The Emotion Machine

Do you need more rehearsal in your life or more improvisation?

It’s important to understand that we are all “brainwashed” in some way. We’ve all been raised by certain traditions, cultures, and social norms that have built expectations in us on how to live our lives and what choices to make.

So we haven’t made the choices in our life solely of our own free will, they are in many ways shaped by these social influences, outside of our own reason, logic, and commonsense.

Acknowledging this truth about our minds is at least one small step in beginning to untangle all the unhelpful conditioning we’ve learned since birth.

If I look back at my life within the past 2 weeks, I have to admit it’s been a bit rough and stressful. However, if I look back at my life within the past 2 years, then I see just how much everything is improving.

Sometimes you pour a lot of work into something, but then you don’t get the results you had hoped for.

It happens.

Like some of you here, I had a tedious and painful experience in high school.

Maybe you never really found your group of friends. Maybe you never found yourself doing well on exams. Or maybe you didn’t get along with your teaches or principal.

In many ways, high school can be like a prison. Most of us are forced to go every Monday-Friday, for 6-7 hours a day, for 18+ years of our life. That is a lot of to be wasted doing things that may not have been very productive or satisfying.

Whether or not you are had a good or bad experience in high school, the most important thing to remember is that high school is not reality.

Once you graduate, things change. The world changes. Your perspective changes. Your values change. Your relationships change. Your habits change.

While attending high school, it may seem like the only reality there is. But in fact it’s a very small phase when compared to the broader scope of your life.

So if you are having (or had) a bad experience in high school, keep in mind that there is a very good chance things will get better for you as you grow older and explore new people and new opportunities.

It’s now been almost 6 years since I graduated, and my life has improved dramatically since then. I discovered that a lot of the things I “learned” in high school weren’t exactly true, but I needed more time and experience before I could discover these things for myself.