katykat

How can one distinguish true self from conditioned or false self?

The first step, as you mentioned by stating a few things you want to change, is to get your needs met. Although some needs may feel egoic, it's important that needs are met and not ignored before you can heal from them and move on to the next step, which for you might be understanding your motivations and accepting responsibility for yourself, your actions, and your effect on others. This video explains the reason to have our needs met quite well and provides many examples.

@Hellspeed Would you mind sharing resources for the breathing you're speaking of? Thoughts on this? ?

@Himanshu Thanks so much for sharing, what a great link!

@ingurix Have you looked into Leo's Life Purpose Course? It might be helpful to find your life purpose or at least to understand what to pay attention to and look for in life that will be hints to your passion/purpose. For example, when are the moments you feel truly happy? Write them down and see if you can find a common theme or clues to a bigger passion. Life purpose/passion isn't necessary to live a fulfilled life though. I think some people, including myself, get too hung up on finding a purpose, finding a passion, and feeling that something's missing if we don't have one (or don't have it clearly defined).

@Spence94 I'm currently learning Spanish using several online resources, primarily Coursera (auditing the course, so it's free) and DuoLingo phone app (also free). I agree with you that it's amazing to observe yourself communicating in a new language. I picked up some Spanish phrases immediately and it felt effortless and even familiar, which blew my mind. I've asked multilingual people whether they translate or think in each language and it seemed to depend on their experience with each language. If they learned a different language when they were young and/or for years and years, they were able to think in each language. If the different language was learned recently or later in life, they tend to translate because they are relating the new language to the one they know rather than learning it independently. I definitely translate and I'll be amazed when I'm able to think in Spanish... if ever. Are you translating?

@PsiloPutty This is great! I'm glad modafinil worked well for you. I like to take Armodafinil and yesterday combined with Gingko Biloba, my brain was like lightening. I'd suggest not taking modafinil too late in the day if you have a regular schedule to keep. I took it at 3pm and was wide awake until 4am. I haven't tried meditating on it yet, but I will soon. I've been apprehensive that my brain won't be as still because it wants to think and process information quickly, but hearing your experience makes me hopeful.

@Arthur Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful response. I was thinking social belonging would be a fit with orange, but blue makes sense as well with your explanation. Initially I thought Spiral Dynamics was much more detailed in the higher levels than the hierarchy, but it seems to map quite well. Perhaps the SD colors above turquoise would all be lumped in the transcendence level.

@CreamCat Oh sorry, I should've prefaced with stock/bond investing. Of course the are other investment vehicles as well, especially real estate, owning rental properties, etc. I'm not suggesting only stocks and bonds. I'll go ahead and remove my comment since it doesn't seem to be at all helpful.

I don't know.

I agree with @Sagatarius . We would all do well to stop taking meaningless tests to measure ourselves against. Embrace your current stage of life, work towards the next stage, and don't get distracted by arbitrary quizzes, tests, and evaluations. It can be tempting to test and measure ourselves, but ultimately what you're seeking is assurance and validation (ego).

@Sahil Pandit What's your guess?! Accounting manager, which is about 60% accounting and 40% resolving conflicts, both work and personality related. I don't mind the accounting (blue) and systems efficiency/integration work (orange/yellow), but the personal conflict resolution can be challenging, especially with a variety of stages. I try to focus on the benefits and use it to further my development and overall understanding. Before switching to accounting, I used to do audio engineering, which was similar with actual audio work and conflict resolution between band members/producers/egos.

No dairy, sugar, processed food = good! Meat has been shown to have a negative impact on longevity and telomere length, as well as aide in development of diseases like dementia and heart disease. After years of research, blood tests, and experimentation I feel best on no meat, dairy, sugar, processed food diet, which is commonly referred to as Whole Food Plant Based. Of course everyone is different and we each have to find a diet that works best for us physically, psychologically, and ethically. Here's one study. Summary: We further hypothesized that whole grains, nuts or seeds, coffee, fruit, vegetables, nonfried fish, and dairy foods would each be independently associated with longer telomeres, and conversely, that refined grains, red meat, processed meat, fried foods, and nondiet soda would each be independently associated with shorter telomeres.

@moon777light Probably, if the motivation for being on the forum is for attention (reward), but if someone's using the forum to learn and grow the reward response wouldn't be the same as with attention seeking. Jealousy is another common side effect of social media, hopefully that's not the case on this forum too!

My current job allows me to practice green and yellow Spiral Dynamics stages with red, blue, orange, and green stage people (mostly blue). It's good practice for compassion, patience, and solving problems with a holistic mindset.