u/watership-down

By "spirit team" I mean like spirit guides or who have your best interest at heart. Those spirits can include your ancestors, nature spirits, deities, infernals, spirit guides etc. I don't think I've found any reliable sources that explained this yet but why do we have a spirit team? What would be the spirit team's incentive for helping us, why us? Where do they come from and how are they selected? Do they pick the person they help, or were we assigned to them by some higher powers? Do these spirits help any other living humans simultaneously?

Especially before you started dabbling in magic and divinations. What if you were new to spirituality and never worked with a deity/spirit nor did a divination before? And then you smoke cleanse your divination tools and say "I am only speaking to my spirit team..." like do you even have a spirit team at that point? Who are you addressing then? Maybe your ancestors who may always have been with you, or maybe like local spirits or something else you unintentionally caught the attention of for some reason, and they were just waiting for you to talk to them? I did divination for the first time and wondered who are these people in my "spirit team" answering, turns out none of them were ancestors of mine, and turns out there are some deities in there though I never even worshipped them or thought of them.

For me, ironically despite doing ancestral work, no one in my spirit team is an ancestor of mine. So "they're your ancestors so of course they want you to thrive" doesn't apply for every case either.

I have a bunch that I bought over a year ago when I didn't know they can raise your blood pressure. They still smell very sweet.

I know that wood chips like agarwood and sandalwood are often used, and you can make loose herbal incense blends to burn as well. But the licorice root chips as either of these? Has anyone tried them and know the best method to use it?

I have a little pot I put a charcoal disc in and then place a tinfoil cup on top of it where I add resins to softly burn without too much smoke, and also a ceramic tealight burner. Anyone used these before for licorice root? The root are just little chips, should I grind them into powder first?

I use a birthday candle for a spell (lasts like 10-20 minutes) and use a pinch of each herb (like 1 allspice berry, 3 cloves, a pinch of cinnamon) for each spell. Like all the herbs I am using can probably fit in the palm of my hands. I often burn the herbs too in a small cauldron and there is only so much I can burn before risking the fire alarm going off.

Yet I looked at photos of other people's herbal blends and candles and why are they so big??? Is there a tendency where the more burn time or more herbs, the more powerful the spell?

Is there something I am missing out on by not going bigger, or is my current practice sufficient? I do a spell like once a week.

I've had my personal trainer for like a year and I only stopped because I moved, and I am now shopping for a new one in my new city. But then I wondered how long I should work with one, and if it's common to just have a PT forever. I don't know anyone else who even goes to personal trainers regularly, just me. I don't tell anyone in my personal life I have a PT because I hear a lot of "you can work out by yourself" and "waste of money" but they probably just have different priorities than I do.

I usually go once a week or twice if the PT has time, and then do other stuff like pilates, group fitness classes, walking everywhere.

I can work out on my own, but I don't. The personal trainer is mostly for accountability and having someone to push me, pace the exercise, check my posture, and let me turn my brain off since they're the ones who plan the workout. It's not like my PTs were always trying something new with me either (or something gimmicky), but the tried and true basic movements and "boring" exercises that they rotated throughout the weeks.

I am not some CEO or doctor who makes six figures either where $140/pop is chump change, but I know that I am not going to exercise as much otherwise. Wondering if there are more clients like me than not.

I am debating having a membership at E for like 6 months (since I am already an Equinox member), and thinking of trying the full comprehensive program there for fitness training. It includes the 24 or 48 sessions with a Tier X coach, and the assessment includes a sleep test, posture test, more advanced InBody machine (I think model 770) on top of the usual Equifit assessment you get with a personal trainer, a meal planner who makes meals for you, and even referral to physical therapist if you need one, and so on. Has anyone done this before and how does it compare to just the regular Equifit with the regular inbody machine?

I am also wondering if the Coach X trainers at E are particularly better because I know from experience (at least in Chicago) that Equinox trainers weren't necessarily better (at least the Tier 3 ones, I worked with two others who were decent but I don't remember what tier they were, and they went to school for kinesiology and exercise science, not just a PT cert alone).

My current routine is a membership at Equinox ($530/month) on top of a Tier Coach+ trainer, private pilates/gyrotonics, group classes with mat pilates, ballet, yoga. I am already eating low carb (I am prediabetic) and working with a doctor. I am just wondering if trying the program at E is worthwhile. I am particularly interested in the posture analysis machine but maybe I can just get that done at a physical therapy clinic or something.

It's expensive yeah but if they're good value that really makes a difference, I would give it a shot.

Located in Manhattan, I am looking at private 1-on-1 pilates for $110-115, and personal training for $140, is that too much or just right?

I am not from NYC and used to pay $100/session for private training of each kind.

How much should I expect to pay for a private pilates session and a fitness training session from a trainer who isn't new/green?

I use oil tincture (around 10mg THC + 10mg CBN) to go to sleep and within an hour or two, I would feel the body high and then fall sleep. I started using THC again once I passed 2 weeks to test it out.

It's past week 5 for me, and starting around week 4-5, I stopped noticing the effects of THC. I am not a daily user either, and when I used to use it for a week in a row, I didn't build tolerance either. But with Prozac, it seems I have a tolerance to THC when others seem to have the opposite effect? Has anyone else had this happen?

Now it takes me like 3-4 hours to fall asleep (idk if Prozac is causing stronger insomnia).

I found a decent place within budget where the leasing management said they're willing to work with vouchers and they submitted the paperwork to NYCHA, passed the inspection, and things were moving pretty quick until when it came to the W9. But now there is stalling as the leasing management and NYCHA are still trying to sort this out. The thing is, the leasing management isn't the owner of the building, the building is owned by some parent company, and NYCHA is very specific about the tax EIN number, who the payment is going to, etcetera. It doesn't help that the building is a mix of condos and apartments as well (I am moving into an apartment unit) so NYCHA kicked back the paperwork because the leasing management didn't mention it. At this point I think the management is trying to get an updated W-9 from the parent company and their internal accounting team.

It's been a month now since the inspection got approved. My caseworker for NYCHA said I should start looking for new places as this may not work out due to the complexity involving the W-9, though the deal isn't completely off the table and if the leasing management scheduled the inspection, it's not like they're unwilling to work with me.

I have 2 months left until I need to find and secure a place. Apparently NYCHA reduced the voucher's time limit from 6 months to 4 months now? I am so sick of looking for a place.

I heard that it gets worse before it gets better once you start Prozac, and it seems people get that sudden "its working!" moment sometime between as early as week 3 to as late as 3 months.

The first week I noticed less of that "stream of thought" going on, but on week 2 I started getting all the negative symptoms. I am on week 5 now and even though it's not super bad, I am mildly (but noticeably) antsier and more irritated and impatient, and I've had thoughts about past mistakes from years ago. I've also been anxious for no good reason, for example I am riding to an appointment (nothing scary or serious) but I found my body having anxiety or nervousness symptoms for no reason for a few seconds. Since week 4, I've also been struggling to sleep, and my usual trazodone isn't helping that much either. Not sure if that's related to Prozac though. No physical symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea, except I got constipated for a few days this past week, though that could've been due to a diet change (I happen to eat things that had less fat in them).

I am on 10mg and my psychiatrist suggested either switching to another drug (he thinks by a month it's enough to tell if something is working or not), up the dose to see if it helps, or just keep continuing at this dosage to see if anything changes. I chose the latter. I am only like 104lb-115lb so I think 10mg is enough for me.

I am thinking of giving it another 2 weeks to a month. Or should I stick it out to like 3 months?

I am not going to Oxford, Georgetown, Cambridge, or one of the target schools for my master's. I was going to apply to Columbia SIPA but the deadline has already passed, but I managed to apply to Baruch's Marxe School for MIA on time. Marxe seems to be better known for public policy and admin though.

How much does a school's prestige and name matter if you're not trying to become a tenured professor/researcher or trying to work for a big international organization like the UN or the IMF? Correct me if I am wrong, but I got the impression that people shoot for target schools and elite programs because they want to work at United Nations or because they're still aiming for their first big job that might define the rest of their careers (or at least give them a strong starting point). Baruch is well known within NYC but probably not outside of NYC unlike Columbia or NYU.

I was planning more toward 3-letter agencies (like for technical intel/analysis) or the government, and I have work experience (military), security clearance, and a STEM degree (decent GPA). Is it really going to be a "make or break" for my goals at this point just because I am not going to a brand name school?