Hi dude,
I'm not clear on what you mean by 'sentimental spiritual journey' -surely this is a contradiction in terms?

We're not likely to get strong spiritual responses from N3 or N6 if sentiment is present. Can you give an example to clarify what sort of experience you mean?*
Best,
AR

*Beyond 'weird shit'  :  )   ...'cos weird shit happens all the time, but it's not necessarily connected to spirituality or sentiment. I thought it was the universe's sense of humor...

Sorry dude I'm still lost. -How would you explain this to Mr. Spock? Try that (I'm hopeless at extracting meaning unless I've got enough points understood. I AM working on it, but these things take time).

When I say 'weird shit' I usually mean "unexpected things happening that I can't find a sensible explanation for". These may be harmless, or they may not (if they're harmful, I usually say 'dodgy shit').
If, say, something appeared on my desk and then disappeared, I'd call that 'weird shit'.

I understand 'spiritual journey', but can't see how its associated with sentiment (I would normally think of a spiritual journey as a healthy, wholesome thing to do).

Re the 'airplane' part, if you mean that every time you make an advance, something else seems to go over your head and you feel 'out of depth', that happens to me weekly. There will always be new things that we must strive to understand, and that's what makes life not get boring. I mean it would be extremely boring if there were nothing new to strive for.

The 'put these blinkers on' speech is derived from Graham Chapman (Monty Python) and is all the bits I could remember from a 5-minute video he did decades ago*. It was portraying how easily people let other people tell them what to do because they are raised being told what to do instead of helped to do what they need to do.
Hope this helps,
Best,
AR

*If anyone knows of this short, called 'Points of view: Peer pressure', please please tell me where I can get a copy! It is a masterpiece.

Alex wrote:

When I say 'weird shit' I usually mean "unexpected things happening that I can't find a sensible explanation for". These may be harmless, or they may not (if they're harmful, I usually say 'dodgy shit'). If, say, something appeared on my desk and then disappeared, I'd call that 'weird shit'.

I understand 'spiritual journey', but can't see how its associated with sentiment (I would normally think of a spiritual journey as a healthy, wholesome thing to do).

Re the 'airplane' part, if you mean that every time you make an advance, something else seems to go over your head and you feel 'out of depth', that happens to me weekly. There will always be new things that we must strive to understand, and that's what makes life not get boring. I mean it would be extremely boring if there were nothing new to strive for.

abakalar Wrote:
Help me, sometimes I can't control my thoughts and it's scary . I've tried cognitive behavioral therapy but am still struggling.

Hi dude,
Yes it is scary isn't it? Don't worry, it's just a matter of practice, like learning to swim (also quite scary when we first start). Unknown stuff is always scary when we first start -our awareness is heightened so that our memory will be sharper and we'll learn faster, so being a bit nervous is absolutely normal and a sign that our mind is ready to learn.

Being too nervous is not good and will prevent us from learning, so gauge your own state -are you eager to learn and a bit apprehensive, or actually anxious? If you find you are anxious, do some anxiety reduction exercises before you start. You have probably already discovered some things that help calm you down, and there are other suggestions in tutorials.

Once you are calmer, there are many different methods to explore. CBT works great for some people -it's notably good for 'frontloaders' (you'll find that term in tutorials too). Others respond much better to Core Counseling, self hypnosis, mindfulness meditation, smoking weed, working out, or countless other methods and as everyone is different, we each have to try different methods out and find our own most effective techniques.

Use the Library's 'Methods & Tech' section and end sections of the tutorials to view methods.
Research has shown us that we cannot  control higher functions of mind unless we first learn to control basic functions of mind. We have a golden rule for this: “Always do things in the right order” which you'll find in tutorial one.

Good luck & have fun,
AR

Hi dude,

You certainly have -it's me. -And probably a lot of students here too.  :  )
The important thing here is distinguishing between sentiment (harmful) and healthy emotion, because sentiment is what happens when real emotion stops functioning as it should (usually because of anxiety).

I recommend Tutorials 9 and 10, to get a good grasp on this. The emotion/sentiment difference might take a while to get the hang of, so there's a shortcut you can use in the meantime to tell the difference. Think of a story in which there are goodies, baddies etc (Star Wars or Lord of the Rings is fine). You'll find the goodies portray healthy emotion and the baddies feel only sentiments.

This is one of my alltime favorite subjects so feel free to ask stuff and rest assured I will talk too much  :  )
Best,
AR