"The universal truth behind my specific issues is that **most of us invest a lot of energy, one way or another, in trying to avoid fully experiencing the reality in which we find ourselves**. "**We don’t want to feel the anxiety that might arise if we were to ask ourselves whether we’re on the right path, or what ideas about ourselves it could be time to give up**. We don’t want to risk getting hurt in relationships or failing professionally; we don’t want to accept that we might never succeed in pleasing our parents or in changing certain things we don’t like about ourselves—and we certainly don’t want to get sick and die. The details differ from person to person, but the kernel is the same. **We recoil from the notion that this is it—that this life, with all its flaws and inescapable vulnerabilities, its extreme brevity, and our limited influence over how it unfolds, is the only one we’ll get a shot at**. "Instead, **we mentally fight against the way things are**—so that, in the words of the psychotherapist [[Bruce Tift]], “**we don’t have to consciously participate in what it’s like to feel claustrophobic, imprisoned, powerless, and constrained by reality.**”" --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[attention]], [[mindfulness]], [[momento-mori]], [[bad-habits]], [[anxiety]], **Source** -- [[202410130434 - B - Four Thousand Weeks]]