The Pretend Pain Paradox

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Can a fake belief give you real strength? Yes. I present to you the pretend pain paradox. I hope it causes you to live more skillfully.

Since this psychological thought experiment is unfalsifiable, it has haunted me ever since it first entered my little brain all those years back. On the plus side, it has caused me to make the hard choice in many scenarios where I would've otherwise chosen to be a crybaby or exaggerate my suffering.

People always wonder whether life is secretly more challenging for them in particular, but they rarely wonder if it's secretly easier for them. But baked into the mind of the person who does wonder about such things is a perspective that will undoubtedly serve him in the long run.

Plus, if we believe 'that which is useful contains truth', then the idea that your suffering isn't as bad as you're convinced it is must also contain some non-negligible truth. Because... look what happened ;)

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Channel overview:

A few years ago, I was stuck in bed, hating the universe for subjecting me to the 'sick and twisted game of life' without my consent. I was quite pathetic.

It was only after I realized something very important that things began getting better... life didn't suck; I did.
In the absence of friction, my mind was conjuring its own, so life was hard, yes, but it didn't have to be. The suffering was unnecessary. After a few years of incremental progress, I'm having the time of my life. I've never been in better shape, my mind has never been sharper, I've never experienced so much happiness, and it's all rooted in a deep sense of meaning that was once absent.

I had to shake myself of lots of old beliefs and patterns to get to where I am, and I believe there are millions of other people who feel stuck and could learn from my mistakes. So that's why I'm starting this channel: to share some of the insights that formed the foundation of the psychological habitat I now occupy.

I don't know exactly how the channel will develop but I'm going to start by posting my raw ideas as that's the only thing I can consistently do at this point in time.

I hope it helps!

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