Members Only Post #177 – How To Keep From Being Demoralized

The dictionary definition of demoralization is thus “having lost confidence or hope, disheartened” a feeling that all of us living in the modern world have felt at one time or another. For many of us a feeling that doesn’t go away and a feeling that we fell we are powerless against. I’m separating this from depression which is a clinical term and required clinical help into a more generalized demoralization.

And I’m going to provide some ways to help fight against demoralization in your own life. Ways to help build your mind and fight back against the demoralization that happens to all of us. Demoralization is often used in a militarized context but I think its fitting for what many people are going through.

Much of the modern world from news, to movies, to TV, to music, to schooling, to jobs, to politics, is designed to break you down, bit by bit, piece by piece, until there’s nothing left. So how do we fight against this? How do we become more resistant to it? There are a couple of different ways.

How To Forge A Strong Mind

First off you need a strong mind to stand up against the many assaults of the modern world. What makes a strong mind? How can you build one? One of the biggest things I can suggest is to include good suffering in your life. Now what does this mean? Well good suffering is suffering that builds strength and character. As opposed to bad suffering which is in most cases simply destruction and decimation of one’s mind, body, and spirit.

Some examples of bad suffering. Torture, war, rape, famine. Examples of good suffering. Exercise, competition, working the land, and such. Good suffering produces strength and character. A big problem many people have is they have no good suffering in their lives and so things do go wrong, as they inevitably do. They have no strength to bear up under the stress until things get better. So look to put good suffering into your life.

Exercise, find something to compete in, meditate, practice discipline, work on a large project that pushes you, step out of your comfort zone, do public speaking, do a play, visit a new place, start a side job, learn a new language, grow your own food, raise cattle, just do something that’s going to force you to work, strive, and stick with something to bring about the goal that you want.

Learning To Tune In To Truth

Most of what’s said is lies. When we look at the media and when we look at what individuals say. Maybe not outright lies but half-truths which can be ten times as deadly and a hundred times as devious as outright lies. You must learn to pursue truth and how to separate truth from lies. Otherwise you will always be lost and searching, never finding anything to grab onto.

Seek truth first and foremost. Likely your political, national, cultural, religious, and ideological beliefs will have to change and adjust but that’s fine, so long as they adjust in line with the truth. Truth should be your first loyalty to find out what is true and what is real. How the world actually works so that you can exist in it, in the right away. And give yourself the best chance at the best life possible.

Break away from the media. Turn off the news. Listen to classical music or birds chirping. Read old literature, get outside, get into nature. Go for a swim, a walk, a hike. The more you unplug the easier it will be to discover truth and figure out what’s fact from fiction. Replace TV time with time in nature. Replace magazines and news sources with old books. The further you move from lies the easier it is to find the truth.

Other Considerations To Fight Demoralization

Make sure that you’re eating right. If you’re not getting the right micronutrition then your mind can’t function right. It’s not just about eating so you can see your abs, it’s about eating so your perform at your peak physically, mentally, and spiritually. Make sure to eat plenty of nutrient dense foods like liver, eggs, and the like. Find a part of a community you can join in. Doesn’t have to be big or make best friends but just have socialization in your life.

One, of the many, things I don’t like about regular gyms is there’s little interaction in them. Everyone has their headphones in and is doing their own thing. There’s no community. Whereas at a MMA or boxing gym you have to interact with others which gives it a sense of community that weight gyms don’t have. But find community where you can.

At a gym, at a church, wherever. Just find a place where you can be part of a group if only for a little bit. Small groups are better than big. Once you get above a certain number you lose the socialization aspect. I don’t know what the number is but try to keep under thirty.

I’m not saying doing these things will make you immune to demoralization but they will help. And sometimes we need all the help we can get.

Best Wishes,

-Charles Sledge