Original link: https://weichen.blog/letters/68/
Hello friend!
This is the 68th issue of “Life Adventures”, sharing seven small things with you each week to design a healthier, richer, wiser and more interesting life together.
one
Do you want to be happy yourself?
No one says no, but our actions are often in the opposite direction: we know that paying attention to the hot spots and quarrels on the Internet will only make ourselves more irritable, but we still need to participate; we know that we should not be angry with the people around us, and we should not say that. I can’t help it; I know that indulging in the past makes me sad and imagining the future is disappointing, but I still can’t accept the present.
But don’t blame yourself, it’s really not your fault or mine. The human brain is born with these bad habits because natural selection has never been concerned with maintaining a good mood.
But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless.
Meditation and mindfulness give us freedom of choice, allowing us to be aware of our intentions and re-choose before an action occurs , rather than the low-level knee-jerk reflex that defaults to all emotions and thoughts.
two
Earlier I talked about the “energy level” that can be used as a criterion for choosing what to do.
Some friends say that this energy level is too abstract.
There’s a simple angle: do you prefer to be around energetic people, or depressed people?
Our culture does not seem to pay much attention to the state of mind of the individual. Some people even feel that in this chaotic world, it is a very selfish thing to want to be happy.
But taking a step back, what you can bring to others and the world depends entirely on the state of your heart. If you can be aware of your intentions, let go of self-protection, and fully embrace and embrace yourself and others, this is the most precious gift you can give the world.
three
Looking back, I used to pay very little attention to my energy levels. From the point of view of doing things, maybe it’s because I only think about how to get things done , and don’t pay much attention to getting things done .
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance begins with their motorcycle journey:
“We deliberately avoid following a fixed itinerary, preferring to stop and go as we like. Because travel itself is far more pleasant than going to a destination. Now that we are on vacation and want to take a side route, the stone-paved country road is the best However, the next choice is the provincial road, and the highway is the next choice.
We want to have a good time, and “good” is more important to us than “time”. When you shift the focus a bit, the whole approach changes.
Although the rough mountain road is long, it is a kind of enjoyment for riding a motorcycle. The body can be tilted along the mountain, instead of being rocked to and fro in the carriage. The road with fewer cars is more enjoyable and safer. The road without billboards or rest stops is better: the bushes by the road, the grass on the ground, the fruit trees in the garden are all within reach, there are children waving at you along the way, and adults come out of the house to see who is passing by . Once you pull over to ask for directions or to find out what’s going on in the area, you’ll often get answers that take longer than you think: they’ll ask you where you’re from, how long you’ve been riding, and they’ll talk to you for a long time. “
Four
But on second thought, the neglect of energy levels is also related to the lack of contrast, i.e. not knowing what the difference is between the results of high or low energy levels.
For example, to complete a job, we all hope that it can be done better, but the standard of good or bad is not up to us to judge, it is up to the boss or teacher to decide. And for most jobs, involving a lot of repetition, well done is not that much different from average.
But if you try to create something, whether it’s writing, drawing, or solving math problems, it can have very different results. For example, when I was in a bad state of writing, even if I could type out a few words, I often had to rewrite it later.
June Huh, winner of this year’s Fields Medal, the highest prize in mathematics, says he can only concentrate on work for about three hours a day. “He might be thinking about a math problem, or preparing a lesson for a student, or scheduling a doctor’s appointment for his two sons. ‘Then I’m exhausted,’ he says. ‘Being worthwhile, meaningful, creative things,”—or things he doesn’t want to do, such as calling to make an appointment—“will take a lot of your energy.”” 1
I think the more important thing here is that the yardstick for this evaluation is in your own hands-if you do something out of inner motivation, such as fiddling with something you are interested in, you know very well in what state you can do well, You don’t have to wait for someone else to evaluate you.
five
I also talked about experience and concepts before: conceptually, the blue sky is blue, but the blue sky in the morning is different from the blue sky at noon, and the blue sky in summer is different from the blue sky in winter.
It sounds funny and useless. But I realized the other day that the deep difference here is that the experience is fluid, while the concept is immutable.
If you lift a hand to your eyes, what do you see? You would say you saw the hand.
But all you see is light and shadow, it is you who think of the hand. Conceptually, your hands today are the same as when you were a kid, but our bodies change all the time. Try looking closely at the shape and every detail of this object, and you’ll see that it’s probably the strangest thing you’ve ever seen.
An easy way to deal with emotions is to pay attention to how you actually feel.
When someone provokes you, you probably yell back right away. But if you feel your body before you react, you’re feeling a burst of energy, not anger, which is a concept your brain generates.
If you continue to experience that energy with curiosity, you will find it slowly subsides on its own. In practical experience, nothing lasts forever.
Another example is that you want to write publicly, but you remember that your Chinese was poor when you were in school, and you backed out. But poor Chinese is also a concept. I guess you have written at least one high-scoring composition before. Who said your Chinese is bad?
And don’t let the past you determine the present you, because the past you was a different person.
six
On mindfulness, Sam Harris has this to say:
“My friend Joseph Goldstein has an analogy about what it’s like to be aware of your thoughts.
He likens this shift in consciousness to being completely immersed in a movie and then suddenly realizing that you’re just sitting in a dark room watching the lights on the wall dance. At that moment, your perception did not change, but the magic was broken.
Most people spend every moment in the movies of their lives. Unless we can see the other side of this magic, we will be completely at its mercy. The difference here is not the acquisition of new concepts and understandings, nor the acquisition of some new belief to see the nature of reality. Change happens when we are fully aware of what we are experiencing in the present moment and what the mind is like before the next thought. ” 2
seven
Whenever you want to make some achievements, you must jump out of your small self. Biologist Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, which sparked the global environmental movement in the last century, sees writing this way:
“The author must never try to impose himself on his theme or character. He must never shape it according to what he thinks the reader or editor wants. His basic task is to understand it deeply, understand it in all its aspects, and let it fill itself Then at a certain turning point, it will come alive and give its own instructions, and that’s when the real creative act begins… The author needs to learn to sit still and listen to what his subject or character has to say to him.” 3
People often ask whether they should write for themselves or for readers, and it seems that it is neither.
Well, I hope to inspire you!
If you like this issue, please help to share it with your friends and support me to continue writing.
see you next time,
Wei Chen
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He Dropped Out to Become a Poet. Now He’s Won a Fields Medal. ↩︎
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Rachel Carson on Writing and the Loneliness of Creative Work ↩︎
This article is reprinted from: https://weichen.blog/letters/68/
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