Most of how we are now has been acquired through our senses. Most of us had the right set of tools before we were even born, but then we were unleashed into this wild world. If you think about it, we experienced some sort of pain right from the first second we got here. If things have been acquired through our senses, it means that we’ve learned them, so we can unlearn. We can unlearn how we’re reacting in different circumstances, we can unlearn how we are thinking about ourselves right now and so on (more about this in the next chapter so keep your eyes open and stop napping).

    What we’ve learned so far are not necessarily the most appropriate things we should know and apply. Actually, most of the frustrations we encounter on our daily basis are caused by our response to those situations. As I said in the first chapter, people have different responses to the same situation. This is caused by the fact that we went through different things in our lives, which led to that response.

   You probably know that saying: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!” The question is: we want to be the man that has the trash or the man that has the treasure? It’s the same thing, but how we see it makes the difference.

    Most of us think, right? With words and images and whatever, but are those thoughts ours? Did we produce them? Since all the crap we know now is something that we’ve learned at some point from someone else or from a particular situation, it means that we might not be the owners, only the carriers. I’ll give an example here. Let’s say you have 1000$ and you don’t know what to do with it (it never happens, I know). Now let’s say you take a walk to release that stress of not knowing to do with the money (it can happen… right?). While walking you see a commercial about a new phone and you’re thinking “I could buy that. My current phone is not that good anymore. The battery is weaker, the touch screen is not as responsive as it used to be and I think it smells like an old fart. I should change it.” Now your brain starts to find reasons to match “your desire”. Let’s say after half an hour you get a call from a friend telling you he has problems with his car and he got stuck in the middle of nowhere. Now you’re thinking “I should go check my car as well. I think I hear something strange when I drive it. The motor seems to be less powerful compared to how it used to be. I think it also smells like an old fart. I should take it to a car service.” Again, your brain is starting to find reasons to match your desire. You’re still walking and suddenly you see a big billboard with the message “Now it’s the time to invest in stocks!” What is your brain starting to tell you? Yes, that’s right. You got the point. Now, which one is your wish? If you have a great understanding of yourself, you know. But then again, if you had a great understanding of yourself, you have known the answer in the first place.

*Passage from my book -> Fighting the Inside Dragons* (You can find it here on Kindle and Paperback)

   How easy can you be influenced?