Julian The Apostate
Vyemm Raider
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I wanted to start a general thread for the topic geared towards self improvement. After being an atheist for about 15 years I've recently come to believe in a God after taking a dive into consciousness, UFO's, and the extent we've been lied to about everything but at this point I probably have less spirituality than a common field rock.
What I've started doing recently is a combination of prayer and then a short(5-10 minute) period of mediation afterwards. The idea is the use the prayer for two things mainly. The first is areas of self improvement I want to improve and the second is gratitude for anything but I've mainly been focused on my family and friends. The general idea is to ask for guidance, give gratitude, and then calm your mind and listen in meditation.
For the self improvement part of the prayer I typically don't ask for anything but state the changes I intend to make. For example, "I intend to treat my family and everyone I interact with love and respect. I intend to live my life with honesty and integrity" and then ask for support and guidance in making the changes. I think this approach works for me because it acknowledges at I still have the responsibility to make the changes. For the gratitude part I'll take a family member, my wife for instance, and spend 5-10 minutes giving heartfelt, sincere gratitude for all the things i love about her. You can give gratitude for anything though, pets, friends, jobs, cars. In a pretty short time this has made a huge difference in my marriage and the general happiness I have in my life. Over the course of long relationships I have a bad tendency to dwell on the bad parts of my partner in a relationship and lose value of all the good things. This has helped.
I struggle the most with the meditation part. My minds been a mile a minute thinking about the price of beans in Yugoslavia since i can remember. I also run on coffee, chew, and weed after working hours so that doesnt help at all. I'm just gonna keep working at it and try to kick a habit or two. Might try Sam Harris' guided meditation app again. Anyone have any recommendations for guided meditation or any experiance with trying binural beats?
The above stuff im doing i feel is beneficial for mental health and healthy relationships even if im wrong and their is no God. I intend to try to meditate more and make it a daily routine. Over the last 10-15 years i know ive had a massive decrease in my attention span to the point that its getting difficult for me to sit down and focus on reading a book.
What I've started doing recently is a combination of prayer and then a short(5-10 minute) period of mediation afterwards. The idea is the use the prayer for two things mainly. The first is areas of self improvement I want to improve and the second is gratitude for anything but I've mainly been focused on my family and friends. The general idea is to ask for guidance, give gratitude, and then calm your mind and listen in meditation.
For the self improvement part of the prayer I typically don't ask for anything but state the changes I intend to make. For example, "I intend to treat my family and everyone I interact with love and respect. I intend to live my life with honesty and integrity" and then ask for support and guidance in making the changes. I think this approach works for me because it acknowledges at I still have the responsibility to make the changes. For the gratitude part I'll take a family member, my wife for instance, and spend 5-10 minutes giving heartfelt, sincere gratitude for all the things i love about her. You can give gratitude for anything though, pets, friends, jobs, cars. In a pretty short time this has made a huge difference in my marriage and the general happiness I have in my life. Over the course of long relationships I have a bad tendency to dwell on the bad parts of my partner in a relationship and lose value of all the good things. This has helped.
I struggle the most with the meditation part. My minds been a mile a minute thinking about the price of beans in Yugoslavia since i can remember. I also run on coffee, chew, and weed after working hours so that doesnt help at all. I'm just gonna keep working at it and try to kick a habit or two. Might try Sam Harris' guided meditation app again. Anyone have any recommendations for guided meditation or any experiance with trying binural beats?
The above stuff im doing i feel is beneficial for mental health and healthy relationships even if im wrong and their is no God. I intend to try to meditate more and make it a daily routine. Over the last 10-15 years i know ive had a massive decrease in my attention span to the point that its getting difficult for me to sit down and focus on reading a book.
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