star ark

TC you can meditate in the spaces between the sentences you speak. You can meditate with your eyes open just walking. You can meditate waiting in line to buy something. You can put a chair in your shower, sit down and get nice and warm and try and focus on every sound, try and hear each individual drop of water hit the ground, try and FEEL every drop of water on your body, not just the sense of a whole bunch of water making you wet. Feel the steam. Feel the steam and the droplets of water at the same time, then maintain those two sensations and try and add the sounds, the sounds of the water, the sounds of the fan. Crazy stuff may happen, you will hold this point of focus where you are in this void of feeling so much more than you do in your waking life. So that's just how i shower each morning, and now each night because I am freaking addicted to it. It may not even qualify as meditation to experts, it's probably just mindfulness but it works exceptionally well.

I believe pain body is very logical. You hold stress and emotional pain within your body. A shy person stands shy for 30 years and now they have a slump. Their body has internalized the mental pain. Simply by relaxing the body the mind must relax and both work in tandem, racing thoughts = tense muscles, loose muscles = loose mind. So the mental pain must be released from the body and the physical pain must be released from the mind. Sorry to bump such an old comment but I utilized this pain body concept for about 6 months now and it has been the biggest change in my self actualization. I have a bad back because I was a meek little kid who turned into a jaded aloof young man - both stood with a slump. I have extreme facial tension and this is due to the constant worries of the past, slightly grinding my teeth due to stress, subconsciously finding some sort of relief so I just kept on grinding - that's what speed freaks do but i was sober. So a reflex from your pain body will actually convince your mind that you are still hurt by the experience and then you are mentally hurt too.

I have no desire to invest hours upon hours a day into self work, I would lose my home if I didn't work enough. But this book was the first spiritual book I ever read and I taught me so much, from very simple meditation techniques, identifying what ego is and how it works etc. It comes across as very practical, Eckhart suggests feeling the energy inside your hands as a simple meditation technique. He explains how complaining creates fiction in the complainers mind and there is a chapter about a friend handing him a government form claiming the government was stealing her house. It was actually a form asking for council rates that were overdue but her ego created fiction. He is very practical, finds exactly what the average joe needs help with and focuses on that. He also looks into the teachings of Jesus and suggests many misunderstandings. This is were things get weird. He says heaven is the meditative experience, ego is satan, turn the other cheek is about examining even more of the negative thought patterns when one presents itself. He explains the empty space between matter as god, and that the matter which is god is evolving as we evolve and learning about us as we learn about it. I'm not offended as I am not religious but I cannot take this absolute "fact" Eckhart proposes and take him seriously. I really benefited from the ego stuff, the meditative stuff, the stuff about complaints create a story the ego 100% believes etc. The misunderstanding of Jesus and then suggesting he knows exactly what Jesus meant along with the story of the lady not paying her bill feels calculating, like he is imagining the demographic of his readers and speaking to his expectations and not 100% from the heart. Middle aged american women who were born and raised religious but are really spiritual and not fundamentalists is his market. For that reason i can only give it a 6/10, but it was an extraordinary 6/10.

I made a psychedelic heavy metal album called God Complex Avatar, it did well and even won some small time blog's album of the years, however I suspect I won those out of generosity due to being a one man band. That was about 6 years ago and I was getting dozens and sometimes hundreds of views a day, but these days about 10 views a week. I missed my chance to build the momentum. I am happy overall in life though and do not need to succeed to be happy. I use the name Star Ark as a band name but really I am just one guy. I threw myself into 2 other very established bands knowing i was running from the ordeal of another solo album (for me it truly is an ordeal). Both of those bands were disasters. I wish to make a positive change in the lyrical content as mixing music involves listening to it thousands of times and I hated listening to myself impersonate demons and whatnot for the lyrical content. The new EP or album will either be called "Airhead" or "Pod Peephole". It will incorporate themes of meditation, strange loops and the size of space vs the size of man.I have unsuccessfully made these sorts of pacts before but never out loud or written in a journal. I will turn the following lyrics into a song called "Airhead" and have it complete before I go back to work on January the 29th. Beneath eyes closed Beneath all sense of self I feel so weak and tired I feel the spark rise and ignite Beneath oceans Beneath tides that rise and fall I'm so deep inside I feel the flames rising higher I breath thunder I peer through the eye of storms I see somethings divine I see somethings stark raving mad Mind bleed wonder I saw too much with mine Through death and rebirth I know I've lived a thousand lives Mind bleed wonder I'm so deep inside A messenger resides Within yourself dive deeper DIVE

You can do it I wasted a lot of time, at 30 I thought I had missed the boat Every year I knew what I had to do but then some flight of fancy would take me and I would do something dumb, fun, but dumb. Then another year rolls by and I think not only have I missed the boat I'm too far behind to ever catch up. But one day I did catch up and it was because I really applied myself. I was shocked to discover the world was still there and I had not missed much and my time away from the world taught me things most people never learn.

Reading trains your internal monologue and teaches you mental discipline. For me at least I read in my head, my internal voice distracts me and then very quickly I switch to this different inner voice that just receives the information. You will have those days were you read a whole chapter, not take in a single piece of info, go back to the start of the chapter and read it again, realize you do sort of remember reading it, and then come to the conclusion you aren't in control of your focus or thoughts. Before the stress of adulthood I could read for hours, I could picture everything so vividly and never lose my focus. By the time I was 15 I did't even know where my focus was anymore and it got to the point where I just thought I had grown out of books. I suggest read a book a week, do whatever feels natural regarding practicing vs theory but just be content with the fact that at the very least you are doing some mental discipline work and improving attention and attention span. The other stuff will come once you are in better control of where your attention lies.

In 2017 I learnt: Listen to the body to understand the mind, alter the speed or tension of the body to alter the speed or tension of the mind. And all of that vice versa.

You're 20 and that is the craziest age in human existence lol. I truly believe you just need ONE successful meditation experience. Look up basics of meditation if you haven't already Once breathing and posture is settled try and detached yourself from the emotions of your thoughts. Just be curious about your thoughts, like your a scientist studying thoughts that aren't even yours - because they are not. If you don't successfully study your thoughts without emotion be patient, if you have to experience the emotions then be brave and focus on them until the mental pain feels like it will explode. If this still isn't working use a mantra. "In" on the inhale "Ah" on the exhale. You may discover weird things, racing thoughts that aren't yours. Maybe a parent or teacher is yelling at you and in your memory you are only 8. Maybe you lied to someone, forgot consciously but subconsciously you still feel guilt for stealing a kids marble when you were 5 ( I did that and I had to work that out in meditation when I was 33 ) You may discover and actually experience what all your pseudo philosophical friends read about in their hipster texts ( while all they care about is being seen and heard talking about it and not actually experiencing ) The most important thing is to just do it, all alone, don't tell anyone or make a scene about needing stress relief or anything like that, no ego driven attention seeking stuff, just do it. I spent a decade not doing a damn thing and complaining, inventing villains, developing major spinal problems from negative thoughts creating a slumped posture, burning bridges etc. I read about self actualization whilst drinking beer and smoking weed, I would have done hours a day or this "research", every day, but I never just did the actual meditation. Then I got so desperate I did the meditation and realized I wasted about 13 years of my life.

I believe our lack or social success exposes the ego in all, in them as they seem to thrive with their egos and in us with our resentment of their innate abilities. We watch the ego (our resentment and lack of sense of self compared to their proud sense of self) at play as we never learnt to manipulate the ego to our benefit like most social people. It's interesting that the social people rely on a status quo for their egos to work. The funny guy needs a crowd, the tough guy needs an adversary, the beautiful people need other beautiful people to date to reaffirm they are the most beautiful. Most people here are searching for their true selves and are not falling into the stereotypes, so these stereotypes do not know how to utilize us in their subconscious attempts to climb the social ladder.

Perhaps your had the wrong social groups pushing you into this way of thinking. I also think age may be a factor, people in their 20's like to BS about how successful they really are and if you are honest you may feel worthless. Then people get a bit older and everyone discovers that some of their friends are BSing their way up the social ladder and parents and grand parents are buying those mansions, and that ultra buff beautiful couple with twins at private schools and a mansion are not earning the money to pay for any of that, they spend half their day at the gym. Whenever I meet someone who reminds me of your personality type I try so hard to be their friend. I want people like you in my life and maybe you're older or whatever but I think you will feel comfortable in your own skin roughly around the same time the ego driven people start to look old and less sexy and they start to regress due to poor self image.

Linkin Park is this guys favorite band. That is all that matters to him. I watched and loved the movie A Serbian Film but I have no desire to be like any of those characters. Also the every man tends to find solace in knowing a multi million selling band still has all the same problem the fans do. They may not hit me the same way as "Working Class Hero" but they are still a valid source of joy, escape and inspiration.

Not at all, you're favorite band has a life purpose and that is to provide solace for you. You should receive their gift if it is what cheers you up the most but make sure it's not something that rules your life and it does not cause you to neglect others or chores that are important. Is it 10 minutes of escape or many hours of nothing but listening to the same songs over and over?

I did a similar thing and cleared up a lot of time about 5 years. I filled the time with lame but VERY useful stuff like walking for a good 45 mins in one go and noticing how it cleared my mind for the entire night. Cooking very healthy meals and literally making a playlist on youtube of every vitamin, mineral and health benefit of each and every ingredient and listening to it as I prepared. I did other things too but the most important thing I did was come to the conclusion that everything we need to provide happiness and even "leisure" was outside in nature. It's so beautiful that humans all find a sunset or a sunrise spiritual and enjoyable to witness - yet it happens every single day of our lives and it is still somehow scared. The calm mind enjoys everything of nature and you may realize our bodies and brains (I believe we have brains!) evolved over billions of years symbiotically with the earth and universe and we receive all our joy, fun, excitement and wonder purely from living in the now. These days if I can remind myself to live in the now I feel the warmth of the sun as a distinctly different kind of warmth, I hear the rustle of leaves as the sigh of the planet and I can literally feel my tension disperse, I see how many incredible artists there are out there just by looking at how people set out their gardens. The best thing is that troubling decisions are starting to solve themselves. A solution to a problem I have had for weeks will just pop into my head with no apparent prior thought, all of a sudden I see the solution without even contemplating it. Did gaming make you feel great when you first booted up a game for maybe the first 45 minutes or an hour? but then it losses it's charm but you feel some urge to sit there and keep playing? Because all the natural walking, hiking, yoga activities are not like that, you can hike for hours and hours and your body and mind love it. I'm getting a bit ranty here, sorry, I think they very realization you needed to give up gaming was the biggest step and you will definitely find something to do. You are clearly taking control and seeing a change needs to happen is one of the biggest steps. I'd still find the time to play some mario kart though. Even if brains don't exist mario kart definitely does!

@Joseph Maynor I suspect it may be a spectrum disorder like all adhd and autism and perhaps you lean more to the side of schizo than the average guy but a person with a profile pic, the desire to say things which others can use in a positive way etc are all sings of someone who does care about others and how he is perceived.

Do you care at all about being around people? Does having a positive conversation with someone make you happy in any way?

I didn't enjoy sensible chores when i was your age. Now I'm about a decade older than you and I have finally hit that "lame middle aged guy" mentality where I enjoy having a job to do, I almost always seek out more challenging work because I enjoy the at least trying to do the honorable thing, Your idea of "may as well die because I will have to do some work in the future" is troubling, maybe check out some people who didn't want to die who unfortunately did and decide if you really believe it.

Do you stay in bed when you wake up? If so immediately jump out of bed and get moving, lying there not moving is the wrong way to start the day. Introduce every sensible dietary advice one at a time, you know dairy free, gluten free, caffeine free, refined carbs free, fish oil, vitamin bs and ds, probiotic gut health. Every time it looks sunny and nice outside walk if you have free time, make at least 45 mins and I bet you find all your thoughts fade away and you will be very peaceful, you will sleep like a rock and slowly all of these things will compound, you may find one particular vitamin or supplement made a HUGE difference and learn all this important stuff about yourself and what you need to do in the future to retain a calm peaceful mind. I think most people can beat depression this way. I beat my depression this way, took a couple of years but every week i was a little bit better.

Your true self won't be there if you're drunk. Your brain does exist, and impairments to your brain alter and limit your consciousness.

I believe our ego is language, we had to create language at some point in time, and that pursuit created the internal monologue. We have evolved for billions of years, the language and internal voice was the biggest evolutionary change and it came virtually in an instant. We are fooled by our thoughts because for millions of years we had none in the modern sense and suddenly our entire species is neurotic and talking in their heads. We are not the thoughts, we are instinctively hating these thoughts in our heads, but they are also a blessing that allows precise communication and advancement for the species. We need to meditate or quiet the internal voice but still utilize it too. Of course this is just my whack theory lol

Yes but I prefer yoga and walking meditation and skip many days of classic sit down meditation. I want to get more disciplined. My very first meditation session was brilliant and a few other sessions have been as good but seriously my very first attempt was one of the most profound. I use it more for stress relief and physical aches and pains more than searching my spirit for the truth atm.

Don't plants have some strange consciousness like qualities? Maybe I remember wrong but I think even myth busters got readings out of plants But no inanimate object has ever given a reading. I have to plead ignorance as I have no idea what sort of "reading" they were getting out of plants but the old wives tales of playing classical music to plants to help them grow is another one I remember. What I'm getting at is that plants, considered to be living not inanimate like my coffee mug, seem to hold the possibility of consciousness while my coffee mug doesn't.

Some meditation involves letting your mind go crazy and paying attention to those thoughts without judgement. Are these thoughts just little day dreams? Or do they sometimes get dark and you are remembering an argument with someone a year ago, an ex girl friend from a decade ago etc? So I think there is vaule in it, just use it as a chance to see how conditioned your mind has become and decide which thought patterns are worth growing and which thought patterns are worth eroding. Also I imagine a silent mind your entire life is not good. We have the benefit of internal voice and there was a time when humans didn't have language skills strong enough to have an internal voice. I imagine those first humans were much more peaceful than us but also incapable of communicating effectively enough to advance like we have. I think the meditative experience is required to help us not go crazy with our internal voice but the silent mind thing is not meant to be our waking state.

you say yourself someone took a substance for 2 years i say once also: also how much was he taking? people addicted take more and more and end up on things like 3 bars every 6 hours that's before they overindulge so please do some maths i am not trying to tease you, i thought i was helping, I'm sorry but I don't seem to be helping

that scares the shit out of me i've had shrooms 100 - 150 times never once did i ever think of killing myself if i told you i knew more about drugs than leo would that mean anything you? what does leo have to do with anything? he could be as wrong as me or you? i am not trying to tease you, i honestly think i am helping, even if not right now, i hope you at least think about it in the future i'm just a random anonymous man on the internet, you don't have to win an argument or anything with me

you think tripping and thinking of killing yourself is good? you need to stop taking those types of substances and see a shrink. yes you do