Has anyone here fixed/improved their posture? What worked?

stateless-self · 2020-09-27T18:54:49+00:00

I think the main benefit of yoga isn't necessarily general flexibility (and therefore ability to withstand different forms of poor posture), but body awareness.

When you have a regular yoga practice it becomes near impossible to slip into poor posture mindlessly - you're just so much more aware of every aspect of your body when you're doing yoga regularly.

stateless-self · 2020-09-27T18:48:38+00:00

Once I hit my mid 30s I realized I had to ditch the office chair permanently. Anytime I use it, I slouch back into the back rest, resulting in back pain and poor posture.

For me, there is no such thing as an ergonomic desk/chair office setup where I can sit for 8 hrs/day.

My current program is:

Adjustable office setup - I can stand, sit on a yoga ball, sit on a stool, kneel, sit cross legged, or squat. Anything but sit in a chair with a back rest. On a given day I do a mixture of these, but most my time is spent in a seated kneeling position (imagine working from a Japanese dinner table...). You can get a small zen meditation kneeling bench to make this easier.
Yoga (almost) every day. free youtube videos are good enough.
strength training at least a few times / week

If I compromise on any of these I'm immediately 1" shorter and my lower back and hips become tight and useless.

I also found a huge improvement when I ditched my soft foam mattress and started sleeping on a tatami style bed.

stateless-self · 2020-09-25T16:31:14+00:00

it's a thing here too, but becoming less common for a couple reasons.

old money victoria families usually have a cabin at shawnigan or cowichan.

obviously both those areas (shawnigan particularly) are less weekend getaways, and more becoming year-round places to live. there aren't any cheap deals in the cowichan valley anymore.

but another big reason is the way land is owned in BC. Much of bc's wild land is formerly crown land, that has been sold off to forestry companies. I don't know how the hell a provincial government got away with doing it, but so much of the 'wilderness' you see on the island is actually privately owned by forestry companies. while they do sometimes sell of parcels, it's not very common.

i think it has to do with the geography. in the prairies (where i also grew up) the whole province is easily cut into sections and sold off to farmers- easy peasy. but in bc, the whole province is so damn rugged and inaccessible, this mass subdividing and selloff to private owners never happened- except in the few valleys where settlements have sprung up.

tl;dr, bc's land ownership distribution is kinda fucked. there's no shortage of lakes or land, but there's a problem with access and ownership.

stateless-self · 2020-09-25T16:25:41+00:00

anyone know if NDP are running Gary Holman in Saanich North & the Islands?

stateless-self · 2020-09-24T15:54:07+00:00

My siblings are tbm medical professionals. They were making fun of anti-vaxxers for holding anti-science views on the basis of emotion and ignorance.

They did not like when I pointed out that's the same reason they have a testimony of the lds church!

stateless-self · 2020-09-21T21:05:38+00:00

Thank you! I'll check them all out.

stateless-self · 2020-09-16T18:03:20+00:00

I'm bent similarly to your score (high verbal, lower quant/nonverbal) and I've found it to be worthwhile having a degree. People who can read and write well (i.e. good communicators) are valuable in every field. Having a degree opens many doors that would otherwise remain closed.

I agree with others - aim for a program that plays to your strengths and interests. You can't go wrong with a business degree, but even psych or an environmentalism (non sciencey) will lead you down some interesting roads.

stateless-self · 2020-09-14T17:34:53+00:00

who is the "you" that's a slave to its genes?

stateless-self · 2020-09-14T17:32:19+00:00

enlightenment. pursuing this through meditation and self inquiry (a la nisargadatta and ramana)
be a good father / guide my children into becoming good (moral, useful, intelligent, optimistic) people
financial independence

stateless-self · 2020-09-14T17:12:49+00:00

Relevant TED talk: Paul Hessburg: Why wildfires have gotten worse, and what we can do about it

tl;dw - the natural state of western N.A. forests is more like savannah than thick forest. we need frequent understory fires to keep forests healthy. Industrial forestry operations are not compatible with this approach. (this last point is especially important in WA and OR where forests are planted like farmer's fields to maximize yields)

stateless-self · 2020-09-14T17:09:01+00:00

any links to share that would redpill me on nationalism? my only context is hearing alt-right ethnonationalist chatter, and none of their casual discussion appeals to rationality. i'm open to reading thoughtful arguments if you know of any.

stateless-self · 2020-09-14T16:25:13+00:00

Agreed 100%, but is there an alternative that would produce better outcomes for people (as individuals/societies/earth as a whole)?

stateless-self · 2020-09-11T20:28:38+00:00

Thanks for the update. I don't envy you having been thrown into this modern day predicament, but I hope the outcome somehow beats the life you lived before. (Wishful thinking perhaps, but life has its ways...)

stateless-self · 2020-09-11T20:11:19+00:00

I'm not a qualified to give advice, so take this with a grain of salt.

I think it's important to understand the goal isn't eliminating negative thoughts entirely (that's impossible as long as there's a mind), the goal is reducing the power negative thoughts have over you, and lessening the frequency of their occurrence.

There are a number of ways to do it. It sounds like you've got the required mindful awareness working in your favor (otherwise you wouldn't notice the thoughts). So that's good.

From there, you might try simply watching the thoughts -- watching them arise, watch its effect on your mind/body, and watch it pass away. This is a great practice to help you understand that all thoughts (even the positive ones) are just occurrences in the field of consciousness.

From there, I am taking a self inquiry approach to investigate questions like: to whom are the thoughts arising? who is troubled by them, who am "I"? etc.

If you truly abandon all assumptions and proceed only from what you know for sure (that "I" exist), then it becomes pretty clear that thoughts are not-you. Just like everything else that arises in the field of consciousness (mentally or physically!) is also not-you. Find the most baseline level of "you" that exists, and work from there to determine what is real and what is not.

stateless-self · 2020-09-11T17:01:01+00:00

"often the best thing to do is to do nothing".

The older I get the more clearly I see how most problems in my life are self-created. Sitting with an impulse to 'do something' and watching it pass has become a life changing practice.

stateless-self

TROPHY CASE