GREAT news, guys: it’s almost October, which means it’s almost November, which means it’s basically time for a CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!!
Here’s what we got in this edition:
🤔 A thought I’m processing [on phone usage]
💕 A thought I’m loving [on pain]
🗳️ A poll [on what you want to read next]
🔗 Some link love
📆 A full recap & links to this past month’s posts
🤔 A thought I’m processing [on phone usage]
Guys, a week or so ago, I downloaded an app to help me manage phone usage (because EVERYONE knows that the time limits your phone sets for certain apps do nothing).
When I downloaded this app, it asked me how much time I spend on my phone each day. I *obviously* gave it a number that was much lower than the reality. And it responded telling me that if I kept using that much time, I would spend 17 years of my life on my phone.
17 YEARS OF MY LIFE.
Can you believe that? In these short, precious lives, we waste YEARS of them looking at a screen in our hands.
If you spend an hour of your day on your phone - (which I imagine you don’t, go check your stats on your phone by searching screen time) - then you spend about 30 waking days PER YEAR looking at your phone.
Guys.
We can’t do this.
Like, for real.
That is the end.
💕 A thought I’m loving [on pain]
I was listening to a TedTalk from a neurosurgeon describing the out-of-the-box ways she is learning to manage pain for her patients, and in the middle of it she said this:
“Pain is every organism's primary learning system for survival” - Amy Baxter
It’s so simple but so profound. We spend so much of our lives trying to resist pain, the primary thing that keeps us alive.
I don’t know if it was always this way, or if our tolerance for pain is uniquely terrible in western society. We basically have created an entire economy around distracting people from pain signals.
Next time something hurts, emotionally or physically, maybe just take a breath to thank your body for the ways it learns and adapts and communicates.
🗳️ A poll on [what you want to read about next]
Now that my dissertation/thesis is TURNED IN 💪 it’s time to catch up on the drafts in my substack folder. Which of these things are you interested in hearing about this month?
🔗Some link love
A poem for someone juggling their life
A nice quote on grief
THIS: My Junior English teacher told me to edit by hand because it activates something differently in your mind, and now science says she WAS RIGHT
Some sad news from today for the Broadway world
My most played song this month
📆 What you missed recently
Below are some links to thoughts I’ve shared this past couple of months! (Please note that some of my messier thoughts and musings are behind a paywall. You can read more about why I do that here, and feel free to upgrade your subscription to access them.)
Welp, I’m back - feelings about turning in my thesis
Values & Behaviors & Goals - I think you can guess what this is about
Values to behaviors - you actually WON’T be able to guess what this one is about. It’s about how values get exploited in controlling environments
You can take the church out of the narcissist, but you can't take the narcissist out of the church - some Mars Hill and thesis thoughts