Thought provoking. Often, I ask myself “what is the problem” in the present moment. (Eckhart Tolle). But also feel like I’m assenting, as you have described.
What strikes me is why the negative assents accumulate faster than the positive ones. A white cloth doesn't show white — it shows the stain. The cloth is mostly clean, but your eye goes straight to the small dark spot. Internal self-talk works the same way: one failure in a week of solid work, and that's the one your mind replays. Not because the failure is bigger, but because contrast makes it louder. The positive assents don't register as events — they just feel like "normal." The negative ones feel like information.
That asymmetry might be why the drift you describe is almost always downward. Small permissions to lower the standard are noticeable enough to become patterns. Small wins aren't noticeable enough to build in the same way — unless you deliberately make them visible.
A friend once gave me a very new perspective on how to view and analyze things... he told me whenever you are about to do an action, or whenever you catch yourself thinking about a particular question you must always do a "reverse questioning". This could simply mean asking yourself why do i feel the way i feel? where does this thought emerged in my mind? why am i acting the way i am acting? Just doing this i feel could help you avoid "assenting" to a lot of unnecessary things.
Some ancient artifacts do not feel old. They feel… advanced, precise, intentional. Almost as if they belong to a future we have not yet reached. And yet—they are here, from a time we call the past. It makes me wonder… are we really moving forward, or remembering what once was? Or maybe we are still exploring the past in the future, trying to understand it in the present. Maybe time is not a straight line. Maybe it moves within us—circling, expanding, revealing itself in moments of recognition. Because when I look at these artifacts, I do not just see history. I feel familiarity. As if the intelligence that created them is not gone—but still present, expressing through different forms. What was… and what will be… meet here, in this moment of awareness. And in that meeting, the past feels like the future—and everything exists as present.
Nothing breaks all at once. Standards don’t collapse in a single decision. They erode through small approvals that feel harmless in isolation. Each one sets a new baseline, and over time the baseline becomes the reality.
The part that matters is how invisible it is while it’s happening. You don’t notice the shift because no single step feels significant enough to fight. By the time it’s obvious, it’s already embedded.
The idea of assent is where this gets sharp. Most people think of decisions as conscious moments. In practice, it’s the unexamined ones that shape things. The quick yes to a thought, a habit, a reaction.
What you allow compounds the same way capital does. Quietly, then all at once when you finally look up and realize where it took you.
This absolutely hit home for me like you have no idea!!
I encounter this entire inner monologue every single time I’m presented with some BS. The whole assenting process is very real. As someone with AuDHD, and who’s mother is an evil narcissist, I’m constantly reminded of how I absolutely do not want to be treated.
Thanks so much for sharing this with us all. I so needed to read this today 🫶🏼✨🙏🏼
I find that lacking a clear, firm picture of who you want to be as a person contributes a lot to allowing others to determine who you are for you.
I agree 100%.
Thought provoking. Often, I ask myself “what is the problem” in the present moment. (Eckhart Tolle). But also feel like I’m assenting, as you have described.
This is so clear when one looks back.
But doesn't feel like you're giving assent to anything while moving.
That gap is interesting to notice.
Beautiful read that I’m sure hits home for a lot of us. We turn voluntary choices into involuntary actions, involuntarily 😂
I wonder how difficult it may be for one to notice and escape these patterns, especially if they’ve been nurtured to be more agreeable.
What strikes me is why the negative assents accumulate faster than the positive ones. A white cloth doesn't show white — it shows the stain. The cloth is mostly clean, but your eye goes straight to the small dark spot. Internal self-talk works the same way: one failure in a week of solid work, and that's the one your mind replays. Not because the failure is bigger, but because contrast makes it louder. The positive assents don't register as events — they just feel like "normal." The negative ones feel like information.
That asymmetry might be why the drift you describe is almost always downward. Small permissions to lower the standard are noticeable enough to become patterns. Small wins aren't noticeable enough to build in the same way — unless you deliberately make them visible.
Simple, you value errors more than accomplishments. Errors can be fatal, so they need more awareness.
Beautifully noted - Thank You 🙏
This is oh so very deep, but sounds simple, until you practice it.
I do allow a lot and basically accept it. I think if I question it or delve further, it becomes “Over Thinking” or some call “Stinken Thinking!”
How do I make your articles be black text on white background? White on black hurts my eyes. If I allow it now it will only get worse!
Perhaps the real issue is not only what we allow.
It is how gradually we begin to believe we deserve a smaller life.
Because people rarely collapse all at once.
First, they silence a truth inside themselves.
Then they tolerate what once disturbed them.
Then they adapt to it.
And eventually, they mistake that adaptation for identity.
That is how the modern world works on the human soul.
It no longer breaks people openly.
It reduces them slowly.
Through repetition.
Through normalization.
Through constant exposure.
Until one day, a person is no longer living what they consciously chose, but what they silently became accustomed to.
And perhaps this is the deeper tragedy of modern life:
Not that people suffer.
Not even that they lose themselves.
But that they can live for so long inside conditions that shrink their spirit, and eventually call that survival “normal.”
Some discomforts were never meant to disappear.
Some inner tensions were the last defense of conscience.
Some forms of restlessness were signs that the soul had not fully surrendered yet.
But modernity rewards adaptation more than truth.
It praises functionality more than depth.
And people slowly begin to confuse emotional numbness with peace.
When in reality, maturity is not endlessly adapting to what diminishes you.
It is remaining inwardly unwilling to become smaller just because the world has normalized smallness.
Because the most dangerous collapse is not living the wrong life.
It is living it long enough that it begins to feel like you.
Thank You!
Indeed 💯!
A friend once gave me a very new perspective on how to view and analyze things... he told me whenever you are about to do an action, or whenever you catch yourself thinking about a particular question you must always do a "reverse questioning". This could simply mean asking yourself why do i feel the way i feel? where does this thought emerged in my mind? why am i acting the way i am acting? Just doing this i feel could help you avoid "assenting" to a lot of unnecessary things.
I often talk to my clients about habits and running on auto pilot. It definitely opens up what else is possible.
Futuristic Past
By Pamela Goobie (RANI)
Some ancient artifacts do not feel old. They feel… advanced, precise, intentional. Almost as if they belong to a future we have not yet reached. And yet—they are here, from a time we call the past. It makes me wonder… are we really moving forward, or remembering what once was? Or maybe we are still exploring the past in the future, trying to understand it in the present. Maybe time is not a straight line. Maybe it moves within us—circling, expanding, revealing itself in moments of recognition. Because when I look at these artifacts, I do not just see history. I feel familiarity. As if the intelligence that created them is not gone—but still present, expressing through different forms. What was… and what will be… meet here, in this moment of awareness. And in that meeting, the past feels like the future—and everything exists as present.
— RANI © 2026
Nothing breaks all at once. Standards don’t collapse in a single decision. They erode through small approvals that feel harmless in isolation. Each one sets a new baseline, and over time the baseline becomes the reality.
The part that matters is how invisible it is while it’s happening. You don’t notice the shift because no single step feels significant enough to fight. By the time it’s obvious, it’s already embedded.
The idea of assent is where this gets sharp. Most people think of decisions as conscious moments. In practice, it’s the unexamined ones that shape things. The quick yes to a thought, a habit, a reaction.
What you allow compounds the same way capital does. Quietly, then all at once when you finally look up and realize where it took you.
❤️
This absolutely hit home for me like you have no idea!!
I encounter this entire inner monologue every single time I’m presented with some BS. The whole assenting process is very real. As someone with AuDHD, and who’s mother is an evil narcissist, I’m constantly reminded of how I absolutely do not want to be treated.
Thanks so much for sharing this with us all. I so needed to read this today 🫶🏼✨🙏🏼