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Is it something to fix or worry about? Consider that there may be nothing to worry about...

5 Day Bow and Arch Challange Day 1/5 So I decided to challenge myself to this bioenergetics workout 5 days in a row. This is a difficult one for me. It opens up the front and the back of the body. It is quite drastic at times as a I hold a ton of tension there. However after doing this workout I feel my body being much more relaxed and open. Does your chest expand itself effortlessly with a dragon like power to its full extend with every breathe? No? Then you could use this exercise. Today I did not manage to do it completely. Arch is rather simple for me, but Bow is extreme. In all three repetitions, I had to support my lower back with my hands, as I was in agony. I'll try to hold it longer tomorrow

I am from Czech Republic.

Disidentyfing from the mind For a few weeks now a weird phenomenon has been happening to me from time to time. Something changes. First it is hard to say what has changed, but then it becomes clear that something about the thoughts is different. They are the same in a way, but there is a different kind of perception to them. "Oh! I have disidentyfied from the mind!" - says the mind - "Wow, amazing. It is saying stuff and I won't even budge. It means nothing to me!" ... and so it goes for a while, until it gets it... "Wait, I couldn't have done this. I am the mind. The mind is talking. The voice cannot disidentify from itself." - the mind gets really confused at this point. ... and here the wierd stuff starts happening. The mind goes crazy... "Come on! Stop it! Take me seriously! I will ruin you! I will kill you, is that what you want?" - the mind keeps begging and threatening ... or... "Blsjfsnsi nsffsnf jffsnfs ofsfnfsm!" - the mind goes nuts, making sounds and noises that are incomprehensible. ... and finally when the mind gets tired of it and sees that there is no response, no reaction, it starts getting curious... "Ok, so what am I really? Am I this voice? But what has changed? Who is hearing me? Who is watching? Is there one of me or two?" ... and so the spontaneous self-inquiry begins. At some point, I go back to the mind. I don't even notice when that happens. I guess if I would be conscious then it would not happen, so maybe I cannot notice? It is a strange feeling being in that state. The mind thinks it's me at first and then it knows it is not me, but the feeling that I am something else, something greater is there from the beginning. The mind just cannot really get what it is that I am. These are some weird situations, I'll tell you that!

Thank you for your support and advice. Good luck on your fast!

Is that meant just for a time or permanently? I have seen recommendations to use distilled water during water fasts, but never heard of doing that long term. Wouldn't it cause mineral deficiency. Any way in about a weeks time, I will be starting a 5-7 day fast, which should start up the cleansing process well.

5-Meo-DMT This morning I plugged 27 μg of 5-MeO-DMT HCl. The first thing that needs to be said is, that this being my first experience of plugging, it was pretty disturbing. Sticking an alien object up my asshole was not a thing I though I would be doing willingly in my life. That being said, plugging seems like a very good method. I have had 5-MeO 3x before, always snorting. Snorting was just terrible. Nose hurting, I never managed to get it all in and always some of it dripped down my neck. Made me extra sick. My experiences with 5-MeO have been quite disappointing. Mostly I get sick. I get really sick in my body. I learned to stick my fingers really deep down my throat and get the puking reflex going. At the moment of the sickness this seems like the most liberating thing ever. After the sickness a lot of energy movement comes. This time the sickness was not so bad, but still I used the hand-to-throat method and was relieved quite a bit. It felt as if my whole body started opening and letting go. I felt like puking, shiting, respirating and making noises at the same time. A moment later everything settled and I fell into deep relaxation. A lot of energy was moving in my body. Mostly my back and my arms and legs. Weird most of the energy purging I get usually is in my trunk... I lay down and let it do its work. My arms and legs went completely numb. I wasn't sure if I will ever be able to move them again. I could in the end A simple insight I had during this trip was, that I actually never get out of my mind. Is that really so? Well? 27 μg and that is it? 30 μg is the big number a lot of people experience breakthrough on and I felt like a was a loooong way away still.

Take your shoes off. Go into the forest (or at least a park). Do some gardening. Get into the ocean. Remember where you came from!

Sitting in a Do-Nothing meditation for the first part of the trip might be a good idea!

If I understand correctly and you want to slowly get into spirituality, I have got two messages for you from Mooji! A really simple thing, but can be soooo powerful. Brings peace into my life. And this is a short video that introduced me to the sweetness of being. So simple. I find that the simplest things are often the most effective. Hope this helps!

Karma Yoga. I think that is what it is designed for. Selfless service. Imagine serving soup to homeless people instead of reading self-help books at home. Imagine volunteering to tutor children instead of working on your business. That would be a real beating to our personal development egos, don't you think?

For me in these cases body work is the way. Shake it out. Dance it out. Yell it out. Seriously, just let loose and while breathing deeply try to shake, wobble, whatever. VERY soon will you see that something is moving in there. Might be unpleasant. If you are not familiar with body work, you can try to be guided by this: This is a bioenergetic workout designed to release trapped energy in the place you are describing. Good luck, I feel with you!

I lived in a Hare Krishna community for some time. It is all about bhakti (devotion) and karma (work). Their kirtans are amazing and I got a real nice example of what devotion is all about in there. There is a sort of meditation - mantra mediation - which is repeating "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare". That being said carefull! I have seen a lot of young people being completely fooled by the philosophy, worshiping the guru (Prabhupáda) and just being lost in the secterian side of it. Don't get pulled in blindly. Especially the guru claiming his lineage is the only spiritual path and all that kind of bullshit... Have fun, maybe your community will be a little different, but don't be surprised if there are sectarian aspects to it. Hare Krishna

Go for it. It is amazing for balancing your entire system.

Parmahansa Yogananda is a good one.

The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting by Jason Fung "We are wired for feast and famine, not feast, feast, feast." A very good book as an introduction and a guide to fasting. Explains the benefits, debunks the myths, shares tips and experiences from a lot of people who healed various conditions through fasting. You will learn how to conduct many types of fasts, starting from short 18 hours ones (hardly a fast) all the way up to 14 day fasts (and beyond possibly). I give a 9/10 because I missed explanations of the spiritual benefits, but as it is a book written by a medical expert, this was clearly not the purpose of the book. If you are interested in trying out fasting, pick this book up!

Great! Keep it up! Some sweet stuff is waiting ahead of you.

Dalai lama. He is the boss

I agree. Cannabis combined with meditation can do wonders. I especially admire its ability to get me into the body, surface some deep emotions and that kind of thing. It can bring up a lot of shadows, but for someone who has been meditating for a while, it should be no problem.

The techniques I use are mostly Do-Nothing, Breath Awareness and Self Inquiry. However lately I find, that all of them basically lead to the same place of stillness. My question is, why is Leo so big on combining meditation with inquiry and other stuff if it all goes to the same place? Am I missing something?

Thank you for your answers. Looking back I see how inquiry let me deepen my meditation. On the other hand now only sitting and abiding as the being seems more appropriate than endless questioning. Is inquiry, that is the questioning, still useful after being able to sit in stillness? There seem to be no questions to ask really.

Oh, so you want to be playful? Very good! Here you go, a step by step guide to a playful life! Enjoy! Contemplate what playfulness is a little. Get the feel of it. How and who are you when being playful? Got it? Good! Now to step 2! Create a label for this feeling. Pick one that fits you. It could be "playfulness" or "I am playful" or even "life is a game". Now use this label. Make it into an affirmation that you repeat for a couple of minutes and soak in the feeling, or if you want every moment of your life to be a play, then use it as a mantra 24/7. Every time the label appears in your consciousness, you will automatically get the playful feeling. You will smile at your thoughts, look at things with curiosity, move lightly and in a fun way, make jokes about yourself. All the good stuff! TIP! Use your body to boost your playfulness. After all it is our doll to play with in this reality. Relax and live your life like a dance! WARNING! Use at your own risk! Might cause enormous levels of playfulness in your life

This will fire you right up

Try fasting if possible.

I listened to this podcast today. Anahata is supposed to be an expert on Shamanic Breathing. She suggest adding her twist to it, which is asking yourself a question in the mids of the breathing (I guess something like: "Why am I angry at my father?" or "Why do I have anxiety about finances?") I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like a good tool. She talks about it in the first third of the video if you want to check it out.