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3MM: Peace, Unemployment & van Gogh
3 MINUTE MONDAYHi friend, I’ve been thinking about how to achieve a Realistic Path To Enlightenment. As much as moving to a cave in the woods and spending a decade in silent retreat might be great for your spirit, it’s not going to be doable by pretty much anyone. If you’ve meditated enough, you know that you accumulate momentum in mindfulness, kind of like a swell moving underwater. After enough time, there is a force and a power to your ability to drop into the present moment, and sometimes even little waves of genuine, calm insight break above the surface. But if you’re anything like me, it doesn’t result in an extended, self-perpetuating enlightenment. It doesn’t even really work on its own where your mindfulness sneaks up on you and you’re in the present moment without realising it. Moreso, consistent meditation and a focus on mindfulness strengthens the thinking muscle that you use to wrangle your mind to actually exist in the now. You learn to punctuate your day with instances where your mind finally settles into the moment. And then it’s gone. But then you can get it back later in the day. As far as I can tell, this is the Realistic Path To Enlightenment. You are never going to become fully blissed out in perpetual non-dual astral realm synchronicity. But you can string together a few Moments Of Peace so that at least for a few times each day, your mind rests where your feet are. I always used to think that this was a failure. If I can achieve mindfulness, but then I lose it, that’s still not persistent enlightenment - so I’ve still failed. Instead I think it’s smart to reframe the goal. If you can just have your mind and your feet in the same location 5 or 10 times a day, that’s a good start. Then maybe you can do it 15 or 20 times. That seems both attainable and really useful. Aim for a few Moments Of Peace today. MODERN WISDOMI do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This week’s upcoming episodes: Monday. Thursday. Saturday. THINGS I'VE LEARNED1. “When women lose their jobs, there is no impact on divorce likelihood. When men lose their jobs, their chance of divorce goes up by 33%.” — Brad Wilcox 2. “Before you win everyone will ask you why you’re working so hard and after you win everyone will remind you how lucky you got.” — Mark Manson 3. “If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is grass in the beginning.” — Vincent van Gogh LIFE HACKA new summer country slammer. Absolute singalong beast from Zack. Listen now. Big love, Try my productivity drink Neutonic. PS |
3 Minute Monday
Podcaster with 1bn+ plays. I write about the most important lessons from the best thinkers on the planet. 300,000+ people read my free newsletter. Press subscribe to join.
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