The Law of Diffusion

Posted on May 18, 2019 by admin

In Start With Why, Simon Sinek talks about the Law of Diffusion, which explains how people react to something new. Those who are leading the way are called innovators, and they challenge the status quo and inspire people to think differently. The first people to jump on the bandwagon are called early adopters. Since they’re already aligned with the vision of the innovators, they’re naturally inclined to get involved. Once the early adopters have been involved for a while and shared their experiences, more people follow suit; they’re followed by another bunch that arrives late to the party. And finally, the “laggards” are the last to get involved, sometimes years after the bandwagon first rolled up. I have a lot of big goals in life, some of which require other people to get involved, so the Law of Diffusion has been very helpful as I’ve worked on creating a plan to make my ideas become a reality.

I primarily share my ideas on this blog, which anyone with an internet connection can read as long as they can find it. Some people aren’t interested in reading it, others display some casual interest, and a select few are extremely interested in many of the ideas that I find fascinating. I’ve learned from experience that it’s best to focus most of my time and energy on those who are already on the same page as me; I don’t to spend any time trying to convince them, and they’ll be more inclined than anyone else to help me put my plan into action. This is a much better approach than trying to persuade someone who is totally uninterested in what I have to say and will likely never want to get involved.

To create positive, lasting change, however, I don’t think it’s enough to just talk about my ideas. I think I have to live them out and show what they look like in action. That way, other people will know that I’m serious and they can look at my life to see if my ideas actually work. Also, trying all this stuff out for myself will show me what it takes to make it work and allow me to figure out solutions for the problems that pop up so that those who try this out later will have an easier time than I did. Some early adopters have already tried out and found success with several of the things I’ve discussed on my blog. According the Law of Diffusion, more people will follow suit as these ideas spread, and it’ll only be a matter of time before they’ve reached enough people to create some major changes.

As I continue trying things for myself to find out what works and sharing my findings with others, I get excited thinking about what the future holds. It feels like everything I’ve learned since last year is coming together into a solid, practical plan that’ll make life better for everyone who follows it. That plan is becoming more clear to me every day and I’ll share more of it in my next post. For now, I’ll close by saying that I’m glad to be doing many things that I once thought I’d never be able to do and I look forward to seeing the impact this has on my own life and on the world around me.

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Some of My Thoughts on Human Nature

Posted on May 17, 2019 by admin

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about human nature. Even though I haven’t directed much conscious thought at this subject in the past few years, I have spent a lot of time analyzing related subjects. That analysis appears to have gradually formed my current perspective on human nature without much conscious involvement from me. It wasn’t until Wednesday that I began to realize how much I have to say on this subject and decided to explore my thoughts in this blog post.

There are disagreements about the source of human nature. Some people say that it’s entirely a matter of how we’re raised, others say that it’s solely about our biology, and still others support a third perspective that combines the first two. I agree with that third perspective. There is a great deal that I’ve gotten from my parents, grandparents, and so on that has its origins in biology, such as my skin color and my poor eyesight. Outside of biology, a number of things, including my taste in music, views on a number of subjects, and speaking style, have originated from or were heavily influenced by my upbringing. If I had been born to the same family but raised in a very different environment, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Likewise, I’d be a very different person if I had been raised in the same environment by a different family. So I think it’s a combination of nature and nurture that determines who we become.

The way I see it at this point is that human nature is simply a set of habits that each person builds from certain ways of thinking and acting to which they’ve become accustomed. These habits, when shared by a lot of people living in a given area, form a culture, and that culture does a lot to sustain the values and ways of life (whether positive or negative) for the people who share it. Different cultures have different traditions, with some overlapping in many ways and others that are quite different. A common feature of all cultures, though, is that they often make it difficult for the people in them to imagine another way of life, which can create and maintain the illusion that however people act in any given observer’s culture is how all people everywhere have always acted and always will act.

I try to avoid making sweeping statements about human nature, such as saying that we all have the same nature, since I’ve long held the perspective that everyone is a unique individual and something that accurately describes one person may be a totally inaccurate description of another person. For example, some people seek to hurt while others seek to heal. How could this be if we all have the same nature? I think the notion that human nature is one-size-fits-all could work if everyone possessed different degrees of the same values (such as one person who is a bit generous and another person who is incredibly generous), but, given that some people can have values which are the exact opposite of other people’s values, I think it quickly falls apart. As such, I think human nature is more malleable, variable, and specific to each individual person than it’s often thought to be.

However, there are certain common behaviors that seem to transcend cultures, upbringings, and nearly everything else that divides us. We tend to prefer situations that provide us with a feeling of well-being over situations that make us feel uncomfortable. We also behave differently depending on what situations we enter; some people become more quiet and reserved in highly social settings while others become more energetic and outgoing. We also tend to imitate the behavior of the most dominant person in the room and, over time, we become like the people with whom we most frequently interact. And we all behave differently in dangerous situations than we do in safe situations (or situations that we think are dangerous vs situations that we think are safe). As far as I’ve seen, these are some things that everyone appears to do, which suggests to me that they may be part of our true nature, if there is such a thing.

How much of this is due to upbringing and how much is biological? I have no idea. I don’t even know that for myself, and I know myself better than I know anyone else. I do think, though, that since we can change our habits and become accustomed to different ways of doing things, we all have some capacity to change our nature. This can be done to us or we can initiate it ourselves. An example of the former is a kind person who becomes cruel after being abused for decades, and an example of the latter is someone who decides to become a better person; I’ll focus on the latter example for the remainder of this post.

It’s entirely possible to heal from past pain and trauma and create new habits that vastly improve one’s quality of life. Lots of people have done this through therapy, meditation, psychedelic drugs, and other things that have helped them change their thoughts, words, and actions. I feel like I’ve changed a great deal of my nature in the past few years through personal development, meditation, floating, and mindfulness practice. I’ve accomplished a lot of this through reading about self-improvement in a number of books, most notably The Power of Habit and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The latter book has been especially helpful because of Stephen Covey’s ideas about rescripting. So when someone says that human nature is a certain way and that we can’t change it, I can point to my own life as proof that it is malleable and can be changed. Changing my nature has been the hardest project I’ve ever worked on but it’s been well worth it, and I think my journey will only get better from here on out. I hope all of this makes sense and proves as valuable to you as it’s been for me.

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Review of Thinking, Fast and Slow

Posted on May 16, 2019 by admin

Last night, I finished reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The book is intended to reveal many of our cognitive shortcomings and show that our intuitions can often be incorrect even when they initially appear correct. Kahneman illustrates this by discussing two systems, System 1 and System 2, that represent different ways of thinking.

System 1 is for “fast thinking” as it does all of the automatic, subconscious thinking that we usually don’t even know is occurring. This is where our intuition and snap decisions originate. In contrast, System 2 is for “slow thinking” and it controls our conscious, deliberate thinking. We use System 2 whenever we pause and focus our mental energy on a specific task. The two systems work together nicely, with System 1 handling everything that would be too draining for us to consciously manage and System 2 giving us the ability to zero in on important tasks that require more attention and brainpower.

Kahneman starts each chapter with some questions for readers to answer. These questions are designed to show that our intuition is not as accurate as we’d like to think since the answers are not as straightforward as they appear to be. I like this feature since showing our cognitive errors in action is much more persuasive than simply stating facts. I’m always amazed when I fall into one of the many traps that Kahneman points out in the book. Even though I’ve read a handful of books that describe how our brains work and spent a lot of time trying to observe my thought processes, I am still often blind to my own cognitive biases and limitations. However, I do think studying this subject has made me more aware of these aspects of myself, which, over time, might help me overcome some of them.

There is a great deal of overlap between Thinking, Fast and Slow and Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind. Both books explore how intuition and the subconscious almost always play a larger role in our decision-making process than reason and our conscious faculties. Although Haidt’s book focuses more on how we develop our thoughts about morality, religion, and politics while Kahneman’s book is more focused on our everyday thought processes, I still found value in reading Haidt’s work; it prepared me well for much of what Kahneman covers and, I’m sure, allowed me to absorb more than I otherwise would have. So if you read one, I recommend also reading the other one.

Thinking, Fast and Slow was one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I’ve read. It includes a lot of stuff about psychology, predictions, and economics, all of which are subjects I love. Kahneman did a great job explaining things he’s spent his whole career researching in a simple enough way that I could understand most of it and at least know where he was coming from more often than not. If any of this sounds interesting to you, then I highly recommend thinking about it for a bit and then checking the book out for yourself. It’s a solid read that will teach you a lot about the way your mind works and let you have fun in the process.

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Having Better Conversations

Posted on May 15, 2019 by admin

I suspect that people have more in common than they think. It’s easy to think otherwise since a lot of attention is paid to hostility, violence, strong disagreements, and so on. However, while there are fundamental differences in the way some people think about right and wrong, I think that most of us agree overwhelmingly on how we’d like to see the world. I think that that a lot of communication problems obscure this, so I’m going to point out some of the issues I see as well as a few potential remedies.

A lot of arguments that I’ve seen and even participated in have arisen due to misunderstandings surrounding intentions. As a hypothetical example, suppose two people want to give shoes to poor people but they have different plans for how to do it: one person wants to give them green shoes while the other person wants to give them yellow shoes, and they also have their own ideas for where, when, and how to give out the shoes. Rather than recognize that they both want more poor people to have shoes, they get so wrapped in their respective plans that they accuse each other of hating poor people and wanting them to go without shoes. Then they split up and work separately rather than combining their resources and attracting more people with the same goal.

This is a simple example that is intended to show some things that I’ve observed countless times. Two people can want the same positive outcome for a given situation but disagree on the best way to get there. They each think that their plan is either the best way to go or the only way to go, find flaws in every other proposed plan while ignoring any flaws in their own plan, and approve of anyone who supports their plan and disapprove of anyone who opposes their plan. At that point, they can mistake the disagreement over their proposed solutions as a disagreement over the desired outcome and think the worst of each other, refusing to work together and, usually, hurting their cause.

I’ve previously written a post about some possible ways to avoid these problems and I’d like to discuss my ideas further here. I still think there’s tremendous value in establishing common ground and identifying points of agreement. I find it much easier to think positively about someone if I know that they have good intentions; I also find it much harder to have a hostile exchange with them if we both think well of each other. It’s best to establish this at the outset as trying to see someone in a positive light is almost impossible once a great deal of hostility and negative emotions have entered the exchange.

After that, I think it’s important to discuss things in depth without relying too heavily on simplistic labels and buzzwords. A lot of words that mean different things to different people. One word may represent something good to you and it may represent something bad to me. If we’re both using that word as we understand it and we both have different understandings of the ideas that word represents, then we’re talking past each other and we’re most likely going to have a negative exchange. At the very least, we should take some time to explain what we mean by a particular word or phrase so that we’re both on the same page. I try to go even further than that and avoid using certain words and phrases entirely, preferring instead to explain exactly where I’m coming from, where I want to go, and how I plan to get there. This way, there is more focus on the ideas themselves and less focus on words and phrases that can easily be misinterpreted or misunderstood.

Lastly, try to avoid identifying with your views. Defining yourself based on your views on religion, politics, or anything else will make criticisms of your views appear to be attacks against you, and that will cause nothing but problems. If your personal identity is at stake, then it’s almost inevitable that there will be a great deal of defensiveness and reluctance to consider other points of view. If, in contrast, you recognize that your views are simply tools for navigating life and that you are not your views, then you’ll find it easier to listen to other perspectives and potentially change some of your own views if you hear an especially persuasive case for doing so. So instead of saying “I am _____”, try saying “I think ______” or “Here’s how I see it”. It can make a world of difference in an exchange.

It’s been a long time since I’ve argued, but I have found some instances in which these ideas seem to have worked well. I suspect that they’ve prevented small misunderstandings from escalating into major confrontations. If so, then I think they could do a lot to improve exchanges about big issues and allow more people to have real conversations instead of aggressive altercations. Whatever is worthy of attention is also worthy of quality conversations so that it can be addressed appropriately and I hope this post helps make that more common.

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When Someone Acts Differently

Posted on May 14, 2019 by admin

Have you ever gotten to know someone fairly well and then seen them act in a way that seemed totally out of character for them? If so, you were probably shocked at their behavior and wondered if they’d changed or if they had been hiding their true personality around you. While those are both possibilities, there may be something else going on. It may be that you just hadn’t yet seen them act in that particular way, such as losing their patience, until then, so you thought that they never did or couldn’t imagine them doing so. If so, then you probably hadn’t been in a situation that tested their patience and made them react accordingly. There are many ways in which someone can act differently than you anticipated, but I’ll focus on patience for the remainder of this post.

Suppose you’re lifting weights at a gym and you see a guy who can easily lift a weight that you find extremely heavy. While that is a great demonstration of strength, it doesn’t show his full capabilities because that weight feels like nothing to him. A better test of his strength would be for him to lift a weight that feels extremely heavy to him, which will reveal his upper limits. This comparison is what came to my mind when I started thinking about patience and how it manifests (or doesn’t in some cases) differently in different people.

For starters, I don’t have to be patient in situations that don’t upset me. I don’t even have the option to practice patience in those situations; patience only enters the picture when I start feeling one or more negative emotions. So if I’m feeling positive or neutral, then I’m not being patient. It’s only when I start getting upset that patience means anything, and being patient when I really don’t want to is a sign that I’m doing well (at least in situations where patience is warranted). Over time, I’ve gone from having very little patience to having a lot more of it to not needing it as much. I still use patience almost every day and lose my patience every so often, but it’s become less necessary for me since I’ve gotten much better at managing my emotions and not as many things upset me as they once did.

Patience, like strength, varies from one person to another. One person may go through the roof at something that doesn’t even make someone else bat an eyelash and vice versa. Two people can be in the same situation and use patience completely differently: someone who gets upset easily may refrain from doing so, thus demonstrating a great deal of patience, while the other person may not need to use any patience at all if they are much harder to upset. Even if two people are using patience to remain calm, one person may need to use more than the other, and they may also have to start using patience sooner.

As humans, we are so complex and are surrounded by countless things that all influence (whether subtly or overtly) our behavior. You know more about the things that affect your mood than anyone else since you know yourself much better than anyone knows you, but there are many things that can influence you even though you never notice them. When it comes to the things that I know affect me, I’m much more upset by a series of small frustrations than I am by one giant frustration. Paying more attention to the things that nudge my mood in either a positive or negative direction has made it easier for me to keep my emotional state stable and to recover more quickly from major mood swings. It’s also given me more compassion for other people who act differently than I’m expecting; they could be going through a hard time caused by any number of things, and I may very well act the same way if I were in their position. This reminds me of a great saying that I will now paraphrase: Nobody goes from 0-60 instantaneously, and if it looks like they did, you just didn’t notice how long they had been at 59. With this in mind, I’m going to make more of an effort to notice when someone appears to be hurting and to respond compassionately if they act out. I’ve greatly appreciated the people who have done that for me and I want to pay it forward in the hopes that this will become the norm. After all, we could all use a little more love, compassion, and understanding.

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Busy Night, Easy Morning

Posted on May 13, 2019 by admin

Saturday was a very busy day for me. For the most part, I was on the go from the time I woke up until I went to bed. The day got away from me and left me with a lot of preparations to make for the following day and very little time to complete them. I was stressed when I got home later than I expected and felt like I still had a mountain of work ahead of me, and I was sure that the next day was going to go badly for me. At some point, I realized that I needed to change something, and that’s exactly what I did.

The first thing I did was make myself stop and take several deep breaths. That calmed me down and allowed me to think through everything I’d need for the next day and figure out how to prepare most of it that night. Then I went to work. I gathered up as much stuff as I could (including clothes, snacks, and information about my destination) so that most of it would be ready to go in the morning. I also looked up how long it would take me to reach my destination and calculated when I’d have to leave in order to give myself a bit of a time cushion in case I got turned around (an inevitability when I’m driving somewhere new), ran into heavy traffic, or had to make a few stops. That showed me what time I’d have to wake up so that I could shower, eat, grab everything, and load it into my car and still get there on time. After I finished all of that, I felt much better and sat down to read a bit, grabbed one more thing I’d forgotten earlier, and then went to bed. The next morning, I had no trouble leaving early enough to make a quick stop on the way, get turned around a few times, and still arrive early. And I had an amazing, though tiring, time with everything I did and enjoyed a wonderful, smooth day.

This experience taught me a few valuable lessons. For one thing, I’m sure that I slept much better after getting ready at night than I would have had I waited until morning to do everything. Taking action to improve my situation did instead of worrying about it did the trick. The relief I felt after getting everything squared away and knowing that it would be easy the next day made it easy to relax, focus on my book, and enjoy my sleep. Even though I got to bed later than I would have liked, I think I got enough quality sleep to get me through the next day, and I’d rather have a little quality sleep than a night of tossing and turning and waking up due to stress. Additionally, I now have much more respect for good preparation. Although I didn’t have much time to prepare on Saturday, I could have used the little bit that I did have that day and in the previous days to come up with a plan for Sunday. That would have put me in a better position on Saturday night and I probably would have gotten more sleep if I’d started preparing sooner. I plan to learn from this experience so that I don’t end up repeating my mistakes in future situations. This way, even if I run into similar situations, I’ll be able to handle them much better by taking the initiative to make them easier to manage and less likely to stress me out.

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Accepting My Past Self

Posted on May 12, 2019 by admin

When I think about things in my life that I either regret doing or wish I had done, I tend to be quite hard on myself. I often think (and sometimes even say) that I used to be a terrible person, was cruel, a jerk, etc. It’s not until recently that I realized how destructive that is and how much better it is to be kind to my past self. After all, I know a lot more now than I knew then, and, as they say, knowing is half the battle. Even after I learned about better ways to get the results I wanted, I still had to learn how to put that knowledge into practice and then make sure that I actually followed through with it. Each of those steps has been increasingly more difficult than the previous step and I think the third step will always be the most difficult for me. Regardless of where I’m at in life, as long as I’m always doing my best, I’m on the right track.

Something I try to keep in mind is that I got to be who I am now because of my past actions. No matter what I did back then, it lead me toward everything I’ve learned and everything I have going for me at this point in my life. The decisions I’m glad I made turned me onto a lot of good things and did a great deal to teach me what works; the decisions I often wish I had avoided taught me what doesn’t work and created situations and consequences that I’m now much more determined to avoid. This combination of positive and negative consequences has shaped my thoughts, words, and actions in such a way that I now appreciate who I used to be and the lessons I learned along the way. Appreciating and accepting who I used to be is an important step on my quest to make peace with my past. The more I can do that, the less likely I’ll be to repeat my mistakes, get stuck in painful situations, or otherwise end up stuck in cycles of negativity.

Being hard on myself, whether my current self or my past self, makes it more difficult to make progress and continually practice the good stuff I’ve found. Also, plenty of other people have treated me roughly and given me a hard time; I don’t want to be one of those people, so I’m going to be kind to myself. When I think back to my past self, I see someone who was hurting (without even realizing it for the most part) and in need of help. I try to be kind to other people who are hurting and in need of help, so why not treat myself this way? I think that gentle guidance rather than harsh correction is the best way to help other people get where they want to be in life and I think that that also applies to me. If you also tend to be hard on yourself, I recommend trying this approach and seeing what it does for you. It’s made it much easier for me to love myself and brought healing to some areas that desperately need it, and I hope it does the same for you.

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Accepting Help

Posted on May 11, 2019 by admin

For most of my life, I’ve had a difficult time taking instructions from other people. This is especially true when someone tries to give me advice against my will or make me do something a certain way. However, even when I actively seek out someone to teach me something, I still occasionally feel a bit of resentment and a desire to do things my way. I think part of this comes from how my formative years involved a lot of people telling me what to do, giving me no room to negotiate or find an alternative course of action, and punishing me if I didn’t comply.

I also think that my ego plays a role in this by making me think that I know better than anyone else and don’t need their advice. As you can imagine, this has caused me a lot of problems. It’s taken me a long time and a lot of work, but I’m now much better able to sidestep my ego and receive positive instruction from others, especially when their delivery is gentle. Sometimes I even actively seek out corrections. For example, I’ve improved a lot at swing dancing because I’ve asked for help time and time again; whenever I’ve gotten a useful recommendation, I’ve then practiced it repeatedly until it became a habit. I still ask for feedback on dance moves I’ve done for a while now as an occasional “tune-up” ensures I’m still doing it right and gives me the chance to fix it if I’m not.

Being on the other side of the knowledge exchange by teaching things to other people has made it easier for me to give the benefit of the doubt to those who teach me. For instance, although I’ve taught several people how to juggle, how to juggle better, or how to juggle a certain trick, I always make sure they want my advice before giving it to them. If they start off by asking me for help, then it’s clear they do want some input. If they don’t ask me for help, I might ask if I can share something with them; if they say no, I’ll keep it to myself. This has also generally been the approach of those who have taught me something or helped me improve at it. When someone is giving me advice, sometimes I know their intentions and sometimes I don’t. Either way, responding as if they’re coming from a good place creates a positive outcome, allows me to find value in their words, and makes me more likely to follow their advice if it proves useful.

I (usually) appreciate getting another perspective on what I’m doing because it provides an opportunity for me to improve. I don’t notice a lot of things that I’m doing unconsciously, habitually, or in a different way than I think I’m doing them. Beyond that, I don’t know how my actions are coming across to other people unless they tell me. So when someone points out an area where I have room for improvement that I can’t see, it gives me an opportunity to fix something that would otherwise be neglected. I’m always trying to improve myself and get better at the things I love to do, so I’ve learned to accept and appreciate useful feedback that helps me be the best version of myself that I can be.

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Reclaiming Your Power

Posted on May 10, 2019 by admin

There’s more information available to us than ever before, and trying to keep up with even a fraction of it all will quickly become overwhelming. It’s hard to avoid the latest celebrity gossip, sports happenings, controversies, and everything else that’s considered newsworthy these days. That is, it’s hard to avoid all of that if you consider it valuable. If you don’t find value in it, then it becomes easy to ignore. That’s why I can avoid this stuff even when I see a lot of it.

I’m not interested in examining the private lives of actors (whether or not I enjoy their work), keeping up with events that are outside my usual circles, or learning about every upsetting thing that’s happening in the world. I’d much rather hear, discuss, think about, and participate in a few of the many things going on in my life and in the lives of those close to me. The former is outside my sphere of influence while the latter is well within it, so focusing on where I can make a positive contribution is a much better use of my time, energy, and other resources. Plus it’s way more enjoyable and way less stressful.

As much as I’ve benefited from this approach, I don’t know how common it is. I see a lot of people on my newsfeed posting, talking, and arguing over the latest stories, and most of them appear to be frustrated or miserable, or both; I was definitely both frustrated and miserable when I engaged in that stuff all the time. At this point in my regular life, however, I rarely see anything like that outside of the internet, and it’s even more rare that I participate in any discussions involving that stuff; when I do, it’s usually in civil exchanges with one or two close friends whose insights and perspectives I value. Overall, I prefer discussing ideas, concepts, and effective living over talking about current events that will be old news in short order. When I feel myself gravitating toward the latest fad, I try to consider whether or not I want that thing to control me. The more attention you give something, the more power over yourself you give it. Withdrawing your attention from something that’s bad for you returns that power to you and gives you more room to maneuver in your life. When you do that, you can then start tuning out the noise and listening to the beautiful music of life. And there is plenty of that music out there for those who want to hear it.

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A Much-Needed Day Off

Posted on May 9, 2019 by admin

Yesterday was the first day off I’ve had since I went to Floor Divided almost a month ago. However, even though I had the weekend off for that event, I spent most of those days dancing, taking lessons, driving around, and sticking to my daily routine as best as I could. I didn’t have much time to rest during that event, so it took me a day or two to get back in the swing of things (pun intended) once I got back. In contrast, I had plenty of time to relax, rest, and enjoy the day at my own pace yesterday, which I quite enjoyed.

I started my day off right: I slept in. I had gotten up early for work on Tuesday and that day turned out to be much busier than I had expected. Even though I floated after work and fell asleep in the pod, I was still pretty tired by the time I went to bed that night. So I decided to be kind to myself and slept in the next day, feeling refreshed when I woke up. I spent a lot of time on my Kindle before getting up, visiting with my dog for a bit, and then eating a nice breakfast. I had decided to stay home all day (the first time I’ve had that opportunity in months), so I was in no rush to do anything. In addition to completing my usual daily tasks, I organized my room a bit, did some laundry, figured out some plans for this coming weekend, and worked on a few more things I’d been neglecting. I also spent a lot of time relaxing, playing a computer game, and appreciating the nice, leisurely day, which felt more like several days since I slowed down time.

I’m not working every day anymore since I quit my old job, so now I’ll regularly have Wednesdays off. And, if yesterday was any indication, then it looks like Wednesday is going to once again be my favorite day of the week. Having a whole day to myself was just the break I needed, for both my mental and physical well-being. The best thing about yesterday was the peace I got from spending a lot of time by myself and doing things I love without having to stick to anyone else’s schedule. There was also the physical break for my body since I didn’t go to work or the gym. Additionally, my eyes probably needed a break from my contacts. Yesterday was the first time in months that I went a whole day without putting them in, opting instead to wear my glasses all day. Although I was able to handle working every day for long stretches of time much better than I thought I would, I’m grateful to have some regular days off again. Yesterday did me a lot of good and gave me a glimpse of things to come as I continue obtaining and increasing freedom in my life.

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