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It bears repetition: our familiarity provides a depth of understanding that allows us to despise something/someone in nuanced detail, while our ignorance only allows an abstract vague revulsion.
The more you understand, the more alike you are.
The more alike you are, the more your contempt for them acts as a mirror, reflecting your self-contempt.
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Just wait. Soften your edges, and stay open.
Observe.Everything will likely work itself out without your intervention or opinion: just being present is enough.
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When hanging by a thread, things are going wrong.
The most challenging thing to do is relax and let go.
To grip tightly is to become paralyzed, only to be a frozen version of yourself.
Letting go allows you to be you again: to be you requires motion and flow, so just let go.
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It has been said repeatedly: we treat others better than ourselves.
We abuse ourselves with impunity. Our treatment of ourselves stems from a “feeling”, and it is as unjust to feel it as it is to do it to another person.
The problem is, it is not a “feeling”: it is a layer of programming triggering a deep emotion.
Once you get distance from or dissolve your programming, you find your true emotions towards yourself mirror you react to others and the world.
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Perhaps the “true you” does not exist: what if finding yourself is an impossible dream and an excellent marketing ploy?
You can indeed “lose yourself,” in fact our society thrives on your lost blunderings, benefitting many therapists, gurus, and spas.
However, we are all shaped by society and culture to develop preferences, meaning that your most authentic self is adapted to the self-pleasures/pressures promoted by our society: including your subversive pleasure in thinking you are unique.
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We mirror conversations in our head: we take in what is said and replay it (like an infinite mirror) to give ourselves an image.
In repeatedly gazing (incessantly) at the "self-made-of-words," we begin to believe the illusion when it is only a momentary fragment of a possible you.
Our reflection is not who we are but who we have allowed ourselves to become.
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On your deathbed, you will be grateful for those with you.
But why wait?
Today may be your last, and you can decide to be grateful now for those with you.
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A friend commented on this, illustrating the prevalence of negativity to shape your perception of the world, and our blindness to mundane excellence.
Similarly, we are not rewarded for insights, but are punished for errors: we try harder not to make mistakes than we do to grow.
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In several concerts I have attended, the audience is bombarded with palpable, pummeling sounds, and the lights are shifted from the band members into the audience.
The pulsing retina attack makes the band unobservable, faded to black amidst an after-image glow sliding across your field of vision.
This obscuration of the band’s image in favor of committing soft violence to the audience feels like revenge. And it appears to have taken its toll as the audience stumbles forth from the venue, having paid to be made into twitching, blinking, deaf, and vacant fans.
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Our reasoning is sound: given this then that. But if our given assumption is not real then a myth has been propagated, and our prediction will be wrong.
Examples: Does congress serve the people? Do jobs really want talented hard workers? In both cases the answer is no, which should change your predictive calculus.
