my family moved to a new house when I was 8. It probably only lasted somewhere between 30 seconds and a few minutes. The next notable mystical experience was at age 18. The first experience of God Consciousness was around 22-23. I’ve seen several people in their early 20s who have had their daily lives and survival essentially put on halt due to spiritual practice and insights. I think it would be optimal for people, generally speaking, to have quite solid financial stability and independence before getting into awakening, whatever age that happens to be for the person.

What should I be focusing my life toward at this point? What is the best area of my life to develop right now?

You’re “supposed” to gain insight into the nature of these sensations. This is not a bad way to do spiritual practice. I would recommend spending time with each physical sense, then with the mind, then be with all six simultaneously and see what that does for you.

This only has to do with the intellectualization of Christianity rather than the actual practice. You connect to God through Jesus and connect to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This thread is like a philosopher evaluating Buddhism while never meditating in his life. Do the practice and feel it’s effects or don’t do the practice and don’t feel it’s effects. It’s that simple. This line of inquiry is not a very good use of your time.

I hope this helps.

Chances are that something is labeled as pain is not being accepted as completely as it could be.

Cool stuff. Good to have you here.

The only constant is the changing of variables.

And the examples I gave are some of the highest conscious altered states that a decent number of people have reached. The chance that someone reaches either of those states with a low level of awareness is incredibly, incredibly low.

He had a pretty epic tearing up in the Outrageous Experiments in Consciousness video. Hands down one of my all-time favorite videos from Leo.