A Journey To Nowhere

[Natasha]

@jjer94 Why not let the doggy in?

Dogs experience a range of emotions too - loneliness, pain, need for companionship, fear, etc. I know a family whose dog Chelsea would do same thing as this dog and they just dismissed it as annoyance...until they found her dead in the backyard. Her needs were never understood and attended to - maybe for security, companionship, medical attention, or whatever else. They never even tried to figure it out.  That story brakes my heart every time I think about Chelsea's suffering and lonely death  

[jjer94]

the iceberg below the surface.

Welp, time to pull a Tyler Durden.

It's almost 4AM. I let the doggy in, as per @Natasha 's suggestion, and he's sleeping on the floor next to the bed. Hopefully no flare-ups from here onwards. Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm less curious as to what he feels when he scratches the door, and more curious as to why I didn't let him in in the first place. On the surface, I prefer to sleep alone. He's not my dog. I was also worried that he would jump on the bed and annoy me. But there's something deeper: self-loathing projection.

Trying to do The Work on little tussles like this is like trying to cut a single head off of a thousand-headed hydra. I think the heart of most of my issues is a lack of self-acceptance. 

Logically and linguistically, I can accept myself. I can see through reading my old journal entries how the circumstances shaped my personality. How what's happened has happened, that I didn't know any better, etc. Typing myself through MBTI was surprisingly enlightening as well.

The self-loathing, however, is deeply engraved in my bones. It's like a subconscious, knee-jerk modus operandi - the iceberg below the surface. It's not detectable via thoughts or language. Rather, I see it as an energetic signature. I think most limiting subconscious beliefs operate this way - as these language-less irrational energetic demon spawns of the mind-body. They maintain their hold by remaining outside the realm of language and thought. Even if you illuminate the beliefs themselves, they remain embedded in the subconscious for the weeks and months to come. Which is probably why I resonate so much with psychedelic therapy and bodywork like yoga and massage.

Maybe I'm nuts, but that's how I feel. These self-loathing thoughts, actions, and projections don't feel like they're mine. Instead, they possess me. When they come fully to the surface, it can feel like an exorcism is occurring. More on that in another entry, perhaps. In the meantime, I ought to try sleeping.

 

Edited January 27, 2018 by jjer94

[Natasha]

4 hours ago, jjer94 said:

I let the doggy in, as per @Natasha 's suggestion, and he's sleeping on the floor next to the bed.

That's awesome! The pooch would be even happier and less likely to annoy if you throw something cushy on the floor for him to sleep on. 

I  have learned a lot from my dog about unconditional acceptance and gratitude. They live in the moment and are not burdened by concepts like humans are. Their needs are basic and their loyalty is complete. They are unpretentious and quick to forgive, etc.

And also this 

 

[jjer94]

3 hours ago, Natasha said:

That's awesome! The pooch would be even happier and less likely to annoy if you throw something cushy on the floor for him to sleep on. 

Yep! I moved his cushy bed into the apartment. Poor thing...The owner doesn't have any toys for him, so I got him a sumo on the first day. You know, one of those red weird-shaped hollow things that you can stuff with treats. He's having a "ball" with it ........

Yes, pets are your friendly neighborhood zen masters in disguise. Though it's very easy to take that for granted, especially since I spend most of my day in thought-storyland. 

Thanks for sharing, Natasha!

[jjer94]

pure aloneness.

I am unraveling. I see my life slowly crumbling before my eyes. My dream is turning into a nightmare. 

Ego is using everything up its arsenal to prevent the unraveling, especially thoughts of suicide. Suicidal ideation - the ultimate defense mechanism against dying - the ultimate irony. My body, my mind, everything is contracting. Too afraid to die, but too afraid to live.

The self-loathing demon spawns in my head prevent me from moving further. They are voices from the past, telling me how much of a worthless piece of shit I am, how I don't deserve anything at all, how I should believe them because they're true. 

But that's not the hardest part. The hardest part is realizing that there's nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to be. Total self-annihilation. The achievement-oriented life was a sham all along. There is nothing that is lacking, but I want something to lack. I want a reason to go on. I want a god-given purpose, live a god-given life, be a paragon to behold. I want to be remembered. I want a lasting legacy. I want to survive as an ego! I never asked for this, damnit! But I just had to tug at the curtain, didn't I. After my friend's suicide, I had no choice. I just had to be the fuck-up that slinks in the corner to find the big gaping void behind the back door. 

Most of all, I don't want to be alone. But this is where true spirituality leads - pure aloneness as a direct experience. Always alone, no sense of any "others." Having a glimpse of this last night made me scream and cry in horror. I know I know, dramatic as hell. But not to the ego - my life is on the line. Me. 

 

[jjer94]

the all-seeing eye.

All of this emotional purgation over the past week has created a clearing in me. I feel less like Squidward and more like the all-seeing eye of Sauron, minus the evilness. (Well, I'll always be a little evil.) I see so much more:

• How I've used spirituality and PD for the past few years to avoid socializing and being a part of the societal framework.
• How I've created and maintained environments that emulate the environment I had during childhood (inside most of the day, spending time with pets, staring at a screen playing video games [Replaced by learning and watching YT videos] in a state of constant bodily tension, decisions made for me by mommy and daddy [Guess who's back home? Guess who's having difficulty deciding what to do with his life?]).
• How I've used distractions to dissociate from painful bodily tensions and numb body awareness.
• How I've used suicidal ideation to campaign against living life. Suicide: A paradoxical survival mechanism in which the psyche plans to kill itself not because it wants to, but because it's avoiding its own death in life. Live life enough, and aspects of the psyche will die. Through suicide, the psyche can bypass that ensnaring, sometimes unbearable, emotionally laborious process. (Honestly, going through those nearly unbearable moments myself, I can see why some people would choose suicide.)
• How when I spend too much time alone, I get paradigm-locked in my head and feel depressed. Again, now I see the importance of human interaction - with anyone. Even interacting with my unrelatable (and lovable) parents last night massively uplifted my mood. In the context of evolution, it's easy to forget that we humans are tribal animals. 
• How brisk physical exercise can also uplift mood, help me lose my mind and come to my senses.
• How I unconsciously hold tension in my body, especially in the lower abdomen.
• How I "try" to meditate and "try" to do yoga, expecting to get something out of these practices, rather than savoring the practice itself.
• On a similar vein, noticing the difference between efforting and effortlessness. How effortlessness comes from consciously "letting go."
• How there's nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to be, and how I've ironically used PD and spirituality to avoid these bitter truths.
• How I blindly believe Leo sometimes without thinking things through myself.
• How I distract myself from doing real inner work - sometimes through sneaky ways like reading PD books.
• How even after reading The Six Pillars of Self Esteem, going through different exercises, reading through old journal entries, practicing self-love and forgiveness, I still have low self-esteem. 
• How I use MBTI and other tests to promote victim mentality (e.g. I'm an INFJ, I'm just wired this way, I have ADD, I'm so fucked up beyond repair, society's not made for people like me, nobody understands me, etc.), which likely stems from getting loving attention from mommy when I played the victim card back in the day. 
• How I wonder if anyone reading this actually got this far.
• How I have a lot of repressed anger from playing the Good Boy role all these years.
• How I genuinely enjoy writing these entries because they're amusing to me and help collect my thoughts.
• How I used to fish for reputation points when they were still around, and how I still sometimes check the forum expecting a notification. I've been effectively Pavlov'ed. 
• How I still try to hold my life together in the subtlest of ways. 

And oh so much more.

Now for the Leo clichés: I've only scratched the surface. I could write for HOURS on each individual bullet point. There's lots of nuance here, so be careful. Most people don't understand how deep this goes. Do you want to be enlightened and work at 7-11? All right, that's it. Please click the "like" button... oh wait, shit!

 

Edited January 28, 2018 by jjer94

[phoenix666]

@jjer94 if there was one, I'd click it, my dear.. <3 I love and hate reading your journal. a lot of self deceptions being uncovered - it's bittersweet. 

[jjer94]

somewhere I belong.

I had a long myofascial release session yesterday - a great massage technique for releasing repressed emotions. Afterwards, I felt like I was on LSD. But today, I'm really taking a hit. 

Sometimes, I have so much despair that it snowballs into Frosty the Suicidal Snowman. The pain in this body feels endless, as though I could cry the length of the Nile River and still not be done. It runs deeper than the iceberg that hit Titanic, stronger than all of Rocky's opponents, faster than Forrest Gump. 

Right now, I feel down in the dumps. I don't know what the hell to do with my life. I feel helpless and hopeless. My body feels like a physical prison with all its tensions. I feel like damaged goods. 

But most of all, I feel like I don't belong anywhere. Besides a few hints of belonging in childhood, I've been disconnected from people most of my life, instead using books, music, video games, and other modalities to cope. While one of my subpersonalities wants to find face-to-face people I can deeply connect with, another subpersonality hates (and is afraid of) humanity, probably because of past rejections. So not only do I not have my belongingness need met, I am fundamentally at war with myself to the point where it feels near impossible to get the need met. With socializing, self-sabotaging behavior is my modus operandi.

If becoming God is about becoming limitless, then all limitations must be transcended. In that case, overcoming my social neuroses is one of the most spiritual things I can do at the moment. I'm sick of being holier-than-thou. I just want to connect, to laugh, to love, to be free.

 

[jjer94]

the self-unraveling circus.

(In the voice of your friendly neighborhood Donald J Trump)

This is the event of the century, folks!

Step right up to see JJ's self-unraveling circus!

BEHOLD! 

The bearded victim! A giraffe-necked nihilist! The tallest, mopiest, most anxious superego in the world! An existentialist elephant that prefers cashews over peanuts! Trapeze swingers that contemplate existence in mid-air! WOW-WEE! Punch 'em right in the pu------rpose!

You don't want to miss this one, folks! It's going to be TREMENDOUS. (Just like China.)

Tickets are sold at the entrance. The price? Your ego! (I'll take that, thank you very much.)  Twenty percent of the proceeds go to the Center for Unconscious Individuals. It's a new thing I'm starting up. I like it. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a State of the Union Address to make, where I'm going to talk about JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!

Stay strong, my friends!

 

Edited January 31, 2018 by jjer94

[jjer94]

shadow boxing, part 42.

I'm so goddamn depressed and suicidal and angry right now. At everything. At the world. At Dad. People should be waking up, not falling for this State of the Union bullshit! GAH!

Is this true?

Fuck yes! Spiral dynamics? The evolution of the psyche? This is the 21st century, and there's still racism! You've gotta be fucking kidding me! Why can't people be more like me? 

Is this really really true?

Yes. Raising consciousness is the prime directive of life, and most people are asleep to it. 

How do you feel and act when you believe that thought?

Furious. Especially at Dad, with his petty little unconscious ego defense mechanisms. My God, wake the fuck up so I can have a decent conversation with you! You're so damn rigid! It's like I'm stepping on eggshells when I talk to you! I have to purposely close myself down and be quiet and agreeable just to please you so I can stay in your house and be a good boy so that I don't have to live out on the streets because I'm too neurotic to support myself otherwise. In other words, Dad, why don't you change your ways and get into PD so I can connect with you instead of having to go out there into the cold dark world myself in order to find my tribe and risk failure and rejection in the process? (Wow, that one's an egoic mouthful.)

Sad. This world is going down the shitter. Our ways are not sustainable. We're all going to die prematurely. 

Nihilistic. Why even bother in a world like this? What's the point? This is a fucking zoo that I don't want to be a part of. We all spiral in and out of nothingness, with a few peak experiences but mostly suffering in between. As human beings with a separate sense of self hard-wired into the brain, we are hard-wired to suffer. We huddle in tribes to avoid the black hole in the center of our existence, adopt beliefs that limit reality and create the illusion of security, and grow like a cancer. 

What's one stress-free reason to keep these thoughts?

I don't have to participate in any of it. I can just kill myself instead.

I said stress-free. The act of suicide is very stress-inducing. 

None.

Who would you be without these thoughts?

Just someone who does my own business with no concern for those who are asleep. They'll wake up when they wake up. I'd be at peace with it. I'd go elsewhere and find people I can connect with on a deeper level. Maybe I'd admit myself to some facility so I can at least learn how to talk with people without debilitating anxiety. I'd love mom and dad and let them do their thing, while I do my thing. 

You secretly believe you should be waking up.

Yes... I've been distracting myself a lot lately. Not being present. Cutting meditation short. Not doing the work. 

You secretly believe people shouldn't be more like you.

No, they shouldn't. I'm a neurotic mess. I don't accept myself as I am. 

You secretly believe you're not sustainable.

No, I'm not. I would be terrible as a father. At the rate I'm unraveling, I will die prematurely, psychologically and perhaps literally.

You secretly believe people who aren't ready shouldn't be waking up.

No, they shouldn't. It's a long, arduous process that takes lots of emotional labor. Not everyone is ready for it in this lifetime.

You secretly believe you're a fucking zoo that you don't want to be a part of.

True dat. I feel out of control, my body feels like a prison, nothing seems to work for me or with me, and I want out. 

You secretly believe you should wake the fuck up so you can have a decent conversation with your Dad.

Yes. I'm too enamored with my own projected bullshit to actually see the soul that is my Dad. Maybe if I let go of all my anger, we could joke around like we used to. 

You are rigid.

Yes. I'm militant about PD and spirituality. Anyone I see who supports tradition and stagnation bothers me. And yet, by holding onto my militant views about PD and spirituality and expecting people to change, I myself am being rigid. 

Are you willing to let people stay asleep? Are you willing to let them fall for the "State of the Union bullshit," as you call it?

Yes and yes. It's too painful to stay angry. 

If you get triggered in the future, you'll know your work isn't done.

Understood.

Can you let all of this go now?

Yes. I'm sorry for all the bullshit.

It's all okay, love. Will you let it go?

Yes.

 

 

[Natasha]

@jjer94 I don't follow politics. What was the State of Union speech about?

 

[jjer94]

@Natasha I don't blame you; I don't follow politics either. Trump being a conservative, the focus was on economic growth, domestic security (i.e. immigration reform, tighter borders, the wall), nationalism, heroism, and building a nuclear arsenal. Basically: 

It is what it is. 

[Natasha]

@jjer94 Sushi an American invention... who knew?  

[jjer94]

the tragic miracle of meaning.

The tragedy and miracle of the human condition: we can create meaning where there is none. 

It's perfect. I don't think meaning is a bug, but a feature. As Jed McKenna said in one of his books, if life had meaning, it wouldn't mean a thing.

The tragedy is that we desperately try to find grounding in a groundless universe. We want things to last. We want security, solidity, and familiarity. But no matter how hard we try, eventually our sand castles merge with the beach. 

The miracle is that meaning is an emergent property, and it's so dang meaningful. We can indulge in meaning for meaning's sake. We can tap into the higher virtues like beauty, purpose, wonder, agape - without even needing a ground for them. 

At the intersection of the tragedy and the miracle is suffering. But the suffering can mean something, and that makes the world a difference. 

The movie Blade Runner 2049 exemplifies this dynamic. The protagonist, K, turns out to be the most ordinary replicant with no affiliation with the more "important" characters. And yet, even knowing this fact, he still creates his own purpose. He saves Deckard from another replicant and reunites him with his real daughter. He doesn't care that his life is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. His suffering meant something to him. He found purpose in an otherwise purposeless existence. 

If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is. 

P.S. Blade Runner 2049 is an incredibly underrated movie with gorgeous cinematography. Thinking about it and its predecessor makes my heart swell. <3

 

Edited February 1, 2018 by jjer94

[jjer94]

whoa.

Quote

Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. --Jordan Peterson

Whoa. Where did it go? 

For the past couple days, my social anxiety's been running at 50% capacity. The body is finally starting to give in! It knows that human connection is a crucial aspect to living, and it knows that it can only enjoy others' company when it's relaxed. 

Benjamin Smythe makes an excellent point on social anxiety: We can only be anxious when we want something from the other person. If we're relaxed in the body and feel complete, we can treat social interaction like a dance rather than a business contract. Though I think it's impossible to not want something out of our relationships, this idea is still useful to keep in mind.

I used to compare myself to the average person my age and think how much of a failure I am. But that's like comparing apples to oranges. We're all so different. We all have our unique struggles, our unique upbringing, our unique brain chemistry, our strengths and our weaknesses. We're all at a different place on the journey to nowhere. In the grand scheme of things, age is a poor marker for psychological growth. 

But compare past JJ to present JJ, and I see considerable growth. (Especially since I started that daily yoga practice, holy shit.) That's good enough for me. I don't need to be a superstar; I just need to know that I'm stretching myself. 

Sure, I've been more emotionally turbulent, but that's because I'm running out of ways to anesthetize myself. My eyes hurt because I've never used them before.

 

[jjer94]

radical leftist shadow-boxing.

This interview is legendary:

In particular, I'm fascinated with the underlying psychological dynamics. 

I can sympathize with radical leftists like Cathy. I myself have felt like a victim most of my life. Unresolved victim mentality naturally results in projection - "The other person is evil and should change for me." You can wait forever before they change, or you can adopt a narrative that validates said victim mentality. Enter radical leftism, a group of people who have not taken responsibility for their inner space. It's shadow-boxing on the macrocosmic level.

In order to hide the underlying egoic hatred for the oppressor and to make themselves feel good, radical leftists present their arguments under the guise of compassion and inclusivity. But they are far from it: "Your right to free speech should not be above your right to offend ____." They want to design a world where they can avoid all of their own triggers. They want to design a world where they can avoid looking inward. 

Ken Wilber calls this phenomenon "Boomeritis." Boomeritis is stage green infected with stage red in Spiral Dynamics. An outward hippy, but inward mob boss. 

I don't deny the patriarchy. I don't deny that feminism and the left's consideration of oppressed groups throughout history has been crucial for the world's psychological advancement. But I think it ought to come from a place of love, not of vindication. That's real liberalism. Coming from a place of love requires lots of inner work though, which is why I think people like Leo are so crucial for the future.

Fascinating how our psychological development (or lack thereof) can dictate our political views. 

Edited February 3, 2018 by jjer94

[jjer94]

on-the-fly zazenkai.

@Danielle's recent post inspired me to do my own little retreat! Due to my current living situation, however, I could only do it for a half day. Even so, I learned SO MUCH more than I thought I would. 

I shall name this type of retreat...the On-the-fly Zazenkai! 

The Stats:

• Began at 7:30 AM, ended at 5:00 PM (or 17:00 for you more sensible folk)
• 3 hrs meditation
• Contemplation in between activities
• 45 minutes contemplative snowshoeing
• 1 hr yoga
• 30 min yoga nidra
• 1 totally heinous trip to the grocery store
• 5 involuntary yodels
• Only 1 cry
• 6 verbal "Fuck!"s
• 53 green stars collected
• 2 dragons slain

The Equipment:

• My trusty zafu (that has a hole in it and spills beads everywhere)
• Insight timer
• Acupressure mat
• Snowshoes
• My dignity

The Insights:

• Distraction = "Since sitting in silence literally equates to my death...hey! Look at this!"
• Anger = "X wronged me in the past, so I need to reinforce my sense of separateness by breaking shit!"
• My mind effectively distracted me from meditation by generating these insights to share.
• I am addicted to the half-baked social sustenance from this forum. I use it to distract myself from face-to-face interaction.
• I have a mother-and-child relationship with myself.
• The human psyche is literally insane. It has to be, in order to create something from nothing. 
• The tension deep in my navel: "I'm not safe. I am dependent. Resources are scarce. I need to armor myself against rejection in order to prevent abandonment."
• The mind wants to do anything BUT look inward.
• I'm not mindful enough during the day. Most of the time, I'm a scheming bastard.
• I felt remorseful for the way I treated my mom this morning (which wasn't even that bad). Then I realized that my need to apologize was a knee-jerk reaction stemming from the fear of abandonment. And here I thought that saying sorry was just being courteous...nope. Another ego defense mechanism.
• We create time in order to avoid being God.
• Suffering and the need to control are fraternal twins.
• Upon disintegrating: "YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, LISAAAA!!!!"
• I am nowhere near ready for a 10-day vipassana retreat. My back is nearly destroyed after three hours of meditation.
• Physical pain is inherently painless.
• I officially have a crush on everything.
• Holyshitholyshitholyshit...nothing to do. This insight goes deeper and deeper. I could die right now and it wouldn't even matter. In a sense, I'm half-dead already. That's...amazing! Life is like icing on the formless cake!
• I discovered a huge reason why I feel so depressed all the time. More on that in a future post. 
• I can see myself doing something like this every week, or at least an Internet sabbath. I feel amazing, happy, grateful, and in awe. At the same time, I feel terrified about where this will lead.

That's all, folks. Tune in next week for another episode of "JJ Goes Crazy," where you can witness my unraveling first-hand! 

 

Edited February 5, 2018 by jjer94

[Natasha]

@jjer94 Wow deep insights here! Keep us posted.

[jjer94]

mind, inc.

I'm still glowing from that on-the-fly zazenkai. I feel happy for a change! Genuinely happy. My depression is gone, my anxiety much less. Though I suspect these things will come back in waves as ego continues to buck like a bronco. 

I learned, on a visceral level, that what we call "reality" is all in the mind. Society, humanity, the future, work, pay, self survival. It's all thoughts. My depression only appears when I blow these stories out of proportion.

Here's another way to put it: Right now, I'm in my bedroom, typing these words. I have food, water, shelter, and a place to sleep. No immediate threats. No one else in the room. For all I know, I could be the only person in existence right now. But then the mind goes, "But what about my safety in the future? All of the jobs I've done in the past have been royally unfulfilling, and I can't do 9-to-5. That restricts most of my job options. So what now? How will I make ends meet? How will I be able to carry out a purpose? How do I even know what purpose is right for me? It's gotta help others in some way. Fuck. I shouldn't even bother trying, because I've failed so much in the past. I'm done. No way I'll be able to support myself. Society's fucked. It's not made for people like me. There's no hope. May as well kill myself now."

That's how insane the mind is. It can manufacture its own world "out there": job, society, others, purpose, et cetera. It can use any evidence to rationalize anything it wants. Then it believes itself, and the body reacts as if its life is being threatened. Hence, anxiety and depression. (Side note: In the context of MBTI, this is expected. The INFJ's inferior cognitive function is extraverted sensing, i.e. being in the here and now.)

Yet, all that's happening right now is me typing these words. Some planning is important, but for people like me who live a year into the future and imagine a thousand possibilities every waking moment, meditation and yoga are crucial. 

There's no stopping me on this journey to nowhere. It's my lifeblood! I've committed to it like a marriage.

And a bonus video:

 

Edited February 6, 2018 by jjer94

[jjer94]

welcome back!

Welp, here he comes again. Hey there, Depression! I had a feeling you'd be back. Come, sit, have a cup of tea with me. Let me give you the mic.

D: I'M SUCH A FUCKUP! Depression, anxiety, sensitivity, neuroticism, chronic health issues, victim mentality - all inherited from my mom's side. The same karmic cycles repeated through three generations: my grandma to my mom, and my mom to me. And worst of all, I'M A MAN! At least I'd be more socially accepted as a female. FUCK! Birth trauma, being smothered as a kid, having decisions made for me, being called a wimp and a crybaby, being encouraged to "man up". Expected to stay at the same job for forty years, get married, have kids, lead a "keep up with the Joneses" kind of life, just like my dad and brother, who are polar opposites to me. CONGRATULATIONS, MOM! YOU CREATED FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER!

Wow-wee. Where do we start? Hmm... So why does Mom infuriate you?

D: Because she fucking made me. Now I have to go through years of therapy to just be at the same psychological stability as your average joe. How many years wasted, chasing my tail. Who knows... thanks, Mom!

You believe Mom shouldn't have made you. Is that true?

D: Yes. I just want to be normal. I just want to fit in for once in my stupid fucking life. I have no more anesthesia, and it's driving me nuts. I'm so lonely, none of my family understands what I'm going through, and even if I started being honest like this, they'd lash back out at me because they themselves are so psychologically underdeveloped. My birth wasn't a mistake, but I am a mistake.

Dayum, a lot more assumptions there. But what's the reality of the situation?

D: The reality is: she made me, I am the way I am, and I'm doing all that I can to cope.

How do you react when you believe these thoughts?

D: How do you think? I get fucking depressed! I get hopeless! I get INFURIATED at everyone and everything! I fucking HATE myself! I hate how emotionally unstable I am! I hate how life just LAID all this shit on me, and now I'm expected to deal with it, while everyone else my age is moving on with their lives like it's a fucking cake walk. I feel like I shouldn't have been born!

Who would you be without these thoughts?

D: I'd be...present. I'd be able to meditate without going crazy. I'd savor the moment. I'd stay devoted to the pathless path, über disciplined, with the hope that it will transform me over the years. I'd accept myself, warts and all. I'd accept that I'm different from most guys my age, and there's nothing fundamentally wrong about that - it is what it is. I'd learn to cultivate my strengths to the utmost degree. I'd be willing to laugh at myself. I'd see my shortcomings as my strengths. I'd be willing to show my face to others without shame, and maybe have a chance at making friends again.

Ahh, there. We have much more to discuss, Señor Depression.