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The surprisingly difficult art of doing less
Enjoying the present
While some people can opt-out of the culture, most need to make the best of it within the system we have.
- Reading a book is very disciplining. Most people have lost the ability to sit for hours and read a book without looking for a smartphone distraction. In a way, reading a book is like mindfulness, only you focus on something different.
- Instead of always focussing on the positive things, focus on the negative things. We have to see what's wrong to have any chance of fixing it.
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Chasing after the next goal
In our consumer culture, we end up buying more and doing more. To be satisfied is almost considered an offense because it means you're not chasing after the next thing.
Part of the same vicious cycle of wanting more is the desire for continual self-improvement and the development of other competencies.
Missing out on life
Taking secularization into account, the idea that we don't live in order to obtain some kind of salvation in the afterlife leads to the belief that we have to achieve everything we desire in the here and now.
If we miss out on anything in this life, it is seen as some kind of existential failure. Carried to an extreme, it is tragic because it's rarely a recipe for a good life.
The joy of missing out
We gain from it the chance to engage in activities and experiences that are deeper and more meaningful. Because the mentality of fearing that we will miss out makes us always worried that something better might be waiting for us.
And moving through life, where everything becomes a means to the next thing, prevents us from understanding that certain things are inherently valuable and meaningful in and of themselves.
Victims of our own prosperity
Many people believe that the key to happiness is to have more choices, but it is really the opposite.
To free ourselves from the result of our consumer culture, we should work on our self-control. We have to develop the strength to resist these constant temptations.
Enjoying the present
While some people can opt-out of the culture, most need to make the best of it within the system we have.
- Reading a book is very disciplining. Most people have lost the ability to sit for hours and read a book without looking for a smartphone distraction. In a way, reading a book is like mindfulness, only you focus on something different.
- Instead of always focussing on the positive things, focus on the negative things. We have to see what's wrong to have any chance of fixing it.
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Loneliness is a perception issue
Loneliness has more to do with our perceptions than how much company we have: it is just as possible to feel very lonely surrounded by people as it is to be content with little social contact.
Dealing with loneliness through creativity
One way people have always dealt with loneliness is through creativity. By metamorphosing their reality into art, lonely people throughout history have managed to interchange the sense of community relationships could foster with their creative outputs.
The artist Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is known for his paintings of American cityscapes inhabited by closed-off figures who seem to embody a vision of modern loneliness.
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Increase Your Powers of Observation
Learn how to notice small details.
It's not a superhuman ability. It's important to note when talking about Holmes that he has spent a lifetime cultivating the habits of mindfulness. So it's not like he was just born with this ability to be in touch with the world. What we choose to notice or not notice is a way of framing it in our own mind. We have a lot of bad habits in our mind, and we have to retrain ourselves to really notice the world. Everything we do rewires the brain, but we can rewire it in a way that mindfulness eventually becomes less of an effort. -- Konnikova
Force Yourself to Slow Down
Give yourself monthly or daily challenges to form a new habit of observation.
Ideas could include trying new foods weekly and writing about them, noticing the color of a co-worker's shirt every day, or even just looking at a new piece of art closely once a day.
The idea is to gradually teach yourself to notice small details in your environment and daily life.
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Never stop learning
Research shows that people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve and this works as a protection in the face of mental decline.
But there's a twist to it: educated people t...
Crosswords
Cognitive activities like crossword puzzles, reading or playing music may delay memory decline among people who eventually developed dementia.
Stereotype threat
It happens when a person is in a situation where they are anxious that they may conform to a negative stereotype aimed at his or her social group.
Positive stereotypes, or success on previous memory tasks, can help combat this negativity.
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