I think the "rig your mind" section is sorely missing a mention of meditation. It's a profoundly effective tool -- effective enough, I think, to push "rig your mind" way up as a strategy over "change your current circumstances" in most cases. We have much more write access into the mind than most people think; it just takes a lot of work to learn the language.
I agree here, meditation can be very good at rigging the mind. I think understanding yourself is what im gesturing at here, and meditation helps with that greatly. Good comment.
You mention how to disentangle happiness from pleasure seeking. I think a good way to think about this is to think about what a parent wants when they say they want their child “to be happy.” Do we think they mean they want their child to have as much dopamine in their head as possible? To have a maximal number of fungible individual moments of joy? I don’t think so. I think when a parent says this, they have some conception of a full, fulfilled, whole human life that they want their children to build for themselves and then enjoy. I think we should look after our own happiness in a similar way.
Like it. Yeah I think we can find silver linings, make lemonade from lemons. All that good stuff. I wrote a piece recently about the double edged sword on that.
This is one element I've been thinking about lately in wondering about "atheistic prayer" as a concept. There is a sort of faith in action that if you believe and act as if your current life is good, it will be -- or at least, it will be better. And that's not purely "irrational" -- it will make you more functional and better able to "actually" make things better, whatever you've chosen to think is more "real" than your emotional states.
Ofc this can also just look like affirmations. Which I think are a good practice, but aren't exactly spiritual. I do think there's something deeper at play that I haven't really put my finger on, hence the wondering if the frame of prayer fits.
I think there's a sort of giving oneself over to contingency that is necessary to make this sustainable, and that's what I'm scratching at.
I might make another post about how powerful the self-fulfilling prophecy of acting as if your life is good becomes. If you’re in the modern world, your life really is amazing compared to every other time in history, so it doesn’t take much work.
I think the "rig your mind" section is sorely missing a mention of meditation. It's a profoundly effective tool -- effective enough, I think, to push "rig your mind" way up as a strategy over "change your current circumstances" in most cases. We have much more write access into the mind than most people think; it just takes a lot of work to learn the language.
I agree here, meditation can be very good at rigging the mind. I think understanding yourself is what im gesturing at here, and meditation helps with that greatly. Good comment.
You mention how to disentangle happiness from pleasure seeking. I think a good way to think about this is to think about what a parent wants when they say they want their child “to be happy.” Do we think they mean they want their child to have as much dopamine in their head as possible? To have a maximal number of fungible individual moments of joy? I don’t think so. I think when a parent says this, they have some conception of a full, fulfilled, whole human life that they want their children to build for themselves and then enjoy. I think we should look after our own happiness in a similar way.
It’s somewhat in bad taste to link your own stuff on other people’s stuff, but the first essay I posted to Substack was focused on the same topic and I think ended up with a similar point of view. That’s where this thought comes from: https://yourmagpie.substack.com/p/pendant-this-is-what-happiness-is?r=2eu6lk&utm_medium=ios
Agree Evan, it’s important to find what you really prioritize.
Like it. Yeah I think we can find silver linings, make lemonade from lemons. All that good stuff. I wrote a piece recently about the double edged sword on that.
This is one element I've been thinking about lately in wondering about "atheistic prayer" as a concept. There is a sort of faith in action that if you believe and act as if your current life is good, it will be -- or at least, it will be better. And that's not purely "irrational" -- it will make you more functional and better able to "actually" make things better, whatever you've chosen to think is more "real" than your emotional states.
Ofc this can also just look like affirmations. Which I think are a good practice, but aren't exactly spiritual. I do think there's something deeper at play that I haven't really put my finger on, hence the wondering if the frame of prayer fits.
I think there's a sort of giving oneself over to contingency that is necessary to make this sustainable, and that's what I'm scratching at.
I might make another post about how powerful the self-fulfilling prophecy of acting as if your life is good becomes. If you’re in the modern world, your life really is amazing compared to every other time in history, so it doesn’t take much work.
Would love to read it