Empathy Without Accountability Is A Shortsighted Attempt To Relieve Suffering.

I urge you to immerse yourself fully in the life that you've been given. To stop running from whatever you're trying to escape, and instead to stop, and turn, and face whatever it is. Then I dare you to walk toward it. In this way, the world may reveal itself to you as something magical and awe-inspiring that does not require escape. Instead, the world may become something worth paying attention to.

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

thoughts from another day 003

endless consumption leaves no room for thought or solitude or reflection or doing anything meaningful, no wonder I feel like a fucking waste of space. But even though I see this connection, I can't find it in myself to stop. 

(see also: behavioral addiction)

(also see also: reread dopamine nation 👀. also probably digital minimalism and relentless elimination of hurry)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

A gorgeous, aching love letter to stories, storytellers, and the doors they lead us through. Absolutely enchanting.

When I saw this book at the library, I picked it up off the shelf because I remembered someone telling me it was their favorite book they had ever read. But this quote above (that was on the back of the book) was what convinced me to check it out and take it home.

This book was absolutely gorgeous; one of the loveliest books I’ve ever read. The prose is flowing and poetic, wrapping you in the warmth of the beauty of written language. The plot is a story within a story that twist in and around and through itself in interesting and exciting ways. The main character is a girl who’s grown up with conditional privilege, and must now discover and learn what it means to be strong. It is a story full of love - not only romantic, but also of friendship and family.

10/10 absolutely recommend.

This, right here, is the moment that Dimension 20 hooked me.

In the split-second gap between the first and second halves of Murph’s question, you can almost see a switch flip in Brennan from giving an analytical, factual measurement to the spark of fully understanding the storytelling implications of Murph’s question. 

As I watched him realize that the best possible choice for this exact moment is for the butthole to be goblin sized, I began to truly understand the narrative power of DnD and everyone at that table.

Source: Fantasy High S1E2

Where I first heard about Dimension 20: this Nerdsync video

Honorable Mention: Gorgug asking people if they’re his dad

^^^ this one is what got me to start watching Dimension 20 in the first place, but the moment above is when I was truly hooked.

simple poem 001

I no longer fit within these walls for I have grown and stretched under a different sun and the confines of old spaces feel just so

thoughts from another day 004

wow, getting myself into community space, and seeing people living their lives and being kind and just being human is so good for my soul

He was a capped jug; the contents there for sure. Rain on the outside didn't stir the brew.

Ray Bradbury

from the short story: Powerhouse

simple poem 003

My head feels heavy and my body’s full of lead slowly poisoning itself and going mad I feel like I could sink my fingers into my skull, and rip out a piece, like a chunk of cake pull myself apart the pieces don’t quite fit as they are like a jigsaw forced into place where it doesn’t belong

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.

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