Unfortunately I’m guessing that you already put in some really solid thinking on this, and that there’s not anything easy I can offer to either suggest a desirable thing you’ve overlooked or to provide more evidence for achievability. I put together the supplementary post but I’m guessing (if you’re asking this question) that you read it and it didn’t help much, and that you have good reason to expect that LOTR won’t help (and that for a variety of reasons it might well not).
But a few ideas that seem fairly easy for us to see the appeal in, and that we can generally do something to increase. Maybe you’ll find something here that strikes you.
Human beauty and sex. (To anyone reading this, I don’t go in for manipulative PUA, but do endorse mutually positive, happy interactions.)
Children. This one is kind of a stretch if you don’t see the appeal already, but you might try exploring it. I didn’t get this appeal for a long time, and then I imagined in concrete detail raising a son or daughter in a happier world, where I could devote my time to them (if it’s appealing in this world too, then by all means). Showing them the world, teaching them things, seeing them grow, them running to me and showing me things, I thought to myself “holy shit, that sounds awesome”. People sometimes mention incredible joy in the birth and existence of a child, and that they would give their lives for their kids, and these things don’t seem to be bugs. (Not to say other feelings are wrong—there are different unconscious strategies for different assessments about our situation—but that this answer isn’t flawed.)
Survival, being alive. Life being way better than not-living, even if we don’t see anything spectacular about it at the moment.
Unfortunately I’m guessing that you already put in some really solid thinking on this, and that there’s not anything easy I can offer to either suggest a desirable thing you’ve overlooked or to provide more evidence for achievability. I put together the supplementary post but I’m guessing (if you’re asking this question) that you read it and it didn’t help much, and that you have good reason to expect that LOTR won’t help (and that for a variety of reasons it might well not).
But a few ideas that seem fairly easy for us to see the appeal in, and that we can generally do something to increase. Maybe you’ll find something here that strikes you.
Human beauty and sex. (To anyone reading this, I don’t go in for manipulative PUA, but do endorse mutually positive, happy interactions.)
Children. This one is kind of a stretch if you don’t see the appeal already, but you might try exploring it. I didn’t get this appeal for a long time, and then I imagined in concrete detail raising a son or daughter in a happier world, where I could devote my time to them (if it’s appealing in this world too, then by all means). Showing them the world, teaching them things, seeing them grow, them running to me and showing me things, I thought to myself “holy shit, that sounds awesome”. People sometimes mention incredible joy in the birth and existence of a child, and that they would give their lives for their kids, and these things don’t seem to be bugs. (Not to say other feelings are wrong—there are different unconscious strategies for different assessments about our situation—but that this answer isn’t flawed.)
Survival, being alive. Life being way better than not-living, even if we don’t see anything spectacular about it at the moment.