This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
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Hey folks! Posting another article from Substack, link is here if you'd like pictures, otherwise text is reproduced below in full. Overall discussing Christian contemplation & meditation, especially with regards to Buddhism and the overlap there.
If you’ve paid any attention to modern online Christian discourse lately, you may have noticed a lot of controversy around meditation, Buddhism, New Age spirituality, and Eastern religions.
Oftentimes, the conversation will go something like this: a modern Buddhist or New Ager talks about how useful meditation is, and a Christian comes in and says something along the lines of, “Oh, meditation is sinful or evil.”
Sometimes Christians will say that meditation is emptying the mind so that demons can possess you, or that trying to use meditative techniques is sinful because you are trying to achieve grace yourself rather than allowing Christ to do it for you.
Unfortunately, these Christians are speaking out of a deep, deep ignorance of their own tradition.
If you actually look back into the ancient historical record, you’ll see that from the very beginning, the apostles (in line with their Second Temple Jewish tradition) likely did deep meditative visualization practices and other contemplative practices that modern Christians, especially Protestant and evangelical Christians, would see as demonic, evil, or sinful today. You can reference the book The Religion of the Apostles by Father Stephen De Young if you’re curious for some more details here.
In short, meditation and contemplative prayer have a deep, important, and long-standing tradition throughout Christianity from the very beginning.
In this article, I want to lay out some of the background of this controversy, and explain why the Christian arguments above are in fact dead wrong. Throughout Christian history, ancient meditative practices have been attacked multiple times. I also want to discuss some of the historical factors that have led to modern American Christians, especially, being so incredibly opposed to any sort of meditation or contemplative practice for deepening their connection with God.
Then I’ll get a little spicy, and make the case that many Western Buddhists are actually better at Christian contemplative practice than we are. ;)
Christian Contemplation Has Often Been Controversial
There have been a number of periods throughout Christian history where contemplation, a retreat from the world, and trying to connect directly with God have caused the hackles of the more exoteric-focused Christians to rise.
One of the major and well-known examples is the exodus of the Desert Fathers from Roman society after Rome was Christianized around the fourth century. Now, this was largely controversial because Christian Roman society was becoming corrupt at the time, and many of the Desert Fathers explicitly spoke out against the Church for becoming too concerned with worldly politics. These people wanted less politics, and more of a direct connection with God. (a common drive for mystics and contemplatives)
In fact, you can see some Protestant parallels there, and the more intellectual and historically aware Protestants have even called back to the Desert Fathers to argue their case for rejecting clerical authority during the Reformation.
Later on, in the 14th century, we see in both the Orthodox and Catholic Church another rise of attacks against contemplatives. On the Orthodox side, we have Barlaam of Calabria attacking Athonite monks and other contemplatives, outright mocking their practices. On the Catholic side, you have more contemplative or esoteric approaches to the faith coming under scrutiny, including famous Catholic contemplatives like Meister Eckhart, whose teachings became the subject of an inquisitorial investigation and later papal condemnation.
Now we move on to the Protestant Reformation. This is an extremely complicated topic because the Protestant Reformation obviously involves a ton of different groups, but I want to sketch out the broad history, especially in America, of contemplative prayer and how Protestants viewed it.
So initially, the Protestant colonists actually had a strong contemplative tradition. You see this the most in groups like the Quakers, that heavily focused on inward silence, attention-training practices, and other meditative, contemplative types of prayer.
During the 18th century and the First Great Awakening, you still see some focus on prayers of the heart. Many of the famous preachers during this time, like Jonathan Edwards, were positively disposed towards contemplation: “True Religion disposes Persons to be much alone, in solitary Places, for holy Meditation and Prayer.”
Unfortunately, over the last couple of centuries, especially with the rise of biblical fundamentalism, American Protestants have moved farther and farther away from quiet contemplation and more into a focus on conversion, evangelizing others, reading Scripture, preaching, and spontaneous, emotional, verbal prayer. In the most extreme forms, you see the Pentecostal speaking in tongues, that sort of thing.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that contemplative prayer goes away, but it does start to come under some suspicion, especially by Christian groups that align themselves with conservative worldly politics in America.
Another dynamic here is that Protestantism essentially wiped out the monastic tradition, especially in America. Historically, the Christian contemplative tradition has been mainly kept alive by monastics, and I mean, this is true in Buddhism and pretty much every major religion as well. It’s not unique to Christianity.
But regardless, by wiping out the monastic tradition, Protestants sort of shot themselves in the foot because while, yes, it’s great for lay people to practice contemplative prayer, and I definitely encourage people to, ultimately it’s a lot easier for folks living in a monastic community to keep the deep contemplative tradition alive.
It doesn’t help that modern life, after the Industrial Revolution, in general has made contemplation and meditation harder. Despite our incredible material wealth, modern people tend to have less free time, attention, and generally just less ability and inclination to rest our minds than our ancestors did.
The pace of our lives is incredibly fast, and even when we do have free time that our material wealth buys us, our spiritual condition is such that we find it extremely difficult to rest and put down our busy, hurried schedules in order to contemplate and meditate and be watchful over our own hearts and minds.
There’s also a dynamic where Protestants hate Catholics (back in the day more than now, to be fair), and because the Catholics had a stronger focus on contemplative prayer, occasionally you see Protestants associating contemplation with the evil papists.
Now, during the 20th century, especially in the 1950s through the 1970s, when Zen Buddhism, yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and general New Age spirituality became incredibly popular in America, you have a sort of perfect storm where most Christians in America know very little about their own contemplative traditions. They don’t meditate. They don’t even understand that Christians are supposed to meditate.
And then the Eastern religions start popping up and teaching meditation. They try it. They’re like, “Oh my God, this is amazing,” and they get converted pretty quickly. Because if you’ve ever spent much time in meditation, you realize that, yes, the effects are profound and quick, and they do allow a connection with the divine.
Unfortunately, the Christian reaction, by and large, instead of educating people and telling them, “Hey, this is a part of our own tradition,” has been instead to demonize Buddhism, Hinduism, and other traditions, even when there are extreme similarities between our historical practices and the sort of New Age Western Buddhist practices that many people are actually doing nowadays.
Contemplation Is Not a Replacement for the Church
Now, I want to be clear here that not all of these persecutions of contemplatives were entirely unfounded. In some of these cases, depending on the specific author or person who was pushing meditative and contemplative practices, there genuinely was a real problem with their approach to the faith.
Meditation and contemplation are not able to bring us to God entirely on their own. We do need the liturgical life of the Church. We need the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, in order to be united with Christ. This is a clear teaching of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and I do believe it strongly.
While it may be possible to approach God via various meditative and contemplative practices on their own, I don’t think we can achieve full union and theosis with God without being wedded to His Church.
Furthermore, I think that for the vast, vast majority of people who seek a closer relationship with God, they would be far better off coming home to Mother Church, coming home to the hospital where their souls can be healed, rather than trying to do everything on their own.
Western Buddhism Is Overwhelmingly Compatible with Christianity
Now for the controversial part.
One of the funniest, or I guess sadly ironic, things about modern Christians hating on Buddhist meditation is that many Buddhists in America are actually better at practicing fundamental disciplines of the Christian spiritual life than they are!
I’ll admit that there is a grain of truth in critiques of Buddhist practices. The scare tactics Christians use when they talk about meditation being meant to empty your mind so that demons can fill you up do have some basis in reality. Especially in Vajrayana and other esoteric schools of Buddhism, there are explicit practices where the goal is to take on some sort of aspect of a deity and invite them to possess you.
However, it should be obvious to anyone who has met many Buddhists in America that the vast, vast majority of people who call themselves Buddhists and meditate regularly are not doing anything like this.
When it comes to American and Western Buddhists in general, most of them are just practicing what we in the Christian tradition would call watchfulness. They are paying attention to when their mind wanders. They are noting when difficult emotions come up that distract them or bring them into difficult and closed-off states. Perhaps they are repeating a mantra in order to help center their mind, as we do in Christian hesychasm with our prayer or prayer word. Sometimes they use meditation beads, which we also use, especially in the Orthodox and Catholic traditions. The common depiction in media is the Catholic rosary.
Furthermore, most Western Buddhists and New Agers believe in a sort of generally benevolent, all encompassing "Source” that aligns quite well with Christian theology, albeit minus the Christ part.
Compare basic Buddhist meditation practices to St. Hesychios the Priest explaining the Christian practice of watchfulness:
One type of watchfulness consists in closely scrutinizing every mental image or provocation.
A second type of watchfulness consists in freeing the heart from all thoughts, keeping it profoundly silent and still, and in praying.
A third type consists in continually and humbly calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ for help.
These types of watchfulness, my child, act like doorkeepers and bar entry to evil thoughts.
St. Hesychios the Priest, On Watchfulness and Holiness, in The Philokalia.
Or St. Theophan the Recluse explaining Christian ‘mantras’:
In order to teach the mind to rest on one thing, the Holy Fathers used short prayers and acquired the habit of reciting them unceasingly.
St. Theophan the Rescluse, The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology
Frankly, I would be surprised if more than 1% of self-described Buddhists in the West have ever actually done any sort of ritual or meditation where they explicitly invite a demon to come and possess their mind. It’s just not a very common thing. The vast majority of Buddhists are doing simple meditative practices to cultivate watchfulness and basic attention. I’d bet if the Holy Fathers were to observe these Buddhists (the vast majority that are only training attention, not inviting demons in) they would likely approve of their discipline in developing watchfulness!
A lot of fearmongering Christians in the modern world spread the absurd idea that if you spend 10 minutes listening to a Buddhist teacher telling you to focus on breathing deeply, or focus on feelings of loving-kindness, you’re somehow inviting demons to come possess you. The same thing is true of polemics against yoga.
Unfortunately, the state of most Christians’ prayer life in the West is dramatically impoverished compared to the history of our traditions. I personally believe that one of the major things we must do if we want to get closer to God is revitalize the ancient Christian tradition of watchfulness, meditation, and contemplation.
If we aren’t able to guard our thoughts and our hearts from distraction, from our own sinful habits, and yes, from actual demonic influence, then we have very little hope of learning to live a Christian life and become more like Christ.
As a caveat, know that I am a relatively new convert to the Orthodox faith and to Christianity in general. I’m not speaking with any real authority outside of my own experience and opinions. Please feel free to challenge the claims I’ve made in this piece.
Regardless, I hope that this article helps change your mind on contemplative prayer and perhaps convinces some of you to take at least 10 or 15 minutes a day before or after your daily prayers to sit in silence and spend some time in self-emptying so that God’s grace and love can fill your heart in the space left behind.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.
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- Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
- Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
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- Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service.
This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
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On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.
Ground Rules
*Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
- Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
- Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
- Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
Once upon a time, many ages ago, a race of Octopodes spread far and wide across the ocean. They expanded their reach not through the length or strength of their tentacles but by the brightness of their mind, for these Octopodes were the most gifted of all creatures beneath the waves, and neither fish nor whale could match them in wits.
One tribe, a stock exposed to the grueling and savage waters of the North Sea, grew even cleverer than the rest. These Octopodes banded together in a vast Kingdom where they made machines, powered by thermal energy from the ocean floor, to work for them. They built great cities made of reef and coral, where surface-scrapers stretched from the deepest and darkest trenches to the edge of the known world. They conquered North and South, East and West, and spread their molluscan monarchy over the globe. All marine life, and all other Octopodes, were cast down to become their chattel or cattle.
Like many of their kind, though, these Octopodes were semelparous – meaning their females reproduced once and died immediately postpartum. Few rejoiced at this fate, but even fewer questioned it: it was the way of life and the way things had always been and the order which the God of the Sea had set. Besides that, the female Octopodes were weaker and smaller than their male counterparts, and altogether dependent on them. Much like the water in which they swam, they never really gave it any thought.
However, one day, when the opulent and powerful Kingdom had reached a new height of opulence and power, the female Octopodes petitioned the King for redress. Many social issues had been solved through careful statecraft, they argued, yet there still remained the question of just compensation for semelparity. Surely the female Octopodes deserved greater recognition and freedom for this ardous service which they had rendered? A little equality, that could not be too much to ask given their contribution? The King was a reasonable octopus, and every reform proposed was backed by arguments founded on well-recognized principles of justice. He therefore gave his consent. Year by year the Octopodettes were emancipated from every social constraint that had once bound them and from every aspect of what they once were; and the Kingdom and its treasury became more of a husband to them than their own husbands ever were or could ever be.
Gradually and subtly, in a shift that caught many off-guard, the female Octopodes in the Kingdom stopped reproducing. ‘Why,’ they replied when questioned by dismayed suitors, ‘should we bear forth children in sorrow and pain? Would you if you were us? We are free now to choose our own fate. Who are you to question our choice?”
Some of the more simple-minded Octopodes were alarmed by this sentiment. ‘Shouldn’t we do something?’ they asked the King when he held court. ‘Clearly something has gone awry. At this rate, we’re headed for extinction!’ The King was unnerved by this warning, but his most elite Octopode experts, advisers whom he had come to hold in the highest of regards, were of a different mind.
‘That’s absurd!’ they rejoined. ‘It’s evidently impossible for a species to drive itself extinct through non-reproduction: the laws of evolution and demography forbid it. Our population might shrink for now, but in the long run the most fertile female Octopodes will outbreed their barren sisters. The daughters and sons of the fecund will then issue forth as a new generation of Octopodes more fertile than any before it. The future is bright!’
The supreme Octopode thinkers were, of course, quite right. There were indeed many Octopode children still born – born to the most insipid and least conscientious mothers, the select few so feeble in mind or lacking in impulse control that the prevention of their own misery was too challenging an intellectual goal. In a generation or two this subset swelled its numbers beyond count, overwhelming whatever elderly remnants of the smarter Octopode stock remained. The Kingdom, with its splendorous cities and meticulous order and marvelous technology, all of which had taken many centuries of effort to build, was lost to ignorance in three or four short decades; and the Age of the Octopodes came crashing down.
–
The descendants of these eight-armed overlords still roam the depths. They live much as any other marine animal, eking out a living as best they can. If you glimpse them from a distance it is exceedingly hard to tell them apart from any other mollusc. Yet look closely and you can spot a keen glint in their squinting eyes, like a spark of truth from a tale long lost – a spark in remembrance of a realm that once was.
Hence, I say
यः धर्मम् परित्यज्य श्रिसुखम्हितेच्छय स दुःखं गच्छेत् न संशयः अष्तबहुभर्तामुढयथा
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service.
This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.
Ground Rules
*Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
- Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
- Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
- Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).