Mirror Mirror

Was reading that people who complain a lot, say about other people’s fabulous movies not sticking verbatim to the book/poem, are responding from a cynical mindset.  Of course, reading something nowadays doesn’t make it any truer than watching it on YouTube, doubly so if you read it via AI, but the notion of cynicism as blocked creativity chimed.  I spend too much time complaining about complainers.  Ergo; it’s me who is stuck in a cynical mindset; am just recognising it in critical judgements of others.  (I believe this is called ‘a breakthrough’).  Have been here often enough to know that some compassion for self is required in these moments.  Given the apparent state of the world, it’s no wonder the mind seeks relief by loitering in these ‘compensatory control’ states of mind. 

Reading about Odysseus eating the lotus (i.e. pissing away years through apathy and too easy living), the YouTube algorithm – aka supernatural helper – brought some insight as to states of mind that get in the way of living life to the full; “the Cynical, Escapist and Perfectionist”.  Their resolution; “The Experimental Mindset”.

Why dick about with 300 words?  I thought it was about needing structure in my day, keeping the brain active.  Cynical for months, currently escapist, the lotus was stealing my life.  Now I see it as a pact, an experiment.  Not just about words.  It’s helping me to put the lotus down.  Sail home in 300 words.  Add, say fifteen minutes of experiments a week.  De-cluttering years of stuff perhaps.  No writing down big plans or outcomes, instead, a series of tiny experiments.  To see what happens.

Chronic complaining rewires the brain to expect the worst.  You really don’t want to go there in your early twenties, ending up incapable of enjoying the spicy variety of life. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aMHyUm5dcCc

https://nesslabs.com/newsletter/compensatory-control