Hans

I'd say the main point about language learning is living in the country where the language is spoken. I just spent 2 months living in Italy for the first time. I started learning the language beginning of my stay and by the end, I was able to understand the language quite well, as long as it was spoken clearly and slowly. What really pushed me to learn it was the fact that everyone was speaking Italian around me all day, every day. Some spoke English with me (that's where I tended to fall into comfort zone, speaking English with them), but some couldn't and the only way to communicate was to start forming some rudimentary sentences. At the same time I was also actively learning words, verb conjugations, looking up what I heard somewhere, trying to read books in the language, asking tons of cos'è questo and cosa vuol dire (what's this and what does ... mean). Basically being very enthusiastic about understanding everything. It was a lot of effort every time, but little by little you get a feeling for it and things start to make sense and feel natural. I think the key for me was really enjoying the culture, the people, being among them and having fun with the language. And being among locals really gives you a feeling of how the language is spoken, which you can't get from a distance.

@Yarco Interesting. May I ask how you went from working an office job to owning a business? How was the transition? How was establishing your business?

You know, I didn't get to ask her why this was important to her, but for some reason this got stuck in my head. Do you think it's about identifying with the human limits in the sense of being afraid to imagine, create, explore fantastical possiblities with your mind - or not afraid, but just content with the ordinary, human existence? Safety of the realism of life? Or would she say she just doesn't like stuff someone made up? Although when you think about it, life is imagined as much as any book or movie. I was walking down the street one day and saw a builder's van on the front of a house. And then it hit me - someone imagined this builder there. Someone thought "I'd like this wall painted blue", ordered a contractor and that was the van in front of the house - someone's imagination. Thanks

A bit off topic, but I was just chatting with my hairdresser about watching movies and she said that she doesn't like movies, but she likes watching some documentaries, because those are based on real life. She added that if there was any fictional elements in the documentary, she would definitely have to research and find them out. I just found that funny. Is there really such a difference between fictional stories and real-life stories? And does it matter?

Thanks for this post. What's with all of the arrogance in this thread? I enjoyed "12 Rules for Life", when I read it 2 years ago. I liked how it was composed of 12 essays and the style of writing. I think JP had a solid point about learning to express your thoughts clearly in writing and speech. At the time this book seemed like a breath of fresh air, but thinking back now, it was probably because I was very lost existentially back then. When you're lost, anything as stable as 12 rules for life you grab onto like a liferaft. So as you said, @Applegarden, maybe at this point this was what I needed to hear and what resonated. Saw the "12 More Rules" on a bookshelf, but personally it didn't appeal to me enough to even pick it up. Why would you need 12 more rules? Seems kind of overwhelming.

Very interesting, thanks. I also had cavities as a teenager, basically every time I visited the dentist. It was horrible. But they started going away once I stopped eating grains and sweets.

Very interesting. I've actually been thinking for a long time about how cool it would be to have this neural network type visualisation for different ideas and concepts. Cool that someone's done it. I like it, except for the fact that it's all text based. In my Onenote I have tons of images, embedded videos, scribbles, colored text etc. Sometimes, images say more than words can.

I've also been trying to lucid dream for a while, but with little success. I think it's mostly because when I sleep I'm just so physically tired from the day that I don't have the energy to maintain consciousness in dreams. I just wanna let go and rest. Maybe that's why most of my dreams are foggy, with washed-out colors and hard to remember. But sometimes when I go to bed early I'll be well rested by the time heavy REM cycles kick in before morning. That's when the dreams sometimes spontaneously become lucid for me and then the clarity of the dreamscape really resembles waking life. Just recently an interesting thing happened. I woke up in the middle of the night, and without much thought or movement I started to will myself out of my body. As soon as I started, I felt strong trembles/vibration coming on, with a thunderous sound in my ears - sleep paralysis, right. But it was interesting that it started right when I tried to leave my body, as if there was this resistance that tried to hold me back. And in the end I don't think I succeeded, I probably slipt into a normal dream. Anyone had similar experiences?

Thanks, @Consilience, for this. I followed this journal for a while and actually did about 20 days of noPMO along with you, which gave me a lot of insight about myself. Follow your intuition and good luck, man.

@AudibleLocket Agreed. I've been playing the drums for years as a hobby, altough I probably think about it as much as my job. Capturing the beauty of existence has always been my biggest motivation and reason for playing music, trying to share the ecstasy I feel when listening to great music through my own playing. But you cannot get there if you get stuck behind notes. That's why you gotta master the instrument, the medium. And of course, after years of drilling the techniques, you start to transcend them and move into music itself, and practicing also becomes more about music. I don't think it's a paradox, just as your mind develops step-by-step upwards without skipping a step. It's all important.

Hey, thanks for this. I got ghosted recently, I was feeling hurt and really still felt like I needed closure - how could she not just say to me what the problem was! But when I read this, I started laughing. Why am I arguing with reality? She ghosted me and this i s reality, this is what's real. Why am I generating more pain for myself, struggling against what is real? It's stupid.

Just wanted to say that I've had very similar experiences lately and you're not alone in this. Seems to be a challenging, healing, changing time for many people right now. A few weeks ago, a lot of emotional crap and childhood traumas started surfacing, during which I felt strong emotions of loneliness, sadness and apathy for days and days. I can say now it was a healing that happened and I understood and accepted many things about life. For example, there's no reason you couldn't be happy at this moment. Right now. Be present to the moment. It helps. Also, gratitude. Being thankful raises your vibes.

Really inspiration-provoking questions. Gonna write them down and think about them later, as I feel myself lacking a vision lately.

Yeah, this is my name. But I do feel a bit vulnerable when I share some deeper thoughts here and definitely wouldn't use the full name.

Thanks for the input, guys. Seems to really be an end of a chapter and some sort of limbo phase. Yesterday while running I listened to the video about life unfolding in chapters and phases, which helped to contextualize and guide this time I'm having. A time of contemplating what I want and need and keeping eyes open for new visions to present themselves. In my case, less alone time might be good, @Recursoinominado, because I've found that being alone too much is exactly what's bothering me about my current life. Although I have to say the outlook of feeling apathy for a year is terrifying, @Strangeloop. I can barely stand it for a few days. Waking up in the morning and having the first thought be "...fuck" - it's horrible. But of course the lengths of these phases are very individual. The hard part is not letting myself plunge into a hole of despair, which wants to happen from time to time. I've been running a lot lately, and the runs have become longer and longer. Also visiting spas and taking really strong sauna sessions. Completely exhausting myself physically is probably the only thing I feel motivation for right now. I've found I can be really mindful during this and work through emotions that come up.