The Power of Boredom - Issue 2 - 27th March 2022

I want to talk about the power of boredom, space and capacity. Our constantly and ever-changing world moves at speeds that we cannot keep up with. Our minds were not built for staring at screens, communicating through technology and constant distractions. Our minds were built for running, hunting, true connection with other human beings in person, eating nutritious and healthy foods, being outside in nature and being within ourselves, in our minds, with little distractions. To repeat a question I have asked before: so what happens when we place these brains that were built for the above and place them in our modern world? Like I have said previously, we become fragile, lazy and timid but we are also so distracted and obsessed by screens and the content of them that we have lost meaning and purpose. We have forgotten what is truly important. We have traded our mental well-being for likes, retweets and the next car or handbag or pair of shoes to impress the other people glued to their screens. All of this just to prove that our lives have meaning, purpose and happiness. It’s ironic that this constant battle to prove that we have meaning is making our lives meaningless. Trying to find meaning on a screen is like trying to find your wallet whilst its in your hand. You had it along. You already have the capacity to find meaning and you don’t need a screen to find it.

What Is Productive Struggle? - Issue 1 - 20th March 2022

The idea of embracing struggle is not a new idea, Stoic philosophers such as Seneca and Marcus Aurelius wrote considerably about that very idea. Most of us humans have to fight our natural impulses and the pill of embracing struggle is a hard one for us to swallow. However, that is precisely what makes it worth swallowing. Those people we all know who are naturally stoic or who ace tests without any effort should not be admired. As Seneca said, he admires the person “who has won a victory over the meanness of his own nature, and has not gently led himself, but has wrestled his way, to wisdom.” We, as a culture, like to look at ultra successful people and see them as lucky. They were born into wealth or they were naturally gifted. This may be true of some but the majority of them worked their arses off to get where they are. The majority will have felt stuck and lost before they made their first thousand pounds. All of those who have progressed and become successful or who have found meaning and purpose had to face struggle and hardship and fight their natural impulses.