dave cortel

nobody warns you that the fastest way to make friends as an adult is to just… play a sport badly with strangers until they’re not strangers anymore. should be studied tbh

decenter yourself from your thoughts and start paying attention to the world beyond them. look up. notice things. become curious about lives that are not your own, stories that have nothing to do with you, problems you are not carrying, joys you did not create. sometimes suffering grows larger because we keep placing ourselves at the center of every experience. every silence becomes a judgment. every setback becomes a personal tragedy. every thought becomes evidence.

but the world is much bigger than your mind. there are trees continuing to grow without your permission, strangers falling in love, children learning something for the first time, oceans moving according to laws older than your fears. you are not required to make yourself the main character of every moment. learn to be interested in something other than yourself. read more. listen more. ask questions. observe. the less obsessed you become with your own reflection, the more life begins to reveal itself.