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 ]
Yessss!!! This!!!! "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."
This is exactly why I write!!! And thank you for helping reset my inner compass to write for me...not for money!!!! Aloha!!! Followed and resteemed!!!
Glad to help :)
Writing for many is a fuel, yesterday I read a person say that music encouraged them, it was like their fuel, there is an inspiration for each one of us, an engine that allows us to empty our minds of so many things we live daily.... steemit came into my life to change it, entering my session is like entering a bubble outside of reality that allows me to get out of the pressures, maybe my way is not writing, but for now I enjoy reading and interacting in each of the posts I read... thank you for sharing your experiences.
Excuse my English, I use a translator.
I think that in the long run, everyone who truly searches finds their place but most people spend so much time trying to find their place with other people's dreams.
if we have the clear objective we will surely find it.... the bad thing is what you say, many get lost in things that do not work for them, thank you for your kind comment
Sure... I tell you how I deal with my inner conflict... you tell others, and soon we are surrounded by well adjusted folk humming a happy tune. What kind of world would that be?
Ok... I listen to and create music.
surrounded by well adjusted people does potentially make life a little dull and this is why one should also practice poking the bear now and again. That may or may not actually be the title of an upcoming post ;)
Hi @tarazkp When I'm stressed I can only be pensive and often crying myself because of annoyance, no smile on my face at that time .. You are very clever to deal with stress on yourself .. Your post gives me a lesson that we can control our stress with other activities that useful as you do .. Thank you for opening my eyes with your post
I also write but I think in a slightly different way. It took a lot of doing but I convinced myself that when things get on top of me I should just write my thoughts in something similar to a diary, though it's a diary I never intend to look back on if I feel I couldn't face what happened or my thoughts of the past, which are sometimes, as you described, trash.
If one day I feel I can look back and be fine, I might, though I'd be just as content binning the book and never looking back. The past is the past, if I can look back and learn, that's fine. If I need to leave it behind then perhaps leaving the past behind is the lesson.
Not a bad way to go. If we think that our thoughts and emotions of the moment dictate our action but those thoughts and emotions may not actually be conducive to good action, taking a step back for review can catch them before action begins (or goes to far). Bite the tongue, clear the head, so to speak. Once the emotions have past, why revisit them?
Exactly, the idea actually came from an old colleague who was a soldier. When we got to know each other I asked him how he coped after combat, arguably one of the most physically and mentally stressful things I can imagine. He simply said
"I left all those emotions out there."
Admirable if you can manage to do that, it really does show that different things work for different people.
Everyone needs to find their own path but too many people believe they have 'tried' when in actual fact they followed other's paths.
So you are saying the writer should write for himself and not for his readers?
Depends on the author and what they write about. If you are writing stories and thoughts, I want to read the author, not some form from a writing class.
It is important to self-reflect , question oneself , Evaluate see where you stand . Have your own opinion .
In today's modern world this is done for us . We are bombarded on how to think , what to buy , eat , what to wear and even what to say . There's no need to think that's being done for us . Just conform and everything will be OK , so we are taught .
It is because of this continual stream of engineered and agenda'd nonsense that people have lost their creativity.
Its like a box of chocolate . they just keep eating and eating . good lord move away from the trough .
Feel bad for them. You just don't know what pressure people are under. There has to be a want to write and not a must. The pen must just flow as they say. We wrote about this the other day. Man walking the dog and circumstances with robots etc. i am sorry to hear this and hope everything comes right for them.
they are a very talented writer and I hope they will get it sorted out.
As someone that used to write all the time, I found it interesting that I had zero desire to do that here.
I opted to go for video content, which was a completely new realm for me.
I've fallen in love with it and hope to continue to expand on here utilizing this format.
It makes the "job" feeling disappear for me.
It's great when you can earn while doing something you love.
I haven't tried it here yet but I may at some point. For my actual job however, I train people face to face so adding a camera doesn't change much from my day work. As much as I do actually enjoy my job, if I could write more and 'work' a little less I would but it would be difference of liking by degrees. Having said that, if I could teach without all the business paperwork, I would be quite content too :)
Prior to steemit, I hadn't tried it before either.
I'm glad I did though.
I saw an opportunity to try something new and bring (what I think anyway) a type of content that is almost non existent here.
So far so good.
Yeah, I think you have been received well here which is great. It is nice to see variation in the content.
It'll be nice when I've reached a large enough audience that I don't have to use "advertising" anymore.
The support for the show is rapidly growing though, so hopefully it won't take long.
You are my muse today, when I'm bereft of any creative thought in my head..
https://steemit.com/blog/@lucylin/i-m-in-a-strange-mood-part-2
I had a read :) Muse makes it sound like you painted me naked ;)
lol - I'm not telling you what was in my head! lmao