Stuck

[Brett]

So I have been watching Leo's videos for quite some time now. They make sense, and I enjoy watching them (especially the really deep ones). I am having problems taking action. I feel like it's easier said then done to "go take action". I don't even really know what this means. My life right now is pretty empty. I literally do nothing. Nothing interests me. I used to play a lot of video games, but I know that these are not good for me. I have a lot of knowledge as to why I'm stuck, and know I need to take action, but I literally just don't know what to do. I wish I had some kind of algorithm I could follow to get to a better place. I have no job, no friends, no past times, nothing. I'll be out of money soon and then I don't know what i'll do at that point. I used to go to the gym a lot, but it was stressful. I only went because I thought I needed to maintain a bigger muscular appearance, and was afraid of going back to my skinny lanky self. I've never had a girlfriend before. 

I tend to have the "I'm broken and need to be fixed" mentality. I have been chasing religion and self help with the hope that I can be fixed. I get some mental masturbation as Leo likes to call it, but that's it. I used to smoke a TON of weed to cope with things, but I've kicked that because I want to make something of myself. I just feel like I'm stuck in a trap. I don't want to die, but I don't want to live either. 

Enlightenment is something that really interests me, but I feel like I don't deserve that since I'm still a massive victim in my own life. Ideally, I am a funny, sarcastic, unique, nice, caring, open-minded person and am really fun to be around. Unfortunately, in reality that is not me at all. I can't even make eye contact with people anymore. I've lost all my trust in the world. How do you take action when you have 0 confidence? I know I sound like a victim right now. I feel like my own awareness of my problems only adds more anxiety to my life. 

Maybe I should forget about self help and study the bible more? What do people like Leo believe about life after death anyway? Are they atheist? I really want to know the Truth. Another reason I think I'm stuck. Why don't we spend less time selfishly trying to improve the quality of our own lives when there are people way worse off then us who could use help with theirs?  

I'm broken beyond repair. Unfulfillment at its finest. According to my symptoms, I am depressed. But depression is way to general. The truth is we just don't know what the fuck we are sometimes. And we suffer in our own mental hell. I wish I could erase my knowledge back to when I was a child, but I can't. So I guess I will just "take responsibility for being where I'm at", and "start creating a dream life for myself", and "start taking action so I can live an extraordinary life". Right. It sounds so good.  But I've masturbated my brain so many times that there's nothing left. 

I don't even have a self-image. I am a nobody. 

[Shenanigan]

Hey dude,

it looks like you're going through a real hard time. Intelligent people like yourself find themselves in a strange mental purgatory when they get in ruts of life. You can SEE all the steps you need to take, but acting on them seems as hard as the work needed to win a Nobel prize. I see a lot of myself in you in terms of the mentality you're currently holding. We both know that to become a master of life requires us to work extremely hard, day after day, second after second but the very thought of doing this work gives us a horrible ache in our chests and a feeling of sudden dread. In a way Leo's video's only intensify's this pain, right? Like yeah that's all well and good for you Leo but how the fuck do I get to where you're at / going? Then we watch more of his videos because it temporarily makes feel good about ourselves that we're even speculating these topics because as you said, they are masturbation for the mind. Then all your problems come tumbling back in no time at all and we start to self pity once more only this time we're aware that we're self pitying. Then we know all these extremely advanced theories intellectually like enlightenment and so on which seem to contradict all the current wants and needs of the body like sex, having a job or building a relationship. Then we think "okay spirituality is the key! Of course!" And all of these problems seem gone... at least until we realize that spirituality is the most difficult of all mastery and begin just going round in circles. I understand you're a caring person man I felt like that too when I was depressed a few months ago, it didn't seem fair that or even make sense to me.  

So, what can be done? 

Slow ... it ... down brother. It's a cliche but take it one tiny tiny step at a time. Think about it, Leo's videos are designed by him to cater for everyone's differing levels of self-actualization. For guy's like us, no doubt ambition and aspiration are waiting for us down the road but first we gotta learn the basics. I know it's hard to focus on mastering the basics in a world which incessantly stabs at us for RESULTS RESULT RESULTS but as George Leanard wisely proclaims in Mastery: The joy of the process as appose to the results which it effects is what keeps one on the road to Mastery.  

What's worked amazingly for me is one of the techniques Leo suggests. Positive affirmations. Honestly I cannot express how powerful these are if used consistently over a period of a say a month (though even after a week you feel the effects of some of them). I started this one in November "I'm completely independent of the opinions of others". And to go to what you said about being caring, this affirmation seems to completely contradict it doesn't it but in fact what you discover is the opposite. Not caring what others think of you doesn't turn you in to some psycho who only does what he wants. Counter intuitively, it does the opposite. You start not caring about the petty as appose to the powerful feelings of care for humanity and nature. One trick that I've noticed dramatically shortens the time for which affirmations take to have effect is saying "now" at the beginning of the sentence. One affirmation I think would be perfect for you is this "Now I'm taking action on my life". Set a timer on your phone for five minutes and say this over and over as if you really meant it in the moment. You say it as if you're imagining yourself taking action RIGHT NOW. Thinking in the future becomes to hazardous for our being. We can only ever take action right now, so if you affirm your mind in to taking action in the NOW all the time then, NOW you will always be taking action. You're never taking action in the past, you're never taking action in the future, you're only doing it right now.

Another thing I would add is this. If you're currently finding yourself watching video after video of actualized.org thinking yeah this must be seeping in to me somehow then stop this NOW. Stop watching his videos for two weeks. Only do this affirmation. Don't think about what else needs to be done tomorrow. On top of doing this for five minutes I have found that when you find yourself wanting to think in that way for the time being, say if you are going about sorting out your bills or whatever, repeat this affirmation out loud over and over, lovingly. Force a smile and say "Now I'm taking action on my life, now I'm taking action on my life". What also helps is this every now and then switch the affirmation to "Now I love taking action on my life".

You are going to do this now. Start it after you read this comment. Your potential from now on will always be actualized. Start with this affirmation, the rest will naturally follow. Peace brother, 

Edited February 10, 2016 by Siôn