Projecting

Daily Meditation 853–7/1/2024

We’ve got a bad habit of projecting outwards onto the world (including others) what we’ve internalized.

What I mean is this — when we believe the world is a bad place filled with bad people, we project that belief outwards and only see the bad. That’s not a good way of living. We only see hate, we only see race, we only see disparity of income, we only see division.

And maybe those things are real. They definitely are real, actually. But they aren’t reality.

Where I’m going with this is here: don’t internalize that which is overly negative and your reality will not be, well…overly negative.

When you internalize good, positive thoughts built from good self-esteem (from an honest perspective, not a false one), then the world is a beautiful place filled with better people.

This is not to say we ought to be naïve, butterfly-and-rainbow chasers. That’s irresponsible as well.

This is to say we must moderate our thoughts. Not everything will be politics. Not everything will be combat. Not everyone is inherently bad because of attributes X, Y, or Z.
In the moderation of thoughts in real time, we can ensure a better filter in the now which will ensure a better reality.

And you’ve gotta live in your current reality. Why choose one of negativity?

In closing — guard your mind from warped reality and negative bits. Be realistic, seek facts and truth, still, but guard from projecting out a reality which is rotten.

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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”