Loving Radiance

Just use the parties for being social and making friends.

@Tudo About what Benton said, The first effects I notice for myself that I feel slightly disorientated because my thoughts are more fluid and non-linear (like when I'm close to sleep). Edit: Oh wait! You already did it! Congrats!

Gullible isn't even in dictionaries according to the opening quote of the Leo's scam video (hint: the opening quote is a scam itself haha) That's sad to hear, I can understand him.

This thread is very informational for me because I was on the other side of the end. Very much the same situation. No worries @somegirl, I'm not your ex cause I am not from Serbia He is capable of feeling sorry if he self-reflected on his actions. It can also be that he wants to get back into your pants. So, the best way is to accept his apology and to go no contact with him. It can be the case that he hurt you because he was desperate for sexual attention. And that desperate part can be stuck at child development which can make it narcissistic. Narcissistic behavior could explain the apology. You only know he apologized, and now you can live more with a free heart. Again, him apologizing doesn't mean that he is welcome in your life. What did help you process your feelings and heal your heart? @soos_mite_ah Yes, as we know from the last video about scam, talk is cheap.

Wake-up call - pointer to source I watched Stranger Than Fiction for my coaching session. The ending scene hit hard. "As Harold took a bite of the Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be okay. Sometimes when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. Unfortunately, when there aren’t any cookies we can find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or a subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort. Not to mention hospital gurneys, and nose plugs, and uneaten Danish, and soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things – the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties – which we assume only accessorize our days are in fact here for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange. But I also know that it so happens to be true." I feel a resonance in that. When you lose yourself in fear & contraction, you can thank God for feeling good. When you don’t feel good you can find reassurance in people, acts and things in the world that make you feel loved.

Was it the woman who did transcendental meditation, then stopped and then awoke a few years later? I think the moral of the story was that it's always good to ground the practice in theory (which also includes enlightenment). @Girzo Oh, I didn't know that she was this hard core.

https://www.sloww.co/start-here/ This creator's life purpose is "synthesizing the world’s wisdom on the art of living for students of life". It is covering spiral dynamics stage Green till Turquoise topics. The disciplines are: meaning & purpose psychology & mental mastery natural & social sciences philosophy & metaphysics spirituality & consciousness slow & simple living The website is for people arriving at stage green self-help (slow living & simple living, creating an intentional life), and for people looking into self-actualization (life purpose & meaning) and self-transcendence (mental mastery & worldly wisdom).

@JonasVE12 Thanks alot! I can clearly imagine doing this. @Gesundheit2 The taking baby steps is something I got to focus more on in this work forget it so often

@Kksd74628 Yeah I get you

@Kksd74628 It isn't rational and it isn't something to be reasoned with. I see how it comes from my childhood experiences. It isn't aligned with reality, but I create my reality according to that belief. @JonasVE12 You are the first one I can think of who knows how to go about what I stated in the OP.

VR is like books. If books are used for avoiding life, to escape & replace reality, then it's leading to contraction & separation. The more immersive a technology is, the greater it's potential for abuse is. It will happen and people will learn from it. In the end it will lead to more connection of mankind because people learn from the excesses. It will balance out. Kinda like 3)

Hey there! The war seems to be in Ukraine so far. There is no chance that Germany will get surprise attacked. Russia got to go through Poland and that will take a long time. So no worries. (I don't even think Putin wants other countries to be involved and go to the offense with them) IF anything serious would happen, you'd have enough time to play moving somewhere else or no time at all because we are all bombed. But I don't think all getting bombed is happening anytime soon.

@Sloww Wonderful to hear! And welcome to the forum It felt satisfying to see your development in the posts and how you subtly communicated your journey through the stages without naming them. Did you start with your work because of Leo's life purpose course? I ask because as far as I can see in your articles you have also worked with your values and impact statement.

*Reporting Leo comments as spam*

Contemplation with a journal will generate more insights than you can integrate. Watch out for the trap of getting frustrated because you can't integrate what you realized. Begin with the topics Leo offered in the video to start training your introspection muscle. Then go more into the direction of identity, perception and choice. When you contemplate rather than thinking about things, meditate on a question. Focus on your awareness. Focus on the tranquil water. Something will arise from the depths of your awareness and give form to a sentence. You feel the form and know immediately what thoughts describe that. You know the validity of these thoughts by looking at your direct experience. Do that and you will download stuff you never knew. Watch out for the trap of believing to be brilliant because you are generating these insights. No, you are only a transistor for the insights. Rather than getting frustrated because of cutting it dead in one moment and being lost again, better just stay in the present and focus on what you do. You do to come to the breath every time when you are noticing a thought. Only that. There are no judgemental thoughts of past meditation needed. Funny enough, letting go of these judgemental thoughts will skyrocket your practice. It's like a self-steering ship. The difference between expanded and contracted times in meditation is there for you to know what you don't want. Expansion and contraction are, like unity and division, always oscillating. That's a feature of limitation. Just stay at it. Only when you look back at notes of how your meditation went from months ago, then you'll be able to see the improved quality of your practice. How are you bringing your meditation into every day life? Do you notice that you can better choose the reality you want to experience? You'll see the extent of these questions when you are in an expanded state of consciousness, like in shamanic breathing or on psychedelics. The questions then hit more home and you see the impact of them more clearly. It's like dropping a stone into water while sober and only noticing that it's gone. Then you can also do the same on psychedelics and see the extent of it. The ripple effects of the stone are quite literally the ripples and waves of the water. In an expanded state you'll see the ripple effect of these questions more clearly because you have access to more holistic perception. Use expanded states like a telescope: You want to spot a planet and use a telescope for it. After looking through it, you can take a step back and find the planet with your eyes because you know where to look. You know where to focus on in meditation & self-inquiry. That's also the case for contemplation. Notice that you get frustrated when you believe the thought "I am not improving". It is entirely optional to get an emotion because of a thought. When you notice that you don't feel good & suffer because of the thought, then just cut it dead like in meditation. The fact is that "I am improving" is more so the case because you came here to ask In general, expand your requisite variety. Get more different experiences of spiritual practices. And don't only limit yourself to shamanic breathing or psychedelics. Explore and notice what works for you. Perhaps yoga is your bliss, who knows. All the best.

@Leo Gura In my perception there's a trend of long time users leaving the forum since 1 year. Do you plan to ease the masculine bias here? It's not about you personally. It's their image of you that they complain about. That's like complaining about the unicorn they imagine. That is the masculine bias on the forum here. I understand you. It's tough. Forestluv and Emerald already pointed out the imbalance on here. If it is better for your mental wellbeing, there are many forums which are more balanced and where one's expression is encouraged no matter how many posts you might have. You can also use this opportunity to take a break and search elsewhere for a place of learning, helping, discussing and interacting with people. You can use this opportunity to talk to people on spirituality & self-development discord channels or Zoom meetings. It is an opportunity to feel better by exploring other options and possibly finding better ones for you. That's gold ?? It's rather an expression of what is going on for her right now. Any absolutes only describe the present experience. It's like your partner says to you, "You never love me". Actually, it means, "I don't feel loved by you right now." It might also have accumulated since a some time.

So, if you don't have anything to hide, I then can have access to all your private messages?

@Kksd74628 Thanks for the response. All the best to you ?

@Kksd74628 I like to share with you a thought which came up when reading this thread, and I'm curious how it is for you. I project this dynamic on your interaction in this thread, and perhaps it's true for you too: Just today I let go of helping a former friend of mine. I hold her close to my heart. I wanted to support and guide her in recognizing the self-destructive stories she believes. It came from good intentions. I thought I wanted to help her to alleviate her suffering, but it was about me putting my agenda and will on her. It was me putting my desire on her for her to change. And she doesn't want to change. In fact, she views any attempt of me to "help her" as an attack because I put my agenda on her. My unwanted help is like me slapping her. Do you notice that in this thread? To clarify what I mean: What you write with good intentions (your first post in this thread) can be interpreted as pushing advice on someone. When one has a particular lens, one can see every good intention as condescending, manipulative etc. That is okay. We all do that every time when we read, interpret and understand any writing. The thing is that when viewing your post through this lens it then changes its form. The good intention comes with an energy of "I want you to change to feel better myself" which wears the clothes of "I am here to help you to feel better". Here is a quote which can be seen as "I want you to change": ^ In this context these questions are not coming from curiousity but from judgement. I don't like the name askholes for it and yet, these are not questions to get unknown information. ... I don't think that you are a bad person. Only the way you wrote makes it seem so. Here are some assumptions: Of course, assumptions are the only way to form a picture of someone. And still, the quote above has a charging energy to it which is accusatory. I made the parts bold which are assumptions and carry the accusatory energy. Any writing like this can easily be interpreted as coming from a perpetrator who wants to make the addressee a victim. Especially the "you" has a lot of perpetrator energy in it. In non-violent communication the "you" is replaced by "I". "I think", "I assume", "From what I read it seems to me..." etc. It takes the charge out and makes it more impersonal. It's then not the person itself which gets criticized, but it's the specific actions of the person. When speaking from personal experience "I", it then is much more connecting. Speaking from "I" is sharing one's inner world and making oneself vulnerable. When the inner world is projected out onto someone (with "you") it then has a quality of putting the person into a box. It is putting the person into one's own inner world, and that can feel like abuse to the person. It's more vulnerable, connecting and caring when writing, "Hey, just wanted to check in because I am worried about you and I see that you might be not living up to your potential. My worry comes from reading all the stuff you write, which I think is negatively impacting you and is unhealthy." This is not how I think and advise how you should write. It is just to make the vulnerability point more clear. ^ This shows your good intention. And yet, it can be also perceived as a mask to hide behind in order to veil attack or abuse. I am curious for your answer and how you see the dynamic @Kksd74628. I too like to see how much stuff I project on you (e.g. the story with my former friend) and what you recognize as true for you.

I ask because I cannot differentiate between awakening experiences and derealization-depersonalization disorder (where the world and self are directly felt as not real) or the awakening experiences and psychotic phases.

Thanks for the pointers

I found this article http://happinessbeyondthought.blogspot.com/2015/09/are-our-mystical-experiences.html This is what clears a lot up for me and also confirms my experiences:

@gettoefl You are right about the root cause.

Anger doesn't respond to rationality. It just wants to be seen and felt.