Mantras

These are some mantras, or maxims if you prefer, that come up in my brain often. Very concise expressions of important ideas that I find to clarify my experience of reality.

1. "The world is kinder than you think." It is easy to overestimate bad possibilities, and underestimate good ones: sure, if you go out for coffee, you might have people be rude to you, or insult you or steal from you; but perhaps more likely even, you and a stranger will exchange greetings and a smile, you'll make a friend, someone will pay for your drink, or someone will kindly let you know that you've left your backpack open or that you dropped your wallet.
2. "It is surprsing, what people can get used to." People are extremely adaptable. Over the last hundred years alone, the environment the average person finds themself in has varied wildly. It is the nature of things, that once you are used to one way of being, that you will resist and experience other ways of being as uncomfortable, by default; but know that you can change these things, and put intentional effort into changing what you are used to. Personally, I have done this many times:
   • I switched from full beds, to bed mats, to sleeping on the floor. It's a useful thing to be used to!
   • I switched away from driving, from driving without a second thought or being bothered by it, to biking or walking absolutely everywhere I can. It was an adjustment at first, But even as disabling as it initially was, it's made me far happier of a person overall. Now that I'm well- used to it, I can't stand the smell or spatial disorientation or Violence of cars and roads. And I usually don't even need to!
   • I switched from Windows, which I grew up with, to OS X (which was immediately more comfortable), to Debian Linux, to the more austere Alpine Linux, to not even using a display server at all.
3. "If it's shit, hit the bricks." If it sucks, you can just leave! Alternatively, if it's better to do nothing, than to do something, you probably shouldn't bother. Just don't! Save your effort and don't accumulate unnecessary garbage.