cheya

Welcome, niko! Looking forward to hearing your input!

There was name history, and now I know how to find it. (You know who you are! LOL) Thanks, y'all!

Just noticed we don't seem to be able to see "name history" any longer...

Welcome, mcoolio! So... curious... what "got started"? What's a "daoist life style" look like to you right now? Got some interesting topics right there. Looking forward to your experiences and thoughts!

This really resonates, dawei! What is PS 199:105?

Onelotus, you sound like you're gonna be fun to have around! Welcome!

I looked up synonyms for banned, thinking maybe a less judgmental word... but they are mostly kind of nasty. I wasn't raised religious, so banning doesn't carry that vibe for me, like excommunicated. For me it's more like "sent home from sandbox." Maybe come up with a different word/description for the category, something more neutral like "Posting privileges revoked"

Personally, I would prefer that a member's profile indicate if they've been banned. If it adds significant work for y'all (mods), not a big deal. Well, I wrote that before I read Dae's post (since edited )... to which I reply ... huh???? I do admit occasionally reacting to the banning of a member I viewed as troublesome with an eye roll accompanied by an exclamation of "finally!".... but that is rare. As is banning. And for me, that's over in about ten minutes. Maybe five. For me "Banned" is not equivalent to "Bad". It mostly means more like "didn't play well with others". It's not so much "who they are" (bad) as "what happened to them" or even "what was the result of their posting style?" Oh, they got banned. Sometimes, reading a person's posts, it's really obvious why they got banned. But, a number of times, reading ancient posts, I find something really interesting, and wonder what happened to that person, very interesting post, not posting for a long time... and then I notice... "banned". Sometimes it's a mystery. But I hardly ever pm those people, they're no longer getting messages... Again, had my druthers, I'd like to know. And it's not a big deal either way.

Hey, thanks, Apech. That works better than what I was doing, which was sorting by display name. It was fun in the old system to do it that way, because you could also scan the topics guests were looking at. Found some great threads that way! With the new layout, you can't just scan, since the thread titles are truncated, so you have to hover on most of them to actually read the title. Not a huge loss, probably better ways to spend my time.... but it was fun.

Before I un-followed those favorited posters (and I could easily have followed at least another dozen but wasn't sure about all those notifications... LOL), I did the thing Brian described, created an activity stream for just those followed members. That was so cool! Total density of fascinating content. Oh well. .....

Welcome Ender! Glad you found us!

When younger, I read a lot of fiction, and could actually see the story. When asked if I had seen a movie of the book, I would not be sure until I saw an image from the movie.... and then I would realize "nope, not my movie. Must have just read the book."

Thank you Daeluin!!! I think that #4 means one of our very good friends will stick around! I'm celebrating!

To me the advantage of following is that my favorite posters occasionally (LOL) post in threads I'm not particularly interested in and don't read. But then somebody will insert some more interesting angle on the subject, but I miss it, because I'm not paying attention. So the "following" thingie can do the work for me of having to pay closer attention.... but I certainly don't want to make folks uneasy! Pondering this, I decided to un-follow the eight people I had enthusiastically started "following" when first noticing the opportunity...

Don't know where to put this... but I'm wondering how people feel about being "followed". We didn't have this option in the old format, but have it now, and some members may object. In the old format, we could miss posts by our favorite posters, just because the New Content only listed the newest post, which could mean numerous posts had occurred since last you checked the thread. In this new format, "All Activity" now lists every post in every thread. So you wouldn't miss your favorite posters... if you read the entire list.... I guess anybody who really objects to being followed can just block following...

BES, if you start at the Home page, and hover over the "activity" button up at the top, you will get some choices. Try "All Activity" and see if that is what you're looking for. I bookmarked it, and seems to work same as "New content" used to...

Actually I think I might grow to like that "everybody who thanked anything" feature. And it's not really intrusive, just kind of a surprise And it also shows how many thanks a comment has received (in the expanded version) which is fun to know. I might be missing a great thread! Thank you all for so much work you have put in getting this upgrade together!

Er... now on my "all activity" page, it is showing an entry for everybody who thanks anything! Does it in both expanded and condensed version. I could do without that... But if that goes with being able to see who thanked posts on the thread pages, I will happily adjust. LOL

Welcome, Anam, You could tell us a little about what drew you to the Bums... I'm always curious, especially when women arrive in our midst. Or of course feel free to just lurk! Glad you're here.

In addition to the excellent suggestions above.... go see an experienced acupuncturist! Preferably one who also has an energy practice. And... find a teacher!

You might check out this one: http://herbsheal.com Don't know how it compares to others out there...

Some years back I went through an extended period of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. I didn't want to turn the lights on (suppresses melatonin) so I started spending the time working on energy practices. Some of the energy practices left me tired in the morning, if I spent much time in them, just because I was not sleeping. But one of them, I could do for hours, and in the morning, still felt just as good or better as I would if I had slept through. Being able to do that, the concern about missing sleep disappeared. Which of course meant that I was more likely to be able to sleep. I learned this practice that seemed to have the same regenerating effect as sleep from Richard Leirer, who called it "Ten Breaths, Eight Mai". This practice circulates the chi through the eight extraordinary channels (eight mai) and covers the macrocosmic orbit. You can find a version in Charles Luk's book, Taoist Yoga, pgs 25-26. Joe Blast kindly posted those 10 steps/breaths in another DB thread: http://thetaobums.co...editation-time/ Scroll down to his post (last one on the first page) for the ten step description.

Welcome to the Bums, Wuxi! Your scope is indeed wide, and I look forward to hearing more from you, especially about the Sufi traditions, which we don't see much here, but is very welcome.

Welcome kotaru! Looking forward to hearing more from you!

Possible refinement of the wiggling the feet suggestion: Bruce Frantzis recommended rotating the ankles 60 times in each direction. I think he explained it as nourishing the Kidney Organ System.... Tires out your calves too.