The Desire To Leave Everything Behind ► Dark Souls Mindset

I used to think that if I could just leave, like save up enough money for a plane ticket and just get out of here, then all of my problems would go away and I would be happy. Have you ever gotten just like so tired of your life, you just want to go somewhere else to escape? Go live in the back of a van and bring your Xbox so you can play at nights or hitchhike across the country

With just a tent like a vagabond. Just anywhere but here. That’s the fantasy, but it doesn’t fix anything. Wherever you go, there you are. And so, if you feel like here in your hometown, going and living somewhere else is not going to fix that problem because you will still be there. And for me, things have changed. Nowadays, I’m happy living where I am and I don’t feel a constant urge to escape. And honestly, it all started with one game, Dark Souls. I’ll

Tell you in a minute how it taught me that I don’t need to escape, that I can actually be happy right where I am. But if you’re like me, you might have felt stuck like living the same day over and over again. I used to have this feeling that I just needed to escape. Like if I could get to Mexico or Japan or Ireland, even if I was homeless there, living like a vagabond, it would be better than

Living at home safe with my parents. I thought my environment was the reason for my unhappiness and if I just left then finally I would be happy. But the truth is that when you actually get to go on these kinds of trips or vacations, you start to see that maybe the problem was not the environment the whole time. Maybe the problem was actually inside of you. I kept giving away my time. My mom used to bring me food into my room and I

Used to use it as an excuse. That’s why I don’t get work done. You know, I used to say, “Oh, well, I was going to do work. I was about to be productive, but now I now there’s food here, so now I have to eat it.” So, it was all of her fault. She interrupted me, so now I can’t be productive. Day ruined. My friends asked me to get on the game, and I should have said no, but I always said

Yes. And I blame them for me not getting my work done. I blame them for me saying yes to them. I know you might not want to hear it, but none of this is their problem. It’s you that needs to change. If you don’t like it, then you need to change it. Because the truth is that no matter where you are in life, if you did actually move to Japan to live like a vagabond, there would still be something

That made you feel the same way you did when you were at home. Your problems follow you and they don’t give a about distance or borders. there would still be a voice saying, “Uh, I just want to get out of here. If I could just get out of here, then I would be okay.” And honestly, Dark Souls of all things taught me this. Let me explain. In Dark Souls, a huge part of the game is the

Bonfires. They’re your safe points. You explore the world, kill a few enemies, make some progress, and then hopefully finally find a bonfire. And it’s always a relief to find one because at the bonfire all of your healing gear like ess flasks get restored and so does your health bar. The bonfire is a safe area where you can rest. There is one caveat. When you rest at the bonfire, all of the enemies respawn. So you can change your

Scenery by running past the enemies, but those enemies will still be there. And if you keep skipping fights, then you also keep skipping the souls like that you would get from those fights that you need to level up. The game is supposed to be like this. You deal with an area of the game and the points that you get, the souls that you get from that area of the game and all of its enemies, you use

Those points to level yourself up. It’s like a reinvestment in yourself, you know? But if you just bypass all of that because you don’t want to fight the enemies, you won’t be at the level you should be. So, when you finally hit a boss, you’re way too underleveled. It’s not even a skill issue at that point. It’s just impossible. You didn’t level up enough to stand a chance. You can’t just keep running from bonfire to bonfire, hoping the game changes or gets

Easier. The only way forward is to just face the enemies as they come and level up yourself. Use the things that are blocking you to your advantage. You can change the scenery, but your enemies, the habits and mindsets that you always had respawn unless you actually deal with them. And the thing is, you don’t need to travel to Japan to deal with an obstacle that you found in Lothric Castle. You deal with the obstacle in Lothther Castle where you found it.

Running away won’t fix the problem because wherever you go, there you are. Wherever you are, you can fix the issue. You can make things better in your life. It doesn’t matter if you’re in this country or that country, you can fix it. Some people, and I’m not talking about you, of course, but some people think they’re going to get away from all their problems by going on some exotic trip or getting drunk or smoking weed or any

Kind of means of escape they use. But they won’t because in the end they’re with themselves with their same problems that by the way they cause most of the stoics say when you want to get away from it all you have to look inside. You have to address those things. You want to try to build a life that you don’t want to escape from that you don’t want to flee from. People who are trying to get away from it all are chasing

Something that doesn’t exist. Marcus Aurelius says you can retreat into yourself anytime you want. He says you can find replenishment and rest and relaxation and peace inside your own soul. He realized that he didn’t have to escape to some exotic location. All the things that he needed and and wanted were inside of himself already. They weren’t external things at all. They were inside of him just like they’re inside all of us. The happiness that you’re looking for isn’t out there in

Japan. It’s already inside of you. The cool thing about happiness is you actually don’t need to wait. You can actually be happy right now. If you can understand this that happiness is not external but internal, then you realize like I did that you don’t actually want to leave where you are. You stop seeing things through a lens of always wanting and not having enough and displeasure. If you want to leave where you are and you’re not in like wartorrn Afghanistan,

Then chances are that the problem is not your environment, but it’s actually inside of you and you need to deal with it. It’s not your mom bringing you food. It’s not your hometown. It’s not your friends. The real problem is you don’t feel abundant in yourself. You don’t feel like you’ve reached your potential because the kind of person who does not always want to escape. They feel in their heart and in their mind that no matter what, I have the power inside of

Me to deal with it and make things better and be happy no matter where I am. Why do you need to go somewhere else to be happy? Why can’t you just be happy? Like, yeah, like responsibilities pile up. I know life gets like kind of heavy sometimes, but running away from it, like running away to a different location, run away to drugs or alcohol, that’s not going to fix your problems. Escaping is tempting and kind of

Attractive, but leaving doesn’t solve anything. Your life is not going to get better in the time you spend away in Hawaii. This is your life, and you need to take the wheel and start driving it where you want to go. Stop letting things steer you. You take the wheel and you tell life where you’re going. You steer the wheel. You can be happy where you are right now, anytime, anywhere, if you can accept that happiness is not found externally, but

Actually internally. And yeah, of course, like people can give you gifts and gifts are nice and gifts make us happy and they’re external things, but if you rely on those external things, then you’re going to be chasing forever. Like, it’s going to be just more and you’re going to need more and it’s never going to be enough. But if you can be happy on the inside no matter what, no matter where you are,

Then nothing can stop you. you you can always be happy. You don’t need to to be sad because nobody got you anything for your birthday or something like that. You know, if you want to be happy, look inward. If you think happiness is always somewhere else, then it’ll never show up where you are. I want to help you guys like as much as I possibly can. So, if there’s anything that I missed or you want me to talk about, then let me know

In the comments, like, please. Um, and if you like talking about Dark Souls and self-improvement and you want to talk about it more, then I just started a new community where people can, you know, talk about the same stuff as us, you know, people who all like the same Dark Souls and self-improvement sort of thing. We can all come together and talk about like, you know, stuff that we like and new ideas and you can talk to me

Directly. We can make new video ideas together. I’ll also be posting raw unedited videos that don’t get posted onto the YouTube channel. And uh I think it’s it would be really fun and I think it’s a good idea and uh so if you’re interested in that then the link is below in the video description. Um I’m not forcing you. If you don’t want to then you don’t have to but it’s there if you want to join. Um yeah that’s

Everything. We’ll talk to you guys later.