Ayham

Hi from Iraq, I don't know about Latin America but it is red af here, but I would say more blue depending on the place. Some areas and settings are very red, some are very blue, and some are very orange, a green area is nonexistent for example. BTW, in Iraq, lawyers are jobless (and also everyone lol) because most of the time, the "law" gets implemented by clans, like, your last name is your clan, each clan has a head chief or something, people use their clans to get back at people and stuff, either through taking money from people or sometimes it evolves into a gun fight. But actually Iraq is developing a lot recently, like in the last few years, it is becoming much more orange, these stuff are getting rare, I just hope nothing happens in Iraq because we are just getting ourselves together lol (since the tensions in the middle east are fire right now).

Me too

The book called kundalini exposed has a well written section on how to ground yourself when things get intense like this. It includes stuff like weightlifting, cardio, stretching, eating meat, etc.

@Panteranegra Very well, and do you recommend a specific online resource?

I highly recommend Daniel Schmachtenberger (however his name is spelled) booklist, it is available on his website and I find it higher quality than Leo's but the books are quite dense and yes they are worth internalizing, if you spend 4 years on his list of around 40 books (quality over quantity reading, not less time reading, but more reflection and deep reading) you will be all set for an awesome foundation. https://civilizationemerging.com/resources/books/

Thank you for your very detailed answer, I read it multiple times and understood it well. My questions are: I have no option for initiation, I live in a part of the world that does not provide that option, what would you recommend from your knowledge? and what techniques does your routine consist of? Practicing from books have lead me to a lot of confusion due to the differences between various others, and I keep jumping around rather than sticking to something.

@Panteranegra I would like to know how transformative it is and what your practice is like.

I convinced him to take an albert camus approach for now.

Thank you for all your answers, I am trying all of those, from referring him to a suicide helpline to being understanding and motivating him and other stuff. Yet he really seems like he doesn't want help, his mindset is like "I have the freedom to not live my life and thats okay" Fuck. I will update you guys if something happens, apparently he has a planned date that is near to do it but refuses to tell me when.

What do I do? he talks about how it is his freedom and he knows this is better for him and he has endured years, that is sound logically. but man.. he is one of my best friends since 5 years, he comes from a very abusive and controlling family that is ruining his life. I am very emotionally intelligent and good at communicating emotions, understanding and listening to people, which is why I am usually the "therapist friend" and why he told me. He has been suicidal ever since I knew him, I have tried all the advice in the book. Should I tell his father? Even though his father is one of the main reasons for his misery, extremely manipulative and controlling. If I let him do it, I would feel guilty my whole life. If I try to stop him... I am not sure how that will work. I love him very dearly.

I'm from Iraq, and yes it is proposed but not agreed upon yet.

I just read an old post of yours talking about how you want like minded friends. I met @toasty7718 here, he dmed me a year go after seeing I am 16 as well, and we are great self-actualization friends, we joke around a lot and have fun and also have positive influence and share resources and talk cool stuff. Purely online though as we live on different sides of the world lol. Wanna be friends?

Aside from the thread topic, I am indeed happy to have found another 17 years old here in addition to @toasty7718. Now regarding the actual topic, you are right to feel a bit late, it is human nature after all, we tend to look at the more negative parts in ourselves and look at the positives in others, you may look at people who started when they are 7 and think "oh man... I am so late". One key skill we aim to develop as people looking to master our own minds and "self-actualize" is to be aware of thoughts that you actually deep down now are wrong and harmful, but they keep playing games on you, deep down you know you are not late, deep down you know you can still do stuff well, so just let go of these thoughts, consider that you winning means facing this perfectionist self of yours. Think of the ideal person in your situation, would they sit and be like "but oh man... I am so late"? of course not. Think of someone world class, most of the time they did not even aim to be world class, but rather they were so in love with what they were doing that they focused on doing it. For me I have two areas to master: AI engineering Writing My actual zone of genius would be finding answers and understanding the world through all sorts of fields from spirituality to philosophy to history to religions to sociology to physics to anything, the impact I want to make is to create a revolution in thinking, creating some sort of stage yellow society that has the capability of switching lenses between worldviews, to teach and inspire people, and writing is something I am passionate about and puts me in flow, AI is fascinating for me and its very relevant. Both of these I am not really an expert in yet, but I try to look at 10 years, I have a plan to become world class in both. And keep in mind, in this distracted modern world, most people aren't doing serious hard deep work or training, it is much easier to become world class, the standard is lower. We need to develop the ability to actually work deeply and hard, one or two hours a day, for 10 years, you would be scary good at whatever field you choose. Find a way to constantly train your charisma. And plus, you could even begin at 20 and you are not too late, we have a lot of resources these days, you can shortcut the process of mastery by finding masters in your field and directly learning from them, whether in person or books or online, this is a fascinating age we live in for this very reason. You got this, your worrying shows you have ambition and that's a good marker of success, just don't let your perfectionism stand in the way, it is a demon you will have to beat, I will have to beat it as well.

Good input, the forum used to be much better years ago though.

my reading process: as i read, i casually underline and write ideas on the margins of the book I have a note for each book in my Zettelkasten in obsidian.md I rephrase the underlined stuff in my own words in the note for the book Then I make atomic notes, which are basically mini essays on each idea in the book Leo's booklist is great, but I prefer Daniel Burger list https://civilizationemerging.com/resources/books/