Dan Arnautu

@Random User @Leo Gura I would recommend Fearless by RSD Max. Very detailed and awesome program. A lot of content adressing each fear, from the one of rejection, to escalation, to what other people think, to feeling unworthy etc. + a module with more than 30 challenges to gradually expand your comfort zone and address all the fears you have. But I won't lie that I have a liking bias towards him + I can relate to him because he is also an introvert, so that may also affect my recommendation. At least check it out though.

@Lynnel Me too, lol. What a coincidence. Although in my case the one with the varying ratio is the I and the E, which makes me an ambivert (other tests also confirmed this). So I can either be an INFJ or and ENFJ, but I incline more towards INFJ.

@Leo Gura Are you thinking of shooting a video on the stigma of self help books and self help in general? I see a lot of academics and serious people dismissing self help as being only motivational, and with no real practical use. But as you know, there are people like Nathaniel Branden, who helped improve people's self-esteem for more than 30 years.

So I see many people advising others to read 1 book a week (others even a book a day). A book a weeks means 52 in a year. But what I've found is that to implement what even one book actually says can take months or even years. From this stems the trap of reading but not actually doing anything, thus also not seeing any results or change in your life. What is the best way/-s you found to balance these? Personally, I found two ways. Either you take one book at a time and do what it says for a month or more, and when you get the info and techniques into your subconscious (when it transforms you permanently), you move on to another book OR You read for 1-2 years while still doing your thing, you make a plan of action and the you just DO for 1-2 years, without reading. (although this can't be done with courses or books that have many exercises and which require immediate practice in order to get to their next step) Also, how many book are too much? What is the point of diminishing returns and dabbling?

@cetus56 Unfortunately no. But I will make sure to check him out.

So I started seeing a pattern this past month from being more mindful. Everyday after I meditate, I usually feel awesome, ecstatic and at peace for a few hours, but then I start getting fearful and anxious thoughts for no reason (and they kind of sweep me over and create resistance and then they turn into a vicious circle). And for me the hardest thing right now with my meditation habit is letting go of resistance. I think I also have a subconscious resistance to feeling good ALL the time just because I never had a day where I felt awesome at every hour, and that probably turned into a habit pattern where I expect (intense) anxiety and fear everyday. I noticed I generate my own fear from thinking that I haven't felt anxious or fearful on that respective day, and that is usually what brings the feeling on, unconsciously. I usually know how to dissolve these kinds of emotions when I don't need them, but sometimes they are so strong they overwhelm me and I instinctually try to run away from them instead of becoming a conductor of the feeling. And of course that just creates more resistance, anxiety and fear. Is the answer just to meditate more? Or is there another thing I can complementary use to experience less anxiety and fear on a day to day basis, when I don't need those emotions in my body?

@cetus56 Found it. Thank you.

@BjarkeT I watched that talk a while ago. A 1-2 week detox would be possible for me, but quitting social media entirely would force me to work a 9-5 job due to the nature of my work. Any starting musician and business can go broke or can earn a limited amount of money if he/she/it doesn't start to capitalize on the power of social media soon. Only Apple and a few other massive companies will be able to survive without social media in the following years, due to their influence and built up rep. Social media is no longer an add-on for the internet. It is the current state of the internet.

What's that? Would you mind giving me a link?

@Mighty Mouse Yeah. What you are saying is kinda the same thing Sadhguru said previously in one of his videos. To paraphrase him: "You are trying to get rid of a thing which does not exist. Are you fearful right now? If not, then you will attract fear by trying to get rid of it when it doesn't exist. And to try to get rid of something which does not exist is only madness, isn't it?"

@BjarkeT Watched that video multiple times. I'm trying to implement what he advised there but I'm also looking for any other complementary practice. Will check Cal Newport's blog. Read two of his books. Real insightful guy. Thanks for the help!

@Mighty Mouse Well then it's probably just my assumption that every enlightenment experience needs to blow your mind the fuck out and leave you baffled with no word to describe what just happened to you. Seeing that I was causing my own fear and anxiety for no reason wasn't that mind-blowing. It was more like something that I saw and that I felt I need to take charge of and resolve. EDIT: Although I'll admit that I tend to rarely give myself credit when I make any kind of progress at this point. Thanks for the encouragement.

I think that's just becoming increasingly aware. I wouldn't consider it an e. experience because my reality wasn't turned upside down. Or maybe I have the wrong definition of what an enlightenment experience is.

@snowleopard Yeah, that's my biggest stumbling block while doing meditation right now. Funny thing is you don't really know in the moment if it's an enlightenment experience coming that is making the ego fearful or if it's just you freaking yourself out for no reason. 99% of the time I observed that it's the latter, but the mind thinks it's the first.

@Mighty Mouse Well, there is the EFT Tapping Technique. Although I usually forget to do it in the moment. Now that I think about it, I might do a 30 day experiment and come back with a detailed report of using that.

@Mighty Mouse I totally agree with you. I figured that out too. The problem is letting it happen. I often go unconscious when the feelings happen and try to run away from them BEFORE I NOTICE that I'm trying to run away from them. And then the resistance just becomes stronger and harder to let go of. Any advice on what to do in that situation?

I would love to learn how to do proper research, maybe the way you do for your videos. When I do research, my mind seems to be scattered into a million different directions and towards a million different sources, not knowing where to begin.

@Leo Gura From watching your videos in order, I can clearly see a major improvement in your ability to articulate abstract and nuanced ideas. I want to make people understand me when I share ideas outside of their realm of possibility. But it's very hard, and many times I sacrifice my authenticity and shut up just because it would be too hard to articulate my own opinion on a certain topic. Do you have any speaking drills/practices that you do aside from shooting videos over and over again that helps you articulate hard and nuanced ideas?

Don't overthink things. Keep the focus on your career and self-development right now, but continue with a meditation habit. When you feel you pursued your outer material purpose enough, you can dial that back and focus a little more on enlightenment. Right now, if you feel unbalanced, ground yourself with some exercise, socialization and eating right. The journey will be a rollercoaster no matter how much you will try to avoid it. The key is to not get carried away by the mind when you are in a bad mood.

@Leo Gura Would you be willing to upload the MP3 versions of the videos to Spotify too (as a podcast, like the one on Itunes)? I sold my Ipod, but I really enjoyed being able to listen to your videos while I was commuting. I would appreciate it because I wouldn't need to download each mp3 version of the videos manually on my phone.

@Joseph Maynor This post is very vague. What brakes are you talking about?

For me, personally, I found hypnosys to be really awesome. I used some hypnosis sessions as temporary fixes for certain problems. I did not use them over a long period of time. Usually, I used them just to get a quick boost for a few days when I needed it by doing the sessions twice a day for 2-3 days before a big event. And they worked wonders. One of the examples is driving test anxiety. I always knew that I'm not a natural driver and I'm not passionate about cars either. I was scared shitless about my driving test and had all sorts of scenarios that I would fuck up really bad and need to take the test 10 times. The hypnosis sessions I used reprogrammed my mind in order to make myself feel like a highly confident driver that has everything in control. It also reframed the situation as a chance to show of my awesome driving skills and not as a driving test. It was aimed to make me feel completely relaxed and calm when driving. And the results were amazing. On the day of the test I did a hypnosis session just before the test. Then, while I was waiting to take the test, I was perfectly calm and confident. I was actually excited and couldn't wait to show the examiner my driving skills. While taking the test, even when I made mistakes (like stalling the engine), I kept my cool and the examiner could feel that I was calm and that made him not worry at all. If I had not done the sessions, I probably would have been thinking from a position of insecurity on the day of the exam. I probably would have been really anxious before and during the exam and would have probably said "Sorry" a thousand times and would have made a lot of mistakes. I plan to do some sessions on self-assertiveness soon, as I'm usually considered a highly agreeable person, one that avoids any kind of conflict. I find that unfortunately hinders me from standing up for myself when I need to. What are your experiences with self hypnosis? Did you find them useful or not?

@BjarkeT Yeah, that's what they claim, but that's not what they do. They don't have the inner development and the radical openmindedness needed in order to truly question the things they are questioning with no self agenda. All they are usually doing is rearranging their prejudices. Believe me, I'm surrounded by Phd's and researchers all day in my faculty. And they are philosophers, who are usually much more openminded than scientists. They are not authentically looking for truth. They are playing the politics of academia, getting their CV all beefed up by publishing ultra specialized research articles and books with no holistic understanding. They are looking after nobel prizes, keeping their position in the faculty and traveling to useless conferences. They are regurgitating what the past philosophers and scientists said and have no contemplation practice. They just combine ideas from different authors. They don't sit down to contemplate. If you will have a chance to sit around philosophers or scientists for more than a year, you will be shocked by how little do we know. We don't know even 0.000001% of the universe and how it works. And most of what we have until now is not even authentic knowledge. They are just human projections of how we think the universe works.

@Spiral The scientific way of understanding the universe is not some fixed thing. Science is a system, and it's evolving. Concepts that were valid a few centuries ago are totally discarded today. The lens is changing all the time. Usually philosophy gives it new problems, and science tries to bring the problems to earth and analyze them. When they are solved, or until a new perspective appears, that is the lens that remains. Before physics was called physics, it was called Natural Philosophy. When they finally invented some instruments that could measure, calculate and prove the movements of natural happenings, it became a science ----> Physics. All sciences were philosophies before their problems could be brought down to earth and analyzed, measured etc. When a philosophy can be brought down from the abstract to the concrete, you call that science, but that doesn't mean that philosophy has nothing to do with it anymore. It's still constantly watched by it to see if the science makes any conceptual mistakes or if there is a new way of looking at the problems.

@BjarkeT And by the way: Scientists (one for example being Daniel Dennett) already know that the world is not material and had known for a while. I've talked to a few of them. The mainstream culture just hasn't caught up yet.