If you catch yourself suppressing a thought, don’t. Thoughts need to flow until they settle down (and given enough time they always do). That’s how you build your mind.
If, however, you catch yourself suppressing an act, think about why you think you need to supress it and let that thought flow until it, too, settles down. That’s how you build mindful character.
The more you catch yourself suppressing acts, the more you realize the inordinate amount of petty shit you are able to produce. This, when unchecked, becomes a sharp turn. You don’t only recognize petty shit of the present, but of the past. Not only your own, but also of others.
Most people when entering this sharp turn tend to hold on and drag others into their own petty shit coated misery, gradually making it all about others. They survive the swerve by sacrificing others. Avoid these people like you avoid your petty shit: turn them into thoughts.
Only few are able to recognize the pressure of ceaseless petty shit everyone else has to endure and they let go of them. This act is the seed of compassion. It comes from not the loftiness of spirit but admission of an inability: The inability to process other people’s lives.
Many time honored virtues are merely derivatives of this admission type, or, humility. You admit you are unable to learn everything? You become wise. Unable to know everything? You’re smart. Understand? Intelligent. That’s how petty shit help you out if you set your eyes on them.
In that sense, I disagree with Carlson. Go ahead and sweat the small stuff. Even if they are all there is, sweat them until you no longer feel like you are sweating them.
