Advice for prioritizing practices | Daily routine

[peanutspathtotruth]

Hello my friends. I went through many cycles of healthy routines -> going back to destructive habits -> going back into healthy routines. I'm not blaming myself, that's exactly what I needed at the specific moments. I'm at a point now though where the destructive things don't make sense anymore, even if I'm rather unconscious / emotionally aroused / confused. There is still a huuuge pull towards these things (especially NOT doing healthy things and replacing them with unhealthy eating habits, fapping, overindulgence in media) but I just can't get over the edge to indulge in them anymore now. I know there is no value in brute forcing myself to be healthy. It has to come from the inside. Discovering Matt Kahn and healing emotionally (+ many other things like psychedelics and meditation and contemplating) over the last weeks has brought me to this place where all these motivations come from inside.

Knowing this background, I decided to up my game again. There is no reason anymore not to take this as the most important thing EVER. The last month I meditated daily for at least 1 hour, did some Yoga Nidra, phsyical Yoga here and there, reading a lot. Before that came many periods of on/off meditation (30-60 minute range) for about 4 years. 

I got plenty of time on hand but not endless (Studying Psychology + working part time). So my plan is to implement things daily again:

(Priority one): 
- Meditation (1 hour, maybe more)
- Physical Yoga / Stretching / Mobility
- Bodyweight training
- Wim Hof Breathing
- Journaling
- Reading (Consciousness, health etc.)

(Not really practices but healthy habits):
- Cold showers
- No fap 
- Super clean eating
- Actively loving myself and others aka opening the heart

This already is a lot to get into a day (actually I would like to fit all of that into the morning except the stretching which I always do in the evening) but with a fair amount of discipline and prioritizing this should be no problem.
Now here are some things I'm not sure how high to prioritize and if it's really that *crucial* to implement since it feels like all that could become too much:

(Priority two):
- Kriya Yoga (~60 minutes)
- Creative Expression (Just jamming in my DAW or drawing or something like this)
- Yoga Nidra (Super healing for me, nothing comes close to this level of relaxation)
- Heart Yoga (basically physical yoga with a focus on heart meditation, it's beautiful)
- Extra dedicated time for purely self inquiry (My meditation is kind of a hybrid of do-nothing and non-mental self inquiry)
- Energy work / Tai Chi / Qi Gong, something in that direction
- Shamanic Breathing (aka replacing Wim Hof with that)

I think less is more in a way. All practices would take like ALL my time and there might be days where I just can't put everything in. So I'm thinking about taking it slowly, doing only the upper mentioned things and maybe integrating one of the lower things once every while.

To crystallize this, these are my questions:
1. What do you think of this approach in general? Is my prioritizing off in your opinion? Should I switch one thing with another?
2. I read all the Kriya books and also had like 2 weeks of a daily practice. In the books he advises to do it twice every day. This would be way too much considering all the rest. I just think if I might do it, I should not skip a day. Is once every day still effective? I know for myself, the practice alone is not *necessary* at all. But how powerful is it? Is it that powerful that I should do anything to fit it in my day? My intuition tells me no.
3. I also have a feeling I should concentrate more on the meditation and make it  2 hours a day or even more (like two 1 hour sessions). What do you think? 
4. There are things I want to minimize to create space for all this stuff. This would be: friends & family, art consumption (movies + fiction books). Those things are still very important to me. I'm scared if I commit myself too much I might not do these things enough which might create unbalance. Any advice from your experience?
5. I think about cycling some things like: Extra reading, creative expression, Yoga Nidra, Energy Work. This way I could fit it in but not do it daily. Do you think some of those are a must for a daily routine?
6. Any healthy habits you would add?


I know this is a lot. I don't expect anyone of you to read all this. It took me some time to really decide to ask you guys because I hold your opinions in high regards  You are kind of in the same boat and advice from your side would mean a lot to me. I love all of you deeply <3 

Especially interested in your opinions @cetus56@Shin @Nahm @Serotoninluv @Charlotte @Joseph Maynor @Leo Gura @Jack River

Edited December 6, 2018 by peanutspathtotruth

[Nahm]

@peanutspathtotruth

 The path is back from where you came. 

Start with deconstructing what’s been added from your past. Any body traumas such as molestation, rape, self esteem / body image issues, etc, might be served by body focused practices such as shamanic breathwork, yoga, etc, with some meditation, and certain therapies.  More mental trauma like internization of parent issues in one’s childhood, anger, chronic stress, victimization, abandonment, etc, might be better served by more therapy, more meditations, light yoga / breathwork. Very hard to say. You get the idea.

All are important, all can help. Just some thoughts for you on what is a pretty broad question. 

This can be helpful in recognizing when you go from conscious to unconscious - clues as to what could use some work:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html

What about retreats too? Getting away alone for a few days - a week - couple times a year, puts everything in perspective. Zooming out is as productive as zooming in. 

Overall: Fitness / clean eating & psyche deconstruction are 80% of the puzzle imo, theory & practices 10%, then psychedelics 10%/infinite. 

Consider a life coach to help keep you on track.

Godspeed Peanut!

[Joseph Maynor]

I brainstormed by Daily Routine/ Schedule today because I'm in the process of really getting it top notch.  I just wanted you to see the work I did on my whiteboard.  These aren't in any order because I'm just brainstorming here.

Edited December 7, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[zambize]

22 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I brainstormed by Daily Routine/ Schedule today because I'm in the process of really getting it top notch.  I just wanted you to see the work I did on my whiteboard.  These aren't in any order because I'm just brainstorming here.

Have you really found 8 hours of sleep necessary?  I can't seem to find any evidence supporting that other than an article that kind of pooled population sizes, and used the trends of populations to prove sleeping more was healthier, of course this is a shit metric because correlation doesn't prove causation, there could be reasons why these populations can't get enough sleep such as over-working that are the root cause, and not sleep.  Psychology today seems to agree saying that if 6-7 works for you, keep it that way, you're more than likely fine.  In fact sleeping 9-10 hours lowers your life span ironically.  My point being that if you're doing 8 hrs because in your experience that's what produces, great, but if not, it is a common misconception that people need 8 and that if you can function on 6-7 hrs just as well, I would recommend 7 personally.  

[Joseph Maynor]

19 minutes ago, zambize said:

Have you really found 8 hours of sleep necessary?  I can't seem to find any evidence supporting that other than an article that kind of pooled population sizes, and used the trends of populations to prove sleeping more was healthier, of course this is a shit metric because correlation doesn't prove causation, there could be reasons why these populations can't get enough sleep such as over-working that are the root cause, and not sleep.  Psychology today seems to agree saying that if 6-7 works for you, keep it that way, you're more than likely fine.  In fact sleeping 9-10 hours lowers your life span ironically.  My point being that if you're doing 8 hrs because in your experience that's what produces, great, but if not, it is a common misconception that people need 8 and that if you can function on 6-7 hrs just as well, I would recommend 7 personally.  

For some reason I feel like I always need 8.  I think some of it is my diet is not as clean as it should be.

[peanutspathtotruth]

@Nahm Thank you so much  
Yes, retreats are definitely something I kept myself from doing. Will implement them in the coming year.
 

15 hours ago, Nahm said:

Overall: Fitness / clean eating & psyche deconstruction are 80% of the puzzle imo, theory & practices 10%, then psychedelics 10%/infinite. 

Interesting. Would be very helpful if you could specify what you mean by "the puzzle". Because that's important for me personally too, to really define what I want out of life.

I think psyche deconstruction is also deeply interwoven with spiritual practices and psychedelics. So although you rightly account less importance to them, since they add to the big 80%, they might be of high value in this whole approach right?

@Joseph Maynor Thank you for sharing this. Nice work! 

[ivory]

@Joseph Maynor I'm looking at your schedule thinking how are you balancing acceptance? I think you're being hard on yourself with all of these commitments.

[zambize]

13 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

For some reason I feel like I always need 8.  I think some of it is my diet is not as clean as it should be.

Strange, especially with meditation, I feel like that acts as sleep in its own right.  Could be diet, could be too much screen time before bed, for me I noticed I get better sleep when I dont have music or any forms of active background noise.  Could just be you though, for whatever reason you just need 8 hours to get the right amount of REM cycles or whatever

[Joseph Maynor]

49 minutes ago, ivory said:

@Joseph Maynor I'm looking at your schedule thinking how are you balancing acceptance? I think you're being hard on yourself with all of these commitments.

I have a very definite Vision I am working to transform into reality.  That requires that I work the Paradox of Organization vs. Freedom very carefully.  Stuff doesn’t just get done on its own, I gotta create it.  And for me to do that, I gotta systematically put the work in or it ain’t gonna get done, see.  To me just sitting around and not working on my Vision is a mistake because I can see how that will adversely affect the remainder of my life.  It’s not hard work when you love it.

Edited December 7, 2018 by Joseph Maynor