2026-08-27
X: Last few months of trying to process my emotions. Y: Everything I pay attention to seems to loop on itself
Disclaimer
- personal
- target audience - strictly myself
Main
- See also: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself and bloom - Henrik Karlsson
- Examples
- If I focus on the fact that I feel unsafe, I begin to feel more unsafe.
- If I focus on my resentment and anger of people, I begin to resent them even more.
- If I focus on my insecurity over not having a partner, I begin to feel even more insecure.
- On one hand, I think giving these things sustained attention is the only way I am able to reach a level of acceptance about these things. But until then, focussing on them can make them even worse.
- I think the right move is like, give it enough attention, accept it, such that it eventually recedes from your attention on its own.
- Example
- For instance I noticed I don't feel that unsafe nowadays. I used to some months back. Partly I have a better model of the actual risks to me. (Most people in Bangalore genuinely don't care much either way about my plans, they are somewhat useless but also somewhat harmless as a result.) Partly though I have just accepted that ya you are not safe and this is fine, and I now don't seem to think about it as much.
- It is a bit funny lol, I now look at some of my notes from few months back and I feel a level of detachment to them I did not feel back then.
- Otherwise maybe you can just deliberately fill your working memory with happy stuff?
- Example
- While working I try to deliberately fill the phrase "curiosity about EVM" in my working memory.
- Thinking about specific people I have met while travelling makes me happy.
- Other things that helped include exercise and meeting people (esp. women, but anyone helps, even friends help, kids help, people with novel experiences help).
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