Same Energy

Yes. Have YOU considered that sometimes working on hard things is both necessary and worthwhile?

Lessons of the Balance

Conclusions from Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke, MD

The relentless pursuit of pleasure (and avoidance of pain) leads to pain.

Recovery begins with abstinence.

Abstinence resets the brain’s reward pathway and with it our capacity to take joy in simpler pleasures.

Self-binding creates literal and metacognitive space between desire and consumption, a modern necessity in our dopamine-overloaded world.

Medications can restore homeostasis, but consider what we lose by medicating away our pain.

Pressing on the pain side resets our balance to the side of pleasure.

Beware of getting addicted to pain.

Radical honesty promotes awareness, enhances intimacy, and fosters a plenty mindset.

Prosocial shame affirms that we belong to the human tribe.

Instead of running away from the world, we can find escape by immersing ourselves in it.

Empathy without accountability is a shortsighted attempt to relieve suffering.

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke, MD

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but it is absolutely an example of civilizational inadequacy that only deaf people know ASL

“oh we shouldn’t teach children this language, it will only come in handy if they [checks notes] ever have to talk in a situation where it’s noisy or they need to be quiet”

You ever see a joke so good it kicks you out of your doomscrolling? Like yep, THAT was the dopamine I was looking for when I opened this app, I'm all set now

can't stop thinking about this

thoughts from another day 002

It’s all ephemeral and transitory and I feel unmoored and adrift with an overwhelming desire to be anchored and secure.

I feel like I’m swirling in this world of ideas and experiences, and I want to reach out and grasp them and capture the abstract with language. The expand and contract - get all of the thoughts and ideas into one place, and then break it down, organize it, understand it; and condense it back down to something cohesive.

But there are two many things there are too many things and ideas and people and complex interactions and relationships and how do you even begin to know where to start, how to start?

I feel like I’m being crushed

simple poem 004

I spend my hours doing neither what I should be doing nor what I’d like to. my eyes unfocus on the the task at hand my hand catches my heavy head as it pounds and sinks down under the waves bubbles slip from my lips as the depths suffocate me with darkness I am split by a screaming and thrashing for something to change and a hopeless, relieved resignation that this is how it always has been and this is how it always shall be

I went to see Everything, Everywhere, All At Once recently, and I genuinely think it’s my new favorite movie. It’s a fun, sci-fi adventure where the main character discovers she has the power to access the memories and skills of different versions of herself from other dimensions. But it’s also a story of family, love, and generational trauma, of depression and nihilism, but also of empathy, kindness, and the fullness of life. It was astoundingly beautiful, hilarious, and exciting.

10/10 highly recommend.

Genuinely useful and insightful. I think I've internalized a lot of these tips already as I've been actively working on getting better at small talk, but seeing it spelled out like this is hugely helpful.

One of the stranger things about training brand new nurses is explaining how to min max small talk. It feels very weird to coach people on how to chat.

[gripping the sink] perfectionism does not help me avoid embarrassment or shame. perfectionism is in itself a form of shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame