exhale

Don't take it too seriously, make sure you have some fun. Don't piss it away, make sure you get some important work done. Balance

I may absolutely be wrong here. Though, my impression is that some of those individuals that go deep into the spiritual work tend either lose sight of, forget about, or outgrow the simple joys of being a human. I don't know what is on the other side: allegedly more (unconditional and not contingent) happiness is what people say. Happiness without the ego might just be qualitatively different than that derived from the ego. Leo has stated several times that eventually he may outgrow his role as an e-teacher and might just shut er down to focus on himself. Might be getting close.

I was married to my partner at 30 years of age, and had my first child at 31 years of age, 2nd child at 33 years of age. When I was a teenage and young adult, I did not have strong feelings about the prospect of having children. I was not certain that I would have children, nor was I resistant to the having children. As a young adult, I was much more focused on developing my career and my passions/interests. In my late twenties, I became much more interested in the idea of having children. At that point, I had a stable (and rewarding) career. We felt like we were strategically in a good place to bring a child into the world. It is hard to answer that final question, because it is unclear on how much of a commitment "active life purpose" and "deep spiritual path" would be for you, your life purpose, and your spiritual path. As stated before, there is little doubt that bringing children into this world is a tremendous responsibility that takes a lot of time and energy. I can only speak from personal experience: I have a career that is aligned with my life purpose. Though, I don't have a "deep spiritual path". I practice personal development, and (admittedly) intermittently perform meditation. There is only 24 hours in a day, and something typically has to give. Unrelated comment: There are many comments about how happiness is negatively correlated with happiness. There are also many unhappy people in the world: kids or not. Having children is certainly not for everyone, and it comes with its challenges and downsides. I am not trying to convince or dispute someone's perspectives on not having children. Just sharing my feelings. As stated before, (I feel that) parenthood needs to be altruistic and non-transactional in nature to be healthy. Having a solid foundation of maturity, personal development, financial security, professional satisfaction is integral when considering having children: not only to provide a nurturing environment for your kids, but also to be able to cope with the challenges and be present to strategically parent. Also, having a loving partner is extremely helpful and important in navigating this journey! (I am very fortunate).

Correct. Ego is fundamental here. Though, some of us are still operating in the "I am a human" paradigm.

@Nivsch Your experience and resulting awareness reminds me of my own. I'd like to share something that I have recently learned. I'm not sure if this applies to you, but some key words that you said resonated with my situation. Take it or leave it. As someone with relatively high self-esteem, I have been fortunate to have many successes in life. I work hard, and I achieve my goals, and I feel good about it. Though, things changed In the past 6 months: I have had a change in my professional circumstance in that I am not working much (and not achieving) and I had become miserable (increasing anxiety and depression). With time, I had become aware that my happiness was contingent on "work", "drive" "success" or "achievement". In addition, because I had increasing anxiety and depression, I was "failing" to manifest my goals in personal development (I was not achieving). This created a self-critical spiral, where I would feel down, then be hard on myself for feeling down, and isolate myself out of shame (I wasn't aware it was shame until I talked to someone). I became informed of the paucity of "self-compassion" that I have for myself. It was pointed out that I give myself no room for error, because if I did, then I would be like everyone else. My self-talk is that "I am not like everyone else". This is a "narcissism-light" type of mindset, and this is at the dark side of it. There is a really interesting interplay between "self-esteem" and "self-compassion" and there is a ton of content about it online (articles, ted talks, etc.). Apparently, high self-esteem and low self-compassion is an increasingly common trait that has indirectly been born out of the self-esteem movement in the 90's and 2000's. As you would have guessed by my description, my "self-esteem" is too high, so that my expectations of myself are too high. When these high expectations aren't met, I have such low "self-compassion" that I do not forgive myself (insert anxiety, depression, sadness, loneliness). Then, I isolate myself from my loved ones out of subconscious "shame". I am at the infancy of becoming aware of this personality trait, and am working to improve my self-compassion.

@danilofaria Sorry, I forgot to address the point of how children have reinforced my sense of purpose. As described above, you are the leader of your family. There is a responsibility to do the best you can: personally, professionally, financially, emotionally, spiritually. You are accountable to these little humans to be your best. This is a tremendous responsibility that is both a privilege and a burden. Regardless, your purpose to be your best for your family--to me--reinforces my purpose. With respect to life purpose. Not only do I continue to approach my life purpose with passion and love, but I also have the goal of showing my kids that it is possible to follow your passion and make a rewarding (professionally, personally and financially) career out of it. Something that it often said in the "real world", but rarely attained. My dedication to my life purpose is reinforced by my desire to be a strong role model for my children.

@danilofaria I'd love too! It starts with conception and the "miracle" of fetal growth and child birth. Watching the fetus grow in your partners abdomen over 9 months, and feeling your baby kicks on the stomach wall. Although they are probably just kicks, you can't help but feel like it is some primitive communication method. Then child birth, another miracle. Watching your partner go from indescribable pain to instant, unmistakable, unconditional love. Of course, it can all be explained through evolution theory and the endocrine system--this doesn't matter when you are in the moment. It is overwhelming passion. As your child grows and matures, you get to experience the joys of the little things. Their smile, their laugh, their cry, their developing personality--and how it compares and contrasts with yours, listening to them tell stories, read books, and make new friends. You get to experience the magic of birthdays, Christmas, or even just car rides, or visiting relatives from the eyes of an innocent child. As a parent, you try to be the best role model you can be. Although imperfect, you try your best. You try to be the best person you can be, and they are little mirrors the reflect everything you do back at you. They are the ultimate accountability machines! Which is both a blessing and a curse. You try to provide a warm, loving, supportive home--but at the same time, strike a balance between protecting them and allowing them to face their own problems and challenges. It provides an opportunity to strategically raise your child, to help allow this little human grow into a well-adjusted person. Inevitably, you personally will have to leave something on the table. Of course, it is important to set aside time for your self-care and personal interests--but there is only 24 hours in a day. As wonderful as kids are, they are time and energy intensive! Therefore, there isn't always enough left in the tank at the end of the day for your personal interests. It can be very difficult to make anything spiritually intensive happen--10 day silent retreat... possible... But limited time and $, and logistics for who will take care of the kids. Not to mention, you probably won't want to leave them for 10 days As well, given the frequent dialogue of exploring psychoactive treatments for spiritual advancement. As a parent, you have to consider the potential consequences of utilizing these treatments. What if you have a psychotic break, what if you develop some form of addiction, what if you accidentally harmed yourself or someone else, what if the batch is laced, what if it becomes well-known that you do this and are ostracized from the community (and the impact this could have on your children)? Ultimately, you (the parent) are no longer the focal point of your life. You (the parent) are still important, but every decision you make needs to be made with consideration and respect for how it could (or will) influence or impact your child(ren). The family unit supersedes mom or dad individually. My children are still young (2 and 4). Therefore, there is still a lifetime of experiences, passions, love, and challenges to be presented.

@danilofaria I appreciate that you are honest and candid about your thoughts towards having children: thank you for that. Though, it is very problematic if the backbone of your intent to (hypothetically) have kids is transactional in nature. If you have kids with this sole intent, there would be a lack of mutual bonding, love, and respect and ultimately those kids would not be there for you when needed. Counterintuitively, if you had kids with an altruistic intent to love and care for them, to be a role model and teacher, to support them when they need you. This is how bonding, love and respect are cultivated. Then, these kids would be there for you when needed. Having kids (I have two) has been both the most wonderful and challenging components of my life. It has enriched my life and my sense of purpose intensely. I know that a lot of you are doing deep spiritual work and are focusing on the Truth, and that is great for you. But damn, there is some pretty awesome stuff we can experience as a lowly human (living a human life), and having (and raising) kids is one of them.

try creating your own music

I believe your assessment is apt. The cliché quote is "a little bit of information is a dangerous thing". My impression is that Leo teaches and lives benevolently. When someone puts out 100's of hours of progressive content, there is inevitably going to be something to criticize--fairly or not. I think the difference between Leo and some other spiritual gurus is the blatant and "matter of fact" nature that Leo communicates with. My understanding is the other gurus speak in more metaphors and guide their students towards "the truth". The result is that "these students" have dedicated themselves to the craft, and develop emotionally and mature with time. Then, when they do "get it", they are not overwhelmed and can still function in the "real world". One problem that Leo faces is that he communicates his message as if the average listener has average IQ and average mental stability. Clearly, this is not the case, and can be dangerous when put in the wrong hands. To be fair, there is some merit to the concept that people need to go into pain and darkness to grow. Though, this means that some people grow out of the darkness, and some people don't. For a metaphor, a swimming pool (nonduality) is a safe space for a seasoned swimmer. For an infant or young child when no swimming experience or skills, it would be very dangerous. Was Leo's role as being the guy that installed the swimming pool (and has no responsibility to its use), or is he the lifeguard on duty? Opinions may vary. I cringe when I read some of the posts on this forum of people with clearly lower IQ, immaturity, mental instability and substance abuse problems flirting with psychedelics and deep spiritual exploration. Even if "it" is the truth, they easily lose site that they are still living in the matrix.

I say this in no judgement of the creator of the course, nor anyone that has taken the course. Though, it appears to me that 90% of the people that take the course (and post it on here) have some sort of life purpose focused around enlightenment. There may be some bias or influence in the life purpose course.

Sometimes people need to change their careers. Though, it would be much more logical and efficient if you were to evolve your career choice into something you are passionate about (life purpose). Think niche, niche, niche. Brainstorm and consider how you can narrow your career into something you can be (or are) deeply passionate about. That could be teaching Chiro, or focusing your Chiro practice on children (making the environment as safe and fun as possible), or focus on geriatric people (and focus on the personal relationships) or focus on people with disabilities, or focus on a specific type of injury/treatment. If you are able to find an area of your profession that you can become more niche, more "specialized", it is possible you may find more professional satisfaction.

I'm not sure of his intention behind this message. Though, clearly, it is a generalization. He likely was stating that there is some urgency as people that hit mid-twenties have more obligations/responsibilities that may keep them trapped (kids, marriage, house-mortgage).

Im not implying that this is what you experienced, but people can have psychotic breaks from drugs with far less psychoactive properties. Admittedly, I have not experienced hallucinogenic or psychoactive drugs. I am open minded to the idea that they could be helpful in some situations for certain people. Though, I am disturbed by the apparent eagerness of young, growing, maturing, and at-times unstable minded individuals seeking these powerful treatments. Not sure what your question was though. I think your story is important to share (Thank you) to remind people that these are not fleeting benign experiences and there can be long-term consequences.

Follow your intuition, and ensure that you are thinking strategically, not reactionary or impulsive. Contemplate your past behaviors--are you a person that routinely does not finish things, or is this a "one-time thing"? Losing 1.5 years of training may be a tough pill to swallow, but not following your intuition and finishing your program (assuming 4-5 years) and then 20-40 years of unfulfilling work would be tougher. Before you make the change, do the research into what your career would actually look like (research, clinical practice, etc.). Know exactly what you are getting in to before you make the call.

Regressions, setbacks and mistakes are an essential component of growth. Regroup, and get back at it. What other option is there?

Find a niche market, create a business to fulfill that demand, build equity in the business—even better if it can scale, sell the business.

I think that "how does art benefit the world" can be looked at in two ways. First, what does the art literally provide to the world (inspiration, etc.). Second, improving the human condition by having an individual follow their passion (in this case--art), living and working in flow, expressing themselves, is a gift to the world in itself (this perspective is completely independent of the content of the actual creation).

Most experts and scientists are stage orange/green, and still work in a paradigm of evidence-based medicine and second-hand anecdotal experience is considered the lowest quality of evidence. Therefore, they have been trained to discount anecdotal experience, not to mention “social media”-type pseudo-experts. As much as there is great insightful content out there, there is even more trash—and unfortunately it all gets lumped together. Also, we are currently living in debunking culture. People listen/watch content of a different/opposing view—not to gleen some insight or to divest their perspective. Most people consume content to put themselves in a position that will allow them to refute and “debunk” the opposing view. At this time, it would become a “x” vs. “x”, no synergistic harmony would likely occur. Though, this should change with time.

I am not experienced nor informed enough about your physical or psychological health to advise you appropriately. You certainly can meditation in a chair. At this time, sitting on the ground is uncomfortable for me, and tends to be a distraction. I have been advised to sit on a chair with my feet flat, palms open on my lap, back straight (not using your chair's back support). If your posture is poor, I would try to make this an effort (not using back support), and consider starting with shorter intervals to retrain some muscles. "Nodding off" is likely a result of having too much physical support and you are actually falling asleep. Its unclear if you hyperventilation was physiological (and potentially dangerous and harmful) or secondary to psychological breakthroughs (potentially therapeutic). You would need to introspect and contemplate this.

I'm not a human doctor, but I think that could put you at increased risk of blood clots/deep vein thrombosis. I'd find a different position. I also experience this, and I tend to sit in a chair to avoid this.

I have a general question (or brainstorming topic). I have two young kids (2 and 4 years old). Historically, I have made time to escape to quietness in order to meditate. Though, it often is a logistical barrier to leave the house routinely to meditate (and there isn't really a quiet, isolated place in the house), and ends up being an excuse to not meditate. Does anyone have experience with their meditation practice associated with kids? Does one meditate in the kids presence and just accept/embrace the loud and disruptive environment? (they often climb on me when I have tried in the past).

From Mans Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, to paraphrase: 1) Between stimulus and response there is a moment. You can practice lengthening this moment, allow yourself to respond consciously and intentionally, and not reactively. 2) Even in the most desperate situations, one has the opportunity to respond with dignity.

There a lot of life outside of meditation and content consumption

I completely agree, the majority of "coaches" are inexperienced, but well-intentioned individuals that are trying to make a career out of helping people. In most cases, they have no skills or track-record of implementing success in their profession, create a facade/veneer of success that is disingenuous, and oversimplify human nature/cognition/behaviour, etc. With few exceptions, the people that are qualified to be coaches (because of prior success, professional achievements, personal growth) tend to be mentors to people in their profession at no cost. I think coaching can be a viable, practical and powerful business. But these coaches are kidding themselves if the only thing on their resume is a weekend life coaching course.