Reddit mentions: The best poetry, spoken word & interviews

So you mentioned that you are going to see a doctor, but are you seeing a therapist? I really think it would help with your anxiety. If you have any questions about seeing a therapist, I'd be glad to talk to you about it (I'm not a therapist myself, but I've been in therapy, and can tell you about my experiences).

In the meantime, something really helpful for relaxing in order to sleep is listening to a guided meditation. I like Roberta Shapiro's "Goodbye Worries" and Belleruth Naparstek's "Meditations to Relieve Stress." It may seem a little hocus-pocus, but at least try it if you haven't before. At first, I was so anxious that I couldn't sit and meditate on my own, my mind was flying around all over the place. So I listened to these guided meditations, and they would calm me down enough that I could sleep OK. It also teaches you how to calm your mind on your own, and that's a great skill for someone with anxiety. I have them downloaded on my phone, and I carry earbuds with me, so I can always just take a little break during the day and listen for a few minutes if I need to.

What?! NOTHING IT related that you would find interesting enough to learn about on your own time?

Did you do this for the money? That's insane.

No Chef? No Puppet? No Docker? No obscure language? No embedded systems? No Nutanix? No ESXi? No nano server? Nothing IT related tickles your pickle? What about vulnhub? Red teaming? Game development? TELL ME.

/u/ProfFrnswrth -- I can't relate with the sentiment of not having energy after 8 hours. Hell, there are times we were updating systems until 1 or 2 AM and I STILL went home and dicked around in a VM. Do I have an unhealthy passion for this stuff? Probably.

As a child, very awkward, you can imagine, I had a computer and I was trying to play Deus Ex. The colors were terrible and the game stuttered and spewed, eventually freezing on that terrible sound looping: "EEHN, EEHN, EEHN, EEHN, EEHN, EEHN, EEHN" -- being borderline retarded as a child, I didn't think to turn off the speakers, I just ran and told my Dad the computer is broken.

Being a good father, he assumed what all good fathers assume: porn. I was lectured and berated about not getting caught with my weasel in my hand, my dad unplugged the computer and turned it back on. I was defeated, never again to play this game my friend told me about.

The next day, whilst at school, I told my friend, the one in which of whom recommended the game, that my computer couldn't run it, I was doomed.

"What, ho?! Nay! Bringith thine tower to my domicile once within we leavith our studies!" -- Told you, fucking awkward.

So I bring this HP wanna be Blue Bubble Macintosh computer to my friend's house. My friend and his father ripped apart the internals of that poor HP tower, and replaced what looked like the internals to the backup for Johnny Five. Some brown circuit board and a lot of fans.

I was terrified. I was instructed by my friend to take my computer back home and try Deus Ex again. So, I get home and connect everything. Fearful of being sternly spoken to about pornography again, I left the speakers unplugged.

My God, man! It's beautiful! Normal colors, smooth textures, fast movement. But there wasn't any God damn sound! Oh, the speakers, right, so I plugged the speakers back in.

From there, I said "I want to be able to fix anything". It was very humbling and earth shattering to be honest.

I mean, if you think about it, as a preteen, you don't know what a computer is. You use it and you play on it, but you don't know what it is unless you're born into a family that teaches you or you're some Matilda freak that reads CPU and motherboard manuals in your free time.

But here... My friend, my peer, my ALLY! He knew exactly what it took. He took an impossible problem (can't play a video game), and not only made it a reality, he did it with spare parts in his closet LOL!

So, because of him, I am where I am today. Do I know how to fix everything? No, of course not. Don't be silly.

But! I have taken to using scheduled, distraction free time to learn something or get better at a skill. I go into that with a furious frenzy and get shit done. An hour? Half an hour? Five hours? I don't care, I'm going to tackle the living shit out of my objective.

Scheduled, distraction free time? What in the name of Almighty Christ on his Throne is this?!

First, I recommend a very subjective and biased book:

Deep Work

The concept of "Deep Work" is not foreign, but you may not have heard it called that before. It's a great book about finding time to get work done in a world of distractions.

Second, I recommend Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret". You can find the audio on Amazon or Youtube, whichever you prefer. In YouTube he sounds cooler but speaks much quicker.

Earl Nightingale, again, came up with nothing new. This is some Oprah shit before Oprah was out. This broadcast changed my life. It builds off Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich and takes concepts from Philosophy and Religion. The best "Power of Positive Thinking" speech I've heard. Listen to it, and see if it vibes with you.

Anyway, get your goals down, write them. Don't put them in your God damn phone, WRITE IT DOWN. Look it everyday. If you miss a day, you have to see it, you can't just delete it from your phone (yeah, you can rip the paper out of the notebook, but I'd like to think you're not a destructive person ;) ).

You like Podcasts? Yeah? YEAH?

Check out Entrepreneur on Fire. He doesn't talk about tech, sysadmin, hacking, NOTHING. But he's super positive, he is successful, and he loves sharing his tips for success. He markets his little notebook a lot (yeah, I bought one), so take it how you will.

This last part is what no one wants to hear. Everyone knows this and rolls their eyes:

Take care of yourself. Seriously. Drink coffee, that's fine, but don't drink 6 - 10 cups a day. If you have a desert, that's fine too, but don't rely on cakes, cookies, Starbucks, Monster, Redbull, etc. as your daily driver. Eat fruits and vegetables. No, not V8/Naked/Sunny D. Eat some celery and hummus, or a salad with lettuce, kale, and olives.

Short on time? Almond Milk + 1 Orange + 1 Cup of Kale + 1 Cup of Spinach + 1 Cup of mixed berries + 1 Banana + 1 scoop Sunwarrior Protein powder. Or whatever. Don't use whey or casein. Don't buy into this hype that you need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight or any other dumb shit bro-science that's out there.

Exercise your body: go for long walks, brisk or light jog. Calisthenics, too. Burpees, push-ups, situps, squats. Don't be one of those bench press monkeys either, do real exercises. Deadlift, Squat, Overhead Press. Don't have barbells? DON'T CARE. Goblet Squat, Farmer's Walk, Lunges, Man-Makers (Push-up + Dumbbell row), Dumbbell swings, dumbbell snatches -- Get to work. Ton of programs on the internet, and you can YouTube the exercises.

If you want to study, learn, stay abreast of tech news you can make time to do it. Schedule time, write it down, and stick to it. Don't be afraid to unplug. Leave your phone and go for a walk without headphones. Go bike riding at a park or through the woods. Go sit at a beach or pool without anything. Just listen to the birds squawking and screeching. You'll enjoy it.


Well this escalated quickly:

TL;DR

Deep Work - Book

EoF - Podcast

The Strangest Secret - Earl Nightingale broadcast

Diet and Exercise

Git Gud

I've been finding Steven Gurgevich's hypnosis sessions really helpful. I've noticed a significant increase in my level of calmness since I've been listening to them. I've got Heal Yourself with Medical Hypnosis (general purpose; not just for medical issues) and Relax Rx.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Heal-Yourself-with-Medical-Hypnosis-Audiobook/B002V0PYAI

https://www.audible.com/pd/Relax-Rx-Audiobook/B00B7M0QOU

Audible has several others and there are more on amazon in digital music. Even if the idea of hypnosis doesn't immediately appeal to you, maybe get a single session for 99¢, such as Progressive Relaxation, to see if you find it effective.

https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Relaxation-Induction/dp/B01N5CYP0E

If you do decide to try this, I hope you find it as helpful as I do.

EDIT:

I also highly recommend Anna Wise's The High Performance Mind — an excellent set of guided meditations. And again, you can get single tracks for 99¢.

https://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Mind-Anna-Wise/dp/B0026ETBO4

I highly highly recommend you keep doing this mindfulness exercise during your sessions. If you're having trouble getting in the zone, there are some guided meditation tracks out there that are really helpful.

I'm not talking "imagine yourself on a peaceful beach" guided meditations, which are pleasant but don't really train any skills other than relaxation. I mean actual mindfulness practice.

I highly suggest the last 2 tracks from this album, which you can buy individually:
http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Meditation-Vol-1-buddhify/dp/B00HNYWRF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405107602&sr=8-1&keywords=buddhify

Rest is for when you're tired and need a break. Scan is when you want to develop clarity and awareness more deeply.

From Volume 2: http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Meditation-Vol-2-buddhify/dp/B00HNYYNV8/ref=pd_sim_dmusic_a_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0AZ4YJ3HV55EC7P4XFWS
Rain is excellent for stress, anxiety, worry. Switch and Sense are also good general mindfulness practices to develop both clarity and relaxation at the same time.

In terms of montages, I'd ask you to keep anode on F3 but try the left styloid (behind the ear) for the cathode. You can also try anode on F1 and cathode behind the ear. You might be impressed with the results -- it's not necessarily a good thing to suppress the right prefrontal cortex. Some studies have shown benefits, which is no surprise, but some studies have also shown harm because there are important emotion processing centers all across the right PFC.

Roberta Shapiro's Goodbye Anxiety
This isn't music exactly, but it's guided meditation specifically for anxiety. I've been using it at least once daily for the last month+ and it really helps to relax me. It's free to stream if you have Amazon Prime. She also has another "album" devoted to specific anxiety issues like driving and flying.

Boy, do I recognize some things on that list. Have you ever heard of Feldenkrais? Hang on because here comes my giant post about it!

Feldenkrais is kinda hard to describe to someone who hasn't done it. It isn't really "exercise", it's sort of the folk science of neuroplasticity. If you take a Feldenkrais ATM (Awareness Through Movement) class, the practitioner/teacher will lead you through a series of typically very small movements that you repeat over and over with small variations and rests in between, with the intent to keep your attention really fresh. You can also do a variant that you do on-on-one with the practitioner that can be useful if you have something specific you're trying to find ease about. (Individual work, called Functional Integration, does typically involve touch, for people who are uncomfortable with that.)

If you want to try it out without a class, I can recommend the materials by Ryan Nagy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Feldenkrais-Classics-1-Ryan-Nagy/dp/B0094B98BS.

My Feldenkrais teacher also recommends audios by Eileen Bach-Y-Rita: http://feldenkraisathome.com/store/?cat=19 (I haven't tried these yet, but my teacher's recommendations have always been very good. These are more spendy.)

You can also try these free recordings: http://openatm.org/ (These are recorded during classes and are of varying audio quality.)

I've had really good experiences with Feldenkrais. It was the beginning of being able to unlock my body even a little bit. It's a totally different modality than everything else (including yoga) I had ever tried. For me, other modes of movement really triggered my feelings of "I have to be perfect"/"I have to rigidly control my body". So in yoga, I would TRY VERY HARD TO RELAX but I found that any tension release I attained never lasted. In Feldenkrais, they often say "Be willing to do it badly". There is no "perfect", there is only the way your body is doing it, right now.

I had quite bad TMJ before I started Feldenkrais and it is mostly gone now, same with a recurring lower back issue. I still have a lot of tension on the right side of my body where I took the brunt of a fall many years ago, but it is less than it was. It also really helped me understand that I had a habit of holding myself completely still, and learning how to gently move my body while sitting or standing. (I don't know, that might sound ridiculous, but I think... I am in the process of re-learning how to have a body at all. Feldenkrais has been not been the lone solution and pretty much all of my issues are still with me one way or another, but has been very valuable for me.)

Well since you kids didn't like my oh-so-funny Troma Entertainment comment, how about this:

T'hroma is a practice, discovered by Padampa Sangye (and Machig Labdron ) of visualizing the offering of all that to which we are most attached, with special emphasis on the body.

Of modern masters, one of the most well known in recent history was Chagdud Tulku. If you get a chance, have a listen to the recordings of him practicing with his sangha.

The late Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, a friend of Chagdud Tulku and student of Dungse Rinpoche, was also a practitioner of T'hroma.

Author and lotsawa Sarah Harding wrote (or translated?) a book on the practice called, "Clarifying the Meaning"

I went to the bigapple last summer and I hope you have fun this time! If you guys want souveniers, there's a store in Times Square called grandslam that has a HUUUUUGE selection, have fun! :)

The Script or Vocal Warmups


edit: changed because I thought Selena's hits were a cd, but they were a DVD.

thanks for gifting!

Jackie Kashian's last album "It's Never Going to be Bread" is fantastic. I just saw Amy Schumer live, who's really excellent, she has an album coming out in a week or so. Up & Comer Hailey Boyle is staggeringly hilarious. Also Maria Bamford, Natasha Leggero, Sarah Silverman, Tig, Morgan Murphy.

I have no experience with that series, but if you like guided meditations and want to work with emotions I can recommend Break Through Difficult Emotions by Shinzen Young for unpleasant stuff. Or for more general-case emotional stuff, there's the emotion section (Feel In, as he terms it) in his practice manual.

These techniques don't involve visualization, and from what you say it sounds like these are more systematic than what you're doing, so maybe they'll be a better fit for you. There's a youtube playlist by the same guy going over some of the basic concepts here. (There's a lot of overlap between external physical sensation and emotional sensation, so most of those videos are interchangeable.)

If you can't feel certain physical sensations I'd say no big deal, just pick a different area, some other meditation object, or another technique. Physical sensations are just one option among many.

Hey, guys. You wondered about the alphabet and how it got into alphabetic order? I listen to another podcast called The History of English. The host (Kevin Stroud) put out an audiobook of just exactly that. The History of the Alphabet.

I HIGHLY recommend the podcast, as well.

ALSO, while I'm thinking about it, I became curious about alphabet songs in other languages/alphabets as well, and found this video on YouTube showing the Arabic alphabet and its sounds. Then he sings the song at the end.

Arabic Alphabet on Youtube

| | |
|-:|:-|
|name|Robert Fripp|
|about artist|Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946 in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, United Kingdom) is a guitarist, composer and a record producer, perhaps best known for being the guitarist for, and only constant member of, the progressive rock band King Crimson. His work, spanning five decades, encompasses a variety of musical styles. Fripp began playing guitar at the age of eleven. He says he was tone-deaf with no sense of rhythm when he started. His comment on dealing with the obstacle is "Music so wishes to be heard that it sometimes calls on unlikely characters to give it voice". ([more on last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/Robert Fripp))|
|album|Robert Fripp... Unplugged!, released Feb 2008|
|track|Soundscapes|
|images|artist image|
|links|wikipedia, allmusic, discogs, discography, secondhandsongs, track on amazon|
|tags|progrock, experimental, ambient, instrumental|
|similar|Robert Fripp & the League of Crafty Guitarists, Andy Summers & Robert Fripp, Fripp & Eno, Robert Fripp String Quintet, King Crimson|
|metrics|lastfm listeners: 70,413, lastfm plays: 794,194, youtube plays: 920, radd.it score: 6|


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I don't know if you like this kind of thing, but I enjoy listening to these pregnancy affirmations.

Buy the mp3 of this 1950's speech by Earl Nightengale and listen to it over and over, it will give you the secret to success in life.

https://www.amazon.com/Hypnobirthing-Peace-Relaxation-Positive-Pregnancy/dp/B00QN2G84Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=dmusic&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1539121427&sr=1-2-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=hypnobirthing&refinements=p_85%3A8755839011

This is the one I was listening to. Free if you have Amazon Prime. Otherwise, I'm not sure.

Are you familiar with Hannibal Burress? He's got a definite Mitch style to him, while still being unique and original.

I would start by understanding who you are, because ultimately that is the question for everyone.

Try checking out some lectures by Alan Watts. I had heard of him before, but I was really introduced to him via Akira The Don's Wattswave IV (and more recently there is Wattswave V). You can listen via YouTube but they are also on Amazon Music if you use that service.

If Akira's music doesn't suit you, try Everything: The Alan Watts Talks and/or his lectures on the below website. You can listen and follow along there (it has transcriptions). It is through his words and deeper study (most recently, attending a Zen Buddhist retreat) that life truly blossomed in front of me.

https://www.organism.earth/library/author/10

When you finally find out who "you" are, you won't know how to describe it and can't place a name on it. Therein lies the answer.

You can buy their albums on AmazonMP3 as well.

NSFW Album: http://www.amazon.com/Nsfw-Explicit/dp/B005QUXX3K/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318258155&sr=1-2-catcorr


Strawberries & Cream Album: http://www.amazon.com/Strawberries-and-Cream-Explicit/dp/B00CI7BBYW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374397948&sr=8-2

Ninja Sex Party is awesome

They are also my guilty pleasure. Not because I'm embarrassed, but because of the weird looks I get when I say "hey, do you know Ninja Sex Party?" or when I sing their songs in public about unicorn wizards and no-reason boners.

reunion

try this, it's helped me a lot:

http://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Worries/dp/B004DBXRBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331986757&sr=8-1