Whatcha thinking about now?

[Gas Mask]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

I'm thinking that incense is not easy to make.

[MaskedOne]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

That some people and I have differing opinions on how long 8 minutes is.

[Munin-Hugin]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

How I really don't want to go to work tomorrow, or to have to work saturday. Isn't 45 hours enough already for the week without tacking on an additional 13?

[Munin-Hugin]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

Wondering where everyone is tonight ...

[Corvus]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

One cannot in fact burn wood with an incense stick. At least not maple anyway. Maybe I should just try paint. I don't know if I have enough though. My dad suggested a marker but I'm pretty sure the oil would smear it. I'm this close to just trying to carve it with a knife

[LearningMan]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

Trying to find out which goddess is trying to contact me.

[anunitu]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

Basically a wood burning is done with something akin to a soldering gun,so if you have ever done any soldering,you have the goods..and a wood burning kit is not all that expensive.
http://www.woodburning.com/

Also you could use a dremel,to etch in most any wood...

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx

[Corvus]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

I was using a dremel a minute ago and I felt like I was just ruining the wood. I wasn't getting nearly enough control out of it. I might just need to buy the thing but I really don't want to. I'm going to break out the dremel again tomorrow to fix something else so I might try it again.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

One cannot in fact burn wood with an incense stick. At least not maple anyway. Maybe I should just try paint. I don't know if I have enough though. My dad suggested a marker but I'm pretty sure the oil would smear it. I'm this close to just trying to carve it with a knife

Go old school. Heat a steel wire with a torch, a stove, a lighter, or in a fire until it glows red, then use it to burn the wood.

Or use a soldering iron as Anunitu suggests - if you don't have one, they are very inexpensive, and the pencil-type is the same thing as a wood burning iron.

For the Dremel, make sure you are using a sharp burr - a dull one will slide all over, and you will want to try to force it, rather than let the tool do the work. The best bet is to spend a couple of bucks and by a new burr.

It helps a lot if you can position yourself so that you can rest your elbow and the ball of your hand on a steady surface while you used the Dremel. This gives you more control than if you try to do it unsupported.

Also, the firmer you can hold the workpiece, the easier it is to get a nice cut. If you don't have a wood vice, you may be able to hold it down by wrapping bungee cords around it and whatever table you are using. You'll have to experiment a bit.

[toxicyarnglare]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

Kind of depends on the practice and the cause of anxiety. Meditation may be a good idea, large skyclad rituals may not be. Utilizing incense or essential oils may be helpful to lower stress, mindfulness, practicing a certain thing on certain days (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc...) if it's low-key may help with building internal structure.

But still, don't use religion as a band-aid for professional assistance.

This is premo advice. I had to get professional assistance before I could even think about returning to meditation.

There are all kinds of useful things in the world, but for troubling medical problems the best first go-to is modern medicine, despite all the poop people will try to feed you about big pharma conspiracies and similar shit.

Honest. I swear on that, and on the potential effectiveness of dealing with high anxiety and deep depression via real MD doctors.

This is what I mean. Having that structure for internal security can sometimes help. But it won't work alone to resolve all issues and for that doctors are a good thing.

This.

Though religious practices may offer a structure and framework that (depending on one's exact issues) can help quell anxiety issues in some people. Sharkbait has fairly profound anxiety issues; but there's only one medication approved for minions of his stature and age, and while it helps, its exactly a magic bullet...and he's not really at the conversational level or internal awareness level where he can communicate (if he could even identify) what is going on inside his head. For us, meditation (really just quiet time with breathing and a pretty story and some yoga), along with some other stuff (drawing how he feels, running around time, keeping to a set schedule, taking the time to reflect on the day, etc) probably does as much to keep him on an even keel as the meds. Certain daily rituals (thought not explicitly religious ones) act as touchstones for the structure he needs to feel safe.

(don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying religion should REPLACE medical treatment ever!!)

I'm certainly not replacing religion for medical treatment, I've seen what kind of damage that can do in the context of christianity. I'm seeing my doctor this Monday, and going to discuss with him anxiety along with the other health issues I have (and seeing a chiropractor as well, which could alleviate some of the symptoms).

I've tried meditation in the past with mixed results. When I was anxious, meditation could either make me more anxious, or just wouldn't work at all, unless I was going to sleep. I've used some of the skills I gained from meditation to help with anxiety, but it hasn't been able to calm it all. All of you are mentioning structure, and that's kind of one thing I've been struggling with. I tend to go by things based on emotions, and sometimes having too set of a structure when it comes to religion could stress me out, to where I feel like it's something I have to do, rather than something good for me--or that it gets in the way of other things I want to do, though this is probably more psychological and a root of a deeper problem.

I just feel bad that I've lurked here for so long, and yet I feel my anxiety has kept me from getting any progress whatsoever spiritually. But I am finally taking medical steps to deal with anxiety, something I've held off for far too long.

[anunitu]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

It can be that the anxiety could be a chemical imbalance,I went through depression,anxiety,and panic attacks for a while..They do also say that along with medication personal therapy helps a lot,maybe because you can verbalize your feelings,and that allows YOU to understand what is happening better,the therapist is mostly a sounding board to aid your insight.

[Willow]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

My sibling is moving into her new house today. It's awesome for her, and a big kick in the ego for me. But I'll get over it.

Also, people suck. Why must people try to sell me bootleg video games and think we won't notice?

[Gleb]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

I'm certainly not replacing religion for medical treatment, I've seen what kind of damage that can do in the context of christianity. I'm seeing my doctor this Monday, and going to discuss with him anxiety along with the other health issues I have (and seeing a chiropractor as well, which could alleviate some of the symptoms).

I've tried meditation in the past with mixed results. When I was anxious, meditation could either make me more anxious, or just wouldn't work at all, unless I was going to sleep. I've used some of the skills I gained from meditation to help with anxiety, but it hasn't been able to calm it all. All of you are mentioning structure, and that's kind of one thing I've been struggling with. I tend to go by things based on emotions, and sometimes having too set of a structure when it comes to religion could stress me out, to where I feel like it's something I have to do, rather than something good for me--or that it gets in the way of other things I want to do, though this is probably more psychological and a root of a deeper problem.

I just feel bad that I've lurked here for so long, and yet I feel my anxiety has kept me from getting any progress whatsoever spiritually. But I am finally taking medical steps to deal with anxiety, something I've held off for far too long.

Usually anxiety prevents us from having a positive spiritual life. And sometimes makes it worse if the person insists on going on with spirituality. For instance, in a time of anxiety/depression I try to focus on the path of the gods instead of the gods themselves.

[thalassa]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

All of you are mentioning structure, and that's kind of one thing I've been struggling with. I tend to go by things based on emotions, and sometimes having too set of a structure when it comes to religion could stress me out, to where I feel like it's something I have to do, rather than something good for me--or that it gets in the way of other things I want to do, though this is probably more psychological and a root of a deeper problem.

I just feel bad that I've lurked here for so long, and yet I feel my anxiety has kept me from getting any progress whatsoever spiritually. But I am finally taking medical steps to deal with anxiety, something I've held off for far too long.

Well, with structure, I don't mean "do x ritual here at this time" sort of structure...but more...making certain activities a ritual of your life.

So (as an example)...something that is vitally important to mental health is diet, exercise, and sleep--all of those things affect your body and brain chemistry, and both your body and brain chemistry affect further brain chemistry, which affect diet, exercise, and sleep. I don't know what your diet, exercise, or sleep patterns are...but, if you (like me) occasionally struggle with something like emotional eating or even just bad dietary habits (eating too quickly, eating too much, distracted eating, making poor food choices, etc--maybe a bit of all of these), make something like mindful eating part of your personal religious framework--in addition to some of the typical mindful eating techniques, you can connect it to your spirituality by incorporating a deity that pertains to the food you are eating (maybe Pomona for tree fruits, Ceres for grains, etc). Or, if this isn't an issue, use your shower time as "mind cleansing" time too; its an easy place to add a ritual for dealing with stress and other daily issues.

And don't feel bad at all! It is what it is. These things take time!

[monsno_leedra]

Re: What Are You Thinking About?

thalassa just spoke about sleep affecting / effecting health and general well being which I can relate to. I've been undergoing diagnosis for Sleep Apnea which the first test indicates I have severe sleep apnea. So medically it is causing all sorts of issues potentially that hopefully will vanish or at least lessen once all the testing for that is done. But I can assure you it messed with any sort of sleep schedule which messes with attitude, disposition, health, hunger and many other things all at once. Then like some lego house or Lincoln logs house once one aspect if messed up or gone then the whole thing begins to fall in upon itself.