Thinking About Boundaries With Yourself & Karma
Weekly Wellbeing Zest #2 - The Most Unrecognised Wellbeing Articles On Substack
The title will always be a creative meshup of thematic aspects from the 5 articles for the week - so yes, sometimes a scrambled mess of my mind!
What is this?
This is a weekly summary of some of, what I consider, hidden gems, undervalued or simply not-so-obvious but remarkable articles that relate to our health and wellbeing. If you want to know more what this weekly “zest” is about, please check out the introduction of the first one here!
This is week 2 for the Weekly Wellbeing Zest (in no particular order of significance or preference):
Love & Karma by
(Dr Marcin’s category: social health)Almost like a “quick how-to” for new relationships, Yung summarises in three points how to be open minded when entering a new close/romantic relationship. Now, we all have heard or read the terms “keep an open mind” , “broaden your horizon” , “lower/cut your expectations” , “meet others where they are at” , or even “emotional intelligence” before. There is something more here, something more gentle and considerate, especially for others in our life. In this short but distinctive article there are some learnings that are pointing us towards the difference between feeling love and practicing love. You likely think you know what I am writing about here, but some of Yung’s soft, action oriented, and sensible wording will surprise you. As his 3 thoughts on what we rather need then want, or what we rather should give then take, are clearly for (romantic – but I think it applies well to at least friendships and/or closer family) relationships, these are generally great points about your attitude towards your social health capacity. I write this because I think if you at least start practicing (as he writes in his article about the value of even the beginnings of various qualities), you will see that capacity increase rather quickly.
Before good writing comes good thinking by
(Dr Marcin’s category: mental health)Rosie just had a short feature in a little round-up by some random company called
, but I was so impressed with her article on friendship that I kept reading. This particular piece has a certain conscious value for everyone – I think this is particularly due to the continuous intensification of our daily live through “faster, faster, faster” attitudes, and the pretentious “I am busy” hecticness. (Gee, I just made up so many words!). In my first article about the name of my motto and newsletter here, I was trying to quickly outline the loss of value behind just thinking. Taking your time. Allowing your “magic” brain to do its thing. The value of breaks. All the advanced work wellbeing stuff and so on. Rosie manages to put words to some of this much more punctuated that I could; particularly for writing. On top of that she makes one of the best remarks I have heard or read in recent years about how a slowed down life is maybe less convenient, but likely in the long-term heaps good for us (and our planet!). A short, succinct, but truly complete approach to a more sustainable life. Thanks Rosie.If you like thinking as much as I do, maybe you would like to join me on my Zen-Wellbeing fusion? If YES, please consider subscribing today:
18. Burnout and self-boundaries (on a Wednesday) by Susannah from
(Dr Marcin’s category: emotional health)I am learning to enjoy reading, as well as writing, a bit more personal “exposés” (I am sure I botched the usage of this word here, so please feel free to correct me). Susannah does an intricate job highlighting her own lack of boundaries – with herself! I think this lines up nicely with the end of the year, but is also a heartfelt reflection of how many of us lose sight of ourselves, because of (often “ostensibly”) the plethora of external influences in our lives. I definitely have been part of what of the overachiever club, even though nowadays I look at this a bit differently. Maybe we are not trying to overachieve, but are making up this predetermined and pre-planned excuse up for ourselves, so that it makes it easier to fail at anything , because you know…, look at all that stuff I have to do! At least I see that in myself a bit too often, and Susannah has given me pause to think about how I can keep that part of myself in check. Now, what is that Crown series she is talking about?
The Anti-New Year's Resolution Challenge by
(Dr Marcin’s category: spiritual health)If I would to break my own attitude for this Weekly Wellbeing Zest, and if I did give a personal highlight, preference, or best recommendation, it would be Satya’s writing this week. But I do not, so make sure to check out all the writers! By accident or by the powers off the recommendation magic/randomness, I got recommended her articles. She also happens to be a practitioner of Buddhism, which for an odd reason I never tried looking up here on Substack (until now). I guess this technically a good thing, right? I did not “sweep” the “market” for competition, analysis or something like that. Obviously she is like heaps more knowledgeable, advanced and wiser in the practices than I am. Her writing here also gives you the opportunity for not just introspection, but for considering the reverse situation of new year’s resolutions: what if you do not need to progress, change or adjust anything in your life? You will need to read her alluring article to get the idea why to do that, and how to do it. Make sure to also check our her writing on Gentle Buddhism.
So, you got any “plans” or so for this year? Or are you more looking at something more chill like Satya proposed? Let me know what it is in the comments!
As you know, everyone is an expert on the internet – and at home in your little town, large city or anywhere else where you regularly venture. Chris does a great job of highlighting how we do not need more advice, recommendations or guidelines – and humbles myself into making sure that I am not too preachy in my own writing. He joyfully, and with a delicate amount of sarcasm, pinpoints some examples of platonic advice that usually gets thrown around by the above mentioned experts. A lot of what he writes are to me just “platitudes” – really empty, soulless, big words, that sound great in their respective sentences, but that are kind if useless. To be fair, he explains that much better in his writing than I just did. Yet, the need for individualisation, personalised care, and just a bit more “we give a shit about you”, would be great to see in the future of health and wellbeing practices – and I personally think this applies to all areas of wellbeing, not just our mental health, which is way over hyped and too trendy right now.
Thank you so much to all the writers – even now rereading the articles and my notes has given me new insights, ideas and thoughts to dwell on.
would be hopefully slightly proud of my thinking first approach here.If you read all the way here, I would like to share:
It is a bit nuts that I have only just learned that some of the writers (not necessarily the one’s featured this week here) that I follow, read or subscribe to, are not just excellent in their writing here on Substack. One of them has gotten a Pulitzer Price in journalism. A couple have full-blown business outside of Substack that are not necessarily directly connected to their good writing here. Several of them have published books – and rather successfully! It is such a curiosity to me that this format is attracting this many backgrounds. In my own personal bubble I am seeing this almost as a refugee for people who are keen on personal writing and had enough of the overly automated, AI-generated and KPI driven world of other platforms. Writing is back?
References
Feel free to checkout references for all my articles in this document.
I used to say that content needed to be entertaining or educational. And my temptation was to lean towards creating educational content.
But I now agree with Guillebeau.
People need to be entertained and cared about more than they need to be educated. They'll learn by osmosis.