4 levels of living

Today, I want to talk about epiphany that struck me a few weeks ago at night while reading a book, and I was distracted by some thoughts. It was hard to focus on the book, but as soon as that epiphany struck me, I let every thought go, and didn't even need to "try" to focus on reading.

There are 4 levels of living life. I don't want to be too nuanced, trying to cover every exception because I feel that the readers for whom this will be helpful should just grasp these brief, and simple ideas; and think about their own life to see where they fit.

Level 1

When you are in this stage of life, you are stupid enough to not be able anticipate any kind consequence that can be from just one simple decision, and you are just not at all prepared to handle that consequence. Most people generally overcome this stage in early teenage.

Level 2

You get enough consciousness to anticipate various possibilities, but you have almost no capability to handle life. Your life goes in the way how the life wnats to go, as you can't change the direction of the sailing ship. Wherever the wind blows you go. And this the condition where you overthink everything a lot. From past experiences you are trying to simulate all kinds of scenarios in your brain for future events you think might happen. During teenage most people are afraid of either teachers, or parents, or peers/society. They don't have financial power to tackle most stupid situations, they lead themselves into. The overthinking mind make them afraid and anxious.

Level 3

You have enough consciousness to anticipate all kinds the possibilities and you have already been preparing for some of the outcomes that can happen in your life, but because you feel you are ready for some, you try to make yourself prepared for every possible situation that you can think of. You make your mind run like a hamster. Most people are on their own generally in this stage of life, or at least that's what they feel like. Every problem, every converstation, important past events, don't tend to leave your mind alone. You start living in "what if" world. But not just that, you start to find answer to "What should I do if this happens" for every situation that you can think of. Most people get here in their teenage or early twenties, and get stuck for lifetime. This is an extremely painful situation to be in, and you will be so accustomed to the pain that you won't realise it if you don't graduate to level 4.

"We suffer more in imagination that in reality" - SENECA

Level 4

This is the hardest one to get too. This is the ultimate enlightenment, getting confident and having the realisation that no matter how much you try you'll never be able to actually be prepared for all the situations, but you believe in yourself that whatever happens you'll be able to tackle it head on. You stop overthinking, instead let the life happen to you while you work on yourself. But you can't just pretend to be in this stage.

You might've said something like "I don't give a f***" in past, but do you really not in your head when you are alone overthinking that one negative comment about you? You do. And it's ok, main challenge is to face why you do, and to prove yourself by small but multiple achivements in life that even if what you think is a bad and unknown situation, you'll be able to tackle it. For me; I proved to myself by body building, cooking, blogging, guitar, and golf. For you; it can be totally different activities. I'll highly suggest some form of physical activity, some musical instrument, and cooking to be included in your daily life. These are the things which you can have absolute control over, and will make you psychologically stronger for bigger challenges of life when you start leveling up yourself in these daily activities.

"Either you choose your daily challenges, or life will choose on its own"

That's it for this blog post and if you feel that you've something to add to this or you have a different perspective then share it and discuss it on r/StoicHuman or go to the Reddit discussion post for this blog post linked down below.

Stay healthy, Stay safe!

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