46 sentences, 629 words, 3487 characters

Sometimes, I feel empowered, which is followed by a downward spiral. I began to notice this sin wave nature of life during my university years. The workouts were perfect, the social interactions were engaging and intriguing, and studying was easy. I was on top of my game. One or two weeks later, I’m back at the bottom of the “sin wave” again. It appears that someone has pressed the reset button. Magically, it goes away after a couple of weeks so that I can feel invincible one more time. Unfortunately, it will not last forever…

How can I achieve a long-standing elevated state of mind? Is man even capable of doing this? I believe that this is a fundamental aspect of human existence, wherein individuals experience both lows and highs.

Most of us seek comfort because it increases the probability of survival. But this approach is ineffective when we would like to grow. On the other side, seeking challenges nonstop is also a rabbit hole. Both method is to distract our mind. Others go to the extremes and use drugs to run away. As the Requiem for a Dream movie paints it excellently, the “Run Away” can be done by various means, like losing weight to buy a beautiful dress so that we gain recognition and praise from others. Either we want to lose ourselves in the system or we want to escape from the system. Everyone has some addiction escape mechanism, mine was playing with video games. Gaming is a perfect addiction, because you can always improve. Yet, there is always a player who destroys you embarrassingly even after spending 2-3k hours playing with that game. You also have fun. You also make friends so that you do not feel alone. I do not know what is more addictive, the feeling of progression or the connection with other gamers.

Each of us search for something to master. Be it cooking, making music, painting, sports or just excelling in our work. It is important to practice skills consistently. Show up every day and doing the hard work eventually makes you good. The 10,000-hour rule is a real thing if we pay attention to our craft. But true practice contains rest and recovery. I never forget when I learn how to handstand. I exercised 4 times a week for months, and I was still not able to perform handstands, so I stopped for a week. When I came back from the break, somehow I could stand on my hand. In the background, my brain figured out how to do it. So practice smart, not hard.

Discipline is good, passion is better, but talent is the best. In Taoism, the concept of inborn nature is very dominant. It also echos in Stoic philosophy. It emphasizes the importance of finding our service in the world. A baker makes breads to eat, a potter creates mugs to drink from, a mother takes care of her child. Everyone and everything has a purpose. But sometimes a whole life is not enough to find our inborn nature. No one like to feel stuck in life, therefore move to Plan B: hedonism, materialism, Judaism, scientism, or nihilism. It is like feeding the animals inside us because we are afraid of what we see in the mirror. Therefore, we distort the reflection of our mirror to avoid the misery of life. At the end of the day, the one who fights against sorrow or craves for joy, will never know where to go.