"You will be judged for what you do, there is no avoiding this unless you stop going outside and become a hermit with a long beard." - Really struggling to grow that beard. Any tips?
Which one do you feel most resonated with you? I'm guilty of caring what people think, for sure. To the point it holds me back creatively, and in other areas of my life if I'm honest. What about you?
I always make sure that I do #1 that's like second nature to me and I like how you explained it when it comes to taking advice. I've always said the line to others "would you want to trade places with them". I'd say #2 is what I need to work on so I can get out of my own way more often.
I don't consciously beat myself up over the past. I used to when I was a child, struggling with depression and self loathing. Now I'm in a much better place with myself. But I still haven't completely resolved the initial impulse that comes when those thoughts and memories bubble up in my mind. I can't seem to preempt the emotional reaction I have to them. I can calm myself down; take conscious control after the fact. But I haven't found a way to stop myself from those first moments of suffering. I really wish I could; they're unwelcome and unwanted interruptions to what is otherwise a life I'm pretty fond of. Maybe I'll figure something out someday.
I feel this, big time. My health anxiety stemming from my experience with cancer means I can never outrun these bursts of fear that pop up in my life without permission. Over the years, I've come to realise that those brief moments of suffering will always be with me, but reminding myself that they have always been followed by calm helps me ride out the turbulence.
What sort of mental strategies do you lean on when your moments of suffering spike?
Depending on the impetus, there are several strategies. The most generally applicable seems to be just breathing. 1-3 intentional breaths, a deliberate refocusing of my mind on my current reality and the acknowledgement that the thoughts causing me suffering are usually either about things in the past that I cannot change or things which remain uncertainties in the future.
Sometimes it's more of an existential worry; the feeling of being unable to do the things in life which really matter to you, or coming up against the demon of nihilism and wondering why anything matters at all. In those cases I find that it helps to examine reality through a macroscopic lens. I have a particular brand of existential philosophy informed by a variation on the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum erasure phenomenon (if you're unfamiliar and would like to hear more about it I'll happily ramble on for hours), through which I perceive reality not simply as a linearly progressing sequence of causally connected events, but as a superposition of all possible states in time, space, possibility, and any other dimensions not yet explicitly identified. In such a perception of reality, "I" as a conceptual identity am not merely an organism, a mind, or a line segment drawn through time; I am a complex multidimensional shape which, as with all other things, occupies a permanent place within, and contributes to the greater integrity of, the universe as a grand, cohesive whole.
And that sort of recontextualizes the feelings and experiences that I'm having in day to day life. Makes them seem a bit less overwhelming. Although the time-bound experience of life will one day end, the prospect of which is admittedly daunting, if death is the price one has to pay for living, I would rather live and die than never live at all. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to live, and to experience living.
"You will be judged for what you do, there is no avoiding this unless you stop going outside and become a hermit with a long beard." - Really struggling to grow that beard. Any tips?
I've got an old Santa beard laying around somewhere. I'll send that your way to get you started.
Cheers ears! Got the hermitting down pat. Was just missing the beard. :D###
As an American I endource this Australian! Absolutely witty and off center.
Keep us entertained!
You flatter me, Jonathan (long may it continue). Thanks for being part of this growing "thing"!!!
I thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts on the matter and while I do a few you gave me another perspective on a few that I enjoyed.
Which one do you feel most resonated with you? I'm guilty of caring what people think, for sure. To the point it holds me back creatively, and in other areas of my life if I'm honest. What about you?
I always make sure that I do #1 that's like second nature to me and I like how you explained it when it comes to taking advice. I've always said the line to others "would you want to trade places with them". I'd say #2 is what I need to work on so I can get out of my own way more often.
Solid advice as usual. There are secret whatsapp groups?
Yes, but we only say lovely things about you.
🤣
I don't consciously beat myself up over the past. I used to when I was a child, struggling with depression and self loathing. Now I'm in a much better place with myself. But I still haven't completely resolved the initial impulse that comes when those thoughts and memories bubble up in my mind. I can't seem to preempt the emotional reaction I have to them. I can calm myself down; take conscious control after the fact. But I haven't found a way to stop myself from those first moments of suffering. I really wish I could; they're unwelcome and unwanted interruptions to what is otherwise a life I'm pretty fond of. Maybe I'll figure something out someday.
I feel this, big time. My health anxiety stemming from my experience with cancer means I can never outrun these bursts of fear that pop up in my life without permission. Over the years, I've come to realise that those brief moments of suffering will always be with me, but reminding myself that they have always been followed by calm helps me ride out the turbulence.
What sort of mental strategies do you lean on when your moments of suffering spike?
Depending on the impetus, there are several strategies. The most generally applicable seems to be just breathing. 1-3 intentional breaths, a deliberate refocusing of my mind on my current reality and the acknowledgement that the thoughts causing me suffering are usually either about things in the past that I cannot change or things which remain uncertainties in the future.
Sometimes it's more of an existential worry; the feeling of being unable to do the things in life which really matter to you, or coming up against the demon of nihilism and wondering why anything matters at all. In those cases I find that it helps to examine reality through a macroscopic lens. I have a particular brand of existential philosophy informed by a variation on the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum erasure phenomenon (if you're unfamiliar and would like to hear more about it I'll happily ramble on for hours), through which I perceive reality not simply as a linearly progressing sequence of causally connected events, but as a superposition of all possible states in time, space, possibility, and any other dimensions not yet explicitly identified. In such a perception of reality, "I" as a conceptual identity am not merely an organism, a mind, or a line segment drawn through time; I am a complex multidimensional shape which, as with all other things, occupies a permanent place within, and contributes to the greater integrity of, the universe as a grand, cohesive whole.
And that sort of recontextualizes the feelings and experiences that I'm having in day to day life. Makes them seem a bit less overwhelming. Although the time-bound experience of life will one day end, the prospect of which is admittedly daunting, if death is the price one has to pay for living, I would rather live and die than never live at all. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to live, and to experience living.
THIS 1,000,000,000 percent! 👍👍
(But please--stop peeking into other people's windows!)
It's an addiction. Can't stop, won't stop.