Achieving Serenity

The Vicious Cycle

The power our thoughts have

My name is Kos and I am the god of a universe I created.

My universe is almost identical to the Earth you live in. But I wanted to do something interesting with mine.

I wanted it to conduct an experiment of powerful positive thinking, so I made the rules simple: Anyone and everyone can have anything they want, which I call their "prize", but there is a catch.

For every positive thought one has, they are awarded 5 poz-points. For every negative thought one has, they are awarded 1 neg-point.

If you go three days in a row with more poz-points than neg-points, you will receive a tool that you need for your prize. The amount of tools you must collect depends on the magnitude of the prize.

As long as a soul is able to keep their poz-points above their neg-points, they will feel happy and meaningful. They will have the strength to get through setbacks.

If they have more neg-points than poz-points, they will increase the number of tools needed to receive their prize. They will also feel more sad and meaningless when this occurs.

There are also millions of events and variances that can happen or certain things people can say to another person for an extra boost of points, either in the poz-points, neg-points, tools needed for the prize, or overall happiness. This adds a certain degree of randomness to the universe but also is designed to create karma.

In order to even be qualified to receive your prize, at least one soul must believe you can do it. This can include yourself.

The way to declare your prize to the universe is by imagining yourself already having it. If it is prominent in your mind and felt with passion, then you have properly asked the universe for your prize.

In my universe, every possible action a soul can take creates a new dimension. I am able to observe alternate dimensions to see how different actions would've impacted a souls' life.

I want to tell the story of Julie, a middle-aged woman struggling with addiction and obesity. She was often lonely, with the exception of her cats, and found herself frequently worried about how she was going to pay rent each month.

She worked for a sandwich shop, making and delivering products. It seemed as if she had found a good group of people at this job, but still, she would go home feeling worthless and depressed.

She wanted to lose weight. She had been fat her whole life and just wants to know what it's like to be skinny. If only she could get a handle on her weight problem, all of her other worries would drift away.

Julie begins searching the internet for diet and exercising programs. After hours of extensive research, she decides to go with the Keto program and orders a book about it.

After three weeks of doing everything by the book, she has found that she has gained eight pounds.

She slumps down on her recliner and returns to her familiar, comfortable misery- her palace of pity. As horrendous as it all feels, she is emotionally comfortable.

How could this happen to me? I really tried this time. I must somehow be defective compared to other people. I bet I'm the only one out of everyone who tried this and GAINED weight! I hate my life. Nobody even likes me.

She calls her drug dealer up and drives the 20-minute trek to her old buddy's house and scores her precious meth.

Once she's back home and plenty high, she can relax now. She plays video games on her phone and watches mindless television, staying up for days.

Julie's efforts to lose weight gradually decreases, but her efforts to engage in mind-numbing, isolating behavior grew tremendously. She died alone with her addictions bandaging her ever-growing struggles.

We need to see where Julie went wrong, and where she could have drastically improved her life.

She made her prize clear: Julie wanted to be skinny.

When she began doing internet searches, this was a great first step. However, during her research, she was only looking for the easiest way possible, with minimal exercise and zero human contact.

When she started doing the program, she wasn't following it to a tee like she thought she was. She was completely disregarding her fat intake, thinking "I always eat fat; I'll be fine. I don't need to record that information."

She also refused to reach out to people who were doing the same program, or even experts who can offer advice. She wanted to do the whole thing alone because logically it seemed possible.

After her first three weeks, she entered a vicious cycle. Instead of thinking about how she wants to be skinny, and how she will feel when she gets there, she instead prominently thought about the evidence that displayed her failure. She felt with subconscious passion the feeling of being fat, and never getting skinny. The image of her skinny self in her mind faded.

She pitied herself about how she must be unique in her issues, and her prize was switched from "I want to be skinny" to "I want to be emotionally comfortable."

Misery and isolation was her comfort.

In an alternate dimension, she was willing to interact with others.

She lost over 100 pounds in a year, got sober and joined an improv troupe. She married a hardworking and reliable man and had three children. Her children became her life, and ultimately: Julie had reached serenity.

I don't know the rules of your Earth, but I know it's important to love yourself and avoid the Vicious Cycle: entering a mental state where you recognize your failures with too much focus, and in turn only attract more failure into your life. When Julie was able to love herself and destroy her insecurities, she was able to accomplish feats she would have never dreamt possible.