Mind
Clarity, attention, and the voice in your head
It is 2:14 in the morning and you are replaying a conversation from Tuesday. You have already won it four times.
Nothing in this room will make the replaying stop. But a few people have written down what the mind does when it is left alone with itself, and reading them is a bit like finding out someone else in the house is awake too.
There is someone in your head who talks to you all day, and if they were a flatmate you would have moved out years ago. They have opinions about your face in the morning. They have a running commentary on the email you sent at 11:40 and whether the smiley was too much. They keep a list of everything you have ever said wrong at a party, going back to 2009, and they read from it at night. Here is the thing about the flatmate. They were not born there. Somebody taught them to talk like that, probably someone who was scared and tired and took it out on a kid. The flatmate learned the lines and has been doing the impression ever since. You cannot evict them. But you can stop nodding along. Next time they start on the party in 2009, try saying, out loud if nobody is around: okay, and? See how fast they run out of material.
Meditation is intermittent fasting for the mind.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.
You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Above all, don't lie to yourself.
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
The modern struggle: lone individuals summoning inhuman willpower, fasting, meditating, and exercising, up against armies of scientists and statisticians weaponizing abundant food, screens, and medicine into junk food, clickbait news, infinite porn, endless gaming, and addictive drugs.
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.