Loreena

If everyone in this culture paradigm firmly believed that mental illness is a good and natural thing, everyone will accept it, even encourage it. It wouldn't even be mental illness at this point, because everyone would accept it, just like they accept it in the animal realm (what do you think it is ? It is what we humans call illness ...). Same goes for murder(its called murder for food in the animal kingdom). Same goes for everything else. There can be love. And then there can be blind love. Blind love = ignorance It's also precisely called mindfuck.

Three days back I started with this video and it was like magic for me. Since then I am doing this everyday with full commitment. I am doing whatever the guy in the video is telling to do. It is slowly changing my life. I highly recommend this to you and others. Here it is May God fill your life with joy, love,peace and happiness. ReikiLove

I have been reading a lot of topics on the forum and it seems that many of us have tried various methods and techniques in our overall spiritual and actualization path. Some have used different types of music for meditation, some might have tried some kind of substances to experience intense meditation and so on. These days the internet is full of techniques that are sold to you to make you feel better in your body and mind, and some are legit and some are not, whereas others have had unpleasant and damaging side effects. For example, some like Holosync music during meditation. However I tried it and experienced extreme side effects. And there can be many examples of similar things. A lot of people complain about Kundalini yoga and its dangers. So it will be so nice if anyone can share their own experiences of different things that they tried anywhere from a kind of meditation to a healing technique, a holistic method, a specific diet or exercise method that actually caused them more harm than good. It kinda raises awareness about whatever is there in the market so we can approach it with caution and not end up suffering permanent damage. So go ahead and post any of your negative experiences with anything.

Have you tried Reiki. I'm getting newly introduced to it all thanks to @Peace and Love powerful informative posts on energy healing. I am trying to learn Reiki through YouTube clips and I am already feeling good. I have to tell you @Annetta so far nothing was really working out for me. Therapy was okay but not much difference. But this Reiki first level or 1st degree is very good. It's already making me feel better. It's an ancient Japanese method I guess Maybe you should go for it.

When Enlightenment became the most popular thing of the 21st century, Big Pharma caught wind of it and came with.....

Up in heaven. Connect with me through your heart dipped in holistic consciousness. That's how you meet me.

(Thank you Leo for making such a wonderful life purpose course and many many thanks for creating this forum.) I went halfway through Leo's life purpose course. And I think the pattern of a life purpose has started to emerge. I am having a distant intuition of my life purpose, although it seems vague right now to me, it is absolutely fascinating and I would be full of passion to pursue it through and through. I feel a little embarrassed and hesitant to reveal it thinking what others might think. But I need to reveal it anyway. So here it is. My life purpose is to manifest God in my life through my art, expression, a career in organic farming and through teaching kids. I know it sounds vague and maybe I won't be able to make much money out of it, but at this point in my life, money has taken a backseat. For me leading a deeply spiritual life is important. Without it, my life would be unfulfilled. My parents pressurised me into picking a financial career. I got good grades and worked as an intern for a year but I was frustrated at the end. I dropped it and started pursuing my studies again. This time I want a change. I want to lead a beautiful life, with or without money. Maybe few years down the path, I might turn into a hippie or a monk in a cave or any isolated place. But it has to be serene and beautiful. That's what I always wanted. People might judge me as useless or unsuccessful but for me my success lies in doing that which fulfills me on a deeper level. I think I should listen to the voice of my passion because I believe that I will be my authentic self only if I do what I truly love pursuing. This thought came to me when I was taking a quiet walk through nature and I realized that almost every bird, tree, flower, leaf, even the wind and rock, every creation in nature was actually a manifestation of God. And then I thought, well, I'm a creation of God too.....

Just wanted to say - Thank you for creating this forum. It's been a lifesaver for me. Wish you good luck on your future endeavors.

@Leo Gura Thank you for alerting people.

Some people say that chakra healing and reiki are bogus and just a waste of time and money. What is your personal opinion on such methods used in holistic healing practices ?

@Peace and Love I came across this video. Thought it would help you in your reiki practice. Enjoy

@IVONNE Everytime when someone is toxic to you, it only shows who they are, not who you are. I always use this thinking these days whenever such situations arise. So it helps me a lot. Before I used to blame myself even if it wasn't my fault. It's just a subconscious way of reacting to things. But now I have figured out that my reaction is wrong and I should be thinking logically about myself in the situation.

@IVONNE I like this quote of Tolle here. @IVONNE There are a lot of destructive forces in the world. We might want to completely get rid of them but as single individuals we're not well equipped to deal with them. So they remain. The best choice is to be who we are and not let bad circumstances and toxic people ruin our day. Don't let that team leader ruin your day/week. If you think too much about it, or start to feel nervous or bad, you will be giving more power to him. Notice when you do it. More power should be to you and not to him. Be strong. The more you get affected/impacted you suffer and others win. They behave the way they do because they themselves have frustrations, pent up anger and insecurities in their life. So they unload it on others. They remain unhappy and also end up making others unhappy with their obnoxious presence. You should not become a part of their presence and their world/energy. Be in peace and not let it affect you. Let it be far from your beautiful soul.

@Dan Arnautu Maybe you need to tell your father to seek therapy. Alcohol is just a crutch and a bad one.He might feel relaxed in the short term but long term it serves nothing but serious trouble. He seems to be feeling very lonely. He seems like an emotional guy. You need to call up your mom and inform her of the situation. Your father has been through a lot of struggle in his lifetime and that has taken a toll on him. Perfectly understandable. I have been suicidal for some time now in recent years and for me the best way to cope with it is my therapy. The deeper issues need to get resolved before anything can be done.Also the recent downturn in his relationship with his brother might have caused him tremendous pain. Maybe if you can call his brother, he might agree to help your father or at least sort out their differences. Don't worry, I most probably don't think he would take that extreme step since he seems to be a very responsible guy, it's just that he needs a little break from life's drama but he ain't getting it and that's making him desperate. If your father leaves your place and goes anywhere else, keep in constant contact with him on the phone and make him feel better by showing as if everything is alright. Make him feel positive about everything. If you could have possibly stayed with him, it would have been really helpful to him, at least for a short while. At this stage, refrain from discussing any of your own problems with him because that would only make him feel more depressed. If he is still suicidal, then the last option is to talk to a doctor or emergency services about it and tell your father to seek help there. He may be put on anti-depressants for a while to help him cope. But therapy is the only possible long term solution.

@Truth Fear that the those thoughts might be true !!

What does karma yoga mean. I've heard of yoga but never heard of this. Is this another type of yoga exercise ?

@Peace and Love Yay this was so informative. Thank You.

@The White Belt oh yeah, you are so right about this. I'm an emotional person so I tend to put my heart into eeverything rather than my brain. And such an emotional existence is actually very painful. Ordinarily we should have emotions because that's what makes us human however we almost always take our emotions too far and start overreacting and don't realize it. The same situation or problem could have been solved easily by thinking rather than feeling. Most people who meditate realize this early on whereas those who don't meditate remain stuck in the cycle of thoughts and emotions and are unaware how the same thoughts and emotions they're giving so much power to are slowly eating them up and not only is such rumination and emotional involvement a huge waste of time but it is also a big distraction from main goals and a source of inner distress. such behavior in long term can lead to depression and distorted perception of the environment around you. Without meditation it takes a long time to come to the same realization. @The White Belt Thanks for sharing your insight.

@Leo Gura Is self inquiry any different than shadow work. I'm thinking both are same. Could you shed some light on both.

I @Peace and Love I have some amethyst necklaces and aquamarine earrings. I recently got myself a labradorite ring and I bought it thinking it would help me a lot since its considered good. I observed a very strange phenomenon with it. I wore it once and I had some work in the bank and I felt really good when I went there. I didn't have to wait for very long for getting my work done and everything turned out to be smooth. Some customers very having some trouble with their transactions but I wrapped my work without any hassles. So I thought maybe the ring is my lucky charm and that's the reason why things worked out so well. I decided to wear the ring everyday or at least some times during the week. But the next time I wore the same ring, I was in the hospital to get my bloodwork done and I had been feeling a bit weary and anxious and while on the way back home, I realized I had forgotten my files at the counter. So I had to go back to collect it and when I was returning I realized my phone was missing. I had to make a few calls but I couldn't make them so on the way back I thought to search for the phone in the car, and the car broke down and I was in a mess. Like all bad things happening at once, I couldn't understand what was happening. I didn't get the phone but when I finally got home, I opened my files and found some reports missing so I called up the hospital and they said they had it on some table where I had left it. So I went back the next day to get those reports. It was all a struggle and the entire week wasn't going well, I was constantly dropping something, forgetting stuff, like a series of bad luck and I was drained at the end of the week. I had been thinking to myself and thought maybe the ring was responsible for it. So I kept it away. But the whole thing puzzled me because I initially believed the ring to bring good luck and then it brought bad luck. I couldn't figure out. I'm still scared to wear the ring again. Anyway I would like to know which crystals bring peace and good luck. I was wanting to buy them and I had been researching about crystals on the internet but hesitated buying because I wasn't sure I would get the right ones. I would be so glad if you have some information on healing, peaceful and goodluck crystals.

@Vladimir @Gabriel Antonio Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences. More experiences from others are welcome.

This is one the many realizations I had over the past week. I know that socialization is a very useful skill and man being a social animal needs to be in a family structure which is the basic unit of the society as a whole. However over the past few days, I had been reading about a lot of abuse cases involving children who were abused by their parents. It was disturbing to.say the least. And I gave it a thought which led me to a few realizations. It seems that living as families is beneficial for getting love and affection which are very basic human emotional needs, however it can even be that it is all a part of deep social conditioning that makes it seem like living alone or in isolation to be an oddity. Humaninteractions are beneficial only if they're conducive to emotional growth, positive and non-toxic. However if such interactions are dangerous, abusive, dysfunctional, toxic then it's best to cut them off isolation is preferable over such a system. So the conclusion I came to is this - Interactions which are beneficial need to be kept and encouraged. Any interactions which are destructive to progress and growth should be immediately cut off and the person should be taken away from such an environment and raised independently in isolation or at least surrounded by a less toxic people in sort of a general commune where people are not related. We should get rid of the social conditioning that parental and spousal relationships are indispensable because they're not. They're only essential when they are conducive to love and growth. We should not be ashamed to stay single and devoid of social interactions. There should not be any pressure on an individual to follow social norms. As a society, we should not demonize, isolate, ostracize those who wish to cut off family relationships and stay single. Their choices should be respected. Also it's important to condemn domestic abuse severely. It's not all bad if a person lives in isolation as long as he is able to stay away from all the toxicity that arises out of relationships. Isolation can hinder social skills but social interactions come with their own set of pros and cons that generally get ignored by society which is deeply conditioned to believe that human social interaction is foolproof. Human social and family system is not foolproof and hence a family is not always a perfect option. We should embrace isolation especially in abuse case scenarios. If we adopt such attitudes, we can curb domestic abuse to a certain extent. After some thinking, I have come up with a solution keeping abuse case scenarios in mind. And this solution is to keep and maintain an ambiguous social structure and get rid of the fixed structure. Till now, humans believed in a fixed social structure or unit consisting of parents, children, siblings and spouse.This was considered to be the closest circle meant to support you through life. However I thought of a new flexible social structure. I am not sure if such an experiment has been tried before. I don't think foster homes is a very good solution since a lot of abuse happen even in foster homes. So the flexible structure should consist of both families and communes. Only those families should be maintained who are happy and healthy. Any family which is abusive, dysfunctional, unproductive should be disintegrated and the family members should be separated and sent to stay in different communes. These communes should consist of people who do not necessarily have relationships with each other but they stay in separate houses like employees in a company, disconnected from each other and formal in behavior towards each others. It will be more or less like people living in hotels/hostels. This reduces the toxicity that arises out of close relationships and gives the chance to grow independently. Such unrelated formal communes(not the cult types) can be a better option to reduce family abuse in society and it can serve as a secondary alternative to a fixed family structure.

Yeah I don't eat healthy because I am careless. It is also because many more things going on in my life that makes it difficult to focus on what I eat. What I found is, in order to start eating healthy,those issues need to be resolved first,otherwise the mind is not ready to focus on positive changes. Food is medicine. I need to keep reminding myself to eat healthy food which is not easy. It takes a lot of work to get rid of bad habits. But before the bad habits are broken permanently, the emotional psychological issues need to be resolved because those issues are causing those bad habits. It all needs to go full circle. Refer to Leo problem solving video and you'll know what I mean.

@The White Belt both engagement and presence are absolutely essential. engagement is like food and presence is like water. You need both. Without presence engagement is not possible. You first need to have presence of mind before getting engaged. The only reason you don't feel present when you're engaged is because you're so engaged that you are not aware of that presence. The only thing that you have to be careful about is to remain engaged in good things, things that are good for you. Sometimes we get engaged without realizing that the activity is toxic, example videogames or something that is addictive. Such engagement is bad. Such engagement is unproductive. So be engaged only in productive activities. I would say engagement is like the food for the heart, because your heart feels happy when you're engaged, whereas presence is like food for the mind because it keeps the mind stable. Sometimes you do what the mind needs and sometimes you should do what your heart wants.