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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1942 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for August 21, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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Needing the conventional "self" for "meaning" is a delusion, a story your mind is telling to itself.

Can every thought, feeling, conclusion, value judgement be framed as "story"? Maybe I don't quite get what this means for you

Why attach yourself to wanting to keep having pain

Evolution wants you constantly hungry. Never permanently happy.

Neither do I.
I don't want to be "happy", I don't want to be "content". I have no use for equanimity of a sheep grazing out on a sunny day. I'd rather be eternally hungry, and eternally discontent in pursuit of infinite heights. Of what is worth perceiving, understanding, possessing, enjoying. Camping on the roadside to catch my breath is good and well, but that's not where I'd like to get stuck
How would I do that without any drives and passions, without sense of frustration over not yet having it yet? When pain stands in my way, it becomes another obstacle to conquer, and here meditation and stoic techniques (in moderation) come in handy.
However, obsessing over min-maxing suffering and pleasure is just a waste of my time. Centering your ethics/metaphysics around this is a dead end. It's an animal thing to do.
It's unbecoming of me as a man. This is a betrayal of myself

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