Let's get cracking!
Today I’m loving this video called How Trying Became Cool Again by Nathan Zed. It’s about 10 minutes long, so it does require a tiny bit of an attention span. (Thanks to Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad for this one - love his weekly roundup for fun stuff.)
Watching this reminded me that while too much of life has become same-same, there’s a potently valid reason everyone stopped trying hard. During and immediately post The Pandemic, we realized that we were TIRED. We realized that we were anxious.
We realized that we all need to rest!
As sometimes happens, of course, some of us went a little overboard. Yes, rest is necessary, bring on the online solitaire and prestige tv and yoga pants. But I've got a sneaking suspicion that many of us started to conflate overwork with anxiety.
Or maybe it's just me?
I've been digging deep lately, trying to discover what triggers some of my less fun attributes. (And trying to avoid the word 'journey'?) I've come to the conclusion that I'm living in a low level stew of anxiety most of the time. I'm guessing I'm not alone.
It's not surprising that I adopted what I considered restful practices. It seemed like the cure, but it's not.
Because the antidote to anxiety is not inaction - far from it. Turns out the cure for anxiety is listening to your body, determining where some of this %$&* originates, and consistently soothing your nervous system.
And then doing stuff that makes you happy.
Which might include, but is not limited to, lying around thinking about how much rest you need.
Back to the aforementioned video. It reminded me that less is often simply less, and might not be worth pursuing. And that there's a difference between working hard at a thing that brings you joy or fascination or acclaim or whatever it is you seek, and spinning on a hamster wheel looking for more, more, more.
And that some things never change - an attitude of indifference has long been associated with being cool. This is not the purview of The Youth, it's been around for decades at least.
It also made me recognize that life in a blanket is not a delicious vacation. It's muffling your voice, ignoring your desires, giving in to entropy.
Yay to trying hard and then resting, like, REALLY resting, not just numbing the ever-present stress.
Here are some of the things I’m putting a lot of effort into:
- Writing. Lots of words in lots of places. I love writing more than most things, and while it’s not always easy it’s just about permanently worthwhile.
- Taking care of my mortal layout - i.e. brain, body, spirit, humors, ectoplasm, etc.
- Gardening gardening gardening. I sometimes feel that most of my interactions with nature involve trying to tame it, but, well, whatever.
- Being a high quality human.
Feels like those are enough to keep me pretty damned busy, and then of course there’s the recharging in between those and then my day job and all the other things one must do to stay afloat in the world. I’m here for it!
I’m curious - what are you putting your best effort into? Let me know so I can cheer you on!
Ok, love you, bye!
Julia
Recommendation!
Here's a young woman who's been trying for a long time and finally got her flowers in the most prestigious way possible! She's only the third woman to win the Grammy for best rap album, and is doing rap in a way you rarely hear from a woman.
Happy International Women's Day!
(And yes, that exists, regardless of what the current administration, Apple and Google would like you to believe.) YOU CAN'T STOP US.
Andrea True knows that more can also be more, and so does this email. Forward it to someone who's not afraid of being called a Try Hard.