Matt23

I'm voting for... or... I could totally see Leo in one of these bad boys

Maybe wait on college till you're sure it's what you want. Have you watched Leo's "Should you Go to College" video? Might help clarify your values. I'd recommend taking the LP course. It's inexpensive and has lots of stuff in it (maybe too much since I find too much theory can be paralyzing). Maybe take some time off to get clear about what you want in life and as a life purpose and then being more strategic and patient with how you structure your life going into career out of high school. You can probably set a good trajectory for yourself if you do it right (i.e., take the time to get clear on what you want -> which might even entail experimenting with different jobs and projects or even traveling and experiencing more of the world, and then taking time to develop a wise strategy to get there).

I can second this from personal experience. I've had it with Kriya yoga, but also just with simply being mindful of bodily sensations and scanning the body. You could probably do it with breath practices as well.

Haha.... man... what mystics would be saying about what people are doing with these things these days.

I recommend investigating IFS therapy (internal family systems therapy). It's basically working with subpersonalities, including those aspects of oneself that come from the past (like a 5 year old self, the 15 year old self, the 25 year old self, etc.). It has revealed a lot for me. I also agree with what I think is the sentiment in what you're saying (partly). In that I've come across many people talking about what the shadow is and what shadow work is supposed to do, but have rarely come across actual tangible and practical exercises for doing shadow work, which I feel annoyed at.

Which I guess is why doing something like water fasting or a carnivore diet for a while, or maybe even just eating a few choice food items, can be beneficial.

@Leo Gura I'm just reading through "Immune System Recovery Plan" and am at the section of elimination diets (for her, the main ones are soy, dairy, sugar, and corn). Do you think her theories and approaches are missing anything significant? Where do you think she's pretty dead on?

I heard a psychologist who's an expert on sociopathy and psychopathy describe this distinction. Psychopathy = Born/Nature. Also, more cunning, put together, strategic, cold, calculating, charismatic, etc. Like the classic CEO type. Sociopathy = Made/Nurture. More sloppy, aggressive, brash, unregulated, outbursts, etc. Not as charismatic, more just unhinged I suppose.

To me it puts the responsibility into one's own lap, rather than believing that one has a particular destiny to fulfill (which kind of is restricting and limiting since one is constantly worried one is doing the wrong thing and can lead to inaction). Whereas the other way says "Life is here for you to create. There are no limits. You can do whatever you want. There's no predestined path. Create. Express" This to me seems less restricting and anxiety producing and more playful since it liberates one to be an artist with life and just try things and learn as you go. It's more opening to me. It puts life in your lap rather than outside oneself.

@integral Am glad someone posted OPS stuff here. I didn't read the posts here, but if not already mentioned, I think it's also worth considering the following things when thinking about personality typology (and probably a lot more stuff as well). What a personality type even is. As in, what is the concept/label of 'personality type' tracking in real life (assuming it's based of gathering data and not pure theoretics). How: what methods are used to gather the data in, and then make meaning and organize it? Like, for me, it seems that a personality type is a concept that tries to generalize a person's most consistent behaviors, thoughts, and feelings over time (the longest amount of time, i.e., their whole life).

@outlandish Ya, I'm kinda feeling bottlenecked with the [ diet <--> wellbeing <--> price ] axis at the moment. And chicken seems the best bet there. I was also eating chicken during one of the periods of my adult life where I felt the best for the longest amount of time. So hopefully I can get back to some sort of positivity that's sustained. Obviously not putting all my chips into this basket, but you never know. Never hurts to try.

(Skip down below to the next underlined part for the question. This is just my reasons and a bit of history) So I'm thinking about reintroducing chicken into my diet since I recently did an elimination diet testing my reactivity to high thiol foods. I'm going to do another round to make sure, but I'm pretty damn sure I got some pretty shitty symptoms from high thiol foods (brain pressure/fog which was pretty bad, sickly feeling, depressed, and just a vague lowness I guess... hard to explain. But the brain fog pressure thing is definitely the most pronounced symptom, which ive had in the past before to such a degree i was worried i wouldnt be able to do school well). Anyways, since beans are high thiols and the low thiol food list doesnt contain any nuts, just a few seeds, and though the low thiol list contains fish but I wamt to avoid fish for heavy metal reasons, I'm thinking of reintroducing chicken into my diet. Does anyone have any knowledge about the best ways to reintroduce meats (specifically chicken) back into one's diet after being vegetarian for about 4 years? any tips, experiences, etc., or things that could go wrong if done incorrectly, etc.? I'm gunna do it slowly to not jar my system too much, and probably eat more acidic things with it to help with digestion (probs some ginger). Cheers.

I haven't done carnivore or keto, but I thought I share my story in case it might give you a different perspective and new route to take. I've been vegetarian for about 4-5 years now (maybe pescatarian since I dabbled in seafood, but not too much). I've been having lots of emotional issues as well as physical issues as well (digestion, insomnia, intense brain fog/pressure, difficulty concentrating, etc.). I recently did a high-thiol exclusion test from Andy Cutler's Mercury Detox book where I ate only low-thiol foods (he gives a list, but advises lists found on the internet don't work since they don't distinguish thiols from normal sulfur). I feel way better off high-thiol foods. About 10-20% better: lessened brain fog significantly, way more energy, feel lighter, etc. Compared to the high-thiol day where I got severe brain pressure/fog, felt low and heavy, depressed, and sickly. I think, I'm not totally sure though, that they say heavy metal poisonning significantly increases symptoms caused by high-thiol foods since (this is where I'm not too sure) I think thiols can move mercury and other heavy metals around in the body and act as a chelator. There was a report on the Andy Cutler facebook page of someone being sensitive to high-thiol foods, then did heavy metal detox, and then reported they can now eat whatever they want (high-thiol or not) and feel they don't get affected. It's not what you're asking for, but it's another route of experimentation to take in case you feel the desire to try it out. You have to buy Andy's book though to get the list of low and high thiol foods. Good luck.

Honestly, I feel like my biggest concern right now and what I'm caring about is getting to a state of wellbeing where I'm not fucking depressed, anxious, and nearly suicidal at times (not to mention the physical ailments). So ya, I think a few chickens can die for this. It might sound harsh, but if you knew how I've been feeling the past 10ish years, you'd be probably more sympathetic.

I feel this points to the balance of delayed gratification and enjoying things right now. I suppose these are things each person has to work out for themselves.

New inspirations, ideas, and perspectives. If you read enough (I'm talking non-fiction), you start to learn from so many perspectives that you realize you don't know much at all. And this leads you to become less ideological and more wise in your thinking and beliefs. You learn new techniques and pieces of info that could drastically alter your life for the better. And the Joy of Exploration for its own sake.

@Michael569 Cheers. Could be. I guess I the only source I'm going by at the moment is Andy Cutler's stuff and my own experience with eliminating high-thiol foods. Andy Cutler says that many non-sulfur food lists on the internet don't cut it since they don't account for thiols. But maybe if I just did eliminate simply sulfur in general I might get the same effects. I can tell you though, I feel a decent amount better on the low-thiol diet (could be placebo, I dunno) and felt like crap doing high-thiols. --- I also wonder how much heavy metals can be involved here. As in like, if those are more of a root issue than sulfur intolerence (etc.). People on the ACC facebook page seem to think (also from their reported experiences) that after detoxing mercury and heavy metals, they could eat all the high thiols they wanted, whereas before they couldn't without feeling bad. I suspect this as well (and probably a butt-ton of other stuff as well). Poo discussion alert: I put a post on the ACC facebook page describing my poos and they said poor liver is probably the cause (my poos are often runny, pebbly, pale, and/or yellowish with like sometimes some mucus-type stuff). I guess ACC says that that is a sign of poor functioning liver. What do you think? Ya. From my POV and the little I've researched, it's looking for and more like this.

I can attest to this (obviously I can't say 100% for sure what the causes of symptoms are... I don't think anyone can). But, I'm 27 at the moment and have been dealing with insomnia for the past few years, gut issues for maybe the past like 3-4 years maybe (maybe closer to 3), brain fog with some really heavy periods where it felt like there was something in my head causing lots of pressure - maybe like 2-4 years, muscle fatigue for a long time on and off (10 years or so maybe), emotional issues for the past 7-10 years, lethargy for a long time as well. I feel currently lots of things starting to kind of add up and even get worse (e.g., my digestion, brain fog, and energy levels). I just did an elimination diet for high thiol foods and really recognized how shitty they make me feel (also, I got really big brain fog/pressure which I've felt before but had no idea what was causing it: I thought it was purely psychological/spiritual). I haven't made a lot of adjustments yet, but have been vegetarian (some seafood) since 2015-ish. I think the biggest thing for me was, in order to be healthier from binge eating desserts, was take Leo's advice and just stick to the diet and cut out processed sugars and wheats, soy, etc., but eat as much of it as I want. This enabled me to do a diet which I felt was sustainable and health(er) since I could still binge on food (e.g., peanut butter + carrots or bananas or rice, etc.) and feel wayyyyyy better about it (binging on peanut butter and carrots felt wayyyyy better than doughnuts and chocolate). I think I may reintroduce chicken though as a protein substitute since I'm doing a low-thiol diet which eliminates beans and a bunch of nuts. And I don't want to eat fish since it's expensive and has high mercury content. It seems to me like the biggest thing I'm learning is that no matter how healthy we deem a food (culturally or individually), it could still have some weird and negative effects for a person. Like with this high-thiol food thing I discovered, cabbage, onions, beans, nuts (I dunno about all, but defs peanuts), broccoli, cauliflower (the list goes on), are all foods that made me feel like crap (I'm pretty sure) but which are culturally viewed of as "healthy" foods. I guess the lesson is that no matter our ideas of what "healthy" and "unhealthy" foods are, you never know till you try it out and see the effects. You could be eating some super "healthy" food, like green tea maybe, but it has some weird molecule which makes your body react badly to.

I think I started with seeing a therapist who had IFS training. I may heard about it previously just from reading other books on psychology and trauma and watching videos. Seeing the therapist I don't think was strictly or explicitly IFS (I don't think. At least we didn't discuss it as that). We just kind of talked for maybe 5-10 minutes at the start of the session, then we "dropped in" and started exploring my inner world and communicating with what was in there. She would help guide by asking questions etc.. I got some pretty decent energetic releases for sure. I haven't ingested much theory on it, but the way in which I see my inner world now is as IFS theory describes... and I might incorporate a few things which I learned from them. I'd say it's like IFS is describing how human psyche's are made up, so that even if you don't know IFS, you'll still come across subpersonalities and the like within yourself, and even access and communicate with them in the same way. I'd have to read more about IFS though.

A moderator on the Andy Cutler Heavy Metal Detox Protocol facebook page said that magnesium oxide is worth staying away from since it's "cheap and poorly absorbed."

IFS therapy (internal family systems therapy) has helped me quite a bit. Basically learning how to interact with, heal, communicate with, and resolve our subpersonalities that can cause disruptions (like an inner self you have from childhood or that was directyl affected by the event that it found traumatic). These subpersonalities, in my experience, are accessed through the imagination and through different feelings you have in the body and even thoguhts as well. A practice I do goes something along the lines of this (this isn't strictly IFS, but is inspired by it): I notice a negative emotion in my body. I feel it, close my eyes, and focus on it. Sometimes an image will come to mind connected with/representing the feeling. I ask it a question (perhaps "How are you feeling?" or "Why are you here?" or "Do you want to tell me anything?", etc.) I usually get a response and then strike up a conversation with that part. Often simply listening to how the part is feeling is adequate. note: You can have different subpersonalities that conflict with each other. You can then bring them into dialogue and understanding with each other by being a sort of mediator. I've often asked the subpersonalities the questions from Byron Katie's "The Work" = I've found, combine with IFS, has resolved feelings pretty quickly. I'd research more into it though as there are more nuances. Ex: There's a "Self" everyone has which is not a subpersonality and from which it's best to interact with your subpersonalities. THough, sometimes, you can be trying to interact with a subpersonality while under the influence of another subpersonality, which I don't think usually ends well. So, one thing you can do which I got from an IFS coach on YT is to start a session by cultivating a feeling of love for a few minutes from which you are in a better, non-coopted place from which to interact and listen to your subpersonalities.

Nice.

It's also important to trust the "right" self. Which I don't think is often the anxious or worried one. I'm not saying blindly trusting the news or government is a good way to go either.

I seem split almost. Like there's a rational side and less skeptical or worried side which says "Just do it, it's the responsible thing to do and probably nothing bad will happen" (which is the side I feel is more "in charge"). But there's another side which is anxious and not trusting too much and feels worried about it. In any case, pretty sure I'm getting it no matter the anxious feelings and worry.