How to Exist

(raptitude.com)

38 points | by walterbell 2 hours ago

5 comments

  • applfanboysbgon 43 minutes ago
    > When you stop doing everything and just exist, you almost feel like you’re dying.

    It sounds like the author drinks too much caffeine. This definitely isn't unusual in rat race culture, but it's also by no means the universal human experience.

  • annshress 31 minutes ago
    Not really sure how to feel about this post. I guess I will try still..
  • jdw64 57 minutes ago
    I'm just trying to Exit.
    • ryeguy_24 33 minutes ago
      If you are stuck in vim, it's :q. If you are stuck in life, stay with us, we want you to stay.
    • pizzathyme 46 minutes ago
      Don't give up, friend. People care for you. If no one else, this person online does! I hope you are able to find help.
      • aakresearch 15 minutes ago
        Today there is no guarantee that that sequence of characters, or the one it was produced in reply to, or, indeed, this very one you are reading right now did not come from a bot. There is a lot of "care" being performed and not much left to just exist.
      • hankbond 33 minutes ago
        This is hacker news so there's a good chance they mean "have a successful acquisition of their business", in which case I hope they can Exit.
      • md224 33 minutes ago
        it's possible that he was making a joke about exiting a startup

        but I appreciate your comment regardless

    • cindyllm 10 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • sublinear 13 minutes ago
    > This is a crazy thing to notice after having been alive so many years — that your existence itself is so much to bear. There’s always something wrong, even when everything’s fine. It’s as if you can only bear the present moment when you’re trying change it into something else.

    I am not a professional and I'm not trying to be dismissive here, but I'm pretty sure you're just describing general anxiety.

    Nobody truly has a hard time "doing nothing for 3 minutes" if they time it right. Morning and night tend to be when it's easiest for me, but others may differ. You should instead investigate what makes that time of day different from the rest of it. That's where the answers really are. You can and should adjust the flow of your day to make it happen naturally and unconsciously.

    > This is a form of meditation, but I almost want to avoid that word because it makes people get nervous and overcomplicate it. Just think of this practice as existing without fear, for a few seconds at a time. Minimum effective dose is one half-breath.

    This is already way too complicated. Nothing at this level of detail needs to be described. We already know what "nothing" is. Being too deliberate has a way of pushing the emotions elsewhere until they come back to bite you. The goal of trying to make this possible on-demand is unrealistic at best, or a self-help trap to keep people buying advice at worst.

    I found myself "meditating" all the time on accident when I took on less and gave myself more time to do things. When you need a break, you need a break. The most important part for me was letting go of trying to impose control over this. I very strongly disagree with the notion of deliberate meditation. It's not a matter of "doing it right". It's just bullshit. The state of mind and results are identical when you stop listening to anyone's advice and just let it happen.

    • onemoresoop 1 minute ago
      > I very strongly disagree with the notion of deliberate meditation. It's not a matter of "doing it right". It's just bullshit. The state of mind and results are identical when you stop listening to anyone's advice and just let it happen.

      You assume others have had your experience and learnings from it. That’s clearly not possible so how else would you put it for them? Maybe you should contribute your own experience. But don’t expect everybody will allign to it 100%.