| Among other things, I recall the following to have worked for me: * 12-step work (Al-Anon / CODA) * Intense enough exercise. You want to get a strong endorphin high going. Anaerobic exercise can be a very powerful mood- and motivation-builder. A bodyweight/kettlebells mix taught locally as "combat conditioning" works very well for me. Kinda social enough but still good for "loners". Competitive only towards oneself. Motivation starts rearing its head strongly when body picks up on the endorphin high. I find it very hard to get motivated for straight-up weight training. Rock climbing has been very therapeutic to me as well. (The body is a subtle pillar. Living life in a strong, supple body and a trained endorphin reward system makes every single thing more enjoyable. Just walking feels good. * Meditation. Any meditation is good. "Dark" / tantric meditation is invaluable as an aspect. Headspace.com works well. Meditation does really open the mind towards enlightenment, I have found. I have experienced brief glimpses of full serenity in everyday moments through meditation. Not during meditation but in the life that is lived around it. * This unbearably beautiful Nietzche quote: "Reife des Mannes: das heisst den Ernst wiedergefunden haben, den man als Kind hatte, beim Spiel." ("Maturity: To have finally rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.") Apply it to exercise, meditation, the discovery of life and living it. * Offroad motorcycling. It cannot be adequately stated in words how transcendental, intense, and meditative the experience is. * Edit: Giving up smoking!!! Nicotine is such a subtle poison. It's an illusion that it is hard to stop, but the illusion is tricky to break, but still it is easy. Very subtle and tricky. Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking worked for me. |