After I started to judge based on rationality in my life, I experienced various changes. They gave me a more peaceful mind.
Perhaps being neutral makes us calmer rather than being positive. Today, let’s talk about it.
How to reduce our stress
Sometimes, we want to reduce our stress and live more relaxed. If we are empathic and logical, we are easily considerate of our surroundings. It often stresses us and exhausts us.
One countermeasure would be thinking positively. It energizes us and allows us to overcome intense stress.
I used to think it gave us a breakthrough.
However, after I started to live rationally, I changed my mind. Being neutral would suit people with empathy and logical sense, like me, rather than being positive.
Today, I will explain why through my recent experiences. This stance might allow you to calm down your nerves and change your life.
Two stances to judge
There are two stances to judge things, as follows:
- Appreciate being positive: We judge things as good or bad. Although it gives us the power to realize one aspect of value, it is vulnerable to contradiction.
- Appreciate being neutral: We judge things based on an acceptable range from the median. It tells us the appropriate range and allows us to be contradictory.
If we are empathic and logical, the latter would suit us.
Example 1: The amount of my noise
To make it easier to understand, let’s look at three examples.
The first example is how I live in my current home.
I moved into my current home last winter, about 4 months ago. It is an apartment house.
When I moved into this house, I was worried about disturbing the neighborhood with my noise. I don’t like to be complained about. That made me try to live as quietly as possible, but it was stressful.
My change
However, I changed my judging stance after I started to live rationally. I began to think about how much noise my surroundings could tolerate.
I realized that a little bit of noise was not a problem at all. The resident below me often watched a loud TV, but it had been no problem in this apartment.
That made me relaxed. I realized that noise itself is not evil. Going beyond the limits is.
In other words, I have stopped being so mindful of my surroundings.
That is one example of judging by neutrality rather than positivity. I decide things based on an acceptable range from the median.
Example 2: Giving up Twitter again
The second example is my Twitter activity.
Yesterday, I finally gave up updating Twitter. The old me would have stuck with it and kept going. However, now I stop if I find it pointless.
If we appreciate positivity, we judge that continuing is good and stopping is bad.
On the other hand, if we evaluate being neutral, we make judgments based on an acceptable range of our purpose.
Why I became able to stop
There are two kinds of activities, as follows:
- Activities aimed at obtaining results
- Activities that are enjoyable in themselves
In my case, Twitter was the former. I wanted rewards. I am not good at summarizing in short sentences. I love writing a blog without limitation on length more than Twitter.
There is no point in continuing activities that seek results but don’t yield any. My Twitter activity seemed beyond my acceptable range.
That made me relaxed. I no longer stick to rewardless work.
Example 3: An anxiety about money
The final example is my anxiety about money.
I realized that I had become able to stop worrying uselessly about money.
If we evaluate positivity, we avoid purchasing as much as possible. We judge saving is good and spending is bad. It was stressful for me because it made me feel guilty when I bought something.
On the other hand, if we prioritize neutrality, we can focus on a moderate, acceptable range of spending.
That freed me from unnecessary patience. It is irrational to worry about losing all my money when I have enough assets to live on for a while. It means that I don’t see reality and live in a fantasy.
I started to look at reality. Rationality allowed me to stop living in a fictional, stressful world that my empathy created. That relaxed me.
Conclusion
That is why being neutral would suit people with empathy and logical sense, like me, rather than being positive.
We can judge things based on an acceptable range from the median. It tells us the appropriate range and allows us to be contradictory.
This stance might allow you to calm down your nerves and change your life.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
