Truth Addict

What works best for me is: 10-15 minutes of meditation (until monkey-mind is calm), followed by asking questions concerning the issue (anxiety); such as: How do I feel right now? Am I anxious or relaxed? Do I really not want to feel anxious? Is anxiety bad? What is the purpose of anxiety? Is it possible to turn it into something positive? Can I allow myself to feel it without suffering from it? Why? And why not? Could it be a friend, not an enemy? What situations create anxiety for me? What is the most common situation that makes me anxious when it happens? (the goal here is to find a solid case to study). How does anxiety arise? Is it thoughts? Is it other people? Is it my physical body? Is it related to my past traumas? Is it related to the future? Or is it all of those things? How do other people not feel anxious about the same situations? What is the biggest difference between me and them? When was the first time I felt anxious? What was the situation back then? How did it sneak into my system like this? What could I have possibly done to prevent it? Who are some people that I tend to never feel anxious when they're around? What do they provide that I lack? Should I hang around them more to find out? What are some of the things that help me deal with anxiety? Like real solutions. And what are the crutches that I use to bypass that feeling? Does my diet affect my emotional system? Is my lifestyle hurting me? How do I feel after a workout session? What are the states that make me anxiety-proof? What makes them so? Is this anxiety organic, which requires a professional help? Or is it something that I can cure by myself? You see, the list can go on and on. The questions are by no means limited to the ones I mentioned. You can invent a million other questions. Yet, to make the inquiry most effective, you must follow the problem to its roots. There is no formula here, but a pen and paper can help. What I do is that I pick up the one question that feels the most penetrating and follow it to its conclusion. It is almost always fear/love. I probably fear a possibility, or prefer/love something more than something else. And that is almost always rooted in survival. As for self discovery, well, it's as simple as it's called. How do you know who you are? By watching how you feel, act, react, etc... without judging yourself. Of course, you can repeat the same process above but this time the main questions that I propose are: What does it mean to discover one's own self? What do I want right now? Why do I want it? Is it helping me or anyone else? Is it aligned with my values? What's on my mind right now? Why is it there? What are the thoughts that are mostly on my mind? What am I concerning myself with the most? Why? Or, you can ignore all that and just meditate for as long as you can. The more the better. Questions will naturally arise, and answers will naturally arise as well. What I mean by meditation here is not to sit in lotus position and remain in that fixed position for hours. I mean simply not doing any kind of stimulating activities for as long as you can. It means becoming friends with loneliness and silence, and limiting your activities to the most essential necessary ones. It's like a vacation from "fun activities". That alone will teach you a lot about yourself. You don't need to do anything for that, except dropping the idea of an unliberated mind. That is the main obstacle towards liberation, is that you are already free but you think you're not. Or, you need to kill your ego so that you don't have no identity no more. Or, you need to become meta, and to see everything from a meta perspective. All of those things can happen through meditation, self-inquiry, and mindfulness practices. I'm not sure about psychedelics, since I've never tried them. ..... Brief alternative ways for approaching those goals: For resolving issues that has to do with thinking, become friends with death. Become comfortable with the idea of death. For self discovery, become friends with the present moment, silence, loneliness. Become friends with yourself. For liberation, stop seeking. Just be/surrender. Of course, it goes without saying: 100% self-honesty is the key here. Also, keep in mind that any progress that you make is purely a grace, not a personal effort. Acknowledge that you can't force awakening, that'll be a major hit for the ego. Acknowledge that awakening is a matter of luck. And acknowledge that you are the luckiest man on earth, because you are! Good luck!

What are your intentions with the practice?

Me too. But then how do you motivate yourself for long-term goals? Like going body building, finishing college, etc... Sometimes vision is not enough, especially if I don't really believe in it.

There are many answers to this question (in no particular order): Killing time. Helping others. Learning more/developing oneself. I resonate with the kind of people that are here more than all others/I belong. Sometimes just showing off. Sometimes just because I'm addicted. Sometimes just to avoid/bypass the actual work. I have many values, but I wouldn't call what I do a "passion". Yep ??

I'm completely happy and content with what I have. I don't want more. But then I can't survive if I don't move. So, I need motivation. People like that guy in the video literally infect me with energy.

Yes. I do. I don't have passions, so that's how I survive.

God is literally laughing at this discussion ?

Wow! Thanks for this! ??

I started my journey when I was living the worst moments in my life. Fear, doubt, victim's mentality, complete disconnection from reality, OCD, over seven years of depression, and so forth. I can't remember everything I used to suffer from. Now, I'm literally living in paradise. Self-help works, but YOU gotta make it work. You're the engine of the whole process. (referring to the other guys).

You can still surrender and become happy. Should he? ... @theking00 @Shaun Guys, you gotta take responsibility and stop being victims. You gotta be optimistic. You gotta be patient. Otherwise, you will never be able to change your lives, neither the materialistic nor the spiritual.

Moses once saw a shepherd and heard him praying to God. The shepherd was addressing God as a human, he was saying that he would always feed God and take care of him. Moses flipped at him and told him that that's not how you address God (basically kicked him out of heaven), and taught him how to pray to God properly. But then later on, God told Moses that he did wrong by wronging the shepherd, and that God had always been accepting of his prayers. What do you think?

An innocent devil is no longer a devil.

@Luna Nihilism is a classic sign of overthinking. Thought itself is devoid of meaning, so there's no wonder why all thought-derived conclusions always seem meaningless and feel empty. So, if thought is empty, then how come it seems meaningful when it calls everything meaningless? You see the irony here? Everything is meaningless except the thought that says so? What does this mean? Actually, nothing. What needs to happen here is for you to rise above the meaningful vs. meaningless duality, and watch it from a higher perspective, a meta perspective. Once you realise the meaninglessness of meaninglessness, you will discover the divine meaning of life, and that is being itself. The point of the ride is the ride.

That sounds like a conclusion that is coming from your current environment Maybe your environment does not need to change, maybe just how you react with it is what needs to change. For example: I've broken many beliefs simply by moving from talking a lot, into limiting the number of words I use per day. Ideally, if possible, try spending some days without talking at all. Likewise, I've broken many beliefs simply by returning back to the social life. Change is very important for growth.

Change your environment.

@Shaun

Don't worry, you're just tired. Drink some water, enjoy some food, relax, breathe, rest, sleep. You have discharged all of your power, time to recharge.

@mandyjw Haha ? well played! @Shaun

@Leo Gura Maybe because that's an isolated system.

@see_on_see Well, I guess I've been unmasked. Time to pack my shit and go home. @Dwarniel @Chi_ @How to be wise

WTF?!

I don't believe in "conservation of mass and energy". To me, it looks like mass is always increasing, and so does energy.

After death, you will become a frog.

No no no. All of the above answers are hitting around the bush. The ego is suffering (pun intended). Period.

My deepest realisation yet is that Slavery = Freedom. In other words, for you to have total freedom, everything must be predetermined. But this is kind of hard to explain.