Does anybody need a pick me up?
How’s your 2024 so far? Still keeping up with the resolutions and vision boards? Or are you like me and just about ready to throw the towel in? It’s crazy how 4 months can break you down and lift you up at the same time. Life just keeps on ‘life-ing’ and the headlines don’t get any brighter. But it’s the small things you’re doing that make you a winner. The fact that you woke up today is a triumph in and of itself. Take it easy.
Easier said than done, I know, but hopefully these uplifting quotes from some of the TV shows I’ve been watching lately can help.
Blue Eye Samurai
“An artist gives all they have to the art, the whole. Your strengths and deficiencies, your loves and your shames… There may be a demon in you, but there is more. If you do not invite the whole, the demon takes 2 chairs and your art will suffer.”
– Master Eiji Season 1 Episode 7, “Nothing Broken”
As a writer and a poet, this hits me right in the gut. Most of the poetry I write is downright depressing. The stuff I share with others is almost always the “lite” version of the real mental turmoil I go through when I sit down to write. It’s cathartic to verbalize or even attempt to verbalize my mess of emotions into poetry, but I’m learning that sometimes leaning too much into the pain can have the opposite effect. I end up wearing that pain like a chain around my neck to the point that it spills over into my everyday interactions with people.
My demons are some of my biggest inspirations, but I can’t live my life feeling like a broken piece of shit. I have to remember that alongside all the darkness within me, there is also so much light waiting to be revealed. I’m learning to embrace the light as well as the dark.
Fright Krewe
“Sometimes the monsters are out there, and sometimes they’re in here [inside you]. Be strong enough to face them all.”
– Ogun The Warrior Spirit Season 1 Episode 3, “The Craving”
I sometimes get caught up in my power fantasies after scrolling through news headlines. I imagine that I’ll wake up the next day and discover my latent superpowers and finally put a stop to the chaos in the world. It occurred to me recently that I’ve never fantasized about saving my own life. Sure the world has issues, but so do I. The difference is mine are a lot less complicated but still difficult to get my head around.
For example, I don’t sleep properly at night and it’s because I’m addicted to my phone and laptop screens. If I just put in the effort to create a healthy nighttime routine that limits my screen time, I would certainly be a happier, healthier human being. But I don’t because sometimes I call friends or family in the late hours of the night and I would never give that up. Sometimes I'm up late working on this blog or scrolling endlessly through Instagram reels.
The obvious solution would be to stop this madness. So you see, not a complicated issue, but somehow it feels just as challenging as ending corruption.
Luckily, I’ve acknowledged that this is a problem I need to fix and I am taking baby steps to get there. I deleted Instagram so that I don’t spend too much time scrolling away. I’m working on at least getting enough sleep if I can’t alter my sleep schedule. Self-control isn’t always easy to cultivate in this increasingly all-consuming digital world, but it is necessary.
What are some monsters chasing after you in your inner world? What are you doing to face them?
Gravity Falls
“Real life stinks sometimes, okay, I’m not gonna lie. But there’s a better way to get through it than denial and that’s with help from people who care about you. It’s how we’ve gotten through our whole lives.”
– Dipper Pines Season 2 Episode 19, “Wierdmageddon: Escape from Reality”
Escapism is one of the only tools for liberation available to oppressed peoples. But too much of one thing can become toxic and the same goes for escapism. In this reality, it’s easy to become disempowered and lose hope. It makes sense that so many of us turn to various types of entertainment to get away from it all, at least for a while.
The problem comes in when we start dwelling on our imagined fantasies and reject the tethers that tie us to the material world around us. It’s hard to ‘face the music’ but avoiding it only hurts us further. Sometimes it leads to willful ignorance and sometimes it can lead to isolation.
I know because I’ve been there. I spent the majority of my time last year engrossed in various music, TV shows, and literature all to escape from the pain of being in a country that wanted to silence LGBTQ+ people like me just for being. I ended up ghosting so many people and shutting out the world. It wasn’t always intentional and for some of those people, I do not regret doing so. But by isolating myself, I hurt some of the people closest to me who wanted to help but didn’t know how.
I’m not saying throw your burdens onto others or anything of the sort. All I’m saying is, not everyone in your life is out to get you. There is always at least one person who will be there for you when you’re not feeling well or when you feel lost. But those people cannot find you and help you if you hide yourself away completely. It’s okay to ask for help. Hopefully, you have those invaluable soul helpers– those ride-or-dies– in your life. These can be people in your family or a friend you’re really close to. Maybe even a romantic partner.
Whoever you find that you can trust to be there, always remember that true love is the most powerful force in the universe. A bit cliché, but hey, it works.
The Legend of Korra
“...When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.”
– Avatar Aang Season 1 Episode 12, “Endgame”
I don’t pretend to have all the answers and neither should you. Anyone who claims to have it all figured out is considered to be a cross between a narcissist and a gaslighter in my books. Life is difficult. There is so much that is out of our control, one has to wonder just how much of who we are is self-realized and how much is born out of random circumstances.
I used to believe that I had a purpose– a reason to be on this planet. For most of my life, I believed that there was a higher power looking over me guiding my path. Whenever something went wrong it was because it was all a part of God’s bigger plan for my life.
I no longer believe in purpose or destiny or God. The only constant is change and sometimes that can be an uncomfortable truth to face. In my experience, the worst things that have happened in my life have always been followed by periods of confusion and aimlessness. When something knocks you down, it is hard to get back up, but it’s also disorienting, and that can be scary.
One moment you know exactly where you’re going and what you want out of life and the next, you no longer feel like yourself and you start to wonder if any of this was really worth it…
Change is often uncomfortable but sometimes it’s the only thing we can whole-heartedly rely on to get through. It’s comforting to know that with time things eventually change. The pain we feel here and now is real and feels like it could go on forever. But “forever” is just a construct of the mind designed to create the illusion of permanence.
Before you were born, you didn’t even exist. No one knew you and no one legitimately cared about you. You were nothing. And then everything changed and here you are now, so many years later. Maybe you’ve done some wrong things. You’re not alone in that. We’ve all messed up. The way I see it, just because I might be anxious, depressed, lonely, and broken now, doesn’t mean that I’ll always be. Change will come again, whether I like it or not. Even if it only lasts a minute, it’s inevitable.
At this point in my life, I hope that I can remain open to change even during periods of grief. I wish the same for you.
Love this! My favorite quotes are from Parks and Rec for sure. For example, "Treat yo' self" or "I regret nothing. The end". Maybe you can do movie quotes next.