Search the Community

About 2 years ago, the twelfth of October 2014, I published my first non-fiction book on self-knowledge and self-therapy through keeping a journal. The response was incredible. I could never have imagined that I could move people in the way the told me I had moved them. It has been a humbling experience, knowing that I had had such an impact on people. I was given help with editing by several people, and one of those people was Steven Franssen, a fellow author and an INCREDIBLE human being. You can find his work on his YouTube-channel https://www.youtube.com/user/RedRightHunterand on his website http://www.nurturingtruth.com/ Now, Steven has made and published my e-book, as an audiobook on audible, with him as the narrator! You can find the audiobook version @ http://adbl.co/2dx7fgi You can also find the e-book version on https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/484220(free) If you find it valuable, then you can buy it on http://amzn.to/2dvczltto support me in writing more If you feel you got value out of it, but cannot afford to buy it, you can also leave a review on smashwords, amazon and audible. Of course, you can do both aswell And! If you want to support me AND FDR at the same time, use an FDR affiliate link and search for my book (search for ''Dear Self Erik Lugnet'') The affiliate link... for Americans: http://www.fdrurl.com/Amazon for Canadians: http://www.fdrurl.com/AmazonCanada for the UK and europeans: http://www.fdrurl.com/AmazonUK Thank you for your time, and I wish you a wonderful day! Erik Lugnet

After recently going through an indie game called undertale I’ve had lots of feelings come spur inside me that seemed to melt away my cynicism about "the world". I think this is because of my 1 year in therapy, dealing with self-knowledge relentlessly and totally new and better healthy company of acquaintances and friends. However the game was yet another spark that after listening the soundtrack trough also felt really good and came to this realization. The track in the game that finally broke the camel’s back called "Hopes and dreams" followed by "SAVE the world" And it hit me, we often speak of, wish, dream or try to save the world and fight evil or/and defend freedom trough reason evidence and logic. In my own mind i felt hopelessness about my own life and future because fundamentally i felt despair having to combat the seemingly impossible task of fighting evil. The desire in me to be good and spread goodness and to save others. I believed it was not only MY job to take on evil of the world but most importantly that it was the World that needed saving. I was wrong. The world is not needing of saving the "World" is cant have peace any more than sun can calm the fuck down. I was anthomorphising human corruption and evil STILL to reality itself. And when i finally said "Save the humans" or "Peace among humankind" i felt switch in my head like someone had suddenly turned the light up and shattered all the shadows around me. I felt as if i didn’t NEED to save the world because it was impossible, a way of making it a false hope inside me and thus greatest source of despair. If humans are the ones in trouble and human ones that DO evil then saving the ones i can save or HELP is enough. Suddenly it’s enough to help/save few because it’s no longer about being the hero that saves the world by destroying evil and overcomes all odds and come out on top. But rather about not believing in false hope or obligations that are impossible, believing in goodness that is possible for me here and now. That my life, MY hopes and dreams arent in the chains of despair, of cynicism, of nihilism, of others "eye rolling and world wearyness." That my hopes and dreams, my goals, what i value is not IMPOSSIBLE TASK and forever evading me elusive like heaven or some paradise somewhere yet out of reach. And the game itself Undertale deal with this notion exactly. It’s about society, childhood trauma, betrayal of innocence and origins of war. It deals with cynicism, with violence, pessimism, nihilism about goodness and is in many ways about the PROJECTION of ones experiences unto reality itself. I’d recommend playing the game for its profound way to speak to your feelings while taking the fourth wall and kissing it goodbye.

The second episode of our podcast is here! In it, I and my co-host Jackie talk about the concepts of hope, passivity, (self-)responsibility, boundaries, and more. Get cozy and join us for an hour of self-archeology.

My newest article for this holiday season. "Contrary to some people’s expectation, this article will not be a jolly, ho-ho-holiday read, despite it having both "holiday" and "hope" in its title. It will be about the reality of how a lot of people perceive holidays and their life in general, and about a possible alternative to that." Full article here: http://blog.selfarcheology.com/2015/12/holiday-hope.html

Hello everyone! I had some thoughts that I wanted to share. Since I started pursuing self-knowledge last year, I have had the thought in the back of my mind, that if I just get enough self-knowledge, if I just get over x obstacles in my mind, if I just put the right amount of blame on this parent, it will all work out on it's own. That I won't really have to do anything, that all my anxieties, all my pain will go away. That I'll emerge a superhero from the smoking rubble of my childhood. That's the thought I have had in my mind since day 1 of self-knowledge. I am asking myself, and you incredibly kind and intelligent people, is this fantasy? Is there, in fact, no point in self-knowledge, where you can feel free from your anxieties? Free from your pain? That no matter how much you grieve, how much you cry out in anger, you will never really be free from your anxieties. That instead, self-knowledge and grieving makes you understand, that you are not a defenseless child at the mercy of cruel parents anymore. And that you simply need to grit your teeth through your everyday anxieties. Because living like you hadn't been abused, is the only thing you can do. That turned out way more depressing than I intended. What I mean to say is, is perhaps one of the biggest parts of self-knowledge, to trust yourself to know, that your anxieties where useful in the past, but just something you have to challenge to get through your life, in the present? To take a strong stand for yourself in the face of your past traumas. Or am I wrong? Is there a real light at the end of the tunnel? Or is that something one has to imagine there being, to push on through life? I feel like I am calling people liars when I am writing this... I am sorry if that is indeed the case, I don't think people would lie about something like that... Maybe it's because I am feeling down at the moment. I didn't even realise that until now. If what I am saying is correct, that you just have to march on despite feeling anxious about things, maybe that personal responsability is just really hitting me now. Maybe that's why I feel down. I don't mean any harm with what I just wrote. But, if there is harm in it, please let me know! Any comment would be highly appriciated, as always.