Anirban657

I am an above average student but the end of my high school years is coming closer, I feel stress and anxious about my performance. So consequently my grades are decreasing and I feel demotivated to study. To have the patience to sit down for hours and study is a difficult task for me. I don't know if studying for long periods affects my grades but I feel that I am not able to focus on the information. I really want some help.

Hi I am 22 years old from India. And I am just starting to earn money and commit to a career. No romantic relationships yet. No physical possessions. How do I grow through the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the fastest way possible ? I am asking this because I see wise people in this forum writing and I am unable to understand anything. If I could grow through the hierarchy,maybe I could understand they and Leo’s wisdom.

I think this is it. This is the root cause of my social anxiety. I was bullied as a child and my mother brought me up till age 8 and then my father came into my life actively. But in childhood, I was bullied and I have no one who told me to face those bullies. I just came home, and complained to my mom who complained to the teacher at school and the teacher took care of the bully. But the fear of confrontation still lives in me. It's costing me my education, my career, my love life,etc. I live in a 3rd world country called India where people are not pleasant. I have to face rude people and this really gets me anxious. If I can confront people and stand up for myself I don't have to manipulate them, I don't have to lie to myself, I don't have to be indirect. I just want to be brave and face those rude powerful people. When I force myself to overcome the fear, my mind comes up with excuses like "You can change to another college", "You can get another job", "You can try to get another girlfriend", and when I arrive at the next college and nothing has really changed, I think I was so stupid. The problem is not the world. I am the problem. How can I overcome this fear of confrontation?

@StarStruck What is LOC? And what's the full name of its author Dawkins?

@Vision I had psychosis and bipolar disorder with depression and suicidal ideations. At the time,4-5years ago when the doctor diagnosed me with anhedonia I was having mania. They prescribed me 5-6medicines which I don’t remember the name. But they prescribed me medicines for anhedonia. Right now I am taking anti-psychotics, anti-depressants and other medicines as per prescription by doctors. I would say in 2-3months from prescription I felt much better. From severe depression I finished my high schooling and joined college and overcome my severe social anxiety and despair. Anhedonia was there because of depression. Once the depression is cured, anhedonia won’t exist. I would say don’t worry about anhedonia all by yourself. See a good doctor and let them take care of you. Have faith in the doctor and trust the process.

@Leo GuraI am taking baby steps towards facing my fear. Recently I was having problems calling the college for some inquiry, so instead of calling them I emailed them. I got a reply. But things like going to the market to buy vegetables alone. There are street dogs in the street and I am scared. So I am going for walks to the market with my sister. The psychotherapist I am seeing now is guiding me with exposing myself slowly to the fear. Thanks! I understand what you are trying to say. I read about a similar technique in Psycho-cybernetics. I will apply it. Thanks! Very interesting! I am moving forward with baby steps. I guess I will have to face the fear and start saying “I don’t like how you treat me” more often.

I had anhedonia when I was depressed. The doctors prescribed me medication and I got cured. Now I am fine and happy and enjoying pleasurable activities like everyone else. It can be cured.

I don't understand that. Are there books dedicated to studying intuition? Thanks @puporing . I will keep that in mind. Very interesting. I am bad at focusing on the process. I have to learn to do it better. I journal almost everyday but never read them back for introspection. I also suck at SMART goal setting. I love the pumping your emotional state part but it will be super uncomfortable. Negative thinking always stops me from working on my self image. Thanks @KoryKat !

Understood. Okay I will. I was writing about 40 year goals. Actually you are right. They are impractical. So relatable. Why do you say that?

I am 22 years old from India. I learning copywriting and will copywriting in higher consciousness niches. Consciousness is surely one of my values. But money is also a value for me although Leo said in the Life Purpose Course something about money not being a healthy value or something like that. My starting niche is decided in the men’s personal development/coaching niche but I know that I won’t be a millionaire anytime soon with a higher consciousness niche like that. I want to be a millionaire and invest in real estate and have multi million dollar of passive income but I feel like that would mean sacrificing my values of consciousness, conscious marketing , freedom to do something meaningful in life. My friend who has 4+ businesses in India and abroad says I have a tendency to choose niches that people don’t want to buy because in my last e-commerce business I screwed up by choosing meaningful niches instead of money-making niches. He has a lot of money and he has good intentions for my future as we were friends in high school. But his value is money and my value is consciousness. He is telling me to stop copywriting, complete college and get a job as a copywriter to learn from a big experienced company which I won’t do. It goes against my values of freedom. Also according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs , I live with my parents, I don’t have any income and I have not completed college, I am pretty much at the 2nd bottom tier. What do you think? What do you think about values? Do you think I should go for higher consciousness values or lower consciousness money-making values? Do you think I should do copywriting for higher consciousness brands or lower consciousness brands? Should I do copywriting at all or go back to college so so I can get a job and learn from a company to eventually earn more money? Should I sacrifice my values ? Or should I make a million dollar which won’t make me happy at all? Thanks!

@NickH Thanks Nick! I realized that those desires of luxury are not my own. They are picked up from society. And I don't have many luxury goals that can't be just replaced with a cost effective alternative. I will be focused on my higher consciousness values. You know after you wrote about "burning through your karma", I immediately went to write my goals and plan for a 10years journey of burning through karma. But the first 2 goals and the only luxurious goals were "Buy a Gulfstream jet" and "have 100,000 apartments under real estate management" but those don't evoke any inspiring feelings in me at all. The 3rd goal was "Have an understanding girlfriend" which I think is possible without making millions of dollars. The 4th goal was have happy children of my own, which also did not require a million dollars. So I dropped the idea of luxury fully. I might look back to this day and think that I might not be able to talk to the business friend of mine who chased money all the time but I don't think I will regret not having lived a luxurious life. My true goals have nothing to do with a million dollars. After all it's not like I won't have income without chasing a million dollars. I will still make decent money writing copy for higher conscious brands. I will focus on my copywriting which writing is my passion and do copywriting in a conscious marketing manner for higher consciousness brands. Thanks again.

@NickH But I am afraid that I will not have the luxurious life that I could have if I were a millionaire and invested in real estate. I will have to give up that fantasy of luxury.

@Alex_R Thanks for your amazing perspective! I will definitely think about changing my counsellor. @JonasVE12 Thanks! I will watch the full video. It is pretty interesting. @flowboy Your perspective makes things very clear. This is amazing. Thanks! @Ulax Couldn’t agree more!

Background for my situation- I did the life purpose course 5 years ago and at that time I discovered that my top values is impact, awareness and service and my top strength is love of learning. At that time I was in high school and what my exact career was not clear. Now I am 22years old and I am about to finish my undergraduate course in English. And before yesterday I wanted to study Law and become a lawyer because I want to be a politician. But I have crippling social anxiety. And yesterday I paid a career counsellor to help me understand my career paths better. She said “because you have social anxiety, law is a big ‘NO’”. I am confused. Till now I have been taking action like signed up for a sales insurance internships which by the way I could not even start due to social anxiety. I started an online business which only generated only $100 in a year. I started a YouTube channel (35subs) which I am not able to upload videos consistently because I don’t want to show my face but I don’t have any good content ideas. My counsellor said- That because I have social anxiety I should not go to mainstream careers like sales or lawyer or marketing or insurance or journalism. I should do linguistics, cyber law, digital marketing or something related to computer science. I want to be a leader in managing and moving people through movements whether political or business. Is it not possible to overcome social anxiety permanently? I guess it is possible but there is a lot of inner work. I have read How to win friends and influence people but I feel so anxious getting out of my house and so unwilling to attend social events. I feel so lonely in the crowd of “friends”. So basically my question is should I let social anxiety be a reason to decide which career I should choose? Should I give up from social anxiety or fight it? Should I choose computational linguistics because I have social anxiety or should I try to follow my passion for law?

I know you will find a way @Leo Gura !

@Rokazulu Can I become a master social person like Steve Jobs even if I have social anxiety from my teenage years? @JonasVE12 Yes I want to work on this seriously because I have to overcome social anxiety because it is ruining my social life. As you said that to look for teachers. What kind of teachers?

Superb! I am happy for you!

I have been following Leo since 2015 and I have watched hundreds of his videos and got immense help from his videos. But I almost always misunderstand his spiritual teachings. For example the notion of “Nothingness” is not easy to understand. I don’t seem to understand it at all. At one point I thought it means total annihilation of existence and total black darkness of the physical world. And I know it’s not what I think. It can’t be anything I think. I have to experience it by actually doing the consciousness self-actualization work. How to not misunderstand Leo’s advanced spiritual teachings?

@Martynas777 First of all increasing your level of consciousness is not a “hit” like hit of pleasure or high. And it has nothing to do with feeling amazing. You can become more aware of your inner states and emotions but it’s not a drug. It looks like you are pursuing a high or hits of pleasure or feelings. Consciousness is none of those. What progress did you make? What did you realise? Again you ramped up the meditation from 30mins to 3hours because your “spiritual gains” stopped. What spiritual gains are you referring to? And just because you stopped getting the “spiritual gains” why would you jump from 30 mins to 3hours? I would tell you to stop the meditation for a few days and see if your condition improves. Do you have family members? Spend time with them and get out of your house and enjoy life and stop meditation for a few days. Also read books on meditation from Leo’s Book list or best selling books on meditation. Read about the dark night of the soul. I am saying this because I also take Prozac and I have been through some tough psychologically disturbing episodes due to excessive meditation. I am not discouraging your pursuit of Truth and consciousness. I am saying make sure you are not chasing the wrong thing like a sense of pleasure or high without even being aware. Take care!

@KennedyCarter Thanks! All the best to you too.

Hi, this is Anirban here from India. I watched the Life Purpose course 5 years ago and I found my values and strengths. But I do not understand my exact life purpose. My values are contribution,awareness and service. My strengths are hope,creativity, appreciation of beauty, and gratitude. I sometimes sit down and write my life at the age of 60. I am 21 by the way. I get all kinds of inspirational ideas of helping people and truth seekers become more conscious. But then I realise I myself need to find truth first. But to go to a consciousness retreat costs money which I don’t have much. And that’s why I am back to finding my life purpose and feeling frustrated. I wonder how can I integrate helping people become more conscious and having an income. I don’t like to read books. I feel ADD. So I watch videos. I don’t know. I am already starting a clothing business and will have to do heavy sales and marketing. Do you have any ideas of how to switch from a completely money focused business to meaningful business?

@Leo Gura Wow that’s a great idea. Conscious clothing. I have make sure the cloth manufacturing process is of less pollution and sustainable by choosing the least polluting fabrics. Also I will need to make sure the kind of clothing is solving a problem that is going to bring a positive change for people and the planet. Then I have to create the product and market it in a convincing way. I read about a Tshirt made of living microorganisms that looks like normal tshirts and it decomposes when buried in the soil.

@SageModeAustin Great! Make sure the results are consistent not for a few weeks but months and years every day.

I live in Howrah,India.

@Cepzeu Great work! Very useful!