mandyjw

@DrewNows You can't judge and really feel at the same time so no. It's not about the words a teacher uses, if you're only listening to what they say you'll never get the message, or worse you'll, believe it. Words don't make us feel. There's no complete without the incomplete. Just notice how some people seem to make you feel one way and others another, that's all.

@DrewNows How does Ralston make you feel when you watch him? Watch him, without really paying attention to what he says. Read his face, every mannerism, feel the emotion there, look into his soul. How do you feel?

LOVEing themselves.

@DrewNows The "Divine" feminine, or even the feminine, doesn't exist. The attraction to the "other", including the illusory movement towards and the wholeness itself after is love. So if someone were to have problems appreciating, valuing or opening to the feminine, what would they actually have a problem with?

Within the group of people who resonate with Leo's videos, love is more likely the facet that is being overlooked and underappreciated, the facet that's right under our nose but not seen, however if you take the population as a whole the misunderstanding of what love is and the lack of desire and regard for truth becomes a more common problem. That's why it's good to point out here on this forum that Ralston isn't talking about love. You can't look for completion in any teacher, you can't see the whole of someone without seeing what they aren't.

It feels awful to split our energy and have conflicting desires. We all want to be focused. The best way to build focus and feel whole without seeking things all around in all directions is through meditation. Meditation doesn't have to be a formal practice but that's the easiest way. It also builds our sensitivity and openness to knowing what we want, and makes us more aware when we are behaving in ways that split our own energy or ultimately might hurt others or disappoint ourselves. Try to clarify why you want to be faithful to her, focus on why you love her. Make your focus more about what you want rather than trying to avoid the behavior you don't want. When you get good at focus, then on clarifying what you want, repression and old patterns lose their power.

Yeah, but what would that cook book make you want and think about more than anything else? Salt. See the magic?

Teachers like Ralston are necessary to get masculine truth-focused types to open their minds to the love realm in the first place. People who have fallen into the love trap are likely to be disgusted with him, or else if they are ready to move past it, intensely attracted to him in a love/hate opposites attract way until all that gets integrated. The grinch needs a Cindy Lou Who. I guess it doesn't make much sense to be mad at a math teacher for not teaching you art.

I've been trying to increase my tolerance to cold by going outside to run now that it's winter dressed like I would be on a much warmer day. The cold temps boost the effect of the runner's high, it's a great combination. It feels amazing while I'm doing it and doesn't seem extreme but for a good hour or two after I can't get warm. I'm only spending less than a half hour outside. I thought that this would be an easier way that the cold rinses, because the same thing happens to me with those in the winter. Will this improve on its own overtime, should I stick with it, or am I expecting too much too fast? I take medication for hypothyroidism and get cold easily but that's partly why I want to increase my tolerance to cold temperatures.

@Michael569 It's just hypothyroidism. I've improved my diet immensely since being diagnosed but my levels haven't changed once in 13 years.

I've been there. Still visit there often from time to time. Have you noticed that when we judge someone else's worth or level of progress, we're always looking at just one aspect of them? A math test doesn't measure creativity, etc. When we get excited about something, even as something so important and all encompassing like spirituality, we can still fall into that trap. Suddenly spiritual progress becomes the measure of everyone's worth. Everyone has unique gifts, and everyone is a beautiful and on a spiritual level, a perfect manifestation of God. We have to limit ourselves to judge another but from the perspective of love, everything is perfect, and you are the only one who can embody, become love. There is no need or reason to step out of that place, to step away from love into lack in order to try to drag anyone back to love with you. You can't get there from here. It only ever works of its own magic on its own time.

@DrewNows No, I assumed the running would be enough without it, I don't want to get light-headed before going out, having only done the breathing exercises laying down. I should do some more research on how he does long runs and hikes outside though. Is skin scrubbing a Wim Hof thing? I haven't heard of it, thank you. @Raptorsin7 You can experience highs from meditation, but running releases chemicals like dopamine and integrates the body and breathing in a unique way. In my experience the two are quite different, but both are worth doing. I'm not a serious runner, I used to run competitively as a kid, but stopped racing when graduated high school. Running doesn't hurt at all for me because I'm not pushing my body to go faster or further, I'm already conditioned and in shape for the low mileage I run. There might be some discomfort if I focus on it, and occasionally there are aches and pains but like meditation there are always positive things to focus on or negative if we chose to give them our attention. When I run I let my thoughts go free, I let whatever thoughts feel good come, if not thinking feels good I enjoy that, I usually use my intuition to tell me where to run. My intuition gets really heightened while running, I get lots of new creative ideas, are more able to reframe things, or getting insights. Lately it's been an exercise is connecting with the world around me, I stop a lot and appreciate whatever I see there. Even 10 minutes is enough to alter my perceptions quite a bit. After 20 or 30 I get a deeper runner's high that lasts a while. The practice of meditation and watching my thoughts has improved my runs and made me more susceptible to the high I get from it, as I become more and more sensitive to it and learn to go in the direction of that. It wasn't until recently that I made the connection, runner's high = vortex = high vibration, it's all the same and you can intentionally do things that put you there and chose thoughts that keep you there. Before I thought feeling good was just something that happened to me, I didn't realize it was in my power. @InfinitePotential That's interesting thank you! I eat brazil nuts for selenium but I really need to get a kelp supplement again for iodine. @Serotoninluv That's a good idea, thanks. I often remind myself of the Tim Ferriss quote "what gets measured gets managed."

@Shin Unicorns aren't horrifying.

I have a feeling that the trance state itself is what would awaken them, the things spoken during that state would be of much less importance than their receptivity to entering the trance state itself. The necessary insights come of their own accord, and without proper respect for that, and sensitivity to a person's readiness, problems can arise. I read an account of someone who awakened partially through mesmerism in the 1800's. He was fascinated with it, highly susceptible to it, and already was highly conscious. The mesmerists were doing it just to put on a show, not really for the benefit of the subjects. Then he began falling asleep randomly throughout the day and thought he was very sick, until channeling started coming through. The focused intentions of another person together with your own lack of resistance can come together to become a very powerful nondual experience.

You don't love your parents? The love is already there, in what you're doing, if choose to see it. Drop ideas and thoughts like "it wins every time". Pay attention to how you feel, watch your thoughts, meditate when they start to run away from you, meditate every morning to prevent it from happening so often. Choose to see the beauty in every situation, even in your own survival mechanisms. We must love and accept ourselves first and in doing so we see who we really are and see there's nothing left that needs accepting after that.

It's abundantly clear to me just about anywhere I look that therapy needs to be free, easily accessible, normalized, and perhaps integrated into communities more. We can say that the government should pay for therapy and we should work towards making mental health a bigger priority. By making mental health a huge priority, we can prevent many issues by making it part of the school curriculum as Leo suggested in his conscious politics series. However, most mental health professionals despite investing an incredible amount of time and money in their education, still misunderstand mental illness, awakening and the nature of reality in general. Many parents are going to object to having their children things that border on the line of or may be interpreted as "religious." What about separation of church and state? What happens to this as the consciousness of humanity evolves? A lot of people's unhappiness comes from a lack of real spiritual connection. People used to get this from religion but as churches and religious organizations stay in stage blue, people leave them to pursue stage orange and beyond. I wonder if an alternative solution would look something more like... (stick with me here, open minds now), organized religion, or a church setting. What if you had a "church" that's purpose was to offer community, some education, but ultimately to help people awaken, understand themselves and live amazing lives? It would have to exist on donations (something like tithing) and volunteers and would have to have a hierarchy of some kind. Obviously corruption and abuse would be a concern, but these problems are already givens with the government. And again how does the government transition into the realm of spirituality and the mystical? Should we wait around for that day to come? Should spiritual teachers always go with the model of operating their own independent businesses, with expensive retreat centers, seminars and fees for sessions with them? Should resources for awakening be reserved for those with the privilege of time and money? Couldn't a church or organized religion of some kind, as dirty as those words may sound, be the bridge to make awakening and self-actualization more accessible for everyone?

I've never appreciated my business so much, I always had this conflicting sense of wanting sales but feeling guilty or unworthy when I get them. Now I'm enjoying the interactions and exchange of love. It's funny how this entire spiritual journey is just about living up to the meaning of the name I was given at birth. "Worthy of love." I've just been listening to Terrence McKenna talk about the machine elves and the objects they make, how Santa is an elf, the significance of red and white, the fly agaric mushroom. I saw a thread someone posted about yesterday Rupert Spira's art. Something about the act of creating intentionally or consciously naturally makes one question intention and consciousness itself. The act of creation of art is itself an altered state of consciousness. Appreciation of creation is so also. Synchronicity is messing with me today I accidentally found out this movie existed accidentally by searching for something else, seriously WTF? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_(2018_film)

Who knows?

It's amazing how connection with nature can connect you with being and raise your mood, even if it's just taking your shoes off and walking through the mud. Mother nature loves it when we get down and dirty with her. I'm not sure that products brought into the home would have much of an effect, but then again I adore my salt lamps so it depends on you.

Repression is not dealt with by acting out on it. I don't mean that to shame you at all, it's a really difficult lesson to learn for everyone.

@DreamScape Yes, but just be aware that you are differentiating yourself from your parents (completely natural, normal thing to do when you're 17), yet, you are following a path of spirituality that is about oneness. That's bound to cause you to be uncomfortable in itself. It's less about the external circumstances. We all have shame as a function of survival, it's less about freeing ourselves from an environment that shames us and more about noticing how we allow shame and disconnect ourselves. The ego complains about situations and requires the situation to change so that it can get what it wants. It's never the situation, it's always the function itself. This is the pattern of thought or deception we are trying to "see through" with meditation, contemplation and awareness.

Wish to see beauty, look for it and you'll see it. You are creating your experience.

What is judgement in your own experience? Is it wrong to judge between right and wrong?

Wow, I had no idea!

@Zigzag Idiot @dimitri Thank you, I really appreciate the encouragement!