The least you can do for yourself: Nothing.

As far as I have been able to tell, the most intrinsically important thing to do in life is to grow, and to pursue that which lies in line with your essence. In order to experience a fully-lived life, you have to explore that potential of your essence. In turn, and by definition, the absence of that exploration means… DEATH! 

I’m not sure that is entirely right, but it is definitely not entirely wrong, which is a nice place to start from. I think we can safely establish that anything that keeps us from pursuing this exploration is to be considered hostile (possibly deadly). 

So what entity is keeping you from experiencing deeper meaning, who’s the Evil Knievel? It’s you. More specifically, it’s your genetically programmed instinct-driven monkey brain. 

Historically it makes sense, survival is usually very short-term oriented. Only recently have we afforded ourselves the luxury of focusing on the long-term introducing the concept of ‘meaning'. And as soon as that luxury has been granted to us, in that very moment, the short-term became something toxic (where before, it sustained us). I’ll refer to this toxic manifestation of short-term ‘thinking’ as: distractions. 

A distraction is a short-term oriented action, driven by basic instinctive needs that provides a low effort and instant gratification. However, an action that meets all of these character traits does not necessarily constitute a distraction— there is more nuance to it. The exact same action can be a distraction or in line with your essence, what makes this difference is the intention behind it. Because of this subjective element bringing more complexity, I think it is easier to classify a distraction by what it is not: A distraction is an action that does not contribute to your personal growth, or supports it, in any way. The only one who is able to decide if this is the case or not, is yourself. This is why self-honesty is essential. 

Self-honesty is not straight forward, especially when you’re dealing with illusions you create for yourself. Distractions seduce you into reasoning against your own best (essential) interests in any way they can. Once you give in to an initial distraction, the bar is lowered for the next distraction to creep in. Less and less conscious thinking is required and before you know it, it has become a pattern— you’ve gone into auto-pilot. This creates a downward spiral  where, before you know it, time will have passed without you having consciously lived it… DEATH.

About the only good thing about a negative spiral is the fact that you can turn it into a positive spiral, just by going into the opposite direction. Recognising the direction you’re going and which direction you should go may be difficult, as you’re in autopilot with a lack of conscious awareness. Your essential vision is blurred. 

So, how do you clear your blurred vision, regain conscious awareness and realign with your essence? You do absolutely nothing. 

Doing absolutely nothing will alter your perspective in an interestingly short amount of time.

It will, almost with every breath, peel away a layer of nonsense that was clouding your mind just moments before. Without the shitstorm of useless inputs and ‘rationalisations’ blurring your vision, practicing self-honesty will be easy— even unavoidable. When you get some alone time with your essence, there is no place for any illusions. What would be the point? It’s just you and your honest self. Every bullshit want or need will reveal itself for what it was: DEATH.

When you feel your essential vision getting blurred, and the autopilot of distraction is in effect, step back and do nothing. Within minutes your essential vision will become clear again, and up the spiral you go. 

I aim to do nothing everyday for the rest of my life, and so should you! 

Give it your best,

Ivar