This is not an argument for free will.
You can already find volumes of literature on free will vs. determinism. That
debate has been raging for a long time.
This is an exploration
At some point, science will create something as sophisticated as the human
brain, but with the computing power of a God.
When that happens, consciousness could appear, just like it did for us.
> Sanctuary: A sacred place; a place of refuge or safety; a place of peaceful
tranquility or introspection.
Not everyone struggles with modern life. Some people wouldn't change a thing.
But
They call David Goggins the toughest man on Earth. He had something to say about
coddling in his acceptance speech [https://youtu.be/mJMwKQSovjo?t=251] for the
VFW Americanism award.
Teary-eyed, his
A conspiracy theorist was once a person who lurked on the fringes of society.
But now it appears they've broken into the mainstream.
One day, someone you know, maybe a dear
They. Them. The roots of our discontent. The one’s responsible for our
misfortune. They are not like us. We are not the same.
This is “Othering.” It is drawing a hard line
"It’s not like anyone is going to read your useless garbage anyway,” my inner
critic tells me. Damn, that dude is mean. I’m just trying to write a decent
article
> “If you avoid conflict to keep the peace, you start a war inside yourself.”
— Cheryl Richardson
Constant tension with a hint of bitterness. That’s what it feels like to have a
What are your unusual habits? What are the things that only you do that drive
you forward?
Instead of talking about the good habits everyone knows like journaling and cold
showers and working
Mandates and Metaverses and Tik Tok videos and capitol break-ins — and that was
only 2021.
America has been hurting for a while now, and our collective mental health is
hitting an all-time low
“Oh, you’re a spiritual person? Please.”
“Do you collect healing crystals? Do you know the zodiac signs? Do you make your
decisions based on a tarot deck?”
This is why I don’
You know that feeling you get when you see someone the same age as you, or
younger, doing better than you?
You probably put yourself through hell comparing yourself to others. We all
Shame is no joke.
The wounds from your childhood affect your behaviors, relationships, and ability
to feel any sort of positive emotion about yourself. Shame that goes unaddressed
can keep you from everything
> “What dreaming does is give us the fluidity to enter into other worlds by
destroying our sense of knowing this world.” – Carlos Castaneda
Have you ever become aware you were dreaming?
Did
> “A person’s success in life can be measured by the number of uncomfortable
conversations he or she is willing to have.” – Tim Ferris
I bet you have something in you that
Videogames, pizza, porn, social media notifications, youtube videos, cigarettes,
potato chips — all sources of pleasure that many of us become addicted to.
People online have come up with a way to kick these
> “Being cut off from our own natural self-compassion is one of the greatest
impairments we can suffer. Along with our ability to feel our own pain go our
best hopes for healing,
You know, acting like an empirical scientist all the time isn’t a hell of a lot
of fun. So for this one article, let’s allow ourselves to get weird, and examine
You might think to yourself, “If I can make a razor-sharp, hyper-efficient daily
schedule, my life will be accelerated to massive success in a matter of months.”
You watch videos about how the
I’ve never had a problem with a substance.
I’ve never felt so controlled by something that it became my default activity.
But that’s what tech use became for me.
I
Hey Americans, remember when politics were boring?
Things would happen. There would be elections. You would get some entertainment
out of seeing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert make fun of someone’s blunders,
Pain is something you can get used to.
If you’re in pain all the time, you can adjust to it until it becomes your
reality. You can forget that a better life
Everyone says you aren’t supposed to care what people think. But most of us
still do.
We get caught up in the teenager mentality of climbing social ladders, making
good impressions, and
Some days, you wake up running low on hope. Everything feels heavier than it
should, and you’re not sure if you can face the day.
I call these hard days, and they
People seem more passive nowadays.
They graduate high school and do everything they were taught to do. Their lives
play out as they should, and they hit every milestone with perfect timing.
When
Tell me if you’ve had this experience:
You’re in your car and you’re listening to a podcast. The guest says something
that pisses you off. You can’t believe someone
When I was 20, I was afraid of everything. What people thought, the universe, my
feelings, speaking, failing, succeeding, and just being alive. Everything felt
like a boundary, and I had nowhere to
Depression is a hope parasite.
When you’re exhausted and in pain, it’s not because there is something wrong
with your body. It’s because something is draining your reasons for moving
Have you ever heard this quote from Dune
[https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Litany_Against_Fear]?
> I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings
total obliteration.
Dan Peña is a bastard [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDLSaWsECz93uRk8m7ZtN5A]
, but you can learn from him.
He’s a businessman who’s been working as a success coach for the past two
DITCH YOUR FRIENDS AND BECOME AN ALPHA.
If you’ve looked into self-improvement, then you’ve seen this message in a
hundred different places. It’s become essential wisdom for anyone trying to
Have you ever run from what you needed most? If you have, then you may have
chosen death.
When it came time to follow through on your commitment, or keep your promise, or
In 2022, it’s easy to feel trapped by social media, people’s expectations,
24-hour news feeds, and just plain old fear. I don’t know about you, but I’m
looking for
Sometimes, we need to let it flow.
And I’m telling you this as a man: Men cry too. It just means you really give a
shit about something.
> Everyone knows that
I always assume that thinking is going to solve my problems.
I assume that the more mental effort I put into something, the greater the
outcome will be. And sometimes, that works. But
The internet isn’t the world.
It is only a window to the world, one that we’re free to look in while sitting
safely on the toilet.
So, seeing as we all
This is wrong. All of it. Whatever is developing here, it’s not the way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What Is the Herman Cain Award?
Have you ever heard of the Darwin award? It was a
I don’t believe that porn shouldn’t exist.
Even if anyone did believe that, it’s not something we could ever truly get rid
of. Being fascinated by sex will never go
I was never good at hiding pain. I would hold everything in and do the best I
could to keep it together. The most I would reveal is a little desperation
behind my
If you plucked a random person off the street and looked into their mind, you’d
find a matrix of hopes, dreams, fears, and pain.
The burdens people carry can be impossible to
Remember nine months ago when people stormed the United States Capitol building
hoping to discover a secret chamber where Nancy Pelosi was keeping children held
captive? That was the result of an echo
You haven’t been ok for a while. Things are feeling stale. Your routine is
killing you. You catch yourself fantasizing about faraway places, exotic
activities, seeing someone new, being someone new.
Sometimes
I don’t need to tell you that the world is struggling right now.
People are tired. People are scared. People are hostile. People are addicted. I
won’t get into specifics. You
Has anyone ever told you, “You better enjoy this time. These are the best years
of your life.” How did that make you feel?
What if those years weren’t your best? What
Things can and do get better.
After a lot of self-work, resilience, and a willingness to explore your pain,
you can start making real progress with your mental health. I have, and it
I was at the gym, and my mental state took a dive.
I’ve freaked out in public before, and I was beginning to show signs of not
being ok again. But then
In recent years, neurologists
[https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-science-of-sleep-understanding-what-happens-when-you-sleep#:~:text=Researchers%20also%20believe%20that%20sleep,sleep%2C%20their%20health%20risks%20rise.]
, psychologists, [https://www.apa.org/topics/sleep/why] and athletic
You’re probably thinking, “why the hell would anyone do this?” Well, I’ll tell
you.
Jia Jiang [https://www.rejectiontherapy.com/about-jia], an introverted
entrepreneur, got a wild idea one day. He
I lost my faith when I was 19. After spending time on the internet and
reflecting on everything I’d experienced, I realized that my beliefs about
religion were wrong. I had no
> The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are
cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” – Bertrand Russell
[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6050-the-fundamental-cause-of-the-trouble-is-that-in-the]
Nice
Having a charged phone in your pocket means you can always check social media.
You can consume news reports from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall
asleep. And you
Thinking is wonderful when it’s not ruining your life. Wondering, pondering, and
reflecting are necessary and important. But overthinkers know how often thoughts
can lead to self-destruction.
I always valued the saying,
My Dad voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and my Mom voted for Joe Biden. They’re
still together, and they’re doing just fine. That being said, let’s take it back
We are experiencing a loneliness epidemic
[https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/young-adults-teens-loneliness-mental-health-coronavirus-covid-pandemic/]
in the western world.
Modern life creates barriers to connecting with others that did not exist in the
Sometimes you get the vibe that you don’t belong.
You can’t call it a consequence of being introverted. Many introverts excel in
social situations. No, I’m talking about feeling uncomfortably
I support anyone who is going to therapy, especially now.
Micheal Phelps [https://www.talkspace.com/michael], the greatest olympian who
ever lived, is openly seeking and supporting therapy. Despite mastering one of
To me, success is scarier than failure. I have no idea if anyone else
experiences this, but I’m going to explain my barrier to happiness, and what I
feel I need to
Social anxiety is an illusion fueled by false beliefs and low self-esteem.
Bad experiences, rotten relationships, and weird upbringings make people believe
that communication is dangerous and that rejection will shatter their souls
Imagine you’re an Olympic athlete. A sprinter. It’s the one hundred-meter dash.
You plan on running faster than any human has ever run, and you’re favored to
win.
You’ve
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a submission grappling art made for cracking limbs and
stopping the flow of oxygen to people’s brains. I’ve been doing it for about
five years, and the biggest
I almost made the ultimate sacrifice the other day.
I was going to whip my smartphone against a wall, then go out and buy a flip
phone with no apps on it. I
The doctor looks over her clipboard while you sit there feeling a mix of dread
and confusion.
"You see," she says, "you were born with a very special brain. According
In The Elements of Style (a writing book), the author’s English professor,
William Strunk, was obsessed with tearing down weak writing. He hated any form
of expression that held itself back. To
I am an avid listener of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. You could call him my
primary parasocial relationship.
If Joe Rogan got assassinated by a disgruntled fan one day, would I miss
It’s safe to say that we suffer the most when we’re alone. And some of our
strongest moments are when we whisper to ourselves, “I’m not going to stop.”
But
When I was thirteen, intrusive thoughts dominated my reality.
If I had a bad thought about someone in my life, I felt my relationship with
them would become dishonest from that point forward,
You want to talk about self-consciousness? Here's a little story:
I was 15 years old. My hair was greasy, my voice was shaky, and I stumbled
awkwardly into my art class.
What are you really doing when you're apologizing?
“Feeling regret or penitence” is one definition
[https://www.google.com/search?q=sorry+defintion&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS912US913&oq=sorry+defintion&
“You want me to do what?” I asked my therapist.
“We’re going to do the empty chair technique.”
“You’re going to sit in this chair, and then you’re going to
When it came to self-defeat, I was undefeated.
I took every opportunity to rob myself of happiness, prevent progress, and slap
my own face. I was a tyrant to myself, and I thought
Being locked in your head makes it hard to be social. I should know.
If I was around people I didn’t know, I would feel like an unwelcome stranger. I
looked perfectly
I’m turning 29 soon. I was hoping to keep a realistic, level-headed perspective
about my age. But no, it got under my skin.
My mind went into disaster mode.
Instead of feeling
I have something to admit.
I don’t know if I’m addicted to the internet, or if everything I do is confined
to it. If I am addicted, then I want control
Warning: Content addresses self-harm and suicidal thoughts. This article was
featured on Medium.com
[https://medium.com/invisible-illness/i-almost-did-something-terrible-to-myself-b947f88083bb]
I was twenty-four years old, and I humiliated myself.
I don’t remember exactly
This is what social anxiety and self-denial look like. And this is what you
should never, ever do. No matter how shy you are.
I took a leap in 2018. I went on
“How the hell did she not hear me?”
I was making small talk with a customer at my job. I said something clearly,
audibly, and without mumbling, to her face. She completely ignored
I botched the shit out of a handshake today. It’s still gnawing at me. Have you
ever done that?
My jiu-jitsu coach was the victim.
We had just finished our sparring session
Terence McKenna [https://psychedelicreview.com/person/terence-mckenna/] did a
lot of drugs.
That’s an understatement. Timothy Leary, the figurehead of the 60s LSD
counterculture, called him the “Timothy Leary of the 90s.
Consistency is key. You ever heard that?
I’m not a fan of clichés, but this one gets a pass because it’s true. Consistent
habits appreciate over time, like good investments. It’
It’s amazing how a person can get lost in their own head. An OCD Thought Loop
will do that.
When I was a kid, I developed the strangest obsession. And, no lie,
> “It’s here. It’s there. It’s everywhere. Tears soak each card the dealer’s
dealt. Time taught me to see every second as heaven even though they’re
perfectly disguised
You don’t typically think of Americans when you hear the word “philosopher.” But
Ralph Waldo Emerson is a special exception.
Emerson was an American philosopher
[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emerson/#MajTheEme]
I’ve seen five therapists in the last ten years. But who’s counting, right?
I have some understanding of what it’s like to not find the right therapist.
Their job is
Change is pain.
It’s the truth. When you decide to change, you risk losing your friends, your
financial security, your reputation, your comfort, and your wellbeing. What if
the people you care
Did you know they still make polaroid cameras? I had no idea. Apparently social
media hasn't blotted them out yet.
I figured they had gone the way of the VCR. Why
Some people walk through life so petrified of others they can hardly breathe.
That's social anxiety.
Here’s how I always felt it. Maybe you can relate:
Before I spoke with
Mindfulness is overrated. Focusing is better.
Kidding (sort of).
Vipassana
[https://mindworks.org/blog/what-is-vipassana-meditation/#:~:text=Vipassana%20is%20usually%20translated%20as,and%20our%20perception%20of%20things.]
(mindfulness) mediation involves placing your attention on
How do you help a friend whose mental health is starting to crumble? Do you use
tough love, or do you just listen?
I came across an image
[https://www.reddit.com/r/
Are you an ambitious person? The type who’s always chasing a goal and trying to
improve yourself?
If self improvement is your thing, then let me ask you: when you fail, how
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder has many faces. It can manifest in the most
bizarre, personal ways.
In the world’s eye, OCD is about hygiene, symmetry, order, and goofy
idiosyncrasies. Scrupulosity OCD proves there is
What sounds scarier to you?
Failure, humiliation, and disappointment?
Or, accomplishing goals, reaching destinations, and doing things you never
thought you could do?
Failure is everyone’s worst fear…right?
When someone decides
I’m not trying to bring you down.
But, has anyone ever told you you haven’t suffered? Dismissed your problems? Ignored your sadness and told you you’re “fine.”
We have a
I never expected to meet a narcissist.
When I was younger, I was naïve, and more than a little insecure. I didn’t
expect anyone to have bad intentions and would do my
What does insecurity look like? Here are some common traits of someone who lacks
confidence:
* You’re offended over harmless comments
* You need approval and praise from the people around you
* You’re
