I came across 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think by Brianna Wiest quite a while ago and it has just been over a year when a friend suggested “as you read an essay a day, jot down notes and create a reflection on each essay”.
Thus, here we are.
The first musing of a book, this book, on this blog, focused on the Introduction and Subconscious Behaviors that are Keeping You from Having The Life You Want, the first essay.
The goal of these reflections is to reflect on the reading, connect to past experiences, and possibly apply any lessons in the future.
Introduction
Despite the many criticisms of Dr. Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens about the exaggerated statements and lack of complete explanations, it’s no doubt that the concept of various humanistic species existing on this Earth throughout time is fascinating. In comparison to fictional media, Sense8 is a show which depicts another human species: Homo sensorium.
The common factor between the species as explained by Dr. Harari and the Wachowski’s fictional concept, specifically Homo sapiens in the former and the Homo sensorium in the latter, is that they share a physiological component which allows them to excel further than their counterpart species.
The species that roam Earth today, Homo sapiens, have a prefrontal cortex which allows them (us) to think, reason, and apply. By having these cognitive abilities, we were and are able to evolve society into what it is today and will be in the future.
However, the reactant necessary to any change is discomfort.
Without discomfort, there is no need for growth, no need for a path to success, whether it be for better or for worse. Combined with these cognitive functions, we are able to solve problems, survive, and prosper. It all begins with a thought.
Essay 1: Subconscious Behaviors that are Keeping You from Having The Life You Want
After reading this essay, I now firmly believe that everything goes back to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and various philosophies, namely Stoicism. If a concept is broken down to the fundamental concepts, it is evident that all problems have the same set of solutions, no matter what time period we live in or how dire the situation may be.
When an idea is so deeply accepted in society, it becomes the objective truth for that society and is no longer simply an idea for the masses or is regarded to as a “cultural” truth. As a historical example, discrimination in is deeply rooted in some pockets of the US as it was the way of life, or the truth, for hundreds of years. It is only by challenging the notion and having the ability to think differently, that some people are able to look past discriminating against others.
In the context of creating the life one may want, if we simply accept life to be the truth, we fail to make progress.
The following 8 are the common ways or mindset, relevant to how we might impede our own growth:
Setting goals and expectations
When I have a goal in life, whether it be short-term or long-term, I set milestones (or mini-goals) for me to accomplish in order to achieve that greater “goal in life”. However, the problem is that I have no proof of accomplishing those milestones will lead to a better life. Hence this leads to a dangerous loop of creating false expectations and a sense of hopelessness of not seeing results after accomplishing those goals.
This heavily reflects back to Sadhguru’s teaching of “this moment is inevitable” so stop worrying about the past because it is already done and don’t think about the future because it hasn’t happened yet, we don’t know what will happen, and everything we think about the future, no matter how informed we may be, is just a figment of the hallucinations we conjure up in our minds.
In an effort to improve oneself, they might read self-help books. However, the greatest mistake one may make is creating milestones and recording the pace at which they finish the book and fill up their “Finished Reading” shelf on GoodReads. Instead of looking to the future and setting expectations, it is much better to be consistent in reading the book and be able to reflect on the book.
Instead of focusing on creating goals and setting those as a means to an end, I should set those goals but not create any expectations for those goals. This reminds me of a particular teaching in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to not worry about the fruits of labor. We are only entitled to the work we do but not the fruits.
Constantly quantifying and qualifying life on the current moment is just a stressor.
As mentioned in the previous point, great, unnecessary stress is placed upon ourselves when we create goals when we don’t definitively know if those goals will lead to the life we want.
By constantly checking if we are closer to accomplishing that goal or reaching that life, we are only stressing ourselves out.
There is only destination to this life which is shared by everyone – death. It comes for everyone eventually, there is no need to look forward to it.
Happiness = “good; Fear and pain = “bad”
The greatest notion in life is that happiness is good and fear and pain is bad. However, we fail to recognize that if happiness is all we feel, we will never experience discomfort which is the spark leading to growth and prosperity.
When going about pursuing something, fear and pain is inevitable. It will make us feel vulnerable; however, this is not a bad thing. It only shows that there is room for growth. They are signs that the undertaking is worthwhile.
On the flip side, doing something without intention only leads to a feeling of indifference.
In actuality, happiness ≠ “good” and fear and pain ≠ “bad”, they don’t necessarily have to be one or the other.
We create our own problems.
In an effort to not live the uncomfortable life, we create our own problems.
I would say this is highly similar to worrying about situations than confronting them head-on. Instead, we create more problems for ourselves.
A very common example is having to do a presentation in front of a class. For the unprepared, it’s inevitable to feel nervous and most likely fail. However, for the prepared, we create our own fears and thus our own problems. Nevertheless, at the end of the presentation, there is a sense of relief. That sense of relief is most likely just a feeling of the task at hand being over with but it is also our mind telling ourselves that we over-exaggerated the situation and it truly was never that bad.
To change beliefs, seek new experiences, not new books.
New books or new lines of thinking can, no doubt, lead to changes in belief. However, they may prove to be weak changes or provide unfulfilling concepts of understanding.
The only way to change beliefs is to live through experiences and situations to allow the brain to create and understand connections.
I can read all the books about Stoicism I want to; however, if I do not apply what I have read, I will never truly live the Stoic life.
However, to those who do pick up 101 Essays, although contradictory to this point, I commend you for wanting to read this and hopefully change your mindset. May you read this text, absorb the material, and apply it to your daily lives.
Problems are pathways.
This section has a quote from Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic philosopher, and as I said previously, any concept can be broken down into fundamentals and the principles will apply.
Problems are meant to cause discomfort. This discomfort is only caused by the situation challenging one’s belief systems. With interest and determination, problems “force you to take action to resolve it”. Hence the problem has allowed one to “think differently, behave differently, and choose differently”.
Problems are the catalysts to the wanted life.
The past does not define you.
This definitely hits home the hardest.
I allowed the past to define who I was for the past 3 years and made it my whole personality. It most likely hurt me more than it should have and it could have been resolved quite quickly.
The past does not define me.
Nevertheless, the past should be taken as a life lesson. Accept and move on.
Emotion is a mirror.
“Shadow selves” are the parts of oneself which we ourselves do not want to accept. It’s those bits of our personality which we do not want to be associated with. However, no matter how hard we try, they always emerge when we come across them in other people and situations.
It’s not primarily because we don’t like those emotions but rather we have tried so hard to suppress those emotions that we hate when they are displayed outwards by others.
Brianna Wiest puts it quite succinctly: “The things you love about others are the things you love about yourself. The things you hate about others are the things you cannot see in yourself.”
After sleeping on these 8 ways we prevent ourselves from progressing, I’ve realized, though possibly obvious to others, that these concepts are essentially some building blocks to allow us to expand our scope of thinking. This is important because what we learn is what we believe; however, this does not include the other facts of people nor does it include the opinions of others and as we grow older, the events and people around us challenge us by challenging the things we hold to be true. Our truth vs others’ truth vs the societal truth.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t done a formal introspection since high school but formalizing thoughts of a reflection is quite draining.
thoughts and expressions 
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