Colin

@MarkusSweden Yes, I have played it. The words I formed when I saw it was "this is the stuff of dreams"

I think it is an instinct level thing. Eating is a very fundamental creature thing. Try changing how you look, like your hair or clothes or something like that and watch how they react. Is it silly? yeah. But that is just how it goes.

In my limited experience, Leo is the most tom Campbell like teacher I have come across

I love all of the tongue in cheek humor in here. A part of personal development is rolling with the "punches". An expectation wasn't met. How did you react? That is a good litmus test on where you are at. "Needs work". Do you appreciate all of the times that they are met? If not, then "needs work". Are your emotions controlled by whether or not Leo releases a video? Is that how you want to be ideally? Then "that's not like me" " needs work". Feeling stuck like you are making no progress? Improve one little thing at a time. Credit to Brian Johnson from Optimize.me for a lot of these thoughts. I am currently taking his "Conquering Digital Addiction" 101 class and getting a lot out of it. https://www.optimize.me/cda/ "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” - Herbert A. Simon

Dare I say *gasp* Leo has become so good that we "can't ignore him"

@Rilles nah addiction as most people use it is highly related to habit. "hardcore" addiction is just an extreme case usually with dangerous substances.

The reality of the matter is that expectation and addiction are highly related. Pavlov anyone?

@moon777light That seems like no minor revelation. It is good to know why things are the way they are. I hope you can succeed in getting good sleep and I will support you with little tidbits the best I can.

That being said rest and play certainly have their place

One of the biggest traps I have run into personally is exoneration. I got this idea from the book the tools again. You work hard meditating, reading, practicing, being consistent, being careful, you are on point, and your mind starts to get to a great place. It is scary, a bit stressful, uncomfortable, but you see some great heights, get tastes, see glimpses. And you think "this is what I have been looking for"! So you rest, you forget that the good things were the results of your work, intelligence, and diligence. You backslide and return to where you were before. That is why people around here are hardliners about this kind of stuff. It is so easy to distract. To turn away from the discomfort that change brings.

well there are psychological and emotional benefits to dancing listening to music being in sunshine being social drinking (in moderation in the right context smoking (in moderation in the right context, actually you could say this about everything on this list) seeing novel things dancing with a crowd light shows exercise The relevant questions are Do you want to be there? Are you healthy enough to be there? Did you plan well enough? Can you afford to be there? One thing that has proven psychological and emotional detriment is viewing social media.

@moon777light here we are again, picking up where we left off, sharing information from the books I am reading that happens to be pertinent to your situation. I just got to the part of the book "Why We Sleep" by Matt Walker where he talks about research done that demonstrates that insufficient or compromised sleep makes the faces of the people around you seem more threatening.

@zoey101 Books are great for going in depth, I love them. But, they are not the only source of information. Here are various resources surrounding one of the best selling relationship books of all time.

when I think of a supplement that benefits both mental health and fitness at the same time I think of creatine. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-creatine

it is awesome if you are in the mood for it or have the interest.

Here is the description from the book "Real Love" by Sharon Salzburg. I haven't read it yet, but reading this description makes me want to. "You are a person worthy of love. You don’t have to do anything to deserve all the love in the world. Real Love is a creative tool kit of mindfulness exercises and meditation techniques that help you to truly engage with your present experience and create deeper love relationships with yourself, your partner, friends and family, and with life itself. Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in Lovingkindness meditation, encourages us to strip away layers of negative habits and obstacles, helping us to experience authentic love based on direct experience, rather than preconceptions. Across three sections, Sharon explains how to dispel cultural and emotional habits, and direct focused care and attention to recapture the essence of what it is to love and be loved. With positive reflections and practices, Sharon teaches us how to shift the responsibilities of the love that we give and receive to rekindle the powerful healing force of true connection. By challenging myths perpetuated by popular culture, we can undo the limited definitions that reduce love to simply romance or passion, and give the heart a much needed tune-up to connect ourselves to the truest experience of love in our daily lives."

@WelcometoReality awesome, I am not firmly in one camp or the other. I try to use science the best I can and I usually eat to serve some health benefit. I recently read this book and found it most enjoyable and practical.

@zoey101 You revealed something in this exchange that I can see more clearly as an outside observer. The lack of self-love for the"wrongdoings" of your past are self-sabotaging yourself in more ways than you can imagine. I like the affirmation audio for multiple reasons. It has forgiveness, self-love, letting g, overcoming challenges. It will probably be hard for you to use this because your beliefs are the opposite of everything that is said. If you react viscerally to these statements it is a clear sign that you believe the opposite. It also has an audio emdr quality which has extra benefits as well as the soothing benefits of music. The audio has to be used daily indefinitely to get any real benefit. As well as your focus and processing. Also, check out this program if you have the interest

In the neat blog post Leo made about super mario spiral dynamics, the end state has a fictional game called "super mario infinity". The latest mainline mario, that is not represented, came out in late 2017. It is called "super mario odyssey". In this game you can "become one" with your enemies! Super mario non duality!

It even has a neat theme song!

@youngshinzen There is good science behind meditation post workout https://bebrainfit.com/mental-health-benefits-exercise/ lately, I have been focusing less on following programs and directions and more on making my own mind up. So even if you may not find a meditation teacher that tells you to meditate post work out, you can use your science-backed knowledge of the human body to make your own mind up that it is a good idea.

I love that you have arrived at some of these ideas yourself without me having to bring them up. It is awesome. Since we are similar people on similar paths, and I am a bit older than you, and have been on this path a bit longer, I want to advise you on something. Drop all spiritual pursuits and focus on the practical. In particular, stop listening to Lincoln for a little while. Try thinking for yourself using your own senses and experiment. Focus on improving relations with the people around you. Have some common humanity. "Disobey" Lincoln and his teachings if you must. Use common sense and a wider variety of sources. If you keep doing what you are doing and achieve more and more happiness, success, and empowerment, then more power to you. But, if you wind up again in the dark place that you were in a few posts ago, then heed my advice. You might be surprised at how good you feel. The lack of sleep you documented in a few of your posts is very troubling and will set you up for illnesses of all kinds including mental ones. The deficient diet you documented is also very troubling. Two breatharians that I came across were proven to be frauds. One of them under scientific scrutiny. This website is a wonderful resource that I started using recently and I love it. https://www.optimize.me/