I figure I'd share an experience of mine along with my post...
About a year ago, I started a self-custody lightning account and since then, it had grown about 50% in value as I barely used it, finding but only two small merchants to accept it. But when I went to to start transacting with it recently to use it online, I found that... it was just not working. I couldn't get any amount of sats out of it. I've tried almost everything.
So I'm looking to force close that channel now, but this post is about what I did promptly before even considering that option:
I bought $150 of bitcoin with my monthly allotted dollars (to now suffer the consequences of that reduced amount this month) but what I essentially did was FREEZE my loss. Now I don't have a "counting loss", just a $150 loss in case I lose all those sats.
Remember we don't actually lose anything unless we deem it so. We easily mourn over what we could have had, but can be blind to what we do have to get back in the game, in our head, to keep climbing and gain from the experience, making it a lesson, not a loss, for no human can gain without learning, and can't learn without givng something up (time, energy, etc).
Whenever you find yourslf against a loss, ask, what can you do now, to freeze it. This very act is a conscious approach to wanting to learn from it.
#photography #mindfulness #philosophy #bitcoin #lightning
