Joshua_

I recently had a breakthrough with the happiness in my life and I am fascinated by how amazing the impact has been. Im sure some other things play a role in this as well, like eating better food and not masturbating, but the active component I do in the moment when I want to feel happy is just moving my body, jumping around, smiling, deep belly breathing etc. The crazy thing for me is, that I have always kind-of known this stuff, but never actually applied it when I was feeling down bc I "wasnt feeling like it" or something like that. The first time I actually went ahead and did it I felt some changes after like 2-3 minutes. It was pretty subltle at first, like a change from sad to a-bit-less-sad, but it actually did something. So I kept going and practicing this for a few times until I could actually shift from feeling pretty down to pretty extatic, that was the moment I felt like a child who had just dicovered Nuclear Fission. And some other cool things came with this I wouldn't have expected. Since I now know, that I can be happy pretty much anytime I choose, I am no longer feeling crippled by other emotions. For example when watching a movie or hearing music I can now lean back and watch my emotions tumble around without being on the edge all the time thinking "Oh shit, if I let myself feel this right now I will have to deal with this forever!" I could actually enjoy being sad, because I felt like there was a way out when I needed it. I would feel a bit sad and go and watch a sad movie and hear some sad music and enjoy it and be in the moment instead of looking for a way out, knowing that the second it got too much I could literally just shake it off. Another thing this helped me with is emotional labor. For example contemplation, which Leo's new Video got me to try again. I've tried that in the past, but it never really sticked. But this time I found that I actually enjoy doing it! For me, this has been one of the greates breakthroughs of the past months. What do you think is the role of happiness in life? Did you have similar experiences? And lastly, why do so few people talk about this kind of stuff?

I started out keeping track of everything mentally about 4-5 months ago with abysmal success rates, then I moved on to an app where I would each day check off what I did and didn't do, which proved highly effective and helped me start a consistent meditation and reading practice. I found it works great for starting new habits, but it hasn't really effective when trying to quit or change existing habits like diet, porn etc. From now on before going to bed I will write down everything I want to do on a piece of paper and tick it off the next day, hoping that this way the things I am writing down will carry a little more weight in my mind. What methods do you use to quit/change/keep your habits?