What POSITIVE CHANGES are you making in your life?

Meditation and yoga. I'm still a giant fat-ass, but at least I'm learning to control all the anger I've got. The mindfulness thing is legit. It took literally a week and I could feel a difference when I'd start to get agitated.

stormseeker75 wrote: Meditation and yoga. I'm still a giant fat-ass, but at least I'm learning to control all the anger I've got. The mindfulness thing is legit. It took literally a week and I could feel a difference when I'd start to get agitated.

The universe had been insistently telling me to start meditating a LOT, recently. I am glad to hear that it is working. Can I just buy an app for this or what?

I think I’m going to play lots more live poker. I seem to be good at it (above average at least) and it’s the only thing I do that gets my mind off everything else. Looks like I’m going to be losing my little girl to the States this month so I’ll have lots of free time and being home where it’s empty doesnt sound like a positive place for me (at least for now).

I know gambling more isn’t exactly a positive change but I think it’ll be good for me as long as I stay positive ($) and it remains fun (I track this stuff).

I think a much better answer would probably be to see a therapist and with work covering $10k of that per year, I really have no excuse not to do it. But let’s try poker for now and see how it goes.


Cranberries there are two great meditation apps that I strongly recommend. CALM and INSIGHT TIMER.

Completely understand with poker, I've been there. Played online too much at one time (but didn't lose any money, I'm pretty good about that). It is incredibly engaging.

I’ll never play online cuz I’m too OCD but I find the live poker incredibly relaxing, I talk to lots of new people, make new friends, happy to see them again, etc. It’s a great escape and I like competitive gaming very much.

I always liked tournament style (but not for too much money) because it put a set amount down for a decent amount of time playing and no chance of me just chasing money hand after hand.

Sleeping. With the threat of my small children waking up in the wee hours, I've gotten into the habit of going to bed around 9 or 9:30 many nights. I usually don't get to see sporting events finish up, but I've felt a lot better during the day.

Also trying to spend time DOING hobbies and things rather than READING about them on the internet.

cranberries wrote:

stormseeker75 wrote: Meditation and yoga. I'm still a giant fat-ass, but at least I'm learning to control all the anger I've got. The mindfulness thing is legit. It took literally a week and I could feel a difference when I'd start to get agitated.

The universe had been insistently telling me to start meditating a LOT, recently. I am glad to hear that it is working. Can I just buy an app for this or what?

I recommend Headspace. If you are fine with just following the breath and whatnot, then there’s plenty of free timers, but guided meditations usually cost a bit. I’ve meditated on and off for years.

I am currently out of the habit and I don’t have a good reason at all. The only habit harder for me to establish is flossing my teeth, and I think meditation actually has more benefit to my life than flossing. (I cannot prove that statement.)

Anyway, life changes.

- Moving by the end of the week. The wife was offered her dream job about 100 miles south. She and the kid have been down there for three months almost. Bacherloring it up sounds great, and it was pretty fun for a while. But today I moved all the furniture down and I am sitting at a dingy card table which is the only furniture in the house. It is kind of depressing. I will desperately miss my current game group, who, over the past 7 years I’ve lived in this burg, have become my dearest bosom buds. I do have friends down in the new town (I used to live there) and it will be good to reconnect with them, but ... I dunno.

- Start a new job on Monday. I will make more money than I ever have, and if I play my cards right, I will be able to retire at 48ish. (Currently 43.) I am not excited about the job, but I happy about early retirement.

- Six months ago I switched from running to strength training. I have never seriously lifted weights before, but now I can squat a bar with weight on it equal to my own body weight 25 times, which I feel pretty good about. It’s not a lot of weight compared to someone who’s been lifting for a long time, but that’s okay.

Ugh. Wish I could think of something. I got fired for the second time in my life back in June. I'd been doing contract accounting and legal work for a few years because it's something people have been willing to pay me for, but I detest it and I'd really like to get back into a writing and/or editorial gig. But I've spent the last 5 months looking and have come up with nothing, since my professional experience in said work is years in the past. My girlfriend does very well, so we're not in trouble, but it's demoralizing to both not be contributing and basically be sitting in the house all day by myself. I even tried finding some volunteer spots, just to address the latter problem, and I couldn't even get one of those! (One was an effort to get a law on the ballot in Michigan to redistrict the state via citizen commission, rather than the legislature, which is kinda right up my alley, but they never responded to me.)

So, I've been trying to at least get some regular exercise in, since we have some machines at home and our health club is literally 1 mile down the road. But motivation has been lacking for that, too. Argh. Just let me piss all over the thread here. (Sorry.)

dysjunct wrote: The only habit harder for me to establish is flossing my teeth, and I think meditation actually has more benefit to my life than flossing. (I cannot prove that statement.)

Flossing has a whole lot of benefit. Floss your teeth.

dysjunct wrote: I recommend Headspace. If you are fine with just following the breath and whatnot, then there’s plenty of free timers, but guided meditations usually cost a bit. I’ve meditated on and off for years.

Seconded. I only use the free meditations but they're still super helpful, a thing to draw on whenever you're feeling stressed or anxious or angry or indeed any other kind of negative emotion.

Weirdly, though, my favourite thing about meditating isn't any of that, it's the extra joy it's bought to walking in the countryside. It lets you quiet your internal monologue and just enjoy the sights, sounds and sensations of nature - and when you really take the time to appreciate those things, they are wonderful beyond belief. Something as simple as feeling the breeze on my skin has become a little bit magical, which is amazing.

cranberries wrote:

stormseeker75 wrote: Meditation and yoga. I'm still a giant fat-ass, but at least I'm learning to control all the anger I've got. The mindfulness thing is legit. It took literally a week and I could feel a difference when I'd start to get agitated.

The universe had been insistently telling me to start meditating a LOT, recently. I am glad to hear that it is working. Can I just buy an app for this or what?

Headspace! It's free and will get you started for a good while. It's guided meditation so they help you with the basics. Small doses to start which is the best way to do anything.

And I see that other people have already said this, so yes!

MattDP wrote:

dysjunct wrote: I recommend Headspace. If you are fine with just following the breath and whatnot, then there’s plenty of free timers, but guided meditations usually cost a bit. I’ve meditated on and off for years.

Weirdly, though, my favourite thing about meditating isn't any of that, it's the extra joy it's bought to walking in the countryside. It lets you quiet your internal monologue and just enjoy the sights, sounds and sensations of nature - and when you really take the time to appreciate those things, they are wonderful beyond belief. Something as simple as feeling the breeze on my skin has become a little bit magical, which is amazing.

John Jones (of Oysterband fame) does this thing every year with a small side band of friends where they and a group of fans walk across the English countryside from gig to gig. Playing in pubs, churches, etc. It seems one of the most wonderful things and the experience would definitely be a +1 in my life. I fear by the time I'm actually able to get over there and do it...he'll have aged out. :/

jj-rr.org/


Unfortunately, living in Texas, this sort of thing is impossible. The state is just too damn big to walk from town to town. Nor is our infrastructure set up for anything like this. I often wonder if doing a sort of walking tour of the American countryside could only really happen up in the New England area. Well...if you want to have stops in any sort of civilization that is.

Da Bid Dabid wrote:

dysjunct wrote: The only habit harder for me to establish is flossing my teeth, and I think meditation actually has more benefit to my life than flossing. (I cannot prove that statement.)

Flossing has a whole lot of benefit. Floss your teeth.

I started doing this thing where I weigh myself every morning, write the weight on a paper chart, and right next to the chart is a container of THE REALLY GOOD TEFLON FLOSS THAT DOESN'T HURT, so I then floss right there. It has taken 51 years but I am slowly becoming an adult. Then I get stressed and blow it off for a week.

Thanks for all of the meditation recommendations.

Relevant video that dropped today:



Warner is IMO the most down-to-Earth meditation teacher.