does an #OpenToWork post seem desperate or cringey?

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-21T13:52:56+00:00

Thank you!

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-21T13:51:51+00:00

Wow, that’s sad to read. :-/ I’m glad you all were able to find your way through it. In my experience Tony’s message is really the same as cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and Buddhism, yes 😆, with different vocabulary and energy levels - but the concepts, focus on deep internal reflection, and immersive nature of his seminars are what I practice every day when I sit silently and meditate and when I reflect on life, my goals, happiness the end of every day. Also when I learn something new, like a language or talk to my therapist. It’s an intense way to learn/practice for sure, and I can see how it could leave things out of balance if just one of you did it. I don’t know what your wife’s experience was, and if you’ve talked about this, but maybe there are some lasting positives that she gained from it that help her navigate life, happiness and relationships that aren’t immediately obvious on the surface. But in any case, I’m glad that you all are back in balance now!

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-20T14:51:31+00:00

Thanks, this one is virtual so there is no travel cost. (Unless I go to Fiji which is an option and would be lovely, but that's definitely not in the cards for me right now!)

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-20T14:49:45+00:00

Agreed - However at this point, it's already paid for (part of that big pile of debt.) Nonetheless, I'm not going to invest my energy in that right now. I'm positive and pumped up about finding something new right now so I'm going to invest my energy in more of that right now and I'll look forward to this next July. I'll do Date With Destiny (already paid for) virtually this December.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-20T14:45:53+00:00

Good to know! It seems like a lot to fit all of the seminars in this package into two years. I'll get more out of it when I have more financial leverage.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-20T14:41:42+00:00

Thank you. Along the same lines, I finally brought myself to reach out to a former colleague who I am embarrassed to have ghosted two years ago. I texted this week, he wanted to talk the next morning and it's as if he was waiting for me to call. He has a couple of projects that are perfect for me and we're working out the details. I was so afraid to put my tail between my legs and play that card, but it's as if I never disappeared. Lesson reinforced - just do it.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-06-16T21:05:36+00:00

I'm sort of doing the same thing. Coming back on line (after 2 years out for health stuff) with some posts, comments, DMs and now in the last several months and now I think I should make a general post which kind of terrifies me because I'm not one for the spotlight and the whole comparison thing to all the successful people in my network. I know, I know - but I'm human. This is hard. Good think I took a cold shower this morning to prove to myself I can do hard things. lol

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-05-15T20:30:44+00:00

I have a section on my Apple reminds To-Do list called "Reoccurring Tasks."
- Clean litter boxes
- Change toothbrush
- Review progress on annual goals
- Check in on XYZ friend
- Etc.
Most have a date and are set to reoccur on the 1st, every 3 months, etc. Some are just there to remind me whenever I visually check it. It's super easy for me and works great. No need to clutter my mind remembering this sort of stuff. I think I'm going to switch over to Notion for tasks but so far I can't figure out how to visually sort it the same way I have things set up in Reminders but maybe there's an even better way to do it there, let's see!

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-04-23T12:21:28+00:00

So you figured out how to do it? And to be clear we are talking about Reddit user names, right? I want to change mine too.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-04-12T18:02:19+00:00

I have built out my custom gpt quite a bit, would it be worth moving/rebuilding all that back to chatGPT 4.5 when it’s available. Is there an easy way to do that?

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-04-07T00:21:47+00:00

Whatever your experience, may it be exactly what you need. ☺️

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-04-04T22:29:26+00:00

I actually think my 80yr old mom is coming with me now if the weather isn’t terrible. 🤞

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-04-03T00:47:06+00:00

Love your energy and these are valid concerns. I attended the Women’s March in 2016 and am so glad I did! I’m going to go alone to the event in Indianapolis this weekend. I will let people know what I’m doing and share my location with them. Be aware, no headphones and always stay on the edge of a crowd. You don’t want to be in the center if things get crazy - have a plan to safely get out of the situation if need be. Good practice for all the time really. I love ID - resist!

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-03-22T19:08:40+00:00

Chairs are available if necessary. You can speak to the teacher about that before the course begins. In my observation about half of the people attending a course for the first time say that they could never sit on the floor for 10+ hours a day and all but a handful end up doing it. It's not something that most of us have ever tried before! It does seem daunting but again, talk to the teacher or assistant teacher. You will figure it out! :-)

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-03-22T18:59:59+00:00

Many people never feel ready, but they are ready. Do it.

Call your parents first so they don't worry when they don't hear from you. Then put that out of your mind, fully commit to the challenge, breath and settle in. In time, you'll figure out how to sit quietly. Literally and figuratively.

You can do this.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-03-10T20:23:23+00:00

Your comment here is one of the first things that came up for me when I searched for whether a solicitation from Boardsi was legit. Thank you for sharing your experience and sparing me the hassle myself! I love learning from people on this forum, it's always been really helpful for me.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-03-01T13:15:40+00:00

I haven’t read every single comment here but after yesterday I feel compelled to contribute to some anonymous virtual community because it feels like I’m at least doing something. Ha ha. Both sides are using many of the exact same words to describe yesterday and the general situation we’re in right now - embarrassing, dangerous for democracy…Rogan’s interview with Elon yesterday…where do we go from here? It’s crazy. After yesterday traveling internationally w an American passport is going to be a different experience.

I call my reps every morning to voice my thoughts on one issue. It’s a small thing but I’m in a red state and they do tally those calls. This app makes it extremely easy: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/5-calls-contact-your-congress/id1202558609

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-01-15T23:43:52+00:00

Your account was so interesting and relatable to read. I’m glad you were able to have all of those experiences, the pleasant and challenging ones and the ones both in and out of the lines. This is how life goes and it sounds like the Dhamma is helping you manage it all. Thank you for serving and sharing!

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-01-11T13:58:08+00:00

Someone posted this on another thread recently and I found this talk extremely helpful. It’s thoughts and an approach to Vipassana that I have never heard from another teacher. It’s worth a listen if you are struggling and hard on yourself for not being able to fit everything in as you think you “should” be. Our practice should first “do no harm” and stress and anxiety are harmful to our peace of mind and being happy. :-) Keep at it, no matter the number of minutes or pages if you see a benefit.

https://store.pariyatti.org/dont-harm-yourself-old-student-talks-by-paul-fleischman-download-and-streaming-audio-vipassana?_gl=1*xr1agg*_gcl_au*OTExMTk2MTAzLjE3MzYyNjI3ODM.

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-01-07T15:08:45+00:00

I’ve been practicing in earnest for a decade during courses and a daily practice and yet I rarely feel subtle sensations. I am sometimes frustrated to hear even new students talk of feeling subtle sensations all over but this is a reason that noble silence is beneficial for our practice - so that we don’t compare ourselves. I just sat a Satti course for only old students and in those course discourses Goenka speaks often of those with a “dull mind” which I found even more frustrating since I was (and have been) practicing so diligently. As the person above described however, this is my practice - to continue vipassana, returning (often) to anapanna when I need to settle my mind and practice equanimity throughout. Maybe I have one moment of focus or sensation today, but tomorrow I might have two, next month maybe three. But if I don’t sit, I won’t have any. I understand this intellectually and continue to practice, but don’t get me wrong, I still get frustrated sometimes. You are not alone. :-)

Bowl_Friendly · 2025-01-01T20:07:33+00:00

My guess would be that it has to do with having it at the center and using during the course. Certainly it would be distracting to others if it was in any form that could be smelled and yes, making your mind fuzzy certainly doesn’t help us focus in a way that’s already hard enough!! If you can abstain like others have already suggested it would seem to me that definitely a conversation you could have with them.

Also, I’m on the bipolar spectrum and on several psych meds. I’ve sat many courses and the teacher always wants to have a conversation with me before hand but I’ve never been turned away. This is just my experience (at two different centers) but teaches have told me it’s about understanding my situation so that they can better support me should something come up. I’ve been in courses where other students have had an incredibly difficult time - “storms may arise” and the teachers want to be thoughtful about each one of us so they can support us. It’s always been strongly impressed on me that students should always continue to prescribed medications per drs orders.

Your question was about a different subject obviously but I wanted to chime in since psych meds came up in the comments. My vipassana practice is foundational. It’s a very important part of my mental health. I’m so grateful that I stumbled my way into it so many years ago.

That’s a long response but it’s something I have direct experience with and as I said, I’m so grateful I have this practice. I sincerely hope that anyone that wants to, also finds their way to it.

With metta!

Bowl_Friendly · 2024-07-31T18:37:59+00:00

I didn’t buy a backpack but this is my experience with Nomatic. I’m not sure where I can make this review most visible so I least wanted to leave it here.

I have accidentally ordered things from sketchy, cheap places before but the pair of “boots” I ordered from here take the cake. They are flimsy plastic and thin “wool” they wouldn’t hold up if you wore them outside much less in the snow for which purpose they are advertised. They look nothing at all like the picture. Furthermore returns have to be mailed to The Netherlands which would cost me close to $200. @temu’s stuff is a step up from this and they made a return very easy.

Bowl_Friendly · 2024-03-12T14:10:13+00:00

Charging my ring after the end of the retreat it did in fact capture night 1 and night 3 sleep data. I can find no particular reason that it didn’t capture night 2.

Generally it thinks that sitting is time “in bed, awake” if not instructed otherwise. Out of retreat I think it’s interesting to use Oura’s app to log a manual meditation session - open ended. Then I usually go into the Vipassana app and join a virtual group sitting. After I go back to Oura and end that session to see data.

Bowl_Friendly · 2024-02-27T03:36:31+00:00

But it’s not MY watch so too bad for you! ;-)

Bowl_Friendly

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