101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think

by Brianna Wiest

These are the same people who have communicated to us some of the longest-standing conventional wisdom: that to believe is to become, that the mind is to be mastered, that the obstacle is the way

if you consciously learn to regard the “problems” in your life as openings for you to adopt a greater understanding and then develop a better way of living, you will step out of the labyrinth of suffering and learn what it means to thrive.

Marcus Aurelius sums this up well: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. 2007. Random House.

Understanding that they are the ultimate cause of what they experience keeps them out of falling into the trap of indignant passivity: Where one believes that as the universe has done wrong, the universe will ultimately have to correct it.

101 Things more worth Thinking about than Whatever’s Consuming You: The way it will feel to have the life you want. The place you’ll live, the clothes you will wear, what you will buy at the supermarket, how much money you’ll save, what work you’ll be most proud to have done. What you’ll do with your weekends, what color your sheets will be, what you’ll take photos of. The parts of yourself you need to work on, not because someone else doesn’t love them, but because you don’t. The fact that sometimes, the ultimate expression of self-love is admitting you don’t like yourself and coming up with steps to change the things that you know you can and will do better. A list of things that turned out to be very right for you, and what similar feeling accompanied each of them. The way you will quantify this year. How many books you want to say you’ve read, how many projects you’ve completed, how many connections with friends and family you fostered or rekindled, how you spent your days. The things in the past that you thought you’d never get over, and how insignificant they seem today. What you will create today, what food you will eat, and who you will connect with. (These are the only things you carry with you.) How you learn best, and how you could possibly integrate that form of comprehension into your life more often (do things that are more visual, or listen better, try to experiment more often, and so on). The fact that you do not need to be exceptionally beautiful or talented or successful to experience the things that make life profound: love, knowledge, connection, community, and so on. The cosmos, and how despite being insignificant specks, we are all essential to the core patchwork that makes up humanity, and that without any single one of us, nothing would exist as it is right now. The proper conjugations for a language you could stand to speak conversationally. The people you smiled at on the street this morning, the people whom you text regularly, the family you could stand to visit more—all the little bits of genuine human connection that you overlook because they’ve become givens. How you will remember this time in your life 20 years from now. What you will wish you had done or stopped doing, what you overlooked, what little things you didn’t realize you should have appreciated. How few of your days you really remember. How you likely won’t remember this particular day 20 years from now. Everything you honestly didn’t like about the person you’re no longer with, now that you’re not emotionally obligated to lie to yourself about them. A list of all the things you’ve done for yourself recently. Little ways you can improve your quality of day-to-day life, such as consolidating debt, or learning to cook an easy signature meal, or cleaning out your closet. The patterns in your failed relationships, and what degree of fault you can rightfully hand yourself. What you subconsciously love about the “problems” you struggle to get over. Nobody holds…