In Belgium we have a "career break". 6 months, only condition is to be employed in the company for one year if I recall correctly. Employer can not refuse.
You also get paid basic allocations similar to unemployment, unlike this system.
Garbage content in my opinion is mindless, soulless content created by content farms. Which in a way is what YouTube encourages through their advertising business. Same issue with low quality results in search engines due to all the content farms.
Any content that makes me question things is good in my opinion.
I had a period when I was into UFOs and whatnot.. and it led to an interesting realization about what I actually know. So in my view everything has its place. For example a video about flat earth may very well engage the viewer to wonder WHY the earth wouldn't be flat?
You can't force people to ask questions. Some people will get into the deep end and lose themselves. So be it. You can never force someone else to wake up out of their dreams. It's each individual's choice. At best it is only through the heart, and not rationality, that you can help someone see more clearly. Everyone believes n one thing or another, in order to feel safe.
And yes you are right. YouTube is absolutely perfect right now in some funny ways. Through the limitation of their own business model, they allow everyone to express themselves. And this is better for everybody.
I think they're going to stick to moderation politics and whatnot anyway, so who cares.
I like to watch spiritual and metaphysical talks, Papaji, Eckhart Tolle, Conscious TV, Rupert Spira and the like.
I don't want someone to tell me what's "true" or what's "real" by refering me to the so called "facts".
Sounds like a slippery slope to me...
There sure is a lot of drivel on YouTube.. much of it like content farms playing search engines, is driven by the ad revenue. I find this empty / mindless content far more distracting than "false claims".
I like that it seems heavily based on the watch history because it gives me some control.
In general I find the selction on the homepage to be useful, however it does take some work as I regularly remove a lot of random things.
I also open random videos in a private window to keep my watch history more focused.
So it works fairly well for me, bringing up videos from channels I like that I haven't seen before... but it takes effort to get it to work for me. So it is arguably not very good for a typical user.
How what we create ends up shaping us. For example, what we think of "reality" today, is the fiction we created in sitcoms and television shows that shaped our view of the world when we grew up. We dress like "cool" people, we dance like "cool" people, we imitate one another.. so in the end we become the fiction.
But to be honest I don't know which way to read the article. Besides the main "emergent / unplanned" idea I'm not sure what his point is. edit: I guess he meant to say that the "digital revolution" promised more control over our lives, and instead it is becoming something completely unplanned.
Note for later, "evidence" for the afternoon slump:
> "The so-called “window of circadian low” — the hours when the body is least adapted for wakefulness — typically occurs between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. There’s another, smaller dip 12 hours later, in the midafternoon."
If she can afford it talk therapy is what she would really benefit from. Unfortunately talk therapy is expensive.
You can NOT change her. She will reach out eventually, or she won't. Believing "I'll never be cured" is itself a defense mechanism. That can mean she's just too young to be able to start healing. Particularly if she's still stuck in this environment, and living with those dependencies. Only when she's able to fly out of the nest, and distance herself sufficiently from both her parents, she can begin opening up.
The next best thing to help her cope till someday she find the strength to reach out, is a yoga class. That is not so expensive, even just once a week will do wonders and more effective and soothing than taking antidepressants. I talk from experience from a time when I had insane levels of anxiety. Just once a week made a significant difference.
Bless you both not much else I can say. I wanted to type more but it's too complex of a topic.
> My friends dad's never took responsibilites seriously
What kind of dad was this man then? What kind of connection did he build with his daughter?
It's so obvious from what you wrote, yet it's interesting you seemingly didn't draw the connection. edit: it may be also that your friend herself did not draw this connection or is unconsciously avoiding it.
So, so much happens behind closed doors, in every home. So much unwritten history. So much that you'll never know about someone.
We all want to love our parents and feel it is the right thing to do. Yet to heal trauma, to heal depression... you have to acknowledge the anger that has built up. Legitimate anger of being ignored, insulted, ridiculed, abandoned, shamed, and so on. Paradoxically.. it is through gradually allowing oneself to feel this anger, that the heart opens.. and we are able to love again both self and others.
Maybe readers will enjoy this related post from Bernardo Kastrup. It may argue the point better, or not. I can't argue myself as it's too obvious for me. It's a unwinnable argument in my opinion, since it drives right into what it means to know something.
Why dismissing philosophy threatens the integrity of science
Feeling a slump early afternoon after midday meal is not anecdotal evidence, it's biology.
edit: At least, it's a common issue that people have . A simple google search for "afternoon slump" reveals tons of related articles and suggestions to address it.
Besides, those who feel otherwise likely don't give sufficient context. Such as, likely that they work from home. Or that they run their business so they can work afternoons and like to get up at 11 AM everyday. The article is talking about "staff" at "companies".
First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon.
If I sleep in instead to supposedly catch up sleep, I'll do OK.. but I won't feel any better in the afternoon.. I'll be a little off because of getting up late.
Secondly, afternoons are more depressing. I'd rather get out of bed, do a monday morning and then go home. It's really depressing in the winter, to leave work when it's already night outside. :/
But really screw "monday mornings" off, give me a monday off or nothing.
edit: not to mention the most obvious... people with long commutes coming to work for a few hours... really dumb.
> This is a consequence of our 3D acceleration for Linux guests, which was designed for a GLX only world and interacts badly with non-GLX applications. Since more and more desktop applications are expected to use Wayland rather than X11 I have simply disabled it for guests using Wayland, thereby fixing this issue.
I really want to update my old 14.04 LTS VM... however I need to find a way to keep 3D acceleration on (for front end dev, css animations and the like, plus overall much more responsive).
Though, anyone know what "disabled it for guests using Wayland" actually means? Will 3D acceleration work if I switch to compiz, or do they turn it off just based on the fact that it's a "Ubuntu" VM?
Episode 4 on how we are surrounded by images of "alternate ways of life" is amazing... it's like "taking the red pill" in the Matrix. So much things we take for granted, never even question, taht we take to be the "normal" way of life.
I think for this "intensive" approach to therapy the quality of presence and non-judgemental approach of the therapist is really key for it to be effective.
This is easier said than done. It's quite common to have therapists who have themselves unresolved issues, thus limiting their ability to be truly present with the patient.
People open up only when they feel safe, so the main "danger" underlined by the critics in the article is to cause the patient to close up even more.
I did talk therapy and it was useful, but sometimes I wished it was more "intensive". Unless you are super motivated to open up and bring things to the table, the therapist is perfectly happy to hear you talk , for years if need be.
I think part of the reason for this is that from the therapist and patient's perspective, a talk session will almost always have some effect. Simply to be able to vent relieves a bit of stress (and associated symptoms)... but if the patient keeps his shield up, and the therapist doesn't push buttons... or ask salient questions... then this can just go on and on.
I don't see a problem with the "intensive" apporach described in the article, so long as they are addressing patients with physical symptoms who have been in and out of the medical support for years. Those are typically people who are NOT already open to the idea that they may have unresolved trauma, and even downright averse to it. So they are the ones who would benefit the most I think, for a bit of a button pushing.
While I find the idea of a prison a bit silly, the 10 day courses come with a heavy load of tradition, more or less mandatory 1hour talk everyday, and at least 2-" h of mandatory (in the hall together) meditation practice.
I am grateful for what I felt on those 10 days. But in a sense, I got more than I asked for. So those 10 days are a little bit sneaky in a sense. There is a lot going on those retreats, a lot of energy work. But once you're out of the retreat you're on your own.
While the 10 days have their benefits, I think there is a place for a distraction free environment that lets people think about their life without putting them on the "awakening" bus.
As an aside, I get the idea of the prison. The idea is to be submissive, to lose control. It's a very common theme in sexual fantasies as well, for a reason...
But, at the very least if they're going for the prison theme it should be cheaper than 90 USD a day. :/
Pranayama is typically fast breathing, and sometimes continuous in/out breathing. it's very different from the 4x4 breathing mentioned in this thread.
I am healing trauma and my experience with pranayama is that it doesn't help. Pranayama excitest he nervous system, thus causes more upset. Pranayama is something you should do when you are emotionally stable.
You can see that it excites the nervous system because you get tingly sensations coursing in your arms, or legs, or various places.
What I found from personal experience having done meditation and vipassana before, is that it isn't necessary to deliberately work with the nervous system.
If anything, I'd recommend the opposite to anybody. Try to RELAX as much as possible again and again. The extent to which you can not fully relax and sink into your sofa at the end of the day, AND forget about everything and be fully engaged in the present and what you're watching (if you're watching tv)... THAT is the extent to which there are tensions in the body that are in fact TIGHTENING and constricting the flow of energy. And by energy I mean here, science doesn't have words for that yet. Go figure, I think it's mostly blood flow but some of it can be nervous system related as well.
Put it simply: rather than excite the nervous system to supposedly make it stronger, you relax the bodily tensions so that the VITALITY that is already present and always there can move unimpeded. This is admittedly a view closer to that of bioenergetics, and I find it matches VERY closesly to my experience healing trauma.
That is why anxiety is the way it is. If it was a "charge" in the body, then you'd spend it and be done with it. And yet, it seems endless. It's seemingly endless because it's always created right there in the moment. It is the very vitality of the nervous system that is continually impeded by bodily tensions. The mind is what keeps those tensions in place.
Yoga in a sense also excites the nervous system by opening up the tensions, but it's much softer and safer than pranayama.
I know for fact that it excites the nervous system since I am healing trauma I can feel the agitation in me after each yoga class. First, it feels good but by the time I'm home 1h later... I feel agitated... I have to force myself to settle down and then relax with the tv for 30min to an hour. WHich is a very good practice. I suspect a lot of people don't realize that dimension of yoga because as soon as they're out of the class they keep getting busy. If you however try to be still after yoga, then it can be a good practice to try and relax into it.
So TLDR don't do pranayama (fast breathing) with SIGNIFICANT (ie. many years) anxiety and/or depression. While you may have a few pleasant highs, you'll end up adding more tension and cause more agitation.
My advice is to find a good yoga class, and do the slow breathing throughout the whole class. Typically breathing in and out in sync with slowly opening/closing arms/legs/whatever posture it is.
Whatever pranayama does for you, the signs of coming out of a state of vigilance in the body are:
- vision feels like it opens up, more panoramic
- colours sometimes feel more vibrant, blacks look deeper
- you notice smells you didn't notice before
- you feel areas of the body more than you used to
- hands feel very soft
- hands are warmer, more often than before, sometimes REALLY warm which is super nice then you can rest a hand on your chest or diaphragm area
- the mind calms down
- in general due to all of this you feel more "anchored" in present experience for lack of better world
> Jaynes recognizes that consciousness itself is only a small part of mental activity and is not necessary for sensation or perception, for concept formation, for learning, thinking or even reasoning. Thus, if major human actions and skills can function automatically and unconsciously, then it is conceivable that there were, at one time, human beings who did most of the things we do – speak, understand, perceive, solve problems – but who were without consciousness.
In the spiritual teachings & traditions the wording would be different. I think they would refer to was Jaynes call "consciousness" as "self awareness"; and then assert that "consciousness" is prior to any of that. For example in the dream state we are typically not in control, nor are we aware it's a dream.. yet when we "wake up" we remember having dreamed and having "been there".
In fact I'd argue that we DO many times of the day every day... speak and act without much self awareness. And yet, we remember afterwards and then claim those moments as something we did.
> In short, Jaynes claims that men in the age of the Iliad learned to speak, read, and write, as well as conduct their daily lives, yet remained nonconscious throughout their lives.
Maybe they were indeed much less "self-aware" as we are today, which again is not same as saying not conscious.
edit: it seems to me this is the main contetion in science often times people just conflate mind activity and consciousness , as an (possibly not deliberate) attempt to chuck away the "hard problem of consciousness".
pps: funny enough it is actually an hypothesis, that for human beings to recongize consciousness is also something made possible through self awareness. For example, what is called "awakening" in spiritual teachings is supposed to be the natural state, hence, whatever "spiritual" state it is thought to be, is a self-refetential acknowledhgement of a change of one's perception of self and world. That is, "self awareness" allows for human beings to acknowledge consciousness (since we have to conceive of it).. whereas a dog or cat can be consciouss, and relatively free of worry, yet will never know themselves as "free of worry" (I mean in a rational / self aware way).
If you found out that you can feel really, really good by sitting and doing nothing... would you do it? Of course you would. :)
Now the stark reality however, is that to be able to sit and meditate properly requires to be already at home in the body. Any amount of trauma will make that particularly difficult. As soon as you sit, you have to work through restlessness, anxiety, and myriad of other unpleasant states of mind. And they all come up.. it's like a purge of the nervous system.
In fact I was just recently reading an article about the unexpected side effects of meditation. This is not talked about enough.
Meditation Is a Powerful Mental Tool—and For Some People It Goes Terribly Wrong
I think a lot of people can feel how these apps affect their wellbeing. But how do we clearly state what the issue is, is a more difficult question.
For me this brings a larger topic that has to do with software development... any maybe it underpins the issue behind all those addicitve apps.
The issue is that typically, it is software and hardware that dictates the apps, rather than a human looking at a human, problem, and creating an app to solve a human problem. Of course that's the story we tell ourselves but it isn't the truth.
Most of us who code have stumbled upon those decisions many times: suddenly you realize a pattern in your code, and how convenient it is, that you could also use it for something else. A vary basic example of this is, well since we have profiles, now we can "connect" them. Why don't we add a "suggestion" feature that shows a lot of "interesting" profiles? And let's also allow to "follow" someone, because the software pretty much says : it's easy to do so wtf not?
You see what I mean?
People will deny that and say that eg. YouTube "suggestions" are purely a commercial, ie. completely rational and premeditated decision. But again I'd argue it's not the full truth. The full truth, is it becomes a reality because sofware and hardware made it not just possible , but easy.
Essentially: we let software and hardware tell us what to do, based on "what can be done". Look over the web and you find gazillions of example of that. Gazillions of completely unnecessary apps that exist solely because "we can do it".
And now we have AI... and one can only imagine the gazillions more awful applications of AI that will happen, that already happen today... "just because we can do it".
You also get paid basic allocations similar to unemployment, unlike this system.
You only get it once though.