{"id":14157,"date":"2021-03-05T04:20:46","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T20:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=14157"},"modified":"2025-02-11T22:38:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T14:38:51","slug":"monarch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/monarch\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udc51 you are already the monarch of your life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2014 1. talismans \u2014<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A talisman is simply an object that is meaningful to you. Wedding rings are the most widely appreciated talismans. (One of the most haunting images from the Holocaust \u2013 which I won’t post here, but you can look it up \u2013 is a big pile of wedding rings taken from victims who were murdered. It’s so terrible precisely because you can feel the weight of all that meaning, consecrated by hundreds of weddings, utterly desecrated.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have to periodically recharge your talismans with fresh thoughts and energy or they’ll “decay”, ie become less meaningful over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marie Kondo understands this, which is what I think she’s getting at when she talks about things like “does this spark joy”, and talks about poking and shaking objects to see how they feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyday is a new opportunity to assign value to things, to decide what is important, what is beautiful, what is good, what is deserving. In this regard you are truly the Monarch of your life<\/strong>, first of your name and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you do a beautiful job of treating your own life as something sacred, other people who witness you doing it will notice. Not everyone. In fact most people won\u2019t notice. But the small handful of people who notice will increase your power level unlike anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the things I\u2019m talking about re: aesthetics and vectors. It\u2019s about how you choose to assign value. If you do it artfully, other people will subscribe to it, which gives it more power, more currency. I suppose this is religion\/cult-starting 101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m not trying to start a cult. I\u2019m just trying to be more in tune with my own emotions, my own body, everything that constitutes my life. The funny thing is you can\u2019t hide the glow when you do it right. When you do it right, there is a \u201ccharge\u201d, and people are drawn to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything in your life is a sort of elaborate memory board. spiders use their webs as a form of external cognition. We use *everything*. All our objects are telling us stories. Some of us realize we can inspect and edit those stories, I believe people like us used to be called shamans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything tells a story; the story of modernity is often a story of amnesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This $10 piece of costume jewelry<\/a> is one of the most precious things I have, because it reminds me that some people find me sexy (which is very powerful – it makes me more abundant, more generous, less needy) Of course like Thor\u2019s hammer, it\u2019s a tool, an aid, not the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And every talisman is fragile and fleeting, just as existence itself is fragile and fleeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve only recently begun to learn how to play this game with objects – but I have a wealth of experience playing with words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is sacred in your life? What is valuable to you, what is beautiful, what is true, right, good? And what are you doing in service of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 2. attention sovereignty \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes a phrase comes up for me that\u2019s sticky and memorable, that doesn\u2019t seem to be used much by others, and so I create a post like this one to flag it. (Flag your catchphrases<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attention sovereignty is the idea of being the primary director of your own attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thread<\/a>: My sense is that attention sovereignty is the root of all other sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

attention sovereignty is a prerequisite for behavior sovereignty, context sovereignty, et cetera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t influence what we do not notice, and we will be influenced by what we do notice. So it\u2019s worth being very careful about what we do choose to notice, what we attend to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can\u2019t direct your attention, how do you direct anything else? You can only respond to what you notice (h\/t Michael Ashcroft).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where you direct your attention in any given moment isn\u2019t really a big deal, but directed attention compounds and becomes more powerful over time, ie \u2018articulate your vector(s)\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2731<\/p>\n\n\n\n

attention sovereignty is the cheapest to obtain (focus on what you want!) and yet maybe almost as a consequence of that cheapness it is perhaps the most easily given up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and then \u201cfor want of a nail<\/a>\u201d style, through the hijacking of one\u2019s attention, all else is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our perilous promised land we have both precious jewels and terrifying djinns. While we live in built bureaucratic environments that are physically safe, we have to navigate psychic chaos and find our peace in the midst of cyclones of advertising, maelstroms of outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your attention is yours<\/em>. Wield it with honor and grace. Make of your<\/em> self and your<\/em> world, something beautiful, that you can be proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2731<\/p>\n\n\n\n

related: attention metrics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 3. a kingly gift \u2014<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Some kid once DM’d me hoping that I would introduce him to one of his heroes. I found myself saying, when you want an audience with a king, don’t send him a request. He’s already constantly overwhelmed with requests and has learned to tune them out. Send him a gift. A kingly gift, one that delights him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This applies to the relationship you have with yourself, too. You are already the monarch of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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one of the most helpful things I\u2019ve ever learned that I don\u2019t know I would have figured out myself is from Visa – \u201cIf you want an audience with a king, bring a gift\u201d

it leaves me wondering what about situations where you are king? what is the most righteous way to receive gifts? https:\/\/t.co\/w3U9afCHCs<\/a><\/p>— Maia Bittner (@maiab) September 12, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>