Mark Manson

What was the assumption when you responded that way?

Whether it's meditation, right?

Focus on your internal feeling.

Focus on what emotions are arising.

Where did this come from?

What's the thought that's arising?

Where did that thought come from?

Who's inventing that thought?

All of these are just techniques.

Journaling is another one, right?

Like going back through your day and kind of like thinking about why did I make this decision or what was I feeling at this moment?

These are all ways of just kind of

creating that five second gap that you just talked about.

So the next time something happens, you're not just instantly reacting, you're actually able to stop, focus, kind of assess the situation and bring a little bit of wisdom to it.

So ego is a funny thing because the way it's used in popular terms, I think, it's often a misnomer, right?

So everybody's like, oh, that guy's got such a big ego.

Like Donald Trump has a big ego.

The funny thing about the ego though, so like if you actually go back to Freud and like look at what his framework is, basically what Freud said is he's like there's two conflicting, there's kind of an inherent tension in all of us, right?

So there's our animalistic impulses and urges and desires.

It's just these like very, these,