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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.

They are very similar indeed in my experience. I have had both of them multiple times and I don't think I could tell the difference if given one anonymously.

Many times there are blockages in our pelvis area, which prevent us from tapping into the reproductive organs fully. YOU HAVE TO RELEASE THAT SHIT! My solution in this is bioenergetics. You just need to open up and really feel your balls and all around. Check out this:

@TheSomeBody I have been struggling with a similar problem for some time. For me it turned into a very neurotic pursuit of THE IDEAL diet. Do not fall into that trap! The thing that helped me the most is mindful eating. That is really what you want to be going for. If you don't get into that, all your eating habits will be just ideas taken over from a very wise book. Mindful eating suggest listening to your body as you eat and hearing the signals. Of course, there is a lot of value to knowing the facts of healthy food too, but according to me, mindful eating is an essential start. With this you can eat junk, and very soon you will find out in your own experience, that it in fact is no real food.

If it is possible, go traveling. Leave your everyday life behind, pack a backpack and go off to a different country with a different culture. See the beauty and ugliness of the world and yourself Oh yes! Do not plan ahead too much if you take a trip like that. Let it be a mystery!

@Kallan Maybe you could use something like this for some time in advance and practice self surrender:

Highly recommend bioenergetics for releasing your blocked energy. I never realized how much blocked up I was until I strted doing it. Check out the post I made:

Dear @alyra , everything ok?

Don't write on the forum anymore, if you are sure you want a guru. Drop everything. Sell your shit. Pack your backpack and go find him. Doesn't matter you don't know where to look. The intent matters. I am sure that if you would be serious enough to do this, you would find a master. Or something even greater