Emerald

I'm still not 100% sure what you mean. Do you mean that a person can experience other people's perspectives directly through Samadhi or something like that?

Can you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean.

You can't know. Even if you become enlightened, you will never know. It is part of the mystery of existence. The only thing to do is to accept the fact that you will never know for sure how real or unreal anything actually is. But knowing is not beneficial anyway. What's beneficial is surrendering to the mystery of existence. For this, I like the metaphor of The Diamond Net of Indra, for which I named my channel. In the parable, it states that all of reality is a net of infinite dimension that the god Indra has hung in the sky. Because the net is infinite, it stretches out in every direction. And at each of the vertices of the net, lies a jewel. So, the jewels that sit upon the infinite net are also infinite in number. And in each jewel is a reflection of all the other jewels. So, there is an infinite amount of jewels reflected in each jewel. So, there is only one jewel from that perspective which contains all other jewels. But there is also an infinite net of separate jewels, from a different perspective. Both seem to contradict one another, but both may be true and both may be false. But we can never know. We are the one jewel that reflects all other jewels. But we are also just one jewel among the infinite amount of jewels on the net. This is the paradox of being. So, to put it a different way, I think it's important not to fall into the trap of solipsism where we assume there are no others and that our perspective is the only actual perspective. And it's just as important not to fall into the trap of naive realism, where we take for granted that reality is some separate realm that exists outside of us. The only really true answer is "I don't know." And there's a lot of power in "I don't know." because it allows you to be receptive to love and wisdom. So, let go of all beliefs, and simply be.

You can make a YouTube channel, but it will take a while to make a decent income from it. For every 30,000 views you get on monetized videos, you'll make about $60 on average. So, if you wanted to make $2000 per month, you'd have to have about a million views per month. Then you could also write books and sell them and do workshops and things like that, if you gather a significant following. Also, you could become certified as a life coach and start taking on clients from your channel. So, it's doable but it takes persistence and a lot of know-how to get yourself out there. Knowing how to get yourself ranked high in the Google/YouTube algorithm is also important to know how to do. But I also would make sure that you're not doing it for the primary reason of making money. You should judge your success by how many people are helped by your content. This will keep you motivated. But the lack of monetary reward in the initial stage can cause you to lose motivation if you use that as your measuring tool of success.

Think of how you feel when a religious person tries to convert you to their religion. And think of what good intentions they have because they see you as a lost soul and want to throw you a life raft. You may not recognize it as such, but this is the same thing that you're doing to the people in your life when you try to change them: both short term and long term. You're trying to convert the heathens and heretics. Just accept that your life path is your own and no one else's. There is no way to do it wrong.

@Shir It's something that I can't personally relate to because I've always been a very sexually enthusiastic person. So, if I've fallen for a guy, I can't wait to express my sexual side to him. It feels very un-natural to me to hold back such a beautiful expression. But if abstaining from sex until marriage is what is authentic to you, then don't let fear lead you away from what is authentic to you. You will eventually find someone who is willing to honor that boundary. So, don't compromise if it's what you really want in your heart of hearts. However, I would caution you that it's very easy to lie to yourself on this matter, as the sex drive is a very powerful and deep human need that looks for subconscious outlet for expression if it can't be met directly. So, if you have put a lot of energy into the "virgin until marriage" idea, then you could very well deceive yourself that abstaining from sex is right for you when it really isn't, thus making you either monumentally unhappy or subconsciously seeking other outlets to have those needs met. Deep down, you will already know if you're feeling and thinking these things if this is the case for you. So, you should also be mindful not to let fear lead you away from what's authentic if sex is what you truly desire with your partner. Don't waste your life trying to be perfect. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Also, what's even worse, is you could deceive yourself into believing you're ready to settle down with a guy... but subconsciously you really just want to have sex with him as soon as it is acceptable according to your rules. So, be very careful. And to make things clearer for yourself, I recommend letting go of false and limiting beliefs regarding sex and relationships. For example, let go of the belief that sex equals disrespect to the self. There is no inherent connection between sex and self-respect until you believe that there is. And this is true, even if society says otherwise. This is an added meaning that just muddies the waters. Also, let go of the belief that sex is such a big deal that it changes everything. Once you have sex, you will find that it's just another part of life. The media tends to make sex out to be more than it is. Your relationship will be mostly the same even after you have sex. Also, you will lose no personal value if you end up having sex before marriage. There is nothing to be lost there, even if society imagines that there is. And if you have a bad first time, it may hurt for a little while but then it will just become another experience. Life will go on. And it doesn't mean that you won't be able to make a deep connection with someone else in the future. Also, one of the biggest burdens that I let go of was thinking of things in terms of "the right one." There are tons of "right ones" out there. And it's very normal to have sex. Biologically speaking, sex in the first few months of a relationship is designed to bond you to the other person. It's the heat of the newness of the relationship that creates the chemical reaction. Then, things naturally cool off and give way to a deeper but less intense love that is more long-lived. So, I see sex as part and parcel to the process of cultivating a new relationship. And you will know when it is the right time to do it, if you let go of your limiting beliefs and unnecessary burdens. And for you, it might be waiting for marriage. But it might also be a few weeks after you and your partner get together. Just follow your intuition and instincts and let them guide you. Don't let fear guide you. Edit: I scanned back through the thread and noticed many times that you referred to being a "proud virgin." It's okay to be happy about your choices. But when it comes to personal identity, labeling yourself as anything will always distort things. There will be parts of yourself, your thoughts, and emotions that undermine the identity of "proud virgin", and that is where the self deception really begins. The ego will try to protect this identity by repressing and ignoring what is actually authentic to you, and make you think you want certain things when you really don't... or don't want things when you actually do. There is also a subtle judgment of "not being like everyone else" projected out over people who do hook-ups and seeing them as sullying themselves somehow. But these meanings are created by you entirely. And it's these internal judgments and external judgments of what's "good" and "bad" that makes this issue so stressful and unclear for you. If you examine and dismantle these beliefs, you will have more clarity and peace relative to the topic of sexuality. Remember, you don't lose any self-worth if you decide to have sex. It doesn't make you lesser or bad in any way. You wouldn't be able to call yourself the "proud virgin" anymore. But this is just an empty label anyway. It's nothing to sacrifice your authenticity for. You are far more important and beautiful than any label. So, after having read your posts, my brutally honest perception is that you're only abstaining from sex until marriage because you think it adds value to you to do so, and would take value away from you to have sex before marriage. It seems that you have some moral judgments about people who engage in sex outside of a relationship. So, you probably constructed the identity of the "proud virgin" so that you don't have to judge yourself in the way that you judge others and so you then pushed yourself to the opposite extreme. So, my advice is to stop carrying the heavy burden of the title "proud virgin" and really find out what's authentic to you. When all is said and done, there won't be anyone there to judge you except for you. Be kind to yourself. Grant yourself a little innocence in your instincts.

If you would feel wrong to get rid of these practices, then keep them. It would ideally just be simpler if you minimized them to the basics. But if you have to fight with yourself to do it, it will have the opposite effect. So, keep them and remain mindful of your internal state as you do them to better understand your motives and to integrate those parts into your awareness. Be sure to pay extra attention to critical voices or feelings like "I need this to be valid." But the number one thing to glean is to watch your motivation and come to know the stories that you want to have happen that keep your ego alive. Certainly, it is true that certain skills are needed to fulfill certain roles. Certain skills are needed in life. However, the thing to question is why you want to have those skills and/or fulfill those roles in the first place and if it's coming from a positive or negative place. For example, if you want to attract women because you simply want the excitement of the experience, then this is positive and authentic. But if you want to attract women, to solidify a sense of self-worth or to prop up low self-esteem, then it comes from a negative place and is not authentic to you. Don't let fear lead you to some kind of obligation to be this or that way to be acceptable to yourself. As you exercise awareness and reintegrate parts of yourself, anything that isn't authentic to you will fall away naturally if you let it. And it will be like setting down a heavy stone that you've been carrying for your entire life. The main thing is to have the courage and wisdom to know when it's possible and desirable to put down those stones. But don't try to pick up a new stone by the name of "putting down the stones"... if you see what I mean. Just let go of what you can let go of. And if you can't let go yet, then let go of the fact that you can't let go yet. And just watch mindfully as you engage in your daily activities.

How long did it take her to make a decision? Choosing which bench to sit on should be a simple and quick decision, even if she's a slow decision maker or indecisive in other areas of life. If she can't make that kind of decision, then it's likely that she has dealt with having to walk on eggshells in her life with people that she's been around. So, she might be trying to avoid annoying you or making you angry by making the "wrong" decision. So, she may be used to yielding to the other person or people by default to avoid confrontation. Or, in a less likely scenario, she may have some issue with her pre-frontal cortex. People who have a problem in this region of the brain, literally will be unable to make decisions even in the most simple of situations. Now, with regard to the not knowing which clothing to wear, she may just really want to know what makes you tick. This is a feminine tendency that can generally be noticed. For me, if I ask a guy what I should wear, I want him to really like it and know that it gets him going. It's not that I can't make the decision on my own. It's simply that I want to know what he thinks because it's exciting to me to know what's going on in my partner's mind. Maybe this tendency could trickle over into the bench thing, where she wants to know what decision that you're going to make and to feel like you're giving her an experience of your choosing. But I doubt it with regard to this decision because it's so small and arbitrary. It seems like, if she can't choose where to sit, there may be something else going on regarding her past experiences.

Think of it in the sense that you're allowing everything. So, reintegration is the natural flow of the mind from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind. So, without resistance, repressed aspects of the self will naturally buoy up from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind, thus expanding your awareness and allowing those aspects to integrate. Just like a buoy that isn't weighed down will naturally rise to the surface of the water. And just like water and gas will naturally fill any space that isn't obstructed. So, doing nothing will allow for all content to come up from the subconscious as there is no resistance.

The night before last, I woke up with sleep paralysis and from that state fell asleep into a lucid dream. Realizing that I was dreaming, I decided to experiment with self-inquiry during the dream state since the nature of being is ever-present. So, perhaps the breakthrough of enlightenment could be possible to have even in mid-sleep or it could at least give me insight as to what the dream experience shares in common with waking experience relative to being. So, I started asking myself "What's perceiving this?" Things got a little wavy and strange, but no Earth-shattering breakthroughs. But I do find it an interesting thing to experiment with because it seems like it could possibly work, and perhaps the fuzziness of the dream-state might allow for greater open-ness and receptivity. Just sharing... any thoughts?

If you have a dehydrator, you can make dried fruit without any chemicals and without losing nutrients. But the thing to watch out for is overeating on calories. Because the water is taken out of the fruit, it's quicker to eat larger amounts of calories and natural sugars. With the water, it tends to fill you up more, so you don't eat as much. And it's also hydrating. So, regular fruit is definitely a healthier option. However, there's nothing wrong with dried fruit if you've dehydrated it yourself and you don't over-eat.

It may have been a Kundalini movement or an energetic experience in general. Several times during sleep paralysis and one time after Kundalini meditation while I was sleeping, I've gotten bursts of energy running up and my spine. The last one, felt just like electricity violently moving up my spine.

I think you put it well, when you say that you're not attracted to healthiness. So, you must create psychological health in yourself to attract and be attracted to psychologically healthy women. So, it's a matter of doing deep inner work.

The main thing is to devote your time to raising your awareness of all of your internal happenings so that you can untie yourself from the illusion of SELF-improvement. Any sense of improvement to the SELF, is just a thought process that you're believing in. It's not actually real. Value in itself is arbitrarily assigned. So, there is no way to add value to the self in any real way. And the self is also just a collection of thoughts when you look carefully. I think Adyashanti is the one that calls this "feeding the hungry ghost." When you can see this clearly, the inner drill sergeant will lose its power and function, and you will hear the voice of wisdom which will guide you in whichever direction that you really want to go in. It's just that the inner drill sergeant is much louder than the voice of wisdom. So, you can't hear it anymore. And you have no idea what you would do if that inner drill sergeant stopped ordering you around. But the whole process of the drill sergeant phenomenon is a form of violence against the self. So, it causes a lot of suffering... some that you may not even be aware of yet. So, my recommendation is to set yourself up some basic routines for health, wellness, and work. Keep it very simple. But only do this for functional purposes. Don't do it with the mindset, "I'm going to improve myself." Just do these things mindfully because they're good for you, not because they make you good. I believe that this is why (aside from using them for meditation) monks keep routines and practice discipline. Since they are devoting their time to awareness and being, they must install routines of "doing" to make sure that the practical tasks of life don't fall at the waist-side. But they are ideally not using this to add value to themselves or trying to redeem themselves. It's just what must be done. It's as the saying goes: "Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water." Now, you will fail at first at keeping the "self-improvement" mindset at bay, while you do the basic routines. You will want to size up your growth, because that's what you're used to using for motivation purposes. You've forgotten how to motivate yourself without a whip and carrot. But just become aware of this internal process, and the hamster-wheel-like nature of it. And eventually, with enough awareness, the drill sergeant will lose its power over you because you are no longer under the illusion that you need him to motivate you toward self-improvement and redemption. There is a saying that goes something like, "Thoughts are like paper tigers. They look scary and powerful... but if you don't feed them with your attention, they die." So, if you watch the thought process without buying into the thoughts, you will see how it works and what motivates it and it will let go of you eventually.

@Santiago I read both of your posts. And regarding the 'stories' aspect of what I posted, I think that the story you're attached to is the story of redemption. It seem that there is an inner drill sergeant inside of you that demands a lot of effort and achievement to compensate for a perceived lack of worth. So, when you fear that you'll never be successful and continue to fight your own success through life, the reason why this is is because your inner drill sergeant is fighting it out with the subconscious aspect of yourself that just wants you to accept what is. It would seem as though the answer is to continue with trying to redeem yourself through adding value and fixing yourself. So, you keep trying to force yourself to go in that direction. Then, you lose strength because you've been fighting yourself and you end up distracting yourself with other behaviors to medicate against the struggle and feeling of failure. So, my recommendation is to try to honor that part of yourself that resists and truly allow yourself to just be for a while. And then watch your inner drill sergeant mindfully to see how it works. You'll probably notice lots of feelings of guilt and critical thoughts will pop up. And it's important to let the inner drill sergeant know that you can never really add value to yourself or take it away. Redemption can't happen through becoming better at this or that thing. Redemption can only happen through becoming aware that no redemption is necessary. Also, I recommend trying to refrain from "figuring out" anything too. Because this is an improvement project too, after a while. You have to really just allow yourself to be. I hope this is helpful.

@Santiago I have dealt with chronic shame since childhood too, and I'm still not completely out of the woods with it. I have a lot of social-based shame from being ostracized from my peers. And there were a few events that I have a hard time thinking about because I feel so ashamed of them... though I do consciously forgive myself for them since I was a child trying to make sense out of certain traumatic events in my life. But I can relate to every thought process that you mentioned above. So, you're not alone. In fact, I know that one of my main motivators toward self-improvement are wholly based in an attempt to redeem myself and mitigate those feelings of shame that still linger. I think shame is still my biggest attachment and it infects every area of my life. But I have also experienced ego transcendence before, and when this happened all those problems just went away in a split-second and I was whole again. And I fully realized that my existence was so unshakeably valid that nothing could ever change that. And I really loved myself unconditionally. I didn't need to prove my worth to myself because worth wasn't even real. There was no way to improve on what is because it is already perfect and I am part of that perfection. And because I saw myself in that light, all the parts of myself that I had repressed away for years came bubbling up to the surface of my consciousness. And those parts of myself were finally conscious of the love. I really loved even traits that I hated prior. I was capable of unconditional love only then. So, the reason why you feel the shame is likely because you have parts of yourself that you have repressed away and likely forgotten about. And these traits contain parts of your consciousness that you don't have access to because they have been made unconscious, in your attempt to avoid trauma or unpleasant emotions. So, these traits (as aspects of your own consciousness) desperately want reintegration into your conscious awareness. So, they are relegated to the shadow because you are not able to love them unconditionally. You have a desire to be acceptable by some standard or another, so those traits are a threat to the self-image that you think will bring you up out of your feelings of shame and self-hatred. So, those parts of you feel hated and ashamed. And those aspects of yourself grieve from loss of love, and those emotions still trickle through from the unconscious. So, it leaves you with a feeling of "I feel ashamed... but I don't know why." So, Shadow Work or any other type of re-inegration work will be of help for this. But you especially want to look at areas that you're rigid about and feel uncomfortable changing your opinion about. For example, in my case, I have a hard time letting go of the idea that physical appearance is the main component of my worth as a person. And that I can find fulfillment when I have the ideal level of physical attractiveness. And that if I'm not physically attractive, then I can never be fulfilled. Now, I was always taught by my parents that my worth lay in my intelligence and level of goodness. (This is not true either), But still I have this identification even still. But I only care about this in regard to myself. I feel like I need to be physically attractive but that everyone else is sufficient whichever way that they look. But I still think it will mitigate my shame and I will feel love by embodying physical attractiveness. So, I could just let go of this hang-up and I know that reintegration would occur in lieu of it. But I still want so much from my looks and have many stories and dreams that I want to happen to me as a result. So, there's an attachment that I don't know how to let go of because so much of my self structure has been built around it and has been since early childhood. So, I have a lot of work to do on this aspect of myself. So, I recommend finding the stories that you've created about yourself that you still want something from. Then find out what you want from the stories. And then work on reintegrating the traits that you believe would stand in the way of those stories coming true and the desire/need being met. Also, try to find another way to meet the need too.

How long ago did you visit Costa Rica, and did you enjoy it?

I understand the thought process but it's a bit unhelpful for really understanding the way that the world actually works and being able to understand where people are coming from. There is nothing wrong with saying "I am a black man" if you are indeed a man who is black. That's a true statement and it makes sense in the context of the post that he would draw upon his experiences as a black man. The fact of the matter is that race exists and even if we don't like that it exists and think we should completely ignore it because it makes us uncomfortable, it still effects the way a person is treated and seen. So, being of a particular race, comes along with particular projections from society and certain experiences that people of other races are not privy to. So, the "all one race" rhetoric is very sunshine and rainbows thinking that tends to comfort people who aren't actively dealing with the problems of being a particular race. Now, I'm all for dis-identification and detachment from all labels. However, pretending that race doesn't exist just isn't helpful. And if I say "I am a white woman." That statement is simply a factual statement that gives context to others about my life. So, this let's people know that my racial experience will be that of a white woman.... so like avocados and uggs and stuff like that.

I'm all for looking at all sides of beliefs for the sake of seeing what makes them tick. And this includes ones that could lead to negative outcomes for myself. For example, I've questioned why societies have been patriarchal in the past and whether it's "natural" for male dominance. And these types of questions are an actual potential threat to me and my current worldview as if they were actually true it would have major negative consequences on all aspects of my life. And some of my biggest insights have come from looking at what's threatening to me and have seen patterns of human growth that I wouldn't otherwise have seen, just in asking those scary questions and really examining things. So, looking at these types of beliefs will help you get a clearer picture. However, when it comes to examining an unpopular old-world belief (that shares ties to eugenics) that doesn't really effect you personally, it is honestly just getting your kicks from playing devil's advocate with the ghosts of the past. And a lot of people who fancy themselves as "intellectual" are doing this, and the potential for opening up Pandora's Box is great. So, it very well CAN hurt. Not just emotionally on the individual level, but on a mass scale if there are enough people who start to play this seemingly lighthearted game of devil's advocate. An idea with enough momentum can really cause harm. And devil's advocate games are always safe and removed from the situation and done by people who haven't truly experienced the realities of the situation. As SFRL said before, it's just looking at a cartoon image of the reality. You get to look at a situation from afar in comfy armchair and make your postulations and judgments that will never really have any effect on your life. You're not a black person having to make sense out of why the murder statistics fall the way that they do. Or actively dealing with the amount of projections that comes from people in society who see them as synonymous with violent criminals because of this statistic. So, it will be simple for you to come up with a simple answer. If you want to really be aware, then I recommend getting to know more black people in life and witnessing firsthand that black people are just as diverse in their character and disposition as white people. Notice any tendency to want to project over the entirety of a race because you just don't have a lot of example of people you know intimately from that race. That's why minorities in a society are easier to project out onto, because in lieu of having many interactions the majority group can cleave to statistics and stereotypes to concoct a really distorted and two dimensional caricature of reality. And if you want to be really aware of why there's a higher percentage of black people committing violent crimes, then you should get to know some black inmates who are in for violent crime. There is a program called "Prison Pen Pals" where you can anonymously correspond with people who are in prison because many of them don't have family and friends who write to them. My friend Julia did it, and she showed me some of the letters, and it was really interesting. You might be able to glean some insights from that.

I've noticed a very strong correlation between home life and behavior issues. But even that sometimes isn't the case. I've had a few students dealing with really messed up things who are really well behaved and just really awesome people. But that speaks to their personal character and resilience. Most students with a bad home-life never really had a chance and develop really negative coping mechanisms that effect their behavior and their life in detrimental ways. It also wouldn't make sense to me that human beings from different regions of the world would be that different, because race is an evolutionary factor that changes in relatively few generations, evolutionarily speaking. I remember that when I was a freshman in college and taking my gen. eds., I was required to take a biology class. And I remember the professor had us read an article about how race occurs based mostly on the level of vitamin D that a person needs and the level of sun protection a person needs. So, it was posited that white people are white because white skin is more susceptible to the sun's rays. So, during the cold winters, it would be easier for white people to get their vitamin D requirements met more easily because sunlight is where we get vitamin D. And people with darker skin color, live in places where the sun shines year-round or most of the year. So, it's easy to get the necessary vitamin D from the sun. But extra sun protection is needed, which more melanin helps with. And it was said in the article that in a particular ethnic group, through natural selection the race of that group would change over the course of about 150 generations, if that group relocated to a different location where there was more or less sunlight. And this would happen without having children with people of a different race. It is unfortunate that people project so much onto other people. And the internet, with its anonymity, makes it really clear that there are a lot of people with distorted viewpoints about race and other demographic factors. I grew up sort of naive, believing that these mindsets were gone. But it's really yucky to see how many people are ready to jump on the philosophies of old and play devil's advocate with them. I see a lot of pseudo-intellectuals do this, where they think that they're being deep thinkers. As a woman, I experience a lot of guys who will do the same thing to women where they'll start thinking about what's "natural" and it will basically be like a big explanation as to why men are superior to women. And it's the same thing that I saw a couple people do on this thread but with black people instead of women. So, they brought up that black people commit half of all murders (which I attribute to gang violence in bad neighborhoods and as a purely environmental phenomenon). And I read this air of "black people are more violent, therefore they are inferior to white people. Thus white dominance is justified." Sort of a saying it without directly saying it. Yet I'm sure if you brought up that men commit 90% of all murders (which is a real statistic), then using the idea of "male predisposition toward violence" would suddenly transform this predisposition to violence into a strength and be the reason why men are more dominant and thus meant to lead society and have more power than women... because "it's natural." And all this makes me wonder, why it's so important to some people that their race or gender is the superior one. Is it just mediocrity... like "Well I don't have anything special about me and no special skills... but at least I'm white!" Or is it something else.

I don't think this is true. It's not because your theory is completely implausible or anything. Ancestors living in different environments, will likely have somewhat different adaptations. But I don't believe it's true because I spend a lot of time around children of various ethnic backgrounds. And they range in age from ages 3 to 18. And I don't stay in the same schools. I go to the schools in the higher income parts of town as well as in the lower income parts of town. What you quickly notice is that students from the same schools tend to have similar predispositions toward misbehavior and violence. But you won't find a correlation when it comes to race by itself as a factor. But you'll find that schools that are lower income schools (which because they're lower income have a higher percentage of non-white students) are also rougher on the behavior scale. I know if I go to the school in the poor neighborhood, I'm going to get tested more by students of all races from about third grade onward. And they deal with very rough situations. This one little white girl on my first day of work five years ago, was telling me that her dad just got sent to prison and wouldn't get out until she's 15. One mentally challenged girl that I taught was being sold by her mother to various men. Another group of sibling's mother killed their father. One girl (white) was molested by her uncle who took her on a high speed chase and shot her. And there are just miserable situations going on... and this causes behavior issues because there is so much pain to be coped with. But if you go into a class with three and four year olds, there is literally no difference between kids of various races. They haven't even been socialized to attribute meaning to race yet. So, they all have the same sense of wonderment about things. The only students who tend to have real behavior issues at that point have them because they have a really traumatic home-life or they have some kind of emotional/behavioral issue. So, my recommendations is to not spend too much time theorizing about various generalizations regarding race or any other demographic factor. It clouds the judgment when it comes to dealings with people and it lays a pretty heavy trip on black people. Spend some time around real people.

Oatmeal is always gluten-free. Only products that contain wheat have gluten, and oatmeal doesn't have wheat... just oats. The reason why gluten-free is written on the box is because of marketing reasons. People will think that they're getting something special, when they're just getting the usual oatmeal, which is naturally gluten-free.

I work with children at various schools. So, the standards are very strict for personal behavior. Things that would be acceptable at other professions are not acceptable in that one. This is why I tend not to cover very taboo kind of topics on my channel.

I do have a job. But I don't tell my work about it. I'm sure I could get fired if someone found out and complained because of the nature of my job and the fact I've referred a few times to entheogen use throughout my videos. But I don't work at one set location. I go to different locations for my work. So, it' unlikely that I'll be at a place frequently enough to really be known and looked up. But I eventually want to be able to make my living off of my channel and related work. So, it' a risk that I have to take. But I wouldn't worry too much about it if were you. If you type your name into Google and your blog isn't the first thing to come up, then the chances they'll find out are slim. Also, the chances that they'll read your blog is slim. Unfortunately, because my name is very uncommon, if my work ever Googles me, they'll find my videos as one of the top Google search listings. And even though most of them are quite innocuous, the standards are strict enough that they may just opt to let me go. Some people have been let go of for just having a picture of themselves on FB sitting next to a glass of wine. So, it's a risk that I'm taking. But I wouldn't worry if I was you. But I also wouldn't tell anyone about your blog.

If you look at the masculine and feminine principle, giving is actually part of masculinity... not femininity. So, don't overthink things that women will see your giving-nature as weak. Women are really attracted to men who are generous. And I don't mean just with money. I mean generous with their time, energy, encouragement, affection, attention, and resources. The main thing is not to take what you have too seriously and hold things to yourself for fear of her getting one-up on you or fear of seeming weak. This type of ungenerous spirit, comes off as stingy and petty and is a sign of insecurity. And it makes a man seem like a boy. My father has always embodied a kind of generous and warm-hearted spirit, where he doesn't take anything that he has that seriously. So, he can share freely in a very jovial and detached kind of way. And it's a very masculine kind of trait that adds to the rest of his personality which is masculine. To give you an image to relate him to, the Marlboro Man has always reminded me of my dad. And he's also a mechanic, who's been working on cars since he was ten years old. And I remember back when I was ten years old in Sam's club, and my Dad was showing me how strong his grip was by squeezing an industrial scale that went up to like 1000 lbs. And with just his fingertips, he was able to exert hundreds of pounds of pressure. So, he's definitely not someone who is feminine, nor would he be seen as a weak man. But he's a giver. He'd give you the shirt right off his back if you needed it. And he doesn't really care what anyone thinks about his generosity. And these traits, in themselves read as very masculine traits. And more importantly, they're very admirable traits. So, the main thing is just to put concern of women thinking this way or that way about you to the side, and just embrace your giving nature toward life in general. It's a really excellent trait to integrate into your personality regardless of your gender. When you overthink, and think "Should I hold this back so that she doesn't think I'm weak?" then you want to remind yourself that you're not doing it for her. You're doing it to become a better quality person first. Then, as you become better and more authentic, more people will be attracted to you and enjoy your presence. And women will take notice of this too. And you'll always attract women who mirror your own issues. So, the way to attract a woman who is going to accept you, is to accept yourself. Because women who are really interested in you don't care about what particular traits that you have. They care about you as a whole person and how the experience of "you" makes them feel.