… And Why “Who You Think You Are” Influences Every Aspect of Your Life
When I asked the crowd at my book signing a few months ago, “How many people think America is more divided than ever?” Every single hand went up.
Strangely, I felt relieved. When you spend a year working on a book, the last thing you want is to write about a topic no one cares about. But, of course, I knew that every hand would go up.
In fact, if I asked any crowd of adults not living under a rock, I bet I would get the exact same answer.
How?
I’m not claiming to be psychic. God no … So then what makes me so confident?
Well, it’s worth backing up a few years.
THE SECRET TO OVERCOME EXTREME SHYNESS IN ONE NIGHT
I entered college in 2018 with a raging case of cystic acne and a dwindling number of high school friends. I had spent the summer before dreaming that my freshman year of college would be the year I reinvent myself.
This would be the year I go from crippling high school insecurity to bombastic college confidence.
… But that first semester all but squashed my vision of becoming a magnetic, self-assured person.
A perfect example of reality ruining my plans for a genuine college experience was my roommate. Before we met, I assumed that no matter who I got paired with, I could salvage it into a lifelong friendship.
College roommates ought to be “best man at my wedding” material, I thought.
… Well, long story short, my roommate was a loud, smelly social recluse who had been homeschooled his entire life.
That meant finding new friends would be a solo project; one I hadn’t undertaken since the sixth grade.
By sheer luck I stumbled on two university clubs that changed my life forever: sketch comedy and improv. The people were funny, welcoming and, to put it simply, like no one I had ever met before. But even there, I knew I lacked initiative. I spent my days waiting for other people to make plans; waiting for others to lead the way.
I needed to do something that took courage. Something that was difficult.
An idea popped into my head before the second semester of college …
In an act of blind ignorance, I found the only bar in my college town that hosted open mics and signed myself up.
Yes, I tried stand-up comedy.
I was scared. Of course, I was scared!
I mean knee-shakingly, teeth-chatteringly terrified.
But I did it … and a month later, I did it again (which I believe is “the definition of insanity”).
Now I bring that up for a very important reason. Not only did that moment melt all my social anxiety (because everything pales in comparison to bombing on stage), but it gave me my first insight into how to overcome a fearful ego.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE YOU’RE A MIND-READER?
Which of these thoughts (or some variation of them) have you had in the past year:
- If we don’t do something about climate change now, then humanity will go extinct in a decade!
- If Trump wins the next election, then democracy as we know it is over!
- If the debt continues to rise at its current rate, then the economy will crash and ruin the middle and lower classes for good!
- If artificial intelligence isn’t regulated, it could surpass human intelligence and take over the world!
- If people keep spreading vaccine misinformation, then the next pandemic will wipe out millions, maybe even billions of people!
- If we don’t do something to end these global conflicts, then we’re heading toward WWIII and a nuclear apocalypse!
Climate change, political turmoil, the national debt, AI, pandemics, war: What do these all have in common? They evoke existential terror. Perhaps not the acute terror that I experienced when I walked on the stage at a musty, dive bar five years ago, but terror nonetheless.
Existential terror takes many forms, many flavors of negativity, including but not limited to:
- Anger:
For those who believe Trump will destroy the country if elected, then it makes sense for them to turn red in the face and scream in opposition to anyone who likes, or even remains imperial, to the man.
- Anxiety:
For those who believe the next pandemic-level virus could be lurking anywhere (maybe even the coughing traveler beside them), then it makes sense for those people to take on an agoraphobic attitude because their health and safety precedes all else.
- Nihilism:
For those who believe AI will take over the world in a few short years in some unpredictable fashion, then it makes sense for those people to consider long-term goals and ambitions that make life meaningful to be pointless. These people may consider creative projects to be worthless because “AI can create it faster, more easily, and better.”
- Grief:
For those who believe humanity has until 2030 before climate change starts a slow but irreversible extinction event for the human race, then it makes sense for those people to feel despair or grief because their minds are on high alert for the climate-caused suffering of humans and animals all over the world.
- Blind Righteousness:
For those who believe the global conflicts, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere, are leading us toward WWIII (and possibly nuclear war), then it makes sense for those people to drop everything in their lives and turn all their energy toward protest. It becomes “blind righteousness” when a person tunes out to opposing viewpoints or new evidence.
… Notice how I have mentioned nothing about whether these existential claims are true or false?
The key is that these emotional reactions are real, even if they’re based on false or manipulated claims.
It’s the emotional reactions that are the problem, not the existential claims.
Wait, back up. Am I denying that there are problems in the world in 2024?
Heck no!
Are people allowed to be upset, to protest, to complain, to boycott, to dwell in pessimism, to ruin friendships and family bonds because of political differences?
Sure, I won’t try to stop them … In fact, I’ll stay out of their way and avoid them altogether.
But … the more I avoided those people:
- Who protest loud and proud on social media
- Who give no thought to opposing viewpoints
- Who cannot find fault with their ideas
- Who call anyone who disagrees “evil” or “bigoted”
The more I realized … I had become the mirror image of them.
- Maybe I claimed to be more patient.
- Maybe I claimed to be more thoughtful.
- Maybe I claimed to want to “know the truth” more than “be right.”
But I became just as closed off to them as they were to me; just as trapped in my echo chamber of social media content.
Had I fallen victim to the same emotional reactivity; only triggered by a different source?
… Yes, I had.
Once I accepted that fact, something changed. Once I became aware of the emotional reactivity arising in me, something shifted.
This was the start of a spiritual awakening …
99% OF PEOPLE HAVE THIS PRICELESS GIFT — BUT NEVER USE IT
I know what you’re thinking, “Okay, you had me curious until you brought up that ‘New Age’ mysticism stuff.”
Most people want to reduce their anxiety, their anger, their reactivity; to have more peace, more joy and live their life with a certain lightness … but they have a certain aversion to spirituality because their mind associated the term with “cults” or “woo-woo B.S.”
I want to show you how absurdly simple spirituality can be. How it doesn’t need to be about meditating in a cave in the mountains, or worshiping a guru, or shaving your head and joining a Buddhist monastery. All it takes is patience, alertness, and presence.
Here’s an easy, one-minute exercise to show you what I mean:
—
Step 1: Turn off any distractions: pause music, close out videos, walk away from anyone chatting near you, etc.
Step 2: Sit up straight and close your eyes.
Step 3: “Think” this statement (don’t just read it, but repeat it to yourself): “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.”
Step 4:
—
That’s it.
Come back to this after you’ve sincerely tried the exercise.
Now that you’ve done it, I want to let you in on a little secret: it doesn’t matter what your next thought was (that’s why step 4 is empty).
What matters is this: How long was the gap “no-thought”?
Did you even notice the gap?
When you read “Off With His Head,” you’ll learn about and appreciate the significance of that simple gap between thoughts. Truthfully, that’s the priceless gift most people never use (or even know exists!).
The book will also teach you more techniques to reach that point of no-thought.
For now, though, just realize that 99% of people think every waking moment and, for a short span of time, you just broke that stream of thought.
You removed your attention from the continuous, repetitive, and often pessimistic and fear-provoking thought pattern that controls your reactions to the external world.
It’s your thoughts that trigger anxiety when you watch fear-baiting news.
It’s your thoughts that trigger anger when you have a politically charged argument online.
It’s your thoughts that trigger nihilism, the sense that life is meaningless when you can’t seem to fall asleep at night.
Spirituality — in its most simple and practical form — is nothing more than a temporary pause of the mental monologue that you often mistake for your true identity.
It doesn’t require a mediation practice, but rather, a shift in perspective.
A shift in consciousness, you might say.
IS A LIFETIME OF PEACE WORTH $21 TO YOU?
I wish I could say that by buying “Off With His Head” and reading it from front to back will promise eternal peace and a life of joyful play. If I made a promise like that, I would expect you to call me a sham or a huckster.
The truth is that the book “Off With His Head” is a philosophical and psychological primer for a spiritual journey that takes effort. Real, disciplined effort. Overcoming emotional reactivity is something I still work on every day.
Sometimes I lose myself in thought.
Sometimes I get drawn into vices and bad habits.
Sometimes I hold onto anger even when it’s hurting me.
The difference between now and those early days in college, when I was insecure about everything, absurdly shy, and felt lost in more ways than one, is that:
Now, I am existentially secure.
I feel at peace in the deepest part of myself, even though I have moments of surface-level negativity and dysfunctional desire. I know who I am, and it is not just the “Sean Patrick Greene” who writes books and makes podcasts.
Spiritual awakening is a process. It’s a cosmic game. It’s an adventure unique to every person.
For those who understand that, who experience that sense of adventure deep in their bones; those are the people who are UNSHAKEABLE.
Those are the people I want to spend my time with.
Those are the people I look up to.
Those are the people I trust.
Aim up. Aim there.
THE EASIEST WAY TO BUY “OFF WITH HIS HEAD”
If you’ve read to this point, then that means you’re ready to buy …
If you haven’t already clicked one of the previous Amazon buttons, then click the picture below to jump over to the purchase page for “Off With His Head”. It’s seriously at its lowest price ever for only two weeks!
If hold off on buying because you’re “just not sure” or “not ready,” then that pattern of indecision will continue long past the point of reading this. Break the negative pattern by taking action now!
But just remember …
Anyone can buy the book. Anyone can read it. But it takes serious effort to apply the message to your life:
To live a life immune to a fear-provoking media landscape that profits off your eyeballs.
It’s time to take the leap: Buy the book right now by clicking the link below.
You will thank yourself later.
