Advisory post for straining newbies

[helenaoftroy]

Heeeeey everyone.

DISCLAIMER: this is all personal experience.

So, after a couple months of Leo and learning, I found myself in huge Ego corruption - my brain fired up with all information and I quickly and unknowingly assumed that I was integrating this info.

This is very wrong.

Everyone who hands out the info always advises you not to imbalance being and doing, and this is fundamental, but you should be careful not to wrongly interpret it. Learning counts as doing, this is a given, but also contemplating wrong (which I found to be too easy to do starting out) counts as doing, and half assing your meditation doesn't count as being even if you do it 2 times a day.

If you feel your brain is being burnt alive, your meditation is not being fruitful and you should check in on it - even if you are doing it, odds are you aren't doing it mindfully. 

It is of course painful to meditate whilst your thoughts are out of control, but I believe it is also meant to be PEACEFUL and helpful. Strain is a given, but if you get strong negative emotions you are clearly NOT detaching, you are reacting. Hence you are not really meditating (because you are not really paying attention, you are just getting more and more involved). And if this happens to you and you carry on believing you are doing everything right, oh boy, are you completely fucked.

I eventually realised all of this by getting some neuroticism red flags. Something worthwhile pointing out is that you won't catch this happening early on for the obvious ill-practice reasons, and it won't be until the frustrating point of noticing you're getting neurotic that you will.

So, my personal trick has been to implement a strict rule of thinking in 24-48h periods. Not telling you to not be a strategic motherfucker, telling you that that takes maybe 1h a month of exclusive maintenance. If you know your goals and have laid out your activities to match them, you can stop fretting over decisions already made and just check in from time to time to see if you're on track.

The rest of your existence is NOW. Right NOOOOOOOOOOOOW. Be a strict motherfucker on this. I'm still having a rough time... because knowing actually doesn't do anything for you, you need it engraaaaaved by insisting over and over and over. 

Also I'm a girl and all the logical Leo mind burns my soul. Greatest fluke of my life to have found him, buuuut clearly something was flying over my head. I needed feeling.

(Now for the real piece of practical advice: )

Blessing might've come in the form of the great B.K.S. Iyengar.

As a normal unconscious ego, if you're to get anywhere you need: focus, practice, CONSISTENCY and an outlet for everything you're attempting to purge, lest it build a theme park inside your brain you'll ride on to your demise, since it masks fairly well as "integration". Physical exertion and hanging out with my friends (extrovert) do it for me.

Enter yoga. If you think it's weak as a practice... ahahaha well... do your homework. If you won't try it because you think it won't make you look ripped and care more about that, you're off balance anyway - plus that really gets done with proper nutrition. It's not a girly fairy practice. It will work exactly all the things that need most working, both in mind and body and it will really help you center and stay centered.

This master has two books: Light on Life and Light on Yoga.

They are my next heavy bet as a non-intellectual, being-centered tool in getting my bearings properly at once, and I suspect it'll save me a lot of time over time.

I am in decent shape and have some reasons for having to start out at home for now, but don't think it's the best way at all - if you can, find a PROPER studio, that'll give you proper attention and alignment corrections. 

 

I will end with harmlessly saying that, if you have made your decision. If this is it and you know it is it and you're taking the path and never looking back:

Stop reading threads. Stop coming here at all unless for something specific you need.

Stop hoarding playlists of videos you should watch

Stop bucketlisting all the books you should read.

Remember that you must believe and trust your work if you are to purify yourself at all. So do. Trust that you will get access to the right things at the right time. All the planning you had to do is already done.

Now go and shut off Leo's smiling face and don't even acknowledge his existence or this forum's for as long as possible. If you strain with this - that is already a red flag.

If you are not ready to take this activities mindfully and make them disappear at will, they will make you their bitch (if you sit on the toilet with your phone in your hands it has already happened).

Hopefully after this advisory post, I'll be able to follow my own advice.

 

TL; DR:

If you want real progress as a newb, DETACH from ALL sources of info and think in 24h-48h periods only. Anything beyond that you immediately shut off. And at any moment you are able to, reduce that to 5h periods, 4, 3, 20 minutes. As short as possible.

Yoga is one of the best centering tools, and the books Light on Yoga and Light on Life by B.K.S. Iyengar point to being gold mines.

[Flammable]

Really good advice, I am usually overly enthusiastic to know everything at once, so I used to hoard videos like crazy. 

My ego felt as if it was missing out if it had not watched the newest video of Mooji, Krishnamurti, Adyashanti, Leo, Rupert, etc, so there was barely any time to do anything else.