Towards a Quieter Life
My life is LOUD. Thoughts of fiction, conversations, unrealistic hypotheticals, games, tv shows flood my mind when there’s no need to be babbling those thoughts. I have coroutines running in my mind to CHECK YOUR PHONE, YOUR EMAIL, YOUR RSS FEED, …
Being aware of myself in those moments, I’ve realized I’m not actually happy doing any of them. Cravings for escapism is not what I want. I want something real, something true… I want reality.
So here’s to a quieter life.
I’ll check my phone/email after lunch and dinner. If I’m bored, I’ll meditate. If I’m tired of meditating, I’ll investigate that feeling. If that fails, I can Sabbath for a bit.
When I’m doing something, I’m only doing that. If an unrelated thought comes, I’ll accept it and let it go. When I’m done with one thing, I’ll go to the next with joy. If I don’t have a next thing, I’ll make a plan with joy. If that fails, I can Sabbath for a bit.
I’ll be strict for the next few weeks, post the results, and go from there.
~Metta
> I can Sabbath for a bit
OK, but please keep in mind that for you to Sabbath the way that, e.g., Isaac Newton Sabbathed would require almost everyone around you to be Sabbathing, too (if only out of fear of social ostracism or excommunication).
Sabbathing helped in traditional European society probably by making it easier for people to feel connected to those around them (a feeling that contemporary Americans probably sorely lack). This feeling of connection is a relatively weak feeling, easy eclipsed by, e.g., the fear of going hungry or not making rent or the anticipated pleasure of experiencing an increase in status or an improvement in material circumstances.
One of the reasons the art of rationality is not more popular is that most employed adults in the West are not curious because curiosity is a weak drive relative to many other adult drive, and my experience (sample size of about 2, namely me and my best friend) is that the calm joy of feeling a human connection with those around one is even weaker than curiosity.
Reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/vl-44jDYDJQ
That… was such a weird video to have a paid promotion in it.
Also, youtube provided a fairly prominent warning that it had a paid promotion in it, which was… kinda a nice?
Yay intents for quiet! Hope you get something out of it.