179. Creative Reflection

Every experience benefits creativity. An experience might inspire a creative impulse or a new project. It might combine with other experiences to influence the direction of future creative efforts. Or it might offer little on the surface, but bring forward an important insight through a careful investigation of its qualities.

In every case, the full value of the experience is only realized through reflection. To reflect is more than simply to remember the events of the experience as though you were reciting them to a friend. It involves a deeper exploration of the experience and all of its facets. It means looking carefully at the thoughts, feelings, and intuitions that arose both during the experience and afterwards.

178. An Odd Conversation

He has been talking to her for over an hour now. What began as nothing more than a simple conversation has gradually expanded into something else entirely.

The strange thing is that they seem to be talking past each other. He hadn’t noticed this before, but now it seems obvious. He makes a point about something and then she makes an entirely different point about something else. It’s as though they’re simply stating their separate opinions on the matter rather than actually conversing.

177. Action And Description

When you do something you’ve done thousands of times before, you do it without thinking. Your past experience of doing the same actions over and over has accumulated into a kind of memory that does not require conscious thought.

If someone comes along and asks you how to do what you’re doing, you might be able to come up with a list of actions they should follow. But when you do the thing, you do not follow this list or any list at all. Nothing like this is necessary for you to access your understanding of how to do it. For you, the next action in the sequence simply arrives when it must.

176. Overwhelmed By Anxiety

I’m worried about an upcoming event. You don’t think I should be worried, and you tell me you’re not worried about it. You give me reasons to believe my worry is unfounded. You carefully explain why the bad outcome I’m worried about is unlikely to happen.

Despite your determined efforts, I’m still worried. I’m afraid of doing anything that could increase the chances of a bad outcome. I want to retreat, I want to hide, I want to stay safe. This is frustrating for you, because you know there is no reason for this and I shouldn’t be afraid.

175. The Beauty Of Existence

We seek beauty because it seems to promise something beyond what we have already seen and what we already are. We seek beauty everywhere we can find it — in art, in literature, in the clouds and stars, in flowers and animals. But perhaps most significantly, we seek beauty in our fellow human beings.

Every human being contains a unique world created by the mere existence of a living, growing, reflective consciousness. We want to see these other worlds, we want to experience the beauty of them — a beauty that is different from the world we ourselves contain and inhabit.

174. Predicting Experiences

You’re thinking of trying something you’ve never done before, so you start looking for information about it. You want to learn as much as you can before you actually try it. You investigate every aspect and every detail until you have a strong understanding. Now you can imagine how it will go once you do it. You can see yourself doing it and you have an idea of how you’ll feel during and after. You’ve developed a complete prediction of your future experience and you believe this is what will happen.

173. The Rebel

She was always getting in trouble for breaking the rules. As a child, she was regularly reprimanded, by both parents and teachers. She was a source of infinite frustration for them, as she always did whatever she wanted to do instead of what they told her to do.

Her “problem” was that she could not bring herself to do something simply because another person told her to do it. Their commands never seemed to carry any force for her, even when she knew she would be punished. The only time she did what someone wanted was when their rules happened to align with what she was already going to do anyway.

172. Hidden Attachments

When I want something, I set an intention to get it. I then manage and control myself towards fulfilling the intention. My attention and actions become more narrow and rigid because I’m focused on my goal. When I accidentally do something that undermines my intention, I get angry at myself for lacking self-control. I worry about anything that might cause the object of my desire to become less attainable. And if I discover it actually has become unattainable, I might fall into despair.

171. You Have To Change

The world is telling you that you have to change. It tells you in a multitude of ways. It tells you through the suffering you experience. It tells you through the consequences of your actions. It tells you through the words spoken by others. Change, they say, change to become more like us and everything will be better for you.

The world is not wrong about this. The more stubborn you are, the more pain it will dish out. If you do not pay attention to its signals, the world cannot treat you well. Sensing this, you feel compelled to conform, to abandon those parts of yourself that do not seem to fit. You want to optimize yourself for the world and its ways in order to minimize the pain you feel.