/improvement/

A lot of this board is for self improvement of one kind or another, so why not a thread for self improvement discussion that doesn't require its own thread? I will kick this off with discussion in the first post but I want to keep the OP clear from any questions/comments so things don't keep returning to the same topic.

Anyone had success with daily affirmations? There are a million guides out there on how to write affirmations, and a million different list of affirmations... how can I determine which ones are best for me, or if I should even use them?

>>16151 First step is always staying off the internet for a specified amount of time. Not some pussy soykaf like "4 hours", start with a week and note changes in your physical and mental aspects. Writing it down/recording results to prove to yourself that things are improving create motivation to continue.

>>16152 Why do you need a guide or someone else's list? Pick a few things that are personally meaningful to you and stick with those.

>>16165 To be clear, I wouldn't take anything from a list, and I would take guides with a grain of salt, just a lot of that comes up when you look for more information. I don't even know what the different methods of affirmations are and I can't get past the surface level stuff.

>>16164 How do you stay away from the internet when your job is extremely internet-focused? I'm a software developer and I need to reference the internet to do my job. It's extremely hard to not get triggered and browse just a little more, which always evolves back into excess.

>>16151 I joined my uni's ICPC team! Even though I'm not very qualified for it, I'm still expressly considered part of the team as an alternate and will be attending every practice. I'm not great at programming, but I'm getting better every day. Attending practices every day and such. Solving problems online. Hopefully I can improve, I've been attempting problems of higher and higher difficulty so I just might. The rest of the team is nice too. They're not belittling at all. I'll improve eventually since my major is compsci, but this is my first year, so classes are pretty slow and I'm not learning much. Going ahead is probably in my best interest, so I can be somewhat proficient with programming by the time I hit data structures and algorithms with the mumbling CS gatekeeper professor.

>>16167 I consider every piece of digital information I touch or publish but don't store for analysis a liability. Every post is a fuarrrking liability because I haven't set up a browser usage slurper, even that's still a half-measure in my view. Practically it means I hoard offline documentation for whatever I come in contact with, like an egoistic librarian. What helps me getting over triggers is invoking jealousy - basically when the dopamine hit from the trigger starts I've conditioned myself to produce some anger (THIS IS NOT IN LINE WITH MY INTERESTS fuarrrk THIS THING IN PARTICULAR) as well, and that gives me some pause to reconsider engaging in the behavior.

>>16210 Are you perhaps a dragon?

>>16210 Jealousy? That's interesting. Anger I understand, but what are you jealous of?

>>16210 What is a browser usage slurper?

>>16210

>>16164 Advice online seems to be to create affirmations that you really believe that contradict negative thoughts you get regularly and don't contain any negative language. What I came up with was: >I am talented. I am significant. I am liked. I am a productive person. I believe I can act now. I am breaking my addictions. Seems to help with anxiety. But everything seems to work at first. Hope to find this is effective.

Would like to challenge ourselves to achieve something or pay the price, maybe giving some money to a cause of common interest or something like that.

>>16238 that would be cool

>>16238 Problem with that is that is if it's a charity or something you get a good feeling if you fail. This doesn't even typically work if you try to blackmail yourself.

>>16299 Then we donate to microsoft or something

>>16151 i'm a cs freshman in a bit of a pickle. i know i'm very easy to dismiss because of my youth, so i'll save you the trouble and acknowledge that i am very stupid. as i expect CS students to congregate here, i want to ask a question. obviously CS is a field with immense breadth and depth, so for someone particularly interested in data structures, algorithms, computer architecture, and more abstract areas of specialization within the field such as this, and ones with a closer relationship to mathematics, what focus would be best recommended? surely more experienced people have a better view of what specializations are available to me, so i'd like to know what are some areas i might be interested in developing expertise in?

>>16307 That's really a question as to what interests you and what you're hoping to accomplish.

>>16307 For money, AI, robotics, and cybersecurity probably can't be beat. Otherwise, do what interests you. I'm doing embedded systems development because it avoids modern meme languages. Not as easy to find a job, not as high-paying, but at least I never get asked about my job. It's on the accountant end of the accountant to international man of mystery scale of jobs that stir the imagination of normals.

>>16306 Again, blackmailing doesn't typically work either. Habits are often much more powerful than your conscious decision making processes, and it works best to work with an understanding of habit systems to break them.

>>16183 update. made it as an alternate. how the fuarrrk >>16327 What I hope to accomplish is unlikely to be very realistic. But maybe I'll get somewhere with my high hopes. But really I enjoy the more abstract parts of computer science. I cracked some books on algorithms and didn't get very far, but enjoyed them none-the-less. Specifically quantifying the performance of certain algorithms, which has led me to do a lot of unhealthy theory-crafting on how to make my code as efficient as possible. Computer and network architecture also interests me quite a bit. I've built half-adders and stuff like that. I like the layers of abstraction and thinking about them. >>16328 Cybersecurity is really interesting but super complex. I could probably wrap my head around machine learning a lot easier. It also requires a lot of actual experience I won't get easily here in college, I feel. I'll probably lean more toward the AI/Machine learning route.

>>16228 Update: I have not been regularly practicing self improvement like I should, including saying my affirmations, but having something I can use to build my confidence like this and remind myself of my strengths has been invaluable. I have found intrusive negative thoughts about myself and anxiety has decreased, and when it has popped up I am reminded of my affirmations. When I am down and need some motivation it gives me great energy to remind myself of who I am. I have dealth with reshaping my thoughts before but it is much, MUCH easier with such a concrete method and not just general positivity. Recommended.

How to start on exercising? I find it so fuarrrking boring and time consuming, but i may need to start on it, i'm young and my body and mind are in a terrible state.

>>16847 Try pairing an auditory hobby with it if you can. Get into the habit of listening to something you enjoy with exercising and you will find you do them together. This has the added benefit of setting time aside to enjoy another hobby, if you already practice an auditory based habit. Collecting music is a great hobby to pair with exercising, especially if you enjoy energetic music. Some people listen to podcasts or audiobooks while exercising. Maybe even news. If you don't yet partake in one of these hobbies, take whichever one interests you the most based on your current interests. There is probably some music, podcast, or audiobook related to your interests that you would enjoy out there. If you need suggestions, I am sure people here would be open to giving you some ideas if you ask. The other thing is making exercising accessible to yourself. Try to plan your life so you have easy access to a gym if you can such as near work or your place of living (easier said than done, I know, but I have to mention it in case you have the flexibility because it is powerful). If you can't do this right away, don't wait, there are lots of exercise you can do at home. There are lots of great routines you can follow for free on YouTube.

>>16847 Just start. Doesn't matter how little or how small. Getting rolling is the only real hurdle. Establishing the habbit of training is 90% of the job. >>16850 +1 to that Also felt like i was wasting time exercising. So i started getting podcast on topics that interested me. That's how i went from zero to jogging for 3 years now every 2nd day for an hour. Now it's just normal to do it and i don't even have to fight myself to get out and start running - even if i don't have a podcast or if it's raining im still getting out. The only way i got to this was starting small. I skipped days and was lazy but repeatedly keeping on going is what got me improve now my distance by 3x while cutting it down to 40m time.

>>16152 Here are some affirmations other people wrote that I like: "Mirror mirror on the wall: don't tell me 'cause I know I'm cute" "If I'm shiny, everybody's gonna shine" "There are enough resources in the world for everyone to meet their needs" And here's one I came up with: "We're doing it! We're gonna make it! It's happening!" On an unrelated note, I've been trying to implenent my ex-girlfriend's advice about working out every day. Basically, she recommended that I take my 3-times-a-week workout and spread it out over the course of a day, and just do exercise throughout the day every day. It's been going well so far. I'm progressing a lot faster than I was on my old system.

>>16850 I actually don't like listening to music when I exercise. I do a lot of static holds and I've found that manually counting out the seconds in my head is the only way I can get through it. Same with pushups or pullups: I lose count if there's music playing.

>>16847 I tried too but found it impossible unless it's on the context of a sport, maybe you have the same problem. Now I'm taking boxing lessons three times a week at a very small and comfy place and have lost a lot of weight, soykaf is great.

>>16152 Just listen to some Black Metal music and visualize how bad ass you want to be, than start doing it, no need for gay daily affirmations. Be agressive, say like "Grrrrr" when you don't like somebody.

>>16900 idk if you're being serious or not but that's not concrete enough. My thoughts start to wander and I start thinking about all of my negative qualities and I have no way to counter.

>>16901 >negative traits perspective. Limitations are not necessary bad. They lead to a different path down the road which can turn out better.

>>16901 I was being half-serious. Sometimes I suck my own dick, sometimes I feel insufficient, this instability is very beneficial for me to improve, because that makes me unable to have an objective perspective, it's like walking in the dark, I don't know if I am there yet so I keep walking. Try to be more exigent (not retroactively) and kill self-pity if you have any. What you think about yourself shouldn't matter, if it does, people say meditation helps with thought control, I don't do it tho.

>>16910 Perspective is exactly what affirmations provide, they're ideally a rational anchor point that you can easily call upon.

>>16900 >say like "Grrrrr" when you don't like somebody. Top kek

>>16900 lmao I don't think this is a good way to improve oneself and makes you look like a loon, but I'm doing it anyway because I fuarrrking love this mental image

>>16847 What worked for me is finding a partner to run with. I can't get motivated to go run lately if I don't have my pups. Another thing I did was I found a sport I liked and wanted to be better at, not necessarily healthier at the time. The health aspect was a good bonus.

>>17795 Someone once said that in order to be confidant, walk like you have lasers pointing out of your nipples, and you are waving the beams across peoples faces, that trains you to walk with confidence with your chest out, and as far as the mental image goes, stare at a mirror, and make faces into it until you find one that suits who you want to be, then make that face over and over again while staring at the mirror until you embody the image you have created for yourself. not sure it works, but you might get some attention

Is there something like justinguitar but for singing? I like singing along when playing folk songs but I have no idea what I'm doing.

>>16167 I find that some of my most productive time programming is when I put my computer in airplane mode and just code. I normally do at least 45 minutes to an hour. Totally get that some communication needs to happen but I find slack and emato be really distracting without a lot of payoffs.

I think I've come to realize that my day to day perception of life and socialization is...not quite fuarrrked up but perhaps a little off base. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid which is whatever, but I feel like I've noticed how that may be manifesting itself in my adult life and that is the fact that I'm just terrible at filtering noise out, both literal and metaphorical. It's one thing to be talking to someone and having difficulty ignoring all the literal noise like other conversations or cars passing by, and it's another to frequently miss the forest for the trees in conversations by zeroing in on the wrong points in the moment. But I guess what I'm needing to get in my head is that it's not like that for everyone else. I've made a sort of peace with it all on a personal level and I'm pretty sure it's a key component of why I prefer to spend my time with insular and isolated tasks - if I'm by myself, there's no noise to filter. However, it's made me kind of paranoid that others notice all these weird obscure details like I do and that it leads to feeling like being under a magnifying glass at all times whenever I do have to socialize. I mean, why wouldn't I? It naturally aligns with my personal perception of things, I zero in on a lot of things that don't really merit the attention in retrospect. But people probably don't actually care on average and can filter that sort of useless information out better than I can. I think the sooner I can get this through my thick skull and actually feel that way, the sooner my sense of self-worth and self-esteem can improve. People don't dislike me or anything, I just feel like I'm being way too harsh and judgmental on myself a lot of the time over problems that aren't really there.

>>16164 >>16167 >>16210 >>16332 First step is always staying off the interweb, perhaps even going as far as manually switching it on every TCP or UDP request past 60 second mark. The problem, for me at least, is not the interweb itself, it is this new-age Web 2.0 cable+interaction kind of thing saturated with blimps and blurbs of people's thoughts on predominantly inconsequential social contexts. Bread and circuses. There is no information here. Our brains keep looking for information because we've so far learned that there is a vast amount of information out there but it is swiftly being muddied and locked behind paywalls or info-slavery (the "you have to give us your data in order to interact with and live in a society" ideology). Our brains keep looking for information but they do not find it. So they burnout. Become demoralized. Why you're on lainchan right now is because you know this, at least subconsciously. You come to lainchan because the average post body character count is - I'd guess - at 500 characters or so. People don't come to lainchan to give out their unsolicited 5-word opinion on something but to interact with the Zeitgeist instead. There a few other places out there like this, the last fortresses of information and in the near future the tide will turn and our opinions, unless extensively crafted and actually useful, will not be welcome. E-mail helped me understand this, well, mutt helped me understand this. See in mutt you make a message by creating a file on the filesystem which can be used as a draft for you to revise over time. This is how a message is ought to be. Our communications have evolved up to political, industrial leaders and intellectuals writing physical letters - or book messages even - to one another in spans of months and years then rapidly devolved to a literal "NO U" altercations. I'm doing my part by putting effort, front lines being IM, email, and messageboard postings. This post itself I've drafted as a text file. Like the other lainon, I also keep a personal library of txt, md, pdf, djvu, htm, files organized under ~/Documents. It helps with organizing information and reducing the amount of garbage. Previously I've attempted grayscale filters for a GUI web browser but it's still way overdesigned to provide a stackoverflow answer. Now I've got a shell alias for ddgr -j $1 so I can just on topicABC which loads links or lynx HTML with textual representation of the information I'm interested in. No pretty pictures. No pretty colours. No animations, popups, or buttons. Just information. If I'll have to reuse it I put it into ~/Documents and look for information there. Now back to the topic of improvement, as lainon mentioned, habits are key. The thing about habits is that habits are hackable. There are many apps and tricks on how to culrivate a habit. Seeing as we're all on lainchan obviously most of us are terminal-dwellers and I can share my minimum-effort approach to cultivating habits: #!/bin/bash [ -n "$1" ] && echo "$(date): $1" >> ~/.habits || echo -ne "USAGE: did.sh [ HABIT ]\n\n" tail -50 ~/.habits run it as "did this" and "did that" whenever you do something you're proud of and it'll mark the date and a one-word description of "this" or "that". Eventually you'll have an overview of things you've done past week and are proud of. Thu Apr 16 08:55:53 CEST 2020: meditate Thu Apr 17 08:49:37 CEST 2020: breathe Fri Apr 17 13:46:55 CEST 2020: breathe Fri Apr 17 17:01:10 CEST 2020: lift

>>17932 I cannot stand looking at myself in the mirror for more than a few seconds.

>>16151 I have been trying to be more sociable and been trying reach out to people more lately, although very few people ever sends something back. I feel horrible when I'm being left on read, and when i always have to be the fuarrrking person who writes first. I don´t understand, When i meet people in person, like at a party it feels like I'm well liked and sociable, but whenever im home im so fuarrrking lonely I'm close to killing myself. So i guess my problem is that i don´t know how to meet people to just hang out or message in my eveyday life.

>>25801 start looking then. You should be comfortable even spreading your asshole in the mirror.

>>25013 I like your attitude. I realize that's a little four-word unprompted blurp, but I agree that there is no information here. And moreover, not all information is power. There's such a thing as info hoarding. It's an obsessive trait we've developed through overexposure to digital communications poison. I'm so heavily disillusioned with the internet. The premises were all wrong. It's senseless and we'd be better off if it didn't exist.

>>25013 can you post the ddgr alias, specifically on opening it with lynx? im new to linux, sorry

How would I go about improving my attention span? I always feel like I need to be listening to music or watching a video while working/reading/whatever and it's really annoying. I just want to be able to focus on one thing for a long period of time.

>>25928 >Source is "notional" center for biotechnology information >>doesn't even link the study How do you improve it? By using it.

>>25928 >>25956 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-38896790 >They say that the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now. That is less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish. >the sources are infuriatingly vague. >And when I contact the listed sources - the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the US National Library of Medicine, and the Associated Press - neither can find any record of research that backs up the stats.

I've been doing really bad lately... The lockdown/restrictions really shed light on how soykafty my situation is. Staying up till 6am, or pulling and all nighter and "sleeping better" only to fall back to staying up till 6. I'm getting really sick and depressed of it - but it's finally a chance to fix this hikikomiri condition while Im mostly locked down to my home. I'm actually not NEET, I'm enrolled in something I learn online, and I have projects to work on. It's that I've been really down and tired all the time, spending most of my time suffering on 4chan and playing video games. I'm stopping entirely to go there, it has 0 positive effect on me. As previous cold turkey "NOW I'm gonna change forever!" attempts always fail, I'm just gonna post here instead and spend more time with irl friends instead for that social feel (even if its on discord since lockdown). I've been in a niche self improvement community for around 3 years. I might talk about that later, but now I simply wanted to vent. I will make more posts about my situation in a few days/weeks.

>>26074 I hope your able to improve your life lainon. Here's to a better future.

>>26074 love to here more about this community

>>26074 Going full turkey never works unless yiu have something (or someone) to stop you anon, you have to find the self control in your own, limiting at your own rate how you go to sleep, you may decrease it by 10 minutes per day as you may 1, but take your time always As for my own problem, i just need a good workout to do in my room after waking up, just a basic one to go increasing as time goes on, with basic equipment, also any kind of motivational support would be nice as because of the quarantine i lost contact with my gym bro, so i lost all drive to continue exercising

>>26079 Not much to say, discord based on invites from 8ch, 4pol/fit and etc, that grew into it's own small community and now we stopped inviting >>26078 Thanks, hope the future will work well for you to lainon >>26087 seems like replacing it with lainchan works decently. Since this plays is so slow I get bored and leave it. Another thing I found really useful (and I just did it today) is the open another user for work/study only (or a dual boot, window in linux, you know this better than me, I just opened a new win10 user for work) It has no discord, no steam, no whatsapp different browser, desktop filled only with work/study related stuff and same for the taskbar. Worked well for me tonight when I tried it, was able to study uninterrupted compared to pausing and checking discord/online like I have ADHD.

>>26322 Try migrating from discord to irc.

>>26324 not everyone is a lain haxxor that cares about discord privacy problems

>>26331 Perhaps not but they should aspire to be, especially if they hang around circles you mentioned.

>>26331 Maybe you don't realise it's owned by China and the privacy policy admits you have zero privacy on there? Probably better to use Facebook

>>26337 At least Facebook has nominal e2ee you can enable. Discord doesn't even have that.

>>25918 >>25013 can you post the ddgr alias, specifically on opening it with lynx? im new to linux, sorry Check out http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man1/ddgr.1.html Have some fun with it then figure out how the -j switch works - it skips the result list and essentially jumps to the "im feeling lucky" part. It's pretty neat for getting instantaneous documentation and/or answers for some questions while still on the command line. page 1 so nb

I want to stop having depressive episodes which are sabotaging my life. I dont know if its the sole cause or just something my depression focus on but usually i obsess over my lack of romance and intimacy. Even if i were to 'fix' the problem (difficult in the current situation) most people say that having experience doesnt change your life so i would probably have a new subject for my depression. What can i do? Im sure people in this thread have experienced something similar.

>>26394 im using your "did" alias regularly now. Thanks for that. Cant get the DDGR alias to work. Something wrong with my links, it doesn't open.

i was on nofap for around 8-9 days i believe. i started to get really irritated because i was thinking about something. and whenever i get nervous somehow i get turned on (?) my private part just start to be really sensitive for some reason and combined with nofap i couldn't stop touching myself. Mainly because im never on nofap i don't really experience benefits of sensitivity i kinda feel bad doing it.

>>26730 i have somewhat similar episodes to yours. they come and go apparently, due to changes in environment. getting daylight helps. if you don't talk to others much, you should do that. they don't have to be friends. you're in luck if you have understanding parents or relatives to talk to. staying active physically may keep this sort of depression at bay. mainly having your mind occupied with something that focuses your attention is helpful, but probably not a long-term solution. i don't know what to suggest about the romantic part. usually people here are too fuсked up mentally to pursue that.

with regards to online existence i think there is only one rule for life, one antidote to chaos, and that is "don't consume media from algorithmic feeds". that's what i ought to do now because i am seriously fatigued by it all

It's time

>>27114 I don't get it? Is that suppose to be a website blocker of sorts? Why not just edit your hosts file and set 4chan.org to point to 0.0.0.0?

>>27115 that's Cold Turkey I use it to block distracting websites and vidya 9-5 and from 1am (besides weekend) you can't uninstall it while a block is running (well, you probably can, but not a simple uninstall) and going to the hosts folder and moving it to desktop is really easy and not an inconvenience like pic related

>>27120 I see. Good luck with dropping 4chan lainon. I've stopped posting there since 2016, it just takes a bit of effort.

>>27121 what's addicting about it.. I never found it that appealing?

>>27122 It's this, but you get replies sooner. Regardless of quality sometimes you just want to interact a bit.

>>27122 I recall mainly missing out on faster response time and a place where I could soykafpost. After a months or so I've stopped caring and tried to improve the way I interact with people in the wired.

https://strengthisfirst.com/training/deadlift-every-week https://strengthisfirst.com/training/how-often-should-i-do-farmers-walk >Deadlifts once per week >Farmers walk once per week Thoughts on this? I'm an absolute n00b with a hexbar, and I'm currently doing 1 set of 5 reps of hexbar dead (80lb) and 2 sets of 1 minute each of hexbar farmers walks (also 80lb), once per week (on Monday). My goal progression is to increase the load for each lift by 5 lbs per week, every week. Will this work to get me stronger? According to those sources I linked, you only need to do those lifts once per week for enough stimulus to strengthen the muscles? Is this true? Greyskull LP program also advocates a single set of 5 deadlifts, only once per week. Other than that, my routine is literally just walking for a good hour or so every day.

>>29580 I don't think it's feasible to only do 1 set of 5 if you want to gain strength and add 5lbs per week to the bar, It might work as you just begin to train but soon it just won't be enough, I would recommend instead to focus on the deadlift with 5 sets of 5 with working weight, 2 sets of warm up with ligher weight and 1 set of cooldown also with lighter weight. But yeah, Training deadlift only once a week should be good enough to make considerable progress fairly quickly.

>>16900 This but unironically Listening to Bathory = Pull more weight Pulling more weight = Feel good

>>29580 Deadlift once a week is definitely enough for both beginners and advanced lifters, deadlift's cause high amount of stress to CNS and thus, should not be done so often, especially if you are new to training. Numbers of trainees using programs such as starting strength and stronglifts enjoy great progression despite small amount of working deadlift sets every week.

>>26730 This is a good book and well worth the time and effort to read it.

>>29580 You're forgetting ligaments/sinews. Volume is essential to train those. High weight low frequency is better than nothing but medium high frequency is better if you want longterm strength that doesn't vanish quickly. Its the old farmers strength idea that saw recently some revival in popularity. In addition lower chance of injuries if you dont go max weight. Theres also central nerve system adaption. I don't remember whats ideal for training that however. Its where most noob gains come from.

Anybody have any ideas on improving concentration without drugs?

>>29884 Avoid all types of multitasking. Most common wasting attention to keep up with messages on phone. Youre basically training yourself into adhd behaviour when you check every 5 min for new replies. Other than that its just the usual sleep well, exercise and maybe fix diet if its really fuarrrked. Outside of all the studies on benefits of exercise there's also a solid correlation between successful academics who did extreme sports and dedicated a lot of time to training vs people who tried to nolife academics and didn't go as far.

>>29583 that's fair >>29810 noted >>29881 will look into this Update: I'm at 105 lbs right now, doing 1 set of 10 reps trapbar deads. Plus 10 sets of 30 feet trapbar farmers walks (also w/ 105 lbs). All of this on Monday only, so 1x per week. Also, I'm adding 10 lbs per week to my lifts, bc only 5 lbs per week is too excruciatingly slow of a progression for my tastes. My goal is to hit 300 lbs trapbar deads for 5 reps by December 21.

>>30200 (me) Got a nasty bone bruise on my shin friday night from walking in the dark and banging my shin onto a heavy low wood cabinet. Is it safe for me to do my standard 1x5 trapbar deads and 2x(30 feet) trapbar farmer walks tomorrow/Monday morning (both of them w/ 115 lbs, yes I'm a total dyel noob, I know)? Or do I risk taking a trip to Snap City and fuarrrking my soykaf up, turning my shin bone bruise (most likely a subperiosteal hematoma) into a complete shin bone break/fracture? >With a bone fracture, all of the trabeculae in a region of bone have broken. But with a bone bruise, an injury only damages some of these trabeculae. It's also called a microfracture. An injury might cause blood to build up in the area beneath the periosteum. This causes a subperiosteal hematoma, a type of bone bruise. An injury might also cause bleeding and swelling in the area between your cartilage and the bone beneath it. This causes a subchondral bone bruise. Or bleeding and swelling can happen in the medulla of your bone. This is called an interosseous bone bruise. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=134&contentid=514

after a schism between my best friend and a girl (that you may have seen in the /vent/ thread), ive taken language learning more seriously. i was doing latin here and there before, but ive seriously took up toki pona recently, a super simple language that encourages well being

I haven't been to this board in a long time, so I guess I'm going to update my status. I've been smoking cigarettes on and off since about 18 or so. I briefly smoked when I was 15 into 16, but quit. I didn't touch another cigarette until 19. Quit again for a six months in my early 20s. Quit again for 2 years in my late 20s, but picked up vaping. I quit vaping two weeks ago and now have only used cigarettes. I'm getting ready to quit smoking AND quit nicotine altogether, just dreading work. I'm not sure how well I'll do at a soykafty minimum wage job without nicotine, but I also don't want to buy any nicotine replacement because I'll just be using it, negating my progress. Also overweight still. I'm trying to focus on the benefits of getting in shape and quitting smoking. I'm in my early 30s, so in theory if I quit smoking and get in shape now and eat reasonably healthy for the rest of my life, I should be okay. I may die a year or two earlier than my counterparts because of the smoking, but I'm hoping a healthy diet and being fit will counteract some of that. Financially, I'm still fuarrrked

I have pretty bad arthritis, so I investigated a lot of otc stuff to see if any of it was backed by legit research. Glucosamine has some iffy studies showing possible effectiveness for arthritis. But what struck me as more interesting is that it was more or less accidentally found to stimulate growth of new brain neurons, and the evidence there is solid. Naproxen works somewhat to alleviate the arthritis, but by far the most effective remedy for me has been fluoxetine (Prozac). Yep, an antidepressant, if that makes any sense at all. Go figure.

I got pretty deeply into self-improvement because I was a loser in middle school. Now I'm 21 and life is good, even if many things took a long time to show some effect. I guess we've all heard the specific advice often enough so I wanna share three general ideas about self-improvement that helped me a lot: 1. Always prioritize ways of improvement that are validated by serious scientific research. I'm not saying nofap never works, I'm just saying you should first eat healthy, exercise and not waste too much time online before caring about stuff like nofap/semen retention. If you try to get yourself to eat healthy and exercise by practicing nofap, you will most likely fail. And this is how we end up with all those "blackpilled" people on 4chan who think self-improvement is just "cope". 2. Solve the problems in your life recursively instead of giving up after a low recursion depth is reached (this is what people usually do for some reason). Not being able to implement a solution to problem 1 is problem 2. Not being able to implement your solution to problem 2 is problem 3 and so on. If you don't give up, you might reach a problem n which you can actually solve, and after that everything (solutions to problems 1 to n-1) falls into place. What's even better, this problem n often turns out to be some kind of root of many problems in your life and solving it might improve your life quality more than solving the initial problem 1 you started out with. (I'm sorry if this explanation is like kicking dead whales down the beach but I can't come up with a better one. You can find an example of how I applied this below though.) 3. Save important pieces of information about self-improvement in a file or whatever. I bet everyone in this thread, including myself, has often read a piece of advice that would have drastically improved their life if they had applied it, but they forgot about it 5min later. Of course you have to select and resist the urge to save overwhelming amounts of info. Reread that file occasionally. Example for recursive problem solving in the context of self-improvement: >>25928 Had the same problem with shortening attention span recently (problem 1), here's what worked for me: >try to minimize activities where your attention quickly jumps from one thing to another (I'll just refer to these activities as internet now, for lack of a better word(*)) >fail at quitting internet (problem 2) >start doing mindfulness meditation (The mind illuminated is my favourite resource btw), see some improvements, realize that meditation makes it easier to resist internet, but internet makes it harder to meditate, don't achieve a consistent meditation habit (problem 3) >realize that the solution is to meditate first thing in the morning, before internet can lure me into wasting the day >try meditating first thing in the morning >fail a lot at this (problem 4), but do it more and more over time >one morning it was totally easy to sit down and meditate instead of using the internet (yay we solved problem 4) >consistently meditate every morning now (problem 3 solved) >after meditating consistently for around around a week, I don't even feel the urge to waste time on useless entertainment anymore (problem 2 solved) >feel my attention span increase (problem 1 solved) (*)I'm not saying all internet use is ruining your attention span. Lainchan showed me many inspiring people and many posts here require a healthy amount of attention span to digest. In general though, almost any kind of internet use aimed at entertainment is unhealthy IMO. Once again, sorry if the explanations sucked, but those things really changed my life. I hope it helps. Feel free to ask anything.

Thr hardest part of becoming an adult is finding out that life really is hell. The best part is learning that you can be happy anyway.

>>33305 For how long have you been keeping this routine without going back to previous habits?

>>33316 >The best part is learning that you can be happy anyway. How can I be happy? I would like some practical advice, tips, and direction with this. Dump your wisdom and experience, please.