Emerald

Since it is music, you won't be able to rely on tags and titles to drive people to your music, as no one will be searching it. What I recommend is to make connections with people who have blogs and websites that relate back to your style of music. Then, you could possibly come on as a guest blogger and include a link to your music. Or you can see if there's anyone that will feature your music on a high traffic music-related website. By the way, I just listened to 'Rust' and I really enjoyed it. I also subscribed.

Perhaps she really was joking, but not really realizing that it was really bothering you. This especially could be true if she were at the bar and drinking. When I was younger, I had a tendency to assume that guys were emotionless because they hid their emotions due to social expectations around manhood. But I wasn't really aware of this. I just thought, "Guys are tough. I can tease them a bit and fake-insult them and they won't mind." And looking back, I was sometimes really blunt about it and assumed that they knew it was a joke and most of them genuinely knew that... I think. And it's what I would do if I liked a guy or if I had a guy friend that I was also somewhat flirty with. I was quite Helga Pataki when I was in middle and early high school especially. But one time, I was 19 and I was teasing my friend Nick that he was secretly gay. And it wasn't really a one-sided thing because he would tease me that I was a lesbian and stuff like that. But he was always telling me to stop, but I didn't really think he meant it because of his tone. But one day, he really blew up on me and I was shocked how hurt he was. I had no idea that I was really bothering him with my comments. So, I apologized. But it really made me consider that maybe a lot of men are more emotional than they let on. But if I had to bet money, I'm guessing that this is the mindset of that girl and the other girls that you've heard talking like that. There is an underlying assumption that guys don't have strong emotions, and girls tend to assume the guys that they know have iron-clad self-esteem. I was really surprised that so many men seem to have a lot of anxieties about talking to women in general. I always heard that in movies and things like that, but I never considered that it could actually be a common experience among men as I just didn't see many signs of it. Men hide vulnerabilities pretty well. I really only know about it because of the internet. So, that's my take on it. Now, the woman at the bar was probably being drunk in general. So, this probably compounded any problem behaviors that already existed. She probably really did think she was joking and flirting with you, but was too drunk to realize that her comments were inappropriate and coming off that way. And women get nervous about letting a guy know that they like him, so they'll often use teasing and making fun to flirt with a guy while being able to hide their flirting.

Perhaps you're right. I look forward to when lab-grown meat becomes the main or only meat farming practice. That will definitely cut down on a lot of animal suffering and will take away one of the largest contributors to climate change, as well. But right now, there are like 9 companies (or some small number like that) that contribute to the majority of air pollution that causes climate change. So, I fear that these structural changes, legislation-wise, won't be made in time... especially with regard to China that is not showing signs yet of moving to Green. Now, there are people working on carbon scrubbing technology, and this would really help us as we wouldn't just be going to net zero carbon emissions but actually removing them from the air. But the technology is still in its baby phase.

That's true. I figure that it will probably be scary, tumultuous, and bloody like it always has been. There are a lot of hurt men, who have had expectations placed upon them to deny their humanity and emotions and just suck it up and be men. And these communities of pain pop up around the collective hurt that men feel. So, we have a situation where women have gone through liberation from their gender box, as there is very little boon to living in that box. So, once the social structure changed to liberate women from that box, women were all to eager to get out of the prison of narrow societal conscriptions about what femininity means. And there is still a huge reaction against the feminine from women, because there is a conflation of the societal conscription about femininity and femininity itself. But men are still beholden to their gender box. Society at large, still judges men for not being man enough. And men still believe that there is happiness and power to be found in the prison of societal conscriptions about what masculinity means. So, they cling to their prisons in an attempt to salvage their self-esteem only to play a hierarchical losing game and bring themselves lower and even further from their natural masculinity and true center. And they have to walk this very narrow line of what is acceptable for men to be for fear that other men will police their behavior and call them beta or some other feminizing insult. The thing that makes me doubt our ability to make the jump relative to climate change is that we're about 12 years out from the point where things go past a point where it would be very difficult to return to a change in climate that would have an intense impact on so many eco-systems. But given that there's so much growth and awareness happening, I still have hope even thought it feels like a bit of a long shot.

I think the current collective ego (which is Orange and masculinity-centric) is having an extreme reaction to the progression toward Green and feminine integration. And this reaction is causing a lot of people who are not ready to progress, to instead attempt to regress into past societal structures in their reaction against the changes. So, we're seeing a lot of the Blue and Red shadows coming to fruition as well as the darker side of Orange. People don't want to lose the advantage that being an Orange man in an Orange masculine society affords them, even if they would be in an overall better spot to integrate Green. It still registers as a loss. But I suppose my confidence kind of wavers a bit. I think that if we're able to sufficiently remedy the issue of climate change, then we will continue to integrate the feminine more and more into our present masculine societal structure which will lead to a much healthier society. But the backlash is so strong against the integration of the feminine, I fear that we won't be able to make it in time as a species. So, only time will truly tell if we can make the jump or can't.

That's not what he was saying. You should really try to gain some connection to your emotions and get out of your comfort zone with it. If you don't learn how to do that, then you'll miss out on a lot of things in life, including but not limited to romantic relationships.

I've heard a lot worse and quite often. I just watched a video where Elliot Hulse who I thought was pretty okay from what I had seen. And he was saying he didn't know if women should have the right to vote and 75% of the comments were affirming how correct he is and how glad they are that he's dropping "red pills". And comments like this can be found in a lot of places. So, sexism doesn't surprise me anymore, especially fairly small instances like this. The OP said something a bit objectifying without really realizing it. But it's really all over the place on the internet. The OP is just a bit immature and grasping to feel a sense of control and to salvage his self-esteem, and he's doing that through means that happened to be sexist. And he's largely just being effected by these collective waves, as opposed to consciously participating or causing the waves. So, a single instance of sexism is kind of like a single zombie. It's not really a problem once you get acclimated to the fact that zombies exist. You can just avoid it, and they fall apart easily. Zombies are clumsy and not too smart. But it's always the horde you have to worry about. And that's what worries me the most, is that it seems like the number of men being brainwashed into anti-woman rhetoric is festering. It's like it's all coming up as a reaction to us pressing forward and progressing as a society. It's all to keep us in Orange and to keep us from moving to Green, as well as to avoid the integration of the feminine principle. But my assumption is that we will make that jump, and these guys will collectively retreat back to the shadows. And then, their kids and grandkids will be much more forward thinking, while they become irrelevant and eventually die out. And then this cycle will come back again and again in more and more of the minutia of the issue until we fully re-integrate the feminine principle. Or we might not make the jump and we will all die and the planet with us... either one. But I'm optimistic.

I'm sure it was just an on the spot defense that wasn't really thought through. The OP tends to like to come to a lot of snap conclusions about things.

He was saying that he wanted impregnate a woman from every race to raise his "cubs" so that there are a lot of different versions of himself running around in the world. I think that the word animalistic is accurate.

That sucks that the laws in those countries are so antithetical to the stability, health, and wellbeing of women and children. And there are tons of people I know who are either single mothers or who have never met their father because they took off. I think it's a lot easier for irresponsible men to leave their children because they don't carry them for 9 months before-hand, and they can detach and kind of pretend it didn't happen. So, this is probably why that dynamic happens as often as it does. So, the level of discernment and vetting that women put men through, is just a really wise decision. I think that a lot of inexperienced men like the OP want to see sex in a vacuum without regard to the practical concerns. And just thinking about how things "should be" if they were fair. There are so many dysfunctional people out there, men and women both. But there are so many added layers of vulnerability for women as the one possessing less physical strength, less testosterone, and having the lion's share of the role in caring for children in the gestational and baby phase. So, it's very important to find a man who is a rock in terms of reliability, integrity, and stability if a woman gets into any sexual situation that could eventually turn into a family. Otherwise, they will live their life in a constant state of anxious upheaval, with children in tow.

Wrong. Women have a lot more at stake in terms of child-rearing and the potential effects on their lives and bodies. Women can also only have one child every 9 months or so. So, women have to be selective. Also, she wants to be sure she has chosen a man of character, because in the earliest days of nomadic living, if a man left then both woman and child would die. And even today, women have to REALLY scrutinize men and be selective if they want to live a life that isn't filled with tragedy and mayhem. Men, on the other hand, could father thousands of children in his lifetime if he tried. And his body and survival wouldn't be effected. And there is more of an opportunity for him to just run away from the responsibility of child rearing. So, men don't have to be as selective. They just have to find a woman that will accept them... which will happen eventually if a guy tries enough times. So, it is quite practical that women tend to scrutinize men more than men scrutinize women, partnership-wise. And this is one reason why women are very unlikely to approach. Also, as a woman, I only like one guy at a time. And if I approach that guy and he says no, then I have to wait a long time before I can get over him and even longer before another attraction comes up. So, I never approach as there is simply too much at stake. I just spend time around him, drop hints, and hope that he approaches me. So, even if a woman did like you, you probably wouldn't know unless you tried to escalate things. Also, women are not going to just come up to you out of nowhere. It's dangerous to approach strange men, as you don't know what that person is about. Plus, women have tons of guys approaching them all the time, so there really would be no reason for them to approach a stranger. Most often, you have to actually know women for them to become attracted to you. So, you really should understand that women and men's attractions don't work the same way. Women don't work the way that you do.

Everyone in society is discouraged from being loving and feminine. That's why so many people (especially men) have a hard time with repressing emotions. But if women have been cold and distant with you, it simply means that you were not their romantic partner. Women tend only to give affection to men they are in a relationship with. Strange. I know. Women tend to have an easy time being loving toward their romantic partners. But if you've never had a romantic partner, than why would you expect that random women would be loving toward you? And you would actually have to know women and approach them personally. Women usually only like guys that they know personally. Strange. I know. So, if you don't know any women, then women won't know you and thus won't be attracted to you. No. Mature in this sense means integrated and well-developed. An integrated and well-developed man won't feel insecure in himself and won't ignore parts of himself. So, as a result, he will have an integrated and well-developed feminine side, which will allow him to be emotionally aware and sensitive as well as having emotional mastery and equanimity . And his masculinity will become warm instead of cold. Immature men have a cold, fragile, and juvenile masculinity because they are stiff and contracted like very thin glass. Mature men have a warm, holistic, and mature masculinity because they are flexible and expansive. But the primary difference that I've noticed between mature and immature men is the warmth of their being. I believe what the science has to say on the matter. If you personally feel less 'dominant' afterward, it likely has a lot to do with your psychology rather than anything to do with your biology. Do that. It might help to abstain, especially if it's at the level of addiction. But understand that quitting masturbation is a symptom-based solution. It doesn't deal with the issue at its core. It just gets rid of a problematic behavior that stems off of the actual core. If I were to put my money on an actual solution, it would be to integrate and develop your feminine side. This would enable you to be more aware of your emotions. You would also have more of an intuition about what would be attractive to a woman in yourself. And you wouldn't be so stuck in a narrow box of your ideas about masculinity for fear of seeming feminine. Basically, you have a very narrow tightrope you feel that you need to walk and you have you eyes closed to a lot of things. Just open your eyes and see what's actually there without resisting it. And don't be on the defense all the time looking for someone to blame or some rationale for your behavior. Look and see what's there and choose consciousness over comfort.

Wrong again. Number one, schools don't encourage kids to touch themselves. If there is sex positive education, then they may tell them it's an option. But there is no encouragement. Also, VERY few schools have sex positive education in the first place. So, if you're linking the issue of masturbation addiction to the 5% of schools with sex ed that are also sex positive, then you need to seriously reconsider your logic. Number two, pop culture shames those who DO masturbate. There's a TON of comedy all based around jokes about guys who masturbate where the guy is the butt of the joke. It's the same situation with comedically unattractive women, where there will be jokes about them masturbating. Attractive women, however, don't have any mention of masturbation. It just gets left out, perhaps as an assumption that they are to pure for masturbation. Also, masturbation by itself is not bad for you. It's only an issue if it becomes an addiction and a barrier to intimacy. Wrong again. These feelings will naturally come up if a person is in touch with their emotions and instincts. If a person doesn't feel this drive, it just means that they probably have an issue with emotional repression. This is also why many men get stuck focusing only on orgasms and dick-focus because men are discouraged from feeling emotions. So, focusing single-pointedly toward the sensations that the penis feels during sex is a way to disconnect and push away any emotions for fear of seeming feminine. And this cuts them off from more gratifying feelings like love, passion, intimacy, joy, openness, and the like. So, this is why men who get stuck on porn and masturbation never go out to have sex with an actual woman. They don't actually realize that sex with a woman has a lot more to offer them than an orgasm does. There is nothing more of value in sex that registers to the emotionally repressed. The ability to feel emotions also a good indicator of how mature a man is. If you develop that ability to be aware of your emotions and responsive yet equanimous toward them, you'll also be a cut above 85% of men. Women crave for a man who can meet them where they are. So, this will probably be a good focus for you as this seems like the core of your issue. Wrong. Masturbation doesn't lower testosterone at all. Sexual exhaustion can effect the androgen receptors which makes the body temporary not able to know what to do with the testosterone it has. But the testosterone is still there and doesn't diminish at all. Also, there is no link between masturbating to a person increasing the belief that you can't have them. This is just another excuse you're using to stay in your comfort zone. You can blame masturbation all you want for your fears of women. But demonizing masturbation is never going to fix any of your issues. You need to just go out there and meet women. Go out and socialize in general, and meeting women will come as a natural by-product of that.

Wrong. Number one, most schools don't teach masturbation. Number two, I discovered masturbation on my own, and so did all my friends. It's pretty obvious. And even if it weren't obvious, there would be plenty of things in pop culture that would clue them into it. Also, masturbation doesn't properly stand in for a partner because being with a sexual partner isn't even mostly about orgasm. Sex has a lot more to do with being close to another human being, feeling that person's body up against your own, intimacy, kissing, etc. than it has to do purely with orgasm. Sex that's just about an orgasm is bad sex. Now, masturbation is a lot more effective for an orgasm (for women). Climax can come in minutes, when it may never come with a partner. But I've never known a single woman that preferred masturbation to being with a partner despite the orgasm gap between the two. And this is because there's a lot more to sex than orgasm. Orgasm pales in comparison to erotic emotion like love, exhilaration, desire, surrender, and joy. And these cannot be achieved through masturbation. So, if you've stayed away from women, it is only because of your own fear. Don't blame masturbation. Masturbation is quite natural and will happen regardless of whether or not it's taught in schools. Just go out there and meet some women.

Eight year old kids in America are not even taught sex ed. And even teenagers in my neck of the woods are taught with abstinence-only education with no reference to masturbation. The slogan that they drove into us was that "It's okay to have feelings and attitudes about sex, but it's not okay to have sex." Then, at age 22, I was considered a bit of a late bloomer when I had my first child. And many schools don't offer sex-ed at all. Yet... surprise surprise... everyone discovered that secret one way or another... usually through intuition or occasionally sexual references in teen movies. Probably many learn it through exposure to porn. So, to frame it as "We have to stop teaching masturbation in schools." is just silly. People are going to find out either way.

That makes sense. If it feels important, than he should do it. I just always wondered if the appeal of being a body builder went past aesthetics.

If I were in your position, I'd play the piano as a main focus. But I'd also go to the gym every other day for an hour to keep up your physical fitness. I personally don't see any point in actually being a body builder, other than for the physical look of it. I think a lot of men get into it because they think women like it. But women actually tend to prefer men who are just strong and lean and not super bulked up. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. I just don't see any actual benefit to being a body builder other than the belief that it will make you more attractive. So, I would just work on being a physically fit piano player because it sounds more well-rounded. You can really give your all to piano playing while also keeping your body in shape.

Actually people who are into "identity politics" don't think a person can be a black person even if they're white or vice versa. There was a huge controversy several years ago with Rachel Dolozol. But race is different than gender in the sense that there is no essence of blackness or whiteness. Everything with regard to behavior and race is environmental and cultural. So, if a person says, "I identify as black" what they really mean is that they want to belong to a culture and have a cultural identity that they were not raised in. By itself, if wouldn't be a negative thing but we live in a society rife with many wounds relative to race. So, people naturally get upset. But gender is different in that it is not fully a cultural phenomena in terms of behavior. With gender, it's a bit more complicated as there is an essence of masculinity and femininity. And these two essences (Yin and Yang) imbue all living and non-living systems, including human beings. So, we all have a unique masculine/feminine signature inherent to us. Most of the time, women will have more femininity that masculinity and vice versa with men. But occasionally there are outliers where someone who is born male, has a lot more feminine essence. And if he chose to identify as a woman, they would better be able to express their authentic essence. And this is why accepting trans-people is very important. For them, it creates a space where they can be themselves. For us, it allows us as cisgender people to travel outside the lines of the cultural conscriptions about gender which enables us to find ourselves more authentically as well.

Does anyone actually do this? Sounds like straw-feminism to me. Sources please, as well as the names of teachers who propagate this idea. I've seen quite a lot of female spiritual teachers talk about the rise of the divine feminine. But I've never once heard a female spiritual teacher say that we need to leave men and masculinity out of the equation.

I see. My impression was that you were asking me if she was open about these things, instead of making a statement about her being open about these things. So, I do agree that it's better that she's forthcoming about her weaknesses. That said, I do still have some aversion to her, even though she has helped me quite a lot.

No. I said that she is direct about them because @Elisabeth asked me if my perception and assertion of her being self-important and that she seeks for admiration, acceptance, and money is something that she's been open about. So, I was answering, by saying that she actually is somewhat open about it because her whole thing is to be authentic and go against the grain. But that it's also pretty obvious even if she weren't open about it. But you're filling in a lot of assumptions about me here. There's nothing that I said that would actually indicate this, as I'm very mixed in my feelings about Teal Swan. On one hand, her work has helped me a lot and I'm glad that she exists a resource for people. But on the other hand, I've always had an aversion to her and it's quite clear that she has a huge problem with self-aggrandizing. So, it seems like you misunderstood what I was saying and filled in a bunch of blanks.

Well, she isn't extremely direct about them. But you can tell if you listen to her that she has an exaggerated sense of self-importance. And because of this, you can deduce that she is searching for admiration and acceptance. But there are more direct things she's said as well, where she's very open about the things that she wants. As for the money, I think this because she is very skilled at creating tons of revenue streams. Like, she probably has about 20 different ones: premium content, synchronization paintings, apparel/prints/accessories with synchronization painting patterns on them, tarot cards, sports coaching, ads from videos, retreats, teaching the completion process, guided meditations, and a bunch more that I can't remember off-hand. From a business stand-point, it's impressive and genius. But it also shows that money is a huge motivation for her. And this she has been somewhat direct about. Her thing is also all about authenticity, so sometimes she'll share things like this in a more direct way to go against the grain. As for her extrasensory abilities, I lean toward believing in them, to a point. So, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt about being psychic and experiencing vibrations and frequencies, as these are within the realm of things that I consider plausible. I also believe her relative to talking to guides, as this is a commonly reported phenomena among psychics. Now, when she talks about going out of body and directly helping people around the globe, then I tend to eye that skeptically. I have OBEs but I don't necessarily think that would even work. Now, of course, I don't know any of these things for sure. I tend to have my beliefs in what is plausible in terms of what is the proximal range of my own experiences (however limited they may be). But of course I do not know, so I take it all with a grain of salt and just take what's helpful and leave what's not.

I don't know if the majority of the stuff in the article is true or not. But I used to binge-watch Teal Swan like crazy, several years back, and it really helped me out. But she never talked about being an alien or anything outrageous like that in those videos. The only thing that could be considered crazy by the general populace is the focus on new age ideas (like Law of Attraction) in her videos. But I was always a bit averse to her personality and sense of self-importance. When I found her work, I was going through some tough times and her work really helped me out of a negative spot that I know I wouldn't have otherwise been able to. But I still didn't like her persona and resisted against her. I didn't like that I was getting so much out of work. She's very focused toward herself and self-aggrandizing... which is certainly a huge red flag. And then, when people criticize her, it deeply bothers her so much that she'll mention it in her videos. But I went to one of her events a few years ago and even met with her and some members of her intentional community as well as a bunch of volunteers, and it was pretty normal. And I was on high alert for cultish behaviors because of my aversion to her persona. So, I would say that, if she is running a cult, then she's not really using her events to organize it as one would expect from someone really intending to create a cult. I think of Teal Swan more as a self-important but helpful spiritual teacher that also uses her teachings in search of adoration, acceptance, and money.

Teal Swan's teachings are very helpful. I know that she's been crucial to my personal development, as she has definitely been one of my 'big influence' teachers. When I found her work, I was always slamming against many walls in my own mind. But after watching the majority of her content (about 4 years ago), I really felt like a huge weight had come off of me. And I know that I wouldn't be where I am now without her. So, don't knock Teal Swan's work without trying it, as I had a lot of resistance to her too. But her teachings themselves are very powerful for those that need them. That said, she does have a lot of qualities that are off-putting. And she may indeed be a narcissist and a cult-leader. She definitely has a lot of ideas of self-importance and talks about fame too much. But you don't really have to worry about this, unless you are the idolizing and cult-joining type. So, unless you think you'll get lost in her teachings, I highly recommend checking them out to see if they resonate, as she teaches some very powerful things. So, with any teacher, you should base your desire to watch their content in how much you resonate with it and how much it gives you a personal sense of expansion. And then, once they don't resonate anymore, you can find another teacher that does resonate. It may be true that she has a lot of flaws. But you should adopt the mindset that "While no one has the full truth, I can learn from anyone."

Women as a whole group will be more Yin than men as a whole group. But all people (and literally everything that exists) have both Yin and Yang in varying degrees. And everyone is an expression of nature (Yin), men and women both. So, we are all the children of Mother Nature and we all have a part of us that is connected to the cycles of nature. And ultimately, if we compare men and women outside of the vacuum of the human species, men and women are mostly alike. Even in terms of something as sexually dimorphic as physical strength, where there is an average of a 40% difference in male strength versus female strength, we are still relatively similar in strength relative to our proximity to other creatures... which used to matter a whole lot more when we lived more primitively. So, human beings that are male and female are ultimately not very different on the grand scale. We're like male and female ants or koalas or some other kind of species like that. Ants and koalas probably notice the differences between the males and females of their species quite a lot. But outside of the microcosm of their ways of life, it all seems mostly the same. But we do notice and like to exaggerate gender differences in general, (previously for practical purposes but mostly now for sexual purposes.) So, this is why in earlier societies, that which is referred to as Yin came to be associated with woman-like-ness and that which is referred to as Yang came to be associated with man-like-ness, because gender was the closest human metaphor to describe this difference. And there is an implicit tie in the consciousness of human beings that naturally link concepts of womanhood with Yin and concepts of manhood with Yang. But all of this is a practical concession for ease of human understanding and allegorical thinking. So, it's important to understand that womanhood and manhood both are just a couple reflections among millions of reflections of the interplay between Yin and Yang. And womanhood reflects more Yin than Yang in general. And the opposite for manhood. But Yin is not woman-like-ness. The concept of womanhood is Yin-like-ness. It's just human beings that like to think of Yin as woman-like-ness because it's a really understandable human example that is symbolic of Yin. So, Yin supersedes and imbues all things, just as Yang supersedes and imbues all things. You cannot have a working system without Yin and Yang in intercourse with one another. It is this intercourse that creates life and functionality in all things. So, you may be predominantly more Yang than Yin if you have a more typical masculine/feminine signature for a man. But even if you have more Yang, you also will naturally have a ton of Yin too. If we approach this topic on the level of being, Yin and Yang are so closely matched that the slight differences between our individual essence as male or female that seems so apparent to us as humans don't really tip the scales that much in either direction. The most masculine man and the most feminine woman have a nearly identical Yin/Yang signature on the grand scale of existence, even if the differences seem extreme when looked at zoomed into the vacuum of human interactions. So, don't worry too much. If you'd like to integrate the divine feminine, it is in your power to do so. If you would like to encourage the integration of the divine feminine on the broad-scale it doesn't require that you be a woman. Women may generally be more likely to resonate with this and may as a group have a slight edge, but this is not a problem. Just do what feels right. Also, there are men that exist who are more Yin that Yang naturally, and women who exist that are more Yang than Yin. So, there are always a ton of exceptions.