I don't know what I want Options

[YinYang]

Since a few month I feel strange. I feel apathetic in some ways. I think it's a kind of depression, but I didn't feel really sad...I feel an absence of enthusiasm for life. I have a question: why?
Obviously this is not the question for you,there are too few elements to consider the problem
The question I want give you is: should I try to find my lost vitality with more energy? Should I search to solve my question and manage to understand myself more repeatedly than now? I don't feel this need, because I'm apathetic, but sometimes I'm worried, because a lack of energy can cause bad consequences like problems with school, and I can't find a sense for my life. I don't know what I want, as I wrote in the title, because I have no passions. I feel distant from world, absent...sometimes I think I live in a dream, in fact I'm a great day dreamer. I feel colsed in a soap bubble full of empty.
That's all

[code buttons]

Sounds like teen depression, which, if left untreated can lead to even suicide. You must get help immediately. Here's a link that might help you understand your situration better. PLEASE GET HELP:
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm

[Phi]

do you have an interests at all?

[trojan_libido]

I think melancholy kind of comes with being a teenager. Being forced to 'choose a life' when your still in the blur of exams and girls is always a bit silly, and when that school life leaves an empty space, the teens not always able to fill it right away.

Ignite some passion, follow your dreams, make your mind up and go do something for yourself. Remember this, the body always wants to be lazy, and it can drag the mind down too. The sentient divine aspect of you should force its sorry ass up and get it to do something. This alone will help you beat any pending depression!

Good luck!

[YinYang]

do you have an interests at all?

I have some interests, but I often feel unsatisfied about it...it's difficult to explain...maybe when I'm doing something, I think that I like it, maybe I'm very excited about it, but when I stop do it, I think that I only wasted time(instead of doing something more important) because there's something in me that is not satisfied by it. When my mind is into a passion, I feel an impulse to do something, but this impulse seems to come from outside me. It's like if someone sticked some elecrto stimulators im my muscles and so he can drive me like a puppet, with a remote control. I feel an impulse, not a real pleasure.

Ignite some passion, follow your dreams, make your mind up and go do something for yourself. Remember this, the body always wants to be lazy, and it can drag the mind down too. The sentient divine aspect of you should force its sorry ass up and get it to do something. This alone will help you beat any pending depression!

This is not my situation, as you can understand thanks to what I wrote first. It's true that I don't like phisical movement, but it's not the same for my mind. I like, for example,listening music, even if I can't dance, and the type of music that I like are two types: music to relax, when I feel too nervous, and music to be excited, I often use something similar to Metal music, even if I don't like true metal. I like playing "violent" games on the internet (not really violent, but very competitive) and in general I tend to like competition, if it's not a phisycal fight. There are some moments of light depression, but they comes because I feel like if I'm running on a treadmill: a lot of effort to remain in the same position. In these moments, I feel demotivated and so I'm not very active.
If I'm not very good at school, and sometimes I take marks under the six, it's often because waste time with doing something else, like a lot of day-dreaming, a real drug to my mind. But I sometimes feel that all my life is like a dream. I know that it sonund banal, but I really feel it.

[YinYang]

Sounds like teen depression, which, if left untreated can lead to even suicide. You must get help immediately. Here's a link that might help you understand your situration better. PLEASE GET HELP:
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION IN TEENS

* Sadness or hopelessness NOT REALLY
* Irritability, anger, or hostility A FEW TIMES
* Tearfulness or frequent crying NO
* Withdrawal from friends and family QUITE A LOT, BUT I KNOW PERSONS THAT ARE WORSE
* Loss of interest in activities SOMETIMES
* Changes in eating and sleeping habits VERY RARELY
* Restlessness and agitation A LOT, I THINK I DON'T KNOW SOMEONE LIKE ME ABOUT THIS
* Feelings of worthlessness and guilt NOT REALLY
* Lack of enthusiasm and motivation SOMETIMES
* Fatigue or lack of energy RARELY,AS A CONSEQUECE OF TOO MUCH RESTLESSNESS
* Difficulty concentrating A LOT, PROPORTIONAL TO MY RESTLESSNES
* Thoughts of death or suicide I'VE HAD IT, BUT SINCE 6 MONTHS THEY DISAPPEARED.

Probably a year ago I was really in teen depression, but now I feel better.
How should I consider me, in your opinion?

[Rick]

It seems to me you are telling yourself to look about for a worthy cause to apply yourself to. Have you tried meditation?

[YinYang]

Can meditation give a worthy cause to apply yourself to? I thougt it is more connected with a positive concept of empty. Anyway, are you sure that a worthy cause can help me? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that now I have no internal motivation. If what I say is true, why searching a worthy cause?

[Joesus]

Can meditation give a worthy cause to apply yourself to? I thougt it is more connected with a positive concept of empty. Anyway, are you sure that a worthy cause can help me? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that now I have no internal motivation. If what I say is true, why searching a worthy cause?

Meditation in itself is a way of connecting with the idea at a different level. Worthy cause, motivation, reason etc. These subjective ideas are relative to personality based on individual perception. Empty being positive or negative is again a relative concept. The approach to understanding is from observation that is not invested in a particular quality but instead opens the intellect into the perspectives of quality.

Most people feel depressed because they feel subject to an idea of quality or qualification. The idea to be something, feel something, do something other than what you are being, feeling or doing. Failure to meet some kind of expectation often sets the mood to judge ones self rather than to make any choice to create or experience anything else. The feeling of judgment or the acceptance of judgment in itself is a choice to feel or be judged and to do to ones self or accept what they believe is relevant.

Meditation can connect you with the source of all energy and from pure potential allow you the choice to see yourself as greater than the feelings or the experience of being or feeling judgment.

What you put your attention on grows.

You can choose to wallow in your feeling and be the feeling or become something else, it's just a choice. If you are waiting for something to come along and save you from something you believe is happening to you without your own choice or free will then you must accept that you allowed this to happen to you without your own free will.
Living in a world where you have no choice but to bend over and take it where the sun don't shine whenever the universe wants to stick it to you, or conversely stroke your "G" spot to get you excited before it sticks it to you again, is only reserved for those who don't know the reality of life.

Perhaps you should investigate the nature of the Yin and the Yang

[code buttons]

I think I understand your message Jo, but even I'm having a hard time following!!! Imagine poor YinYang!!! Why don't you simplify your message into maybe one paragraph in more plain English?

[Hey Hey]

For some meditation might work, for others medication. Whatever, it is essential to do things that raise a smile, or even better, a laugh. Do you have friends who you can talk to and who might raise your spirits? A continuation of this frame of mind does really need a consultation with a doctor though, as one can easily experience a downward spiral. There is most often a light at the end of the tunnel, even though it might not seem so now.

Did you hear the one about the guy who was sad all of the time but found a quick way out of it? No? Neither did I ...

Smile, smile, smile - really. Try it! Can't do any harm?

[Joesus]

I think I understand your message Jo, but even I'm having a hard time following!!! Imagine poor YinYang!!! Why don't you simplify your message into maybe one paragraph in more plain English?

OK, life is choice, and without knowing the results of your choices it is difficult to understand where you are and which previous choice brought you to your present state of being. In such a state of awareness where choice and outcome do not consciously connect, it would be difficult to know what kind of choice is going to give you a different experience than the one you are currently having.

[code buttons]

I think I understand your message Jo, but even I'm having a hard time following!!! Imagine poor YinYang!!! Why don't you simplify your message into maybe one paragraph in more plain English?

OK, life is choice, and without knowing the results of your choices it is difficult to understand where you are and which previous choice brought you to your present state of being. In such a state of awareness where choice and outcome do not consciously connect, it would be difficult to know what kind of choice is going to give you a different experience than the one you are currently having.

I would then add to what Joe said, YinYang:
None of us chose to be born, but we are alive; that's a fact. Consecuently (for most of us), we have to choose between two life-changing decisions sooner or later: Life or death. We can decide to make all the wrong decisions, or even one wrong decision that can send us in a path towards death via depression, repent, regret, sorrow, sadness, evil, etc. All these feelings, if left to incubate and take hold of our minds, will lead us to darkness-even as we lead an otherwise apparently normal life.
But, and here's the beauty of sentient life, we also have the choice to live and make the choices that will allow us to lead a life of peace and content with our choices-via love, compassion, joy, humility, and most importantly (at least in my case), resolve.
Your main (only, actually) problem seems to be restlessness, which can lead to paranoia; you don't want to go there!
Advice number one: Stay away from drugs and medications that highten your alertness (uppers, as they call it around here). It sounds like you may have the begining symptoms of a condition labeled as: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Try this website and see if you can identify your symptoms with this condition: http://add.about.com/ good luck!

[Joesus]

I would then add to what Joe said, YinYang:
None of us chose to be born, but we are alive; that's a fact.

But you did choose to be born, and to be born here. You just don't remember those choices. Until you do, you won't know how your current choices are going to unfold.
Then without that knowledge, the mind resolves itself to the facts of being a victim to circumstance, and choice won't much matter as long as circumstance rules the universe and the Human experience.

[maximus242]

Can meditation give a worthy cause to apply yourself to? I thougt it is more connected with a positive concept of empty. Anyway, are you sure that a worthy cause can help me? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that now I have no internal motivation. If what I say is true, why searching a worthy cause?

Meditation is great. I had stopped doing it for a few years and you know what, the one thing I really missed was just sitting out under the stars at 2 in the morning meditating with a warm summer breeze.

Its great and can help you achieve a lot of focus in life.

If you don't know what you want to do then I think you need to just start trying a lot of different things. Most of the time people know some things that they want -- people just think that they cant achieve them and assume theres nothing they want.

I bet theres at least one thing in your life you would like to change or have. Start with that. The real key to fulfillment is in finding your purpose in life.

If your having trouble with that right now -- then find a cause or a charity your really passionate about and start with serving others. I know it sounds a little strange but I think if your feeling like you have no energy and you go do this, you will feel a lot more energy after it.

If you need some ideas, here are some you can use to get started.

[] Raising money for food for children in third world countries
[] Volunteering to help build a house for a less fortunate family
[] Ending drunk driving
[] Raising money for cancer research
[] Protecting the environment
[] Etc.

Find something you think is important. If you think the environment is important then find out how you can help to protect it. If you think that its really important that starving children get food, then find out how you can help.

This is what I recommend if you feel like you have nothing thats really giving you meaning in life.

Also you might want to read "What to say when you talk to yourself" it sounds like you might be the type of person who gets negative on himself and beats himself up.

[YinYang]

_"The approach to understanding is from observation that is not invested in a particular quality but instead opens the intellect into the perspectives of quality."
Don't understand. Can you explain in other words?
_"Failure to meet some kind of expectation often sets the mood to judge ones self rather than to make any choice to create or experience anything else."
But if I try to rescue me from expectation, I expect to be free from expectation...and so I'm not free!
_"None of us chose to be born, but we are alive; that's a fact. Consecuently (for most of us), we have to choose between two life-changing decisions sooner or later: Life or death. We can decide to make all the wrong decisions, or even one wrong decision that can send us in a path towards death via depression, repent, regret, sorrow, sadness, evil, etc. All these feelings, if left to incubate and take hold of our minds, will lead us to darkness-even as we lead an otherwise apparently normal life."
I think I understand what you said, but how we can know exactly what are good and bad choices? Doesn't it sound impossible to you?(P.S: yes, I quite reflect me in some symptoms of ADHD, but not at all. I also recognize mi grandfather! )
_"But you did choose to be born, and to be born here"
You mean that if I want, I can chose to refuse life?
_To maximus:my grandmother teaches hatha yoga, that is not meditation. Anyway, I tryed it, and I liked it, it can relax me. But what is very difficult for me is start doing it constantly, and that is probably the only way to get lasting and deeper effects instead of a momentary relax. And I don't know why, because I like it...the distractions of life makes me forgive it!

[YinYang]

it is essential to do things that raise a smile, or even better, a laugh. Do you have friends who you can talk to and who might raise your spirits?

Interesting...I said that I feel some impulses, they seem equally valuable to me, but I never thougt to selection him thinking if they can made me smile or not! This gives a possible solution to the question "what are good choices and what not" that I asked first.
I have friends, but not very close. I also have difficulty to touch other people, especially girls but also guys, and this is maybe connected with the fact that I have only quite superficial relations.

A continuation of this frame of mind does really need a consultation with a doctor though, as one can easily experience a downward spiral.

To say the truth, I'm in a fleeble condition of ascending spiral.

[Joesus]

_"The approach to understanding is from observation that is not invested in a particular quality but instead opens the intellect into the perspectives of quality."
Don't understand. Can you explain in other words?

Observation from a non-invested viewpoint is less painful than one that is invested. The powers of observation are often more expanded than they are, when narrowed by the distractions of attachment. So with clear vision and insight, the world is seen with more potential when one is not distracted by the illusions of self distractions that are the projections of attachment.

_"Failure to meet some kind of expectation often sets the mood to judge ones self rather than to make any choice to create or experience anything else."
But if I try to rescue me from expectation, I expect to be free from expectation...and so I'm not free!

No if you free yourself from the attachment to expectation you won't suffer if the expectations are not met.
If you are playing a game to win but are more interested in having fun it doesn't matter if you win or not, you are still having fun which is the primary goal, beyond the expectations of winning or losing.

_"But you did choose to be born, and to be born here"
You mean that if I want, I can chose to refuse life?

You could choose to end it yes, that is something a few have done out of frustration and failure to recognize the extent of choice.

[trojan_libido]

You could choose to end it yes, that is something a few have done out of frustration and failure to recognize the extent of choice.

You should lay off the moral high ground and philosophy for a moment Joe and think before you type on this thread. If the guy/gal is suffering from depression of some sort, saying "You could choose to end it" in any context is not good.

YinYang, please remember this is mainly a philosophy forum, and some statements are very generalised and not meant to cause offence.

I'm sure at low points in their lives everyone has had the thought 'But I didn't choose to be born, and to make it worse I now have to go through death!'. But I'd rather live with pain, than never live at all. Many people who've lost their limbs or been burnt badly go on to lead happy lives. If you give up, the Universe has won!

[Rick]

But it's not us against the universe! We are the universe, and we're on our own side. Take ownership!

[trojan_libido]

Us against the hardships the Universe may throw at us...

[Rick]

For example, there exists an asteroid that will strike the earth at some point in the future. We have a choice: we can do nothing and let it hit us, or we can find out where it is and divert it. The more power we have to know and act, the better off we could be (so long as the assholes don't use power to make war).

Working for peace is a good idea, isn't it?

[Joesus]

Working with the Universe as our creation gives us power. Working in the universe which is throwing things at us, is an idea made from a lack of knowledge and experience of the universe.
Working for peace is a great idea if peace is attainable. Ignoring the tension that causes war, and refusing to talk about it because it makes you uncomfortable is just plain stupidity and superstition.

You could choose to end it yes, that is something a few have done out of frustration and failure to recognize the extent of choice.
You should lay off the moral high ground and philosophy for a moment Joe and think before you type on this thread. If the guy/gal is suffering from depression of some sort, saying "You could choose to end it" in any context is not good.

Carrying the paranoid thought that you can't say what is on your mind or what needs to be said is the fear most people live with. That is something that causes depression, the feeling that you can't live with the ability to express yourself and that no one is listening to you.
Labeling what you should or shouldn't say based on such a twisted mindset, driven by fear and paranoia is just the sort of moral high ground that most live with while attempting to fix the world.
While pretending to think you can distract someone from their stress so that it doesn't flare up in your personal field of vision is only a manipulation technique to divert it away so you don't have to face the fear. By prolonging it with some subtle distraction and ignoring it only exacerbates the issue and makes it bigger.

For every ailment under the sun
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things that should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.


Wisdom: where does that actually come from and how would you recognize it?
And What is God's will if there is no God separate from humanity and one that accepts everything that is God as God's creation?
I know will as Gods creation and God as everything that can be perceived, known experienced, and that which cannot be contained in any experience or expectation.

The debates regarding morality are still ongoing when it comes down to how much power we have to engage the universe and if it is connected to our choices. If there is no God and everything happens regardless of choice then there is no choice. If we are connected to it and choice affects the way the universe unfolds we have power to create change in the way we see and experience the universe.

If you are afraid to speak of what has been created so that it may not be experienced again or at all, the underlying energetics of trying to suppress what is already acknowledged as being within the universe is just silly and superstitious. The wise know, and the superstitious suppress the knowledge that will lead to the awareness of reality in choice to know the difference in one thing or the other.


There are still plenty of paranoid people in the world who strain themselves with the idea of only thinking positive thoughts while holding all negative thoughts at bay. Such an internal war within the psyche binds the mind rather than sets it free as it battles to gain supremacy in one idea over another, when one could just stay in the moment and make a choice from wisdom.
There may be battles to be fought, but when the time comes you make the choice to fight if necessary. Living in a constant battle of thoughts will weaken all perceptions of sense and leave you without the ability to engage the world with any kind of focus.

[trojan_libido]

I have no problem talking about the negative aspects of my or anyone elses life. I'm full of negativity some days lol. I was just pointing out that when a poster is sounding even slightly depressed, don't post 'or you could just kill yourself'...

Recently people watched a live broadcast of a young lad who'd threatened to kill himself. They cheered him on, poor bloke was looking to the internet for support and got the usual result - 'computer+audience+anonymity=asshole'.

In another case the police were trying to talk a guy off a roof, the crowd below were jeering him, he jumped.

[Joesus]

I have no problem talking about the negative aspects of my or anyone elses life. I'm full of negativity some days lol. I was just pointing out that when a poster is sounding even slightly depressed, don't post 'or you could just kill yourself'...

Recently people watched a live broadcast of a young lad who'd threatened to kill himself. They cheered him on, poor bloke was looking to the internet for support and got the usual result - 'computer+audience+anonymity=asshole'.

In another case the police were trying to talk a guy off a roof, the crowd below were jeering him, he jumped.

I wrote:
You could choose to end it yes, that is something a few have done out of frustration and failure to recognize the extent of choice.

It was hardly a vote for that choice...

[maximus242]

_"The approach to understanding is from observation that is not invested in a particular quality but instead opens the intellect into the perspectives of quality."
Don't understand. Can you explain in other words?
_"Failure to meet some kind of expectation often sets the mood to judge ones self rather than to make any choice to create or experience anything else."
But if I try to rescue me from expectation, I expect to be free from expectation...and so I'm not free!
_"None of us chose to be born, but we are alive; that's a fact. Consecuently (for most of us), we have to choose between two life-changing decisions sooner or later: Life or death. We can decide to make all the wrong decisions, or even one wrong decision that can send us in a path towards death via depression, repent, regret, sorrow, sadness, evil, etc. All these feelings, if left to incubate and take hold of our minds, will lead us to darkness-even as we lead an otherwise apparently normal life."
I think I understand what you said, but how we can know exactly what are good and bad choices? Doesn't it sound impossible to you?(P.S: yes, I quite reflect me in some symptoms of ADHD, but not at all. I also recognize mi grandfather! )
_"But you did choose to be born, and to be born here"
You mean that if I want, I can chose to refuse life?
_To maximus:my grandmother teaches hatha yoga, that is not meditation. Anyway, I tryed it, and I liked it, it can relax me. But what is very difficult for me is start doing it constantly, and that is probably the only way to get lasting and deeper effects instead of a momentary relax. And I don't know why, because I like it...the distractions of life makes me forgive it!

You just need to form a habit of doing it. You need a morning ritual where you do the exact same thing every morning. When you get really advanced you will have accomplished more in the first few hours of the day than you used to accomplish all day.

Get the book "The Power Of Full Engagement"

[trojan_libido]

I think forming good habits is one of the most important things in life! Shame I realised after I formed all my bad habits and got lazy.

[Joesus]

Regardless, it is possible to form new habits that remove the need to judge yourself and live without the need to be judged by others.

[trojan_libido]

I've seen it occur radically once in myself, and once in my girlfriend. It takes a radical change of perceptions and beliefs to shift conciousness like that. For me it was chemically induced with supplemented set. For her it was becoming pregnant again after losing the first one a few days after finding out. She quit smoking and drinking immediately. I wrote for 9 months and began my journey. If you can harness this change, or find a catalyst for it GO FOR IT!

[Joesus]

That would be the nature of change in the experience of ones Self and all one is united with. To find that which is greater than the surface appearance of belief and misunderstanding.
The thing is, the ego is addicted to chaos, or its attachment to it as the true reality.