101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

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That is not to say that I didn't like or enjoy this book. I found it to be beneficial on many levels. However, if I had cliff notes then I'd be getting somewhere. I would probably actually be able to organize these words into my real world. For instance: "Think about your friends who you can talk to...", "Think about the joy in spending a little bit of money on yourself and knowing you deserve it...", "Dream about how you'll live the way you want to live if you could (this is proven to be unhealthy by the way - unrealistic expectations are a breading ground for disillusionment)" Think about how you have this, this and this. I don't have this, this and this.

These are the same people who have communicated to us some of the longest-standing conventional wisdom: that to believe is to become, that the mind is to be mastered, that the obstacle is the way ². Often, our most intense discomfort is what precedes and necessitates thinking in a way we have never conceived of before. That new awareness creates possibilities that would never exist had we not been forced to learn something new. Why did our ancestors develop agriculture, society, medicine, and the like? To survive. The elements of our world were once just solutions to fears. So much of our inner turmoil is the result of conducting a life we don’t inherently desire, only because we have accepted an inner narrative of normal and ideal without ever realizing.The objectivity required to see the effects of present monoculture is very difficult to develop. Once you have so deeply accepted an idea as truth it doesn’t register as cultural or subjective anymore. You think your past defines you, and worse, you think that it is an unchangeable reality when really, your perception of it changes as you do. Because experience is always multi-dimensional, there are a variety of memories, experiences, feelings, “gists” you can choose to recall…and what you choose is indicative of your present state of mind. In her second compilation of published writing, Brianna Wiest explores pursuing purpose over passion, embracing negative thinking, seeing the wisdom in daily routine, and becoming aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. This book contains never before seen pieces as well as some of Brianna's most popular essays, all of which just might leave you thinking: this idea changed my life.

It seems people believe the most intelligent thing to do is not have emotions at all. To be effective is to be a machine, a product of the age. A well-oiled, consumerist-serving, digitally attuned, highly unaware but overtly operational robot. And so we suffer. If you want to change your life, change your beliefs. If you want to change your beliefs, go out and have experiences that make them real to you. Here are some good summary quotes on the 'nutshell' of this essay here: "The objectivity required to see the effects of present monoculture is very difficult to develop. Once you have so deeply accepted an idea as “truth” it doesn’t register as “cultural” or “subjective” anymore." My disclaimer is that these are not actually essays but more or less lists of things emotionally competent people do and don't do. The fundamentals of any given monoculture tend to surround what we should be living for (nation, religion, self, etc.) and there are a number of ways in which our current system has us shooting ourselves in the feet as we try to step forward. Here, 8 of the most pervasive.You believe that creating your best life is a matter of deciding what you want and then going after it, but in reality, you are psychologically incapable1 of being able to predict what will make you happy. When you consider doing something that you truly love and are invested in, you are going to feel an influx of fear and pain, mostly because it will involve being vulnerable. Bad feelings should not always be interpreted as deterrents. They are also indicators that you are doing something frightening and worthwhile. Not wanting to do something would make you feel indifferent about it. Fear = interest. Manners are cultural social intelligence. Yet it seems traditional politeness is beginning to lose its appeal—it can conjure images of washing out your personality in favor of more uniform behavior. While we want to be able to engage with people in a mutually comfortable way, we shouldn’t have to sacrifice genuine expression in favor of a polite nod or gracious smile. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Being that our only frame of reference at any given time is what’s happened in the past, we actually have no means to determine what would make us truly happy, as opposed to just feeling saved from whatever we disliked about our past experiences. In understanding this, they open themselves up to any experience that their life evolves toward, knowing there are equal parts good and bad inanything. Here are the habits of the people who have the capacity to be aware of what they feel. Who know how to express, process, dismantle, and adjust their experience as they are their own locus of control. They are the true leaders, they are living the most whole and genuine lives, and it is from them we should be taking a cue. These are the things that emotionally intelligent people do not do. They’ve developed enough stamina and awareness to know that all things, even the worst, aretransitory.It’s interesting to think about how we make people who used to be everything into nothing again. How we learn to forget. How we force forgetting. What we put in place of them in the interim. The dynamics afterward always tell you more than what the relationship did—grief is a faster teacher than joy—but what does it mean when you cycle out to being strangers again? You never really stop knowing each other in that way. Maybe there’s no choice but to make them someone different in your mind, not the person who knew your daily anxieties and what you looked like naked and what made you cry and how much you loved them. When we don’t settle into routine, we teach ourselves that fear is an indicator that we’re doing the wrong thing, rather than just being very invested in theoutcome. In short, routine is important because habitualness creates mood, and mood creates the “nurture” aspect of your personality, not to mention that letting yourself be jerked around by impulsiveness is a breeding ground for everything you essentially do not want." We all start as strangers, but we forget that we rarely choose who ends up a stranger, too. 5 16 Signs of a Socially Intelligent Person All of the essays were short and some of them were excellent and “spot-on”. Other essays seemed as if they were more appropriate for a self-help therapy session book that may or may not apply to the reader. Some of the essays were fascinating and some were a struggle to finish reading. One of the 101 essays is entitled: “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think”, that is, the exact same title as the book, which rather begs the question of what is added by the other 100 essays.