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:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Notes -
I had my first therapy session of my adult life at 24, yesterday. My psychiatrist who precribed me concerta (36 mgs) makes me attend mandatory counselling with a psychologist in her clinic every week. I have been to told to focus on these things in particular
Besides these three things, the rest of her recommendations also outlined a schedule for me. She taught me some groudning techniques like how to walk super slowly whilst feeling your entire foot. These are to be used during breaks when I work. Apart from that "tratak meditation" where you just focus on one object (say a burning lamp) for minutes on end. I still prefer the stuff over at tantra illuminated but I will try this out. Reducing my screen time when not working to less than two hours, its hard as I am so used to getting validation from girls via texts or surfing, luckily the meds should help with this.
My hiatus from work is ending, I will finally start some basic front-end stuff for the first time in my life from tomorrow or day after, and will post updates on it. Being good at this stuff would ensure that I have a safety net of having a remote job as long as I have enough skills and know enough people. off to the gym now, I am working out with a quarter of the weights I was using before my injury on upper body lifts that are not tricep or bicep-focused. No point in rushing shoulder rehab.
yavat sthäsyanti girayah saritaś ca mahitale / tavad rāmāyaṇakatha lokeşu pracarisyati //
-The Valmiki Ramayana: Critical Edition, 1960-1975, 1.2.35
As long as the mountains and rivers shall endure upon the earth, So long will the tale of the Ramayana be told among the people.
It is Diwali on the 31st of October, most important hindu festival so most people are back in their hometowns. Somehow I dont feel that I am missing out by not interacting with people I once knew as most in my hometown or here in general refuse to think beyond their city or neighbourhood. The festival is alright, I don't have the same level of enthusiasm for it that I once had, partly because up until a few years ago I would psyche myself out with my religious identity to find some meaning in life which was clearly not good. Funny how that changed, I am still religious, its just hard to know whats true and whats not given how many scriptures are considered scriptures that are not actual scriptures. Hindus disallowed a bunch of stuff and it later got hardcoded. Vegetarianism and purity spirals against the use of nightshades, and overreliance on grains are all due to poverty which Brahmins later rationalised. Pointing this out gets me scolded so I just follow along.
Regardless, a very happy Diwali to everyone here. Do check out Goldman's translation of Valmiki Ramayana. Lord Ram lived a very depressing and tough life to uphold dharma. Diwali marks his homecoming after a 14 year exile with his wife sita. Lord Ram was born to king dasarata, into the solar dynasty or suryavansa, simialr to gautam buddha. His father had 4 sons from three wifes, one of whom claimed two boons he promised to her on the day of his coronation. This meant that he would have to live in exile like a monk for 14 years and his younger brother bharat would be coronated instead. Dasrata could not say no and dies due to grief, asking for forgiveness from Ram. His wife and one of his brothers Laxman accompany him on his exile despite him arguing against it with both. Sita gets abducted by Ravana, a being of immense power who had not lost in battle and was seen as threat by all beings, divine or mortal. Ram gathers an army of simian creatures named vanars to fight a battle against Ravan and ends up slaying him in his country of Sri Lanka. The slaying of Ravan is celebrated as vijaydashami or dusshera. Tomorrow is his homecoming.
It can be argued that it was the happiest day of his life, one of the only ones as a family man since his wife, Sita was pregnant with his twin sons, both being unaware of it at the time. She ended up exiling herself from Ayodhya, his capital sometime later after people developed a false perception that she was unfaithful despite it not being true. They lit up the entire city of Ayodhya with lamps to mark his homecoming. He could have said no to the exile or many things he saw along the way. The popular conception of the epic is that he was this immortal all-knowing deity who walked the earth without any issues but Goldman's translation of the Valmiki Ramayana states that he was a mortal, who did not know that he was Vishnu in human form, unlike Krishna.
His living descendants funnily enough still make up a good portion of the armed forces here today. Ramayana is not like the Vedas where you have hard to decipher hymns or like the Mahabharat where you have hard moral choices at time. It is the quintessential epic, you can sum it up in in a paragraph, it is not super dense. The values inside of it are the very bedrock of what the religion. His is a hero's journey that captures everything good my people once had. He is seen as the human personification of Aryan or Dharmik ideals. Most people celebrating the festival know very little about it since no one here reads scriputres, the ones who do read them unfortunately choose ones that have been edited to make them PC.
Lord Rams has unfortunately been usurped by political forces who edit out scriptures to make him seem like an anti-caste sjw since Indian demographics would hate someone like him.
We will light up some fireworks, there was a time that every Diwali I would play an Arkham game or watch an animated batman movie. Pretty fun. My mom makes kheer, Indian rice pudding which is hands down my favourite thing to eat ever.
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