ElenaO

Napoleon Hill. You learn how much has been through.

I am watching the Goop lab right now. It's alright. If you haven't tried all the things that they discuss, it may be of help. It's still has an orange vibe. Mostly because of GP.

I was researching this somewhat and there seems to be controversial opinions on reiki. Some claim it's BS, some say it can complement traditional medicine. I did not experience any positive effects from it. But I may try another one-two sessions to give it another try.

My yoga studio sometimes organizes sound bath events. I attended one tonight, where the teachers were also offering reiki (they didn't call it reiki per se, it was something about energy). The event was 2 h long. I haven't had reiki many times and often wonder how effective are these practices. Has anyone had any noticeable effects?

I do not see the video either. I see everyone's discussing it though.

@Nahm it was a group session. Actually one women started sobbing really loudly right next to me. Well, I guess she had some emotional release. But she was pretty aggressive also, she didn't let the teachers touch her etc. I do understand, but I felt disturbed and may be that also had an influence on the whole experience. There were 3 teachers, two offering reiki and another one performing the sounds. It was all right, but to be honest it was not any better than a yin yoga session.

@Raptorsin7 Hm, I did not feel it's on the same level. Maybe I did not get enough of that energy transfer or movement. Not sure.

@inFlow Interesting. I had a very different experience. As I described I was very tired and pissed off the next day ( the event happened in the evening). I do not want to say it was related, it's just I am rarely that annoyed and angry at things. This wasn't probably anyhow related to reiki itself. Yet, I haven't felt any calmness or anything of that sort. I do feel that after meditation and breathwork, though.

Good to hear that. To be honest, I haven't noticed any changes at all. In fact, today I am tired and very pissed at everything, but that's probably because of me not having enough sleep.

Oh yes. If you still have feelings for him/her, I get it. But there's probably a reason you guys broke up? It's easy to forget that when you are overwhelmed with grief.

No, it does not. Or little. If you like someone, this wouldn't matter.

To be honest, I don't see what's the problem with being over 30 and not being married / having a relationship. After all, it's your choice. There's a reason you never got married in your twenties. There was probably something more important then in your life. I thought the video was silly, together with the comments. I mean, relationships are just a part of your life, there's so much more to it than just being married, having a relationship. I feel it's actually cool that you are single and have time to do other things, grow yourself.

I would agree on all of those points, except for social engagement, remain reproductively useful and low stress levels. Social engagement doesn't have to come as a must here, it must be something you are willing to do. If you don't feel like you need/want to engage socially with others, then be it. I am, for one, introverted and I do talk to people, but that's definitely not something I have a high need for. It happens just naturally and there are days when I don't talk to anyone and I am still happy and content. How is reproduction supposed to increase your longevity? If you have kids you are more likely to live longer? Have never heard of this before. Life purpose and low stress levels will often conflict with each other. You just cannot have low stress levels at all times. It's bound to happen. If you aren't challenging yourself, you'll have your low stress level, but come on, how is that a good life?

I almost have no social life myself. It also pretty much depends on how you define it. If by social life you mean meeting and socializing with people,i.e. casual conversations, I do not find this fulfilling at all. So I stopped doing this. I'd rather do something that's more valuable on my list. However, I do appreciate friendship and talking to people who understand me and I understand them. But this does require time and effort to find such people. And I spend maybe 5% of my time for such things. Not sure my life would be that much better if I'd have > 5%.

I guess I'd ask what exactly do they want out of life. It gives an answer to multiple questions: how much have they actually thought about it, what their values are, where do they stand, what their dreams are. And you can also pay attention to how genuine they are when they answer.

I cannot say this of all psychedelic meetups. Ours has some self-centered individuals who like to show off a little bit. The fact that you are using psychedelics doesn't automatically promote you into higher levels of consciousness. But that's my opinion.

I didn't meditate today at all. But I went for a 7-hour meditation course yesterday. So I guess it evens out. I'll commit to do an hour of meditation tomorrow. I also feel that breathwork is more powerful for me. I tend to release more then and in vipassana I mostly concentrate my attention and only sometimes get moments of light release. It's not even close to what I experience in my breathwork sessions. It's probably expected. I don't really hear people crying in vipassana sessions. I'll try dynamic breathworks this week and will update my findings here. Of the hard things I've done today. Being open with my friend. Even though if she wouldn't be receptive, I probably wouldn't have opened up to her either. And not eating cookies while at a cafe. However, I ate too much of a dip. Which makes me think I need to start planning my meals as much as I can, so they are more balanced and leading to losing weight instead of gaining. I may try to eat tomorrow less fat (not to say that fat is bad, it's actually very healthy), more protein and even more greens. Like 70% greens. I'll probably be hungry, but will eat a few eggs in the evening to get rid of that hunger.

OK, I completely fell off the wagon. I fell back into the trap of comfortable life. And it's easy to live like that. But there's also some deep dissatisfaction with life. You know you are not living up to your potential. I went for a trip/hike today and I loved the fact that I could speak out almost anything and people would at least pretend to listen. I often do not express myself enough in situations where there's fairly new people. Or in situations where I am afraid they won't listen and just ignore me saying anything. I also loved that I didn't care so much and didn't try to please people. What I decided to do is eat only Paleo from now on. No matter how costly that would be. And if that means I'd need to buy from salad bar all day long, so be it. I'd also want to analyze my motivations more. Anything I do. Let's say I want to lose weight. Or why I am trying to force myself to do that piece of work. What is behind it?

1. Did 1 hour meditation 2. indulging in food is a challenge - I feel it's not about taste but more because of the comfort. Especially when I am tired I need this comfortable feeling that would balance my mild suffering. 3. Didn't eat bagels that were at the office. And didn't binge on the pizza available too.

Thank you! I went to Victoria just a little over a month ago

Today started great, I managed to get myself motivated and persisted pretty well with the meditation and concentration. Did 1 hour of Vipassana, 3 minutes of concentration practice and 5 minutes of visualization. And did some stretching in the morning. Then started with work. I went for a barre workout later and felt so tired after it, because I put a lot of energy into it, which of course is great. But I also felt like I need to eat and felt pretty sick by everything. The ticket I was working on for work proved to be longer than I expected and I felt bad. And in general it feels like there's a lot of grind. But then I had a wonderful surprise at the end of the day: I got accepted as a speaker at PyCascades!! That was such a surprise, considering that only 8% get selected <3 Felt so exciting! Ok, my report for today: 1. 1 hour meditation - done 2. no food indulgence - ok, but did allow myself some cheese and too many fruits. On the other hand, have to give in sometimes 3. something uncomfortable I've done today was doing the barre workout with all my grit.

I haven't posted in a few days, because was running around either responding to my own needs or the needs of work (which one of my own needs, too, actually). I've been doing OK with all three, but resisting to indulge in food isn't as successful as it was right after the retreat. I just have to keep working at it. Detaching myself from the pleasure and understanding that these cravings will pass. This requires consciousness and wisdom and I am not always good at it. It all comes down to surrendering to the pleasant and unpleasant sensations. Letting them be. Observing them. But you have to be conscious when these sensations come up. Otherwise, you'll just react. And that's what we mostly do. For the uncomfortable things: I resisted to eat cookies we had at work, which was awesome; practiced patience with others; did a hike in rainy and cold weather, even though I wanted to do it, actually.

I am going back to my earlier routine before the retreat. My motivation is waning. I am starting to come back to complacency. I guess there must be certain things that I want that would keep me on track. Perhaps could print some images of women with highly attractive bodies, which would keep me off any junk, including pizza, cheese, etc. These I eat when I am going to meetups. Perhaps could read every morning a motivational book. See how hard working others are. People around me aren't exactly hard working. I also want to learn more English idioms. This does motivate me. Maybe I could spend my free time doing that. Would be more fun doing it with someone, of course. Maybe memrise or duolingo or something else that would keep me going. I could start with promising to do certain things every single day. And sticking to it. 1. 1h meditation every single day 2. stopping myself from overindulging food 3. doing one thing every single day that scares me or makes me very uncomfortable I will post my report my report daily to share.

Great work! Keep it up. I wish I was doing meditation at your age. And for such long periods.

Either it's my mind or something else, but my great routine is going to hell. I wonder how does anyone keep up with it. It's as there must be a very strong drive to keep up the discipline. I must perhaps visualize the outcome to keep being efficient and hard working.