Belly Button Lint

Feeling Lint-y?

Tag: mental health

  • Theme:

    The hero and the dark side

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    To be a hero is to encounter a system and learn through trials. The journey changes your consciousness.

    Joseph Campbell reminds us that the brain is a secondary organ. Leaning too heavily on one’s intellect is to separate oneself from nature and one’s humanity, effectively enslaving oneself. This is the “dark side,” which is powerful but stunts and warps us: it keeps us emotionally larval.

    The hero’s task is more difficult: they must recognize the system and maintain their humanity amidst pressures to be locked into a routine that the consciousness and body decry. Gradually, finding itself captured, the body will rebel against the will of the mind, forcing a schizophrenic split.

    The hero is the one who can maintain their humanity while guiding us through the system. The maverick (rebel) is one who rejects the system but has perhaps not found a way to sublate and reconcile the system with remaining human.

  • Theme:

    Mental health perspective

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    When you are happy mental health advice and practice seem unnecessary as you vigorously participate in the world.

    When you are struggling it becomes a profound life line.

    The advice is to continue the practice. Don’t believe that happiness signals a cure, it merely sits atop a foundation of firm habits.

  • Theme:

    Repeat daily snags

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    I don’t change my behavior; I keep wondering why the world isn’t working the way my perfect routine is mapped out.

    I keep hitting the same snags and think I am having a bad day.

    But I’m not thinking: I am not attending to reality, and it is confronting me in more and more painful ways.

  • Theme:

    feelings follow behavior

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    If you act depressed and tell yourself you’re depressed, you can manifest depression. To be happy and content, do the reverse: engage in the activities of satisfied and happy people.

    It is not easy, but it is simple.

    Oddly, we never want to acknowledge the simplicity of reality, instead demanding that we are somehow special and the world should bend around or acquiesce to our “being” rather than doing the consistent work of “becoming.”

  • Theme:

    Arts and fundamentalism

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    The artist comes from a mindset of plenty, while a fundamentalist sees society as a fallen place where the only path back to "the good" is through restriction.

    These two viewpoints are fundamentally opposed: you cannot have fundamentalist art.

    This is not to say that fundamentalists cannot be creative, but their creation is inverted into negation.

    from "the war of art" by Steven Pressfield

  • Theme:

    The news has become the looney bin

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    At one point the news was a sober lens from which we saw insanity in the outside world.

    Today the news produces itself, commenting on “minor nothings” with outrage while “major somethings” go unreported.

    The news does not report on crazy; they are crazy. For any reasonable person, this makes the news un-newsworthy.

  • Theme:

    Therapy work works

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    Therapy is talking to someone about your experience. This is why all forms of it work, up to a point.

    With psychoanalysis examining internal trauma or CBT reconsidering external stimuli, we pay for a personal relationship (trusted guide) or a training framework (tools) to review our plight.

    In many cases, this offloading and reflection alleviates us by reframing. But of course, we enter back into the world encountering more challenges.

    Humans used to get guidance from friends, family, and elders. Today, we have a professional class with pedigrees to handle our chaos.

    Is this commodification of our mental health and relationships, or is the world and life more complicated, requiring more advanced solutions?

  • Theme:

    Crazy is as

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    An old idea, but a good one: being crazy (or psychotic) is based on looking at a point of normalcy outside yourself, reflecting upon an internal point, and discerning how well you align.
    The difficulty is, when you are a sane person in a sick world, you must perform sickness to appear sane.

    And to go further: "You aren’t thinking or really existing unless you’re willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.” Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

  • Theme:

    Psychopathy and schizophrenia is reasonable responses

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    If your society rewards sociopathy (or psychopathy), it is reasonable to become antisocial, nonempathetic, and egotistical.
    Then why are we not all psychopaths? Social or familial values counter the destructive values of mercenary conquest.

    We divide our life, pushing for both worldly success and relational solidarity. If not assimilated (synthesized) the dueling pressure can produce a schizophrenic split, allowing you to be alternately psycho and nurturing.

  • Theme:

    therapy vs fetish / unconscious vs conscious

    , , ,

    °

    1–2 minutes

    The therapist helps you uncover your subconscious drives. The fetishist knows their drives and bypasses social normalization (productive socialization) to scratch their itch.
    The fetishist embraces libido over societal mores, which champions excessive difference without needing to understand the motivation.