George Orwell said that to see whatās in front of oneās nose requires a constant struggle. Well, the solution to our stress and anxiety is right there in front of our noses, and weāre too busy watching porn and advertisements for ab machines that donāt work, wondering why weāre not banging a hot blonde with a rocking six-pack, to notice.
We joke online about āfirst-world problems,ā but we really have become victims of our own success. Stress-related health issues, anxiety disorders, and cases of depression have skyrocketed over the past thirty years, despite the fact that everyone has a flat-screen TV and can have their groceries delivered. Our crisis is no longer material; itās existential, itās spiritual. We have so much fucking stuff and so many opportunities that we donāt even know what to give a fuck about anymore.
Because thereās an infinite amount of things we can now see or know, there are also an infinite number of ways we can discover that we donāt measure up, that weāre not good enough, that things arenāt as great as they could be. And this rips us apart inside.
Because hereās the thing thatās wrong with all of the āHow to Be Happyā shit thatās been shared eight million times on Facebook in the past few yearsāhereās what nobody realizes about all of this crap:
The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of oneās negative experience is itself a positive experience.
This is a total mind-fuck. So Iāll give you a minute to your brain and maybe read that again: Wanting positive experience is a negative experience; accepting negative experience is a positive experience. Itās what the philosopher Alan Watts used to refer to as āthe backwards lawāāthe idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place. The more you desperately want to be rich, the more poor and unworthy you feel, regardless of how much money you actually make. The more you desperately want to be sexy and desired, the uglier you come to see yourself, regardless of your actual physical appearance. The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you. The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self-centered and shallow you become in trying to get there.
onelife 