Archive of Interest

This is my new blog exclusively about me screaming about my interests.This is a discourse and hate free zone, and fact checking is encouraged, ‘cause I love learning! (But please be nice about it, hate will be blocked). I may or may not cite my sources, but i will if asked.

[stuckinapril]

I think part of getting better is complete ego death. Like you’re not above setting a timer for 5 minutes and focusing on a task. You’re not above doing a very simple 3 minute workout to start. You’re not above reading for 10 minutes a day when you first get out of your reading slump, even if you used to read for hours. You’re not above starting slow and then building up to where you want to be/where you once were. What you are above is total inertia. Doing something really is better than doing nothing. Radically accept where you are, radically accept your limits, and go from there. Don’t let your ego get in the way.

[stuckinapril]

“Do it scared” “do it alone” are all great tips, but my biggest takeaway from therapy is do it messy. This is especially true if you’re getting out of a burnout, which I experience often. Literally just do it messy. You don’t need to pick the perfect trail to walk, the perfect playlist to listen to, whatever the fuck it is. You don’t need to have a meticulous to do list and wake up at the exact time you planned and drink the exact amount of water you planned to drink. Like the biggest thing for people like me to remember is sometimes it’s okay to do it messy. Put on a random yt workout and just get it done in sweats. Do 5 minutes of a daunting task and go from there. Sometimes just getting up is a win during intense burnouts or depressive funks. Literally just do it messy.

[rowlfthedog]

[anxeious]

[sea-mists]

literally though if you feel like your life is slipping through your fingers and every day goes too fast… try doing hard things, not just taking the easy route, like reading and making art and exercising and cooking a meal from scratch and journaling, doing these things without distraction, without being absorbed on a screen… the time will stretch and you’ll be reminded that life is long and beautiful if you make it so.

[queriesntheories]

Reblogging this with these tags because oh my goodness

To the person I reblogged this from THANK YOU i am now going to stick this on my pinboard where I’m gonna see it every single day

“Life is long and beautiful if you make it so”

[rthwrms]

HOW TO START (2026)

[bugdotpng]

image transcriptions under the cut

How to Start by rthwrms

for the times when you really truly want to do something, but find resistance or that starting feels impossible

most helpful action to get into a task is: look at it options include: review what you've already done open the tab on screen blur your eyes at first if that helps fullscreen the image browse or skim relevant texts let your gaze move around how it will JUST...LOOK!!!

Your brain has resistance towards starting the particular project in the way that you've previously conceived of it. Instead of fighting that resistance, try to change your approach to starting your work. Ie, start with colored pencils on a piece you were doing in gouache, include a new stitch in a crochet piece, Step one: identify the process Step two: identify places where something new can be included Step three: brainstorm new options to fill these spots Step four: select one or more options and try your piece from this new angle

encourage yourself by asking questions start with: "What am I actually trying to do right now?" then try: "What would this look like if it were more fun?" "How would I do it if anything was possible?"

divide into discrete tasks make the closest or shiniest one literally as small & specific as freaking possible

image text: I BELIEVE IN YOU screenshot text: The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. W.B. Yeats (via billowy)

there is a window now there is a door

// end post transcription

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

I know people don't like having the blindingly obvious suggested to them but the following do have to regularly be said to people I know so:

Have you tried turning it off and then on again?

Is it plugged in properly?

What does the manual say?

You can probably Google that

Have you eaten?

I know you remember making the food but did you actually eat it?

Well do it sitting down then

You're probably having a reaction to one of the ingredients, read the label and see if there's anything in there that you recognise

Okay did you actually tell him that? With your mouth? Using words?

The painkillers only work if you take them

Cool had has self-flagellating actually made this work before or?

Yeah okay you 'must remember to' but you remember to NOW so do it NOW

Put it in your fucking calendar

Do you want me to show you how to set up reminders

So use BOTH hands then

... the suggestions of the blindingly obvious will continue until people demonstrate consistently that they don't need it.

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

did you take your fucking meds

[imrix]

Speaking as a former teacher, people have a way of ignoring the obvious answers, because they're obvious. The mind has a way of going, "a problem this big can't be that simple, there's gotta be more to it."

Which is to say,

did you drink water lately?

[annabelle--cane]

I think a lot of people spent their childhoods being very deliberately forced out of their comfort zones by parents / teachers / whomever in a way that was just deeply unpleasant and degrading and so, when they reach young adulthood and are finally allowed real control over their lives, become set on only doing things they know they're comfortable with forever. that's a really important thing to be able to do, especially if you're so used to having your boundaries routinely ignored that you aren't even certain what you like vs what you can bear, so I absolutely see why a person would have a negative reaction to being told that discomfort is good: it can very easily sound like being told that all that work they've been doing to prioritze their needs for the first time ever is Bad and Selfish, actually. and to that I will say two things:

one: as long as you aren't hurting or, like, being a dick to anyone, just staying in your comfort zone isn't an immoral action. if you just want to read one type of book (or just fanfiction), or just eat one type of food, or just watch one type of movie, or not go to new types of social events, you aren't being a bad person for that, and if people say that, they are soundly wrong and just trying to get a self-righteousness kick.

two: trying new things because you want to expand yourself feels a hell of a lot different than trying new things because you're being forced to. you'll feel better about trying new foods if you know you have a back up familiar one in case you can't stomach the new one, it's easier to read new books if you can experiment with audio versions or reading it in little five-page chunks by yourself, you can breathe a lot easier going somewhere new if you aren't chained there for three hours because your parent is your ride home, etc.

tl;dr: new things are good. I get why you might not want to try new things, and that's fine, but it's also more comfortable to try new things as an adult with your own agency so, yeah, what have you got to lose by trying a weird old art film?

[chaoticneutralnpc]

one thing I’ll add: the secret hack for learning to do new things when you weren’t allowed to have boundaries as a kid is 1) always give yourself an out, and 2) practice using them LIBERALLY.

Trying a new food? You can stop at a single bite. Bored at the cinema? You can walk out mid-movie. Really want to go to a friend’s party but you’re also exhausted? You can plan on just going for 30 minutes, and you can leave even sooner if that ends up being too long.

The more you practice using outs liberally, the more you reinforce to your body that you are capable of protecting yourself.

I only started being able to go to weekly activites consistently once I started giving myself an out at every step. i.e:

- I’ve gotten ready and then not left the house

- I’ve driven there and then driven straight back

- I’ve left halfway through lessons

- I’ve modified or plain skipped the exercises that were flaring my POTS, or making me feel dysphoric, or that I just didn’t feel like doing that day.

The result? I’ve attended the most sessions out of any weekly hobby I’ve tried to do for the past several years. And it’s actually getting a little easier every week.

[parkchanwoohoo]

Once you start noticing how the incapacity to handle discomfort affects how people live their lives it's actually pretty shocking how it ruins pretty much every conceivable aspect of existence. Interpersonal relationships, romantic and platonic. Career and education opportunities. Your politics Your willingness to go anywhere. The kind of food you eat. The kind of art you expose yourself to and your ability to read it. It's never just one thing, it touches everything, and once you notice it it's like suddenly being able to see germs or something. Just this horrific catastrophe people look at you askance for screaming about. As I grow older and see what became of my friends and peers who could not learn to handle discomfort, the more I'm like. This is a genuine societal issue

[parkchanwoohoo]

When you can't handle discomfort, eventually discomfort itself starts to feel like you're under attack. Your body enters flight or fight mode, and your amygdala starts screaming at you that you are In Danger even when the "danger" in question is like, making an unpleasant phone call or like, you're reading a book about something gross.

Your ability to make frank assessments about your situation becomes compromised, because, well, when you're under attack who's going to stay still and go "Let me think this through?" Of course you're going to panic. The phone call isn't just unpleasant, it's potentially life-ruining. Someone is going to think you're dumb and that's going to be TRUE and then I guess you die or something except dying would be better. The book isn't just gross, it's actively coming for you, tainting your mind with the memory of its contents, it has RUINED you.

Obviously, you want to try avoiding danger whenever possible. So you create a world in which you avoid all dangerous things. Traveling? Well that's scary, what if you get robbed or lost? Better to avoid it (plus there are so many things to read, rules to remember, forms to fill out... it's just too much, it makes you uncomfortable, which means YOU'RE IN DANGER, what if you FORGET SOMETHING CRITICAL? Better to avoid). A new job? Well what if it's worse than your current one? You at least know the rules here. The unknown is so much more uncomfortable, which is DANGEROUS, so better to stay where you are. A dark-skinned foreigner? Do they even speak English? You don't know how you'd communicate. They don't know the laws here, surely? Plus what if other people think you're racist? It's so uncomfortable which means THEY ARE A DANGER. Best to avoid at all costs, keeping your bag clutched tightly to your chest. Vaccines? You don't really know what's in them. The explanations have a lot of words you don't understand. That makes you feel suspicious and dumb, which is DANGEROUS. You said something that was kind of rude? UNCOMFORTABLE. THIS PERSON IS ATTACKING YOU. FIGHT OR FLIGHT. Someone says you were incorrect about something? DANGER. Someone says you reacted impulsively and seem to have misconstrued someone's words as a personal attack? YET ANOTHER ATTACK.

Eventually you lose yourself and become this. I don't even know. This totally reactive thing, unable to think analytically about anything (which is uncomfortable and a danger), unable to assess harms, unable to encounter anything new without having a meltdown. And none of it is a real escape because, well, you've created a life defined entirely by aversion to discomfort, which is the most uncomfortable life you can possibly imagine. Of course such people end up falling into fascist ideas about Why Your Life Sucks. When you build a life around trying to maintain as comfortable an equilibrium as possible, you cauterize the parts of you capable of growth, expansion, creativity, learning; at the same time, the knowledge of your own stuntedness is haunting so best not to think about that either. The world becomes this horrifying mirror maze where the only way to survive without offing yourself is by projecting your flaws onto others, bitterly externalizing your self-hatred (who could live like this and NOT hate themselves) just to avoid turning it inward. You end up living like a hollowed-out sea urchin

A lot of people I've met seem to think that mental healthiness is characterized by a lack of discomfort whatsoever, and are therefore justified in building a life where all discomforts can be avoided. On the one hand, I completely understand the impulse. Lord knows I have had colossally shitty times and wished I could just retreat into bed and fall asleep for as long as needed for everything to blow over. But like. You also have to understand that that's a fantasy, not a solution. When you have grown up living a crap life with nothing but discomfort, the ability to avoid it feels like exercising autonomy. But you really do have to be careful about making this your life ethos. I know so many people who have lapsed into total learned helplessness, so consumed by discomfort (mentally catastrophized into dangers) re: looking dumb, looking rude, looking X, looking Y that they just. Idk. Don't do anything except be bitter. You don't have to be that way. The solution isn't "tough it out" because that's also just a manifestation of your inability to handle discomfort. I also hesitate to say the solution is to focus on how much better your life will be when you do X and Y, because the entire point of the inability to handle discomfort is that it constantly manifests in precluding the possibility of even wanting X and Y in the first place since to want it and not be able to do it IS in itself another source of discomfort.

Idk what the solution is, exactly. I just think it's important to understand that sometimes things can feel awful and still not necessarily harm you

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids, 

Having fun is a valid goal in life. 

This may feel intuitively right or absolutely wrong, depending on the values and beliefs you were brought up with. You may especially struggle with this idea if you were taught (even indirectly) that enjoying your life is a sign that you’re selfish. 

This is something that (not only but especially) girls or people socialized as girls may be taught: you need to prioritize other people’s needs over your own, in order to live a good life. Your happiness should be entirely dependent on your parents, your younger siblings, your partner, your kids being happy. Your fulfillment lies in being their caretaker, therapist, helper - and so it can be measured in your tiredness, your overwhelm, your burnout. Having fun or enjoying life is a sign that you’re not suffering enough for your loved ones. 

This, of course, falls into the category of beliefs that even people who have them would rarely consciously sign off on - those thoughts may not be loud or on the forefront of their minds. In fact, all they may notice is that they feel guilty or anxious when they’re „too happy“.

If you relate to this, then this may show up when you think about life goals in general - but it may also show up in identity related stuff. 

You may struggle to come up with any personal goals at all (because, deep down, you feel like that alone is already selfish or that you need to „stay flexible“ to adapt to other people’s goals). On the other hand, you may also set a long list of strict goals for yourself but none of them feel good (because they are not truly your goals - they’re just what you believe others expect you to do or what a „good person“ needs to do). 

And when it comes to identity stuff, you may be someone who „does not make a big deal out of it“ - not because you genuinely don’t care but because you so desperately don’t want to be a burden or inconvenience on others. So you don’t allow yourself to even think about that thing (whether hormone therapy would make you happier, if you’d feel better if you told your best friend that you’re a lesbian, if you’d actually have fun in bed if you allowed yourself to be curious about that one fantasy in the back of your mind etc.) - because you can survive without doing that. You can live a life without it. Maybe you’d live a happier life with it, but is that really worth the effort? 

Yes. Yes, it is. 

First of all: Even if we do say that loving others or taking care of others is most important in life - happiness is what enables you to sustainably do that! 

Self-sacrifice sounds so noble, but really, it usually ends with you being unable to help anyone. You can not give, give, give without ending up empty. People who are overloaded, depressed, burned out, are not the ones who are especially good friends, partners, parents - they can not be. They do not have the energy for that. So, even if your genuine purpose in life was only taking care of your loved ones, you’d shoot yourself in the foot by not taking care of yourself. 

Im telling you this because that caretaking mindset is not easy to shake off and I may lose you if I immediately jump to „Happiness doesn’t need to be a secondary goal, it can be your primary goal“. If that feels too big of a jump for now, that’s okay - for now you can just work on reminding yourself that your happiness is a prerequisite to you taking care of others well. 

But if you’re ready for that jump, here goes: You are allowed to be your own loved one. 

You are a human being. In fact, you are the human being you’ll spend the most time with during your life. It’s not only okay to want to make that human being feel good, too - it’s normal.

You’re fully allowed to go „hey, I want this because it will improve one persons life: my own“. You gotta make your own life enjoyable - you live in there! 

With all my love, 

Your Tumblr Dad 

[doodleoo]

what you learn from hobbies:

consistent practice opens up whole worlds of skill that you couldn't imagine

making mistakes in the process of learning is not only natural, it is also essential

activities that you enjoy can give you more energy back than you spent on them

wow everything is so expensive

[doodleoo]

my hands hurt

[ruinedchildhood]

[jackhawksmoor]

[kuttithevangu]

Instead of doomscrolling lately I have been reading my PDFs and it turns out if you do this you learn a whole bunch of stuff. I’m afraid I must recommend it

[100493503004422]

refusal to participate due to self consciousness is actually more embarrassing than participating. it took me a very long time to figure that out. abject fear of embarrassment is actually causing you to do things that are more embarrassing than what you fear. you are gonna be embarrassed anyway. let go and be free

[corvid-language-library]

Remember that if you want to do more of something, you have to do less of something else. It's that time of year where people set goals for the new year and they have plans and hopes and it's always focusing on what they want to do more of. More studying, more exercise, more crafting, more socialising, more making things from scratch. Okay, great. What are you going to do less of in order to have the time and energy to do more of those things you really want to do?

[corvid-language-library]

And if your answer to this is "less doomscrolling" or "less bedrotting" then great, but please think about why you're doing those things. No one's doomscrolling or bedrotting because they don't have things they'd rather be doing. Actually, I'm willing to bet you have a lot of things you'd rather be doing and you spend your life internally screaming at yourself to do literally any one of the many things you want to be doing instead, but you don't have the energy for them all and you can't work out how to prioritize them, so doomscrolling spares you from making that decision. Or perhaps you're burned out from taking on too many projects and you need to rest your brain, so you lie in bed because you don't even have the energy to get started anymore.

This is going to be a really hard pill to swallow, but the truth is you might not be able to balance all your hobbies and all your projects the way you'd like. If you want to finish writing that book, you might have to reduce your daily drawing habit to a couple of times a week. If you want to do yoga every morning, you might have to accept not cooking from scratch as often. If you want to spend more time with your family, you might have to cut down on your yearly reading goal. I'm not saying give up on your hobbies; I'm be realistic with your time and your energy and be kind to yourself. Stop expecting yourself to do more and do better every single year. You don't have to constantly be growing upwards and reaching for the stars; you can be content with where you are, or even cut parts of yourself back to make space for other things in your life to bloom.

Think about what your priorities are and make peace with doing less of other things. Less is okay. Less is not failing. Less is self care.

[homunculus-argument]

General rules to live by:

You gotta be tough if you're gonna be stupid. You can do stupid shit all you want but you're not going to avoid suffering consequences.

If you can't be tough, you gotta be nice. People can forgive a lot of stupidity if you're polite about it and pleasant to be around.

You can't tell whether you're stupid or not. There is literally no way to know in advance, for absolute certainty, whether the thing you're just about to do is genius or stupid before it either splendidly succeeds or blows up in your face.

[penny-anna]

I've got to ask re: the strategy of adding something to all your WIPs every month which is how do you keep motivated to do that??? Because I'm genuinely considering adopting it cos I've. Quite a Lot. But motivation is one of the main problems behind most of it and sometimes I just find it too daunting. Do you just have to push on through?

so what works for me is at the beginning of the month i make a physical to-do list and stick it up on my notice board and psychologically if something is on a physical to-do list i am just massively more likely to do it. i have been doing this for over a year now and have never failed to do at least the bare minimum of List Items so now i have the added motivation of not wanting to ruin my streak.

in short i guess i just have a very particular kind of Brain Worms so this probably not replicable for other people