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[SquiddyCracker]

The idea is pretty simple.

We create a thread where we provide guides, ranging from novice to advanced, on how to improve your mind, your body, and your spirit, to make it easier for people to become happier and more wholesome human beings.
By participating in the guide making, you wouldn't directly benefit yourself, but you would be helping maybe a dozen or even a hundred gaffers who are interested in improving themselves. So consider this a type of charity, even if you yourself might benefit from guides in areas you yourself are not currently improving yourself in. As we already have threads such as the Fitness thread, we already have some good resources to draw upon here on GAF in addition to people capable of writing the guides and then there is of course the Internet - so we shouldn't have too much trouble finding what we need for this thread. These guides will have to be as general as possible in order to make them applicable to as many people as possible, but alternative guides would be more than welcome for different types of people.

Ideally, everyone interested in participating in this program will put aside at least one hour a day for self-improvement in all three areas, so as to make them more balanced. If you are already doing weight lifting for an example, you might want to look into the novice-guide towards improving your cardio, in addition to the various self-improvement guides related to the Mind and Spirit.

This thread is purely meant to gauge the eventual interest in this potential self-improvement thread, and to see if there are people willing to help me out in compiling the necessary information/decide what the necessary information should be.

If no one is interested in a thread or contributing, I'll still post a guide of what I've been working on for myself by next week or the week after - it won't be as thorough but might be useful in jump-starting a path towards self-improvement.

For the rest of this OP, I shall make a list of things that need to be done and suggestions of areas where self-improvement is desirable:


Everything below is WIP

Guides

Guides are either vague instructions, step-by-step instructions, or tasks that will aid the participant in improving in a specific area.

Categories

• 
  
  Guides are to be ranked as follows for ease of learning:
  
• Novice - Assumes no previous knowledge of the subject
• Intermediate - Assumes completion of novice level guides
• Advanced - Assumes completion of intermediate and novice level guides. Once you've reached this stage, you've acquired enough skills/improved enough and will simply continue to do the same for your own well-being whether it is your regular gym routine, daily meditation, or charity events.
• General - Guides that are applicable to all and/or cannot be defined in levels.

______________

Mind

This sounds like a pretty vague and ill-defined area, but it's just an umbrella term for the various sub-categories which we have pretty decently defined and know how to improve upon.

Creativity

Guides on how to improve your creativity.

Music instrument guides
Vocal singing guides
Drawing guides
Painting guides
Crafts

Memory

Guides on how to improve your memory.

Short-term memory exercises and/or guides
Long-term memory exercises and/or guides
Mental short-cuts and "tricks" to improve short-term and/or long-term memory

Critical thinking

Guides on how to improve your critical thinking.

Guide on common psychological biases and pitfalls and how to avoid them
Guide on researching skills
______________

Body

Probably the easiest over-arching category to fill up, though due to the relatively wide bodily variation between people there might be a need for multiple alternative guides on certain sub-categories.

Strength

Guides on how to improve your strength.

P90X
FitnessGAF-thread

Speed/endurance (maybe should just call it Cardio)

Guides on how improve either your speed/endurance

Jogging
Running

Weight-loss

Guides on how to lose weight.

Low-carb method
Weight-loss through primarily exercise (see exercise related guides)

Balance

Yoga
Balance exercises
______________

Spirit

Considering just combing this category with Mind as I cannot come up with many ways to improve yourself spiritually.

Meditation
Empathy
______________

In addition to these guides, there would be a challenge every week related to one of these three categories. One week you might for an example have to participate in the NeoGAF writing challenge (to improve your creativity and writing skills), and another week you might be asked to help 2-3 strangers for spiritual self-improvement. As with the guides, they would be completely elective, but would probably serve to increase activity and participation in this thread which would in turn increase the odds of people following more guides.

I've thrown up all of this on a Google document that you can access by quoting this, so feel free to add categories and suggestions there too.
If you're interested in writing a guide, then please state for what and when you think you'd be able to complete it.

Completed articles:

Mind
Drawing #1 - Novice
Drawing #2 - Novice
Drawing #3 - Novice
Drawing #4 - Novice
Drawing #5 - Novice
Drawing #6 - Novice

Spirit
Zen meditation - Novice
Yoga - Novice

Body
An introduction to jogging - Novice

 

[lunch]

I don't have anything to add, but I like the idea, and I hope people contribute.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I don't have anything to add, but I like the idea, and I hope people contribute.

That's quite alright, I'm mostly interested in seeing how many would be interested in following this sorta program.
I think I can probably make a good enough program on my own, but I would definitely prefer getting some outside input and help.

 

[bjb]

Don't mean to derail your thread here (as it's quite nice, good work OP), but in mentioning spirit - I personally don't think you can really teach / improve your own empathy. At least not without extensive therapy.

 

[Hawkian]

I believe you meant Meditation, not Mediation, which certainly would also warrant its own guide, but yeah.

I can potentially contribute to the general fitness/weight-loss concept guides, the P90X guide specifically, and maybe some basics on writing (technical/professional/creative), if you wanted to add those..

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Don't mean to derail your thread here (as it's quite nice, good work OP), but in mentioning spirit - I personally don't think you can really teach / improve your own empathy. At least not without extensive therapy.

Yeah, I just put it in there because the spirit section was pretty small.
What I had in mind though was basically increasing compassion to others by doing a good deed or something similar, but I suppose that does not actually improve your empathy if you're already empathic.

I believe you meant Meditation, not Mediation, which certainly would also warrant its own guide, but yeah.

I can potentially contribute to the general fitness/weight-loss concept guides, the P90X guide specifically, and maybe some basics on writing (technical/professional/creative), if you wanted to add those..

Yeah, mediation was what I had in mind but mediation could certainly be a useful skill to have

A P90X guide would be pretty great, especially as there is a lot of information on it here on GAF.
I will be editing everything to fit the same format so you don't have to worry too much about categorizing it as Novice, Intermediate, or Professional as I can just split up any comprehensive guide into these levels.

 

[rkn]

Thought this was a stealth scientology thread.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Thought this was a stealth scientology thread.

Nope, none of that in here.
No offense to any scientologists out there

 

[Charmicarmicat]

Subscribed, definitely interested in getting myself sorted out a bit. I'm starting a better diet and also starting some yoga this week.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Just gonna go ahead and post some WIP guides so that everyone have an idea of what format to follow:

Zen meditation - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 2 weeks
Benefits: Stress relief, Improved perception, Improved spiritual well-being

Preparation

Find yourself a nice and quiet spot where you can meditate, and ensure that you're able to do so without any interuptions. When zen-meditating you need to make sure that your spine is straight and the lower part of the back curved, so chose from one of the following positions or find a position that works for you with the above in mind:

Burmese position

Half lotus position

Full lotus position

Seiza position

Chair position

The reason you'll be sitting like this is in order for you to take deep and slow breaths, so you need to make sure that you're also wearing loose clothes with nothing tight on such as a belt or skinny jeans.
Next you make sure that your mouth is kept closed and breathe through your nose, though if you have a nasal blockage you may of course breathe through your mouth. Press your tongue against the roof of your mouth, this will reduce the need to salivate and swallow which interferes with your meditation, and lower your eyes, resting your gaze on the ground a couple of feet in front of you. Fold your hands as per the picture, or just place them in a comfortable position.

Your goal is to be relaxed, but not sleepy, and keeping your body straight, without tensing your muscles.

Meditation

There are many ways of doing the actual meditation, but for this novice introduction to meditation we shall focus on the breath as per Zen meditation.

Focus on your breath, and breathe in and out from your "stomach" rather than your chest:

It is less strenuous than breathing by expanding your bcage and thus perfect for meditation.
As you breath, you count your breaths in order to maintain focus and keep your mind from thinking all sorts of things. As you get more experienced you can skip this, but until then this is a good way of maintaining inner silence.
As you breathe in, you count 1 in your mind. As you breathe out, you count 2 in your mind. You continue this until you count to 10 in your mind, and then return to 1 again.

So, breath in - 1, breath out - 2, breath in - 3, breathe out - 4, breathe in - 5... and so on.
If you ever get lost counting, you just start over again from 1.

Any scattered thoughts that arise need not be repressed, if you cannot continue focusing on your breath then let that line of thinking run it's full course and then resume your counting and focus on your breath.

Extended reading:

http://lifehacker.com/5591576/a-guide-to-meditation-for-the-rest-of-us
http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Code:

[Level:] Whether or not this guide is suitable for someone with no previous knowledge or experience of the subject/activity.

[Est. daily time:] Approximately, how long they should spend on the activity.

[Est. completion time:] The average time you estimate that they will "graduate" so to speak from the current guide level and move onto the next. If this is an advanced or general level, there is no estimated completion time as you're at meant to incorporate what the guide has taught you into your daily life for the foreseeable future.

[Benefits:] The benefits of following the guide. If people are gonna do something, you should show them why it is a good idea.

[Extended reading:] Any sites/threads you might have used to compile the information, in case someone wants to go to the source and use that instead.
_________________________________

The above guide has been compiled from a number of different "Learn to meditate" sources from around the net, and there's nothing wrong with using that approach so long as you credit the sites you've paraphrased (or copied ). So basically, this program will draw upon all the useful stuff that's already out there and present it in an easily digested format in one single place.

 

[Hawkian]

Hehe, the first guide is on something that isn't even listed in the OP

Kidding of course: very very nice work, my friend.

edit: Damnit, you edited. I'm going to stand in the corner now :'(

 

[Cubsfan23]

besides exercise and such, this is all you need

http://iso-tones.com/SolfeggioHarmonics.mp3


google solfeggio harmonics

 

[Lissar]

I already do a ton of this stuff and have for years, but perhaps I can contribute something. I actually have a blog where I talk about the studying/learning. I really ought to update it.

 

[commedieu]

This is a good thread Op. I need help in the meditation department for sure. Can't quite silence the mind.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Hehe, the first guide is on something that isn't even listed in the OP

Kidding of course: very very nice work, my friend.

edit: Damnit, you edited. I'm going to stand in the corner now :'(

Never underestimate my editing skills

The guide only took about 15 minutes to make, which bodes well for this entire program.

Going by the OP, we need approximately 20-60 guides (depending on what levels we make them for). I suggest we just do novice guides to start with and then move onto intermediate and advanced ones (which aren't even applicable in some areas, the meditation novice guide above for an example feels pretty complete, and the advanced stuff I have in mind are alternative meditation techniques).

Assuming each guide take 15-60 minutes to write up, we are looking at a total of 5 to 60 hours divided between however many are interested in contributing.

 

[VALIS]

This is a good thread Op. I need help in the meditation department for sure. Can't quite silence the mind.

Practice, maybe read a little on how other people do it. One of the keys is not to get distressed or distracted when you have random thoughts popping into your head, because of course you will. Calmly watch them come and go them like you were an observer watching someone walk down the street.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Practice, maybe read a little on how other people do it. One of the keys is not to get distressed or distracted when you have random thoughts popping into your head, because of course you will. Calmly watch them come and go them like you were an observer watching someone walk down the street.

Yep, it's all about practice. Even if you're just sitting still for a couple of minute a day you'll eventually improve.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Drawing #1 - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 1 week
Benefits: Increased creativity, improved drawing skills

This first of many lessons will serve as an introduction to the art of drawing.
While you can draw with a number of different tools such as charcoal, pens, ink feathers, and more, we shall be focusing on the simple pencil.

The basic basics

Before you start drawing, it's a tremendous help to get the basics of drawing in order.
To start with, you want to learn to use a wide variety of different pencils. Pens come in different "hardness", signified by a number-letter combination ranging from 2H (hardest) to 6B (softest). The hardness of the pen can determine how fine your lines and how dark your shadows will be among many other things.

When it comes to erasing, you can go with a regular erases, or try your hands at a "kneaded eraser", which leave no annoying crumbs and can be better used for erasing and lightening various parts of your drawing by shaping it into a point or a wedge.

Of course, you also need some paper.

There are other tools that might come in handy when it comes to drawing, but for now all you need is a set of pens of varying hardness, eraser, and lots and lots of paper.

Discover what kind of drawer you are

People use their hands in different ways, one really apparent example of this is left versus right handedness. But in addition to what hand you will primary use when drawing, there are plenty of other differences between different drawers.

One of these is your natural hand movement.

Try your hand at drawing multiple sets of slanted straight lines using different hand movements, positions, and pencil positions. Some methods you'll find uncomfortable, and you'd be wise to ignore these, while other ways of drawing the slanted lines will feel more comfortable - these are the ones that are representative of your most natural hand movement and should be focused on.

Now that you know which way to hold your pen and move your hand to draw the perfect line, you should try your hand at this one simple trick of drawing lines in a direction that was uncomfortable the previous exercise:

Rotation.

Instead of trying to use different hand movements to draw lines in different directions, you can just rotate your piece of paper and draw your lines with your ideal hand movement in any direction!

Try your hand at drawing some lines in multiple directions by rotating your piece of paper or notebook. If you keep it up, you'll soon be rotating your paper without even thinking about it!

Curves

So you've learned the basics of how to draw lines, but if you're going to be a full-fledged drawer you need to learn how to do curves.

Use a finger to follow the outline of these two circles.
Whichever one feels the most comfortable is the one you should have in mind when drawing your circles.

Now do the same with the following shapes.

If you find it more comfortable to start at A and moving to B, then you probably prefer to draw things in the clockwise direction when it comes to curves. If you prefer to start at B and move in the direction towards A then the opposite is probably the case.

Compound curved lines curve in both directions, so you need to take care of figuring out when you're moving from a clockwise movement to a counterclockwise movement (where the arrow meets the curved line). If you rotate your piece of paper you can ensure that you use your natural clockwise or counterclockwise drawing style for compound shapes too.

Homework

What's left to do now is to just practice drawing lines, curved lines, compound curved lines, and circular shapes until you nail it. Just remember to use rotation and don't forget what your natural hand movement is.

Extended reading:

http://www.drawspace.com/

Next guide:

Drawing #2 - Novice

 

[SquiddyCracker]

That article was a bit of a challenge, as I am completely clueless when it comes to drawing.
But Lissar thinks it's okay so it'll have to do.

As can be seen from this particular one, it's possible to give a particular topic multiple guides if it requires it.

 

[danwarb]

Learning piano provides a good insight into how memory works and the function of consciousness. For example, you can quickly learn music by rote and almost as quickly forget, or you can really analyse your music to create a more robust experience/memory to call upon.

You can really feel huge differences in performance and concentration as your state of health changes too. Even if you don't sound all that different.

It's also pretty relaxing.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

An introduction to jogging - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 30 minutes (3 days a week)
Est. completion time: 8 weeks
Benefits: Reduction of the risk of heart diseases, weight loss, improved stamina

Before you start running

Getting the right running shoes for your foot type is crucial for comfort and injury prevention . Visit a specialty running store to get expert advice on buying the right running shoes.

Before you start your workouts, make sure you warm up properly by walking for five to 10 minutes. You should always end your workout with a cool-down.

Running

There's nothing to it really aside from just putting one leg in front of another, so what follows next in this guide is a simple guide that should work for most if not all people.

• Week one: Walk for six minutes, then jog at an easy pace for one minute. Repeat three times. Aim for three sessions with that same sequence for week one.
  
• Week two: Walk for five minutes, then jog for two minutes. Repeat three times. Aim to do three sessions in week two.
  
• Week three: Walk for three minutes, then jog for four minutes. Repeat four times. Aim for three sessions in week three.
  
• Week four: Walk for two minutes, then jog for five minutes. Repeat four times. Shoot for three of those sessions in week four.
  
• Week five: Walk for two minutes, then jog for eight minutes. Repeat three times. Do three of those sessions in week five.
  
• Week six: Walk for two minutes, then jog for nine minutes. Repeat three times. Try to do three sessions for week six.
  
• Week seven: Walk for one minute, then jog for 11 minutes. Repeat three times. Do three sessions this week.
  
• Week eight: Congratulations on making it to week eight! For your first run this week, try walking for five minutes to begin and end the workout, and run for 20 minutes in between. By the end of the week, try to run for 30 minutes without stopping.

Aim to run for 30 minutes three times a week, and you'll notice that your stamina and fitness will continue to improve. Soon you'll be ready to run your first marathon!

Extended reading:

http://running.about.com/od/getstartedwithrunning/ht/getstarted.htm

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Pretty simple guide, yet it can be built upon with intermediate and advanced guides on for an example HiIT and how to prepare for a marathon.

Learning piano provides a good insight into how memory works and the function of consciousness. For example, you can quickly learn music by rote and almost as quickly forget, or you can really analyse your music to create a more robust experience/memory to call upon.

You can really feel huge differences in performance and concentration as your state of health changes too. Even if you don't sound all that different.

Yeah, that's why the recommendation will be that you do pretty much everything.
If you work at both your body, your mind, and your spirit, you gain so much more than if you were to just work on one of the things.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

That's enough guides for one day, I hope they've given people a good idea of what to write and how relatively effortless this whole endeavor is.

I've gotten plenty of interested contributors and participants so hopefully this will get off the ground.

 

[Cyan]

Aim to run for 30 minutes three times a week, and you'll notice that your stamina and fitness will continue to improve. Soon you'll be ready to run your first marathon!

 

[SquiddyCracker]

D:

Everything is WIP in this thread and not indicative of the final mind/body/spirit self-improvement program thread that shall be created once we've gathered enough introductory guides that participants can follow for a wholesome improvement.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

For a guide to meditation just read Mindfulness in Plain English. Bhante Gunaratana's Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English is also great if you would like to go down the path of concentrative meditation.

 

[Cyan]

D:

Don't worry, your write-up is fine. I'm just in yet another no-running-due-to-injury period. It's kind of... frustrating.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

For a guide to meditation just read Mindfulness in Plain English. Bhante Gunaratana's Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English is also great if you would like to go down the path of concentrative meditation.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out and see if there's anything I can add on the novice level. Gotta do some intermediate/advanced stuff as well so different types of meditation should fit in well.

It's kinda a bit of a horizontal progression rather than a vertical one, but the nature of the improvement kinda requires that. So keep that in mind if you're interested in writing up a guide on something that you cannot easily see in terms of incremental steps.

Don't worry, your write-up is fine. I'm just in yet another no-running-due-to-injury period. It's kind of... frustrating.

Oh, okay then. Alternative guides for people with injuries or other impairments might be in place, we'll just see if I or someone else can write something up for that.

In other news, I'm considering holding brainstorming sessions in Google+ hangouts for anyone interested.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Drawing #2 - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 1 week
Benefits: Increased creativity, improved drawing skills

Shapes

By now you should be an expert at drawing lines, circles, curves, and more!
So it's time to put these skills into practice by drawing a relatively complex object:

Observation

Now, before you start drawing a duck, it's worth taking a closer look at the various basic shapes that build up the duck.

The body of the duck has a kidney like shape, the head is round, the little candle wick at the top of the duck's head is shaped like a rectangle, and the break has a roughly triangular shape.

Additionally, you'll find that these shapes are a tremendous help when it comes to making sure that what you're drawing is proportional:

Time to draw

Now you can either try to sketch using this candle duck, or any other object you feel like drawing (keep it simple for now, we won't be drawing fruit bowls just yet). As you sketch, visually break down each part of the object into its simple shape, measure the proportions, and constantly check the relationships of lines and spaces to one another. If you're unhappy with any of your lines or shapes you draw, simply erase that section, redraw it, and keep on going. Remember to to use your rotation technique you were taught in the previous lesson, so that you will always draw in the direction that is most natural for your hand.

A couple of final tips is to always keep your pencil sharpened, taking your time as speed is not a factor, and not pressing down too hard with your pencils.

Homework

Draw a couple of objects a day with everything above in mind. Remember that you are a master painter in making, so do not fret over any mistakes you make - just erase them and re-draw!

Extended reading:

http://www.drawspace.com/

Next guide:
Drawing #3 - Novice

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Drawing #3 - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 1 week
Benefits: Increased creativity, improved drawing skills

Symmetry and illusions

There is a very simple trick to drawing symmetrically, and once you've learnt it you'll be able to so much better draw something like this koala:

To start with, we need to imagine a center-line right down the middle, and as your paper is divided up into two halves you pick one (whichever side you feel is more comfortable to draw) and start drawing the first half of a picture.

Now it is advisable that you actually draw a center-line down the middle of the paper as you can easily erase it later on. We can see the beginnings of a shape in this picture, but we need to add a little bit more complexity to make it a challenge:

Now keep in mind everything you've previously been taught when it comes to how to draw lines, don't be afraid to rotate the picture to get the lines right.

Let's add another curved line.

Add several straight lines inside the space created by the two lower curved lines. Rotate the paper to ensure that each line is angled as appears on this picture.

Your goal is now to draw a mirror image of everything you've so far drawn, directly opposite of the current half you've been working on. Drawing upside down or sideways makes it easier to create the mirror copy and also exercises your right brain hemisphere. If you're left handed for an example, you might find it easier to just rotate the image like in the bottom left example below:

A fun and mind-bending application of symmetrical drawings is the creation of the classic face and vase illusion:

Simply create a mirror of the face below, and then join the top and the bottom of the two faces with straight lines to create an illusion.

For a stronger effect, you can fill in either the faces or the space between them with a pencil.

Homework

Enhance your artistic development by practicing these symmetry exercises. Once you are done with them, try creating your own symmetry drawings and try your hand at creating some visual illusions as well.

Extended reading:

http://www.drawspace.com/

Next guide:
Drawing #4 - Novice

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Drawing #4 - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 1 week
Benefits: Increased creativity, improved drawing skills

Values

For this lesson it is suggested that you have pencils of the following hardness: 2H, HB, 4B, and 6B. In addition to these pencils, both a hard vinyl eraser and a kneaded eraser (remember Drawing #1!) will come in handy.

Values are the different shades of gray created by various means, such as when you draw by varying both the density of the shading lines, and the pressure used in holding your pencil. This is essential to realistic drawings, and in this guide you will learn how to recognize angled, curved and/or straight lines which make up hatching and crosshatching sets; and identifying and shading different values.

Lines become shading

You may have noticed that a lot of shading is on a closer look multiple lines in varying patterns. Below you can see an example of lines drawn roughly parallel to eachother, which is a technique called "hatching"

Crosshatching is a related but more advanced technique of drawing these sets of parallel lines in an overlapping pattern - which allows the drawer to create many different types of shading:

Now you give these two techniques a go, try recreating every one of the above patterns. You'll notice that the bigger the gap is between the lines, the light the shading is, and vice verse - so make use of this knowledge!

Shading spaces

In the following four examples, you'll combine lines and shapes in a drawing and then add shading to it. You first observe closely the lines you see within each drawing space, and then identify the values used for shading. Finally, you draw the lines and values you see in the spaces provided. Remember what you already know when it comes to lines, and draw them as per your personal preferences. When you then shade in these shapes, you can either use multiple pens of varying hardness for lighter and darker values, or you can just use a 2B pencil and vary the density of your hatchet and crosshatchet lines, as well as the pressure used in holding your pencil, in order to achieve many different values.

Homework

Look up different drawings with the aid of the Internet and try recreating the various values you find in them using what you have learned in this guide.

Extended reading:

http://www.drawspace.com/

Next guide:

Drawing #5 - Novice

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Drawing #5 - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 1 week
Benefits: Increased creativity, improved drawing skills

Complex shapes and shading

In this guide you will apply your knowledge of lines, shapes, and values, to create a realistic drawing of a horse head:

You use the same basic method with the head of the horse that you used with the duck shaped candle:

Identify your various basic shapes:

Add ears onto this collection of basic shapes, and then a neck. Once you've put together everything, you start shaping the head of the horse using a rubber and pencil to re-draw lines more like the original photo:

We can already see the head of a horse appear, but so far we've only been doing the basic outline of the head:

Now you add the eyes as seen above, remember to draw the eyelashes angled downwards rather than outwards. Leave empty spots in your shading of the eye, or simply add them in by using an eraser :

Similarly, create the nose using simple hatchet lines and erase and re-draw the contour of the muzzle to make it more realistic:

Next we add some shading to the inside of the ears of the horse, and create a simple mane:

But the face of the horse is still relatively flat, so with the aid of hatchet lines of varying darkness we'll create an illusion of 3D:

Continue the mane down the neck of the horse and add some shading here and there to your picture for some final touches:

Congratulations!
You've now completed a drawing of a horse, doesn't it look close to the original photo?

Homework

Practice makes an artist, so now you need to apply what you've been taught and create a drawing of the following picture:

Feel free to look up other animals and give drawing them a shot as well.

Extended reading:

http://www.drawspace.com/

 

[Prez]

This is not going to amount to anything. You're taking too much at once which usually doesn't work to develop new habits. Take it slow, one thing at a time. You can be ambitious, but don't get too ambitious. Planning all this stuff can be very exciting, but you have to make sure you actually make a change in your life which is much much harder.

This is all very familiar to me. For me working on one small thing at a time has proven to be successful. It can take a few months for a new activity to become a habit. It's near impossible to make many changes at a time.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

This is not going to amount to anything. You're taking too much at once which usually doesn't work to develop new habits. Take it slow, one thing at a time and you can be ambitious, but watch our you're not too ambitious.

Planning all this stuff can be very exciting, but you have to make sure you actually make a change in your life which is much much harder.

You make a very good point.

That's the reason I'm attempting to create very easy introductory guides, so that people won't feel like they're taking too much at once.

People will then be able to either freely pick and choose from the available guides if they're interested in improving something in particular, or follow a pre-determined plan that will make you stronger, faster, remember better, more creative, and more spiritually in touch with one self - and only demand 30 minutes to 2 hours of your attention everyday.

 

[makingmusic476]

I very much like the spirit of this thread, and will likely be looking to it re: meditation and whatnot.

I'm already focusing on other areas of my life (fitness/diet, learning how to program, and learning Japanese), and that's the last major area I'd really like to invest some time into (aside from hopefully learning more languages down the road - one at a time, of course!).

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I very much like the spirit of this thread, and will likely be looking to it re: meditation and whatnot.

I'm already focusing on other areas of my life (fitness/diet, learning how to program, and learning Japanese), and that's the last major area I'd really like to invest some time into (aside from hopefully learning more languages down the road - one at a time, of course!).

Glad to see more interested people!

I shall return to the more spiritually-focused guides once I'm done with this initial batch of drawing guides.

 

[Chunky]

Thanks for linking to that drawing site, should be very useful :T
I'll have a crack at meditation later as well, see if I can silence the tempest of my unfettered mind (lol)

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Thanks for linking to that drawing site, should be very useful :T
I'll have a crack at meditation later as well, see if I can silence the tempest of my unfettered mind (lol)

Meditation is dead easy.
The only problem is that it can feel boring the first couple of times
A way to work around that little hurdle is to only meditate for 10 minutes or so the first time, and just increase it by 5 minute increments as you get used to the silence.

 

[Prez]

James Altucher has some great advice for short meditations. It's hard to dedicate 20 minutes at a time on meditating, but everyone has moments of waiting all the time (in the elevator, waiting for the bus, walking, etc.). We don't think of this time as free time though because we distract ourself with our gadgets all the time, looking at our phone or listening to music. Spend some of that time on meditation instead.

Everybody has an ongoing dialogue running in their head all day long. The dialog consists of all the things they are working on, all the things they are afraid of, all of the things that bother them, all the plans and machinations they are in the middle of, etc and wanders all over for hours or even days at a time. Meditation helps break out of that for a few seconds at a time so you can see it for what it all is. Nothing. At least, nothing you should waste hundreds of hours of your life obsessing on.

But, again, its unrealistic to expect people to spend 20 minutes, twice a day, to “practice” this ability to detach. People just can’t sit still. I can’t.

But that’s fine. I think the idea of meditating for so long is a more Eastern world concept. Here’s the Western version. Its just like dieting. Instead of having 2 or 3 huge meals a day, why not break it down into 6 smaller meals spaced throughout the day. Or 10 smaller meals?

Personally, I think if you do a 60 second meditation, 10 to 20 times a day, Buddha would approve. And if you happen to figure out how to astral project while you are doing this, please call me.

Here’s some 60 second meditations you can practice.

- Elevator. In an elevator filled with people, take a deep breath, feel your anxiety at not being able to look at your blackberry (everyone else on the elevator is looking at theirs even though there is no reception). Where is the anxiety being felt on your body. How many deep breaths can you do before the elevator reaches its destination.

- Waiting. If you are on line at the store (or waiting for a bus, subway, or stuck in a traffic jam, etc) and feel like you are in a rush, take a deep breath again, ask yourself where you are feeling the pain of being in a rush. Is it in your stomach? Is it in your chest? Your face? Don’t judge it. Just feel it.

- Waking. When you wake up, take three deep breaths, count them. Try to list all of the things you hear that moment. Do you hear cars outside? Birds? Your house creaking? Kids downstairs?

- Alien. Imagine that you are an alien from outerspace and you were just transported into this body (“Quantum Leap” style). You have no idea who you are and you have to start with a completely blank slate. Spend the next minute figuring it out. Do this one five times a day. “Who am I?” “Where am I?” “Who are these people around me?” Figure it out.

- Dishes. Washing dishes is a great one. Stop yourself from daydreaming. Really try to do a good job washing each dish. Not a speck on them. Focus! You just missed a spot! Your only purpose in life is to wash the one dish you are currently working on.

- Surrender. Spend sixty seconds completely dedicating this day to whatever higher power you want to believe in (The Force, God, the Tao, The Supreme Alien Intelligence from the Black Hole that’s at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, etc). They are going to take over your body and mind and do their thing today. Hand over the keys to your body and mind during those sixty seconds and know that today will be dedicated to doing their mission. You are just the vehicle.

- Gratitude. Make a list in your head of all the people in your life you are grateful for. Only takes a few minutes, drastically reduces stress.

- Hate. Think of one person you really hate. Now, truly and sincerely wish him the best in your head. This person is just trying to get through life also. Maybe they’ve lost some money, or maybe they are lonely. But there is some suffering that caused them to do the things they did. Wish him or her the best. And mean it. (Don’t pity them. Everyone is suffering. Wish them the best.)

- Tense. Tense every muscle in your body for 5 seconds. Tense as much as you can. Then relax. Feels better, right? Do it again.

- Walking. When you are walking around in the city, if you are anything like me you probably hate most of the people who you pass, even if you don’t know them or have never seen them before. Catch yourself doing that. Try the reverse. Try liking all of them. Not in a patronizing way (i.e. don’t give anyone sympathy). But try to really like them.

These all work and are just as valid as the 6 hour meditations any Tibetan guru is doing in his cave. Heck, in our world we have the added advantage that we are truly stressed out of our minds with work, family, mortgages, responsibilities. This “practice” will have real practical results (although probably not my original goal from back when I was 12 years old).

Try it out. Let me know any other sixty second meditations you might figure out.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2010/1...-and-achieving-nirvana-in-60-seconds-or-less/

Here another one on changing your life:

My ONLY Three Goals in Life

A) I want to be happy.

B) I want to eradicate unhappiness in my life.

C) I want every day to be as smooth as possible. No hassles.

That’s it. I’m not asking for much. I need simple goals else I can’t achieve them.

There’s been at least ten times in my life that everything seemed so low I felt like I would never achieve the above three things and the world would be better off without me. Other times I felt like I was stuck at a crossroads and would never figure out which road to take. Each time I bounced back.

When I look back at these times now I realize there was a common thread. Each time there were four things, and only four things, that were always in place in order for me to bounce back. Now I try to incorporate these four things into a daily practice so I never dip low again.

THE DAILY PRACTICE

A) Physical – being in shape. Doing some form of exercise. In 2003 I woke up at 5am every day and from 5-6am I played “Round the World” on a basketball court overlooking the Hudson River. Every day (except when it rained). Trains would pass and people at 5:30am would wave to me out the window. Now, I try to do yoga every day. But its hard. All you need to do, minimally, is exercise enough to break a sweat for 10 minutes. So about 20-30 minutes worth of exercise a day. This is not to get “ripped” or “shredded”. But just to be healthy. You can’t be happy if you aren’t healthy. Also, spending this time helps your mind better deal with its daily anxieties. If you can breathe easy when your body is in pain then its easier to breathe during difficult situations. Here’s other things that are a part of this but a little bit harder:

Wake up by 4-5am every day.
Go to sleep by 8:30-9. (Good to sleep 8 hours a night!)
No eating after 5:30pm. Can’t be happy if indigested at night.

B) Emotional – If someone is a drag on me, I cut them out. If someone lifts me up, I bring them closer. Nobody is sacred here. When the plane is going down, put the oxygen mask on your face first. Family, friends, people I love – I always try to be there for them and help. But I don’t get close to anyone bringing me down. This rule can’t be broken. Energy leaks out of you if someone is draining you. And I never owe anyone an explanation. Explaining is draining.

Another important rule: always be honest. Its fun. Nobody is honest anymore and people are afraid of it. Try being honest for a day (without being hurtful). Its amazing where the boundaries are of how honest one can be. Its much bigger than I thought. A corollary of this is: I never do anything I don’t want to do. Like I NEVER go to weddings.

C) Mental – Every day I write down ideas. I write down so many ideas that it hurts my head to come up with one more. Then I try to write down five more. The other day I tried to write 100 alternatives kids can do other than go to college. I wrote down eight, which I wrote about here. I couldn’t come up with anymore. Then the next day I came up with another 40. It definitely stretched my head. No ideas today? Memorize all the legal 2 letter words for Scrabble. Translate the Tao Te Ching into Spanish. Need ideas for lists of ideas? Come up with 30 separate chapters for an “autobiography”. Try to think of 10 businesses you can start from home (and be realistic how you can execute them)? Give me 10 ideas of directions this blog can go in. Think of 20 ways Obama can improve the country. List every productive thing you did yesterday (this improves memory also and gives you ideas for today).

The “idea muscle” atrophies within days if you don’t use it. Just like walking. If you don’t use your legs for a week, they atrophy. You need to exercise the idea muscle. It takes about 3-6 months to build up once it atrophies. Trust me on this.

D) Spiritual. I feel that most people don’t like the word “spiritual”. They think it means “god”. Or “religion”. But it doesn’t. I don’t know what it means actually. But I feel like I have a spiritual practice when I do one of the following:

Pray (doesn’t matter if I’m praying to a god or to dead people or to the sun or to a chair in front of me – it just means being thankful. And not taking all the credit, for just a few seconds of the day).
Meditate – Meditation for more than a few minutes is hard. It’s boring. Here I give tips for 60 second meditations. You can also meditate for 15 seconds by really visualizing what it would be like meditate for 60 minutes. Here’s a simple meditation: sit in a chair, keep the back straight, watch yourself breathe. If you get distracted, no problem. Just pull yourself back to your breath. Try it for 5 minutes. Then six.
Being grateful – I try to think of everyone in my life I’m grateful for. Then I try to think of more people. Then more. Its hard.
Forgiving – I picture everyone who has done me wrong. I visualize gratefulness for them (but not pity).
Studying. If I read a spiritual text (doesn’t matter what it is: Bible, Tao Te Ching, anything Zen related, even inspirational self-help stuff, doesn’t matter) I tend to feel good. This is not as powerful as praying or meditating (it doesn’t train your mind to cut out the BS) but it still makes me feel good.
My own experience: I can never achieve the three “simple” goals on a steady basis without doing the above practice on a daily basis. And EVERY TIME I’ve hit bottom (or close to a bottom, or I’ve been at some sort of crossroads.) and started dong the above 4 items (1991, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2006, 2008) magic would happen:

The Results

A) Within about one month, I’d notice coincidences start to happen. I’d start to feel lucky. People would smile at me more.

B) Within three months the ideas would really start flowing, to the point where I felt overwhelming urges to execute the ideas.

C) Within six months, good ideas would start flowing, I’d begin executing them, and everyone around me would help me put everything together.

D) Within a year my life was always completely different. 100% upside down from the year before. More money, more luck, more health, etc. And then I’d get lazy and stop doing the practice. And everything falls apart again. But now I’m trying to do it every day.

Its hard to do all of this every day. Nobody is perfect. I don’t know if I’ll do all of these things today. But I know when I do it, it works.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-guy-on-the-planet-in-4-easy-steps/

 

[SquiddyCracker]

James Altucher has some great advice for short meditations. It's hard to dedicate 20 minutes at a time on meditating, but everyone has moments of waiting all the time (in the elevator, waiting for the bus, walking, etc.). We don't think of this time as free time though because we distract ourself with our gadgets all the time, looking at our phone or listening to music. Spend some of that time on meditation instead.



http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2010/1...-and-achieving-nirvana-in-60-seconds-or-less/

Here another one on changing your life:



http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-guy-on-the-planet-in-4-easy-steps/

Western-style meditation is pretty interesting. I'll throw in a version of it as well, but will recommend people do zen meditation as most of the research has focused on that and shown concrete benefits.

 

[Cyan]

When you are walking around in the city, if you are anything like me you probably hate most of the people who you pass, even if you don’t know them or have never seen them before.

wat

 

[SquiddyCracker]

wat

Sounds to me like that's written by a New Yorker

He's probably not the ideal person to copy, but some of the ideas are good examples of western meditation.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Drawing #6 - Novice

Level: Novice
Est. daily time: 15-30 minutes
Est. completion time: 1 week
Benefits: Increased creativity, improved drawing skills

Light and shadow

Before we get started it might be useful to get a general understanding of some of the terms used in art:

• Light source is the direction from which a dominant light originates. A light source identifies the light and shadow areas of a drawing subject, so artists know where to add different values.
  
• Shadows are the sections of objects or living beings that recieve little or no light. Shadows are shaded with medium and dark values.
  
• Shape refers to the outward outline of a form. Basic shapes include circles, squares, and triangles.
  
• Forms are the three-dimensional structures of shapes. In drawings, shading and perspective are used to transform a shape into a three-dimensional structure, such as a circle becoming a sphere or a square becoming a cube.
  
• Shading (noun) refers to the various values in a drawing that make images appear three-dimensional; (verb) the process of adding values to a drawing so as to create the illusion of texture, form, and/or three-dimensional space.
  
• Perspective is a visual illusion in a drawing in which objects appear to become smaller, and recede into distant space, the further aware they are from the viewer.
  
• Values are different shades of gray, created in a drawing by various means, which come together as shading to transform shapes into forms.
  
• Cast shadow is a dark section on an adjacent surface of an object that receives little or no light. The values of a cast shadow are darkest next to the object and become gradually lighter further away.
  
• Reflected light is a faint light reflected or bounced back on an object from those surfaces that are close to and around it.
  
• Highlight identifies the brightest area of a form where light bounces off its surface; usually the section closest to the light source.

So let's take a quick look at the picture below before we go deeper:

The simple circle is changed into both a sphere, and a planet as light shading and shadows are added with a full range of values according to a light source from the upper left of the picture.

Highlight the highlight

What we have in the above picture is a highlight, a white circular shape in the center of the lightest shading as per the direction we imagine the light source being:

Highlights can be any size and do not have to be circular. As a matter of fact, their sizes and shapes vary considerably, based on the type of light source, and the forms of the object on which they appear.

The drawing of this dagger has more than twenty highlights of different sizes and shapes that help contribute to a three-dimensional appearance and realism. Twelve of these highlights have been noted below:

If we look closer, we see as many as twelve different highlights:


Noting the dark values of shadow sections

The surfaces of objects that are farther away from the light source gradually become darker and darker. The darkest shading on the surface of a form tends to be in areas where the light has been blocked by the form itself (or by another object).

In the right sphere in the above picture, look for the dark crescent shaped shadow on the lower right of the sphere. If we increase the contrast of this picture, we get a much clearer example of this crescent shaped shadow (the right sphere).

Realistic drawings of human facial forms are highly dependent on the accurate placement of shadows.

In the above picture, the light is partially blocked from reaching the six marked shadow sections. Hence they need to be rendered with darker shading than the sections that are lit up by the light source.

Reflected light

The final part of this guide will revolve around an effect that can be a little tricky to spot and create.

Reflected light is most noticeable on a simple sphere. The reflected light is the light that's bouncing back from the light surface on which the sphere is sitting.

When you know how to add reflected light to your drawings, many independant forms, such as faces, noses, and arms will look more realistic and three-dimensional as can be seen in the picture below:

Valuing cast shadows

The light source in the drawings of the sphere and the grape above is from the upper left. The light on the adjacent surfaces are blocked by these objects, resulting in cast shadows on the right. When you draw these cast shadows, take note of the shape of the forms which are blocking the light so that the shadow is representative of the object as can be seen in the drawing of the grape.

The light source in the giraffe drawing above is slightly behind and to the left. The cast shadows are thus long and thing like his legs. Take note that the values of cast shadows are darkest right next to the object's lower edge, and become gradually lighter farther away. How and where you draw a cast shadow, can create the illusion that objects are either touching or separated from adjacent surfaces.

The first sphere in the above drawing is sitting on the surface, thus its cast shadow is darker and partially covered by the sphere itself. To make the sphere appear to be floating, one simply detach the shadow from the sphere and make it lighter.

Homework

Find everyday objects, position a light so that they cast shadows, and attempt to draw the object and its shadow with everything you've been taught in this guide in mind.

Extended reading:

http://www.drawspace.com/

Next guide:
TBA

 

[Prez]

Western-style meditation is pretty interesting. I'll throw in a version of it as well, but will recommend people do zen meditation as most of the research has focused on that and shown concrete benefits.

How do you do Zen meditation? Do you have to think about something specific or are supposed to clear your mind and think about nothing at all?

edit: never mind, didn't see the post about Zen meditation.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

How do you do Zen meditation? Do you have to think about something specific or are supposed to clear your mind and think about nothing at all?

It's not quite thinking about nothing at all, but simply being aware of your breath alone.
Yeah, you can check post #10.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Update

Each guide in a series now have a link to the next guide in the series at the very bottom of the guide (Thanks for that suggestion lissar!)

The OP also has a list of the so-far completed guides if you scroll down.

Please do let me know if you're interested in anything particular, as I'm kinda stumped as to what to make a guides about. Any suggestions in the spiritual category would be more than welcome!

 

[BocoDragon]

Does anyone have any suggestions about which form of yoga (physical asanas) I should practice? I also practice meditation in a Zen tradition, so if something were especially complimentary to that, I'd love to know.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Does anyone have any suggestions about which form of yoga (physical asanas) I should practice? I also practice meditation in a Zen tradition, so if something were especially complimentary to that, I'd love to know.

In a way Zazen and Yoga (regardless of position) are very complimentary to each other as the goals are quite similar - a detachment of your ego and unification with the cosmos.
Practically though, you'll want to look at positions that enable the breathing characteristic to Zen meditation.

I will throw up an introductory guide to yoga soon, as I think it's a good idea to practice both that and meditation in order to improve oneself both physically and spiritually.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

Does anyone have any suggestions about which form of yoga (physical asanas) I should practice? I also practice meditation in a Zen tradition, so if something were especially complimentary to that, I'd love to know.

I would begin with something like Iyengar yoga as the emphasis there is on just developing the postures correctly. Then you can go on to something more challenging like Ashtanga Yoga. I don't actually practice yoga but when I was researching it that was the conclusion that I came to.