Improve how you feel by embracing objective reality

At its root, what is mental or emotional pain? It is nothing more or less than the revelation of a difference between our expectations and reality. Most people avoid what would fix this difference at all costs. They will cut off their closest friends, dive into the deepest delusion, and cause themselves great harm to avoid it. This is highly irrational, and the worst possible behavior in the context of obtaining happiness. Avoidance of a more accurate perception of reality may more effectively prevent you from obtaining greater happiness than anything else.

Most normal people go through their whole lives pinching their eyes shut, trying to ignore what they know is out of accord in their lives. They think that by ignoring what they know is not as they wish it was, they can enjoy what they do like about their lives and avoid what they do not. This, however, never works.

As you progress, you encounter greater peace because you no longer suffer from avoidable consequences, and the unavoidable ones don’t bother you as much because you better understand why they have to happen.

We have to grapple with reality as it really is in order to make it more like how we would like it to be. It is good and essential to imagine the world how we would like it to be; this is how we determine our goals. However, we have to interact with the world as it really is. Our daily actions should be based on reducing the distance between how the world is and how we would like it to be; they cannot be effective if our starting point is not how the world actually is.

Reality does not care how we feel about its rules. They just exist, whether we like it or not. Those who most fully embrace reality and operate most effectively within the rules it provides will encounter what they seek more often and more enduringly than those who do not. The elements of reality that we wish were not true are the richest source of new truth. Clinging to our vain imagination in the face of revealed reality causes cognitive dissonance and psychological pain. Recognizing these holes as opportunities to learn is essential. These are moments to reflect and ask what our understanding lacks on these points. This is how we progress.

A person who does not believe in objective reality will encounter unnecessary suffering in all aspects of life because they refuse to contend with the greater portion of what is all around them. They will stumble through miserable lives without accomplishing nearly as much as they could have, constantly being unpleasantly surprised by many outcomes they should have seen coming and could have prepared for. Not surprisingly, those who believe in an unconstrained reality have much higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and suicide than those who believe in a constrained reality.

In today’s world, most people believe that reality only exists in their minds. They believe that with enough scientific advancement and social control, we can create an environment free from constraints and consequences.¹ Belief in an unconstrained reality is accelerating with shocking rapidity in the world, creating unbridled hatred and animosity against those who recognize and live according to the non-negotiables of reality. With every wave of consequences for bucking what is obvious, delusional people project their own fault onto those playing the game better than them, making everything even worse than it already is.

Embrace objective reality to maximize your joy on purpose. Do all you can to learn the rules of reality, and devise and live a strategy to maximize the joy you experience and retain while you are here. The life plan will help you do this more directly than anything else presently available.