Self-development

Eco-therapy

"Getting outside has a number of measurable physiological effects that can boost your mood. Your blood pressure drops, your resting heart rate drops, and the exercise boosts endorphins. Plus stress chemicals in the brain like cortisol drop and your sympathetic nervous system quiets down while ramping up your parasympathetic nervous system, and you get a nice dose of serotonin and dopamine. Outdoor activity can help with symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as help with overall stress relief and fighting fatigue. If you have memory issues due to depression, being outside can improve working memory. And here’s the thing–some of these effects can kick in as quickly as after ten minutes outside. You don’t necessarily have to be hiking or doing something else physically strenuous; sitting and enjoying what’s around you also gets you some of these benefits. If you’re unable to get outside, having a window with a view of a natural scene is beneficial, and if all else fails, even pictures of nature can help." --dkcissel on tumblr

The Psychology of Daily Routine

"Your habits create your mood, and your mood is a filter through which you experience your life. It would make sense to assume that moods are created from thoughts or stressors, things that crop up during the day and knock us off-kilter. This isn’t so. Psychologist Robert Thayer argues that moods are created by our habitualness: how much we sleep, how frequently we move, what we think, how often we think it, and so on. The point is that it’s not one thought that throws us into a tizzy: It’s the pattern of continually experiencing that thought that compounds its effect and makes it seem valid." "You feel content because routine consistently reaffirms a decision you already made. If said decision is that you want to write a book—and you commit to doing three pages each night for however long it takes to complete it—you affirm not only your choice to begin, but your ability to do it. It’s honestly the healthiest way to feel validated." --Brianna Wiest, 101 essays that will change the way you think

Observations on Convienance Culture

Convenience culture is damaging to us. You don’t open a book and expect the answer to be on the first page. It's a journey to reach the message. Most of your joy is derived from the process it takes to get there, and learning to achieve something rather than just having it handed to you. I believe I am swamped with the quick-fix curse of being catered to by a digital society, and it has been detrimental to me. Art is not for the consumer, products are. Art is an expression of the artist– it either resonates with you as the audience or it doesn't. Amazon, doordash, and google searches, are all examples of convenient crutches. But they deprive us of working for the outcome and the answers ourselves. Immediate gratification robs us of the satisfaction of earning and learning something. Frozen meals vs cooking for example. Sometimes enjoyment is earned and takes a certain level of commitment. In the video 'convienance culture is killing our creative impulses' anna howard said, “Don't always expect things to immediately gratify or fulfill you, or else you might miss something great.” she also said, “Art is not only the ultimate playground, but the place to set up your values and move through them.”

Zahra of The Mazaj Substack writes in their article titled ‘They convinced you to love yourself so you’d forget to respect yourself’ that “We don’t often think of ourselves as an audience or a spectator to our choices, but we are. Every decision we make is witnessed by the quiet observer within us—the part of ourselves that knows when we have honored our word or betrayed it. This internal witness does not judge with fleeting emotions or external standards; it registers, with quiet certainty, whether we are living in alignment with our values or falling short of them. Over time, these observations accumulate, shaping how we see ourselves. When we consistently follow through on our commitments, no matter how small, we reinforce a sense of integrity. Conversely, when we repeatedly neglect our own promises, we erode our self-respect, fostering guilt, disappointment, and a low self-esteem.”

This article addresses the fact that through a means of ignorant self-love, we may accept our flaws regardless of if they are detrimental to us, but by developing self-respect, we develop the ability to regularly keep ourselves accountable to progress and evolve through acts of devotion to our desires and values. When we erode our beliefs in ourselves with the crutch of convenience culture, we are neglecting our ability for transformation and growth. It is more productive and gratifying to learn how to cook then to always eat out or warm up frozen meals. It is more beneficial to start exercising then to feed into your laziness and lack of self-belief that you can do it by just sitting around. It is challenging, yes, but in the end the reward will be worth the effort. Putting in the effort isn’t about securing praise, it’s about developing skills and habits that will be beneficial for you in the long run, and it is ultimately for yourself over anyone else. This is how you progress in life. Without it, you will be too comfortable in your stagnancy that nothing changes. Zahra of The Mazaj also states “the things we do when no one else is watching—these define our relationship with ourselves far more than anything external ever could.”

The Ego vs The Higher Self