My day on the PAHM: 3 November 2026
My day on the PAHM, 3 November 2026: a fantasy arrived, I noticed it and named it, and the momentum it had faded away. From a morning session with Ayu.
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Notes on attention
How minds actually work - anxiety, sleep, resentment, money - and what to do about them.
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The nine attention states: a map of where your mind actually is
A mindfulness meditation map: your attention is always somewhere in time and always carrying a charge. Nine positions, and only one costs you nothing.
How to stop overthinking: the five-step sequence that traps you
How to stop overthinking starts here: it is not a character flaw but a five-step sequence that runs the same way every time and breaks at one point.
Image: AI-generated
How to be happy: the happiness that does not depend on conditions
How to be happy when every condition you fix is replaced by the next one? Happiness is not added by conditions. It is uncovered underneath them.
Image: AI-generated
Hubs: Overthinking · Anxiety and stress · Happiness
My day on the PAHM: 3 November 2026
My day on the PAHM, 3 November 2026: a fantasy arrived, I noticed it and named it, and the momentum it had faded away. From a morning session with Ayu.
The Week on the PAHM: 31 October 2026
The Week on the PAHM, 31 October 2026: Halloween, a first World Series title, the hour AI saves, happiness researchers and a loneliness trial.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I feel refreshed after a holiday, and why does it fade?
Why do I feel refreshed after a holiday? On the map, new sights and sounds pull attention into the present. At home the old chains resume. Why, and what helps.
Tie your camel, then trust: the essence of Islam, seen through one map
Tie your camel and trust in God, seen through one map: do what is in your hands now, and leave the outcome where it lives, in the future row. Fifth in a series.
Why do I feel like a failure? The identity that only exists while you think it
Why do I feel like a failure? The setback happened once. The feeling of being a failure is built again each time attention goes back to it.
Image: AI-generated
Can you live in the present and still have goals? Planning without attachment
How to live in the present and plan for the future: the problem is never having goals, but where your attention goes while you have them.
My day on the PAHM: 27 October 2026
My day on the PAHM, 27 October 2026: a daydream on the drive in, the moment it ended, and why the real morning looked smaller for a second afterwards.
Why do I get angry so easily? The second thought that turns a moment into a fight
Why do I get angry so easily? Anger rarely comes from the event itself; it builds in the thoughts that follow it, one at a time. Here is where to catch it.
Image: AI-generated
Stoicism and the present moment: the Stoic view of worry, seen through one map
Stoicism and the present moment, seen through one map: what is up to us, the judgment added to events, and why only the present can be borne.
The Week on the PAHM: 24 October 2026
The Week on the PAHM, 24 October 2026: five headlines on the map. Stress accepted as permanent, six in ten eyeing the next job, a garden on a screen, a printer.
Image: AI-generated
How to stop stressing about money: where the money problem actually lives
How to stop stressing about money without pretending the bills aren't real: the balance is real, but most of the stress lives in the past and the future.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I compare myself to others? The comparison that only happens close to home
Why do I compare myself to others? You never envy the richest person alive, only the colleague at your level. That one detail shows where comparison lives.
My day on the PAHM: 20 October 2026
My day on the PAHM, 20 October 2026: a meeting that went well, a quiet relief after it, and why the relief was worth noticing as much as a worry.
Can overthinking make you depressed? What long habits of dwelling do to mood
Can overthinking make you depressed? Long habits of dwelling on the past can be one of the things that pull mood down and keep it there. Not the only one.
Image: AI-generated
The Week on the PAHM: 17 October 2026
The Week on the PAHM, 17 October 2026: five headlines on the map. Dreaming of quitting, a price rise smaller than feared, a phone study, a 44-year wait.
Image: AI-generated
Do not worry about tomorrow: the Christian teaching on worry, seen through one map
Do not worry about tomorrow: the Christian teaching on worry, seen through one map. Tomorrow lives in the future row; the day's trouble is met in the present.
Can't stop thinking about your ex? Why the mind keeps going back
Can't stop thinking about my ex? Every visit back is a thought in one of a few positions, and each one starts the next. Here is the loop, and the way out.
Image: AI-generated
Why positive thinking doesn't work, and what does
Why positive thinking doesn't work: a forced good thought is still a thought, pulled away from the present. What helps is noticing where attention is.
My day on the PAHM: 13 October 2026
My day on the PAHM, 13 October 2026: a good change that is months away, the thoughts about it that followed me home, and why a loss became just a fact.
Acting without attachment: the essence of the Bhagavad Gita, seen through one map
The Bhagavad Gita on attachment, seen through one map: act fully, hold the result lightly. The result lives in the future; the action never does.
The Week on the PAHM: 10 October 2026
The Week on the PAHM, 10 October 2026: five headlines from the week, each placed on the map. A Nobel for a light switch, inflation fears, a title written off.
Image: AI-generated
How to stay calm: you return to calm, you do not hold it
How to stay calm when life pushes? Not by holding calm tight, which is its own tension. Calm is where attention rests when it stops pushing and pulling.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I wake up anxious? The first thought of the day
Why do I wake up anxious? Before your senses report anything, the mind can produce a first thought already charged and already in the future.
Why do I feel overwhelmed? Many chains, one moment
Why do I feel overwhelmed? Not the list itself, but attention switching fast between a dozen thought chains. The present only holds one next thing.
Image: AI-generated
Why does exercise reduce stress? The relief is attention being forced into the present
Why does exercise reduce stress? A run or a cold plunge demands so much attention that the mind cannot stay in the past or future. The relief is borrowed.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I feel sad after being happy? The pendulum the mind swings on
Why do I feel sad after being happy? Clinging to a high pushes the mind off balance, and the swing back overshoots. The low is the other half of the high.
Why am I always anxious? Anxiety that has become a habit of position
Why am I always anxious, even when nothing is wrong? Because a position held often enough becomes a disposition. Habits of attention can be unlearned.
Image: AI-generated
Craving, aversion and delusion: the essence of Buddhism, seen through one map
Buddhist teaching names three causes of suffering: craving, aversion and delusion. Seen through the nine attention states, each one can be found in a second.
Why do I feel stressed for no reason? The reason is a thought you did not see arrive
Why do I feel stressed for no reason? Some thoughts arrive already charged, with nothing in front of you to start them. The reason is real; it is not present.
Image: AI-generated
Why do I overthink everything? Because the machine does not check the subject
Why do I overthink everything? Because the mechanism that turns one thought into a chain never checks what the thought is about. Small subject, same chain.
How to be more present: the state you do not have to build
How to be more present is the wrong question. Present + Neutral is the only one of nine positions that starts no chain reaction, and it is not built.
Can't sleep because you're thinking? The loop, and why fighting it feeds it
Can't sleep because I'm thinking? You lay down to plan tomorrow, somewhere in there the tile changed, and fighting it is what keeps it going.
Image: AI-generated
Can't stop replaying conversations? Why the argument keeps running
Can't stop replaying conversations? The loop is Past + Dislikes, it feeds itself, and fighting it adds a round. What actually ends it.
Image: AI-generated
Why am I never satisfied? Both sides of every circumstance hurt
Why am I never satisfied? Having children produces difficult thoughts; so does not having them. Both sides hurt, so the circumstance was never the source.
Emotional regulation's blind spot: feeling good is the part nobody trains
Emotional regulation is practised when we feel bad and abandoned when we feel good. That asymmetry is why steady wellbeing stays out of reach.
Image: AI-generated
What anxiety actually is, structurally
On the map, anxiety is attention held in the future while carrying dislike. Not a mood, not a flaw in temperament. A position, and positions can change.
Image: AI-generated
How to control your thoughts: recognising one is not rejecting it
How to control your thoughts starts with one mistake to avoid: treating recognition as a verdict. That replaces one difficult thought with three.
