What makes you feel empowered to be your most authentic self

What currently makes you feel confident and empowered to be your most authentic self?

Money, ho’s and clothes.

Proper health.

Authentic self = genuine fake :wink:

I’m happiest when working towards a future goal which means I can never live in the present; it’s boring. :sad-bored:

Serendipper,

Worked - past
Will work - future

working - present

When a squirrel is in the process of storing up nuts for the future - where is he? Can he not still be in the present?

You even said I’m happiest ~~ I am happiest. Is that not present tense? lol

Perhaps you are just so focused on your work that you forget where you actually are… Here and Now.

Perhaps the moment when I am just BEING ~~ experiencing without any thought ~~ surrounded by and inter-connected with ALL of it.

Yeah Arc. School this kid a bit.

Transcending the Bully. At least it is a step in the right direction. I think that empowerment comes in steps like those of a ladder. It is not always a giant leap from the bottom rung to the top and the occasions for it can be plentiful.

When realizing the uselessness of thinking life as a perpetual contest, and see the eternal self rather as a tranquil acceptance of eternal being behaving as if it had a noble goal to begin witj,; without that beginning.

Ha! As if I even could!
Aside from what I wrote, what could I possibly teach him?

Hi Meno_ :mrgreen:

,

We do do this to ourselves.

I can only go as far as the Now or the present moment. I would love to believe in an eternal self. What is the eternal self to you, Meno?

What is it’s noble goal to you? What is your noble goal?
I do not understand what you mean by *without that beginning".

savin’ the planet

Stealing hearts.

Its not actually theft.

It might be considered to be theft if the wrong intentions are there ~~ if it is only to feel the power within.

Where do you put these hearts when you are through with them?

No, I seriously have issues lol

I was so conditioned to plan for the future that the only present I can have is in working toward a future that is better the present. I have no idea how to enjoy the moment.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4[/youtube]

Serendipper,

Hmmm…Who was it that conditioned you in that way? Parents or parent?

I may be wrong here but how will your future be any different if you have not learned in the Here and Now to ALSO enjoy yourself, let down your hair, in the present moment?

Even Data (ST,NG) sought out things that he could enjoy though it could only be on an intellectual level. He wanted to know what it was like to be human.

I bet that you do not have the courage and mental flexibility to get on the floor, roll around like a cat, stretch out on your back completely relaxed, yawn, curl up like a little ball of fur and meow three or four times. lol

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty
Purr Purr Purr

Now that would be dipping into the serene. :evilfun:
“Gotta do it”!

youtu.be/r8YmqWfNw0I

Purposeless Living - Alan Watts

Yeah parents and society I guess. Mom worked at the hospital and I remember wanting to hurry and be 12 yrs old so I could walk around the hospital. Then I wanted to be 16 so I could drive and 18 so I could vote and 21 so I could drink. Always a goal to aspire to. I had to get good grades and go to college and get a job and get started on life, but by the time everything was done, all I knew how to do was plan for the future. When I finally arrived, I’m like, “Ummm… now what do I do?”

So if I sit down and try to enjoy the moment, I feel like I’m wasting time. I have to work work work in preparation for the moment that I can finally sit down which is completely stupid! As Alan puts it, I work so that I can go on working. That is, I do what I hate so I can go on doing what I hate. My name is a misnomer… it’s more of what I want to be rather than what I am. I think most people are that way. Most folks describe themselves as what they would ideally like to be rather than how they actually are, especially in personal ads and resumes.

Honestly, that’s on my bucket list because I have a new kitten and I feel like I don’t pay enough attention to it lol. I’ve always felt like that about things :confused:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUNZMiYo_4s[/youtube]

But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say "I’m gonna be like you, Dad

The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree

I’ve long since retired, my son’s moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job’s a hassle and the kid’s got the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad
It’s been sure nice talking to you”
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

We reap what we sow.

I know, but how do I pull myself up by my own bootstraps? How do I change me? How does the one who needs fixing become the agent of the fixing? Self-improvement is futile.

If fun is an act of improvement, then it isn’t fun.

Btw I’m glad you’re listening to Alan Watts =D>

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khOaAHK7efc[/youtube]

It’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like, in order to go on spending your time on things you don’t like, and to teach our children to follow in the same track. See what we are doing, is we’re bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lives we are living. In order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing, so it’s all retch and no vomit. It never gets there. And so, therefore, it’s so important to consider this question: What do I desire?

Something which I see as being really beautiful and awesome - the Nobility of the human being ~ being able to set or to place someone else before him, making the sacrifice to forget his own self, making another more than himself, when it IS called for.

That makes me want to Soar. It is almost heart-wrenching and it is heart stretching.

[tab]I am not here speaking of the loser or the wimp.[/tab]