Feelings Are Transient

Hey readers 👋

My regular readers would know that I am sending this weeks’ newsletter precisely 24 hours later than usual. Long story short - life happens. Sorry.

This week’s thought is about humans having a tendency to believe that our current feelings or state of mind will continue into perpetuity. I.e. that there is a certain permanence to our feelings.

If we’re feeling sad today, we think we’ll be feeling sad forever. If we’re happy or in a great mood today, we think we will be happy or in a great mood forever.

With maturity, we realise that this is a dangerous way of thinking.

I’m sure if you look back at how you have been feeling over the past week, month or year, your feelings would have changed by quite a bit. Likewise, in the future, your feelings will also change by quite a bit. Change is certain.

We need to be ready to accept that our feelings will and do change. How we’re feeling now is only temporary, and we’re not going to be feeling like this forever.

We need to be able to ride with our feelings and accept them for what they are. At the same time, having an appreciation for the fact that how we are currently feeling is transcient and not permanent will help us smooth over the highs and lows of life.

Have an awesome week ahead 🤩

Featured Article

Showing Gratitude With the “I Get to” Mindset

Whenever I catch myself complaining about having to do something I don’t particularly want to do, this simple mindset change has helped me become grateful.

Samuel ObeSamuel Ajayi-Obe

3 Things I've Enjoyed This Week

1. Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | TED Talk - An incredibly interesting and engaging talk about happiness. Happiness is not a destination, it’s a journey.
2. Seth Godin: Wasting it - A stark remainder of just how much time we spend on “crap”, wasting our lives away.
3. Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness | TED Talk - We don’t know what makes us happy. If you say you do, you’re either lying or you’re wrong. Dan eloquently explains why we will not be miserable if we don’t get what we want, because not getting what we want could make us just as happy as getting it.

Tweet of the Week

This Week's Wisdom

“Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer.”

- Matthew Walker, in the book: Why we sleep

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Every Sunday, I write a lesson I wished I had learned 10 years earlier, to feed our brains with intelligent content to start our week.

I also share interesting articles, book quotes, and the occasional speech or TED talk to help us all get smarter, wiser, and live better.

I follow my curiosity at SamuelObe.com

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