In today's world, so much is shaped by short attention spans. Everywhere, someone or something is pulling at the strings of our attention, dragging us from one topic to the next. No wonder Anxiety Consumerism has long since become part of our society. Above all, it's companies and influencers who are competing for our attention and treating it like a currency.
Real
People's attention is valuable, literally. But I want to take this one step further, because I've built my entire identity as a counsellor around my zero tolerance for bullshit. So in everything I put out into the world under this identity, I don't want it to be about attention for attention's sake. Instead, it should be real. Real in terms of the congruence between what is written and what I actually think about it — at least in the moment it's written.
Journal
That's why I call my blog a "Journal". A journal can be a synonym for a diary, but I see it instead as written, occasion-driven processing. I'm a big advocate of writing in many ways, and this often comes up in counselling too. Writing allows us to put punctuation into thinking and feeling, which are much faster and more complex, and from there to take different perspectives, look at things, find words, or perhaps even understand something.
Sharing
Writing slows things down and has the potential to make things stick. Once what is written ends up online, on the web, there's also a chance that it might connect people. Much like The School of Life does with its videos, I hope that it creates resonance — that someone feels understood or less alone, or perhaps even arrives at an insight.
Enjoy reading.