Obliterating the language around "selves" ("higher self", "shadow self", etc.) to become more whole.
And then we have a shifting idea of our value as a person. I don't think that our worthiness to exist, to be loved, is contingent on a percentage, on a number of good acts versus bad acts or any of these other things. I think we are whole, complex beings. But when we lean into this duality, when we want to embrace an idealized story about being a good person, et cetera, we're creating
Jonah had to become vulnerable, and instead of it becoming a show, it had to be that human connection, that willingness to see the entire shades of our humanity. And then the richness could come out and it's so fucking beautiful. Excuse me, but it is when we can allow for all of those facets of color and dimension, and it's just amazing. I wish there was more celebration of it instead of these sanitized, compartmentalized notions of self, let alone others
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
And I think it's a lot of the problem. It's a lack of attunement, it is a lack of connection. It is a lack of realization that we are not just here on this earth to live out a cheesy self help book. We are flawed, we are disturbed. We are descendants of apes, for God's sake, and we are doing the best we can. And some people were given the privilege of an idyllic childhood and that is wonderful
That's why I think more of these stories have to be challenged because otherwise it's just we're trying to conform shoehorn into not only the story, but the rightness of fitting into that story, not only being what it is to be a parent, but what it is to be a good parent. Not only what is it to be a partner, but what is it to be a good partner versus a bad one
I think the best example of that is these clinical researchers out there that are doing the work on autism, and they're getting pushed back by the autistic community. That's saying, like, you're analyzing the research based on a biased perspective. Your brains don't work like ours. And it's not that it should all be discounted, but you have to take your personal discrimination into account
I don't know when this started or how it came to be this idea that the shiny perfect presentation, whether it's an idea, a brand, a person, that somehow that is the ideal. And I think this is leaning into the same kind of idea of only the light. But it's really like plasticky. The visual it comes to mind is that piece of plastic fruit someone might have