sholomar

There's a lot of plant based types brainwashed into thinking natural sugars are more healthy...like date syrup is good but refined beet sugar is bad...they are almost identical chemically...molecules of fructose and glucose. Same with honey and maple syrup... If it makes you feel better to eat a lot of honey thinking it's good for you, psychosomatic treatments are important. I'm not saying eating plant based is bad but there's lots of misinformation out there. If processed foods are so bad why are these plant based eaters eating all these highly processed fake meats, protein powders and supplements? Eat the items in their raw form and get back to me. I'm experimenting with a higher fat lower carb diet right now. I'm not saying I'll do it permanently but I tend to feel worse eating lots of carbs when I'm in plant based mode. I eat lower carb fruits and veggies...I love grapefruits. Berries are a good source of antioxidants. If anything I'd give up starches and stick to lower carb fruits. Flour turns right into glucose in the stomach, as do all low fiber starches.

I believe a balance is necessary. For super quiet people they need more socialization and for hyper-extroverts they could stand to have less. Small talk is really an essential skill to have for a happy life let's be honest here. We can all pretend we're truly at peace in an introverted bubble but the vast majority of people are not ... takes a lot of work to get to a state where you can be completely happy independent of external circumstances. And we are social creatures our DNA as wired to want to interact and fit into the herd. If we don't feel like we're part of a herd our biology tends to feel depressed. Cultivating the sense of oneness is merely facilitating the release of oxytocin that comes along with pack oriented behavior and the feeling of fitting in which comes along with social connections. To me spiritual development is simply another way to facilitate the release of oxytocin in the brain. All activity in this physical matrix comes down to pleasure seeking and pain avoidance behaviors. Personal development hacks the limbic system to eliminate the sympathetic fear response and cultivate a profound sense of peace of mind in the process. Woujo have some good content about what drives men's behavior... https://www.woujo.com/blog/2019/12/5/the-purpose-series-part-1-of-3-purpose-anxiety-fear-the-unknown-and-the-purposeless-epidemic-in-modern-society In any case you can learn a lot from simply listening to the perspectives of other people. Becoming a good listener is the best way to facilitating personal growth in my opinion... And listening in a non-judgmental manner with no intention of trying to fix another person's problems. I see people who use personal development as a crutch to compensate for their lack of people skills, myself included.

I see all these labels applied to people that only serve to divide us like black white male female gay straight Chinese Hindu American Caucasian Mexican etc. I don't believe human beings have as much free will as we think we do. It really takes a lot of work to actually see something you want to achieve and go and make the hard changes to go and achieve it it's much easier to simply Coast on pre-existing habits picked up from childhood. Change is painful but rewarding. Being addicted to your habits and not changing as often more painful in the long run though. Regardless life is not easy. Most of what we do is just a result of culture and evolution our DNA which is computer code is simply running the software encoded in it. We have a limited ability to reprogram ourselves and ideally we would wait to have children until after we have become the best version of ourselves as I believe we can pass on these traits to our offspring more effectively.

My 65 year old father who still squats has the same advice after decades lifting with no injuries...perfect form with lighter weights and more reps. Also there's certain exercises that you simply should not do. Google them. Dips are one of them, they tend to hurt shoulders if not done with correct form. Deadlifts must be done properly to avoid blowing out lower back disks... Sciatica is very common in older people from improper lifting and posture. Be careful not to overtrain and burn yourself out also, and get enough sleep with a good sleep schedule. Insomnia is largely caused by excessive sympathetic activation...too much stress and stimulation, including screen time, stress, anxiety. Most personal development revolves around the ying and yang of pushing yourself while still accepting where you are in the journey...push too hard and burn out. https://www.holistichelp.net/blog/autonomic-nervous-system-dysfunction/

You have to balance the ying with the yang. Everything in moderation.

I'd like to see a Desantis/Noem ticket. Democrat policies are not working in America. The covid pandemic policies drove massive supply chain disruptions and inflation. Giving out free stuff to everyone simply doesn't work. Going soft on crime because of this perception that blacks are discriminated against by law enforcement simply doesn't work. Crime is exploding in major cities. It just seems like society these days rewards irresponsible behavior... bail out everyone for everything. We are animals that evolved over a couple of million years and still need carrot and stick sort of pavlonian conditioning to get us to thrive as a species. We need to teach people to fish, not give them fish. Democrats operate too much on what makes them feel good in the moment and don't think about how things actually work or what affect their policies will have in 10 years. I'm no huge fan of the republicans either. We really need third parties and governments not controlled by small groups of wealthy people. Power needs to be divided. Less "career politicians" who's primary goal is to raise money. Abolish quantitative easing and the government to be able to print unlimited money out of thin air. The more checks and balances the better. I'm very much anti-authoritarian, which means I oppose power and wealth getting too concentrated, whether the system of government is capitalist or communist doesn't matter, the problem is concentration of authority into small groups of people who want to impose their will on others, or masses of sheep that get assimilated into their cult political parties and insist on trying to force feed their dogma to everyone else. Some of us just want to live and let live, and be left alone. You do as you wish, I do as I wish. I look at human behavior and evolution and it's all so predictable it's quite amusing. Herd mentality at it's finest. There's a reason most people are turned off by politics.

I see compassion as only taking the species so far. You can't save everyone. If you tried, they'd breed like rabbits and you'd have a worse problem on your hands. I understand and respect the compassion of stage greens, but they lack an understanding of pavlonian conditioning it seems like to me. Teach people to fish, don't give them fish. How do we solve the hunger problem that doesn't involve simply handing out food to people and giving them free shelter, free this free that? Free everything is not sustainable. It creates shortages and drives up the cost for the people who work 60 hours a week to build the infrastructure everyone takes for granted. Forget about whether we force people to eat a vegan diet or not... how do we teach people to be self sufficient? Find that answer and you will do more to help a person than handing out free this, free that. We did not evolve to be able to live a full life not having to contribute to society, and only taking. This applies to everyone.

Everything in moderation. Everyone has different life goals. There's nothing wrong with a gaming marathon if you have achieved your goals. Life is really a mind-trick. Being happy is a matter of perception and mindset combined with what your genetics wants you to do because of evolutionary drives. Thoughts create reality... haven't you seen Joe Dispenza's TV series called Rewired? If you are happy with your life, doing what you do, letting other people tell you that what you are doing is "bad" or "wrong" us utterly pointless. Do what you love, do what makes you happy. Let God be the judge. "Judgment is mine, sayeth the lord." Only you know if you are truly happy, or if there is an emptiness inside from what you do. I plan to be first in line to get a Geforce 4080 and pop it until my Intel 12600K system.

I would avoid it. It encourages an "us vs them" mentality. Plus from an ego perspective I disagree with a lot of the progressive leaning posters here including Leo himself. For example, I don't see republicans like Desantis as this grand threat. I see the woke wing of the democrat party to be at least as equal of a threat, and generally tend to lean anti-authoritarian in general. I find the left can't often see their own authoritarianism, and both sides have their authoritarian tendencies. Basically at this point in my journey debating politics is pointless. You won't change people's minds and it just causes internal conflict and cultivates negative emotional states by both sides. I'd rather focus on what we all have in common versus what we don't have in common, and try to maintain a live and let live mentality and treat others like I'd like to be treated. I don't want to fall into this trap of hating republicans and seeing them as evil. On the same note, I don't want to fall into the trap of seeing the woke left as evil either. They are just people. They've both gone through their own hardships, been culturalized by their own dogma to believe what they do. I find politics is more like a horseshoe... the extreme left and right have more in common with each other than anyone in the middle, the so called "moderates" and "normal people." Unhappy people tend to gravitate towards more extreme political philosophies. Happy people just want to be left alone to live their lives. To the unhappy people this is unacceptable. We could debate the reason they are unhappy forever, and try to blame it on various things we think we can fix... fair enough. Checks and balances to keep power from concentrating are the best way to keep human nature in check. Doesn't matter of it's Putin, Xi, Soros, Desantis, Trump, Kim Jong-Un, Klaus Schwab, The World Bank, or whoever.. when power gets concentrated into the hands of the few, problems occur. It doesn't matter how enlightened you think your world view is, nobody should have unchecked authority to dictate to people, or to buy political influence. If the person you don't like wins the election, or the court makes a decision you do not like, tough shit. Deal with it. Learn to see from their perspective, try to see why they think the way they do, and try to extend an olive branch of understanding instead of ridiculing and trying to "cancel" them. One thing I love about the United States... state's rights. If you live in a state that doesn't share your worldview, move to a different one. What I disagree with is using the Federal government to try to force policy on states whether it happens to be about guns, drug use, abortion, or whatever the case may be. Maximum state's rights can allow us to all get along, instead of trying to force our worldview on each other in a one size fits all fashion, and both sides do it. Bottom line, you will NEVER please everyone. It's simply impossible to do so. You can achieve policy that produces the most happiness and prosperity for the majority.

I find obsessing over breathing patterns to be a trap. When one is sufficiently relaxed, in a state of open focus, present moment awareness, with more dominant alpha brainwave activity, breathing will naturally deepen on it's own. It's fine to use as a tool to focus, but don't obsess over it.

Expose yourself to lots of different information and perspectives. You are the content of what you consume. Garbage inputs = garbage outputs. Don't fall into the trap of getting sucked into political forums and debating people like I have. Don't get stuck in echo chamber like perspectives on subjects. Always try to see things from someone else's point of view. Keep an open mind. Try not to judge others for their perspective or the perception they are "sheep" who are not self aware, or asleep at the wheel. Resist the need to want to fix everything. People walk their own path and learn at their own pace. They don't need you to save them, unless they ask for advice. A lot of people get caught into the trap of looking at what they perceive to be the "state of the world" to be and it depresses them. This is counter productive, because our species has always been kind of a mess. It's not really any worse today. Catastrophizing about the "state of the world" is the number one mistake I see people make here, they want to change everyone to adopt their world view, and that is simply not going to happen. They consume too much media, which often likes to feed "dirty laundry" to people, and are unable to see the good in the world. This tends to be toxic. I personally disagree that to be into personal growth, you need to be out there as some crusader saving the planet from perceived problems. Who's to say what you are fighting for is really a problem? The laws of nature are fairly amoral. That duality of this simulation is what makes this reality a good "learning tool"... you can't appreciate the "good" without the "bad." In fact seeing something as "bad" at all is a value judgment. Sometimes the person judging is missing the big picture perspective in my opinion. They can't see the forest through the trees. Seek to undo karmic entanglements. Seek to roll with the punches, ride with the waves, and resist "what is" as little as you can. Worry about what you can change, not what you can't. Seek to integrate and understand all levels of spiral dynamics, and not focus on a single stage, seeing other stages as inferior. Don't feel like you have to be a saint. Nobody is perfect. Accept we are human in this particular simulation, and that makes us flawed by definition, with animal instincts, urges, drives, and a still rather primitive limbic system.

For me social media is a trap... it doesn't actually relax me, it keeps my nervous system overstimulated. Most articles you find on the topic talk about children, but it applies to adults also. https://www.newworldlibrary.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/230/ArticleID/339/Default.aspx I've banned myself from the city-data and godlikeproductions forums for now, trying to cut wasteful idle screen time. I'd say the healthiest thing would be to replace screen time with time that is spent being mindful, present moment focused, or in a state of what is called "open focus" ... this will relax the nervous system, decrease stress levels, eliminate cheap and easy sources of dopamine, and make it easier to start healthy habits. It will cultivate an alpha brainwave state which makes new learning and self improvement easier. As far as new habits go, what matters more than how much time you spend doing them is that you do them every day. They always say when learning piano or guitar you are better off spending 15-30 minutes every day practicing rather than 4 hours a day, twice a week. It has to do with how the brain adopts new behaviors. Start out with 5 minutes of your new habit every day, and increase until you are at the level you want. For a new behavior to become automatic, do it every day. There are exceptions to this rule, such as with weight lifting. For me the dopamine withdraw process was helpful to find new activities I enjoyed... when stuck on screens, fapping, video games, food, drugs, and other "easy" dopamine sources the body will be less driven to want to expand and grow, and will also tend to suffer from brain fog and zombie mode, feeling lazy and unmotivated. Not masturbating for me is key. Find more eudominic hobbies and less hedonic hobbies, like in Leo's happiness spectrum video.

Honesty you want to know what happens? I'll tell you. Chuckle. It's just the total truth. The forum gets totally taken over by anti-jew and incel posters... they sit around criticizing Israel and Women all day long. They strive to have some puritan utopia that only exists in their heads as they swallow their right wing conspiracy theories. I consider myself a political moderate though most here would consider me conservative, and I can see the right's paranoia just like I see the lefts (the woke) and this is unmoderated political forums after a while. These types of posters are one trick ponies and it's all they ever talk about. They enjoy their echo chambers where they sit all day long in a circle jerk reinforcing one another's viewpoints.

I would recommend books and youtube videos by Joe Dispenza... basically personal development types have narrowed the process down to first relaxing into that alpha brainwave state using open focus meditation and mindfulness techniques, then using a combination of visualization and positive thinking to rewire a new state of being into one's limbic brain while allowing the old state of being to "atrophy" like not using a muscle. There's also books like atomic habits. It all comes down to routines and making healthy habits automatic through a process of rewiring the brain and creating new habits. This is like withdrawing from a drug you have become addicted too over decades... it involves discomfort. It involves cravings. It involves backsliding and trying again. Gradually you get better and better. https://effectiviology.com/the-stages-of-learning-how-you-slowly-become-more-competent-at-new-skills/ Being able to mindfully sit with cravings is the first step towards self mastery. Once you become proficient at doing this you can literally learn any new skill.

You are the sum of your genetics, your soul's past life experiences, your cultural upbringing, your parents, and the laws of physics which allowed reality in this particular simulation to manifest in the manner in which is has. You have free will, and yet at the same time you don't. You make of this dream whatever mindset you decide to hold. Take responsibility for your thoughts, perspective, habits, and mindset, and seek to make the best version of yourself. Don't play the victim and place all the problems for your life out there on some boogeyman. Good dreaming! One thing I like to do is see people who push my buttons as an opportunity for growth. I ask myself why they push my buttons and what it is about my programming that causes me to get annoyed, angry or whatever... along with trying to be more present moment focused and not living on the past or catastrophizing about some future outcome.

The best thing to have is plenty of checks and balances to keep human nature in check. It's human nature that is the problem, and unlike some here I don't believe that voting for leftist candidates will solve all the world's problems, due to human nature. There's plenty of examples of socialism ending up in disaster with dictators carting away anyone who doesn't comply to camps, and things of that sort. Look at modern day China's covid zero policies... Making sure power and wealth do not concentrate, that too much policy isn't implemented from the hands of too few individuals, no matter how good their intentions seem to be... for example the WHO or CDC trying to override our constitution and implement covid mandates that bypass our checks and balances. The person who said the road to hell is paved with good intentions is right. I don't trust human nature, so checks and balances are good. No authoritarians. No dictators. Plenty of choice. You will never please everyone, and you will never be able to save everyone, no matter how hard you try. The best we can do is come up with a system of government that works for most, and maybe have different forms of government for people with differing beliefs. This is why I love the US... state's rights being such a large part of the makeup of the country governors can decide to issue executive orders nullifying the federal government, and to me that's powerful. Someone who is left leaning can move to CA, someone who is right leaning can move to Florida or Tennessee or wherever, and each can be happy. No dictators trying to implement one size fits all policy on unwilling populace. Bottom line, if you want the entire planet to assimilate into your collective mindset, you are part of the problem. You have unrealistic expectations. Live and let live, within reason.

People are fooled into thinking they can eat unlimited amounts of so-called "natural sugar" from things like dates by a lot of plant based promoters and this thinking is flawed... sugars are molecules of glucose and fructose and whether they come from HFCS, maple syrup, honey, or beet sugar, if you over eat any of these sugars you will suffer the same health problems in the end. Excessive consumption of fructose containing items should be avoided because it goes through a similar metabolic process as alcohol where it's processed by the liver. A lot of people who overeat fructose end up with NAFLD, skinny fat, and get these little pregnant beer gut looks. I saw it once badly in a road biker... he was on a 100 mile ride and otherwise skinny but looked pregnant. I never saw anything like it. It's because of excess alcohol/fructose. All sugars are generally 40-60% fructose with the exception of agave which is 80-90% fructose. Starches in the other hand metabolize directly into glucose are are taken in by cells. They are quite a bit more healthy especially if you are not overweight... even simple starches like white bread/rice in moderation. One thing a lot of people consume they think is healthy is pasteurized fruit juices like Orange juice... not healthy, fructose bomb with a little vitamin C added.

It's nothing super complicated... just avoid processed high carb, high fat items... cut out things like these: Pizza, cookies, hot pockets, pie, chips, crackers, cereal, cookies, donuts, pop tarts, cake, soda, candy bars (dark chocolate is fine,) ice cream, white bread, french fries, fried chicken, fast food... Eat things like: Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, cultured milk products (kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese), fish Also calories in, calories out is important. If you overeat too much of anything you will get fat. Get your antioxidants from things like berries, coffee, dark beers, chocolate, cinnamon and other spices, dark wines, and certain fruits like Apples. Avoid excessive sun exposure. Don't go tanning thinking it will make you look more sexy because when you get older you will have more facial wrinkles, dark spots, and other side effects that come with excessive oxidation the UVA and UVB rays cause.

Great post. I should add that nofap works because it helps to cultivate self mastery. It's not because of any minerals lost in the semen or anything, it's because like Leo's episode on addiction talks about.. if you are able to sit there with a craving and just observe it mindfully, and not let it control you and not give into the craving, it's a very powerful habit when cultivated. Sex is the strongest drive humans have besides hard drugs when it comes to the dopamine response in the brain, so it's going to be one of the strongest cravings to practice this with. For men it's imperative to cultivate self mastery to be the top of the food chain in desirability and personal growth. A weak man who goes through life giving into hedonistic cravings (fapping, pot, video games day in day out) is not something that personally I find appealing. I've gone through my hedonistic phase. I'm done with that. Learning, growing, eudimonic activities, are what really drive me now going forward. It's one reason I took up musical theory. It's good to have a new habit to replace the old habit to prevent falling back into the old habit.

The best thing to enhance the subconscious memory recall is to practice mindfulness and stress reduction. I've been studying musical theory as a hobby to get away from video games and forums and when trying to recall notes on the grand staff and memorize key signatures it becomes futile if I'm sleep deprived or otherwise stressed out. Cultivating the parasympathetic response, those alpha brain waves, is key. I've found the work of Joe Dispenza useful lately... how to reprogram the limbic response, self mastery, habit forming, using "open focus" as a means of cultivating relaxation... Aside from the mental work, fish oil should work best for memory... salmon, trout, canned mackerel and/or herring. Honestly, the vast majority of health problems people around the world face are not diet related (aside from over-consumption of calories leading to obesity) they are stress related. We over-think too much in many cultures... use our left brains too much... we try to exert too much control over the circumstances in our lives... people need to learn to relax, let go a bit, ride the waves, roll with the punches... it takes a lot of energy to build up all these barriers to try to keep oneself safe...

Whatever a person can do to make themselves self sufficient I applaud them for. If a woman is for example making money selling farts in a jar to desperate men for money, I'm all for that. They are providing a service that someone is purchasing. Great! Similarly I enjoy watching Rust streamers.. they have 5000 hours of experience playing that video game and managed to monetize their efforts. Excellent! Side gigs are great. Being able to support oneself without having to work for someone else and be subject to corporate slavery is great, but some people do have to be corporate slaves. I am a corporate slave, but am good at my job and paid well to do it. What I don't support is entitlement mentality... the idea people should get paid to merely exist without contributing to society. I really should get over that hangup or I'll find myself reincarnating as someone who is depending on handouts. It's part of the reason I'm back here. I want to give up my city-data addiction once and for all. I want to be around people who can expand my perspective a bit.

My main issue with green is that on the one hand this is a forum focused on personal development, and on another hand many of these same stage greens want to have lifetime entitlements for people and try to save everyone. I'm of the opinion you should teach people to fish, and not give them fish, and that we reward bad behavior in society these days. The american left encourage people to "live in the moment" and do whatever one "feels" like and then rewards bad behavior with handouts. I believe in operant/pavlonian conditioning where good (responsible) behavior should be rewarded and things like equity, lifetime welfare, entitlements, bailouts, etc. do the opposite of help to grow a person, they keep them in a state of perpetual victim-hood and give them an entitlement mentality. They don't learn their lesson and by getting bailed out are encouraged to repeat said behavior. You can't save everyone. We can't take in every refugee, feed every starving person, for no other reason than they will breed like rabbits and in a generation we will have to feed three times as many. People need to be taught to be self sufficient and independent. This can be done while still maintaining a community mindset. I just don't support giving people free stuff for nothing for long periods of time. It doesn't help them grow in any way, and burdens the people who are working and paying for these people who don't contribute. Neither political party is worthy of my support in 2022, but I can't vote democrat in their current state. I don't understand for example not giving violent criminals high bails, and the increasing violence they are allowed to get away with in large cities, much less the promotion of prepubescents changing their genders, among other questionable social policy. Basically it's our species that is the problem. Like I've said on city-data I don't have much respect for any of the leadership in any nation right now that the blinders are off to human nature. I see corruption... everywhere. I see people who want to tell each other what to do and have no tolerance for differences. I see increased authoritarian mindset among politicians. I see late stage capitalism making people soft to evolutionary nature.. life is hard, it's not meant to be easy, and people aren't supposed to be coddled. Coddling people doesn't help them grow. I guess I see what I want to see.

People are tired of the identity politics, this obsession with race, critical race theory, pushing transgenderism on children who haven't even reached puberty, cancel culture, the mask mandates, especially in schools, and the list goes on. Also this soft on crime mentality where violent offenders are given low bails... why? https://www.belling.com/april-5-results-a-smashing-victory-for-grass-roots-conservatism-in-southeast-wisconsin/ This and many other things related to this are why a red wave is coming. I'm not a huge fan of republicans, but the left is off their rockers lately. They haven't even hidden this fact and gone moderate during this election cycle... they seem to be as extreme as ever with what they are peddling.

My grandmother was an atheist when she had her near death experience. She was told it was not her time, she had 4 children to raise (my mother and aunts, uncle) I remain skeptical but with an open mind. I've read the journey of souls series of books. I mean if you believe in universal consciousness, oneness, non duality, and don't just believe that a trip with DMT is due to chemical reactions in the brain, it's not a logical next step to then believe in the soul and the concept of reincarnation. Why would a DMT trip be any more valid as far as the truths you would acquire?

I listen to mark belling, a conservative radio talk show host out of Milwaukee. It's the only mainstream news I get. He's more common sense than a lot of them...he got his vaccine and booster and believes in vaccine choice and has always said that "rationalization is the second strongest human drive" ...when I heard Leo bring up rationalizing in recent videos I always think of that quote. I need, I must, get access to all sides of the story so I can find my own truth. I don't want my truth spoon fed to me. I bring him up here because his show, for his market, gets good ratings. (1130 WISN MILWAUKEE MARKET)...it can be streamed on iheart so I wouldn't be able to listen otherwise, living in south Dakota. https://www.talkers.com/category/ratings-takeaways/