How I use the forum

[Preety_India]

What I learn everyday. 

Important things. 

 

[Preety_India]

Tuesday 

Signed in 4.20

Spent half an hour reading the forum.. 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

I learned so much on the forum in the past 1 hour. 

 

 

32 minutes ago, Twega said:

Hello, my dear night dwellers. As we all know, Insomnia is one tricky thing to befall a living thing. I’m sure most of us have been jealous of our dogs or cats. How easily they sleep, their minds still and tranquil. Us, however, goddamn. Some of us might not have anxiety or depression, yet still, we dwell in the night till the morning all the same. That’s precisely the point I’m about to make. Insomnia is one of the most mysterious and puzzling “illnesses” or conditions there are. There are no clear answers. Some people fix it by fixing their diet; some people have medical conditions, some mental. Some none of those.

I know it’s hard to feel optimistic about this fucking condition. Trust me; it brought me to the brink of suicide. I am much better now. However, my journey is not the same as yours. My body isn’t the same as yours, nor is my mind. We are all unique, yet we insomniacs share a lot of things in common as well. It took many many hours of studying insomnia, biology, diet, neuroscience, nutrition, pharmacology, self-help techniques, psychology, a bit of literature, the human microbiome, and believe it or not, Zen Buddhism & Meditation, to finally have an understanding of how to deal with my insomnia. I’ve gotten it under control. However, I had to accept many changes I needed to make.

Insomnia could be a journey to start discover yourself more deeply. Biologically, mentally, spiritually. I am not religious; I was born Muslim and became an atheist in my teens. I still consider myself an atheist to some extent. But spirituality does have an impact on your mental state. So does your biology, your nutrition, your lifestyle, etc.

Now the danger arises when you dismiss these topics on hand and think you already know them. I can’t stress this enough. Your mind will trick you into thinking you understand when you don’t. It will trick you into dismissing them. It will come up with any reason possible to avoid introspection and come up with excuses to not read more and change yourself. Do not trust your mind. Do not trust your thoughts. Trust your intuition. Trust direct experience. This you can rely on. Learn things and then directly experience them and see what happens. Many of you will intuitively know that this makes sense. Obviously, it would help if you still had your mind to read and think and remember, but you get the idea.

It will take maybe two years for you to filter out the good information from the bad. To see what lifestyle change works and what doesn’t. You need to keep an open mind, and you need to start to learn things proactively. Be consistent in your lifestyle changes. Not just try something for a week and say, “Fuck that it didn’t work, that’s bullshit.” That thinking right there is bullshit. Learning=change. Behavioral or psychological. If you read that stress induces insomnia, but you don’t do anything to change your stress level, then you haven’t actually learned. You just memorized a fact. You will be amazed by how many things you didn’t expect to influence sleep that does.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge isn’t ignorance; It is an illusion of knowledge.” -Stephen Hawking Many people know that gut bacteria influence your mood and sleep. So they google how to increase gut bacteria. They get an article saying that probiotics increase it. They buy probiotics. Try it. Feel nothing. Then say, ok, well, it’s not my gut bacteria. When in reality, probiotics alone don’t help that much at all. This is just one out of a million examples.

Insomnia isn’t your fault. It’s the worst thing to be told that it’s “just in your mind.” In a sense, it is true, but all of us have very little control of our minds and bodies. I know it’s hard to be motivated when you are sleep deprived. Somedays, when I lose sleep (rarely these days, maybe 5-6 days a month), I start to feel the same ways I felt before. Low energy, tired, want to give up on life. Just shitty overall. Suppose you sleep better the day after, or whenever, get back into the journey. We can’t control our sleep, but we do have control over many things that can start to influence both our minds and bodies. Later on, your mind and body will be your friends, not your enemies. But that won’t come quickly. Obviously, you see how big of a subject this is. I can’t explain every trap and obstacle. This is your journey to make.

“Suffering is the greatest teacher.” -Guatama Buddha Don’t just view this as things to do to avoid suffering. It is that but also more. It’s about healing yourself. DO NOT BE NEGATIVELY MOTIVATED. Try to be actually excited about this. You don’t know where it will lead you, what changes might happen. You really don’t, even if you think you do. This is positive and exciting, not negative at all. Insomnia was the best thing to happen to me. I hope you will be able to say that about yours too.

UNCONVENTIONAL TIPS

• Before you stack up on melatonin pills, try pistachios. There  is evidence that just two pistachios contain enough melatonin to boost the hormone above physiological levels.
• Sleep hygiene is more complicated than the simple don't do anything in bed formula we constantly read about, if you do relaxing activities in bed like reading that can actually be helpful to associate bedtime with relax time.
• Insomnia causes  depression and makes your mood abysmal. Therefore, most insomniacs you engage with in this subreddit are trapped in this mindset, so that's why this isn't a very helpful subreddit to gain optimism from, and that’s totally understandable. But just keep that in mind the next time someone slams exercising for  not working or that diets have nothing to do with insomnia.
• Diet does absolutely matter, and diet is much more complicated than trying gluten free or keto or vegan. The raw material for neurotransmitter synthesis in your brain is derived from diet, it most certainly can impact your sleep cycles. The microbes in your gut produce 95% of the serotonin in your body (most of it won't pass the blood brain barrier, luckily your brain doesn't need much). & These microbes thrive when you eat healthy food, especially fiber. Getting your diet on check will require many years of careful rigorous experimenting, researching, not falling to delusional diets and most importantly not giving up. It takes a while for you to learn anything important, health should be your top priority no matter if  you think your insomnia is genetic or not, diet will lessen the blows if anything.
• Getting morning sunlight does actually work for some but not others, give it a try and try to make it consistent.
• Coffee in the morning can actually up regulate GABA receptors, so it might actually help some sleep in some people (theoretically).
• Insomnia can be psychosomatic in some people, not necessarily completely but maybe a bit. If you sleep with the expectation that you'll wake up early, that will most likely happen. That's why if you're worried about an exam and sleep you'll wake up an hour before your alarm clock. How do you stop this? It's complicated, but just keep it in mind. Some people sleep way better when the accidentally fall asleep, because there is no expectation.
• Glycine is a non essential amino acid, some people report to increase sleep quality when supplementing with glycine.

 

29 minutes ago, Twega said:

NON-INSOMNIACS who wish to optimize their sleep: Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist in Stanford University who has a podcast on using science-based tools for health. He has 3 series on sleep:

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

My forum approach needs to change drastically. 

Instead of always trying to answer a question I need to see what I can gain from a post and make notes. 

 

[Preety_India]

Also try to reduce spacing and wrap up quick. 

If I'm on the forum, I only want to answer important questions. 

I'm also going to rate how my forum participation goes and then reward myself for a good interaction. Reward points like 3 or 8 etc. For a good one, above 20. Below means mediocre. Below 5 means okayish or not good. 

Since much of my learning happens here more than anywhere. 

This helps improve my communication skills. 

 

[Preety_India]

I noticed this in my communication pattern that I tend to express a lot and receive very little. 

 

I need to be more receptive. I'm usually resistant to reception because it involves hard work and I like to be lazy so I tend to do the easy shit. 

So if someone posts a video, it's like a pain in the ass to watch the whole video and I tend to skip it. 

However this means I don't receive what I need to. 

All I do is just be a loud mouth. 

That's not helpful 

[Zigzag Idiot]

@Preety_India  Take heart.

You're not as far gone as I am. 

You seem to have come out of your shell  compared to when I first joined. Don't be to hard on yourself and go too far with self criticism. 

You are loved.

[Preety_India]

2 minutes ago, Zigzag Idiot said:

@Preety_India  Take heart.

You're not as far gone as I am. 

You seem to have come out of your shell  compared to when I first joined. Don't be to hard on yourself and go too far with self criticism. 

You are loved.

Thank you for your feedback.  

 

[Preety_India]

Reporting in 

(Insights, ideas, observations, realizations, and feedback) 

Today I submitted a long post to the forum. And it was good. 

 

I learned a few things by asking questions to users. 

 

 

[Preety_India]

Reporting in at 10.40 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

Table of contents

How I use the forum

 

Different modes of learning and growing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.... How I use the forum

 

2... Different Modes of Learning and Growing

 

Healing and recovery

 

An exercise in self awareness

 

[Preety_India]

 

Table of contents Part 1

 

How I use the forum

Preety Life Lessons part 1

Preety Life lessons part 2

different modes of learning and growing

healing and recovery

an exercise in self awareness

The Best days of my life

daily horoscope

0

putting myself in a good mood everyday

schedule framework and format

Ptolemaic Almagest

Foods

spiritual dancer

reward centers

my music playlist

theories

Energies

Shorebirds

Walking alone in peace

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

 

Table of contents Part 2

reclaim your life

divine understanding

Gifts

the-wisdom-journals-guideposts-and-thunderbirds

Being a woman

sage flower

pure-clean-fresh-water

I've hit rock bottom

Random things

Moonstone mystic

moonlight reference journal

Moonstone mystic part 2 explanations

deep floss a thousand baby steps

passive receptivity

journalers juju

kabbalah and Jewish mysticism

narcissistic abusive personalities

Forever healing 100

Me and my thoughts

January 1 2021 new yea resolutions

Insights

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 3

Rehab

My Digital art

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres

Raising my self esteem

the lazy girls way to work hard

Christmas cheer

Ocean

Muy Bien

Coffee Culture

Self Tessellation chelation bom dia

Well being

main general journal or ledger

become a comet the right direction and intensity

Audrey Hepburn my classic heroine my favorite actress

meditation trip experiences Concoctions and brews

my little recipe journal

understanding politics sharpening my political knowledge

confronting death memento mori

Deep Cleanse

chakra system and Maslow spiral dynamics in my life. baseline spirituality

November 2019 to november 2020

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 4

Weird dreams

parsivales Ritter ute lyttle

3 years on this forum

Hero's journey

Salt of the earth

intellectl Awareness clarity self analysis coping Integrat repressed femininity

be your own hero karma and dharma

Alien life mangolia

past forum entry chapter-1

Historical figures

my tarot card reading

Moving forward

Discipline

Start the roll from part 9

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 5

My first journal here

Zendigger

Daily Uplifting Quotes

The present is not the future

Ancient self development methods

ancient self development methods tao

Swan journal 1 Zezet techniques

Delphi journal

My struggles with spirituality

Priti health journal

Wicca themes elements and supplies

Gardnerian shadows

my struggles with christianity

My book of shadows

Ancient cultures

essential forum entries collection

my breakup music journal

spiritual bucket list this week my spiritual life

Keystone diary daily

spirituality bucket fresh clean start

My lucid dreaming

 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 6

5000 hours

ghost whisperer anime is escape

mindbergh

Brain visions

boutade dealing with the Corona crisis

The healing road

wisdom of life

focus shion 1

Dreams and nightmares journal

Gemstones

Random tidbits - everything I love

Islam

Native American culture

Daily log 1

ichthyology and oceanography study journal

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 7

Deeper shadows

The wall

The ability to connect with nature

main insights and ideas my labels

Bittersweet history

America's contributions to the world

My self exploration journal 2

My name is preety not pretty

Childhood abuse trauma therapy

As authentic as possible how to be yourself

Arts music beauty AND humanities

Rupert Spira Adyashanti and tolle

Important entries from my journals

Words are powerful

The problem of evil and suffering approaches

Tantric sex and tantra

Romanticism

G-roth absolute morbidity

forum entries that I find useful

poor Richard's almanac to poor witch's almanack

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 8

Islamic shamanism and exploration of ancient ideas

stupid greed humanity is sick fed up wit this garbage world I rebel against it

Beautiful places

everyday learning insights clips books

Africa

soulism soul is sacred

occult almanacs

What do you wanna see?

Magical Artifacts fantasy writing

Food journal

between life knowledge of the esoteric kind

my self exploration journey

my magickal book of realms

The Patumba Cove

spirituality religion existential crisis supernatural mysticism morality consciousne

eagle mountain spiritual system and patumba

living a drama free existence

paranormal and supernatural

struppeh record keeping of a spiritual-life

Bright Brilliant Beautiful

be nice and be with nice

Neediness 101

Inner healing

using spiral dynamics in my life

Bible study and reading journal

What is spirituality

Lightners

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India

[Preety_India]

Table of contents Part 9

what I learned from leo

forum resources and threads

Emotional stress journal

Daily homework

meditation enlightenment meden lake

Be a leader

escape from a cult-family

how to become mentally strong and stay away from toxicity

My advice for women

Awareness and shadows

productivity and self love journal

Progress journal October 20-2020

my ex Joseph and Karmic bonds Karmic debts and relationship with reality

the aware eye

how did I motivate myself today beautiful things to do

understanding the body mind and soul

there is an enemy

5x-2y-a-12-a

my romantic aspirations deep penetration sexy a

understanding the inner dynamic

Discipline

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Preety_India