Hi there! My name is Troy Erstling – your everyday action philosopher running experiments to become the happiest and most productive version of myself I can be. If you want to learn more about who I am and my lifelong journey of global travels and entrepreneurship, you can read that here.
I built this website as a place to document my personal philosophy on how to live a happy life and perform at your best. These are my thoughts, experiments, and exercises aimed at helping you build a life full of joy and fulfillment.
My life philosophy is that the most important relationship in life is the one you have with yourself. Learn to understand who you are, how you tick, what throws you off and what helps you perform at your best – Then train at it every day to become your happiest most fulfilled self.
Happiness is a practice. A skill to be cultivated. Something to be trained on a day to day basis. You BECOME happy. You BECOME sad. Over time. Through repetition of habits, thoughts, and routine. Through consistent practice.
It won’t change in a day or even a week. It will take time. All seeds need sufficient water and sunlight to properly grow. If you want your happiness to grow from within, these articles will help you to implement the habits you need to BUILD the happy life you desire.
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Below you will find articles some of my all time favorites and common themes. May these articles nurture your journey of self inquiry and help you to create the happy life you deserve.
The Relationship you have with yourself:
Before you can develop a relationship with the outside world you must first take a look at the relationship you have with yourself. How do you talk to yourself? How do you deal with negative emotions? How do you have fun with yourself? These articles below are all about prioritizing the relationship you have with YOU above all else.
- The Most Important Relationship In Life Is the One You Have with Yourself
- Take care of yourself before helping others
- Make yourself your top priority
- Overflow your cup of self love
- The first thing I do every morning to love myself
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Meditation:
The most important practice in understanding yourself and building a happy life? Meditation. It’s an essential practice that will have a ripple over benefit into many areas of your life. Here are some of my most popular articles on how to get started meditating.
- Bring it back; Building the Present Moment Muscle
- Anchoring to the Present Moment
- Your body is an ocean of feelings; Learn how to surf the waves
- The personification of emotions
- Quality of Breath = Quality of Mind
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Non-Reactivity:
As we begin to meditate we start to notice that we create space between thoughts and actions. This space then gives us control over how we react to difficulty in life. Here are some of my most popular articles in non-reactivity and controlling emotions.
- The 4 Levels of Non-Reactivity
- How to become less reactive and more emotionally stable
- Practice facing your fears
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Relationships:
As we begin to better understand ourselves, we begin to change the way that we interact with the world around us. Here are some of my thoughts around the interdependent relationship of a social world we live in.
- Energetic Empathy
- Moods are like diseases
- Communication, Transparency, Expectation Setting
- Why you should intentionally seek out “Toxic” people
- The Surprisingly Simple Secret to a Long and Happy Life
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Philosophy:
There are some insights that just don’t fit into normal categories and are a blend of many topics. These are always my favorites. Here are my best philosophy articles.
- Appreciate when the waves are calm
- Kill the Dragon
- Self inflicted Stress
- The Normalization Effect
- Awareness is painful
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Flow States:
Professionally, I am the Head of Enrollment at the Flow Research Collective where I work with Steven Kotler. I have written extensively about my knowledge of flow states and how to implement them into your life. A huge part of happiness and fulfillment is finding flow in your life, and training it as a skill just like we do happiness. Here are the core basics of what you need to know about flow states.
- What is a flow State?
- Neurochemistry of Flow
- Transient Hypofrontality
- Internal Flow Triggers
- External Flow Triggers
- The Challenge to Skills Balance
- The Flow Cycle
- How flow affects learning
- How to structure your day for flow
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Train with Troy
Want help implementing any of what you have read about and making positive changes in your life? Schedule a call with me here and I’m happy to help you out!