Mattylonglegs

Hey All, Hope everyone's having a splendid time self-actualizing. or at least not feeling like they are insane. I'm wondering if any of you lovely people on this forum have any good resources for doing integration of your shadow. More importantly i'm looking for a resource that will help me integrate my masculine and feminine sides. something like a worksheet, a program or a book. I'm trying to incorporate both my feminine aspects in my life such as emotional expression and sexual enjoyment/expression and also my more masculine sides of me such as my aggression/competitiveness, killer instinct, spirituality and purpose. I want to have more self-confidence in these aspects of my life that are not normal to show a real interest in. I'm hope this integration will give me some access to some untapped energy and a kill em' with kindness who-gives-a-fuck attitude. So thanks for any and help! Happy progress.

Personal Development for sure As a fan of rap/hip-hop its awesome to hear a dude rap about higher consciousness topics and to do it with a tight flow, funky beats and dope hooks Usually in rap its all about cars, money, and "hoes" Idk why they always talk about gardening tools ;p but its really inspiring to see consciousness flowering in all walks of life

This is great right here ^ Even when you're being a "bitch" i'm sure you can also make people laugh and have interesting conversations, flirt, etc... all the stuff that comes with attracting the opposite sex. So you're never a complete bitch like an Disney princess evil villain. Just because someone appears outwardly confident doesn't mean they're a bitch and just because someone's shy doesn't mean they're an angel. If you spend some time alone, just connecting with what you really enjoy and thinking about what you want to see in your social relationships and romantic partners. If you do that the next time you go out, if you're acting from that place of deep honesty within yourself, then you're gonna stumble upon some awesome people and your interactions are going to be so effortless and organic. You're not even going to be thinking about if you're being to "bitchy" or "shy". This may take some time, work and introspection to get to, it did for me. But i promise you once you are really connected with your own deepest desires and feelings you'll rarely be worrying about whether you're wasting time with someone because you'll literally just feel like talking to this random person and oh hey it turns out this person is one of the funniest , most interesting people you've ever met. Obviously this doesn't happen all the time but if you do the work on yourself you'll find it happens more often and frequently. And then all the sudden you're presently surprised with the depth and quality of people you're meeting day in and day out. Hope this helped!

Hey All, Hope everyone's doing well, working towards deepening their consciousness and benefiting the world in the biggest way possible. Or whatever you deem worthy of your precious time! I've taken Leo's life purpose course and it's time for me to get the ball rolling. I'm going to start an awesome blog centered around personal development and happiness. Leo's a bit of an inspiration to me, along with many other humans. That aside I've never written a blog before. I've written some fiction before but because i'm still a young blood in college i'm mostly writing academic papers. SO I was wondering if anyone on this splendid forum of conscious individuals had any tips for research on my blog. Like what kind of host should I use, how to effectively market it, make money off it, etc... I really would love some high quality resources on this topic and I figured maybe some of you lovely people would have some. Or not! Who knows man.....? *old hippy dude gazes longingly at the stars* Any and all tips will be greatly appreciated and once I get this bad boy up and running, who knows, maybe I'll have room for guest bloggers who've helped me out here. That'd be ideal actually! Thanks for any and all help, Best, Mattylonglegs

Reading through this topic I'd just say there's absolutely no problem with doing both personal development, growing of a healthy ego, and healing with Enlightment work. They're two sides of the same coin. Personally I was super depressed before I came across Leo. Obviously my ego and emotions were all out of whack. When I started watching Leo and getting into personal development I watched both his more pragmatic episodes about confidence for example and I also watched his videos on radical open-mindedness and enlightenment. You certainly can wait to do self-inquiry but like @electroBeam you kinda are stabbing around in the dark. Personal development and self-inquiry work beautifully together to give you important insights about yourself, human nature, and reality on many different levels. I've found serious meditation, self-inquiry and enlightenment work really give you a very deep grasping of personal development concepts, philosophy and teachers like Leo and other Masters lessons. So when you say your horrified about your friend admitting hes envious of people there's really no reason to be because you are essentially at the very deepest level one and you have just as much capability to be envious as he is. Instead of being horrified you could try understanding and acceptance. Leo's video this week talks about a phenomenal principle of putting yourself in the other persons's shoes, contemplating their perspective and searching yourself for the very same emotion the person you're talking to is displaying to have greater understanding. Haha I hope this wasn't too preachy or anything and that you find it useful. Good luck in all your endeavors friend!

@Extreme Z7 Yeah ok, my nerves in my ankles get pinched when i do that and after about 30 minutes my feet fall asleep. I like that you walk around and stretch after a little. I'm gonna incorporate that.

@LetTheNewDayBegin i generally get to work haha. I'm by no means perfect and trying to replace a lot of habits with the good ones. Yessiree I have. I've gone through Leo's life course. I discovered I wanted to write there. Thats my small bet for now Im writing a 20 page short story. Haha I hope you appreciate all the life purpose lingo

@Esoteric Yeah I'm gonna be investigating both of those technique's going forward with mediation. Thanks once again for the videos man!

@Extreme Z7 I generally start out cross legged and then if it gets too uncomfortable I'll move to a different position. How long do you generally meditate cross legged?

@eskwire Yeah I mean i generally try to do that, at least I think thats what im trying to do. With meditation, at least for me, I'm trying to experience something objectively that a lot of people talk about but you still dont know what you're doing before experimentally. but yeah I mean once my thoughts die down I try to maintain my focus or awareness on the essence itself. I've had pretty gob-smacking insights that way when I can maintain a level of Awareness or focus on my awareness. Like a lot of the deeper philosophy, topics leo talks about or instructions from say Zen or taoist traditions will intuitively make more sense to me on a much deeper level. But I guess that those experiences don't happen every time I meditate so I try to maybe contemplate a problem in my life or just maintain awareness. Thats usually when i get the urge to get the hell up and go out and do something. haha any of this make sense or ring a bell to you?

Good to know. I'm definitely gonna dig into it more. So it makes your body/mind a better conduit for awareness? In the post @Esoteric put in shinzen young basicallysaid that they were mechanical patterns of behaviors literally being unwound by consciousness. So a cleansed mind and body will aid in enlightenment im gathering?

Ah-ha! pleasure to forum with you Leo! I'm so very grateful for the content you've put out man, you helped me significantly through a dark timein my life to come out really inspired in a whole new direction. Just want to give you my heartfelt thanks for all that you d, truly. I've watched the darkside of meditation video, some of that shit was spooky. I'll definitely have to check it out of then. Thats a solid tip about the naps. I was wondering if you've had any experience or know any more about the energy circumstances. I've herd Ram Das describe pretty much the same thing I think in some of his Lectures and was wondering if you've had any insights

Sorry for the typos. I was distracted and posted without looking back carefully! Hope you guys can catch the drift.

Hey All Personal Development Junkies! Hope everyone's having a great start to their new year and are continuing to grow with mastery in mind! I was just wondering if anyone could offer me some help or insights. I've been meditating almost everyday for about a year now and i noww do an hour everyday. It's been going well and I really feel I've reached a place in my meditation pracctice where I can genuinely step out of my mind and experience "reality", However over the last couple of weeks the makority of my meditation sessions go like this- Over the first 30 min my mind is slowly calmed and pealed away layer by layer(so it feels) Then i get to this kind of void where nothing is really going on, I can experience my thoughts from an arms lengths distance and its like...what now? I don't really know what to do and I find that one of three things will happen 1.) I'll get very sleepy and nod off in my upright posture or be overcome by drowsiness and lie down if i'm in a bed 2.) I'll feel a really strong urge to get up and do something! Like life is out there and i have to go take care of it, all of it, now! 3.) My breathing will become very deep, my awareness feels vastly expanded. Then generally on an inhale I'll feel a greath gathering of tension of some place in my body (usually shoulders, abdomen or legs). On an exhale sometimes i feel a huge transfer of energy from my sacrum/pelvis area, up my spine and into my forehead/out the crown of my head. sometimes with this breathing pattern I will be racked with spasms or shakes. its kind of confsuing. after aawhile I want to stop meditating but i generally do feel very relaxed and at ease after these type of sessions. Just wondering if anyone's haadd any similar experiences or can relate! Thanks guys!