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LIFE AS A GAME
Eradicating Procrastination while Gaining Limitless Energy

DO EVERYTHING WITH A MIND THAT LETS GO. DONT ACCEPT

PRAISE OR GAIN OR ANYTHING ELSE. IF YOU LET GO A LITTLE YOU
WILL HAVE A LITTLE PEACE; IF YOU LET GO A LOT YOU WILL HAVE
A LOT OF PEACE; IF YOU LET GO COMPLETELY YOU WILL HAVE
COMPLETE PEACE.
AJAHN CHAH
Yes. The title looks like clickbait. The format feels like clickbait. But hey, its free, right? And it could have some
good advice. At the very least, it seems like an acceptable way to procrastinate on anything you feel you should
be doing right now. It only requires your attention for a few minutes. If you get to the end and try to understand
whats written, chances are youll see why I think the title is a good enough way of putting it, and why Im so
excited to share it with all of you.
Dont let the quote up there throw you off. I know weve all tried our share of solutions to a problem that
seems to never go away. Yet here I stand, and I really want everyone to find what Ive found. If you want to

end procrastination effortlessly and definitely,

be able to let go of (the big majority of) addictions,

gain the energy and peace necessary to pursue any (possible) goal,

then I think you found what youre looking for.

And if youre feeling the urge to procrastinate, or if youre in the middle of it, Id advise you to put on some
music you really like and slowly try to read it. Its easy material and its a quick read, and it might just be what
youve been looking for.
Short disclaimer though: I havent invented this method. I just followed signs from people smarter than me,
felt much freer after discovering it, and am trying to convey it in terms my past self would most readily
understand. I hope it benefits all people who are in a messy situation that I can relate to only too well. If even
one of you guys finds this and gains the same benefits I got, the time spent in writing this will be well worth it.
Sincerely,
Shaun.

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UPDATE LOG
Ill keep perfecting and updating this booklet by taking inspiration from your comments and suggestions in the
r/getdisciplined thread, so when youre finished reading this, do give me a shout-out! Here Ill keep a progress
log on what Ive added.

08.07.2016: Published version 0.86. Changes include:

Corrected many more errors (sorry!). Unfortunately, I wrote this more as a stream of consciousness
kind of explanation, so theres still a long way to go to making even this small amount of text perfect.

Added some paragraphs in 3.3.1 How I Applied It for clarity.

Next update: Im planning on correcting even more errors (with a spell-checker perhaps) and adding
chapters:
o

summary chapter of the whole process,

a chapter on some examples of minigames and finding their strategies.

But do know that everything important has already been said

07.07.2016: Published version 0.85. Changes include:

Corrected various errors in the file (thanks guys!), especially concerning the chapter Example:
Letting go of trying to control Feeling

Added the Chapters: The Game Changer, The Second Part of the Process

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1. TO PROCRASTINATORS
Im writing this for people that are caught in a vicious cycle of stress and procrastination, people who at times
feel trapped in their habits or bodies. I know the sensation of never feeling at peace with oneself, resisting
ones present life situation, desperately wanting things (or people) to be different, trying to get something or
somewhere in life and not being able to do so. For example:

Youre overweight, youre trying to look good, trying to discipline yourself, and you make the resolute
decision that your life is going to change.
o

You start to obtain partial results after a lot of stressful effort.

Every now and then, the unpleasantness of the process makes you, after a shorter or longer
time, fall off the wagon. But you grit your teeth and get back on it.

You start to feel disappointed in yourself because of the stress, and as a consequence feel
even more stressed. You distract yourself intermittently to avoid that pain, procrastinating,
overeating to feel better and perhaps getting to a higher weight than before.

You dont show up in the morning. You start to continuously overeat yourself to feel better,
and insist on distracting yourself until something the pain is so bad that you resolve to fix it
once again.

This process can repeat itself for many times without yielding any result but stress.

Youre unsuccessful in school or at work and you want to do better, and you try to use willpower to
push you to a better self.
o

But yet again, you only obtain partial results, even though you feel like youre pushing against
the weight of the world.

After a while, the unpleasantness of the process becomes overwhelming, and you fall off the
wagon. After a while, you try to get back on.

You become dissatisfied with your performance, wanting better results, feeling unhappy
about your present situation, lack of progress, and the increasing effort youre putting in to
make it work. This dissatisfaction magnifies your existing stress.

You eventually give up, though you may not admit it. You go back to continuously distracting
yourself, using any means to not think about your school or work.

And yet again this cycle can repeat itself for many times without yielding any result but stress.

Youd like to start a meaningful relationship or be more present in your current one. Or youd like to
get laid more. Or youd like to have more money. Or quit smoking. The same cycle applies.

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If you can see yourself in this cycle, Im writing this for you. The goals and life you want arent escaping you
because theres something wrong with you1 or your body2. Life isnt inherently hard we make it so because
we ignore, and dont pay attention to, the right things.
Now I know that weve heard these things before, and youre right to regard them with skepticism. This insight
doesnt work unless its approached with a rational, inquiring mind which seeks to verify these claims. If you
dont ponder these things, think them through, and make them yours once you have verified them, it wont
sink in and take effect.
You know this to be true from your own experience. Youve tried to struggle against this problem. Chances are,
youve tried many approaches and youve failed, or at the very least, you werent satisfied with your results;
otherwise, chances are, you wouldnt be reading this. It is possible youre reading this out of curiousity, and
thats ok. However, my reason for writing this is to help people who are in the same situation I was.

1.1. The Urgency to Start

Before I begin getting into the system, Id like to take time to notice an important implication of these cycles I
mentioned. For me, such a cycle looked a little like this: resolution > effort > stress > giving up > indulging >
pain > resolution. Once started, it could last for weeks or months: and the bigger part of the cycle was the
indulging phase. In fact, if I wasnt bound to run my head against a wall at a certain point, to feel more pain
I was comfortable with, I might have been capable of distracting myself for all of my life. And this is precisely
why those moments we wake up are so precious and so rare. This might be one such moment for you, and
you know that the next one might be weeks away. Seize it now you wont regret it.
The urgency to start this practice doesnt derive from the fact that youve wasted more or less of your life by
now. Achievements and status in life are ultimately empty: theyre only there to provide us some color,
background, content to playing this game we call life. Whether you start this process at 16 or 66 years old has
no relevance. Youve suffered enough: be kind enough toward yourself to admit that. You can start enjoying
your life right now.
Dont wait for another moment like this. Take it very easy, sure. Theres no rush. But seize this chance. Let go
of the idea to start something else. This will help you start anything else.

1.2. Our Goal

Most of us know what we want. We want to be able to consistently pursue a goal. Which is the same thing as
saying to not procrastinate on a goal we want to achieve. Or even, to be freer to choose what we want to

Excluding full-blown psychoses with actual delusions and such, in which case you should seek medical attention;
but most of you reading this arent there, though you may sometimes feel like it. Trust that having sought treatment
youll be able to use the insight discussed here in a more efficient way.
2
Same as above: while cultivating your mind can bring a lot of comfort in nearly all situations, it is preferable to seek
medical attention to cure the physical cause of the disease. Again, trust that having sought treatment, youll be able
to use the insight discussed here in a more efficient way.

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do. We probably already have a goal in mind with which we are struggling with, and it has probably eluded us
for as long as we can remember.
We also know, at least intuitively, that feelings play a great part in this: if exercising felt as good as playing
Skyrim, everyone would do it. If studying felt as good as eating a pizza when youre hungry, wed do it every
day. But since pursuing our goals generally feels like a strain, and indulging our other desires feels pleasant, we
can get the impression that to pursue our goals, we must suppress a part of us and strive with effort towards
achieving those goals.
But pursuing them really doesnt have to be unpleasant, and eating junk food doesnt need to be wholly
pleasant. The way we feel about things isnt set in stone, and can be changed. Many feel this to be true, which
is why some of us may have bought books and seminars on how to program our mind or any other way to
put this: however, at least from my own personal experience, most of these turned out to be inefficient.

1.2.1 ON FEELINGS
An important distinction Id like to make: sometimes the terms we use make a big difference in getting a clear
understanding of what were going through. When I say feeling in this text, I dont mean it as a synonym of
emotion: I mean exclusively the pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling associated with any event we might
experience. At least as I see it, every perception of ours, be it of an external or internal process, carries with it
one or some of these three feelings.
For us that feel an amount of stress so great to seem as if we werent in control of our own life, we usually
compound that initial feeling with our own judgments, preferences, opinions of things. This accounts for why
a certain event might hit us so hard while another person can just shrug it off. As many people that were much
more intelligent than me have discovered, it is our opinion of things that vexes us, not the thing itself.
Thats where the term emotion comes in: thats why I distinguish them from feelings. Some emotions, such as
anxiety, are these enormous, complex mixture of chaotic opinions that are able to cause us so much grief, and
reflect their effect even on our bodies. Its strange to think that already the mind itself is capable of causing
the body so much damage. And the starting point is the opinions we form, very often unconsciously, and the
feelings that derive when we look at the world through these distorted glasses.
This then tends to color our mood: if someone asks us how we feel, were capable of saying good or bad
in comparison to our previous states. Most of the time, we can feel such a confused, anxious state that we
immediately call bad: if we look into it, we can see that that bad mood is composed of many judgments
through which we see the world, each yielding its own pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling tone.
Having explained that, lets get into the meat of this practice. Before we start to talk about the specific process,
Id like to present some ways of approaching this problem that havent worked for me, just to delimitate them
from a solution that could work.

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2. SOLUTIONS THAT HAVENT WORKED

It might be important to notice that some of these methods do work for some people, at least to some extent.
And thats fine. However, they never stuck with me because they often felt fake or forced, or just because I
simply fell off the wagon and took a long time to get back up. I was unsatisfied with such approaches. I wanted
an approach that would make it possible to continuously pursue a goal without too much stress. This is why Id
like to present you with a new one.

2.1. Examples
Id like to present some of the methods that havent worked out (for me), ordering them by the amount of
effort required to pull them off and discussing them briefly. To introduce each one of them, Ill start off with a
possible goal we might have which doesnt mean that some of these approaches are objectively better than
others in some contexts. They might work for you, sometimes, with some issues. They may work for you all the
time. However, if youre not satisfied with them and are searching for a better way, read on.

2.1.1 NOT GIVING A FUCK

You want a girlfriend. Youd really like to even be more social and outgoing, whatever the reason might be. But
because you see yourself as a greasy, virgin neckbeard, you think it nigh impossible that a girl might actually
be into you. So you try not giving a fuck. More than that, you feel spite towards those people that have a
girlfriend, especially those that claim that have been in your shoes some time ago. You might still want a
girlfriend. It doesnt matter though. You dont give a fuck.
This is a tricky one: because, as nearly all approaches, it has some truth to it. We hold on to our goals way too
tightly at times, so tightly that we hurt both ourselves and any progress that might come out of the pursuit.
And sometimes there are goals that really are impossible, at least for now (levitation, for instance), that were
better off giving up. Its just that most of the times we give up on things that may really be possible, things
we actually do care about, and though we try to give up on that particular goal without giving a fuck, deep
down we still feel bitter about it. Take for example this very idea of ever being free from procrastinating it
might really seem impossible. But lets just keep an open mind and see how this progresses.
Thats not to say that youre not perfectly entitled to abandon goals you dont like. All Im saying is, abandon
them because you chose to do so (or because its something truly impossible), not because you feel forced to
do so.

2.1.2 SERENDIPITY
Say you want to get a visible six-pack. You want to be able show it off. But you trust that life will eventually
guide you that way. Fortune will eventually blow your way and everything will take care of itself. Youll wake
up one day and find your goals fulfilled.
I think we can agree that this may not be the most efficient way of achieving your goal. Chances are, if you
continue acting the way you do, youll continue getting the same results. If youre using this approach, have

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been consistently drifting away from your goal, and youd still like to achieve it, this may be the time to change
your mindset.

2.1.3 INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENT

You want to be kinder to your partner, so you decide that incremental improvement is the way to go. Its logical
to think that if you improve 1% every day, eventually youll get there. So you start by saying a kind word to
your partner every day, and hope that little by little you eventually get there.
The logic is sound, and there are people who can get some success out of this method, but you could aim for
much more. And youre aware of that, which could make you feel inadequate. Not only that, but you may be
forced into a situation that requires your full effort from the start if you need to read 300 pages in a week,
you cant start out with a goal to get comfortable reading one page a week.
Speaking about long-term, though, this could be a sustainable approach. However, its not sure that it could
produce the results youre looking for: you might diminish your standards, you might even give up halfway, as
in any approach.

2.1.4 POSITIVE THINKING

You need to study for an exam, but even the sight of books is causing you strong anxiety: so much so that its
giving you health problems. Youve developed heartburn, youre in the bathroom for hours a day and youre
unable to sleep well. To resolve both of these issues, you apply positive thinking: you consistently try to think
good things and repeat affirmations/chant mantras/deep breathe in the hope that these feelings stick and
become your normal way of thinking. Once youre free from anxiety, youll be able to study efficiently.
There may be people for whom this approach works. It could work perhaps in most cases for a short time, and
it could definitely work for mild problems. But my experience is that sooner or later, life bites you in the butt.
Anxiety comes back. Its not only ineffective to try to suppress thinking with thinking, it has the exact opposite
effect: youll see that mind becomes more restless, and youre even more keenly aware how far away you are
from both your goal and peace of mind.
I include in this approach any kind of wishful thinking, belief system based exclusively on blind faith, hypnosis,
spells, tapping, rituals, prayers, and even some kind of things that would like to be passed off as meditation. If
theres an approach thats trying to make you believe something you cannot adequately see as true, on just
blind faith, its not going to be very efficient to produce results in the real world. Im not saying that these are
bad approaches; Im not even saying they wont work sometimes. But theres an approach that, at least in my
opinion, works better.

2.1.5 THE CARROT AND STICK APPROACH

Youre working at your desk, things are going well. Youre not satisfied with your current position though, and
youd like to prove yourself to your boss by working hard and earning that promotion. However, you dont
want to give up any distractions either - your pally isnt going to level itself (unless youre using a bot, and youll

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be banned. Eventually. Probably). So you decide youre going to reward yourself with half an hour of game
time for every three hours of work. This might work out.
Ok, for most normal people this approach does work out. Not only does it work for them, it seems like they
live by it. Work hard, play hard, right? Or even just work and play, you know, moderately. Work a few hours,
then go home to relax a few hours. Put in effort, we reward you with money thats how societys supposed
to work, right?
Except it didnt work for me, and it didnt work for other people I know. The approach that I must suffer to get
something doesnt sit right for me. Cant I just consistently do something I enjoy? Id always fall off the wagon.
Most of the times because Id go too overboard with my allotted time and want more Id play the whole
night and wake up late next morning, At that point Id just say fuck it and start a cycle of hating myselfindulging myself until something would start hurting so bad that Id have to start trying to fix it.

2.1.6 STRONG DISCIPLINE

Lets say youre a smoker. You decide that from this day on, life will change. Youre not the same person as
before. Motivation is irrelevant because its fickle: only pure willpower can be counted on. Though you may go
through hell, you wont give up your resolution on this day is final. You will never smoke a cigarette in your
life again.
This approach didnt work for me because I didnt have the guts to go through with it. It would work for a few
hours, or a few days, but in the end I was begging for it to stop. Though I wanted to be hard worker, I just
wanted some pleasant feeling in my life. This approach actually made me doubt my entire life when all I
wanted to do was get a decent physique. Why am I even doing this? What is the meaning of life? What if
everything is just meaningless? Ill just die anyway. Happy days.
Again, its worth pointing out that this approach might work for some people. I havent seen it work directly,
but Ive heard of people who made it work. Truthfully though, in the best case it causes a lot of stress (especially
in the beginning), and unless you have a good belief system or reason that supports that stress (or youre just
capable of ignoring it entirely), it will come crashing down.
There are people who are able to ignore unpleasant feelings. There are also people who are capable of not
asking themselves existential questions that cause a lot of the suffering. These people seem to have so much
of this willpower wed like to have. Are these people better off? I used to think that they were. Now I think
its people like us, people who get stuck in these ruts, that have the advantage.

On Willpower
And while Im on that, what is willpower anyway? Google tells me its control deliberately exerted to do
something or to restrain one's own impulses. Were all capable of wanting to do something were often
stopped short by the fact that, at a certain point, we dont feel like doing it anymore. Some may say youve
run out of willpower.

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But I want to argue that willpower is just an idea we use to explain something simple in principle, but very
complex in presentation. What really happens when we run out of willpower, or experience burnout? The
desire to move towards our goal comes into conflict other desires. These desires are usually composed of
many variations of these two things:

Greed for pleasant feelings: movies, anime, masturbation, junk food etc.

Aversion to unpleasant feelings, which are caused by either

o

Resisting the greed for pleasant feelings

Pursuing our goal in an unskillful way, because of the unrealistic expectations weve set

Greed and aversion can take many forms. When we experience them in relation to a passed even, we can call
it anger, sadness, or grief. When the desired or averse effect is in the future, anxiety. When theyre mixed in
the present, restlessness. But uncover these terms and look into them, and youll see its these two things,
which is really one thing: desire. Uncoordinated desire makes us go into mental fibrillation, making us feel so
confused and restless, and so needy of any kind of distraction just to take our mind out of its misery.
I dont want to say that all desire is bad. Absolutely not, not for now at least. But when we want so many things
so badly, it can only go one way. On the other hand, try to give up some things, especially some that make you
unhappy and youll see that if you let go a little, youll feel that much freer.
This is why they say that willpower is a limited resource: youre not capable of going against yourself for a
long time. Or at the very least, it is hard to restrain ones own impulses. In fact, the more analytical and
rational person you are, and the less youre capable of enduring such punishment. Because deep down, you
dont see the point. You dont believe that what youre doing is worth the pain.
This is also why they say that motivation doesnt last, willpower is the way. You feel good about it in the
beginning, but as soon as you try to persist with your new habit and try to go against old ones, you start feel
quite a lot of resistance because youre working against yourself, and blaming an external idea about it.
Ultimately, theres no such thing as motivation. I encourage you to look whats behind that term and
understand it, especially into the feeling behind it all.
Willpower can thus be understood as a destructive idea. If you approach procrastination hoping to rely heavily
on it as its conventionally defined, in the best case scenario youll experience quite a lot of stress, and in the
worst youll give up on yourself entirely, thinking that theres something wrong with you. Yeah, you could be
capable of ignoring unpleasant feelings, or develop a belief system that justifies them. A superficial version of
Stoicism seems like a good example of the latter.
But could it be more preferable to understand the mind and how it works first?

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2.2. Why These Approaches Dont Work

What is the common denominator of these approaches? It is the same reason why none of them worked for
me. These approaches, at least if applied superficially, try to keep the mind out of the equation, or treat it as
an enemy. Seeing it and its negative thoughts as a problem, we try to either indulge it or repress it.
Strangely enough, though Ive tried studying many approaches to procrastination and stress, I never tried to
understand it for myself. Maybe the knowledge Ive gained from trying so hard at so many different approaches
helped me to eventually find this one. But I dont think its necessary to read extensively to arrive at this
conclusion, or to be able to practice its implications: the problem of procrastination is our mind, yes. But there
is a skillful and an unskillful way of handling it. If were able to understand it better, well be able to turn it
around.
So at a certain fortunate point, I sat down and instead of acting as if I was my mind, I tried to understand it: I
tried to understand what was it that I saw so wrong with so many things in my life, and why did these things
cause me so much grief at times. And I slowly started to feel the walls of my own prison melting off. I started
to see a new way of life, one that I didnt need to believe in but could clearly see and apply.
Im writing all of these examples so it would be easier for you to understand the whole picture. The more you
understand about this approach and about yourself, and the better it will work for you.
Lets now talk about something more pleasant. Most of us here are very familiar with the escapism games
provide. What makes them so enjoyable when we do enjoy them?

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3. A WORKABLE SOLUTION: THE JOY OF PLAYING A GAME

Lets first summarize the principles of this approach:

I.

There is a lot of procrastination in your life. This procrastination causes, and is caused by, stress.

II.

This stress is caused by clinging too hard to too many people, things and views. Most of which are
not only useless but counterproductive too.

III.

The solution to this problem is to let go of many things, especially those that cause you harm.

IV.

To let go of these things, insight into oneself is to be developed and then applied to your life.

Thats a general framework you can keep in mind while reading. I promise you that youll understand this better
when you get to the end.
With that out of the way, lets talk games. Why do we sometimes prefer them, as opposed to investing time in
real life? Youd think that real rewards outweigh virtual ones. Some of the reasons are the following:
1. Actions are easy: running a marathon at full speed in WoW requires the humongous effort of holding
down the left mouse key. Conversely, trying to run for even 5min at full speed in real life will have us
quitting before the time limit: not only because of physical exertion, but because of a host of mental
baggage sapping our willpower (or energy or motivation, however you want to call it)
2. No significant long-term consequences: at least within the game. Because, when we exclude the effect
the loss of time and addiction have on our real life, there really is no significant long-term
consequence. As a result, we feel much more free in the game than in real life.
a. The character has low health? Yeah, he could die, but its not hurting you. Its not causing you
any significant mental anguish. Just heal him and move on.
b. Your Sim had a bad job interview? Who cares, send him on a new one. If you want to.
c.

You suck at League of Legends? You quit and uninstall. No need to be salty, unless you want
to be so.

3. Goals and objectives are clear: this gets positive points, this gets negative points. The winner between
two players is the one with most points, or the one that takes away the enemies HP the fastest. There
are cooperative and competitive games. In order to win, this is helpful, that is unhelpful. This can be
done, that cant be done. Its complex enough to arouse interest, but simple enough that anyone who
tries can be good at it and the whole process is enjoyable. Why?
4. All the above, coupled with progressive difficulty and good content, make a game addictive.
Compare that with the experience many of us have of real life.
1. Normal actions can feel very challenging. Sometimes even getting up from bed can feel like a huge
achievement.
2. Seemingly irreparable acts with damaging consequences. Many things we do can seem like they
damage our lives in a way beyond fixing. Getting kicked out of university or a bad break-up can not

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only feel like the end of the world, but can sometimes seem in retrospect like the single reason why
our life was completely ruined thereafter.
3. Goals and objectives are very unclear. What should I aim for? What is my passion? Does God exist?
Do I have a soul? Should I aim for the most pleasure in my life? Or success? Are they the same? What
is the right thing to do? What is the best thing to do?
4. All of the above is often coupled with a seemingly impossible difficulty to our life compared to other
people and an apparently tragic story we keep telling ourselves that would make anyone cry if
understood truly. All of this can cause a very big amount of stress daily.
And the really tragic thing is that most of us live in nearly ideal conditions. If someone heard us talk about how
we feel, theyd be justified in thinking that our life conditions are quite harsh. But that is not the case for most
of us: we actually have good living conditions.
Its not anyone elses fault: we do it to ourselves. Its not even our fault ultimately: we didnt cause or want this
state. But without being aware of it, we keep feeding this story, and experiencing both the stress of
constructing this story, and the stress of experiencing it. To stop it, we need to take control of our thoughts
and feelings. Id therefore like to propose a way to make life more similar to a game than to this tragedy most
of us have been living. To end or at least greatly diminish this constant stress were living in, and get whatever
we want for ourselves in life.

3.1. The View: Life as a Game

Seeing life as a game means being much more detached from people, things and events in our life than we
are normally; so much so, in fact, that pleasant and unpleasant feelings still exist, but dont have that much
effect on our life anymore. We dont want them that much. This is caused by, and causes, peace; it in turn is
acquired through insight. We ultimately dont care that much about feeling; this in turn sets us free from any
addiction we dont like: feeling is still there, but its not that important. And even though we dont see it as
important, this has the paradoxical effect of generating pleasant feelings. This peace, and consequent pleasant
feelings, then let us act as we want and we are finally free from the tyranny of limits we imposed on ourselves
in ignorance.
By seeing life as a game, we are able to choose any one of the many games we have in front of us. And we are
able to play it while enjoying it. You want to have a good body? This is the game. You want to be rich? Thats
the game. You want to have sex? That over there is the game. We are able to enjoy both the games and their
consequences, be they near or far, pleasant or unpleasant. We are able to acquire (possible) things we want
because we have a mind clear of suffering that is able to think straight, as well as a source of unending
endurance.
Motivation? It comes naturally to us. Discipline? Not nearly as hard any more. Discipline is difficult because we
have conflicting desires. But in choosing to live this way we can choose which desires we want and which we
dont want and life doesnt have to be a struggle anymore. Discipline just comes up naturally.

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How do we accomplish this? How do we see our life as a game? Not with gamifying aspects of our life with
apps or positive thinking: or at least, not only with that. Superimposing thoughts upon thoughts only buries
the old ones we see as more important, and the new thoughts are perceived as fake because of the
aforementioned repressing.
Insight is the way to go. Seeing things clearly and differently, as not being ultimately useful to us, makes us
willing to naturally drop them. We allow ourselves to not think about them. We attend to our negative feelings,
investigate why they arose, investigate the causes of even those perceptions, and so on and so on, until we
find that they really arent all that important, and we give ourselves permission to let go of them. We are able
to prune our mind by clearly knowing and selecting which things we want, and which things we do not want.
This process is not forced hypnosis, its not brainwashing: it would be brainwashing if we were trying to repress
reality with an unnatural view. But reality, ultimately, is empty. Every thing and experience of it is dependent
arising and empty of an inherent self3.
This process consists just in trying to clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of every thing we perceive
as good or bad. Dont automatically assume that the view of the world you hold right now is true: it will never
be. There are just too many things we dont know, will never know, and at least for now we must be content
with provisional, conventional knowledge. If afterwards you want to go explore the ultimate reality of the
world, youre free to do so if thats the game you choose to play. Thats ok. Im writing this guide not so much
for you guys as much as for people who are stuck in these endless cycles of stress and procrastination.
But that doesnt mean we need to completely distrust our perception and think we cant know anything. Just
keep an open, investigating mind. For example, we can try to investigate things in a way that can make us feel
good. Is this thing I think good truly good? Is it truly bad? Well see in the end that the goodness or badness of
nearly every person, thing or event is determined by its context. There are very few solid points we can grab
onto in the world or ourselves.
The goal of the ending of stress was never to eliminate feeling: every perception is intimately tied to its feeling.
Even if it was possible, or even imaginable, we would lose any motivation to move.
Ultimately, being able to see life as a game makes us feel better about ourselves: courage feels good. We feel
like were in a win/win situation, that were racing against others with an infinite endurance, that were bound
to win ultimately. Conventional winning and losing dont affect us that much, and the whole process feels
enjoyable. And that is precisely why winning becomes easier.

For more information on inherent self and dependent origination, check out the book by Robert Burbea, Seeing
that Frees. But for now, its not entirely necessary for you to understand it completely, and youll be able to
understand it better later in the process.

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3.2. Why It Works

Not only is the effect of investigating our beliefs liberating, but the process is also pleasant. It feels like were
finally free to move, like weve been able to get rid of several weights on our body, like if they untied ropes
that have held us since we were born and we can finally breathe.
This pleasant feeling, in turn, fuels the continuation of insight. Youll find yourself willing to continue to liberate
yourself and why wouldnt you? This in turn will cause you to feel more and more free, which will enable you
to pursue things in your life that will effectively make you happier. It is a very real virtuous cycle, nearly directly
opposing what weve been through up until now.
This is why it works. It is pleasant in the present, and pleasant in the future. We henceforth have a much
greater freedom on choosing what we want in life, because we dont feel as needy of a happiness that we now
feel very much ours.
It is a process that youll find very much in accordance with many other views, as you find. Addressing future
fears, increasing their intensity and exaggerating their consequences to find what exactly we find so abhorring,
is very alike to praemeditatio malorum in Stoicism, and a particular application of Psychocybernetics. Modifying
our beliefs is the very goal of Cognitive-Based Therapy. Going to the root of the thing or feeling youre releasing
is common in EFT (though Im skeptic of the tapping actually working). Exploring in detail our desires and the
reality we perceive is very encouraged in Buddhism. And the particular way of letting go of our emotional
baggage is very reminiscent of the Sedona Method.
Which is why I take no credit for this particular interpretation of this method. Its just a different repackaging
of truths that have been here long before I came, arranged in a way that I found most familiar and simple to
me, without losing its complexity or efficiency. Some people may even be applying the principles of this practice
in their daily life unconsciously. But dont discard this advice as obvious: there are just so many signs in so many
book, method and philosophies that indicate these truths. In my opinion, it shows just how beneficial they are
when applied.
Most of all, this process works because it helps uncover what you really want out of life. It makes it crystal
clear, it frees you from your addictions, and it gives you the mindset to pursue your goals. It puts you in charge
of your life, maybe for the first time.
Most of us go through most of our life as if in a dream. Take our fears, for instance: they get blown up mostly
because we don't properly think about them. We ruminate on them, sure: they're always on our mind at times.
But actually thinking about them, analyzing them and seeing through them often makes us realize that, as in
horror movies, we're more afraid of the closed door than of the actual monster behind it. Once we've seen the
monster, understood it, and know what makes it different than us, we are much less scared of it. Were able
to more effectively deal with it.
So the first step is opening that door and staring the monster in the face. And this is what this first part of the
process is all about.

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3.2.1 ON LETTING GO
Renunciation, letting go, releasing, generosity. Many clunky terms to describe something that can be described
with terms such as liberation: and yet, the grandeur of the term seems out of place for something so simple
yet profound.
Letting go of my poetic tendencies (see what I did there?), what I want to say is that before I actually
understood what this term meant, I was quite averse to it. Not only because it instinctively meant losing
something to me, but also because every time I tried it seemed like more positive thinking. Let go of desire,
they said. Its good for you, they said. But letting go doesnt mean chanting it for a time until words lose
meaning. It doesnt even mean suppressing the mind into a state of relative calm and think that youve
arrived.
It isnt a magical, mystical process. It happens because we understand it, not in spite of our understanding. It
doesnt rely on any specific process or rituals, chants or magic of that kind. Again, thats not to say that they
dont have their use elsewhere. Im only trying to explain this term which had eluded me for so long.
Letting go is a natural process insofar that its not forced. Its not brainwashing. Its a process of understanding
clearly that holding on to most things, in the way we usually do, causes a great deal of real suffering in our
lives. Not a kind of out-there suffering: just the one youre feeling right now.
It feels natural also because you start working with your current problem. What is your negative feeling right
now? What is making you anxious? See if you can let go of that feeling. Most of the time, you wont. Which
means youll need to investigate into whats causing it.
Why do you see this thing as bad as opposed to good? Is it truly bad as opposed to good? Youll find out that
its neither good nor bad, but depends on the context. Sometimes youll even find that you feel grateful for
things that you used to fear. Sometimes, youll be thankful they exist. And if you still cant see thing differently,
just dig deeper into their causes. Eventually most causes for our gross stress will be seen and even just that
will yield a tremendous amount of courage and peace.
The more things you see thus, that is, the more things you feel like youre willing to let go and allow it, and the
more peace youll feel. And the more peace you feel, and the more courage and energy youll feel, which youll
be able to use to pursue whatever you want. You only need to say ok to pursue that goal, because you now
know that nothing that you used to fear can harm you. You now have total control of that feeling, because now
you know that that feeling is conditioned by what you see.
On that note, lets explore some other ways this advice Im giving might be misunderstood.

3.2.2 WHEN IT MIGHT NOT WORK

I remember first being introduced to this general idea. For instance, I remember reading books like Power of
Now, and thinking Yeah, yeah, I feel thats true but I couldnt figure out how to practice what he said. I had
to go through a lot of stress before I thought of seriously looking out of the books and into myself. These are
some of the reasons why this process might not work:

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1. When you dont understand it: if you try to believe it without understanding it, it will only work on a
superficial level. Even if you dont feel you understand it completely right now, finish this booklet,
reread it if you want, and then use the process. See for yourself that it works. Youll come to
understand intuitively why it does.
2. When you dont know how to apply it: in the next chapter Ill tell you how it clicked for me. Your
mileage may vary the principles are always the same. Hence, if you truly do understand the principles
of this, this problem doesnt even apply. But to be able to understand it, sometimes you need to let
go of theoretical understanding and try to apply it.
3. When you dont apply it: again, this problem is solved if you take care of problems 1 and 2. But a
theoretical understanding of these principles does nothing but temporarily assuage our egos. In order
for it to truly liberate us, we need to apply it to ourselves, personally. That means sorting out through
our personal issues, judgments, likes and dislikes. If this sounds an awful lot like Stoicism, its probably
because theres a great deal of truth there too. But again, merely understanding it to be true isnt
productive of the peace we seek. We need to sift through our desires, one by one, analyze them, see
their causes, until we see them as not only useless but counterproductive. This will allow us to allow
ourselves to let them go.
4. When you stop applying it: Shinzen Young, while talking about enlightenment, describes it also as a
perspective shift, a new view of seeing things; a view that deepens as life goes on. In other words, he
doesnt believe that insight is a one-time event, a static paradigm change that stays with you all your
life thats just not the nature of our mind. Our mind is a creature of habit, it goes back on its tracks
if were not attentive. Fortunately, the insight well acquire even by a day of this practice already
changes something in us.
a. This doesnt mean that it takes continuous strain to maintain this view just the opposite.
Every time you apply this process, every time you feel like you want or need to do so, youll
uncover new wants, new desires, deepening and radicating this view, making it more
persistent and more permanent, until courage and peace become your new default state.
b. If you ask me right now, I guess it would be theoretically possible to acquire all these insights
and then just abandon them and go back to living the way you used to. But youd always have
in the back of your mind this persistent thought: That thing I tried worked. It gets rid of the
stress. Why dont I just keep applying it?

3.3. The Practice: Freeing Ourselves

In order to play life this way, we need:
1. The ability to see it as a game.
2. A seemingly endless supply of motivation.
3. Select a minigame, study its rules, develop a strategy and play it.

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The first two are intrinsically tied. One causes the other. With this process, youll gradually uncover both of
these. So dont worry if after reading all of this youre not convinced. Give this process a good hour. Youll see
that youll find both of the first two requirements under that time.
The third requirement is your own choice. Choose whatever you want and enjoy getting better at it without
strain. Developing a strategy to do better at it depends nearly entirely on understanding its rules, which yet
again depends on understanding. At some time in the future I might elaborate on this if its unclear: if so, just
let me know.

3.3.1 HOW I APPLIED IT

1. First of all I turned on some music: a favorite playlist of mine on Spotify, consisting of mostly pop songs
that made me feel good. Before I started this process I was in the middle of my current addiction:
binging The Office while eating snacks, and knew that if I tried to attempt something other than make
me feel good Id soon give up and do something else. The pleasant feelings from songs I hadnt heard
in some times would keep me relatively focused on the task at hand.
a. Incidentally, when I attempted to do this, I had been procrastinating on my studies for nearly
20 days straight. I was about to fail a year of university, and if you had seen me from the
outside it would seem like I didnt even care. Inside, though, I felt like crap, and was scared
shitless. I didnt think highly of this attempt: I though of it as attempt #62848 or whatever. I
didnt think it would work. But it did.
b. Im telling you all this so that you know that whatever youre doing right now, as long as you
have some time, it can be done. You dont need to believe in it for it to work. You just have to
see for yourself whether it does.
2. I then opened Word 2013, selected a new blank document, selected View Structure to be able to see
the headings on the left. I put Workbook as title and saved it to OneDrive so I can view it on my cell
phone if I wanted to do so.
3. I decided to start on the issue that was most relevant at the moment: watching The Office. I wrote
that as a level 1 title.
a. I knew that if I hadnt resolved that issue at least temporarily I would soon go back to it. And
what do I mean by resolving it? I didnt want to want to watch it. I didnt want to crave
watching it. I wanted to be able to let it go.
4. I made a two-column table underneath that title, and named the first two cells Advantages and
Disadvantages. Because, when I realized that the craving was too strong to just simply let go, I knew
I had to see it truly, completely. And this meant for me then to explore, one at a time, one advantage,
and one disadvantage; one advantage, and one disadvantage; and so on, digging as deep as I felt like.
5. I tried, lightly, to let go of not only of the issue at hand, but also of these advantages and disadvantages
as I perceived them. When I saw resistance in letting go of any one of these, I knew I had to explore
the causes of such resistance: why did I see that particular thing as good or bad? Is it truly good or
bad?

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a. You dont need to try to force releasing. Youll feel when these issues dont seem as important.
And until youre able to do so, you should continue digging. No need for blind faith in this
process: its efficiency will give you the confidence in it.
b. However, do try to push yourself a little to find an advantage, then a disadvantage, then an
advantage, then a disadvantage, even though there may seem to be none. You may for
instance think that there is no disadvantage in having been expelled from college: however,
by digging deep youll see that deep underneath there was an advantage you were kind of
aware of but never fully conscious of. Already discovering that will have a big effect: youll see
how youve been effectively fooling yourself in some things.
c.

Dont worry about writing something not particularly insightful, or even something you may
deem as stupid. There are no wrong answers here. In fact, perhaps after having given a few
stupid advantages, youll find that youve uncovered something that might seem superficial
or too obvious, but which is actually really profound. Keep an open mind and see what comes
up. Get to truly know yourself.

d. Dig deep when you feel like you still arent allowing yourself to let go of the issue. Why arent
you? Whats the reason why you cant let go? Feel whatever comes up when you ask that
question.
e. When an advantage or disadvantage seems too strong, emotionally charged or relevant, just
explore that one as well underneath a lower-level heading. Break it down into its own
advantages and disadvantages.
6. When you feel that youre ready to let go of that issue; that is, when advantages and disadvantages
make it seem as something you can let go of, put a little asterisk next to it. Just to remember that you
trust yourself that this issue is not that important: youll need this when you seem to temporarily
forget this. But well cover it under Reinforcing the Insights.
This is one issue covered. When you see that there is more behind the issue, more causes that can be released,
open a new lower-level title underneath it, and try letting go of that one too in the same way. In the end, youll
get a tree structure detailing all your desires, aversions, fears, and doubts. An example can be seen in the
screenshot below.
Save this document. Youll come back to it daily for a set amount of time. Even if the only thing you got out of
this practice is knowing and remembering your fears, already that would have a big impact on you. But being
able to let go of them, because you can remember their causes and see through them? Thats huge. So yeah,
save this document and spend some time on it every now and then. The peace youll feel, and the amount of
time youll gain back from your addictions will be exponentially higher than the time you spent on it.

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Figure 1: Part of the index and text of an early version of my own Workbook, just to give you a general idea

Example: Letting go of trying to control Feeling

I want to give you one specific direction towards something that worked wonders for me. Though I know youll
get there eventually if you use this process, once youve made some headway through personal issues, youll
find that its not always easy to release on some things, namely because It feels good, so why shouldnt I
continue doing it? At that point, remember to try to let go of wanting to control feelings. Which will mean:
1. let go of wanting pleasant feelings: occasionally, predominantly and persistently. This will in
turn mean seeing that:
a. Wanting positive feeling to always occur is counterproductive. Sometimes were
caught up in thinking that if we could only feel good all the time, wed be able to
pursue our goals. But chances are, if we did feel maximally pleasant all the time, not
only would we not be inclined to pursue our goals since we dont have any reason to
do so, we wouldnt even move. Would it be that far out to say that it might be possible
wed be faster to die because we wouldnt care about anything? Wed always have a
maximally pleasant feeling. And correct me if Im wrong, but even in my darkest
hours, I wished that I could be able to joyfully play this game of life not to just be
flooded with maximum pleasant feeling all the time. And even if you dont agree with

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most of this said, you could agree on the fact that, just perhaps, having only pleasant
feelings isnt the highest good wed imagine it is.
b. Theres nothing inherently good about pleasant feeling.
i. At this point its also easy to see that feeling is empty of inherent self, which
means that it arises only when the conditions for it are right. When you
perceive something you think of as good, a pleasant feeling arises: this, as
weve said multiple times, means that feeling is conditioned by our
judgments, opinions and preferences. And these we can modify. Since this is
so, doesnt that render pleasant feelings much less relevant, when they can
be fabricated at will?
2. let go of wanting to avoid unpleasant feelings: even if they appear occasionally,
predominantly or persistently. This will in turn mean seeing that:
a. Wanting to always avoid unpleasant feelings is not only useless but
counterproductive: it would not only be impossible, but if it even was possible, it
would effectively terminate any effect positive feelings4 would have.
b. Theres nothing inherently good about unpleasant feeling. It arises when the
conditions for it are right: that is, when you perceive something you judge as bad.
Change your opinion, and the feeling changes.
3. At that point its easier to let go of all of these feelings including the neutral ones
4. Just see that its perfectly fine and rational to let go of wanting to control them. Nothing bad
will happen. Just admit that they just might not be that important anymore. Let go.
When you do this, and when this insight truly sinks in, a perspective shift occurs that only deepens the more
you apply it. Pleasant feelings are much easier to enjoy and to let go. Unpleasant feelings can be truly
experienced for what they are, and they stop controlling your life. This way of seeing them causes a feeling of
constant peace and freedom in your life, yielding energy, that you can then apply to whatever you want.
Once again, the best way to do this in my opinion would be to first try to release on a few more personal things.
Then arrive at wanting to release wanting to control feeling, naturally. Youll see that, even if you just let go of
this one thing, it would be of great help in stopping procrastinating. Still, I hope you dont stop there, and find
out there there are even more liberating insights that are worth finding out.
By the way, theres no need in trying to be too hung up on the advantages/disadvantages format. You can think
out loud, write out what you feel, and then put it in the table. I just find that the table is a really good and
practical way to make you start investigating your issues without running around in circles inside your own
head.

Even if a perfect world existed where you could have only the best positive feelings and only the worst positive
feelings, that would nullify this dichotomy: there would be only feeling, a static sense of pleasure. The immediate
consequences that come to mind is that we wouldnt defend our body from harm and would be at a greater risk of
dying. But not only that, life wouldnt even be half as interesting as it is now.

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3.3.2 REINFORCING THE INSIGHTS

The first time I experimented with this practice, I took a whole day to do it, just because it felt so good to finally
be free of this crippling fear. The whole next day, I felt tremendously better and more free to do whatever I
want. I finally felt like I was in charge of my own life, free to choose whatever I want to do, without strain, as if
I had an endless supply of that so-called discipline.
However, some time later I found out that I started to feel a little more excited that I wanted to be. After a
while, I started to re-experience the classic symptoms of the anxiety I used to have. Looking into myself, I saw
that I was starting to fear things again that I instinctively knew I didnt need to fear anymore. However, as soon
as I looked into it again, and explored exactly what I was afraid of, saw why there was no need to fear it because
it really was neither good nor bad, the fear vanished again. Yet this time, I felt the peace to be stronger, more
stable, even though the whole process this time lasted a little more than 10 minutes. I went deeper, understood
better, and knew that this was something I could never do enough.
This is not to say that you should spend every day just letting go. Practice is an important aspect of this process.
If you dont actually go and pursue your goals, youll never see for yourself that youre really not scared of the
process anymore, that your urges are much weaker, that your freedom is exhilarating. All Im saying is, do this
daily for a set amount after your first day, just as you wouldve done if you were trying to exercise or practice
meditation (which is another thing that is very helpful, but becomes much more doable and efficient once
youve done this practice). 30 minutes in the morning is fine in my opinion. Youll see that already the
immediate benefits far exceed the time spent on this practice. Experiment and see for yourself.
So, to summarize: youll have done the process and let go of some fear. Some time later, your mind will go
back to its habitual tendencies (eventually youll develop a new habitual tendency). What to do?
1. Try to let go of it: the best thing would be to be able to just not pay attention to this desire. You know
and remember that you released it: its not important to you. And yes, sometimes you can stop right
here. But sometimes thats not enough: you feel that theres a knot in your stomach, you feel theres
still tension underneath. Which brings us to step 2.
2. Look into it again: open your document again and look into that fear again. See whats changed. See
what exactly is troubling you this time. Chances are, you uncovered another part of that desire that
you werent aware of before. Congratulations: your insight is deepening.
As you progress in this practice, youll naturally become more sensitive to this underlying tension we always
carry with us. At the beginning of this process, you were probably very tense, and one of the few ways to get
you to relax was to indulge in your distractions, which in time (because of the habitual nature of the mind)
became your habits.
But now you realize you dont need these distractions anymore. You can relax at will. You can still enjoy these
things, but you dont need to be a slave to them. Youre free to choose. When you gain insights into your own
fears, they dissolve by themselves, and youre free to let them go.

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The first time I was introduced to this general idea, I found it unworkable because I just tried letting go of
things without looking into them. I tried to force calm, trying to force my mind into obedience. While
sometimes this approach does work, it helps tremendously to dissolve the desire by looking into it and seeing
it as hollow.
Now tension is not that bad: youll find that youre able to control it at will. A certain tension is actually quite
enjoyable and feels very euphoric. If you release more things, youll arrive at a very pleasant peace. In order to
feel this seemingly endless source of energy, then, you just need to let go of things that hold you back.
And now you know how.

3.3.3 THE GAME CHANGER

Ok, I hope that youve applied everything that Ive talked about before reading this chapter. Have fun with the
tables and tree views of your fears. Really pour yourself into this process. The more honestly you try at this,
the more you try to comprehend your mind, and the clearer this present chapter will seem. Though I consider
all of these chapters up until now to be important, this chapter is the key. But it is only the key because youve
invested the effort to get to know a little about yourselves first.
So read this when youre ready. And it usually happens after a day or three of honest introspection and analysis.
How do you know youre ready? Youll know when you get these two insights:
I.

You see that your desires arent that valid and your fears arent that scary. For example, just laying
out your worst-case scenario, imagining it, even amplifying it, seeing the pros and cons can be a
liberating experience. Id call this the macro level of the mind. The benefit of knowing it is that you feel
less restless and more able to let go of the bigger things.

II.

However, you start being frustrated, for two reasons:

a. Youre frustrated with the complexity of your mind. On a micro level, youll find out that
cause and consequence of thoughts sometimes merge. Sometimes the same thing youve let
go of comes up again at a different spot. Youre feeling as if youre uncovering an intricate
web, and youre feeling frustrated with it. Id call this level the micro level of the mind.
b. Youre frustrated with the expected results of the process. Though you know youve
experienced peace and joy the first time you ran this process, theyre not coming back as
strong as they did in the beginning. You know what the desired courageous feeling feels like,
and you keep searching for it. But its coming up quite weak, and this is frustrating you.

Feeling frustrated? Perfect. But again, Id advise you to read on only after youve experienced it for yourself.

The Micro Level of the Mind

Ok. Everything weve said up until now is real. Our mind gets tied up in knots because it blows up fears
and desires that it doesnt even analyze: instead, we go through life trying to ignore them; in the
meantime, theyre unconsciously getting turned into bigger things than they actually are. This is why the
first part of the process here described works: we stare those fears in the eye. We keep a list of them. We

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know them and keep track of them. We also now know that they cannot truly hurt us. In Stoicism, they
call this view the hegemonikon, the ruling seat. It is the perception of being the master of your thoughts:
we select our assessment of them, we select what is good and what is bad, and we see that what we truly
are can never get hurt.
But try to get further than that, try to get a deeper insight into the causes of your fears, and shit hits the
fan.
Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You see that youre afraid of failing your exam. You try to let go of it, only to see that its caused
by a desire from approval from your girlfriend, among also many other people.

So you try to let go of that. And it works. Except, when you go back and look at it because it comes
up again, you see that its caused by genuinely wanting to feel good. Weird. Didnt you release
that one a bunch of times?

You go back on trying to release feelings. But then you get to thinking: even with my new
perspective on feelings, is the cause of wanting to control these feelings a desire to feel good, or
do I desire to pleasant feelings in order to control? Which comes first?

And where does the desire for approval from my girlfriend come up in all of this? The more clearly
I try to see, and the more often I see it: sometimes as a cause, sometimes as an effect. What gives?
Id need multiple feedback loops just to explain this whole mess.

Quick philosophy lecture which you can freely skip: Feedback loops indicate the problem. The mind
behaves like a complex system. Multiple events cause multiple desires, which are able to amplify other
desires. Not only that, but ultimately, they are empty: youll be able to see that later on. What I mean by
that is that our thoughts, just as things in the world, arise interdependently: when this is, that is. When
this isnt, that isnt. There is no independent thought that arises by itself, and no independent creator of
it. They are all empty.
Among other things, this has an inconvenient consequence. After a certain level of introspection, this will
actually mean that your effort in trying to comprehend your feelings and thoughts, your sole act of looking
at them, will in itself cause new ones to appear. Youll effectively create things that werent even there in
the first place. In the beginning this might feel like insight, but in time youll catch on to this process.
End of lecture. What does this mean for us practically? It means that we cannot apply the same process
we used on the macro scale to work on the micro scale of the mind. The process we used up until now
was a means to an end: we needed it to provide us with the initial boost of confidence needed to go
through with the second part, and to be able to directly experience the complex nature of the mind; its
nature to fabricate stories, its multiple feedback loops and connections, to develop a dissatisfaction
towards it and a disenchantment towards trying to understand it in this way.

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This direct experience is something Ive found very helpful. Once you know the mind to be this way, you
wont make the mistake of hoping to resolve it in a way that just amplifies its story-making.

3.4. The Second Part of the Process

I had you go through all that because for some of us, its hard to trust letting go. We feel like its a new age
excuse to be complacent and lazy. Deep down, we feel that we got this and that there is a logical solution to
this problem we share. But when we cut through the excuses and go to the mind, try to honestly understand
it and see our limitations in relation to the complexity of the mind, were more inclined to let go. In my own
experience, this was the final step that made me allow myself to trust a process many people before me
explained and evangelized: meditation in its true sense.
When youve seen for yourself that trying to understand the mind in this kind of analytical way doesnt work,
but amplifies the confusion and stress after a certain point, you let go of it. You let go of everything, and
especially:

You let go of trying to understand the mind, at least for now, at least through this kind of analytical
reasoning. This trying to understand in itself is an attachment that would keep hindering you down
the road. This would have been kind of scary, but since youve developed a dissatisfaction with the
mind through the first part of the process, youre more willing to allow yourself to let go of it.

You let go of expecting any kind of pleasant feeling. Youll find that if you try to experience the same
courageous feelings youve experienced in the first part of the process, youll only struggle to
experience them, without even getting them. Struggle after struggle, youll discover that youre
disillusioned in trying to get your feelings in this way: and youre more willing to let go of them.

By the way, dont think that by letting go of these things youre going back to the starting point. Through
actually doing this second part, youll see that the more you let go of, and the more you get back in return.
Again, you might not have been willing to do so if you hadnt experienced the first part of the process. But right
now, you might give meditation the benefit of the doubt.
So try to sit back, relax your body through deep breaths and then let go of your breath. See what feeling or
thought comes up: dont bother trying to understand the difference. Just try feeling what your dominant
preoccupation is right now. Feel it, allow it, welcome it. Then try to let it go. If you dont feel like you able to
do so right now, welcome it again, and try to let it go again. Youll notice that it at least feels lighter. Try as
many times as you want: if it takes one hundred times, do it a hundred and one times.
When youre able to let go of one thing, and it doesnt come up as strongly anymore but another thought takes
its place, just let go of that one too. Let go of whatever dominant thought/feeling comes up. Repeat this as
long as you want to. In time, when you feel so peaceful and joyful as to feel only that, let go of that too when
youre ready to. Trust that, the more you let go of, and the more youll have; and conversely, youll see that if
you try to hang on to something, it doesnt last that long.

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Play with this, experiment with it. Youll discover many new deep insight about your mind through this play
that at times youll wish youd written them down.

3.4.1 THE IMPLICATION OF THIS PROCESS

Again, this doesnt mean all the work weve done up until now was for naught. Weve gained valuable insight
of ourselves and our mind through. However, this does mean you can abandon the word file you created
before. You could keep it for reference. But if you think about it, the sole fact of wanting to keep track of all of
your desires and aversions is a desire in itself. Besides, already by doing this process youve familiarized yourself
well enough with them and this part of the process will only make you more conscious of your own mind.
You might think Im pulling your leg by telling you this to first do something and then abandon it but Im
sharing with you the way it worked for me. If I hadnt earnestly tried to understand my mind for myself, I would
have never had the direct experience that I had that then enabled me to let go to this measure.
The benefits to this process are at the very least threesome:

More peace and joy: both throughout your day and your letting go. Youre not trying to feel a certain
way anymore, which is precisely why youre feeling like this. Just remember that, as soon as you feel
some peace and joy, feel it, and then let it go. Youre not giving it up: it will come back, stronger than
before, if you sincerely dont look for it and dont expect it. Try it.

Increased and easier productivity: Trust also that this process isnt going to make you inert and
apathic. The same kind of courageous feelings youve felt before will come back, strongly than before.
The important thing though is that you, again, let go of them as they arise. Dont get caught up on
them. Doing this, youll receive more energy and joy than before, and will be able to play this game
with more gusto. Give it a try, and youll see.

Truer insight: remember all the insight you got in the first part of this process? It flies against
conventional thought, but when you actually let go of trying to understand the mind, and relish in that
state of wanting nearly nothing but to stay in the present moment, insight will come to you, brighter
and clearer than before. At a certain point I wanted to start writing things down to remember them.
But then I saw that not only did it not serve any purpose, but it put me back into that wanting state
of being. When I let go even of that, I only got more.

This might not be the first time that youve been presented with this kind of view. You might have thought it
mystical mumbo-jumbo, and you might still think it and not even try it. But if you tried the first part of the
process, you already have the intuition that what Im saying makes sense. All I ask is that you try it for yourself
to believe it.
An obvious implication here is one we might not have trouble with accepting. We procrastinated because we
cared too much. There is a quantity and quality of caring that is appropriate for life: we took it too far. As
you release more and more things, events and people, youll not only discover a more natural way to live: youll
also understand why it works. This will happen because you will have, hopefully, relived my same experience:
youll go from ignorance of your own desires and aversions, to trying to apply analytical knowledge and battle

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mind with mind, to finally directly experiencing and understanding it in a deeper way by letting go. You gain
a new way of seeing that frees, and you understand why it frees.
At this point, our goal of abandoning procrastination and pursuing our goals might even pale in comparison to
what we have arrived at. But the goal is accomplished nonetheless.
That understanding is what makes all the difference. Once you have it, once you feel this approach to be the
life-changer it really is, no one will be able to take it away from you, and youll be able to do pursue any good
you want with an unparalleled relaxation.
And isnt that what we came here to do?

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4. THE END-GAME: AFTER PLAYING

If you got this far without trying this for yourself, please try to do so. If I could, Id go back in time to my past
self and beg him to give it a try. A few hours could eliminate the (probably) biggest problem in your life right
now. Its natural to feel skeptical about it until you see it work for yourself. So please: try it, and then judge it.
This guide is aimed at getting you all the motivation you need. It doesnt go particularly into anything else, such
as planning or the big picture of things. I find though that if there was only one thing that could have radically
changed my life in the past, this would be it. Energy had always been a thing that eluded me, and now I know
where it comes from. You just need to reorder, and clearly see, what you define as good and bad. Everything
just proceeds naturally after that.
This booklet could have been much longer than it is. I probably will make additions and changes to it in time.
But I wanted it to be short so that a possible procrastinator could read it and apply it as soon as possible.
One final piece of advice though: know that the reason why it feels this way is because weve let go a little, and
we are capable to do so with insight: things just drop away by themselves when we see them as useless. We
naturally let go, we allow ourselves ot let go. Consequently, we are capable of enjoying the peace that comes
with detachment, which gives us the energy to go back and play with all of these things we still see as nice, but
not that important, which paradoxically gives us more power over them. Sometimes it might feel as if we still
play with them out of spite of how they used to make us feel.
Yet, while undoubtedly experiencing from now on many pleasant feelings, keep an open mind. See that there
is still a subtle distress in creating all of these pleasant events we can then enjoy. It could be easier to just let
go of everything.
When you feel ready that is, when you finished playing and feel dissatisfied even with this higher state
cultivate insight further, dissolve this remaining want of control and sense of self. And your peace shall be
complete.
But first, go enjoy yourself. Go play. After all this suffering, youve earned it.

4.1. Troubleshooting
There is a possibility that my way of explaining things still isnt clear enough to explain how to realize and apply
this insight to your life specifically. This might happen even though Ive tried my relative best to explain it in a
way that Id have understood it in the past. Or there might be some aspect that I havent covered and youd
like to know what I think about it.
I have acquired this insight only relatively recently, and am currently engrossed in playing this new game of
life, which is why I may not have enough time in the future to always reply to every question: in fact, at some
points I might completely stop replying. That doesnt mean Im not reading them. If theres a lot of uncertainties
on certain topics, I might try to clarify them in future booklets.

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One particular issue that comes to mind is the end-game. At a certain point, I was very preoccupied with the
purpose of this life. This is probably part of the reason why the Sedona Method and Buddhism didnt have the
desired effect on me at first: because some of you, as me before, may have heavy-hitting questions. For
instance:

If it really is all this easy, then whats the purpose in all of this? Is it even worth it to go through with
this and obtain this happiness?
Ok, I understand why you would think that way. But try living like this for only three days, and then
decide for yourself if its worth it. We naturally seek happiness, and there are different and higher
levels of it than we might at times realize. In my opinion, it is very worth it.

Is it natural to be able to manipulate my thoughts like this? Am I not radically changing/destroying

myself?
Youll come to see, although through much investigation, that what you see as yourself is
something very changing and very impermanent, very plastic and not very solid. It doesnt make
sense to try to hold onto it, because theres really nothing permanent to hold onto. But since this
insight comes after much investigation, Id advise you to first use the advice in this book to obtain
that source of seemingly endless motivation and peace, and then fueled with that try to find your
answer if you so wish.

What about God? What about my soul?

After everything Ive wrote here, and after everything you might experience, your vision of this
question may somehow change. I dont want to put it in words here, also because I dont feel I could
adequately. Im still new to all this and in the future want to explore the implications of all of this.

Feel free to write if you have any burning questions.

I wish you all the luck in the world,

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5. ADDITIONAL READING

Seeing That Frees, by Rob Burbea for a deeper view into insights that liberate, and many technical
explanations about our mind and the creation of this self

The Sedona Method, by Hale Dwoskin more information and different views on releasing, a very
good source on letting go in the way the second part of the process describes it.

The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science,
by Culadasa John Yates for a great guide to the noble game of meditation. Recommended to those
who want to further develop the mind, its awareness and attention, as well as for further, even deeper
insights.

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