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Self Improvement
A community which focusses on improving yourself. This can be in many different ways - from improving physical health or appearance, to improving mental health, creating better habits, overcoming addictions, etc.
While material circumstances beyond our control do govern much of our daily lives, people do have agency and choices to make, whether that is as "simple" as disciplining yourself to not doomscroll, to as complex as recreating yourself to have many different hobbies and habits.
This is not a place where all we do is talk about improving "productivity" (in a workplace context) and similar terms and harmful lifestyles like "grindset". Self-improvement here is intended to make you a generally better and happier person, as well as a better communist, and any other roles you may have in your life.
Rules and guidelines:
- Posts should be about self-improvement. This is obviously a wide category, and can range from advice, to finding resources, to self-posts about needing to improve in a certain area, or how you have improved, and many other things.
- Use content warnings when discussing difficult subjects.
- Do not make medical decisions solely because of a discussion you have had with any person here (e.g. whether to take or not take medications; diagnoses; etc.) as we do not vet people. All medical problems should be discussed with a real-life medical professional.
- Do not post harmful advice here. If this is seen, then please report it and we shall remove it. If you are unsure about whether it's precisely harmful advice or not but feel uneasy about it, please report it anyway.
- Do not insult other users and their lifestyles or their habits (unless they ask, I suppose). This is a place for self-improvement. Critique and discussion about a course of action is encouraged over shit-flinging. Don't talk down to people.
I use the Insight Timer app, it has a lot of free guided meditations. They are great because you just need to listen to the instructions. Here are some of my favourites:
Breathing Meditation - Jack Kornfield
Time to Unwind - Meg James
Five Minutes Of Self Compassion
I recommend starting with some guided meditations, then when you get the hang of it you can just set the timer with bells in that app and do it on your own.
Pro tip: don't get discouraged when your mind wanders. People think that meditation means that your head needs to be empty and free from thoughts, but that's nearly impossible. The point is to notice that your attention has wandered and focus back on the thing that you were focusing on (usually the breath).
I also recommend listening to the "10% Happier" podcast. It's a great podcast about mindfulness, meditation, Buddhism and related topics. It has a deep backlog and a lot of interesting guests.