The Happiness Thread

[Jonse]

To be fair, I don't think there can be any emotion without the disparity of the opposite.

Happiness is something you have to strive and work for. I've concluded it'll never just come to me, personally, so I try my best every day to take something out of even the most horrific experiences such as sleep paralysis and channel what I've taken out of it into some work that might on occasion eventually yield a sense of contentedness or satisfaction, however brief, and with that there is happiness. Though that's mostly how it manifests in my life.

Though whether it's a pursuit or a series of interlinked goals/experiences, you have to strive to make it work in a way cohesively where it isn't just fragmented memories of times you were happy but rather something you can look over through your life and say, "yeah, for the most part, I'm happy."

[Cosmic Manta]

i love you all

[Valotonin]

To be fair, I don't think there can be any emotion without the disparity of the opposite.

Happiness is something you have to strive and work for. I've concluded it'll never just come to me, personally, so I try my best every day to take something out of even the most horrific experiences such as sleep paralysis and channel what I've taken out of it into some work that might on occasion eventually yield a sense of contentedness or satisfaction, however brief, and with that there is happiness. Though that's mostly how it manifests in my life.

Though whether it's a pursuit or a series of interlinked goals/experiences, you have to strive to make it work in a way cohesively where it isn't just fragmented memories of times you were happy but rather something you can look over through your life and say, "yeah, for the most part, I'm happy."

Sleep paralysis is fucking awful, you have my condolences.

[TheStatPow]

Sleep paralysis is fucking awful, you have my condolences.

Yeah it can be scary, I remember back when I was heavily into lucid dreaming, tried very hard but barely even got there ... I'd usually only get to the paralysis phase.

One day I was in class, it struck me as I was laying my head down for a quick nap, Couldn't move, hallucinated my teacher trying to wake me up and everyone laughing.

few secs later I look around in shock, not a single person looking in my direction, teacher is just sitting at the desk in the same position before I felt alseep.


Spooky stuff D:

[Jonse]

Precisely the reason why I generally come to some control over it and accept it as something of an involuntary trip. The first experience is always very different than concurrent ones as you might think you're actually paralysed, though when you understand how the struggle can make the hallucinations/anxiety worse, you can combat it. Over time, the face that often would bother me (left) has become more docile, its mouth shut or it not appearing at all and instead the walls around me resembling more some kind of Andy Warhol piece than sharp tessellation and negative space where there were shadows.

Lucid dreams, which when I still do have them they always tend to be, I find are often a way to deal with sleep paralysis: if you have the luxury of any amount of time after "oh, I'm dreaming" in a lucid dream to prepare yourself for this being a possibility when you wake, it can reduce its effect heavily or entirely circumvent it by cutting the time down to only a second or two. Though it depends on how well you maintain a lucid dream as the brain generally wants to kick you awake half way through that acknowledgement.

[wadewilson]

the Lunar new year is coming

[North by North]

Sleep paralysis is fucking awful, you have my condolences.

Yeah it can be scary, I remember back when I was heavily into lucid dreaming, tried very hard but barely even got there ... I'd usually only get to the paralysis phase.

One day I was in class, it struck me as I was laying my head down for a quick nap, Couldn't move, hallucinated my teacher trying to wake me up and everyone laughing.

few secs later I look around in shock, not a single person looking in my direction, teacher is just sitting at the desk in the same position before I felt alseep.


Spooky stuff D:

Yes- sleep paralysis is the absolute WORST. It started happening to me every morning in my late 20's when I had a boss that I truly believe to be Satan's wife. Even at 36 now, it still happens from time to time. Sometimes I feel/see a dark presence in the room, other times I'll hallucinate so vividly that I could swear I'm really nudging my wife to wake me up, or that I'm falling off the bed. My trick to get out of it is to focus on moving my fingers or tossing and turning, which has woken my wife several times, as I come out of it thrashing and gasping for breath. I also sleep with one leg out of the covers now so I don't feel trapped.

I do still have lucid dreams pretty frequently, which can be really fun. I'm able at times to fight off potential fearful paralysis-inducing dreams by just changing the dream or eliminating the element that is causing fear or stress. I wish I had a lot more fun lucid dreams though, because knowing you're in a dream and controlling it or interacting in a fun way is a very cool experience.