The0Self

@LordFall Vaping I found even harder to quit than smoking, since every time I'd smoke, I'd get withdrawal symptoms for 4 days and didn't want to repeat that, whereas whenever I'd stop vaping, there wouldn't be any negative effects at all. I eventually quit because I felt that it interrupted my mindfulness somewhat. Whenever I got the desire to vape, I'd find a place to sit down wherever I was, and do a 1-10 minute meditation session, sometimes just noting my current mind state aloud 1x/sec.

I'd also recommend vaping, if it weren't for his implication that it's been nearly a month since his last smoke. I was pretty much in the clear after like 4-7 days. When vaping, you quickly learn that it's not the nicotine that does the hooking... It's the MAOI alkaloids -- perhaps synergistic with the nicotine, but it certainly ain't the nicotine alone, lol.

You may already know this, but: If something seems solid, maybe try intuitively pouring open-hearted energy into it. Develop the subtle art of holding the solidity as divine, and wishing it well; fill it with happiness. The trick is, while doing this over and over, to observe what happens when you do this. Does the solidity get... less solid? And why does it do that? And how? Solidity feeds on need -- when you offer abundance to it, it may dissolve a bit. Time in relation to the solidity may get less solid itself; self in relation to solidity may get less solid itself; perception in relation to solidity may get less solid itself. Notice this. It's kind of like artificial intelligence learning what makes reality do what it does -- elevating consciousness by exploring its inner workings.

Order of things to try: Meditation -> Melatonin -> CBD oil (preferably full spectrum) -> Oleamide (most likely to work, but perhaps try the others first).

This^^ And grass fed animal products.

300mg DHA + 300-600mg EPA is more than enough. More seems to be wasteful and possibly harmful. Certainly more than 900mg DHA is unfounded. You want EPA to be higher than DHA. Evidence for high doses being healthy often seems arrived at based upon bad assumptions and financial incentives. Lowering triglycerides is not necessarily a good thing — may just signify liver stress.

@levani Certainly does. Powerful anti-inflammatory effects though.

The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa (audiobook part 1 and 2 is available free on YT!!) Seeing That Frees by Rob Burbea (basically as advanced as it gets)

@levani Exactly. It's all about balancing fitness and fatigue. And the more advanced you get, the more periodized the training must be for continued progress, because the amount of fatigue required to get any fitness gains gets progressively higher, and needs to be recovered from in progressively more extensive ways that allow one to hold onto their fitness gains while fatigue heals. At first, you can pretty much do anything, but some things are better than others.

Contradictory evidence on it. Much of the positives seem linked to clear snowball effects and dogmatic beliefs about it that are rooted in industries that stand to gain financially from fish oil being considered healthy by the public. Fish oil (EPA/DHA) does seem to counteract some of the negative health effects of other polyunsaturated fats. Fish oil weakens the immune system slightly. Fish oil can slightly increase muscle mass and decrease fat mass, via increasing fat oxidation -- not necessarily healthy. When I take it, I get very energetic but also somewhat OCD-like. It's psychoactive for me.

Sorry, but this is a pervasive (though understandable and seemingly logical) misconception. You want to balance fitness and fatigue -- e.g. going to failure and hitting failure at, say, 9.5 reps (attempted 10 and failed) instead of just stopping at 9 on a set (lets say it's your last set of attempted 3x10) adds a lot of extra fatigue and only a small amount of extra fitness, relative to that 9 rep set. Whereas nearly every rep before it was adding lots of fitness and very little fatigue. You could do an entire extra set of 8 or 9 and add a TON of fitness adaptation with that saved fatigue that you kept in the tank from simply stopping at 9 reps -- if you went to failure, you might only get 5-7 on the next set. That's not even the half of it though -- this fatigue cost really adds up over time. And this example was for someone who only went to failure on the last set of 10 -- imagine if they went to failure on all 3 sets, and how much fatigue they'd be sacrificing and getting way less fitness adaptation in the process!.. Anyway... Progressive overload is how you gain muscle. Going to failure all the time only works well if you're a beginner or not lifting very heavy, and even then you'd be better off without it. Lots of push/pull/legs movements with progressively heavier weight + consistency + eating enough food is key. And the 8-12 rep range is generally thought to be the best for size but that's if you're already strong; 3 sets x 5 reps (after at least 2-3 warm up sets) works the fastest for most beginners to actually build the strength and mass needed for eventually building size. 5-15 is great for all-purposes/health.

Not even 1 smoke in 27 days and you're still not feeling well? Damn man I was feeling almost totally fine after just 4-7 days, sorry to hear you're still not feeling well. Hopefully it's just lung discomfort etc (which will get better in time), and not still withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, confusion, boredom, craving, exhaustion, insomnia, and anhedonia, right? Though I did kind of have the anhedonia for about a month as well, it wasn't so bad.

@levani Remember to generally do what you can to stay in the 5-15 rep range (outside that range strays a bit too far from aesthetics and health), so figure out how to make it more difficult / add weight, once you're getting to like 14 reps. Rings are fantastic. OR, just keep rest periods limited and you can do stuff like 2,3,5,2,3,5,2,3 etc. This can be fun. However, the work sets' weight should pretty much always be such that it would get you to hit failure on rep 5-18 or so (except for warm up sets, of course) if you were to go all out (try to not go completely to failure; leave a rep in the tank to avoid neural redline; if you accidently go to failure occasionally, that's fine; consistency and progressive overload is key). Outside of that, you generally just want to do stuff like "more work, in any way you can, over a certain time period." Get creative, or do it the boring way. I like both. Chins ups (palms facing you) are more efficient and safer/healthier than pull ups (palms facing forward). Dips + chins (or equivalent) are a complete workout, but only if legs / posterior chain are included somehow -- perhaps do jumps or sprints. You mentioned back squats but if you won't be going to a gym, you could do jumps or sprints. Or maybe deadlifts if you're willing to have a full size 45lb oly bar as part of at least 315lb (might need 405-495lb eventually) of total weight at home (that's what I have, and may start using again once I graduate and no longer find it as convenient to go to my university's gym between classes).

This. @arlin If that's you in your profile picture, you look very good to me. It is your teeth? Because some can overlook that, and teeth can often be fixed. But I'm not downplaying your struggle -- I trust you when you imply that you seem to be less subjectively/objectively attractive than you'd like to be. If I were you, I'd consider practicing Metta. All day long, amidst your daily activities. + sits (very, very still) + walking sessions. Bhante Vimalaramsi style -- relax-smile-return. If you just want to be happy, Metta works about as well as anything. Perhaps even better than seeking enlightenment.

Everything is beyond coral. Beyond coral is not a thing, beyond coral is all there is. Your hands are beyond coral. This computer screen is beyond coral. Stage red is beyond coral. Beyond coral is stage blue, orange, green, yellow, turquoise, purple. Beyond coral is and isn't beyond coral. SD is a useful construct, but there are no constructs.

It never happened. YOU not getting enlightened just, finally, didn't happen. Timelessly, YOU getting enlightened just, finally, didn't happen. And now there's nothing for anyone to do, since there's no one to do it, and no time to do it in. Of course, it was always that way, just unrecognized.

I recommend listening to (audiobook) or reading: Culadasa's The Mind Illuminated, if you want to have a very low chance of spinning your wheels. Practically required reading for a novice meditator. Unless you can remain attentive to the breath sensations indefinitely, your main focus should be cultivating the readiness to emit appreciative joy upon noticing you're distracted - this positive feedback will cause your mind to associate "noticing you're distracted" with "good," and eventually you'll rarely ever get distracted (because as soon as distraction would arise, it instantly would turn into "noticing you're distracted," meaning there just is no distraction). Doesn't matter if the air travels at different speeds in each nostril. The fact that you even notice that is a good sign. You don't even have to use the breath sensations at the nostrils as your object, though it has its benefits. Relax. Perhaps try Metta in the style of Bhante Vimalaramsi -- that is probably the method that can provide the fastest results for a rank beginner, due to its focus on pleasantness, but take that as a hint that you should always look for the joy, while practicing any method. Joy sets in motion a rather shockingly effective positive feedback loop of: joy -> stillness -> more joy -> more stillness -> holy fuck...

Powerful stuff!

Tilopa's advice: 1. Don't recall 2. Don't imagine 3. Don't think 4. Don't examine 5. Don't control 6. Rest

The second one looks like it could burn the absolute crap out of a speaker

Google it. But for increasing working memory capacity (probably not really the memory you're asking about, but anyway), the most effective way seems to be "dual n back" -- it really seems to make some serious changes in brain real-estate because basically every time I do it, even if only for 5-10 minutes, I have insanely intense dreams that night. Oh and if you're doing a lot of meditation, to the point where you're very equanimous, you may actually notice a decrease in your ability to remember -- to the point where you need to write things down.

^^ This. @thestruggler Fill the whole body with awareness kind of like filling up a balloon, so there's not a whole lot of room left over for distractions. Get there by gently but firmly returning to the breath whenever you gleefully notice that you're distracted. Unless you can remain attentive to the breath sensations indefinitely, your main focus should be cultivating the readiness to emit appreciative joy upon noticing you're distracted - this positive feedback will cause your mind to associate "noticing you're distracted" with "good," and eventually you'll rarely ever get distracted (because as soon as distraction would arise, it instantly would turn into "noticing you're distracted," meaning there just is no distraction).

@r0ckyreed One of the most effective for me was just sitting and just intending to enjoy the present moment as much as possible. No matter how sparse the pleasant or neutral sensations seem, just soak up as much enjoyment from them as possible. This does not mean increase pleasure as much as possible -- rather, increase the enjoyment as much as possible. What starts as a humble kindling fire can grow and grow until you feel so rapturous it's almost like you're about to pass out.

In that case, simply cutting out vegetable oils might be sufficient. It will lower estrogen and serotonin, which will in turn increase thyroid activity, lower TSH, and increase T3 -- especially if you are getting enough selenium, zinc, and sunlight. Aspirin can even help with this.