Empty Boat Theory: A Brain Hack for a Happier Mindset

All right, there's this theory that I've been absolutely obsessed with lately called the empty boat theory. And it's like, it's like, it's like an earworm from a brain, brain worm. So the empty boat theory is this, you're out on the lake, you're enjoying a relaxing afternoon with your family, your friends, you're boating across the lake, everybody's having a great time, you're waving to people, you're smiling, you're having a good time. It's a very relaxing atmosphere. And then you see off in the distance, you see, you see this boat, and he's cutting across and, and not the way everybody's supposed to be going like he's good. He's gonna hit you. He's gonna hit you. But as you get closer, you start getting you frustrated, now you get the anger, dude, move your boat. Everybody knows you don't you don't have any business being on the lake, don't be on the lake, you know, like, don't come at me, you're gonna hurt us. And you're getting angrier and more and more frustrated. And as he's getting closer, you get more worked up until last second, you turn your boat to avoid being hit, you look over and there's nobody in the boat and what happened to your anger? It immediately dissipates because there was never anybody there was never anybody to be angry with in the first place. But that's that's life. That's life, isn't it? All the time we do this, we do this too much. They cut me off because they're they're not showing up to work on time because they don't respect me. They we we assume everything's about us. They're just doing that to screw me to piss me off. It's most of the time nobody's thinking about you. I'm not thinking about you. Most people aren't thinking about me. And you know, if we were to assume more empty boats, we'd reduce our own stress and anxiety a tremendous amount to quote the philosopher King Marcus Aurelius, reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.