Basman

Professional therapy is expensive because it is an extension of medicine, which has always been costly. To be a fully fledged therapist, you have to undergo many years of training. Not anyone can be a licensed therapist. And there are more people who want to go to therapy than there are therapist. Those are all factors that contribute to the price. There are loads of studies that show that most people who have gone to therapy benefit from it (about 75%). Therapy isn't ineffective. I wonder how you came to that conclusion exactly? It does take time though and you have to find a good therapist that you vibe with to get the most out of it. Therapy isn't a complete solution in of itself however. You have to be interested in wanting to work with yourself and manage your issues. Therapy requires active participation from the patient to be most effective. Sometimes coaching might be more appropiate, depending on what you are looking for exactly. Humans are very complicated.

Why?

like Sincerity mentioned, it is easier to set aside distractions when you have something you are motivated to achieve in a tangible fashion. That aside, when it comes to apps that are useful but also distracting like Youtube, there are a couple of things can could help: Find an app that can block other apps like Youtube. You could for example have it block Youtube after 15 minutes max per day. That way, you can still use the app for when you need it, but have it cut off for excess watching. This works for me, but simply don't use it. I just set a rule for myself, no Youtube for anything except useful things. I have Youtube blocked entirely on my desktop. I'm currently experimenting with a trial period of no social media what-so-ever that are built to be addicting (YT, Twitter, etc.) and just seeing how it feels. In my experience, it is actually quiet liberating. I waste less time, I get better sleep, and I find myself less inundated with outrage content.I only miss certain listenable youtube videos for when I do certain activities, for example I like to listen to news channels like SomeOrdinaryGamers while I make breakfeast.

Like a lot of the others have iterated on, trusting your own conclusions is more important than Leo's. In my experience, most of what you have learned from Actualized you will forget eventually. what'll stick is what is pertinent within your own experiences. This is why drawing your own conclusions is important. It engages you directly and makes your brain work to actually disseminate information instead of it being passive. In that case, information is leading to action, which is ultimately the goal IMO. To me it seems like an issue of critical thinking, the ability to discern information in order to limit inaccuracies. Its possible to entertain ideas without necessarily believing them wholeheartedly. Like trying on clothes. You do this by being alert of anything that affects the accuracy of the information shared, both on part of the informant but also yourself. Your own biases will make you want to readily accept or reject new information, depending on the topic. If you like Leo, you are naturally inclined to believe what he says. He actually stated in his episode about the future direction of Actualized.org to willfully include blatantly false information just to keep you alert, exactly because of this tendency to default to his ideological positon. Don't automatically believe everything. But you can still entertain ideas. Be open-minded but guarded. But more importantly, stay curious.

I've been cold approached once by a girl in the streets. I thought she was a street fundraiser and blew her off as a reflex. In hindsight I realised she was actually hitting on me. It's definetily flattering to be hit on, atleast from the males perspective. I think being direct with your intentions without being obnoxious or creepy isn't going to put people off necesarrily. It helps to find a good setting though. Either way, approaching someone in of itself, not a big deal.

You'll forget most information that isn't grounded in your experience. Books help give you ideas and understand certain things though. Some books are going to resonate more with you because of how they are written. For example, a dry academic tomes that go on for ever bore me to tears, even if the information is valuable in some way. To me, its important that I like the book for what its worth on its own. You should ideally enjoy reading books if you want to use that as a personal development front. But it isn't strictly necessary. There are other ways of learning that doesn't involve reading book. Although I do recommend books if you can muster the interest. They are positively coralleted with success, broadly speaking. The prospect of personal development can be enjoyable in its own right though. In my experience however, its more valuable to learn from personal experience and to contemplate and journal with my self. Help myself instead of relying on others.

Belly breathing is breathing through the diaprahm to be specific, the muscle underneath the lungs at cerca belly level. When we breath with the chest we use the intercostal muscles, which are all the muscles connected to the ribs. I learned to belly breath concistently simply through practice. It's been standard for me for years at this point. You can practice belly breathing by placing one hand on the tummy, the other on the chest. If, when you breath, only the hand on the tummy rises then you are belly breathing. It helps to lay down. Practice so you learn to an intuitive difference between chest and belly breathing. Then you simply have to remind yourself concistently to breath with your belly till it becomes ingrained and standard.

I think a lot of the praising of vegetarianism in western spiritual circles is in part due to moral development on the one hand but also because they are historically influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism a lot. In those religions, vegetarianism is emphasized as a principle. Vegetarianism is part of new-age culture at this point. As to whether or not its "un-spiritual" to eat meat, I don't think so. Spirituality doesn't have a strict definition and means different things to different people. It's a matter of perspective. To some, eating meat is un-spiritual but they can only really speak for themselves IMO.

Why do you believe that eating meat makes you trip deeper? What's the connection?

I'm sorry that you are having such a tough time. I imagine you are feeling rather confused. If you are genuinely distressed mentally, I think it's the wise choise to seek some professional help, whatever is available. Talking to someone can help reduce the distress. This is conjecture: Infering from your text, it sounds like you where raised religious. Most people share the religion of their parents. Because of what seems to be abandonment issues around your dad, your spiritual "father" becomes sort of symbolic of all your upsets and misplaced childhood needs. Children are naturally self-centered in a literal sense. They tend to believe that when bad things happen to them, that its their fault. They have an under developed sense of cause-and-effect. Because your father was absent, perhaps you feel it is somehow your fault and that there is something wrong with you. That you are inherently unlovable. In the context of being brought up Christian and believing in god, your abandonement issues could color how you see god. Children with abandonement issues tend to have problems with authority figures as they lack the basic security they need to form a trusting relationship. I can't know you, so please take whatever I say with a grain of salt and make your own conclusions. With that said, I highly recommend you find someone to speak to if you experience emotional distress to the point where you act drastically in a destructive way.

I've thought abot this some more and I think there is some degree of truth to the thougth that games can be like drugs, in the sense that they can control you and how you spend your time. The heinous thing about modern video games is just how much time you can put into. You can only watch a movie or a read books once. But video games can go on forever. Video games are probably the one activity with the lowest effort to time spent ratio, I.E. you can easily spend 1000s of hours playing video games. Modern video games have become quiet sophisticated at leveraging human psychology in order to keep you playing the same game over and over again. With the added context of FOMO, you can play some games for 100s of hours, where you would normally not bother as much. That's in regard to live service games, but games are also just easy. Why bother trying something new when you can just play some video games and feel rewarded concistently. It's very easy to supplant creative projects or socializing with just playing some video games. I think its important to be creative and experience new novel experience, and games can be immensley distracting. *(while watching a movie) "I could be leveling up my battlepass right now..." I think every gamer should experiment with a dry week/month, just to see how it feels. I did that recently (my dry month ended as of writting) and I've found just how little I had going on besides gaming. That is my own fault admittedly. But it's been good to distance myself and just deal with the boredome. I've gotten into baking for a bit and I started journaling way more (for fun).

Been there, done that, when it comes to courses by spiritual people. Being "spiritual" doesn't mean shit. That's just the outer crust. Someone can have the veneer of being spiritual, knowing all the famous quotes and concepts, but still be a scumbag on the inside. You shouldn't trust people without being critical just because they are part of a loosely defined sub-culture. Even if its not a scam, not worth the asking price most likely (haven't taken in depth look). Most info you need you can find for free at your local library. Don't waste you time and money. Have a high standard when it comes to online courses and be critical.

The qualities of a good man are the qualities of a good leader, IMO. Proactive Self-control Integrity Caring Calmness Deduction skills and can navigate the dangers of their environment appropriately Non-neediness Strives to learn and develop themeselves in some way Respectful Passion Honesty Appropriately assertive Experience Dependability Grooming and cleanliness (more of a modern thing perhaps)

Alternatively, you could buy a cock sleeve. That is a tangible option. Then you can play around with different shapes, sizes and textures. The downside is that it probably reduces sensation for the male, though I couldn't find any conclusive information regarding that.

Primary: 1.9 Secondary: 2.4

Just had a haircut.

4 / 40

Dreams seems to be connected quiet intimately with the subconscious mind. In my own experiences, dreams tend to represent latent emotional states. I think the mind creates visuals in order to make sense of the underlying emotional signals. Then you react to those visuals, and so on. For example, you might dream that you are nude infront of a crowd. That visual might be what the feeling of imposter syndrome would look like. It's not quiet understood what dreams are. I think it's a matter of perspective in a lot of ways.

I don't think strong emotions are going to dissapate on the short-term. You will most likely have to be pro-active to deal with the discontment you feel. Your jealousy might be masking over a sense of dissatisfaction with your sex life. Jealousy is pretty normal, but if it's bothering you, consider how you can make yourself feel less insecure relative to what you are insecure about.

Crying can be relieving and is a natural response when feeling overwhelmed and sad. But it's not the only approach for overcoming heartbreak. Everybody processes their emotions differently. Some start exercising more. Others talk to friends and family, or journal or seek counseling. There are lots of legit ways to process heartbreak. Its important to remember that healing take times and that there is no right way of doing. It's OK if you are not okay. If I was you, I would put less focus on your ex and turn more towards things you do for yourself. But that's just my opinion.

AI is simply a tool. Any tool can be used dangerously, AI is no exception. Where AI differs is its scale and potential to significantly alter and change society. For better or for worse. Here are some examples of how AI can be misused: AI controlled weapons could lead to mass destruction and loss of life. AI-powered malware and other cyber threats can be used to attack individuals, companies, organization and nations. AI-powered surveillance can heavily undermine individual privacy and liberties. AI can be used to create and spread misinformation, deepfakes, etc. which can manipulate public opinion and undermine freedome of speech. Automization will disrupt job markets and the economy. At the very worst, it can contribute to social destabilization. It can be very difficult to explain the decision making of an AI, which makes it harder to hold organizations and business accountable for their actions, undermining the legal protection of individuals. AI will change the world. Not being cognizant of the dangers of AI is foolish, because it absolutely can be used for evil or mishandled. It's very important that we keep a very close eye on AI and its development.

Only real downsides of Chat GPT is having to register with your phone number, the server capacity and there being a limit how many questions you can ask per day.

Aging is the process of DNA running out of telomeres, the part of the DNA that is required for succesfull cell devision. Since telomeres are a finite resource, eventually our cells run out and they start to age and lose their function. Theoretically, if you could somehow "add" more telemores to one's DNA, you could post-pone aging. You could theoretically do that indefinietely if you had the technology for it. Aging is as natural to animals as the biomechanical reliance on a finite enzyme for maintaining the body. Lobster are biologically immortal, as they have an infite supply of telomeres. So it's not the case that aging is natural in principle. It's just so happens that most of us are built in such a way where do age as a byproduct of the biomechanical processees that keep us living. It's not quiet understood why newborns have a fresh supplies of telomeres when they in theory should have the same amout as their parents, as most animals usually aren't capable of creating new telomeres for themselves. Telomeres aren't fully understood yet.

Games can insight compulsive behavior in some people, for certain. But calling developers drug dealers is a way overblown statement. Games are art, and devs are artists. A significant portion of games bought are never even played (about 37% on Steam), and of the games played, only about 10-20% of gamers actually play to completion. They are just games.