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Master Don Juan
You know it's kind of funny. I used to feel the same way - putting people in categories above and below me - until I began framing people a different way. I believe you can make this change without too much difficulty. I used to see people in school or other places that I thought were cool. I'd try to hang out with them and I'd find myself flabbergasted - I just had nothing to say. And yeah, part of it is self-esteem, and part of it is jealousy or judgment against the cool kids.Shyyhs said:Well, where I see myself,,, hmmm, not very high. Like if I see a group of nerds I could have a friendly convo because I would feel above them, but if I perceive someone above that, it would be awkward.
Anyway, I started making friends I really like, who bring out the best in me and support me. Actually, some of them had been popular in high school (not that that matters). Point is, I finally gained the confidence to hang out with a bunch of kids I had assumed were better than me in high school. We went to a bar - I don't drink - and so I sat around and I watched them drink and talk about stuff that didn't interest me. I realized that these people didn't speak a foreign language, play an instrument, read philosophy, or make a project of knowing themselves. You know what I realized? It's not that I was better than them at all, or that they were better than me. We were just incompatible.
We were just incompatible. That's why I'd never had much to say. And that's ok.
The same is true for women. I mean there are a lot of really hot women out there. That doesn't mean interacting with them necessarily brings benefits to both our lives. Or we each mutually have something to offer. I'm looking for people who are good medicine for me. And it's really not that hard to meet hot women who are good medicine. Same with good friends. But you have to look.
So I feel way better about the cool kids these days. I figure the people I'm REALLY compatible with, I'll probably click right away. Maybe I could click with a lot of the people I used to think were so amazing - it would just take more effort.
In short, I stopped taking my speechlessness personally. It was just a question of incompatibility at a particular moment. If they'd been talking about stuff I had bothered to learn about earlier, obviously I'd have more to say.
Do you know why you see the world in judgment? One of my best friends theorizes that she just doesn't like herself. An interesting thing she's doing to eliminate judgment from her life is letting herself be more selfish. I think a lot of her judgment came against people she viewed as holding selfish jobs, buying selfish cars etc. Basically not watching out for the good of mankind. I don't want that girl to lose sight of trying to help mankind. Still, I think she can reasonable stop hating that part of herself that wants a McDonald's hamburger.Why? I really don't know. It's just something I do.
Yeah, it's tough to know exactly how to proceed. I don't want to claim that this will solve the problem. I just think that everyone is different and unique, and that people on a website can help a lot and can't do everything. It seems to me that you know yourself reasonably well. I would start by doing things to get to know yourself better. Take dream journals (Fingz, thanks for the Carlos Castaneda recommendations by the way), ask your family and friends for lots of massages. A lot of research is showing that relaxing the body is a great way to find a break psychological barriers.I agree totally. It's just knocking down this barrier that I don't know what to do.
Put simply, I don't believe you. 1.) If your friends AND family accepted you for who you are, dating would be a cinch. Honestly. Meeting women is so easy once you have great relationships with friends, if not your family. Note that I didn't say have friends, I didn't say have good relationships, I said great relationships with family and friends.I think it comes back down to the judging part. My friends have already accepted me. They know who I am and they accept me for that so the hierarchy scale disappears, but let's say I was to go out with a group of my friend's friends, the hierarchy would return.
2.) I'm sort of suspicious of how easily you said that your friends accept you for who you are. First of all, great friends who help you grow and will accept you in any form are are not easy to come by. I didn't know how to find them and so I didn't have great friend-relationships like that for years. For years! I had found people I had fun with and who cared about me, but I didn't know how to *build* a great friendship out of good friendship.
And second of all, being accepted for who you are means expressing who you are. This should be intuitive. They can't accept who you *really* are unless you are real with them. And that means telling them about topics such as this forum, about masturbation, about feeling alone, about being afraid to approach, and feeling vulnerable. Tell your friends and family these things and whatever else embarrasses you. Whatever is part of your dark side. If you're not telling them about that now, start.
Again, if you can think out loud - the ultimate in honesty - to your friends and family, getting women is really not that difficult. Great conversations and approaches with women grow out of an excellent soil of friendships.
If you don't like the vacuum, don't use it. I don't even think about it and I do just fine. I'm not claiming I'm some expert on women. I do ok. I do know a lot about healthy and fulfilling personal growth, though.I might have to give that a try. I know juggler recommends the vacum, where you just don't say anything and create that awkward silence(that I hate), and sort of hold the body language that I expect their reply.
I think I've respectfully taken issue with that metaphor, which implies to me that dating requires bravado. Dating is supposed to be fun - and when I'm having fun, bravado is easy or not even part of the equation. In my experience it doesn't take vertebrae-finding, or ball-fondling. If I can't approach a girl in the moment, I just don't do it. Now being yourself around your friends and family who love you, yeah that takes all the PUA cliches you can think of. It's really worth it though and will give you such a strong foundation that approaching becomes easy.I wasn't trying to disrespect him, but "grab your balls" seems to be an overly vague PUA cliche.
About Fingz, yeah, try to take advantage as much as you can that he's taken the time to respond to you. I was trying to score points by sticking up for my future Spanish couch-host. Honestly though, that guy's posts have helped me a lot. (4 more couch-points!)
You're welcome. Thanks for being honest and therefore interesting.Thanks for your input.
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