Fixed. Now on the dark side
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Sean
21Sean@primal.net
npub19aw7...fsmu
"You can't stack time and attention"
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956454 -- Turn Have To Into Get To
A long To-Do list seems intimidating and burdensome--all these things we have to do in the course of a day or a week. But a Get To Do list sounds like a privilege--all the things we're excited about the opportunity to experience. This isn't just semantic playing. It is a central facet of the philosopher's world view.
Today, don't try to impose your will on the world. Instead see yourself as fortunate to receive and respond to the will in the world.
Stuck in traffic? A few wonderful minutes to relax and sit. Your car broke down after idling for so long? Ah, what a nice nudge to take a long walk the rest of the way. A swerving car nearly hit you as you were walking and soaked head to toe with rain? What a reminder about how precarious our existence is and how silly it is to get upset about something as trivial as being late or having trouble with your commute!
Kidding aside, it might not seem like it makes a difference to see life as something you have to do versus get to do, but there is. A huge, magnificent difference.
"The task of a philosopher: we should bring our will into harmony and whatever happens, so that nothing happens against our will and nothing that we wish for fails to happen." -- Epictetus, Discourses, 2.14.7
#p200tds
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955451 -- Try The Opposite
Viktor Frankl, the brilliant psychologist, cured patients suffering from phobias or neurotic habits using a method he called "paradoxical intention." Let's say a patient couldn't sleep. The standard therapy would have been something obvious, like relaxation techniques. Frankl instead encouraged the patient to try not to fall asleep. He found that shifting focus off the problem deflected the patient's obsessive attention away from it and allowed them to eventually sleep normally.
Fans of the TV show Seinfeld might remember an episode called "The Opposite" where George Costanza magically improves his life by doing the opposite of whatever he'd normally do. "If every instinct you have is wrong," Jerry says to him, "then the opposite would have to be right." The larger point is that sometimes our instincts or habits get stuck in a bad pattern that pushes us further from our natural, healthy selves.
Now you shouldn't immediately toss out everything in your life--some stuff is working. But what if you explored opposites today? What if you broke the pattern?
"What assistance can we find in the fight against habit? Try the opposite!" -- Epictetus, Discourses, 1.27.4
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