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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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.
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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.
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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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Long update - tl;dr worked during terrible conditions, had a spiritual experience, developed some self respect.
Happy Mahashivratri to everyone! Shivaratri translates to the night of Shiva and celebrates his birth, I have recently begun to be influenced by Kashmir Shaivism and would meditate to celebrate the festival, it's not a real big festival like Diwali or Holi but people still offer prayers and fast.
I have two updates, the first is easier to understand as it's about work, the second relates to spiritual progress which is linked to Kashmir Shaivism.
Last weekend my family and I embarked on a journey to Mahakumb, a holy site where people celebrate the particular festival once in 12 years, it was a massive affair in India and I'll not sour everyone's Wednesday by whining about it, instead I'd like to post something I never thought I'd be abl to to do. My last month has been terrible productivity wise, past week being the literal worst, due to eye strains despite my 6/6 eyes, I got barely anything done and was worried that I'd get kicked out of diamond league on Mathacademy. We left on Saturday evening and I banged out 3 hours worth of math in 7-8 hours in a train where my family had to share the berth with me since due to constraints on expensive tickets we only got two berhs instead of 4. The other two was with another family of two, I studied for the entire duration under a pinhole light sitting without any back support inside of a small berth with constant chatter.
On the flight back, I did the same on the airport, instead of waiting around and scrolling, I decided to do math and ended up finishing my quota of 3 hours before we landed back home, even did 30 minutes on the drive back.
I have never done anything like this before, boomers here tell stories about how they studied under a street lamp on a public railway station to highlight their struggles and I was always the opposite. Fory entire life I was always the guy who looked for excuses, my aim was to live an easy life, get validated and quit as soon as things got difficult, instead this time I actually worked. Not so that my co working partners would appreciate me or because I want this forum or others arounde to think better of me but because I am a different person now. I do all that I do for my own self, I am genuinely happy when I successfully do a good days worth of work.
My posting here has reduced and that's because I can't bring myself to post updates at times since I feel that it may be kinda perverted or validation seeking to post small achievements. Though if there's anyone who's posted about his life as publicly it's me and if I can truly change from a guy who's default is to lie to himself and waste away his life to someone who genuinely acts.
My second update is one that I shared with @TowardsPanna and it's about my first spiritual experience. On 14th February I achieved what one calls Shantipitha (may be messing up the name). It's the first experience you have which marks the beginning of your spiritual journey. I woke up, worked out,meditated and when I opened my eyes after my sit, I sensory overload, a level of clarity I have never felt before. It's beyond words, you read these accounts of people who meditate and it all seems figurative, hyperbolic.
It's not, it's all real, the accounts are being literal, I've experienced some things including drugs and nothing comes close. It's not due to the euphoria, the clarity I felt was startling. I put on some drum and bass and every note was crisp for all the instruments.
So yeah, after 5 years of posting, I finally felt some tangible changes in my life, experiences that I worked for and got via sustained efforts and life feels different. I no longer care about what people think, when I have a good day I'm tired, I sleep well and look forward to repeating it the next day. I'm not as consistent as I want to be but I'm getting better and if I don't post a lot of updates, then it may mean that I'm doing well. My view of myself is quite low, working and getting better at something helps me respect myself, just a little bit.
A big reason behind all of this is this forum, I finally have a real update worth sharing and I feel a sense of joy doing so on the day of Mahashivratri. It's a long long journey, I really want to finish two more math courses, work on foundational ml models, continue my Web dev slogging as a backup plan, meditate, workout so that I can finally have some modicum of aesthetic physicality. Life is still terrible, my parents curse me every single time I chat with them but I don't reset them now and they don't resent me as much either as they see me working.
I read masters of doom before I hopped on the train and John Carmacks defining trait seemed to be his focus. They'd bring topless hookers to deliver pizza and blast porn, yet he'd be the only one working, it's quite admirable. I want to write a review of it, maybe another thread.
Life's really short, I don't want to judge people who do the minimum or are happy being in the little leagues, my aim for myself is to be as good as I can. All the things my mom or elders told me about not caring about others and distractions if you're focused enough came true. I'm satisfied, somewhat and want others here to know. It's an auspicious day for the update.
Hari Om.
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