combatmatrix088

Catch-22 by Jospeh Heller. My friend suggested it to me. Basically, its a story about a World War 2 pilot who's trying to stay alive by avoiding combat missions. It's humorous and I liked how the book criticizes the idea of patriotism, democracy and at moments touches upon deeper themes like the nature of God.

Tbh I used to have fun while doing doodles or just random sketches. I might give it a try as well and see how it goes. Maybe I will like it as I used to back in the early days. Thanks!

Farenheit 451 was really good, recommended indeed

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I highly recommend it. It's a novel first released in 1931 which features a dystopian society where people are controlled by a totalitarian government. However, they are not controlled through force, pain or fear. They are controlled through pleasure. Citizens of Brave New World are conditioned to love their slavery. They get pleasure in exchange of freedom. Personal responsibility or any sort of individuality is discouraged in this society, even long-term relationships between individual people are considered perversions from the norm. It's an interesting book and I found that it mirrors out own world in many ways.

I think that gaming is just a medium through which your problems manifest themselves. The gaming addiction is not a cause of your problems, but a secondary effect of something else. Even if you could defeat the addiction, I'm afraid that would not help you as it would find ways to manifest in other areas of your life. You must discover what the underlying problem is and usually it's something a person tries to avoid. You must bravely consult your conscience and ask yourself "what am I doing wrong in this situation?". Sorry, I don't want to sound like I'm blaming you, but assuming responsibility for the bad things that happen in your life is really helpful, because then it's on you. You're not a helpless victim in your situation but an active agent upon which everything depends. That's what I do with my problems. And I understand that not having a girlfriend at 31 sucks. I'm 23 and I never had a romantic relationship, even though I wanted that with my whole heart. But I also believe there are valuable lessons that can be learned when you are alone. It may be painful to admit this but another person, no matter how wonderful she might be, can't make you happy. Nobody's perfect and nobody can carry the weight of responsibility to make us happy. That load is ours and even though its a hard load, its a liberating thing too. A well developed personality is independent and relationships from his or her perspective are optional, not mandatory.

The most simple meditation technique is simply observing your breathing and being conscious of it. You will be distracted by random thoughts that emerge in your mind BUT THAT'S OKAY. It's a mistake to think that distractions constitute as failure. Distractions will happen and they are normal. You goal is to notice (become conscious of) the fact that you got distracted and then return your focus on breathing. This process is the basis of meditation practice. From this you learn to control your attention, and notice when someone or something else is trying to control it (and control you at the same time). You see, in my opinion there is no difference between consciousness and self-control, as anything that happens within you unwillingly is a product of the unconscious mind. Everything you control in yourself you are conscious of, so by practicing the self-control in meditation you are training your consciousness and expanding it. This will help you to integrate unconscious psychic contents into the conscious mind easier, thus assuring psychological development and removing the threat of psychic complexes gaining hazardous autonomy due to compensatory relationship between conscious and unconscious psychic systems. Everything that gets repressed from the conscious mind eventually fights to return to it, because as the law of conservation of energy states: energy can't be destroyed, it can only change forms. Do not have any goals and presuppositions as you start the practice of meditation. The only way you can somehow "fail" meditation is if you don't do it at all.

I know that might sound shallow to hardcore anime/manga fans but mine is Dragon Ball Z. Just like one youtuber put it - Dragon Ball Z at it's heart is a story about facing impossible odds and using the hardship of that experience to transform yourself and become what you were born to be. That's the story of Gohan in my eyes, at least up to the Cell saga. Or Goku during the fight with Frieza which was simply hopeless during its first half. I also like the TFS interpretation according to which the main theme of DBZ is that a person is a lot stronger than he or she thinks they are. Often enemies, hardships we face in life help us to unlock that power dormant in our hears. That's how I see all the challenges Z fighters face - they are metaphores for various struggles of life and the whole story displays how those hardships develop us as people.