kind of a continuation of a previous post i made in here awhile back.

I feel like Nio waking from the Matrix, Dorothy falling down the rabbithole, like that dude from the great gatsby having finally made it big realizing he’ll never be apart of this world he see’s, like…you get the idea.

one big problem here is just this…i was pretty much raised by tv/movies/the internet, and i’v spent such an …unhealthily… amount of time alone through my developing years and beyond (an american otaku i guess) that…as I make all these references to movies and shit i relate to…i start to doubt even myself, i’v done some psychedelics in the past so i know how fragile the human psyche can be.

on top of that, if anyone here is familiar with Alan Watts…I feel now exactly has he describes people who are “awakened” (i know he’s an entertainer first…just saying his lectures describe how i feel lately exactly)

I can’t help but feel like…there are a lot of basic things I should know, a lot of things people seem to take as so basic they don’t need explaining, while others seem to completely avoid these same things like the very idea of looking at objective measurable truth threatens their very existence. but again…i doubt my own eyes and ears so what judge am i of objective measurable truth

imagine if you will an innocent little boy from the midwest, who had no father figure of note and whose mother was too busy working non-stop to feed/cloth/house him, that she never really got into the weeds of raising him. and imagine if this boy somehow made it to his late 20’s before…well, before losing his innocence as they say. but he’s so unsure of his own self that he doesn’t know where his problems end (because there obviously is something wrong with him/his brain) and which are just…a natural reaction to a fucked up society. hell…what if there isnt anything wrong with my head and this is this just…me coming out of a decades long addiction/escapism spiral or something?

so here’s the question…

what things should this boy have been taught? what basic facts of life is everyone else working on they’re not?

(please don’t worry for my health or anything…I uh…i’m pretty sure I’m going to check into some kind of wellness/rehab facility soon)

  • Pizza_Rat@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Some miscellaneous truths that have served me well as a guy doing reasonably okay in life:

    1. Reading books is good for your brain
    2. Exercise is good for your body – the gym is a game that anyone can win over time
    3. Friendships come from shared interest, activities and experiences over time. Go do stuff in real life.
    4. Don’t carry credit card debt. Save money if you can. Get a handle on basic finances
    5. Pick something to do, try your best, and pivot to something new if you decide that’s not for you. You often learn what you do want by discovering things that you don’t want.
    6. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone leads to personal growth.
    7. Most things seem hard at first, everything gets easier with reps.

    Hope that helps!

    • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago
      1. Don’t carry credit card debt. Save money if you can. Get a handle on basic finances

      Credit cards are this weird thing. If you need them, you shouldn’t use them (if you can help it). If you make plenty of money and don’t need them, they are a very useful financial tool. I have paid interest on one of my credit cards once in the past 3 years, and it was only to have extra available funds for buying a house. But I have accrued well over 100k airline miles and several hundred (far more than the interest I paid) in cash back. I use credit cards exclusively for everything but my mortgage, and have them set to automatically pay the statement balance prior to the due date. If you aren’t extremely confident you can do that, you should avoid credit cards.

      I definitely ran afoul of credit cards in my youth, so the banks have gotten their pound of flesh from me.

    • jbrains@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      I was going to lead with “Don’t assume that other people have it right and you don’t” combined with “Most people are sleepwalking through life, so be careful about asking random strangers for advice”; however, I like this list and hope more people will upvote it.