The Introverted Thinker Newsletter #022
Introducing a new segment, why gratitude can change your life, and more action packed recommendations.
Hi friends,
Another Sunday, another newsletter. This week there’s quite the variety of topics:
An article on gratitude and why no one ever seems to be happy with what they have.
A new weekly segment rationalizing some interesting thoughts.
A podcast interview with one of the most successful modern philosophers.
A Stoic book about bravery and courage.
In terms of the article I’m about to include below, gratitude is so important, it can literally change your life as it did for mine. Putting yourself in a state of being thankful means you are entering a state of abundance.
You no longer crave to have more than you already do, because you start to feel truly blessed for every little thing. For example for the fact that you have an endless supply of water, for the food in your fridge, or for a comfortable bed to retreat to every night.
In this mental state of feeling like you have enough, everything changes. You start to find happiness from other things in life.
So let’s get on with this newsletter, and I want you to take this email as a sign to just be thankful today and as you go into the new week. :)
A Poisonous Mindset That Is Delluding Modern Society
Once you’re made aware, life goes from black and white to HD color.
The developed world is quickly turning into hell for the people of this generation. Despite all of its beneficial advancements, it seems a torturous fire is being lit.
In the United States alone, one of the world-leading economies, white middle ages men have the highest rates of suicide at nearly 3o suicides per 100,000. The more urbanization and affluence a society produces, the highest the rates of depression and suicide.
More money and development, more problems.
Compare this to the early American Indians for example, where suicide wasn't reported at all in certain tribes like the Bella Coola, the Ojibwa, the Montagnais, The Arapaho, and more.
Not to mention how in the 1700 and 1800’s white Americans were fleeing their society to join their “enemies” (American Indians) in their more simple, tribal ways of life.
Benjamin Franklin wrote about this curious phenomenon in a letter to his friend in 1753.
All this reveals one thing… We have got life wrong, the way we are doing it is harming us more than benefiting us. And to me, it lies within this single delusion that this whole article is about.
The Syndrome That Drives You Away From Happiness
Picture yourself on a coast, on a gloomy winter's day. In the distance, on a little islet, stands a grand mansion decorated by its Roman style of architecture. Its sturdy pillars are decorated with trimmings of gold.
Then you utter these solemn words: “I’ll be at the peak of happiness when I live in a house like that…”
“The cycle of ‘want’ corrupts your soul.”
There it is, the crime of the article. I call this the “I’ll be happy when…” syndrome. It's unfortunate, but the reality is that most of us today in the developed West think along the lines of this mindset, and it's harming us greatly.
This frame of mind creates a cycle that singlehandedly wrecks your mental health, driving it into the ground as if it were the remnants and rubble of a once-great empire.
The cycle of “want” corrupts your soul. Always being focused on achieving the next thing is a torturous way to live. Why not be happy and grateful for the things you have in front of you right now?
Materialism murders gratitude:
A life of want leads to a life of constant lack.
The more one desires something out of their selfish mind, the more they feel dissatisfied. They think what they have isn't enough, even though by tribal standards we are rich beyond comprehension.
By desiring, we are leaping so far out of the realm of the present state that it makes it impossible to feel grounded. For me, true happiness is reached when satisfaction is at its highest. Satisfaction with everything.
There is a direct correlation between happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction, as this graph about money spending and fulfillment suggests…
If you are on Medium and enjoyed the article, please share it or leave a few claps, it helps out a lot! Thanks <3
Tweet of the Week
Introducing the new weekly segment. I’m going to be using Twitter a lot more and hoping to be active every day. It would also provide a great place for us to connect with each other! Now let’s talk about it.
When I first started out writing articles, around a year ago, I came across a Ted Talk by Simon Sinek titled “Start With Why”. It was about how the most successful people and companies succeed because they know what the purpose of what their doing is, they have a very specific reason for doing what they do, and people recognize it.
And this got me thinking in regards to my writing. Why do I write? For example, recently I’ve seen one of my writing friends, Niharikaa Kaur Sodhi, blow up across all platforms. And I was looking over her posts etc thinking, “What makes people drawn to Niharikaa?” I came to the conclusion that one of the major aspects is because she has a clear and defined “why”. The value she provides is also clear, there is a specific theme, and that’s why people are drawn to Niharikaa’s consistency.
This made me question why I write. And therefore I wanted to establish a clear reason why. So that whenever I go to write something, I have this slogan that I can refer to to check if my writing is providing the intended value to my audience. And there it is in that tweet.
The philosophical nature of my writing is to help people look deeper as a means to find a more genuine form of satisfaction or happiness. Whatever you do, it’s crucial you establish “why” you do it.
A Book I Read Last Week:
Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave by Ryan Holiday
I am a massive Ryan Holiday fan. For those who don’t know him, he writes books about Stoicism, like his previous infamous trio of books Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and Stillness Is The Key, all of which I’ve read and treasure greatly.
This book is part of a new series he is releasing on the four Stoic virtues, Courage, Temperance, Justice, Wisdom. A Book for each. This book I read this week was about courage.
The structure of Holidays books is why I love them so much. They are so easy to read. They are comprised of small, short chapters, meaning you never get bored. That’s probably why I demolished this book so quickly.
Holiday writes by looking at examples throughout history, famous figures like Florence Nightingale a wartime nurse in the 1800s, Winston Churchill the British Prime minister who led Britain through WW2, Captain James Stockdale the American soldier kept and tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam war, Thích Quảng Đức the Vietnamese monk who set himself on fire and burnt to death in front of a crowd in a scarily stoic manner to protest the war.
Holiday goes through all these figures in history and so many more and looks at their different acts of bravery and what we can learn from them.
This book was good, but to me, it lacked authenticity. Looking at all these brave historical figures is great, but if the author himself isn’t anyone particularly of a hardcore, brave and courageous nature, I find it hard to accept. There was a lack of genuinity with the message Ryan was conveying. His other books were better
For that, I rate it 3.5/5 stars.
A Great Podcast I Recommend:
The Tim Ferriss Show #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life With Alain de Botton
What a phenomenal podcast this was, seriously. Alain de Botton is a Swiss-born British philosopher who is incredibly educated and intellectual. Tim Ferriss did a great job introducing him and finding out the story of how he got where he is.
Perhaps some of the things de Botton is most famous for that may pique your interest is his work on looking at the philosophy of how we can better understand our emotions, hence his most famous book “An Emotional Education”
He argues that in school we are never taught the relevant things. One of the major things we need to learn is how to correctly use our emotions in a healthy way and how to understand them better so we can have healthier all-around relationships. Here’s a quote from this.
“Being properly mature involves a frank, unfrightened relationship with one’s own darkness, complexity and ambition. It involves accepting that not everything that makes us happy will please others or be honoured as especially ‘nice’, but it can be important to explore and hold on to it nevertheless.”
Another reason I’m a great fan of Botton is because of the organization he founded named “The School of Life” which has institutes all around the world, a Youtube channel I love, and a book publisher. They basically go over the problems in life we face and try to help us better approach them.
I loved this podcast, give it a listen.
And there we go, that’s the end.
Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the things I included this week.
I invite you to engage some of your thoughts, leave a comment, reply to this email, or connect with me on Twitter. I’d love to hear from some of you.
Share if you enjoyed :)
Until next week!