Understand THIS...& you won't be DISTRACTED in life ANYMORE | Robert Greene

we don't really know who we are and I want people to admit that when they look at their books the truth of it is is that we really don't know who we are we have many different selves there isn't never oneself this is a concept that's very deeply ingrained in Buddhism that's greatly influenced me our self is constantly in fluctuation we're not the same person we were as a child in the course of the day we have different moods we have one self over with a lover we have another self when we're with the bosses I alluded to earlier so to think that there's one consistent stable self as an illusion and neuroscientists have pointed this out the brain tries to create for us this sense that we have a stable consistent world so that we don't constantly freaking out about the actual chaos of life so we even simplify ourselves into this idea that we have this one consistent authentic self your authentic self is actually coming to terms with this chaos and accepting it and not trying to imagine that you're some consistent great do-gooder moralizing person and the other thing is you have a dark side you have dark desires you have aggressive impulses you have anger you have things that I call it the shadow that's not me it's a concept from psychology you have a shadow side to yourself well that's also part of being authentic and you tended to repress it so embracing the many different sides of who you are including embracing the fact that you're not nearly as good or moral as you think you are actually would add up to be more authentic to ground yourself in reality you would first have to ground yourself in yourself you have to know who you are you have to detach yourself from social media from all the other influences that people are giving you so when you don't know yourself when you're not in touch with your own tastes and desires your own impulses what makes you different what makes you unique you are alienated from the one basic reality who you are and it creates I think a lot of anxiety and a lot of depression because we all have a deep need to sort of express our our personal opinions our personal tastes to find some outlet in some career to give expression to what makes us different from others and so if you're constantly listening to what other people are saying if you're plugged in to the matrix continually and that's your only reality then really what you're doing is you're never understanding who you are what you see when you look in the mirror is a reflection of all the other opinions of other people have opinions of you opinions of politics opinions of what's politically correct of what's good and what's bad you've become a reflection of other people and being alienated from yourself is a deeply deeply depressing experience it can lead to taking drugs to stimulants to all kinds of addictions so we can say certain basic things about yourself you you were born very different from other people your brain is wired in a very unique way your DNA is unique you are going to die someday you're mortal you have to fend for yourself in this world people aren't going to give you things this is sort of a basic kind of ground for your feet to stand upon an understanding that is sort of understanding reality and a lot of people are fleeing from that because living in that kind of matrix world of social media and all the fantasies you don't really have to confront yourself you don't have to deal with your own demons with your own weaknesses with your own flaws but you pay a terrible price but I think the principle ProSource of the problem is that people are running away from themselves and on social media that process is deep is greatly accelerated [Music]