Guiding nonconformist overachievers navigating midlife burnout and crisis, seeking peace, purpose, and a renewed sense of direction. If you wish to receive my emails, subscribe below...
On Nature and the modes of mind (only if you are interested)
Life is not all roses, unicorns 🦄 and bubblegum.Struggle (challenges, adversity, hardship) is a part of life. Struggle is unavoidable. On the other hand, suffering is entirely optional. We humans suffer for these five reasons: 1 - We want something we DON'T have - and we suffer 2 - We want something, we DO get it, and fail to feel satisfied or complete - and we suffer 3 - We have something we DON'T want - and we suffer 4 - We fear getting something we DON'T want - and we suffer 5 - We suffer that we suffer (aka. meta-suffering) This is where all suffering comes from. So, how does one stop suffering? By developing understanding, "okayness", as it were, with the main predicament we humans find ourselves in - which is... Life (Nature) doesn't care about what we want. It cares about what IT (instinctively) wants - through each one of us. And you say "Yeah but I still want what I want". You can want what you want. Just don't make not having it a reason to suffer. "Yeah but wouldn't 'okayness' make me resigned to life?" No. It will only help you stop resisting life. And by extension - stop suffering. The three modes of mind(Most people exist entirely in mode #2 where life feels hard) 1-Thoughts that feel good: ↳ Parasympathetic nervous system activation (rest & digest) 2-Thoughts that DON’T feel good: ↳ Sympathetic nervous system activation (fight, flight, freeze) 3-No mind: ↳ The space between two thoughts What is your average ratio of thoughts based on the above description? Something to think about 🤔 Joy-full Sunday 💫 Ivan PS: If you want my help implementing any of the concepts and ideas I share here, go to IvanNikolov.com/chat. Here are other ways I can help. IvanNikolov.com | Elev8 Tribe | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook |
Ivan Nikolov
Guiding nonconformist overachievers navigating midlife burnout and crisis, seeking peace, purpose, and a renewed sense of direction. If you wish to receive my emails, subscribe below...
Reader, I've made a decision... This is the last email I am sending to you. Here's why: My KPI these days is: Sense of satisfaction per unit of time (usually minutes) Honestly, I am no longer getting enough sense of satisfaction/fulfillment from crafting these emails every Sunday. Every week, I feel like I'm screaming into an empty, bottomless well. What I put together might be of value to some (and maybe to you). But I don't know about it. These days, I get far more fulfillment and...
What am I doing with my life? When a person is forced to ask this question, they usually feel they have only two choices: One, abandon their current pursuits which they no longer resonate with ...but fear that if they do, they'll no longer desire and achieve like before In other words, they feel they'll resign from life (as they know it 😉) Or Two, they turn a blind eye to the question and stay out of alignment by continuing with their current pursuits ...of goals and aspirations they no...
Reader, This is the most depressing question. Or is it? Could it be ultimately the most liberating? I'll argue that it is. Two years ago, I had a coaching call with someone I know well. At that point, I would have qualified him as an ambitious overachiever. Not only did he have huge ambitions. He also had huge standards for himself. If he didn't achieve according to his standards, he'd be hard on himself. As usual, his standards arose from witnessing other overachievers crush big goals....