Daron Larson

Mindful awareness isn't self-help. It's exercise. We don't call physical exercise self-help. Physical exercise develops physical capacities. Mindful awareness develops attentional capacities. 🧵👇

We seldom admit the seductive comfort of hopelessness. It saves us from ambiguity. It has an answer for every question: "There's just no point." Hope, on the other hand, is messy. If it might all work out, then we have things to do. We must weather the possibility of happiness.

American politics today epitomizes dualistic, either/or, win/lose, us vs them, immature thinking. It's bad for individuals, our country, and the world. We live in a world of nuance. Real issues are layered/complex. Sound bites and tribal loyalty won't get us where we need to go.

Investing and fitness are very similar. Everyone wants a short cut, the next thing, when really you just need to stay in a boring index fund for a long time. Everyone wants the fancy workout, when you need the basics for a long time.

An absurd ideological belief is a form of tribal signalling. It signifies that one considers their ideology more important than truth, reason, sanity. To one's allies, this is an oath of unwavering loyalty. To one's enemies, it is a threat display.

The most expensive tasks that brains do are (1) moving your body and (2) learning something new. They have a metabolic cost that may feel unpleasant. So, feeling bad doesn't always mean that something bad happened. You might just be doing something really hard.

Endurance sport is mental training. You are alone in your head for long periods of time with ever increasing levels of discomfort. You have a concrete goal that half your mind is screaming to abandon. You repeat this day after day and have no option but to figure it out.

99.99 percent of life is the process.

It is better to have character than success.

This is why mindfulness practice can be much more satisfying than just trying to be calm. It can be about letting our unpleasant feelings reveal what we care about, easing up on ourselves when we’re hurting, and feeling closer to the people we love. open.substack.com/pub/daronlarso…

As a monk I learned that Zen is about doing simple activities completely. That's it. Don’t be "mindful." Don’t worry about enlightenment or satori. Don’t worry about Buddhism. Don’t worry about Zen. Don’t do anything in a Zen way. Zen is invisible. If it’s there, it’s not Zen.

Coaching is about making your own job obsolete. Good coaches foster independence. We should be working towards having our athlete be self-sufficient, with our role as simply course correcting the ship as it goes

90% of politics and philosophy is just people trying to find elaborate justifications for their own personality.

Exercise can IMPROVE your thinking & cognition acutely Research shows there's an intensity and volume component: -Moderate intensity (i.e. threshold) boosts performance -Low intensity that is long enough (30min+) = a similar boost Basically: Enough to focus but not fatigue

Courage can be loud, but mostly, courage is a whisper: those moments every day when you do what’s right for you.

"We are highly affected by our belief in how we sleep. A 2014 study found that our belief in how well we sleep affects our cognitive functioning more than how well we actually sleep." nirandfar.com/?p=19468 via @nireyal

I recommend savoring Goldilocks circumstances—those ideal, fleeting moments when nothing needs to change, but we ruminate and miss their richness. open.substack.com/pub/daronlarso…

The parts of our selves that need compassion the most are the parts we don't like.

I post this every year on 9-11. No words. #remebering911