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This may help if you get nervous with girls

You could start with some low-pressure interactions. Comment on a girl's shirt or hat as you pass her by. Or talk to a girl next to you in line while you're waiting for your coffee. Remember you can do this to guys as well. I speak to girls pretty much the same way I speak to my male friends. It's up to you how often you wanna go out, just don't make yourself restless. As for approaching on the busy streets or shopping areas, it's mostly trial and error. I've done it before and got nothing from it and other times me and the girl ended up having a solid 10 minute conversation. What matters is you get used to doing it enough times and you'll find yourself coming out of your head and making things happen.

Happy holidays ya'll Don't get alien abducted

"Hear that?" *listens in, fart* Gottem

This definitely goes a long way. People returning the eye contact and a smile is all you need to feel seen.

Little update - it's important to take it easy and not try too hard to make anything happen. At the start of this I noticed myself being quite restless and going out almost every day forcing interactions. It wore me out physically just from all the walking around the city. Just do it once a week or something.

Your mind is often your worst enemy when doing approaches. Just approach her - don't think about what to say. Something basic to open could be like "are you enjoying the dancing so far?" or "hey, how's it going?"

I never had issues with fluoride personally. I use Sensodyne.

Mainstream news sources are mostly fine, just avoid all the facebook/alt right misinformation crap and you're good

@LordFall Social media was pretty bad for my mental health but I can see the benefit in social circle for sure @Hezbollah I guess it's so I can explore intimacy with the right person, I've never had a partner before so I feel I should be making up for lost time

@CARDOZZO That's a good tip, thanks! @pablo_aka_god Keep going out and you'll be ok

"Are there any regrets I would have on my deathbed?" is one I always found effective for improving things in life. And also "how would this person or character I idolize react to this thing or situation?".

Thank you all for the help and encouragement, it means a lot. This last week has felt like a slog. My last outing at the club put a really sour taste in my mouth when one of the security decided to grill me about approaching people. I didn't bother trying to argue back and decided just to leave. Safe to say night clubs kinda suck. There was also a really easy opening opportunity for a girl in the clothing store but I just sorta froze and didn't do anything. At least not at first: I was almost about to leave when I forced myself back there to say something. I fumbled some shirts and joked to her that I couldn't re-fold them properly, she laughed and was like "oh I know, I've got a guilty conscience about that". Then for whatever reason I just froze again: I really should have pushed myself to keep the convo going further somehow, but oh well. I've felt pretty down and I've noticed it's affected my state quite a bit but I'm not going to quit. Let's stick it out to the bitter end

Not sure what led me to it but I've been asking myself lately if I'm actually cool with eating meat. I can recall a conversation I had with my dad (tl:dr he's a conspiracy nut who's emotionally charged, not a skeptic, just doesn't want people to think he's stupid so he parrots a bunch of righty nonsense to try and look intelligent). He'd happily eat chicken and fish but not cow or pig. When I asked him why, he claimed he believed chicken and fish are exclusive for human consumption and that their purpose is to "serve our hunger". Pretty classist if you ask me but I guess I'm getting sidetracked. If you asked me why I eat meat, I would only say that I think all animals have some sort of soul and emotion, so it's like... what can you do? At least until recently - I've been watching videos like the one linked above and I have to admit I didn't picture the slaughter being this fucked up. Milk and eggs apparently aren't as innocent as I thought either - calves are separated from their mothers after birth to further produce milk and they often get shackled and infected as a result, and free-range doesn't mean chickens are roaming free like I thought. Most of them are stuck in a cramped barn for most of the day. Plus the male chicks getting culled - I wasn't aware of this until today but apparently it's common knowledge. These images are definitely something I'm bearing in mind whenever I eat meat now, although I'm not sure if I can commit to going completely vegan either. I did try it one time years ago but only lasted a couple of weeks. I'd get migraines that were horrible and felt pretty low energy and lethargic 90% of the time. Although maybe I went about it the wrong way. Have any of you experienced this as well? Any of you eat some sort of plant based diet or had thoughts about doing so?

No food is good if you continuously force it down. Nobody in the right mind would eat such vast quantities of fruit/veg to the point where it overloads your kidneys (that can happen, as you said, high oxalate content is linked to kidney stones). You'd have to consume more than any sane human being would put into their body though.

You're allowed to enjoy sugar as long as it's not causing any negative long term effects for you. No more than 30g within a day is considered pretty normal. You might already be aware but fructose (the naturally occurring sugar in fruits) is healthy. You can have as much as that as you want, although our food labels here in the UK factor fructose in with refined sugar. That's why those fruit cocktail tincans will say high in sugar even though there's little to no refined sugar in them.

It might feel bothersome/unnatural only because this is ultimately a high level teaching. As much as you can raise your levels of consciousness, you're still in a human form, so it's not feasible to remain at high levels for so long. That's how a lot of people get put off from spirituality altogether because it freaks them out or makes them uncomfortable. While there's no separation between you and other from the absolute perspective, it might be best to lower your thinking to a more practical level and approach the issue more straight forward. So from what I'm understanding - if you consider yourself an empath - treat the emotions you're experiencing as more of a reaction to what other people are doing or saying rather than second guessing yourself about something within you.

Always have an open mind and remember to call out your own bullshit from time to time

Inherently there's nothing wrong with it as long as its not causing any negative effects for you.

He's a person the same as any of us on here - it's pretty common to feel frustration/anger from time to time regardless of how enlightened/developed you are.

Sorry you had to experience that but it'd good that you managed to calm down in the end. I've personally never done more than 2g dried and I found it pretty freaky at the time (not the type that you've described though) I reckon it takes a bad trip for us to realize what our limits are and respect the dosage from there - there's really no reason to do more than 1.5 - 2g dried imo

I think for most people to truly understand peace there needs to be some level of deep suffering beforehand. Would peace still be peace if there was nothing to oppose it? Of course this can be very subjective - some people suffer over money, while some have only maybe $200 in their account or perhaps nothing at all and they are some of the happiest people you can meet. Relative to the big picture, suffering has its place as it can drive people to pursue the path to enlightenment. I remember first getting into self-help because of my bad habit with alcohol which was starting to affect me mentally and it inadvertently lead me to spirituality a few years down the road.

Firstly, sorry to hear you're going through this. It's not easy when those sorts of emotions are running high, but it's always possible to return to your normal state of happiness and peace. Second, is there anything in particular you suspect might be causing these feelings to occur frequently? Is it something material you could work to change (your body/fitness, finances, security, relationships etc.)? If this is something you're feeling more existentially then I would just approach it with curiosity, but also don't take whatever you mind/ego says too seriously. Our minds can run rampant if we stay up there too long. Ironically the best cure for this is to simply sit in a quiet space and go through a meditation experience (doesn't have to be deep, 20-30 minutes is pretty good). When you merely observe what is, and accept that as whatever is the case, a sense of space from consciousness flows through you, and you will feel more at peace and happy.

I've been looking to enter a state of complete no mind like when I was a little kid - no thought, just total presence. I've been meditating consistently for 40-60 minutes. It's definitely nice although at some point throughout the day I'll have some pretty intrusive/aggressive thoughts and I'm on the border of becoming schizo again. Has anyone had a similar experience? What worked best for you?

I've recently had the notion to resume taking shrooms but only in low doses (0.4g dried is usually just enough for me). Although the last few times I've measured and been about to take them I've always had an overwhelming anxiety come over me. I've never had a bad experience before except the one time I did 2g dried. Since then I rarely ever do above 1g. Does anyone else still experience fear despite having taken them before? Would you still take a low dose in spite of being apprehensive or is it best to leave it?