Benjamin

Hey! I apologize if this isn't the right forum for this; I wasn't sure. Please let me know/move the thread if it belongs somewhere else. I found zenhabits.net a long time ago but didn't follow it up until the last couple months. It's a really awesome blog - Leo, the guy who runs it, writes in such a grounded, straightforward, and helpful way. There's a habit program he has on the site that I did for the last month, and successfully established the habit of creating every day. For me creating means writing or making videos for my own blog. Anyways, if there are any other fans of this blog out there I'd love to talk about what posts have interested you. What you've learned there. If you've never checked it out I highly recommend you do. Have a wonderful day! Ben

Hahahaha that first picture with the chick is hilarious. Such a great way of depicting that moment we exaggerate newfound liberation. Sure, you're out of the egg - but you're into a whole new world!

Yeah from my experience they can definitely go hand in hand. I'm not a practitioner of the more popular practices here like Internal Alchemy or anything like that; I practice Yoga, Feldenkrais, and a few forms of simple meditation. But for me the awareness/inner cultivation practices have definitely helped my workouts, and my workouts have helped me feel more at peace with myself. I mean, working out produces pleasure hormones and does all that other good stuff for your body, so it would make sense to me that it can help support inner peace & practices. And part of cultivating awareness of self is practicing awareness of the body. The more aware you are of your body, and how you use it in movement, the more refined & effective you can make your actions. So what you learn on the path of awareness can be of use in your workouts - changing how you do certain movements to stimulate/relax certain muscles, feeling out when you're tired or energized, knowing when you're pushing too hard toward injury or pushing just right toward growth, etcetc. So my answer is definitely do both at the same time, because they'll support each other Ben @ www.syntropulse.com

Thanks! Cool ideas I think of it a lot like Maslow's hierarchy of needs: if the basic survival needs are fulfilled then we feel called to produce more. Another side of it is that in human society, creation shows you're a productive person, which makes you a person of value, which means you're more likely to be able to acquire the things you need for survival since you can work and produce something for another person - and all of that makes you sexy Somewhere in there, I'm not sure where, I think the basic human survival needs underlie the drive to create. Our drives build upon one another - the primal underlies the lofty. I think it's important to be in touch with all our drives & needs. If we're not, we definitely can't fulfill them, and we have absolutely no chance of transcending them in any kind of spiritual/emotional/psychological way. But the more in-touch and aware of our needs we are, from food & sex all the way to spiritual fulfillment, then the better we can work on how to best respond to them.

One thing that's really important in my life is creating things. There's something about creation that makes my life feel "full". I love writing & making videos for my blog. I love creating music from my piano & my computer. I worked on a farm over the summer and loved building gardens. If I go too long without creating something I start feeling unfulfilled. If I'm creating a lot then I feel awesome. Of course creation isn't the only thing everyone needs for a full life, including me. There's plenty more. The spiritual advice other people posted is awesome. I mean, one day my body will be decomposing and there will be no "I" to remember my creations, so at some point I've got to let go of what I create. But creation feels important as I inhabit this particular body, mind, place, time, and self.

There's an amazing thing called the Feldenkrais Method for easing many kinds of pain, helping recovery from injuries, and for improving awareness of one's physical body. I did a 4-month internship with a practitioner and learning about it was the key to helping me begin healing my lower back. It's still a work in progress but things keep getting better. You basically do all these tiny movements, and the practitioner helps you use your attention to explore all the sensations that arise - all the shifts your body parts take in relation to one another. It's almost like a guided movement meditation intended to help you learn about your body & movement patterns. www.tiffanysankary.com/download.html - This is the website of the person I interned with, you can buy recordings of her lessons here but sometimes she offers one or two for free. I'm sure you could also find some Feldenkrais lessons on youtube or elsewhere. Send me a message if you wanna learn any more about it. I'm not a practitioner but I've been thinking of making my own mindful movement recordings based on what I learned from Feldenkrais and yoga, other forms of meditation etc. I've written a couple articles about it on my blog: www.syntropulse.com/2015/02/08/feldenkrais-sensitivity/

Thanks for the welcome! Awesome quotes in your signature, I might have to write them down haha.

Hi! My name is Benjamin, if you hadn't guessed I've been reading this forum for a while now but never joined, decided it's the time! I love many different philosophies, and am deeply interested in the contemplative/meditative practices out there in the world. Out of all, though, Taoism is my favorite. It just makes the most sense to me. Dudeism is pretty awesome too. I have a blog I've been using for a while, www.syntropulse.com, where I write about my philosophies, thoughts, and findings from my self-experiments. Maybe you'll enjoy it. Have a wonderful day!