In a nutshell I take very seriously my instincts and I obey them.
Instincts = your feelings, involuntary actions and behaviours and importantly also the involuntary thoughts that pop into your head.
All these things are a function of your body (which includes your brain). Your body is your entire experience. You don't experience the external world, you only experience your body's reaction to it. You can improve your body with exercise and activity and you can improve your experience by improving your body. So that's a good start to escaping nihilism: exercise everyday no matter how tiny the amount you're capable of to start with. Just do enough so that you're getting stronger in some way. This alone will improve your experience of life.
Your body knows things that your cognitive mind does not. Did you ever get the feeling you've forgotten something important as you leave the house? Is that feeling ever wrong? How do your feelings know something before you've thought of it? Your cognitive mind is just the surface of your consciousness, there's a vast amount going on in your subconscious and it is as much you as your cognitive mind is. It is just more difficult to access, especially if you don't know about it and ignore it.
Trust your instincts and obey them. They are telling you what to do and what not to do all the time. When you are feeling lost and hopeless it is because you are internally saying no to every idea that pops into your head. Your cognitive mind doesn't believe that it's worth the effort but your body/instinct knows much more than your cognitive mind can comprehend.
When an idea of something you need to do pops into your head just do it instead of continuing to do nothing. This is the same as trusting your instincts and obeying but applied to your involuntary thoughts. I believe they are basically part of the same thing.
Watch yourself like you're someone you don't know. Jordan Peterson is right about this. You do all sorts of things that you're not aware of and you can learn a great deal from studying yourself. Write down interesting things that you observe and try to work out why you behave in that way. You can't fix a problem until you recognise that it exists. This is an entire book worthy subject on it's own.
I still ignore my instincts sometimes and just LDAR but I think my life would be much better if I didn't. At least I am doing enough to not be hopeless and nihilistic like I used to be.
Instincts = your feelings, involuntary actions and behaviours and importantly also the involuntary thoughts that pop into your head.
All these things are a function of your body (which includes your brain). Your body is your entire experience. You don't experience the external world, you only experience your body's reaction to it. You can improve your body with exercise and activity and you can improve your experience by improving your body. So that's a good start to escaping nihilism: exercise everyday no matter how tiny the amount you're capable of to start with. Just do enough so that you're getting stronger in some way. This alone will improve your experience of life.
Your body knows things that your cognitive mind does not. Did you ever get the feeling you've forgotten something important as you leave the house? Is that feeling ever wrong? How do your feelings know something before you've thought of it? Your cognitive mind is just the surface of your consciousness, there's a vast amount going on in your subconscious and it is as much you as your cognitive mind is. It is just more difficult to access, especially if you don't know about it and ignore it.
Trust your instincts and obey them. They are telling you what to do and what not to do all the time. When you are feeling lost and hopeless it is because you are internally saying no to every idea that pops into your head. Your cognitive mind doesn't believe that it's worth the effort but your body/instinct knows much more than your cognitive mind can comprehend.
When an idea of something you need to do pops into your head just do it instead of continuing to do nothing. This is the same as trusting your instincts and obeying but applied to your involuntary thoughts. I believe they are basically part of the same thing.
Watch yourself like you're someone you don't know. Jordan Peterson is right about this. You do all sorts of things that you're not aware of and you can learn a great deal from studying yourself. Write down interesting things that you observe and try to work out why you behave in that way. You can't fix a problem until you recognise that it exists. This is an entire book worthy subject on it's own.
I still ignore my instincts sometimes and just LDAR but I think my life would be much better if I didn't. At least I am doing enough to not be hopeless and nihilistic like I used to be.
