Michael569

@Prabhaker thanks man, that was beautifully written. When you say that practices virtue becomes a dead weight. How about cultivating your virtues to become a better human? Let's say one of my virtues is mindfulness. There are techniques and practices to improve it, yet I would say it does not become a dead weight, far the opposite and it makes you more spiritual because it is not a moral value. Or if truth is one of my virtues and I would organise my life to seek for truth in my chosen field. Would that become a dead weight and a "spiritual trap"? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the second paragraph that you wrote.

presentations skills come to you same as anything else. It is like riding a bike. You need to practice it to become good at it. While some people may naturally be disposed towards an extrovert behaviour and with it easier facing crowds, 95% is practice. The more you do it, the better you get. Agree with what was said above, joining toastmasters is your public speaking "bootcamp" especially your first speech haha, that felt like having a billion crazy monkeys in my stomach.

@Tibor interesting, Can you elaborate on the food frequency topic a little bit? What is it and why do you think it is important? y?

Deleting FB and IS is like smashing your hand every time you have a sugar craving. It works but subconsciously it makes you suffer to an extend and your willpower can only hold for so long. Eventually it is likely that something will bring you back. be it your friends or just a simple desire to see whats happening. What needs to happen very slowly over time is that you dissolve the part of your identity that craves these things. This is of course easier said than done since we live in a very surface-oriented society. I found meditation to be the best habit to very very slowly let go of these petty needs or to do when I get low value consciousness cravings such as PC gaming. However for full release of these needs a very deep and serious contemplation, even hardcore path towards enlightenment is probably needed. Also practice mindfulness, allow yourself to browse social media but remain mindful and vigilant every time you do that. Don't go into the state of unconsciousness and you will start to notice changes of mindset

@ElenaO ideally not, the healthy intake of sodium chloride is 1-2 gram per day ( preferably the lower value). Your bones need around 500mg of sodium ( 1/4 tablespoon of kitchen salt). With a balanced diet, you will achieve this quite easily. However a pinch of salt on your salad won't kill you Play around with different spices instead, many of them have great benefits to your health.

Sorry, this should be in different category...not sure if I can move it.

It would be very interesting to see how those of you who have progressed on their life journey made the transition from your initial stage ( 9-5 job or whatever the ground zero was for you). Was the LP you discovered something completely out of touch with what you did before? Seeing few success stories would no doubt motivate those of us who feel lost or afraid to do the bold move. What did you do? Did you go back to school? Did you manage to remain financially stable? Did your relationships last? Even if you haven't transitioned, share your plan or intention if you will. Great thanks in advance to anyone who would spare some time to share their story. Cheers !

Can you elaborate little bit? What sort of anxiety do you have? What causes it and what helps you? Burning of calories happens even in your natural state of just sitting but I assume you are after something more massive hence as suggested above, you need to start exercising, in whatever form available.

@ElenaO absorbic acid is the main component of 99% of vitamin C supplements, it is a synthetic antioxidant. So a lab-made component. Whether or not it is harmful over a long term, I have no idea. Google should be able to answer that question. Btw this weekend, I made 800 grams of Beans ( raw not canned), which took around 12 hours out of which 11 and half was having them submerged in water(do it overnight + few extra hours) to soften and 30 minutes boiling. So this is might be a better alternative to save money, reduce waste and reduce your exposure to preservatives whether they are good or not The good thing is that even if you boil just 200 grams it is still a huge portion, just store it in a container in your fridge and they are there for you to snack on whenever you feel like it. From here, just be creative, mix them with various foods like quinoa, couscous, vegetables, spices until you create few nice and cheap meals that you can carry around in your bag to snack on throughout the day. Not to mention legumes is an incredible source of protein and minerals as a post-workout fuel.

Try joining Toastmasters in your city( if they are present) as a Guest couple times and see whether that is something that could help you.

Don't beat yourself over it. I think most of us who have finished this thing end up confused feeling lost. Even for those who know what their life calling is , the path to it is so foggy and distant that it appears unreal..too far out there. This is the homo stasis in progress and still your cowardly chimp lower self trying to suck you back into your bubble of comfort. You knowing that there is this option to live your LP and that you are not sentenced to the like of 9-5 and slave yourself to death is an incredible achievement already. Give yourself the luxury of time but keep growing yourself personally in the meantime. Read whatever books interest you(meaningful books preferably), explore, participate on interesting seminars, watch ted talks and other self guru videos, go out into the nature and contemplate the meaning of live as you walk the woods alone. There is a big chance that something, somewhere will click in you and suddenly it all falls into pieces ..you find that one missing bit. In words of Charles Bukowski: your life is your life, don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out. there is a light somewhere. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness. be on the watch. the gods will offer you chances. know them, take them.

@ElenaO it's ok to get hungry after a while. The issue is to balance the blood sugar level. So have a small fruit snack once those cravings arrive. If you work, prepare not one large meal but few smaller meals including mix of fresh vegetables, protein and carbohydrates (ideally non-animal) and snack on it multiple times throughout the day. This is what many of us do who eat smaller amounts but more frequently. This way your insulin levels and level of blood glucose are going through a nice and stable curve, up and down like a sinusoidal curve instead of going from extreme to extreme. One more question if I may, Do you exercise? If so, how frequently and how vigorously? There have been studies published in book called "Spark" from JJ Ratey that physical exercise 5 days a week has a direct influence on your hormonal levels as well as your dopamine and serotonine levels. Suggest you have a look at that book, it is amazing !

thanks for adding the missing science, I didn't know any of that.

@ElenaO 1. Why do you think that canned legumes should be avoided? In some countries, they have used preservatives that were not necessarily beneficial. Generally if you look at a tin can and there is an ingredient that you cannot pronounce in 2 seconds, don't buy it. Even though they may not be harmful in long term and small doses, I prefer to avoid them as we already get a lot of toxicity from the pollution so the less from food the better. Also another concern is that these packages just as plastic package may release molecules of its material to the food they contain. That's why you should never ever heat your food in plastic bowls. Same with cans. Buy raw, soak 12 hours and cook for 90 minutes. 2. Which fruits are low GI, I actually thought all of them are. Not necessarily. You can actually taste that some of them are much sweeter than others. What I should have mentioned is that there is even a better indicator for your daily sugar consumption, it is called Glycemic Load. Glycemic index shows the amount of Glucose. 1 equals no glucose, 100 is pure glucose. The problem here is that it doesn't consider portion size. Hence Glycemic Load is much better indicator. It takes the value of GI , divides by 100 and multiplies by average amount of carb grams in food. To simplify this, your daily intake of GL should be 50-60 for optimal weight however this of course depends on your weight,metabolic activity, excercise routines etc... Few examples of Glycemic Load content. I suggest you do a small google research, there are many sites that contain thousands of foods and their GL values. Optimise your daily fruit intake throughout the day and you'll see the difference in energy levels. High GL Foods - Mangos, Pineaples, Figs, any dried fruit ( avoid at all cost), dates, Grapes, raisings). e Low GL Foods - apple, pear, berries, plum, orange.... 3. I think nuts and sweet fruits do not combine well. I would expect digestion issues. From my experience. You may be right on this. Fruits are best consumed alone and on empty stomach although I've never had similar experience when consuming. Need to research this topic a bit more, thanks for picking it up. I remember reading this somewhere a long time ago that protein inhibits the sugar digestion but that could be wrong. I think it also depends on how quickly the fruit ferments, the more sugar it has the quicker it does and that strains the digestive system much more. 4. Even though I have been eating tons of fruits I actually notice I don't get extra weight don them. Or at least not much. If I eat two snickers I am positive that I would notice the change immediately. I was merely comparing the sugar content. Snickers contains a large dose of saturated fats which contribute to obesity a lot. If you are conscious with your diet, even if you eat more fruit but exercise remain active throughout the day, your body can consume the glucose. Glucose you eat is converted into glycogen in your muscles as an energy storage to be used when needed. With fat, this is not possible, the more processed the fat is, the easier it is for body to store it like Olive oil which goes directly to your fat stores. Glucose is a primary source of energy while fats (especially saturated) are harder to digest and can hang around much longer. not to mention they like to hang around your arteries and cause all sorts of nasty stuff like atherosclerosis, high LDl cholesterol, high blood pressure and many heart problems.

Hi, Legumes are amazing source of nutrients and generally tend to keep you full for a while. Also there is escalating evidence that they promote longevity just in small doses. Just make sure you cook them yourself if you can and not buy canned. Regarding Fish Although fish are generally considered a healthy meal, there is an increasing evidence suggesting that the only place fish belong to, is the ocean, they should not be on your plate. here is why: * Fish is generally believed to be rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. While that is a truth, the thing nobody tells you is that the Omega 3 come from Blue,Green Algae that fish consume. Small fish eats algae growing at the ocean bottom, large fish eats small fish and the circle goes on. Every new fish in this food chain adds its own "elements" to it. * Fish is rich in highly toxic heavy metals such as Mercury, Lead, Cadmium. The greatest source of mercury are underwater volcanos which release large doses of heavy metals into oceans. Of course not to mention a human destruction of oceans. Ever heard about the Large Pacific Garbage Patch? A garbage dump at the size of Texas? Fish eat this stuff mistaking it for plankton, these fish are eaten by carnivore fish. As always, the circle goes on ending up in many cases as a delicious meal of chemical death - if you are lucky, it is at least cooked. Toxins from this can be transferred thousands of miles by rain so your "pure wild salmon" is a a disease and toxin riddled creature storing incredible amounts of toxins in your body. These things like to hang around in Fat cells so the more bodyfat a person has, the easier it is for them to stay in..oh and human brain is mostly fat .. * farm raised fish - 90% farmed fish come from China where they "live" in tanks so overpopulated that they literally consume each other's fesses. Many times they are so anaemic that they have to manually paint them to look Orange or whatever colour they should be. can you imagine what that does to you? Don't take my word for it, I'm not a scientist but sort of a nerd when it comes to this stuff, I enjoy researching and reading about nutrition, this is what i found so far. Fish industry won't tell this to you of course, why would they haha. An amazing way to get a full benefit of fish is to look around for a Blue& Green Algae wholefood supplement or chlorela supplement. Beware, these are really really expensive. Remember only wholefood supplements, the rest is synthetic rubbish. Nuts and seeds can give you a lot of fatty acids as well. Here is a link about benefits of BG Algae http://hippocratesinst.org/algae-scientific-algae-breakthroughs. Fruit While glucose metabolises in muscle cells, fructose metabolises in Liver only via help of pancreas. In the end, the end product is the same, glucose (sugar) An excess of fruit can over strain your liver and slowly build up an insulin resistance. While there are many benefits of eating fresh fruit, the amount of sugar it contains is a warning sign. For a healthy individual, it should be fine just don't overdo it ( 3-5 pieces per day of low GI fruit). Why fruit makes you crave is that it spikes your insulin, especially fruit like bananas which are easier to digest hence the Fructolyses is undergone much quicker. Add some plant protein like nuts and seeds to your fruit to slow down the speed of metabolising. Also 5 apples and 3 bananas is a dose of sugar similar to 2 snickers ( just without all the shit that is in snickers such as trans fat). Sorry for a long post, I know most of this was not our question but thought maybe you'd be interested to know a little bit about these things

from his apartment window as it hits the pavement

Leo in his "Dark Side of Meditation" mentioned huge list of things including stuff like "you'll see demons and angels". While I'm not sure how to interpret that, I'd be curious to see some unusual experiences that you people had during meditation.

Travel, especially to see nature and countryside is a a form of re-connection with your humanity. Most of us, stuck in cubicles, apartments, and various facilities are completely out of touch with what it used to mean being a human years ago. It calms your soul, teaches you to appreciate simple and beautiful things and be at peace with your inner demons. However this does not apply if you travel to concrete jungles like NY or Tokyo. In 2016 I travelled to Kalimantan,Indonesia rented a local guide for 5 day jungle tracking and feel the impact of that journey still today. Something inside you changes when you live a life like that even for a very short time.

@oysterman interesting. I can relate to to few of " closed eyed sensations". Occasionally my hands feel like they melted together into one solid piece of jelly or something very smooth. Also I tend to lose a sense of my feet, sometimes I wiggle them just to make sure my toes are still, there

@cetus56 wow, maybe a hint of Lucid Dreaming

Offering your time as an intern could bring you valuable experience although they usually don't pay much. However your goal is higher than money and if you have enough to sustain you, maybe try sending out your CV along with good covering letter to local universities and colleges. If you really state your higher ambition in the Covering Letter and demonstrate that you are driven and hungry for the experience not the money, someone might consider hiring you even if they never thought about it. I know its easier said than done but could be an op for you. This could then open more opportunities for you down the road. Also, maybe life coaching would work for you. If you are not driven by profit and your services would be acceptable to people provided that yous till deliver valuable content, you could influence thousands of people in terms of 20-40 years time.

It's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you. - Rachel Dawes, Batman begins.

@rrodriguez11 look into Kegel exercises. Also planking is an amazing way to boost your muscles in this area. This can have effect on your erection, orgasm and endurance. Kegel are really easy to do and I suggest adding plank to your exercise routine. Even to days when you are not exercising. Agree with what was said, foreplay is super super important. That way it doesn't take very long to satisfy your partner before you are done. Deploy stop and go techniques. Some guys are completely selfish and as soon as they feel the climax approaching, they just go for it. Take a break, and work on your partner orally in meanwhile to delay your orgasm. Focus on your intensity, sometimes slower is better. Don't try to "sprint", take it easy. What you see in porn is complete bullshit and most girls like when you take it easy and slow. Of course there is always place for dirty and rough sex. And final advice, not sure if you use condoms but if you don't , perhaps look into delays. They really do the job although it leaves you with rather weird feeling on your pp

I live in London and healthy budget would be around £180 - £220 per month including groceries, cooking and few times I eat outside or at cafeteria. I focus on organics and vegan as much as I can. This fluctuates if I travel. Finland is probably a bit more expensive so £250-£300 per month maybe? Depends really on your salary and on how much is your Eat Out vs Cook home ratio. If you have time and really want to see your spend, try to create a spreadsheet and update it on monthly basis. Pay with your credit card only so that you can track the spend. Create different categories such as: groceries, outside eating, clothes, cosmetics, transport, what have you..... I even have many sub-categories such as individual brands etc.. Afterwards you just pivot it and can see how much you are spending on average and where do you go too high. After few months this gives you a wonderful overview, its easy to compare and create a chart out of. Tried many different apps but none really worked for me that well. However this excel approach might not work for everyone as it takes a lot of time to upload all the data every month.

Thanks to all of you. I see there are many aspects to consider. This will take a lot of inner contemplation and probably some coaching. Appreciate all your responses!