TL;DR
The Tao of mental timelessness training and the art of learning share a common practice. It’s not just reframing events in our lives, it’s seeing reality more clearly, on its own terms, to displace the negative chatterbox that busies our brains. By playing a trick on our mind when it’s playing tricks with us. Mindfulness is more than being present. Sometimes it’s forgetting that time matters at all.
The Long View
Today’s positive psychology practice pivots on a little hack or trick we can play on our brain when it’s playing tricks with us: suspending judgment about personal events.
Judging life’s events as good or bad based on a predicted outcome, based on subjective past experiences, is yet another example of when we shouldn’t believe everything we think. Not because it’s wrong, only shortsighted. And looking the wrong direction, to the past instead of the future. To fear (from the amygdala) instead of self-efficacy (from the prefrontal cortex).
The Taoist parable of The Farmer and the Horse puts it in story form:
"A good man lived near the border.
For no reason, his horse ran off into foreign territory.
Everyone felt sorry for him.
His father said, "Who knows if it won't bring you good luck?"
Several months later, his horse returned with better horses.
Everyone congratulated him.
His father said, "Who knows if it won't bring you bad luck?"
The son went riding with joy. But fell and broke his leg.
Everyone felt sorry for him.
His father said, "Who knows if it won't bring you good luck?"
One year later the foreigners invaded, starting a battle.
Nine out of ten residents were killed.
He and his father both survived, because of his broken leg.
Bad luck brings good luck and good luck brings bad luck.
This happens without end, and nobody can measure it."
What UC Berkeley Found Out About Cognitive Time Travel
The wise father in this parable understood the pitfalls of quick judgment and assigning meaning to an event that seems good or bad in the moment.
Called “impermanence focus” by researchers at UC Berkeley, it’s not mere reframing or reassessment. It’s recognizing that change is the only constant as a matter of fact, not interpretation.
Emma Bruehlman-Senecal and Özlem Ayduk of UC Berkeley ran seven studies against one question: can viewing a stressful event from the future, instead of present, reduce suffering?
People who practiced impermanence focus in controlled experiments reacted less to a “bad” event (midterm exam score), and performed better academically.1
Bruehlman-Senecal 2015. Figure 1. Study 3, p. 366
A 2016 paper found that habitual long-viewers report more positive affect, higher life satisfaction, and less worry and depression, with most effects outlasting controls against reappraisal.2
Researchers gave subjects a two-week online training in temporal distancing. Afterward, they reported an elevated sense of personal well-being.3
An eight-day diary study showed that on days people took the long view, they felt less negative emotion about that day's problems.4
In a post-COVID study, subjects who wrote a letter to their future self reduced negative affect through the same route.5
Want To Put The UC Berkeley Research In To Practice?
Based on the papers giving us evidence of the wellbeing benefits, I’m offering a 14-day Time Shift for Wellbeing Practice challenge. To enroll for free, refer just one friend, family member of or colleague:
The referral link is personalized for tracking so it only works from your inbox, when subscribed. Not subscribed? Subscribe for free, then open the latest issue in your email and tap Share.
The Art of Learning In Practice
"At the very core of my relationship to learning is the idea that we should be as organic as possible. We need to cultivate a deeply refined introspective sense, and build our relationship to learning around our nuance of character."
A former martial arts teacher once gave me a copy of The Art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin - highly recommend. It strongly reinforced something I’d learned about learning from practicing drums daily, as a teenager. That we’re only failing when we’re not learning, and we’re only learning when we’re willing to fail, over and over.
As we more mistakes, more of them surprise us as worth repeating. This is how evolution and the traditional process of innovation works generally, also.
I make a lot of mistakes here, as I develop a variety of new skills. Though seeking challenges for growth is a strength, it often looks like the opposite of that early on.
Experience and Josh Waitzkin’s book taught me that needing a lot of reps, to make a reasonable amount of mistakes, isn’t an obstacle. It’s the way.
"The only guarantee, ever, is that things will go wrong. The only thing we can use to mitigate this is anticipation. Because the only variable we control completely is ourselves."
Truly Being Our Self Is The Reward
Recently someone I follow and admire (Dan Koe) said “the ultimate goal is getting paid to be yourself.” Similar to an idiom that I feel safe assuming you’ve also heard, “if you love what you do for a living you’ll never work a day in your life.” Not to be taken literally. Only for a general implication: when enjoyment attends effort, perceived difficulty is significantly diminished.6
Researching and reporting on brain health and neurocognitive performance improvement every week is both high effort and inherently, innately enjoyable to me. It’s a natural extension of my “self” - my inherent, innate interests. I very sincerely hope you’re getting value from my efforts here too.
In either case, please share what you’re getting from subscribing to BrainHealth.news, or want from it, in this short three question survey.
Mental Fitness For High Achievers
So far BrainHealth.news has been a way for me to get my reps in. Twenty of them, as of today. Every week I refine my research and development process, efficiency, and discover something new as a writer in a new genre. But exercising being myself isn’t the only reason for it.
One of the goals of BrainHealth.news is “the ultimate goal” as Dan put it (above). Realizing that goal means doing something I half wish I didn’t have to: “getting paid”. In order to continue feeding my passion for sharing what I’ve learned, and learn along the way, to help others help themselves.
Last week I added a paid tier, the Mental Fitness Club. Which requires paywalling higher value features for those who want to put knowledge into practice. The Practices & Protocols and Pairing & Synergies sections, plus any downloads that go with them, are now paid tier features. If only $5/month, of four issues.
Join The Mental Fitness Club
Breakthroughs in personal performance start now:
The 7-Day Stress Relief Breathwork Challenge
A free-month gift link for a friend or family member
Best practices and protocols in every issue
Mental Fitness Club Community membership
Access to the Structural Brain Health Guide
Members-only nootropic formula discounts
Early access to focus support apps
The main body of knowledge, ideas and personal experiences I share here will remain completely free, of course. 😃
Next week: Brain injury, however traumatic, and concussion recovery protocols.
Sunday inspo: FRIDAY INSPIRATION SLOT
Until next time, eat fresh foods and stay active Beautiful Self-aware Brain!
🫶🏽
Footnotes:
1 Bruehlman-Senecal, E., & Ayduk, O. (2015). This too shall pass: temporal distance and the regulation of emotional distress. Journal of personality and social psychology, 108 2, 356-75 . https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038324
2 Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Ayduk, Ö., & John, O. P. (2016). Taking the long view: Implications of individual differences in temporal distancing for affect, stress reactivity, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(4), 610-635. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000103
3 Ranney, R. M., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., & Ayduk, Ö. (2017). Comparing the effects of three online cognitive reappraisal trainings on well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18, 1319-1338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9779-0
4 Benkley, D., Willroth, E. C., Ayduk, Ö., John, O. P., & Mauss, I. B. (2022). Short-term implications of long-term thinking: Temporal distancing and emotional responses to daily stressors. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001140
5 Chishima, Y., Huai-Ching Liu, I., & Wilson, A. E. (2021). Temporal distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter writing with future self can mitigate negative affect. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 13(2), 406-418. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12256
6 Kraus, J., Mlynski, C., Hartmann, F., Clay, G., Goschke, T., Silani, G., & Job, V. (2025). The pleasure of effort: Cognitive challenges trigger hedonic physiological responses. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1546, 100 - 111. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15323