My Top 10 Biggest Traps In Self-Actualization

[Akemrelax]

I have narrow all the traps I faced in self-actualizing to the ten biggest ones. These are the traps that I personality had trouble with the most. Feel free to share your list of top 10 traps.

Top 10 traps (biggest to smallest):

1. Realizing life is meaningless and not having desires. Desires do not cause suffering. You will be swept by unconscious desires if you have no meaning.
2. Realizing the NOW or realizing thoughts/symbols are not the thing and thinking that is the end. It's the beginning.
3. Not learning concentration, thinking letting the mind wander all the time is a good thing. Concentration is letting go, not suppression. Exerting effort is not bad.
4. Not realizing intuition. Once you do you will go from negative to positive motivation. Differentiate between subconscious biases and intuition.
5. Realizing the limitations of thinking and trying not to use it at all. Thinking, symbols, and words are very useful and necessary. 
6. Not realizing awareness has degrees. I find doing various practices increases consciousness, it's not constant all the time.  
7. Not having any ideals/vision to strive to. You need goals and ideals to guide you on the journey. Connects to 1,2 ,4 and 5.
8. Ignoring the subconscious. It will come out when you least expect. It clouds judgement and intuition.
9. Not paying attention to everyday life/survival. It will become a bottle neck to your growth.
10. Thinking pleasure/comfort is happiness. It will lead to negative motivation. Suffer more mindfully, suffering is not bad. 

There are many more traps but these are the most time consuming ones for me.

You will notice that many of these traps are preceded by a realization. This happens when realizations are not deep enough, or we don’t see all aspects of the realization, or when we emphasize some aspects of it too much. Little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Most of these traps come from reading and listening to Jiddu Krishnamurti and some UG Krishnamurti. From what I got, J Krishnamurti basically taught differentiating our thoughts from the thing/reality to see the NOW. Which is good but his teaching put too much emphasis on that and not on things like concentration. He also didn't believe in any practices. Ime practices like meditation, concentration, and yoga increase my awareness. He leaves out A LOT and puts too much emphasis on some things. Be wary of these traps above when reading these krishnamurtis. 

My advice would be to not stick to one teacher or technique but to explore many. That way you can avoid falling in their traps. You can see which ones increase your awareness the most and which ones don't. 

Lastly, having a desire to improve, a vision and disciplining the mind is crucial, let no one tell you otherwise.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Akemrelax

[Pilgrimage of Self]

Great list! Following the topic.

Comfort is what I struggle with the most. Wherever I go, whatever I do... it is EVERYWHERE.  The cruel irony is you think that you are comfortable but you are actually NOT. You are just avoiding shit.  Like David Goggins says; "The more I tried to be comfortable, the more uncomfortable I got."

Feels like an uphill battle always. 

Anyway, yeah... seeking comfort, not pushing hard enough, avoiding negative emotions.

[SamueLSD]

I can relate to most of them. Nice list

[Consept]

Great list and advice 

[Mada_]

Valuable warnings like these make me worried for people who leave the forum behind.

[The observer]

3 hours ago, Pilgrimage of Self said:

Great list! Following the topic.

Comfort is what I struggle with the most. Wherever I go, whatever I do... it is EVERYWHERE.  The cruel irony is you think that you are comfortable but you are actually NOT. You are just avoiding shit.  Like David Goggins says; "The more I tried to be comfortable, the more uncomfortable I got."

Feels like an uphill battle always. 

Anyway, yeah... seeking comfort, not pushing hard enough, avoiding negative emotions.

comfort itself is not the problem although probably seeking comfort is a huge problem. the problem is the structure of society which devalues comfort and values hard work and so hard workers usually get rewarded with more but still u could find ur passion or at least something that doesnt necessarily make u uncomfortable and make it ur play so u enjoy it and at the same time u use it for growing urself. in this sense it is clear that comfort is not the enemy but relative to how society operates it probably is. of course it is still wise to expect facing uncomfortable situations from time to time but the point is that u dont necessarily have to suffer in order to grow so make sure u dont fall for that limiting belief 

[Derek White]

Here’s a bonus trap:

11. Expecting clarity, inspiration, and awareness to come to you without any effort, while you wait in your comfort zone. This is procrastination. Monkey mind will not magically stop or enlighten you. Without conscious effort you will not go anywhere.

[AlphaAbundance]

 

On 4/16/2020 at 5:55 AM, Akemrelax said:

Realizing life is meaningless and not having desires. Desires do not cause suffering. You will be swept by unconscious desires if you have no meaning.

How does one overcome this first one? And is this even a problem?

Edited April 17, 2020 by AlphaAbundance

[Akemrelax]

2 hours ago, AlphaAbundance said:

How does one overcome this first one? And is this even a problem?

First, recognize that life is meaningless and that’s NOT a negative thing. You are projecting negativity on to meaninglessness. It can be a positive or a negative. But it’s neither. Things are things, everything IS. There is no reason or why. You don’t have to do anything. Signs. symbols and words have meaning, a cloud floating in the sky has no meaning. 

Second, recognize that because you don’t have to do anything, you are free to do anything. That’s where you have to recognize your intuition. What does your deepest intuition want? (Trap number 4)

Ask yourself, what do I want to do? Do I want to die?... What does intuition tell me?... No?... Then how do I want to live?... An amazing life?... What does that entail?... and so on.

Leo has videos on it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zGDGobqibDc (relevant to you, his other videos can be misleading if you don’t understand this.)

 

 

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@Akemrelax My answers will be straight up; honest In no particular order (and, although I have extensively evolved, this is could be the same list I might have wrote 5 years ago, only they're to a far lesser degree now, lol):

1. Unrequited passion

2. Perfectionism

3. Procrastination

4. Distraction

5. Limiting Beliefs

6. Attachment to "this reality"

7. Efficacy issues

8. Buckets of various neurosis

9. Fear

10. Survival