Colin

@Peace and Love

@Peace and Love dear god peace and love, I just want to give you a hug.

@Dodosterits the old balance of challenging yourself and being good to yourself.

one simple tip that has been great for me lately has been using ear plugs. Ambient background noises annoy me more than I realized and using ear plugs takes off a surprising amount of stress.@ansimuz

There is no denying that the hours upon hours that we have spent seeing Leo's face and hearing his voice has given us a sense of familiarity with him. We are smart enough to recognize that he his smart. Smart recognizes smart. Do you perceive Leo to be better than you? Also Leo has done enormous good for most of us, so we appreciate it.

It is an extremely short read. Basically one man's account of how this practice saved him from crippling sadness and then made life seem magical and amazing. The thing is, is that it actually works. Don't be overly skeptical and throw it out. I think the ideal is to keep it up for six plus months to see life long results. In my experience it wore off kind of quickly, but I can't overstate how positive the results were. The book is not needed, though it is supportive.

A very simple thing that has made all the difference in the world for me is stretching. I don't know if this is an automatic duh for every human being other than me, but it wasn't obvious to me. you can stretch everything from your back to your legs.

I decided to post this because I think self love and self compassion are both extremely important for me and humanity at large. Plus I have had some discussion about self love on this forum so think this may resonate with some people here. This video is a little on the boring side. It is coming from an academic perspective, but it is a good introduction to the fact that there is actual science being done in this field, yielding great results, and that this field very recently has started to explode with the amount of research being done. It presents some ideas and techniques and gives some ideas around the topic. I certainly wouldn't say that this is a complete reference for the subject, but a welcome addition of knowledge. She has more extensive courses she offers that I am considering someday taking, but if you want the rubber to meet the road right now, I still stand by using the affirmations "I love myself" over and over day after day.

Were you using headphones? if so what kind, just curious

I think all of the self judgement is in you , and if a person is really evolved then they won't be judging you. They might understand you. So basically it is a non issue because if they aren't enlightened then why do you care what they think about your state of development? One more thing, it is good to be honest with actual sincere, wise, competent, and compassionate teachers because they can help you where you are weak. It is huge trap to put up a front out of fear of what they might think and not make real progress where it is most important for you

Not knowing anything about yoga, and barely knowing anything about meditation, years ago I decided to meditate several days in a dark closet just as an experiment. On one of those days I had a full blown kundalini rising and was jettisoned in to a full blown non-drug induced "psychedelic" state for a moment. It scarred the hell out of me as I had absolutely no reference for it. I'd like to try it again now that I am bit more worldly and a bit more knowledgeable. Certainly something to that though.

The way I under stand it, is that they are you emotions. They are not just little balls of light that you look at in yourself. They are not to be seen, but to be felt as feelings that you directly experience in your self. I'm sure there are different philosophies on this, but this is how I understand them.

@Marinus I 100 percent experience blue field etoptic phenomena every single day, exactly as it is described in that picture, and have so for four plus years. It was brought on by spiritual practices. You are fine You are not alone I treasure it, though I do not fully understand it. I believe it to be mystical in nature, due to how it was awakened, and the various mystical experiences I have had surrounding it.

So I am doing the affirmations again, and it turns out that " I am love" rolls off the tongue a lot better than " I love myself". I'm mixing the two together.

@Phocus That video is awesome, I'm going to watch it again right now!

Another practice that is extremely effective is affirmations. Using the phrase " I love myself" repeated again and again for as long as possible, from ten minutes to an hour, repeated everyday. There is a book written about this practice called "Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It". It is much easier said than done, and there will be plenty of blocks along the way such as various fear and doubts. You will be surprised just how much this can change your whole life. I did it for a month or so and it was amazing how music sounded better, food tasted better, movies were better, I effortless gave my self what I wanted when I wanted, and effortlessly chose activities that were good for me, and it benefited others too. You are deeply changing your mind when you do this though, and random fears and insecurities will pop out of the woodwork to stop you and convince you to stop. So I need to get back on this practice. Give it a try!

oh for sure, the stories get very tricky in our minds when we think about others. It is mostly ,if not all, projection.

Hello I know this is a lazy cop out, but here is a link to Tom Campbell's current view on drugs. I am a neutral party here and am not pro one view point or the other. Just food for thought. I will say that his view point very much resonates with mine. Tom Campbell is a very wise and intelligent man. Is he right? That is for you to decide.

Yes, I think I agree that he is under emphasizing the therapeutic potential. Especially with all of the recent studies that have been done on psilocybin. Here is a quote from a recent government approved study on psilocybin for terminal cancer patients, and I see no reason why this wouldn't apply to the general population. "The results were remarkable: Six months later, 78 percent of the participants were less depressed than they started, as rated by a clinician, and 83 percent were less anxious. Furthermore, 65 percent had almost fully recovered from depression, and 57 percent from their anxiety, after six months." http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/12/the-life-changing-magic-of-mushrooms/509246/ So it turns out that magic mushrooms might have been "the cure" for clinical depression and anxiety all this time. I also personally have "drugs" to thank for making me open minded enough to pursue spirituality and consciousness work. From just one experience. It is my most valued and cherished experience in this lifetime. I also feel slightly hushed about talking about it because of its legal status. I also intuitively did not seek to use the drug again, but instead dove into books, videos, and meditation

Can you share your method of forgiveness? I would like to know so I may benefit from it. Thanks - Colin

I think self love plays a huge role in forgiveness. Without self love you may not find it worthwhile to forgive. Self love is so foundational to so many things. I remember watching an interview with Brene Brown and Oprah and they were discussing how rape victims can get over a one time event , but the thing that cripples them is that they believe that they are unworthy of love. Which is Brene Brown's definition of shame, The belief that you are unworthy of love. She also contends that shame is one of the major causes of violence, suicide, drug addiction, and more. So how do we love ourselves? How do we affirm that we are worthy of love just as we are? One way that has been working for me is a Kamal Ravikant style of affirmation. Where you just affirm over and over again "I love myself" for as long as you possibly can. It helps to put your hands on your chest when you do this. And I have to say that it actually works. I'm still a beginner to this practice, but the love flows and if feels really really good. But trust me when I say that I have much work to do in the area of forgiveness and self love All the best, - Colin