Roy

You're so off the cusp @Striving for more, I don't even know where to begin mate, but I'll do my best to address everything you said as I think it's warranted. Maybe it will help some other readers as well. First of all nobody who was raised with the social conditioning that taught them to have any level of success and experience with the opposite sex feels the need to do pick-up. If you already know how to catch fish, why the hell would you go to fishing school? You wouldn't go. It's not smug to point out something as simple as that at all. What I said isn't even controversial, how you came to that conclusion is frankly confusing to me, I'm guessing you're just being a bit defensive here. Also "95%" of men not having the social skills and confidence to attract the opposite sex is not only anecdotally absurd to anybody here reading that statement, if it were even half that number let alone close to it we literally wouldn't even be here having this conversation, because the species wouldn't be able to survive and reproduce LOL. The vast majority of people know how to get in relationships or get sex in some capacity, the lack of social conditioning is mostly a recent phenomena, likely caused by technology being too abundant and popular No, but they CAN. You have to realize, whenever anybody lacks something and they try to compensate for it, they might feel it's necessary to go overboard or be reckless/hasty about it because there is social pressure to "catch-up", which was my original point. If you take a chronically impoverished person and suddenly show them all the potential ways they could make money, they might be tempted to take the easiest, selfish, and most ruthless route they can. The same goes for someone who has been deprived sex and human connection for whatever reason, whether it was their fault or they were a victim of a shitty environment. The lesson here is you can never underestimate a desperate person. "Lacking" can push people to improve healthily, but they can also improve unhealthily. Watch out and observe all the ways the mind will justify and rationalize exploiting other people to fill that "lack". There is too much in this salad of a rant so I'll just say a few things. - Be clear about distinguishing pick-up and general self-improvement and not mix them up like they are the same thing. Yes pick-up has a lot of general self-help in it, which is great I hope people do that and it helps them, but don't misconstrue the fact that the heart of "pick-up" is to get better with the opposite gender so you can have relationships/sex. To challenge YOU specifically, think about the fact calling yourself someone who practices "pick-up" might be apart of your identity. So it's of course in YOUR best interest to defend it and make it appear as noble and great as possible. "Oh yah, pick-up is awesome. It's all about self-improvement. I just want to be the best I can be. I wanted help with women and now I got it and I'm better because of pick-up." Really challenge your own biases. - Yes maybe it would help a lot of guys to get into pick-up (once again they wouldn't need to do it because well, most guys already know how to get laid. It's actually the exception to struggle on something so basic, unfortunately) but it also has the potential to be abused in toxic, selfish ways. A lot of people are very egoic and aren't responsible, they will abuse the spirit of improvement and the power they might get from it in awful ways. There is countless evidence of this. This isn't even debatable so I don't need to bring up a semantic list, but just the fact ALONE that some of the biggest most successful pick-up channels that existed on YouTube and the internet have been permanently banned and had countless accusations come to light. If that doesn't make you immediately laugh, and then question your position a bit, I don't know what will.

Here is all you need to know to understand "pick-up" >>> It's from and for, men and boys who didn't get the social skills and development growing up that they needed in how to deal with the opposite sex, so now they are overcompensating. That's literally all it is. It's not any more complicated than that. Of course as should be obvious, whenever you are overcompensating for anything in life, it tends to be done in sloppy, reckless, and selfish ways.

It doesn't even matter at this point. They will have no chance of beating Kamala Harris. They either try to backtrack and save face by nominating someone milk toast and boring compared to Trump, who won't galvanize the nation enough to win, or they introduce someone even crazier than Trump that they won't want to rally around because of the fiasco they just went through. Either way the GOP is colossally fucked for 4, 8, maybe even 12 years.

You are shaming and gaslighting someone when they are trying to respect the fact we are in the global pandemic that is killing millions of people? What the fuck is wrong with you @Hello from Russia?

How @narkuser you are one solid looking guy! You will be fine if you stay persistent.

@Striving for more I don't use the word clown merely as a negative thing like. Of course you can also get positives from them like you mentioned, which is great. I mean more the essence of a clown itself, which is too distract. People lose the bigger picture, and get too caught up in the "hey look at this guy, he said X". And then people are further drawn into arguing the XYZ's and the positive/negatives of the clown. Which are all endless semantics, because the clown doesn't care. They're just happy the distraction is working, of course this isn't a conscious process. I do hope for people though that they have the consciousness to see through this, and know better, so they can make the world better.

Remember not to get distracted from your own inner work by paying attention to these clowns too much. There are so many wacky and boisterous personas in the world, that you could spend a lifetime getting invested and being entertained by them all, only to have all that time pass and realize it was a waste. Just drive by the circus with a smile, and wave.

That is ego. If everyone could get away with it, they'd fuck and marry the maximum value person they could no matter where they are at themselves.

I'm going to spend a bit more time optimizing and investing in my health with supplements, just looking for some advice from people with lots of experience in the area. What are the overall best/cost effective supplements to take that actually noticeably help your health significantly? Not looking to spend $100's on every little mineral or placebo, just want the ones that pack an actual punch with (hopefully) no side effects. Some information on me (if you need more ask); - 27 year old male - Live in northern Ontario (cold climate 6 months of year, hot/very humid other 6 months) - Quite healthy, only health issues are mid-day fatigue/brain fog some days, and bad psoriasis. - Good diet. Limit sugar intake to just coffee (2 cups a day), eat mostly fruit/veg/organic food, was vegetarian for 4 years now added just fish (1-2 times per week) - Currently take Maca, D3, and Calcium every other day (forgetful lol)

Happiness is simply being radically content and accepting of reality in the present moment.

Spontaneously doing little things that make their day brighter, or make a hard day a bit easier. I like communicating that they are special (to me), and that they are worthy of support and love. Stuff like making breakfast for them even though they never asked. Or leaving a nice message (or sexual one) in their car or texted to them. They can be really small gestures that cost little energy and can be completely free money wise, but go a long way on the impact they have on your partner. Acts of service is my outwards love language I guess hah. My preferred one to receive is quality time.

I might watch it, Thomas Jane is a good actor.

Who has time to watch porn lol? It's way too much of a time investment, it's like 20-40ish minutes for a video to watch the whole way through if you want to build suspense. Just don't get it.

I was in an unfortunate place yesterday as well @Preety_India. You know what I realized? All just bad thoughts, stop thinking! Stop THINKING. STOP. THINKING! Thoughts don't = reality. Reality = reality.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having preferences. Intimacy is a private domain of YOUR life, so it's only natural you get to choose who occupies that space. It's not like you are being discriminate towards who are your co-workers or family, that is where the line gets blurry. It's only limiting if you feel it's causing you to act in more unhealthy or selfish ways, watch out for that. But also don't abandon or guilt yourself out of enjoying and controlling your life in some capacities. You don't need to be a leaf blowing in the wind.

@Emerald You have an organic quality of beauty to you. It appears natural and effortless. I'd take that over the rigid, heavy investment look that most girls unfortunately feel pressured to accomplish these days. If someone has to try too hard to get or maintain a certain look, that might communicate a lot of other things that could questionable. Also LOL @ the Walmart comment. Being funny just added another point

lol the current governments are they way they are BECAUSE of old people. It's RUN by old people, VOTED into their jobs by old people.

Don't sell yourself so short @Emerald. You are MUCH higher up there than a 5 or 6, are you kidding?!

Ghosting is an extremely common occurrence in the modern dating climate unfortunately, because the convenience of the technology people think they don't need to take responsibility for communicating maturely. You'd never "ghost" a co-worker or friend or anyone you see in real life. Unless you're a child of course, but I digress... All I can say is don't take it too personally and don't do it to other people yourself. Most of the time they are simply too lazy or don't want to do the emotional labor of telling you they aren't interested. Don't immediately jump the conclusion that YOU did something wrong because they cut contact. If it's not obvious to you that you fucked up and said something rude or whatever, then you're probably innocent so stop beating yourself up. Even if you DO get an answer from her she might not even give you an honest answer. It's not worth the stress. Just move onto the next girl.

Have the wisdom to listen to your body. If it's making you feel this way, consider no longer smoking weed. Not only will you not feel these things anymore, but your lungs will thank you too!

Anybody on Vancouver Island, Canada in here?

You're already much farther along than you realize. The fact you're even aware of your emotions when talking to her is half way to finding a solution. Now that you notice your emotions, breathe. Let them rise, feel what you feel about them, and then let them pass.... Don't dwell on the anger, or the content of what she is saying, that will cause you to react to it and just feed the irritation further. Respond to her in a way that will feel better than anger, because you're mindful of what that anger feels like and how it's the place you don't want to be. It's ok to be irritated or whatever. Not everyone is compatible with everyone else. All you can do is the best you can. She may always be a little frustrating to you, but is that worth any more stress than it already is? Nope, and you can keep it that way.

One thing at a time man lol. I've got a whole laundry list of things I want to do and accomplish before I can even get enlightened, whatever that might mean. Thanks @Zigzag Idiot, @seeking_brilliance for your help.

I've been struggling for a long while (since late 2017 when I started all this) trying to maintain the level of awareness and consciousness I would like, especially in day to day living. I find being out and about in society running errands, or working/being busy getting things done keeps my brain in kind of an "auto-pilot" low consciousness mode. Either because it exhausts me as an introvert or because I subconsciously know (or I think) it won't be helpful to be super "aware" during that time, even though I do try to be. When I get home I'm usually tired and physically exhausted (I work a physical job and do firefighting on the side) and just want to turn my brain off even more and distract myself with entertainment and relaxation. However this is my free time where I want to be consciously pursing the things I want deep down. Usually my higher self and "awareness" comes at the moments at late night when I should be going to sleep, or I get extreme moments of clarity after days, weeks, or even MONTHS have passed having realized yes I did get basic shit done during all this time, but overall it feels like I'm wasting my life. It feels like I'm living the skeleton of what my life could be and my potential is slipping away, you know? These constant up and down waves and spikes from low consciousness to higher consciousness are very frustrating and makes me resentful of all the time I've lost because I can't maintain any damn consistency with it. I feel it's feeding a deep depression inside me and some other negative emotions and I just would like it to stop. I've made progress on basic things to aid me like getting regular sleep and cutting back sugar/caffeine in my diet, but I need more help. For people who have gone through this and have experience in consciousness work what are the best and most effective things to help maintain a higher, consistent level of awareness? I want to know all your secrets, tricks, and techniques so I can throw them at the wall and see what sticks. Thanks in advance for any contributions. Hope the new year is being good to you all so far.

Oh I don't want to hot-fix anything. I'm in it for the long haul. I'm just after the things that helped people in their journey.