Practicing Enjoyment
Hank Green in a video recently mentioned that he had to stretch the muscle of enjoying something to combat the firehose of misery that's just... the world, that he's found if he doesn't enjoy stuff, he forgets how to.
This has been true for me too, and something I actively try to do because I hate being miserable (you could say who doesn't, but really, sometimes it is easier being miserable and I get it), but I particularly hate it when I'm being manipulated into misery. When all the news is framed negatively for clicks, instead of providing helpful context that would not make it sound so alarmist. When ragebait is a genre of online activity. When you can tell the platforms want you to stick around doomscrolling for longer, because your negative emotion increases engagement. And this is without getting into larger-scale campaigns to shape ideologies that thrive on cultivating isolation and anger and misery.
And I hate it even more, because the negative stuff sticks around longer than any glimpse of positivity.
It is true that there are terrible things happening in the world, but the world doesn't get better when I'm miserable and it especially doesn't get better when I'm feeling such bone-deep gravitational misery that's reducing my capacity to take any action I could take to make it better.
So, as an act of defiance, I will practice enjoyment. I will create something, I will write, I will make a stupid pun if the opportunity arises, I will watch something funny, I will eat a delicious meal, I will even enjoy the weather.
I hope you find something to enjoy today too.