Mindfulness brings clarity.
What’s mindfulness?
(No links or quotes please.)
It’s a fair, good question. Not super easy to answer.
I use it in the Buddhist sense, though I don’t call myself one. Even there you’ll get different answers. But its generally a kind of presence of mind. It’s not occupied on things in another place or time, it’s experiencing its environment clearly. Uncluttered. A kind of vigilant meditative state, almost. It’s aware of what’s happening, acknowledges it, and carries on.
I hope that helps.
Paying focused attention to your senses, surroundings, and thoughts. Unlike meditation that tries to change how you feel, mindfulness is letting excess thoughts go so you can focus on what happening right now.
Helps when things feel overwhelming and is the only meditation my ADHD self can do.
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When emotions are high, logic is low.
I think the best when my heart is pounding in my chest and I am soo close to missing an important deadline.
What I have found is that being smarter isn’t always a good thing.
When I was a teenager, I LOVED the WWF (now WWE).
It was just fun absurd crazy entertainment with a lot of showmanship and variety. There were unique characters. There were engaging stories. All wrapped around the core concept that every character wants the title belt.
Flash forward 30 years. Watching those same exact shows now? All I can see is “Oh, that’s hulk hogan. He insulted his own daughter saying she sleeps with (n-words).”
“Oh, that’s Chris Beniot. He kills his wife, his 7 year old son, and then himself, after drugging them into a coma.”
“Oh, that’s Vince McMahon. He’s in the midst of raping women and getting away with it.”
“Oh, that’s The Great Moolah. She has been at this point keeping women in a prostitution ring. Forcing them to travel the roads with the WWF, but sleep with men for money, and then she takes the money. If they don’t, she beats them.”
And you could say “Oh, but you’re just talking about pro wrestling. That’s irrelevant to life.”
Which is exactly why I chose it as a noncontroversial example. The same concept happens in every other aspect of life. When you’re stupid, you just accept things, and things just happen around you. You’re just happy to be alive.
But when you start getting smarter, you begin to realize that every aspect of your life is controlled and manufactured off of the suffering of others. Child labor made your sneakers. Slavery picked the chocolate in your cookies. And even your life exists soley to produce profit by paying you a teeny tiny fraction of what the billionaire who owns the company you work for. Forcing you to live paycheck yo paycheck, just so you can put all your earnings back into the ecconomy. And when you think of it from that perspective, you are a wage slave. You earn a paycheck, but that paycheck goes right back to things to keep you alive.
When I was 20, I didn’t see that. I just thought “Aw sweet! There’s $20 left over after bills! We can buy some beer!”
Now I think “Only $20? Damn. I can’t save ANY money…”
I was happier before I saw my suffering for what it is.
You should write children’s books.
Hickory Dickory Dock, Santa pulled out his cock. When he told her to suck, Mrs Claus said “I’d rather we fucked” Hmmm, I think we’re all in luck.
So he was giddy with glee, but what did he see? Something that made all his hopes melt. Mrs Claus shoved him on the bed, dressed in all red, and stuffed him in a chastity belt.
Santa asked “What is this? What are you doing?” Mrs Claus said “Shhhh, tonight I’ll do the screwing!” Then Santas eyes went wide, what he saw he could have cried, as Mommy Claus pulled out a strapon.
With fright on his face, and a tear in his eye, Santa got on all fours, he wanted to die. Mommy Claus said, “Oh stop pouting, I’ll be in and out. Lasting in bed is something you know nothing about. So take lessions old man, write this down, because from now on Santa only cums once a year, but tonight he’s cumming to town!”
If you were to get your heart rate to 0 bpm, you will be literally unable to do anything dumb.
I wouldn’t say that staying calm makes you smarter - rather, getting caught up in emotions makes you dumber. When you’re calm, you have access to your highest reasoning abilities, whereas when you’re emotionally charged, those capabilities are diminished. That’s one of the main reasons I spend so much time criticizing reactivity and hostility online, even when it’s directed at causes I also oppose. It doesn’t matter whether the anger is justified or not - you quite literally can’t think straight when you’re angry. And we need you all to think straight.
Not smart, just an absence of dumb. Is this an important distinction?
To an extent. Maximum calm would just be unconsciousness, I don’t think you’d be doing a lot of thinking at that point.
