Zippie

I've successfully cleared up pretty much all of my acne by tracking my diet and getting a feel for which foods seem to have a correlation with my acne. From my journaling I've identified high carbohydrate intake and fats high in omega 6 as the probably causes of my acne. Perhaps eliminating these will help you as well, but I recommend tracking everything you consume so you get a feel for how food affects your skin.

Trying to become enlightened whilst also dealing with my little addictions (Junk food, news, etc.) and stressful life situation is overwhelming me right now. I'm at the point where thoughts of suicide are starting to feel like a real option for me if I'm being honest. What keeps you following through with concentration practice, self-inquiry, and life responsibilities when you feel like you just wanna run away from it all?

@Leo GuraSo should I just really try to lean into my desire to know what reality is?

@Joseph Maynor I honestly hope so, but that hope often doesn't feel strong enough to push me through this process.

I honestly hope so, but that hope often doesn't feel strong enough to push me through this process.

So I've had some success making gradual changes to myself and my lifestyle, but every time that I fall back to my old bad habits or make or make silly mistakes I start wonder if I'll ever actually be able to change myself for good. If anyone could share examples of dramatic personal changes that they themselves or others have made, I think that could be a huge confidence/ spirit boost for me, and hopefully others as we continue on with our personal development journey.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing this man. Hearing your story really makes me believe change is possible. I'll think about this next time I start irrationally doubting myself and making excuses.

Maybe you consider dropping that value from your top ten? If you can't imagine yourself being predominantly positively motivated by family in particular, than maybe you could replace that value with something that you're positively motivated toward that would still involve taking care of your family. For example: Loving-kindness, responsibility, integrity, etc.

I think that if having a personal style isn't relevant to your higher consciousness goals right now then it would be a good idea to not put much effort into being stylish. But is it a distraction from your goals to deliberately try and come across as someone who isn't interested in being stylish anymore? Only you can know the answer to that, but my intuition tells me that there's probably something more important for you to be putting your attention on right now.

Will pursuing self-actualization actually lead to lasting happiness and fulfillment, or is that lifestyle just a small step up from living an average life? The impression I get from spiritual gurus is that the only way to actually be happy and fulfilled is to become enlightened, which is kinda depressing since that would mean 99.99% percent of the population are going live sad and unfulfilling lives. Sorry if this post seems super negative and cynical.

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Thanks a lot. This helps me feel a lot more at ease about pursuing self-actualization, but it also makes me wonder if it would be better to ignore self-actualization and just go for enlightenment straight away, though that would be a hard plan for me to buy in to right now. Idk man life is confusing af lol

I've really started to get my shit together since late 2015, but lately I've fallen back into my old bad habits and just can't get back to living on my edge like I was. What do you guys do to get yourselves out of a slump?

Thanks for the advice guys. I've decided to just super slowly ease myself back into doing my life purpose work. It's frustrating taking steps backwards but it seems like I just need to accept the fact that I've lost my momentum and I should focus on building it back up again from scratch.

Movie scores and instrumental music are great options for anybody since you can make them about whatever you want in your head.