A friend of mine from Steemit wrote to me in Discord last night. They have been struggling a little lately and hit a kind of wall with their content. The main reason is stress. They are trying to live off of their Steemit earnings which means that each post payout holds more meaning to them than the post itself. This is a risky position in several ways but in one way it can prove fatal.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention but I see that paychecks are the killer of it. Once something becomes 'for the money', the tendency to start adapting for the return overrides the drive to push for the self actualization. It is a restrictive process that pulls creativity toward the averages that the group is willing to accept, it compromises the mind and limits its reach. Doing it for the money makes it a job, not a passion.
They asked me in discord for some advice and how I cope with the various stress factors. Well, I write. The last couple of years have been challenging in many ways on my family and myself and one of the things that has suffered very heavily is my various social interactions with people I am able to talk openly with. There are many things that I won't go into that has affected this.
Writing for me has been my mental cleansing, my way to come to terms with a whole range of thoughts, emotions and situations that influence me. This doesn't mean that I write about all of them, it doesn't mean that I pour every word my heart feels onto the page. What it means is that as I write, I have the time to think through these factors from a disconnected position and rather than be affected, I can't observe them.
It gives me a chance to explore my mind, shine lights into the corners, pick up what I find and turn it over and over to inspect it. It is the possibility to investigate what it really is, how it works and where it comes from in a quiet, unrushed, safe environment. It is a meditative, therapeutic and healing practice.
The topics I write about are influenced by this but, they are not necessarily about these things. Looking into the content may indicate who I am in some way, but not necessarily in a straight line process. People are told to write what they know and many take that as from an experiential topic perspective yet, maybe it is more from an emotional position where no matter the content, one tries to express or repress the feelings through the words.
Some people spend time in chats to make up for the conversations missing from the continually disconnected world but, this generally falls short of the mark as it often doesn't provide a space conducive to self-reflection. The conversations, no matter how deep the content, often move so fast nothing of value can be investigated before the next line of thought arrives.
The largest factor on depression as either a cause or a cure is social connection but we are increasingly withdrawing from society into our homes and behind our screens. We search for the intimacy of close relationships yet are unwilling to become close with others for we are also less likely to be comfortable becoming close with ourselves.
We live in a space of avoidance, one where there is always another show, game, movie, blog or news service to consume and we justify it by saying that it helps us learn or helps us de-stress. If anything, avoidance is the cause of the stress, not the treatment as avoidance takes away our opportunity and willingness to actually find the roots to our position.
For me, writing takes back control of my attention and empowers me to face the issues and circumstances I find myself in. It creates a massive amount of thought that flows into my awareness so I can pluck it from the stream and have a look. Not everything is of value and when I find the useless, I can consciously remove it. It also lets me dredge for all of those hidden bits of trash and treasure that have slowly fallen into the darkness.
Writing is a conversation with the self which is perhaps the most important conversation one can ever have and one that will only end after we take our last breath. Society and culture has so much pull on our attention that we have lost connection to that self-conversation and there are massive holes and gaps in the discussion.
It is often only when things are down and we are depressed and alone that the discussion is rejoined and at that point, it is a hard talk indeed. Perhaps we would all benefit if we disconnect a little and reconnect with who we are. I do this through my writing process.
What is your way?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]