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I rewired my brain in six weeks

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Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#61

Post by bheadmaster »

psiops wrote: post #50
bheadmaster wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not asking for reasons. I'm asking: whom are you grateful to?

In your case, just substitute "feeling gratitude for positive things in your life" with "consciously acknowledge positive things in your life".

That makes sense.

I just really dislike people framing it as "practicing gratitude". I guess it comes from the childhood feelings of being thankful to one's parents for stuff, which is then generalized to "any feeling that resembles that feeling".

I can accept "consciously acknowledge positive things in your life" and I can see why it would be beneficial to one's mental health. Depression and anxiety are often caused/worsened by focusing on the negative aspects of life.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#62

Post by bheadmaster »

Jensson wrote: post #43
igor47 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you truly believe what you just wrote, why did you write it? Didn't you, in effect, dislike what I said and tell me not to say it? The whole point of forums is to productively disagree and hopefully learn something. It's not sugar coating to avoid being casually mean or dismissive -- it's advancing the very reason we're supposedly here.

Original attacked a concept, you attacked an individual. Don't equate the two. The first person who starts to attack an individual will be told to stop, that is the only reasonable way to make people stop attacking individuals so we can argue freely.

I couldn't have said it better. Thank you for the eloquent explanation.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#63

Post by lelanthran »

igor47 wrote: post #9
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Ugh this is so dismissive. I'm glad learning gratitude helped you. How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"? Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"?

> How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"?

Directing the putdown "trash" to an idea and presenting it as a subjective opinion ("The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash") is quite different to applying the putdown "trash" to a person and presenting it as a fact ("your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash").

"Felt like" means "It feels like this to me, your experience may be different"

while

"is actually" means "This is objective fact, regardless of how I feel about it".

It's the difference between saying "that idea is idiotic" and saying "you are idiotic".

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#64

Post by syncbehind »

jj999 wrote: post #2

I had brain trauma. No amount of new-age brain rewiring bullshit will unfuck me. This is /r/thankimcured material, not HN.

Then obviously this isn't for you. There will always be edge cases where things don't work. Even if you take away "new-age brain rewiring bullshit" and turn to trusty ol' western medicine, it doesn't work for everyone.

You may as well be a bald person complaining about a hairstylist's article - "Ah! but I'm bald! No amount of styling will give me hair!"

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#65

Post by kcartlidge »

vidarh wrote: post #40
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

The "new-age hippy trash" impression kept me away for years. What finally got me to try was "Mindfulness in Plain English" which is available both for free and paid versions, and Gil Fronsdals audio recordings (his introductory series), which are also available for free. They're both more like "how to" guides than spiritual, and mention Buddhism or other practices only in passing (both have much more explicitly spiri…

Seconding Gil Fronsdal's audio. He's very clear and reasonably concise.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#66

Post by anon84873628 »

bheadmaster wrote: post #60
keyrat wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: are you making this comment to justify being cynical? I can’t tell if you’re being neutral or not.

I am making this question because I am trying to understand what exactly people mean when they say things. In this case, I'm trying to understand the full context of the phrase practicing gratitude . A definition of the word "gratitude" I've found online is: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness Which implies that someone has shown kindness to us, and we're feeling g…

>I consider universe a random and chaotic place. In that worldview, there is nobody to be grateful/thankful to, so the practice of gratitude doesn't make sense.

Grateful for the outcome of the cosmic dice roll.

Or really just relief that things aren't a lot worse.

The dictionary definition isn't the only meaning of a word.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#67

Post by anon84873628 »

atoav wrote: post #49
mdp2021 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all the time In order to correct a bad tendency, you have to exercise effort (as resistance) in all the spans in which the tendency may show. Suppose for example you are standing: you have consolidated the function and the effort is optimal - but if you tended to fall you would have to spend more.

I don't think so. If you want to be more sporty, because you are overweight the lasting solution isn't going to be to try to be sporty all the time , because that is a too big jump. It is going to be to move more when you can and have make a small sustainable habit of doing a sport acrivity — and you do this on top of adressing other root causes of your overweight, which may be psychological and have to do with the f…

Well there are people who make CrossFit or veganism or entrepreneurship their whole personality... doesn't mean they are any good at it. In fact the ones who make the biggest show are often just overcompensating.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#68

Post by anon84873628 »

rockbruno wrote: post #48

I think it's really sad that despite all of the evidence that meditation is good for you, people still treat it as some kind of pseudo-science hippie non-sense. It makes sense why people would think that since this started as a religious exercise (and also because to this day there are still lots of people who connect the two in their practice), but you can simply not do that. I treat it simply as an exercise to make…

Most people are allergic to any sort of effort, so having excuses not to do something beneficial yet challenging is very convenient.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#69

Post by bheadmaster »

anon84873628 wrote: post #66
bheadmaster wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am making this question because I am trying to understand what exactly people mean when they say things. In this case, I'm trying to understand the full context of the phrase practicing gratitude . A definition of the word "gratitude" I've found online is: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness Which implies that someone has shown kindness to us, and we're feeling g…

>I consider universe a random and chaotic place. In that worldview, there is nobody to be grateful/thankful to, so the practice of gratitude doesn't make sense. Grateful for the outcome of the cosmic dice roll. Or really just relief that things aren't a lot worse. The dictionary definition isn't the only meaning of a word.

> Grateful for the outcome of the cosmic dice roll.

To whom, the cosmos? Cosmos is not a person. You can personify it if you want, sure, but that doesn't make sense to me.

> The dictionary definition isn't the only meaning of a word.

Which is exactly why I'm asking for what people mean when they say stuff.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#70

Post by marcocevoli »

jmholla wrote: post #32
Apocryphon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Research has shown that mindfulness is a simple but powerful way to enhance several cognitive functions. It can improve attention

Also, there's a link to the mindfulness course they used: https://caring-mindfulness.thinkific.com/

Does anyone know who created this course? I've enrolled, out of curiosity, but I can't find any mention to the authors.
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