#Awareness exercise

[tumbleringismycopingmechanism]

Interesting body image exercises I stumbled upon in my research:

Say how you feel about your body without intellectualizing (focus on the feelings).

Imagine a fat person. Complete the following sentence: "When I think of a fat person, I feel _____." Afterwise think about why you feel that way. (Better yet, do this exercise for a fat man and for a fat woman and see if there are any differences in how you feel.)

List the parts of your body you like the most. List the parts of your body you like the least. Afterwise, think about why you feel this way. (Works better as a group exercise where you can compare results and see if there are any trends.)

[hsmagazine254]

How To Get Rid Of Negative Energy (Part 2) - Positive Reflection Of The Week

Harnessing The Elements: Fire & Air Techniques For Energy Clearing FIRE-BASED TECHNIQUES Fire is sometimes an effective clearing ally. As with water, you can use fire in your energy-cleansing practises by using candles, burning objects yourself, and using visualization. It can be dangerous because it is so strong, so always, always use common sense and caution. You’ve probably seen people write…

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 3: Enveloping Feelings.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 4)

[poeticnotpretentious]

Oh my god I can’t believe I have to say this but:

DISABLED PEOPLE CAN HAVE GOOD DAYS!!

Just because I had one day when the pain wasn’t there for long enough for me to enjoy it doesn’t mean I am suddenly “cured from my issue” or that I don’t need accommodations anymore.

[puppyeared]

(guy who has never played cotl) haha au time

[corviiids]

ok but . . . . . . . Could YOU be kira and win?!

based on how light formulated kira, it's impossible for kira to win. kira's 'new world' has no win condition - light never cleanly defines what criteria he would need to satisfy, so the new world is inherently aspirational, because deep down, light doesn't want to win at all, he just wants to play.

social reform via mass murder, especially in the way kira formulates it but really in any way, is also not only (obviously!!!) deeply, deeply unethical, it's also just fundamentally impossible for myriad reasons. again, kira can't win.

if you found the death note in real life, i would heavily advise against using it. i personally would not use it. aside from, again, the obvious ethical ramifications, it's just too fucking risky!!! the parameters of how the note functions, the potential consequences, the rules, the terms of the 'contract' you'd enter into by using it - all of these are unclear, even if you knew about death note the series. furthermore, even if you had access to the rules, which you don't, the rules explicitly state that the shinigami don't have to explain everything to you. not even the shinigami can access all the rules (only the shinigami king). and based on the a-kira short story, the rules can change and apply retroactively at any time. even if you didn't know all that, by choosing to use it, you would be submitting yourself to all sorts of unknown supernatural and non-supernatural risks. it's just not a smart thing to do. leave that shit Alone

kira is a hubris trap. the death note is designed to appeal to all the most unstable parts of a person's psyche. it's especially good at targeting one particular vulnerability in humanity, which is that people are generally much worse at considering how they would react in a hypothetical scenario than they think they are. anyone who thinks they could succeed in using the death note, even with a better formulated plan than light yagami, is falling victim to that trap.

yes

[winkle-pickers]

listen i extremely need these two to be bitchy jogging buddies this is my ideal friendship dynamic for them!!!!!!!!!

[hardly-an-escape]

“a small treat for a massive baby” | via Ferdie’s insta story

[camthecatchameleon]

very late dtiys just for fun! (not intended for contest)

original can be found here, by @ladylunora

click for better quality (i think)

this was a lot of fun! I got to test out a new-ish coloring/shading style. i started it on Sunday with the plan to finish it Tuesday but that. did not happen lmao ANWAYS happy (late?) spooky season

[thepersonalwords]

Breath is the finest gift of nature. Be grateful for this wonderful gift.

Amit Ray, Beautify your Breath - Beautify your Life

[tinytalkingtina]

You can't fool yourself forever

Written for the @steddiemicrofic April challenge prompt "fool".

454 words (according to wordcounter.net) | rating G

Tags: Eddie Munson has a sexuality crisis, denial of feelings to self-acceptance, grappling with internalized homophobia briefly, getting together

Ao3 link

Dawn is slowly breaking, the grey light beginning to fill his room. Somewhere outside a bird trills, bearing witness to the end of yet another night of restlessness. A robin his brain unhelpfully supplies. Except, he can’t think of robins, because then he pictures Robin. And he can’t picture Robin. Absolutely can’t, because if he does then he’ll think of hazel eyes and a smile that meant—nope. No, he wasn’t going to think about the robin. Had been avoiding any thoughts of robins for 3 days, 5 hours, and 15 minutes. 3 days, 5 hours, and 15 minutes since a smile made him realize the shape of his feelings. Feelings that sent him retreating into the relative safety of his and Wayne’s new trailer. Shivered in the tub the rest of that night while he did not and could not think about it. Since then he’d dodged talking to anyone in person, but he knew couldn’t skip out on the morning checkins. If he avoided everyone altogether, at best, one of the kids might show up. At worst, Ste-no. But it was going to be fine, because he’s forcing himself out of bed to grope around for his walkie, just as Dustin begins roll call. It’s going to be fine, even if after his tepid “Munson here…over” came the sound of Ste-his voice softly pouring out from the walkie. Even if that alone simultaneously sent butterflies swooping into his stomach and icy dread dripping down his insides. You’re a fool Edward Munson. He had to be, to think that after half the town set out on a witch-hunt, he’d ever be perceived as anything but the freak. Before it was something he took pride in, to spit back at their faces. Now, he’s just terrified. A few hours of circular thinking later, the birds silence as a car pulls up. Eddie gets up to help Wayne with the groceries. Except it’s not Wayne, it’s Ste— “Hey man. It’s just been a few days since we’ve seen you and Wayne said you came down with a bug or…something? He wasn’t super clear when I called and you didn’t sound great on the checkin. So. I figured I’d bring some food over.” “Oh, uh, thanks, come in?” Eddie’s brain supplies on autopilot, too panicked to formulate a reason to slam the door shut. Ste-he sets the Tupperware down before raising a hand to Eddie’s forehead. “You don’t have much of a fever.” He just smiles and slowly strokes his fingers down the side of Eddie's face and-Oh. Maybe Eddie will always be a freak. But he doesn’t have to be a fool forever. He can raise a shaking hand to Steve’s face, finally meeting him halfway.

[shoku-and-awe]

Weird mood this evening: I am simultaneously socialized out and weirdly lonely.

What do we do about that?

[tea-time-terrier]

Always the overachiever.

[anghraine]

I think it's interesting that when Gandalf describes Denethor's ability to "perceive, if he bends his will thither, much of what is passing in the minds of men," he ties it less to his wisdom or general insightfulness (though he possesses both) than to his difference from "other men of this time," his near total Númenóreanness, and as bolded here, the active exercise of his will.

Tolkien also attributes Denethor's resilience against Sauron (by contrast with Saruman) to not only his right to use the Anor-stone, but "great strength of will." He notes that Sauron had no servant with greater mental powers than Saruman or Denethor, and Gandalf remarks that Denethor was "too great" to be subdued to Sauron's will.

Denethor and Gandalf have a strange and unsettling silent confrontation, carried on by their gazes, yet it strikes Pippin as like "a line of smouldering fire" and "as if reading each other's mind." Gandalf afterwards says Pippin was stuck between two "terrible old men," lumping Denethor in with himself. Pippin also sees some kind of kinship between Denethor and Gandalf, as Sam saw between Faramir and Gandalf.

In his letters, Tolkien said that the ancient Númenóreans became barely distinguishable from Elves in appearance and in their powers of mind. In Unfinished Tales, he notes that they loved their horses, and when a Númenórean had a strong bond with a horse, it was said that the horse could be summoned "by thought alone."

In LOTR, Faramir—who has inherited Denethor's Númenóreanness/wizardliness—has a reputation for command over both animals and men. When everyone else is thrown by their horses upon being chased by five Nazgûl, he not only keeps his seat, but mysteriously gets his horse to ride back towards the Nazgûl. And during the retreat across the Pelennor, the soldiers in the city conclude that Faramir must be with the men who are managing to retreat in order, repeating Beregond's remark that he has some undefined command over both men and beasts.

Gandalf suggests that this is a result of Faramir pitting himself against the effects of the Nazgûl in some way, but his abilities (whatever they are) are outmatched. In the event, the effect of Faramir's Aura of Courage commanding abilities remains until he's shot and finally falls to the Black Breath.

Faramir also makes repeated references to perceiving or reading things in Gollum's mind. At one point, he describes Gollum's mind as dark and closed, yet unable to prevent Faramir from detecting that he's holding something back about Cirith Ungol specifically. Noticeably, this only happens when Faramir orders Gollum to look at him (which Gollum does "unwillingly"), and the light drains from his eyes as he meets Faramir's. It seems decidedly reminiscent of the later Gandalf vs Denethor duel-by-eye-contact.

Faramir's exact words about Gollum's secrecy are "That much I perceived clearly in his mind," in reference to his earlier questioning of him. He says that he can "read" previous murders in Gollum and Gollum cries out in pain when he tries to lie to him.

When Faramir gives staves to Frodo and Sam, he says that a "virtue" of finding and returning has been placed on them, with zero explanation of what he means by that. He adds a hope that the virtue will not altogether fail under Sauron's power in Mordor. He describes the people who did the woodwork but not who placed the virtues (it doesn't seem inherent to the wood itself, given his phrasing).

We do know that Dúnedain can potentially embed enchantments into items. The Barrow-daggers carried by Merry and Pippin are specifically enchanted against the Witch-king of Angmar by an unknown Dúnadan of the North, and when Merry stabs the Witch-king, the dagger breaks enough spells for Éowyn's ordinary sword to finish the job.

Meanwhile, Aragorn uses his healing powers to help the city, wishing for the presence of Elrond, because he is their eldest of their kind and more powerful. Aragorn, also, has at least some part of this ability to actively exercise his will and mental powers, perhaps an equal share, though he uses it less often.

In the book, he doesn't physically attack the Mouth of Sauron, but instead holds his gaze (again, eye contact is important!). There's another silent struggle that involves no weaponry or any other contact.

He prevails in some way over the Mouth of Sauron (not a warped creature of Sauron in the book, but a cruel Númenórean who has "learned great sorcery"). The Mouth indignantly says he has diplomatic immunity and can't be attacked like this.

But, I mean, maybe they're all just smart and perceptive, it's really unclear.

[vintage-tigre]

The Way Forward

[spitblaze]

I'm not a psychologist or a politician or anything approaching an expert about literally anything except a few specific video games but I feel like so many people wouldn't be agonizing over the moral implications of one (1) vote if we as the less-than-uppest-of-upper-crust had the ability to meaningfully affect change in ways other than 'spend money/do not spend money, vote for the red or blue tie'