Paul Conti

And

And I remember learning that in a religion studies class, being really fascinated with that at the time.

And I think that there are a lot of things we do that about, right?

And in training ourselves to have an observing ego, what we're saying is, hey, just the busyness of life or my own impulses or the pull of emotions are trying to pull me up right close to whatever tapestry there is there.

And I want to sort of resist that.

I mean, I'm better off if I really stay

further behind it and then i make a choice if i want to come close to it if there's some really positive emotion or it's friendship or it's love or it's nurturing you know what let me come right up to this right but i want to choose when i'm doing that i don't want some drive i didn't decide to like take me by the back of the head and and put me up against that tapestry

Yes, and there's a certain kind of psychotherapy that talks a lot about this idea that everything is as it should be, which doesn't mean from some moral or justice point.

It's just that often if you look at things...

One thing leads to another, to another, to another in a way that's actually very, very predictable, even though we might be surprised about it, right?

And so an example, so I would say that gratitude often does come along with a healthy pride, right?

So you could say in the example you gave, hey, I'm being assailed on social media, okay?

So you could say, well, you know, there was a time I set forth to impact people, right?

To be able to reach people and to impact them, right?

And look, I feel a sense of both gratitude and pride that I've done that, right?

Because you did it because of your effort, right?

Your work, your intelligence, your thoughts, like you're responsible for it, right?

But also...

you feel gratitude because any one of us who's here and has any opportunity has reason to feel immense gratitude, right?

So then you can say, okay, what's actually going on here is something successful.