147 sats \ 1 reply \ @BTCFC 28 Feb \ on: Who else is simply existing? Do you have a purpose? I don't. meta
At my current stage in life, I cannot relate, I wake up every morning feeling ready to do whatever I can to make my goal and dream come true. Life is absolutely amazing!
However, I did have a pretty long phase in which I felt extremely lost and without purpose so I thought I would share what that was like and how I gradually got out of it. To keep things short and sweet, I was in a very depressed state for close to three years. I've always had a passion for playing soccer but I got to a point where I began hating playing soccer and that destroyed my confidence and pretty much shattered my identity I had built up to that point. Soccer was my life, and I began hating it. Thus, I quit the sport I loved and that left me completely empty, without any direction, and from there things began to tank even further, as I began dealing with chronic fatigue, back pain, being anxious all the time, and that leading me to feel extremely depressed and I even contemplated taking the easy way out. But something within me refused to let me pull my own plug. And so I looked and looked for ways to somehow turn my life around and find meaning in life, all I wanted at this point was to be able to feel, feel anything as I felt extremely numb towards everything.
What eventually got me out of rock bottom was a breathing method called the Wim Hof Method. I don't practice it anymore, but during those lows, it gave me peace of mind, and got me feeling something for once. Learning about Bitcoin as well during this time gave me a more optimistic outlook on life for myself and for the world. But, the journey from rock bottom to where I am now took a lot more time, effort, and trial and error.
Ultimately, what I have learned from my experience of being completely numb towards life to feeling ecstatic towards it, came down to getting my health in order. And health is multifaceted and can take time to figure out, and take time it did. The exact way in which one optimizes their health can differ but I think the general ideas are more or less the same.
I will list out what has worked for me.
Diet: Low carb, quality fats, quality protein from animal products, well filtered water, little to no sugar and alcohol, and intermittent fasting. People may argue this, but I personally do well eating vegetables, especially of the non starchy leafy green kind. Become insulin sensitive.
Exercise: I'm back playing soccer competitively so soccer, but also have learned the importance of a solid strength and conditioning program in the gym, as well as learning to sprint. If you don't know where to start, I personally think everyone should learn how to sprint because it is one of the funnest things to learn.
Recovery / Rest: magnesium baths, red light therapy, breathholds for relaxation and conscious breathing (cadence breathing).
Eustress (good short duration stress): cold shower, exercise, zone 2 training, VR gaming (I use a soccer simulator, but also boxing, and one that simulates firefights), lifting heavyass shit, doing anything that gets me out of my comfort zone (even posting on here initially made me a bit nervous and anxious), traveling the world whenever I can.
Other: keeping track of my day to day health metrics via the Whoop. Waking up and turning on my light box, that stimulates the brightness of the sun (or just go outside first thing in the morning if where you live has good sunlight). Been trying fish oil, liking it so far, although make sure to get one that is high quality. Journaling everyday. Intermittent dopamine detox.
And yeah, that's basically what helped me feel excitement towards life. I had to optimize my health first, and now that I have that in order for the most part (always room for improvement), I have more clarity on what it is I want to do with my life, I now have purpose and drive. And regardless of whether or not you immediately find purpose as a result of optimizing your health, at least you'll be in better shape, have more energy and vibrancy, have daily physical challenges to conquer such as lifting or sprinting faster, and overall you'll start feeling good about yourself and gain confidence, and as you build up those small wins, and become 1% better everyday, purpose and meaning will start to show itself to you. This is what I believe.
All the best!
Wow, thanks mate, I'm glad you're on the right track again.
Everything is fine I'm terms of eating habits, but i'm a bit on the slim side, and I've been "out of the game" in regards to fitness because of health issues in the past few months, so these would be two points to improve on.
Otherwise I dont have much going for me... But as you say: health -> next step, that's what i'll focus on.
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