Category: Mental health

Mental health, Mindsets, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

In Defense of Positivity Culture

ianjolie

As the sort of meta-emotional-cultutal — idk, how to say — “vibe” sinks lower and lower, more and more people are turning to self-help, spirituality, and New Age ideas to cope. And with the rise of self-help, spirituality, New Age thought, etc., so too has risen criticism from the Left (and others), particularly around “positivity culture,” which is the idea that you should think positive and that by doing so you can improve your life through “the law of attraction” (similar internal thoughts/energies attract other similar thoughts/energies) and “manifestation” (internal thoughts can become your external reality). The criticisms of positivity … Continue reading In Defense of Positivity Culture

Mental health, PersonalLeave a comment

Thoughts on Being a Career Sell-Out

ianjolie

When I was in college, I was depressed. Maybe you might be able to relate with this. I would go to class, and do everything in my power to let the time pass by quicker: doodle, day-dream, zone-out. After class, I would go to the dining commons and eat as much unhealthy food as possible in order to numb myself, most of the time to the point where I would be in massive amounts of pain. Then, I would go back to my dorm room and watch hours and hours and hours and hours of Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and torrents. … Continue reading Thoughts on Being a Career Sell-Out

Mental health, Personal, PhilosophyLeave a comment

An Exposition on Mental Health & Organizing, Part 3: On Self-Worth, Authenticity, Organizing, and Existential Paradoxes

ianjolie

Summary of Previous Chapters PART 1: My Story In Part 1 of this series, I outlined my personal journey with mental health and organizing, concluding that using organizing to build my ego was an endlessly futile struggle, and that ultimately — if I continued on the path I was on — I was going to continue to feel more and more empty on the inside. Instead, I concluded that I needed to “try to derive happiness, self-worth, meaning, and social fullness totally from the inside.” In other words: I needed to stop basing my self-worth on organizing, and instead, learn … Continue reading An Exposition on Mental Health & Organizing, Part 3: On Self-Worth, Authenticity, Organizing, and Existential Paradoxes

Mental health, Mindsets, Philosophy, Social-emotional dynamicsLeave a comment

An Exposition on Mental Health & Organizing, Part 2: The Subtle Ways Your Soul Makes a Profound Impact

ianjolie

A month ago, I posted this:  An Exposition on Organizing & Mental Health, Part 1: My Story. There’s a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff in that post to unpack, but for now, I want to expand on this central idea: if you are using Left organizing to bolster your sense of self-worth, you will necessarily create a co-dependent relationship with Left organizing, since there will always be more campaigns to win, it will never be enough, and you will always still feel perpetually incomplete (as I’d found through many years of personal experience). Instead, if you learn to … Continue reading An Exposition on Mental Health & Organizing, Part 2: The Subtle Ways Your Soul Makes a Profound Impact

Mental health, PersonalLeave a comment

An Exposition on Organizing & Mental Health, Part 1: My Story

ianjolie

When I tell people today that I used to be an introvert with paralyzing social anxiety, people generally don’t believe me. They don’t believe me because it’s taken years for me to get to the point where I can (usually) talk with new people comfortably and with ease — from a place where stuttery 10-second “hello how are you” greetings could send me down a spiraling self-hating, socially anxious depression to a state where I joyfully talk with random workers every day for a living. My first year of college, when my social anxiety and depression were at its all-time … Continue reading An Exposition on Organizing & Mental Health, Part 1: My Story