We humans suffer.
We suffer a lot. It never fails to surprise me how many of us are trudging around, a gang of lost souls in meat-bags. The amount of human on this Earth that feel deep existential pain is evidence.
Their mere existence frightens them. their future frightens them.
I was like this. Living day to day. Existing day-to-day. It sucked. Every part of it truly sucked.
Now, in retrospect, I see a lot of it was self-manufactured.
And self-perpetuated.
Yes. I’m saying that much of my suffering was self-inflicted. Without realizing it, I was hurting myself; slashing my spirit and whittling away the little soul I had. Now I realize how much my past perceptions and behaviors were constructive to my self-inflicted suffering. Now I believe there is a way to stop it. To stop letting all the pain and negativity and existential angst corrupt your daily living.
To stop waking up everyday, dreading every moment, being angry from every step first thing in the morning until you crawl back into those measly covers, quivering in your own fear that you’ll be hurt again and again and against and the world will end.
Yes.
We can stop that.
But it begins with a few things to stop this dread.
And the first part starts with consumption. Our consumption of ideas. Just as we must fed the physical body high-quality, nutritious foods that nourish it, we must feed our brains and minds high-quality information.
We choose grass-fed beef. Our information must also be “grass-fed.” Nourish the mind and suffering begins to wane.
1 - Stop watching Cable News.
Watching the news is like shooting yourself in the foot and complaining that everything hurts.
It numbs with fear.
A numb mind is a dead mind.
I used to listen to news podcasts like Pod Save America and read all the global affairs magazines and watch CNN and try to keep up with the Zeitgeist.
And I wonder why so much of my teen life was governed by existential dread.
Lol.
Yeah, young Armaan wasn’t the brightest. I doubt he’s much brighter now, but oh well.
The news makes money off people watching it.
The more you watch, the more they make.
Media 101.
Advertising 101.
If I’m CNN, and I want to make a lot of money, guess what I’m optimizing for?
Watch time.
How do I get people to watch?
Fear.
Fear numbs you. Keeps your eyes glued to the screen.
I don’t know how you get your news, whether it’s CNN or Fox or NBC or Twitter or FaceBook or whatever.(i really hope you’re not getting news off social media)
It’s all awful.
The gamification of social media is engineered to be as polarizing as possible.
Cut out the news and find independent sources. Be critical thinkers, listen to nuanced, interesting, and informed perspectives that aren’t mere political puppets for those who have more money than the know what to do with.
Cut the news.
Cut the noise.
2. Cut out Toxic Friends
We all have that friend. That friend who’s always in a shitty, complaining mood. Or maybe he does really immoral things you don’t like. Maybe he’s just an asshole to others and sometimes even you.
We all have those friends we’re not the biggest fans of.
To be honest, they’re not improving your life. They’re not making you happier. Toxic friends are the type of people that would push your head underwater if you’re both drowning.
You know what I mean.
And don’t think you can “save” them. If you can’t save yourself, how the hell can you save anyone else? And on top of that - people don’t change if you force them. Change must come from within. If you try to change someone, there is an absolute chance you will will. They must change themselves.
Cut them out of your life.
No need to be an asshole.
Just distance yourself.
3. Unnecessary Complaining
Shit is hitting the fan.
“It is not things that upset us, but our judgment of things.” - Epictetus
Can’t make a blog post without bringing up Stoicism. Sorry.
We complain a lot.
About temperature and weather and other people and work and things outside of their control and external opinions and the shoes we wear and the phones we have and the lives we live and all that stuff.
A lot of complaining.
And where does that get us?
Nowhere.
We are digging ourselves into a grave of negativity, self-pity, fear, anger, and all the other bullshit that comes along with it.
Complaining gets you nowhere.
You don’t have to think “Wow, this train smells.” or “Wow, she’s so fucking annoying” or “God this salad is soooo dry” or “Why does my life always turn to shit” or “Everything fucking sucks all the fucking time every fucking day.”
We don’t have to do that.
It doesn’t add to our lives.
We’re just running through complaints endlessly like a mouse stuck on a treadmill.
There’s no reason to complain about the weather. It’s not in my control. If it’s raining, it’s raining. Whether or not I suck and complain and say “Fuck it’s raining I hate the rain” isn’t going to change anything. I can either be angry and get rained on. Or I can smile, laugh, be grateful for the moisture, be happy for the plants, and get rained on.
The same thing applies to other people’s opinions and actions. can’t control ‘em. Why worry about them?
The only thing you can control is yourself. Your reactions to life. We are in control of how we respond to life. And if we bitch and complain in our responses, things won’t change. The situation stays the same and suffering ensues.
Yuck.
Every event has a lesson or takeaway. There is no reason to complain. Something shitty happens? That sucks, but what can you learn? What can you apply? What can you do with this experience?
That is the role of the creator. To create their story. That is what the truly creative, actualized human does. They create their own story.
The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of the stories we tell ourselves about our lives.
We are in charge of that story.
The story of how we become actualized humans who experience love and joy and peace and happiness. The humans who flourished.
Suffering can end.
In fact - it will end.
It starts with ridding the mind of negative input. No news, no toxic friends, no bullshit complaining.
Once we rid our mind of negative input, we can add in the positive input and cultivate a gorgeous, bountiful garden in our mind, producing only the highest quality fruits and flowers.
We’ll go further on cultivating a positive information diet, feeding your mind the nutritious ideas it craves.
Thank you.
Share this if you enjoyed :)
Memento Mori
Stay Curious
Be a LifeLong Learner
ily <3
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