Another great post, DHH. I can relate. Not so much from this angle…

But rather, the general notion of “acceptance” hits home for me. Acceptance is something I’m working really hard on with myself. Specifically, acceptance of uncertainty. For someone with anxiety and OCD, I’ve found it to be one of the hardest things to do.

Meditation / mindfulness is a huge part of getting there.

As you said: “Regularly exercising the mind to withstand the oscillations of life is important as working out. It takes effort to keep your spirit from getting flabby.” I’m sooo serious about getting my mind shredded with some six-pack abs, thanks to daily mindfulness.

“It’s not the actual situation that determines your state of mind but how you react to it.” -DHH

Again, working on my own generalized anxiety, this has been a central theme. That we determine how much energy and attention we want to put towards a certain distressing thought/feeling, rather than the situation itself.

We can either get caught in a spiral of “what ifs” and rumination about stuff, or recognize those thoughts as just thoughts and fears our weird brains cook up. We don’t need to get pushed around by those thoughts and worries and fears, and instead, just let them be.

I’m still a stumbling padawan with all this, and still have a LOT of practice / learning to do, but hoping eventually with practice I’ll get sommmewhat Jedi-level. The Happiness Trap has been a critical read for me to help learn / put this ideology into practice.

Anyways, Happy New Year, man!