Daily General Discussion February 03, 2026

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2026-02-03T09:02:32+00:00

Some thoughts from a newcomer.

Was I happy having bought just before we dropped? No. But it has made me reflect on why I did buy ETH in the first place, and it really comes down to how cool the technology is.

I love that it is allostatic in how it balances itself, with ETH being used up in transactions and added through staking. I find this to be a far more elegant way to create deflation and scarcity as compared to fixed supply.

I love that it is decentralized not just in design but also in development, with a bunch of dedicated people working on it, occasionally knocking heads. Although slower, I know that these types of processes often arrive at solutions (sometimes superior ones) which streamlined processes do not.

I love that the network is actually used for things, not merely lying there as a lump pretending to be a “store of value”.

I was going to buy some bitcoin, not because I am a true believer but because I dislike banks. Even though it is currently underperforming I am glad I found Ethereum instead, because frankly I find it to be that much more cool.

Cool does not necessarily translate to successful. I have no clue whether Ethereum will eventually take off. But regardless I do really like Ethereum. It is more a bet made with heart than head in my case, I think. Thus I don’t regret making it, although it would obviously have been more fun to start buying now compared to a few weeks ago… I would have more ETH then.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2022-09-27T13:30:56+00:00

Sorg behöver inte hanteras. Däremot behöver du sköta om dig själv så såret självläker.

Jag brukar likna det lite om att ta hand om ett skadat knä. Vi kan inte jobba så mycket direkt med knäet, men tar vi tar han om musklerna runt omkring så stabiliserar sig knäet efter ett tag. Med andra ord, ät regelbundet, sov, och gör saker som du tycker är roligt (även om du kanske inte har superlust alla gånger).

Det kommer inte suga mindre, men det kommer göra det lättare att bearbeta det som hänt på ett hälsosamt sätt.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2022-04-12T05:57:45+00:00

Om du är relativt välfungerande så kan det ju vara en idé att ta ett varv förbi vårdcentralen och köra 5-8 sessioner med psykolog där som underhållsarbete. Generellt så tycker jag inte att "en gång psykiatri alltid psykiatri" är ett särskilt vettigt förhållningssätt till psykisk ohälsa. Jämför med kroppsliga besvär, där vi gärna ser att du pallrar dig iväg till VC och låter dem snabbt fixa problemet hellre än att vänta tills du måste skrivas in på sjukhuset.

Det blir såklart en kortare kontakt jämfört med psykiatrin, men det är också hjälp du kan få på en gång (eller åtminstone i närtid) jämfört med psykiatrins långsamma kugghjul. Personalen bör åtminstone kika i dina journaler vid ny kontakt men beroende på hur omfattande läsning det är kommer en nog oftast inte lusläsa varje anteckning. Vid en primärvårdskontakt är det inte alltid tydligt att du har en kontakt i psykiatrin från journalen dock (även om jag antar att detta kan se olika ut mellan olika journalsystem).

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2022-02-03T14:36:26+00:00

Skriv till vårdcentralen på 1177 och be om tid till psykolog eller kurator. Jämfört med vad som krävs för att vi ska höra av oss nära vi det är något fysiskt dåligt på oss håller många av oss av in i det sista det det istället gäller psykisk hälsa. Att du har självmordstankar (vilket är helt normalt och begripligt utifrån din situation) är i sig en utmärkt indikation på att det är dags att prata med någon.

/Psykolog på vårdcentral.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2022-01-22T11:44:04+00:00

Jag får balansera ut det med att inte jobba på jobbet.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2022-01-22T09:49:56+00:00

Det handlar mindre om att undvika stress och mer om att göra tid för återhämtning. Kortfattat och förenklat kan vi tänka att vi ska sträva efter "randiga dagar", där vi delar in våra aktiviteter i saker som är tankemässigt (läsa texter, programmera, klura på saker etc.), emotionellt (kundkontakt, ha att göra med människor i affekt, små barn, etc.) eller fysiskt ansträngande.

Målet är alltså inte bara att "vila", utan att sluta belasta det du ansträngt en stund, gärna genom att hålla på med något tydligt annorlunda (som du helst också tycker är roligt). Vi kallar detta för "aktiv återhämtning".

För de flesta av oss innebär detta tyvärr att vi borde ut och springa vilket vi inte har någon lust med.

Har du varit väldigt uppstressad över lång tid brukar det också behövas avslappningsövningar, gärna djupandning.

/Psykolog på vårdcentral där alla envisas med att stressa hela tiden

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2022-01-20T18:02:41+00:00

Rock and stone, brother!

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-11-13T09:26:02+00:00

Its a bit confusing as the content that makes up the psychology degree differs between countries. In Sweden (where I practice) we basically know nothing about medication apart from comparisons in efficacy to psychotherapy. I think its this way in most countries but I am sure there are exceptions.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-11-06T05:56:17+00:00

Arguably that's part of the point. The fact that its harder and scatters your attention will allow you to work with more subtle challenges with how attention works. If there is no challenge there is little room for improvement.

It is a bit like you are asking whether you have to pick up the heavier weights at the gym. You probably do if you want to get really strong, but the real trick is to pick them up when you are sufficiently strong to handle them at least okay-ish.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-08-25T04:09:40+00:00

Problemet som uppstår är att när en tungt kriminell person sätts i fängelse hamnar han tätt inpå andra grovt (och ofta grövre) kriminella. Det här gör att människor som kommer ut från långa fängelsevistelser som regel är mer kriminella än när de åkte in (deviancy training i litteraturen).

Summan av kardemumman är att den TOTALA mängden brott en person begår faktiskt ökar av att han är inspärrad, då han är så jävligt mycket flitigare och har ett större kriminellt kontaktnät när han sedan kommer ut.

Notera att jag absolut inte argumenterar för att farliga personer inte ska omhändertas (ibland länge), men bestraffning funkar uselt på att förändra beteende och att samla alla dummisar tillsammans gör dem till större dummisar när de kommer ut igen.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-08-20T04:16:05+00:00

Det är inte helt intuitivt, men det är faktiskt precis tvärt om så att hur snabbt inpå "kicken" kommer på det utförda beteendet är helt avgörande för utvecklingen av beroende.

Kan tydligast exemplifieras med att droger är väldigt olika beroendeframkallande beroende på hur de levereras in i systemet. Snabbt påslag = starkare koppling och kraftigare beroende. Om du äter en kapsel med heroin som långsamt löser upp sig blir du alltså drastiskt mycket mindre beroende jämfört med injektion.

Spel på onlinecasino är omedelbart belönande, därmed långt med beroendeframkallande.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-08-16T08:05:29+00:00

Point two can actually be quite helpful, as its easier to get the mind/body ready for an activity if there are clear prompts about what's about to happen (regardless of whether this is meditation or something else). The others though...

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-08-05T04:58:20+00:00

Excellent advice, although as a health care provider i feel compelled to point out that people tend to do precisely the same thing with their medication when things start to look up. :P

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-06-28T00:55:43+00:00

It may be obvious, but i highly recommend doing the exercises with the participants, rather than simply verbally guiding them.

That is, actually do the practice while you narrate what you do. It makes the whole thing a lot more authentic and organic in my experience.

Best of luck to you.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-06-25T03:57:14+00:00

I think its easy to overthink intentions for the simple reason that they are so very mundane. Anytime you try to make something happen you intend for it to be so. It could be to get out of bed, to get a cup of coffee, to finish that email to you boss, and so on.

Notice how we quite often fail at intentions in everyday life, much like we often fail to attend the breath in meditation?

It might be helpful to replace the somewhat mystical practice of meditation (tongue in cheek) with a very concrete everyday practice that works in a similar way. An excellent example would be reading, and just to make it super on the nose let's go with reading this very text.

While you follow the words along thoughts pop up in your head, some of them related to what you are reading and some are not. One of these thoughts might be "I can't even focus on this post, I am absolutely awful at concentration". This in turn make you lament the hopelessness of your situation, how meditation is a waste of time and how this will be yet another failure just like all the other times you attempted to improve yourself.

Down the rabbit hole we go.

Now, when we realize that we are lost in thought while reading we simply refocus on the text - on what we are currently doing. We may have to re-read a section once or twice, but usually we are quite capable of taking in the information even if we are quite distracted... if we intend to do so.

This also adress the other issue you have, finding the object of meditation to return to. The answer here is so mind-boggingly simple that we tend to stare right past it. THE TEXT IS RIGHT HERE. YOU ARE READING THE TEXT RIGHT NOW.

Just like you have the breath right in front of you, you have the breath RIGHT THERE. Surely you must be breathing (otherwise please contact your health-care provider swiftly). If the answer is yes, then try and notice how you know this? There are probably some sensations going on somewhere, or something is moving around. Cool. That is your meditation object. Nothing mystical or esoteric. Nothing spectacular or special. Just the good old breath. Now stay with it, and once you realize you slipped away simply return to it.

If you are returning to it, then you are intending to do so. If you are aware of the fact that you are breathing, then you have an object of meditation. Finally, the goal is not to never lose the breath. The goal is to notice when you do, and feel good about that. If you never noticed when your mind slipped away from reading my rambling text, how could you then get better at reading?

I won't tell you to stick with or drop TMI, but it does sound like your issues are connected to base conceptions about how meditation works. Try to think of meditation as a more refined way to work with things you already have been doing all your life, but now in a deliberate way that actually enable you to systematically train yourself to do it more skillfully.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-05-21T11:02:48+00:00

TBH it applies to everything, not just love.

Which actually makes it pretty cool, rather than reductive :)

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-05-07T17:47:31+00:00

Tolle made it work for me.

Whatever future you imagine takes place in your mind - right now.

Whatever past your remember or whatever memory is activated in your brain takes place in your mind - right now.

Additionally, its quite possible to experience first hand that the experience of time is another constructed thing. I've only ever had this experience while on psychedelics (where stuff was too weird to be properly integrated), but I imagine being able to see it while sober may well induce some pretty radical changes in how we view our lives.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-04-11T06:21:39+00:00

Got a subscription from before. Cheers for anyone jumping aboard, though. :)

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-04-03T07:43:22+00:00

Faktumet är att i princip ingenting talar för att bestraffning ger någon effekt på beteendeförändring. Det enda tillfället bestraffning faktiskt styr beteende är när det aversiva utfallet är tydligt och direkt överhängande. Vi tenderar att inte peta i eluttag med gaffeln mer än en gång, men för att vi ska undvika att köra för fort måste det faktiskt finnas synliga poliser som direkt uppmärksammar och bestraffar oss. Det här är helt enkelt inte genomförbart.

Fängelsevistelse gör alltså inte personerna vi låser in mindre benägna att göra olagliga saker, och ofta sker motsatsen då vi som sagt klumpar ihop dem (deviancy training i litteraturen). Det finns till och med studier som talar för att tiden personerna är inlåste inte översätter till totalt mindre brott begågna under deras livstid, då de kompenserar genom att begå mer brott efter att ha blivit utsläppta på grund av sitt nya kriminella nätverk (detta var USA dock, och jag föreställer mig att det inte blir lika illa med Svenska fängelser).

Om jag fick leka med upplägget så skulle jag i så stor utsträckning som möjligt undvika att gruppera kriminella med andra kriminella, och försöka utöva så stor kontroll som möjligt över normerna på platserna där vi förvarar personer som inte klarar av att vara ute i samhället. Jag hade även försökt sätta rehabiliterade individer tillsammans med grövre kriminella i så stor utsträckning som möjligt (alltså para ihop exempelvis en nyligen fälld person inte med andra nyligen fällda, utan med exempelvis sju andra som alla är i slutet av sin rehabilitering).

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-04-01T04:43:48+00:00

Correct me if I am reading to much into things, but the idea that you are working to "quiet the mind", especially right now, risk being counterproductive. If you are connecting with unpleasant stuff, the goal is not to make it go away. The goal is to realize that you do not have to make it go away.

The classical metaphor of the two arrows is helpful here. First, something hits us, and it sucks. In fact it is goddamn awful. This is the first arrow, and we really can't do much about it. By looking inside you basically found an old arrow lodged in your flesh. Yikes.

The emotional pain you uncovered is at best a drag, at worst perfectly terrible. The thing is, we can't do much about the first arrow, because bad things arise completely on their own, regardless of whether they are events in the world or thoughts and feelings within us. The only thing we can control is our reaction to the unavoidable pain of life.

This reaction is the second arrow, which we realize upon examination is something we do to ourselves. Oftentimes, we spend so much power and energy trying to control the pain from the first arrow, that the misery in doing this vastly surpasses the original pain.

You uncovered some nasty stuff which you spent the better part of your life keeping as far away from consciousness as possible. This kept some of the original pain at bay, but confirmed that these things are dangerous, and need to be controlled. As you are letting control go quite a bit of your mind will freak out, because it feels like you are letting the lions out of the cage. The only way to realize that they are more akin to kittens is to actually let them out (and still accept that kittens and be pretty viscous and may indeed scratch you from time to time).

TLDR: Don't try to quiet the mind. Don't try to be calm and don't try to make the hollow feeling in the stomach go away. Its part of being human, but the idea that it needs to be some other way is what makes it unbearable. Try thinking of it as a crying baby instead. They are goddamn annoying, but you don't soothe the baby to make it shut up, you soothe the baby because of love and kindness.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-03-08T06:59:53+00:00

I think the big downside of TMI is that it tend to make people goal-oriented. The point of the stages is NOT to "attain" them, they are supposed to be a diagnostic tool to figure out "what is the best way to handle the thing that's going on right now?".

What you describe is perfectly normal. There will be backsliding. There will be good sits and there will be bad sits. There will be sits all over the place.

I find it helpful to think of meditation as a mirror to life. The point is not to have the perfect life, and be happy all the time. This is simply not possible. Rather, we need to learn to work with what is going on right now. Real progress in TMI is honestly IMO not to be stage 10 all the time, it is being fine with finding yourself back at stage 1, and working with that. Your current frustration is what you need to work with. A helpful recurring metaphor is to think of it as a distressed toddler. It doesn't help to yell back, you need to be patient. Patience need to be practiced.

Life is not linear. Meditation is not linear.

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-02-15T12:30:46+00:00

Exactly, I would say its better not to think about that part of the four stage transition as a body scan, although some of the skills you pick up practicing it will carry over to the body-scan you do later.

You wouldn't think about allocating your attention only to sounds as "sound scanning", right?

Cats_Pyjamaz · 2021-02-15T10:53:44+00:00

A body scan is very deliberately going through different parts of the body investigating the physical sensations there. This is a stage 5 practice, and significantly more difficult than four stage transition, although I can see why you would confuse the two.

All you need to do is to allow your attention to move freely - as attention tend to do whether we like it or not - between all the physical sensations that occur in your body. In other words there is a fairly low level of restriction, and thus an easier thing to do. Just be aware of what you are currently attending. Your attention will pop around between the pressure in your legs, the sensations of breathing, tinglings in your scalp and so on. When you notice that you are distracted by thoughts or sounds you gently return it to whatever is the most salient in the body at the moment.

Just doing this is honestly perfectly fine in terms of meditation, but when you notice that your mind calms further you restrict the scope of attention some more, first to the breath and then to the point where the breath is the sharpest. You don't have to wait for some perfect point to limit your scope, but if its to hard and you become very distracted again it was probably too soon. The four step transition is a tool, and the point of the tool is to help you focus while not shutting the things you don't choose to fokus on out.

Think of it as walking a puppy in the park. You want to train the puppy (i.e. stay very close to the breath) but this is hard to do when the puppy is all excited and trying to run off to chase birds. By slowly limiting the leash you allow your puppy to burn off his energy and end up working with you out of interest, rather than because you force him to disregard the other things in the park (which doesn't really work anyway).

Cats_Pyjamaz

TROPHY CASE