This is more of a review of the Concept of Wholesomeness than this post, but:
Earlier this year, I burned out.
I spent awhile vaguely trying to be “wholesome” as a counterbalance to the various things that had led to the burnout.
This did not really work – in practice, what I tried to do was do things that were “wholesome-coded”, many of which ended up being more like “fulfilling social obligations” than pursuing things that were good for me.
In the end, I fixed this more by filling my life up with industrious side projects, which was in some sense even more monomaniacally focused on productivity (which is the sort of thing that had led to the burnout).
I don’t think that is actually a mark against Wholesomeness, just a mark against applying it the particular way I was trying to apply it, and maybe chasing the “symbol” of wholesomeness over the substances. I eventually replaced or supplemented “be wholesome” with “find things I want, and am excited by, and do those.”
I do nonetheless think wholesomeness is good, I just think it requires actually paying attention to what it actually means, in a given context.
This makes a lot of sense! I do find that the way my brain wants to fit your experience in with my conception of wholesomeness is that you were perhaps not attending enough to the part of the whole that was your own internal experience and needs?
This is more of a review of the Concept of Wholesomeness than this post, but:
Earlier this year, I burned out.
I spent awhile vaguely trying to be “wholesome” as a counterbalance to the various things that had led to the burnout.
This did not really work – in practice, what I tried to do was do things that were “wholesome-coded”, many of which ended up being more like “fulfilling social obligations” than pursuing things that were good for me.
In the end, I fixed this more by filling my life up with industrious side projects, which was in some sense even more monomaniacally focused on productivity (which is the sort of thing that had led to the burnout).
I don’t think that is actually a mark against Wholesomeness, just a mark against applying it the particular way I was trying to apply it, and maybe chasing the “symbol” of wholesomeness over the substances. I eventually replaced or supplemented “be wholesome” with “find things I want, and am excited by, and do those.”
I do nonetheless think wholesomeness is good, I just think it requires actually paying attention to what it actually means, in a given context.
This makes a lot of sense! I do find that the way my brain wants to fit your experience in with my conception of wholesomeness is that you were perhaps not attending enough to the part of the whole that was your own internal experience and needs?