Today, first of all, I would like to share with you the brooch I got on Vinted and I am just utterly obsessed with. I am a trinket lover through and through, and recently I’ve been trying to invest in more high-quality pieces.
Recently I came across the online discourse on materialism, about how there’s nothing wrong with it - how the need and talent to appreciate the material objects around us is actually an amazing skill. But the current market capitalizes on this precious ability, creating never-ending, insatiable need for more items, objects and stuff, with gradually declining quality. I’m currently reading “Sacred Economics” by Charles Eisenstein, and found there another interesting quote on the same topic:
A world without weapons, without McMansions in sprawling suburbs, without mountains of unnecessary packaging, without giant mechanized monofarms, without energy-hogging big-box stores, without electronic billboards, without endless piles of throwaway junk, without the overconsumption of consumer goods no one really needs is not an impoverished world. I disagree with those environmentalists who say we are going to have to make do with less. In fact, we are going to make do with more: more beauty, more community, more fulfillment, more art, more music, and material objects that are fewer in number but superior in utility and aesthetics. The cheap stuff that fills our lives today, however great its quantity, can only cheapen life.
Appreciating the things you have and supporting local artist is not a revolutionary concept but I feel like we tend to forget.
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Next thing on my mind has been Hitomi Mochizuki’s YouTube channel, especially this video:
For anyone who struggles with mental health, seeing the world through the positive lens, or even implementing radical acceptance is an everyday battle. I found Hitomi’s perspective and tips very useful. I wrote down a few things that I’ve been struggling to conceptualize, like this affirmation that she put into words so well:
Things that happen to me are not personal, if I had a weird exchange with someone, they are just not my people. The chemistry is off. It’s not a personal attack on me. There is nothing wrong in the moment, even if it feels shitty.
Another useful tip for dealing with crisis situations is practicing your own beliefs in the moment, for example: “don’t I believe that every feeling is a teacher, that everything is going to be okay?”. That’s why it’s so important to know your values, to regularly evaluate them, and actually practice what you preach.
The last thing that stood out for me in particular was the list of your needs and non-negotiables, that you can evaluate and use in decision making, similarly to the values/beliefs list. She gave examples like stable home, frequent connections to the nature, and friends that are mature and secure with themselves. This might seem like a trivial thought exercise but I couldn’t think of anything that would be a non-negotiable for me. I’ve been suppressing my needs and prioritizing other people’s comfort my whole life, and only this year I understood that my life is mine to live.
Realizing that I’m lacking in such basic concepts showed me how much work is still ahead of me but also that life can actually turn out to be worth living. We’ll see.
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And lastly, I would like to share this quote by Thích Nhất Hạnh, from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation:
Don’t do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work.
Hopefully this will find its use this weekend, as I will be, in fact, working.
I don’t know how this platform works yet, but subscribe to me please:
Bye bye.