Search Results for “doubt”

Tackling the brain’s anxiety bias

June 28th, 2022

Thinking is the process of juggling with active uncertainty. Thinking is hard because it requires the mind to search for clarity in a sea of indifference.

The mind impedes itself, as it’s the source of all the information we seek to find. It is nearly impossible to control; the brain elides into a blob of mercury.

Regardless of what we see, the inner monologue is what one becomes. Interpretation predetermines outlook. Imagine all the countless micro-calls people make throughout the day that rests on the pillars of perspective.

Is she more content in sunshine or shades of grey? The ability to choose one attitude over another at any moment is a matter of free will.

As a bewildering mixture of people, the antenna of attention varies. Some see beauty in the chaos and exude frustration in simplicity. Others are delighted but worried. There is even contentment amidst struggles and sadness.

Without a positive doubt, a basket of mental conditions exists, rendering a wall of worry and excitement.
Hope is a hedge against reality

May 23rd, 2022

We live in anticipation. The worker who looks forward to a vacation is probably far happier and more productive than one who toils away without the slightest carrot of free time dangling in their future.

Without lying to ourselves, how do we unlock the treasure of hope (of more time, more freedom, and other imagined scenarios, etc.) without fabricating it? Hope is a hedge; it sees the world for all its doom yet remains wide-eyed to know that bad times don’t last forever. The survivalist exploits hope to revenge against reality.

On the other hand, doubt is a disease that inhibits our perception of the world. It wants us to play it safe, do nothing, or persist through hell on a slow downward grind. Thankfully, the emotional muscle grows resilient to attacks of uncertainty and pessimism over the years.

Anxiety also gets pretty boring. People want to discover new things about themselves and their capabilities. So we take on new challenges and learn to be more patient.

As cliche as it sounds, hope offers something even if our eyes fail to see it. Experience teaches us that results take time and that failure is an opportunity in disguise. Every endeavor is another chance to uncover an unexpected twist.
Thinking things through

April 25th, 2022

What we’re thinking of right now often feels of the utmost importance.

Negative thoughts, in particular, turn passive onlookers into nervous inward-facing participants. The face twitch, lip biting, short breaths, full-bodied elsewhereness — says it all.

The nerves light up like a Christmas tree, flaring internally on a rollercoaster of emotions. The brain gets stuck in gear, a sprain only that a transcendent redesign can heal.

Thankfully the world challenges our inner landscapes, knocking us in different directions, often for the better — engaging in imaginative doom-musing gets pretty dull anyway. The tension of outside interruptions helps in breaking up the rote neural circuitry.

The mind snatches the nearest pen to think things through. The beauty arrives with the movement; a flow crystalized into an arrangement. But it’s the delicate pause, the silence between the notes, giving way to mind blurbs that might be insightful.

Thinking is a mysterious process.

The mind vacuums and spits out everything in abundance: anxiety, doubt, optimism, and possibilities., creating a twister of emotion. Thankfully, disfluency has elbows, becoming a welcome distraction. Trapped between provocation and constriction, we finally settle down.

Writing recenters thought from the chaos of the monkey mind and helps us decode the insanity of reality. The extra clarity allows us to put our insides out there more aggressively. We can, on the contrary, improve the quality of life through the grittiness of diverged thought.
A pace to play

February 11th, 2022

The world is covered with assholes. How do we build the confidence up to shuck them without stabbing ourselves?

At first, we take small risks. And then we let them compound into a catalog of fortified emotions. Drip by drip, the audacity of hope builds into a fortress of perspective.

Once in awe of our capabilities, our concerns feel smaller. We become less anxious and more courageous despite pending hurdles. The future is predictably unpredictable, so we chin up, chest out, and clench fists.

Once we pick a craft that frames who we are, a personality stitched together by invention and creativity, can we become artifact-collecting students instead of feeling lost by AI-powered software. Let the robots remain vocationally challenged.

Developing the pace to play, no matter how intimidating, makes possible a reason and route for being. We must remain fundamentally competitive and maintain a buffet of skills to stay upright.
Intent to discover

January 24th, 2022

Working out our ideas in public, whether via a speech or blog post, is an opportunity to dance with fear. The amygdala senses nothing but survival when the stakes are drawn in the continuous present.

Luckily, taking on vulnerability and accountability often leads to something of value. Starting before we’re ready begs the question: what else is possible when we put our mind to it?

When we actively perform, we have something to play with, revise, and perfect. Practice is a magical power that sharpens our discipline and improves our craft.

Of course, there are many periods of consolidation. There’s typically an apex and then a dip in form, the latter compelling us to keep learning and keep going despite inevitable gaps in knowledge. The more we know, the more we need to know. We come prepared to discover.

Making stuff means showing up and expecting to get trammeled by pernicious doubt, distractions, and feelings of inadequacy. We have to surrender to the possibility of sucking. What if the labor of love is a waste of time?

We invest in the work with the intent to discover who we are, explore possibilities, to reap the rewards of persistence. The hardest part awaits further.

As they say, the road is better than the end. They don’t tell you that enough along the way, or maybe the advice falls flat because fledglings are too perpetually restless to listen.
That which tints

January 8th, 2022

We don’t want to consume things too rich — otherwise, we get fat.

Hedonism is a distraction from distraction. None of those daily binge sessions amount to anything but a temporary enjoyment, an attempt to medicate some unconscious problem away.

The same goes with eardrums; anything that sounds good gets in the way of the business of living.

Yes, straight-shooters get the emotionally augmented dopamine hit from pursuing the sweet. But there are no cheat codes to achieving long-term serotonin. Open book tests amount to nothing without knowing where to look.

We hunt not for the solutions, but the right problems to solve. And to do that, we need to establish an environment unmoored from excessive stimulation and hand-fed answers.

The trick, it seems, if we are to remain healthy and do things that matter is to find something that creates an ambiance of balance while inspiring a modicum of doubt.

So we create a neutral yet complementary and seeming invisible setting, such as the color gray laced with an ambient soundtrack in the background.

Obscurity provides luminosity. A tint keeps one locked into space and time, producing a focus that widens the thinking and expands the mind to glowing originality.

If one needs to power off to achieve alertness (re: aliveness), follow through. The pleasure of wanting the moment anticipates its existence. Maintaining a mental harmony within the shades of our surroundings is the best place to engage our internal weather.
A simulation of self

December 28th, 2021

The neural synchronization between individuals — we can talk to each other without saying a word. The brain emits answers, and humans reap the rewards of non-confrontation. Silence is a form of communication.

What we can’t signal is the reflection of our unexamined desires. Such remain hidden in the caverns of the dormant self, the unconscious. At the heart of it all sits a person and a self-portrait they are still working on. We are the audience.

So why is self-talk so broken? If we can simulate a conversation with a stranger, we can interpret the inner-narrative, allowing the purest expression of the human self. Perhaps we are suffering from too much closeupness.

There are white fountains at the end of the mind. But only if we cease the wrestling with identity. We usually think before deciding how to react and trip over ourselves. Life, like writing, is freest at the tip of observation and flow.

The geometry of thought says that when we put our minds in the world, the environment unshackles all the hesitation and self-doubt for us. Honesty is a perfect medicine, for it has no disabling convictions but real life. It saves us from drowning in the simulation of self.
The great gambling game

December 24th, 2021

The full functionality captivates its players, keeping them coming back with the intent of trying to conquer it.

The game of life poses the most rhetorical question. And it behooves us to answer its frustrating riddle rather than be tricked into combating it.

Whether we ruminate about the past or worry about the future, it’s all-important we remain flexible in the present. Living in the now is admirable, as Joan Didion reminds us, “because every day is all there is.”

The biggest gamble is not putting what we have into good use. How well something performs is less important than just getting some enjoyment out of it before it runs stale.

Quieting the negative thought loops is already a challenge in itself. We’re better off employing doubt as to silence any regret.
Above the rim

December 19th, 2021

The imitative instinct drives one into a field of copycats. It doesn’t take a miracle to mimic previous forms produced by someone else.

But it does take a lot of courage to be different. If one gets lucky, magic will cluster together with the advantage of creativity, discovery, and innovation.

One is at their best when they’re most uncomfortable yet float confidently in the trek. Because the fun begins just before the feet touch terra firma.

The security of insecurity, the absence of safety, and the peril of doubt are what provide the helping hand. That’s what rolling up the sleeves and facing the world with impressive persistence is all about.

Hanging in the air is where life is most exciting. Amid the uncertainty, the trick to feeling more alive is simply feeling unresolved. It’s the herd of the content who are touched down with storytelling. They are also liars.
Defying expectations

November 23rd, 2021

There is conflict and harmony between doubt and applause. The art would not be so interesting had it been expected.

The audience seeks novelty and wants to be awed. The creator, therefore, goes beyond predictability and dances with the fear of disapproval.

When we’re making something, we’re almost always uncertain how it might be accepted. But we can’t resist the urge to be unique. That’s why it’s always easier when we’re constructing something for ourselves.

Authenticity propels confidence; the rest takes care of itself. As Francis Bacon reminds us, “We do with our life what we can and then we die. If someone is aware of that, perhaps it comes out in their work.”

Keep anything locked up enough it eventually explodes. There is no way to know if anyone cares about the work, but we at least we can say it’s the least bit derivative.
Stress test

November 17th, 2021

Stress is the great equalizer and our biggest distractor. It is worse than a sting from the ludic loop, mere fodder for over-thinking.

But we can dampen its attentive nature. We can do things to get unstuck from the chaos of the monkey mind. The quickest mood modulator could be a psychedelic to reset the state of consciousness. But that’s unlikely. We shouldn’t have to medicate our problems away.

A more realistic and organic opiate is to exaggerate the stress trigger by incubating it to a standstill. Think about anything enough, and one gets bored. How long can one replay the mental movie without falling asleep or wanting to move on with the business of living? After all, we’ve got stuff to do.

The anxiety headache brings us to the second option. Doing or worrying about something else is also a vehicle for rebooting the internal wires. We are too busy to get caught in robotic old forms when we can exert voluntary attention to another external component.

Stress, doubt, anxiety are all breakable, proof that humans can work mind magic to solve their problems.
Weighing the good and the bad

October 28th, 2021

The brevity of good — it’s as if the shelf-life of positivity yields to the durability of the negative.

Pessimism turns the world upside down to the point that the Earth’s emotions feel flat.

How do you wake up and shake up the good vibes?

First, you come to expect that the future will be better than the past. Hope is the oldest and most dependable survival tactic in the book. But despair is also in the genes.

Imagination is the great equalizer — it dreams upward and downward. You decide what to latch onto. The challenge becomes how to stay grounded in the good and the bad.

One uses the pragmatist razor to assess the criteria in all subjectivity, deciding which of your beliefs have cash value and convert in the real world.

Practicality withstands all doubts and hopium. It saves you from irrational exuberance. What works, and what we strive to want to work is the philosophy that seems to work best.