When we hear stories of how ancestors overcame challenges, we internalize them as "vicarious memories." These are not just tales but mental models of resilience that act as a psychological buffer against our own adversity. This has been observed in studies of children post-9/11 and military veterans.

Counteract the human tendency to focus on negativity by consciously treating positive events as abundant and interconnected ("plural") while framing negative events as isolated incidents ("singular"). This mental model helps block negative prophecies from taking hold.

Experiencing a true life tragedy, such as losing a spouse, fundamentally recalibrates one's perspective. It creates a powerful mental filter that renders materialistic envy and minor daily frustrations insignificant. This resilience comes from understanding the profound difference between a real problem and a mere inconvenience.

The feeling that today's economy is uniquely precarious is misleading. While recessions and inflation have always existed, the 24/7 news cycle creates an unprecedented intensity of negative information, leading to paralysis. The solution is to manage information consumption and focus on long-term strategy.

Marcus Aurelius's "view from above" is a concrete technique, similar to cognitive behavioral therapy, for managing anxiety. It involves visualizing yourself zooming out from your immediate situation to a cosmic scale. This mental drill provides perspective, shrinking overwhelming problems to a more manageable size.

Humans can endure immense suffering, misery, and ugliness, but find boredom intolerable. This powerful aversion is an underestimated catalyst for major historical events, social movements, and even revolutions, as people seek excitement and a sense of purpose over monotony.

Unprecedented global prosperity creates a vacuum of real adversity, leading people to invent anxieties and fixate on trivial problems. Lacking the perspective from genuine struggle, many complain about first-world issues while ignoring their immense privilege, leading to a state where things are 'so good, it's bad.'

Anxiety spikes when you mentally separate from your own capacity to handle future challenges. Instead of focusing on uncontrollable 'what ifs,' the antidote is to reconnect with your agency and ability to respond, regardless of the outcome. Doubling down on your capacity to handle things quiets the alarm.

The thoughts that cause suffering—like "they don't like me" or "things should be different"—are not original or personal. They are common, recycled narratives shared by all humans. Recognizing this universality helps to depersonalize and detach from them.