Self Improvement
A community which focusses on improving yourself. This can be in many different ways - from improving physical health or appearance, to improving mental health, creating better habits, overcoming addictions, etc.
While material circumstances beyond our control do govern much of our daily lives, people do have agency and choices to make, whether that is as "simple" as disciplining yourself to not doomscroll, to as complex as recreating yourself to have many different hobbies and habits.
This is not a place where all we do is talk about improving "productivity" (in a workplace context) and similar terms and harmful lifestyles like "grindset". Self-improvement here is intended to make you a generally better and happier person, as well as a better communist, and any other roles you may have in your life.
Rules and guidelines:
- Posts should be about self-improvement. This is obviously a wide category, and can range from advice, to finding resources, to self-posts about needing to improve in a certain area, or how you have improved, and many other things.
- Use content warnings when discussing difficult subjects.
- Do not make medical decisions solely because of a discussion you have had with any person here (e.g. whether to take or not take medications; diagnoses; etc.) as we do not vet people. All medical problems should be discussed with a real-life medical professional.
- Do not post harmful advice here. If this is seen, then please report it and we shall remove it. If you are unsure about whether it's precisely harmful advice or not but feel uneasy about it, please report it anyway.
- Do not insult other users and their lifestyles or their habits (unless they ask, I suppose). This is a place for self-improvement. Critique and discussion about a course of action is encouraged over shit-flinging. Don't talk down to people.
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my favorite meditation method was something I got from midnight gospel (RIP duncan trussel).
Sit still, close your eyes, and start trying to feel the inside of your body. Find where are your bones, blood vessels, organs, muscles, etc. Go from the tip of your finger and move your focus up your arm into your chest and from there to the rest of your body. Don’t do it with touch do it in your mind.
IMO meditation is about clearing your mind and allowing for a modicum of emotional reset. The spiritual aspect is up to the individual to feel or not feel but anything past that is snake oil.
Ironically, this is an actual spiritual Buddhist meditation practice. I fell down this rabbit hole a while back and came across a guy called David McMahon who is a religious studies professor with a background in Buddhism. He's got a couple of lectures that are up on YouTube and he's written a few books about the relationship between modern Western meditation and traditional Buddhist practices.
It's super interesting and non-prescriptive and very clearly not huckster bullshit.
That is super interesting I'm gonna check that out, thanks!