Of course I was drawn to the Jung section. Interesting how we "know" this - that other people's stuff is their stuff, not ours. "Four Agreements" being the pop cultur-ish version of this, plus all the social media memes. Yet in the moment, tamping down the evolutionary brain chemicals, social programming, and firing synapses can feel like a Herculean task.
Not taking things personally is the most important lesson I've found to living in (relative) mental peace. Huge timesaver too, the hours spent analyzing "what he/she really meant by that" and all the rest of the fictional noise. I remember the struggle of letting it go though, letting the theater of other people's stuff go up in smoke, can be like - "okay but now what do I do with all this time I spent building the theater??".
It's definitely not an easy thing to do, and I still struggle with it myself on bad days. The thing that honestly helped me the most was controlling my road raging. I was so bad at that. Now I'm calm as a cucumber. That translated over in a lot of areas in my life.
But yeah, the moment you realize and understand that other people's shit is other people's shit life gets much better.
Love this pragmatic take on apartment gardening as resistance against abstraction. The bit about scallions being infinite vegetables really captures how small acts of growing things create an anchor when everything else feels manufactured. Started doing this with basil last year and honestly forgot how satisfying it is to cook with soemthing that didn't travel across the country in refrigerated trucks. Dirt under fingernails being a reality check is dead-on tho, it's almsot embarassing how grounding such a basic act can be.
It really is a good way to ground yourself, and the added benefit of saving a little money is always nice. I like how it makes the apartment feel more alive.
So much awesome stuff here Joe!
Of course I was drawn to the Jung section. Interesting how we "know" this - that other people's stuff is their stuff, not ours. "Four Agreements" being the pop cultur-ish version of this, plus all the social media memes. Yet in the moment, tamping down the evolutionary brain chemicals, social programming, and firing synapses can feel like a Herculean task.
Not taking things personally is the most important lesson I've found to living in (relative) mental peace. Huge timesaver too, the hours spent analyzing "what he/she really meant by that" and all the rest of the fictional noise. I remember the struggle of letting it go though, letting the theater of other people's stuff go up in smoke, can be like - "okay but now what do I do with all this time I spent building the theater??".
It's definitely not an easy thing to do, and I still struggle with it myself on bad days. The thing that honestly helped me the most was controlling my road raging. I was so bad at that. Now I'm calm as a cucumber. That translated over in a lot of areas in my life.
But yeah, the moment you realize and understand that other people's shit is other people's shit life gets much better.
Love this pragmatic take on apartment gardening as resistance against abstraction. The bit about scallions being infinite vegetables really captures how small acts of growing things create an anchor when everything else feels manufactured. Started doing this with basil last year and honestly forgot how satisfying it is to cook with soemthing that didn't travel across the country in refrigerated trucks. Dirt under fingernails being a reality check is dead-on tho, it's almsot embarassing how grounding such a basic act can be.
It really is a good way to ground yourself, and the added benefit of saving a little money is always nice. I like how it makes the apartment feel more alive.