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usernameforworldpeace!

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Everything posted by usernameforworldpeace!

  1. Needed to hear this. thanks! I find excuses way too easily. But I need to use that finding skill to find solutions instead!!!
  2. Bit of a messy day today, although it started well doing some volunteering in the morning in the afternoon I binged on the internet and started to feel really lousy. Was also disappointed because I just cancelled tomorrow's 'poker party' commitment because I only got 1 and a half yes's from people… I didn't feel that would be very fun for a poker game or other board games. I don't know if cancelling was the right thing to do or not, it maybe could have worked…. I guess I was afraid they would find it boring and it might feel awkward just 2 or 3 people lol. Maybe a dinner party would be better because then there isn't really a lower limit to the number of people needed? Also maybe I need to meet and talk to more people because ultimately I couldn't think of many people to invite…. I invited 6 people, 2 of whom I barely know. Anyway, the two who wanted to come both said that's a shame (that I cancelled)… I was touched by that, it seems like they really wanted to come. I almost didn't do today's mission (do 5 intentional acts of kindness), but after writing the above I decided to go out in the evening and do something at least. I went out on my bike and filled up a plastic bag with litter. Then I made a donation to a homeless charity online. In the morning I did conservation volunteering so maybe that counts… I sent someone some positive feedback on a bunch of songs they wrote. And…. *looks through list of 101 random acts of kindness ideas* Well, email a friend just to say goodnight lol. Think I'll try this challenge again tomorrow, I think I could do better
  3. hello Shaw. Thanks for joining and sharing your story. You'll find loads of support on this forum for you. -Josh (GREAT username by the way!!)
  4. like the video…... Also like the bird singing in the background
  5. Today's challenge was to have a conversation with a homeless person to develop empathy. I live on a small island and homelessness isn't really a 'visible' problem - very rarely do you see homeless people sitting on the streets like you might in a city. Nevertheless as I was walking through town, I saw a man who I thought might be homeless. He was sitting in a little cove on his own... so I went up to him and said hey, how are you..... he was surprised and said, hello yeah fine. So I asked him "are you homeless".... only joking I said "are you waiting for someone?" and he said a sarcastic "yes..." like it was obvious LOL. it became clear he wasn't homeless.... so then for some reason I just stood there for about 20 seconds not knowing what to say or do. So then I said "ok, bye" hahaha.... he seemed kind of annoyed and said "bye bye" accordingly. Another awkward encounter achieved! I haven't really completed today's mission but I don't know what I can do, it's so rare to see a homeless person in the street here. Apart from that awkward encounter, I actually feel that today was my best day yet in terms of practicing social skills!!! I can feel my confidence growing. --------> I had a conversation with the health food shop cashier and we laughed and it was good. Next I wanted to invite this guitarist guy I had only met once before to my party, so I went into the shop I knew he worked at and started talking to him. He remembered me from last year. I got to know a lot about his music he makes and the band he's in. So then I invited him to my party, but he couldn't come because he was away. Then I gave him a keyring harmonica as a present which he loved BUT I forgot to introduce myself by name! oh well. Definite new friend potential there!!Then I saw an old friend and we had a really long chat, and I laughed a lot telling him about my "homeless" man story lol.A few other conversations during the day which went really well!
  6. OK the "go to events" and "have a party" challenges are shaping up!! The Islam group kindly agreed to let me come and observe a prayer session next week! I'm excited to say hi and see what it's like. Also I've had two yes's so far for the 'poker /games party' on sunday! I've never hosted a party before (like a lot of stuff I've been doing lately!!!) let's see what happens!!! Today's challenge was to 'pay-it-forward', buy a drink and pay for the next person's too. I went into a few coffee shops because I wanted to find one where people would queue behind me but they wouldn't queue behind me!! It was probably the time of day. So in the end I had to just say 'can you pay for the next person's drink with this please'. The girl seemed quite blasé about it, maybe it happens quite a bit! Slipped up a bit today with the music writing! Only got 1.5 hours clocked when I had time for more. No worries though, I got a new song idea. I'm now in debt by 15 hours (13.5 hours still to catch up from holiday days).
  7. Yesterday's challenge was to look up events happening nearby this week and go to a couple that look interesting. I've always been interested in world religions and spiritual stuff so I've emailed a local Buddhist group and a local Islam group to see if I might be able to come along one night In terms of hobbies, there's a local music festival later on in the month which I've never been to, so I'll make sure I go to that. ----- The challenge today is to organise an event e.g. a dinner party and invite people I know to it. I've decided to go for a 'poker / games party' . I've sent some people emails inviting them so I'll see if they can come or not. ----- In other news I went to the shop wearing a party hat today. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, wear a party hat in public. It's millions of people's birthday every day so why not! No one said anything and the shop assistants smiled. After monday's challenge I have more confidence doing strange things. -----
  8. Hi byrdmath! Nice to meet you, thanks for joining us. It seems there are a lot of creative people on this forum, it's great! It sounds like the detox could be really helpful for you so that you can get your attention span back in shape! It's crazy what today's technology has done to our concentration levels. As a fellow-person-who-creates-things (hi!!) sometimes I feel what I create doesn't add any value to the world so why bother? Why not just play games or have fun on the internet all day…. That's why I remind myself all the time to think of my purpose for creating things. Having this sense of greater purpose (e.g. for me it's creating more peace in the world, creating positive emotions, building community) is what makes creating things more satisfying and rewarding for me! I like this quote I found one day, Well. Have a great day. Look forward to reading more of your entries!!!
  9. Hi Simon, welcome. Sounds like you've got all the right ideas for this, interested to see how you'll fill up the spare time now good luck !
  10. Awesome! I love how you're thinking about learning music as well as doing it (producing), I'm going to try and do some critical listening too !
  11. To face my fear of being laughed at, today I walked around town dressed like this (pic in the quotes box): I'll get to that in a minute! First I'll talk about yesterday's failed challenge that I tried again today - start a conversation with three people then introduce myself. -------------------------------- "MY FAVOURITE ANIMAL IS A WHALE" I wanted to try chatting to younger people my age this time. My first couple attempts, in shops buying food or a drink, I didn't really try to start a conversation. I thought, "boy this is going to be expensive if I keep buying stuff just to chat!" lol so next I went in a clothes shop and talked with the young man at the till. After our friendly greetings my baiting statement today was "what's your favourite animal?" He thought about it for while and said "um… probably a lion" and I said really wow awesome or something then I introduced myself and he said nice to meet you lol. Then I asked him where the men's section wasThe next shop there were two young people at the till so I greeted them both and again asked them what their favourite animal was. this conversation felt soooooo awkward lol the girl laughed and was like "I don't really have one" and the guy told me "well I have a dog" and I tried to keep the conversation going asking him about his dog and he has a Whippet called Ellie lol. Then I told them about my pets and said "can you guess what my favourite animal is?" they guessed a cat but I told them it's a whale!! Then I introduced myself, and carried on looking around the shop. When I left I said thanks and the girl said "OK bye Josh!" So they used my name at least xDDDD------------------------------- "THAT MAN IS DRESSED AS AN ELF" OK GREAT so now I had to do the mission I set myself to walk around town in a silly outfit. I was dressed in a suit from work so my plan was to use the public toilets and change in a cubicle, like Superman (more like…. Sillyman!). But before that, to psych myself up I went to the library and read some of my favourite book "The Way To Love" by Anthony De Mello. Then I thought - I can change outfits in the library toilet! So I did… I was terrified while getting changed, thinking "what the heck am I doing?!?!?!!" but I went down the stairs and as soon as I stepped out of the library I just sort of went on auto-pilot!!! Walking round the streets I tried to act as normal as possible, smiling politely, being calm. And the funny thing is, after a while I didn't even feel nervous, I actually felt kind of relaxed lolll just cruising round in my sexy outfit! Some people laughed or smirked as I went past (good, that means it was silly enough) I saw people looking and laughing but nobody commented at me and I felt no hostility from others. In fact most people just walked on by without batting an eyelid - this surprised me pleasantly The whole time I was trying not to laugh because it was sooo funny I heard a child say "that man is dressed as an elf" lol. I went into the health food shop I always go in and bought some soup. I was really polite and they didn't say anything haha! They probably thought I was having a nervous breakdown lolSo then I walked to the bus stops, got the bus home and that was that. I did it! I'm so proud of myself today. --------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks, this also helped me today.
  12. Thanks. I think you're probably right about those things…. today's mission was to use baiting statements to start conversations and then introduce myself by name to three people. There was an arts fair on today and I thought, great! a perfect place to try this out. I can talk to the artisans about their creations, and get to know some creative people! So I went down to the arts fair and walked around the stalls. For some reason I just wasn't feeling it and had in my head "I'm not going to do this". I walked around then went back home. Was I nervous, embarrassed? bit disappointed 'cus I didn't do the challenge. I didn't go out of my comfort zone. I'll try it again tomorrow with a better mindset hopefully - I'm gonna kick its butt!!! I've noticed I prefer to do these challenges when there aren't many people around - I find the thought of other people looking and listening embarrassing... SO I guess that's why I need to do the 'dress like a crazy fool' in public mission ASAP, because then everyone will be looking probably I've made a silly outfit so just need to do that now haha. Looking at the bigger picture though, I am feeling more confident in socialising. Now I am saying "morning" or "hello" to most people I pass on my bike, and today I had a good long chat with a friend. --------- I've been doing well lately with avoiding distracting internet, and working on music instead --- sticking to my goal of 3 hours music a day minimum (the past couple days I've managed 5 hours because I'm trying to make up for my days on holiday last week!!) but today I could feel myself slipping into old habits of spending the rest of the day on the internet after sunday lunch. Luckily I stopped after an hour and opened up Cubase to make some more music. In the evening I continued to make music but with an internet browser open so it wasn't as focused but better than nothing!! (Note to self: think about using Sunday to work on different projects, just so you don't tire yourself out working on the same things all week) Thanks for reading.
  13. Wow, I love that. Amazing that you've made such progress in short time! Look forward to more.
  14. Hey Dere. I'm liking the look of those new lists! Especially the goals to achieve - hopefully those activities will give you something to try when you'd normally just play games. Maybe give yourself a treat, like if you make it a week without gaming you can buy a ukelele ??
  15. the first time, I was at the fancy dress shop. I bought a couple of things and said to the lady, "I'm off to play the organ now" (I was playing organ at an evening service). She smiled in a laughing kind of way and said nothing lol. She seemed like a quiet person. Well, I couldn't think of anything else to say so I put the stuff in my bag and said our good byes hehe!!Next I was buying some food at the store. I said hello how are you to the cashier, it was nice. And I said "I've just been to the fancy dress shop" she smiled quite enthusiastically but didn't say anything so I said "yeah, I bought a hat, and some glasses" and um, couldn't think what else to say again so it was kind of awkward while she scanned my food but it was funny lol. she definitely seemed to respond in kind to my attempt of energy though.The third time I went in another shop to buy some jam. I said hello how are you and he said fine thank you sir. Then I asked him, What's your favourite colour? He said "blue." and that was that. haha, well I didn't know what I was expecting!!!!!! I guess I could have told him my favourite colour too. But at least I know his now!! there is no 4there is a 5… only jokingI didn't really ignite any conversations, hmm maybe these baiting statements weren't the best ones. I'll keep trying to start conversations like this though, it was funny and obviously I want to have conversations!
  16. My favourite thing is trying to write melodic songs, I enjoy the craft of songwriting! // I love sounds of the orchestra so I use them a lot in my music too.
  17. --------------------------------today's mission was to record my voice and experiment with different ways of talking, seeking rapport, breaking rapport, neutral etc -------i'm glad this is a mission because weirdly it's something i think about quite a bit. It's like I 'don't know how to speak', what pitch range, how loud to talk, how to pronounce certain words (accent), often i find myself talking uncomfortably low, or I even talked in a bizarre 'gruff voice' for a while lol! somehow I developed that habit. Just the past few days I've been trying to speak with a higher tone with the intention of sounding more friendly …. -----------Recording my voice today, I realise I definitely do have a sort of british accent. And when I speak in a higher tone, intending to sound more friendly, it just sounds odd lol. My voice gets a bit croaky at the ends of sentences - it's like I go too low in pitch. Sometimes I trip over words trying to speak too quickly. and sometimes I mumble words (but it's miles better than 5 years ago when i mumbled everything lol!), the sounds get darker and it doesn't sound great. ----I watched a helpful video a couple weeks ago, might have been recommended here actually -- a guy talked about how to talk, about just slowing the pacing down a little bit and feeling the rhythm of the words. I noticed when I focus on speaking clearly it sounds a lot better. As a musician I like to listen to people's voices and notice how some people talk more melodically than others. In fact I once heard that musicians have more melodic talking styles because they are musicians, but in my experience I haven't noticed that. ---------------------------------------------------------------Anyway I found this mission of analysing my speaking voice weirdly fun!
  18. Hey! I like your lists Welcome @Dere.
  19. Day 10,177 of life (went on family holiday for a few days ------) Today's mission was to write out 10 fears and make a plan to tackle one of them. 1 Afraid of rejection - talk to a girl ? 2 Afraid of being laughed at/ridiculed - dress very silly, walk round in public 3 Afraid of travelling to a foreign country alone - travel to a foreign country 4 Afraid of making mistakes, being less than perfect - sing songs at open mic night 5 Afraid of being out of control - get drunk once to experience it 6 Fear of being naked in public - go to a nudist colony 7 Fear of being emotionally open - Say I love you and other appreciative things to family, people 8 Fear of giving everything and failing - give music your all 9 Fear of dancing in public - go to a night club or just dance in street 10 Fear of doing a headstand (lol) - try against a wall ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The fear I choose to face for the mission is 2. Afraid of being laughed at ----- I will dress in a very silly outfit and walk around in a busy public place. 1. Design silly outfit (hire costume parts?) 2. Put outfit on 3. Take bus into town 4. Walk, skip, jump around town 5. Go home today I am pleased because after having a holiday break, I went straight back into my morning routine and got 3.5 hours music done
  20. Welcome @dullage!! I can relate to so much of what you said, particularly the negative self talk, lacking confidence and trouble keeping a routine.No one is judging you here. You can write whatever you like on your journey of self-exploration/improvement. It sounds great! Exciting times ahead!
  21. wow that was hugely inspiring. thanks for doing what you're doing, you're making a difference in my world and so many others!!!
  22. Welcome to the forum, it's great to have you here!! I'm inspired by your desire to improve yourself --- please continue to share your journey on the forums!!
  23. No sugar diet, respect!!!! I tried that once - really hard!!! Let us know how you're getting on! Thanks for sharing that YouTube link, looks like some interesting stuff!! I watched a video about Adele being authentic. I enjoyed it Sometimes movies inspire and move me so I don't feel bad watching them -- as long as it's 'a good one' :):)
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