soos_mite_ah

@kag101 I started getting into personal development for similar reasons as well. For me, I feel like my college experience was more of a "falling asleep" phase in my life where I focused my life inward instead of making a lot of moves in the external. I took college easier so that I can actually take care of myself and work on myself to set a good foundation for the rest of life going forward. That was my intent anyway. As for high school, I did work pretty hard but I still made sure that I had a good amount of time to just get to know myself. I didn't necessarily neglect material success but in my mind, sometimes I feel like I could have achieved externally more if I did more work and less actualizing. I know that I grew as a person internally immensely in the last few years, but sometimes I doubt the actual utility of this. Would I have been more efficient and successful if I did something else or is this setting a good foundation that will be helpful down the line even though I am not seeing the all of the value straight away. Therapy is going pretty well. Right now, therapy supplements and complements my meditation habits and whatever I'm working on with self-help. For me, I think it's a good idea to have a professional by my side to make sure I don't go off the deep end since sometimes I do deal with some heavy stuff and so that I have someone as a sounding board for my insights.

What's the difference between capitalist-socialist hybrid and social-democratic? I feel like I'm missing something because I always thought social-democratic was capitalism with socialist elements balancing it out.

I don't really believe in it. I got into it for the memes and the entertainment of it. But there is a use to astrology and like many perspectives, it is partially true. It can be pretty good in helping you identify different archetypes in your life in order to get to know the ego better before transcending it imo.

@Kalki Avatar Another source that comes to mind is astrokit's youtube channel. She does videos on particular placements. https://www.youtube.com/c/astrokit/videos

I mean, I have meddled around with online calculators like the one on cafe astrology https://astro.cafeastrology.com/natal.php There are quite a few sites like this. You just enter the date and time. Then they'll give you the positions of the planets at that specific time along with interpretations of how it relates to the personality of someone who was born in that moment.

"Maybe I'm closer to grasping the notion of knowing is imbued with uncertainty that it doesn't feel like knowing at all. Maybe I'm grasping the idea of knowing more facilitated by the knower's internal state than by our usual capacity to generate knowing on command." -Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer Extraordinary Knowing I've been contemplating the notion of knowing as a state of mind/feeling/ or being as opposed to knowing as a state of fact

Smart = Safety I have been trying to shed the label of being the smart kid for the last few months. I have made some progress in that I no longer base my self worth on being smart. However, I do notice that this label hasn't disappeared yet. One of the key reasons why that is so is that the smart label shields me from uncertainty. I was told that if I am smart and if I get good grades then I will be ok in life. That message was drilled into me in many ways and consequently I equated good grades to a stable and secure future. Here are some ways I associated good grades/ being smart with security and why they don't make sense. 1. I didn't get beat up as a kid by my mom if I brought home good grades That was horrible parenting on her part tbh. This type of conditioning is arbitrary not absolute. You aren't going to get beat up if you make a mistake in the real world. 2. The sentiment of if I get good grades, I will get a good job, then I'll find a good husband, and I'll settle down and have a family. All of that is dependent on my schooling because it is the foundation. Getting good grades doesn't guarantee anything. There are people who did good in school and who don't have a good job. There are people who did badly in school and turned out ok. It isn't about good grades, rather it is about work ethic. Sure good grades can make some aspects of life easier but it isn't everything. You need to be on the look out for your next step regardless of where you have been. If you made bad grades and its time for you to get a job, you can't dwell on those grades. You need to use/ cultivate that work ethic towards the next step. Grades can be exemplary of work ethic but it isn't the only place where it is present. 3. Being smart go rid of the uncertainty of the future. I'm smart therefore I will be ok. The pandemic has hit everyone regardless of how smart they were. Being smart won't get rid of uncertainty. Sure it can help you cope but you will always deal with some type of problem. That isn't to say that it's time to get hopeless about the future but when we accept pain, we transcend it. 4. Being smart helped me sort out my own mental issues by myself when I had no help It wasn't because you were smart. It was because you were motivated enough to search out sources that can help you. That information enabled you to make enough tools to deal with your current situation. It isn't that you were smart, it was a question of your determination and resourcefulness. 5. Smart helped me evade self deception by cultivating awareness Smart can make you even more self deceived because the self deception is even more sophisticated. 6. Smart means that I can solve my problems and get over it. The emotional piece of coping with problems were ignored in my childhood since my parents couldn't provide for me emotionally. Sometimes you can't outsmart your problems. Sometimes you need to be vulnerable and receptive to healing. Sometimes you need to accept that problems and insecurity are a part of life. Yes it will test you but that is ok because even in your most vulnerable, you're still strong enough to face them. If anything, you are stronger when you are vulnerable because you face the issue in question head on instead of trying to evade it with your smarts.

Is the liberal call to civility a higher consciousness move in the hopes of "if they go low, we go high" or is it an egoic desire to save face and maintain an image of moral superiority. I have been binging on Vaush lately and I believe that he has a point on how a principled failure isn't worth anything. In this video he talks about how some progressives don't want to vote for Biden because they believe that Biden is as bad as Trump and how this is a failure to play the political game (especially around the 14 minute mark) Also in other videos he talks about how democrats wanting to take the high ground and go according to democratic processes is a weakness that the conservatives take advantage of because conservatives don't care about hurting people's feelings or the democratic process as one can see with voter suppression, supporting Trump's fascist tendencies etc. Instead, they are out looking for power which is what the political game boils down to in the end. I do agree to this to some extent because if you are confronted with a bully who is trying to rip you to shreds, literally or figuratively, coming to them and being like "oh but we can work this out, lets see what kinds of solutions we can come up with" is going to look like weakness to someone who seeks domination rather than peace. Maybe calls to civility would have worked back when Romney or McCain were running but that goes out the window with Trump. I do believe that Biden should have gone harder on Trump though I empathize his reluctance to do so when you are faced face to face with someone like Trump. However, I also think his more civil way of doing things rather than going in and trying to dominate the debate makes him look more sane next to Trump and therefore more appealing to moderate viewers so I can see how that can also be a strategy. What do yall think?

I mean you can have an orange job and still have green values. I think another factor is dealing with constant discouragement and setbacks from society as a whole because they aren't ready for your ideas yet. So instead you end up trying to work within the system to generate potential change instead of attacking the system head on. I don't know about the specific example you're taking about with the activist who gets a job in marketing but I know that you can do marketing in a conscious way that take into consideration society, where it's going, and how to appeal to people accordingly. Even though marketing and business is typically orange you can use things like sociology and anthropology to do it more holistically. Typical orange marketing involves saturating the landscape with ads and appealing to peoples desires to trick them into buying your product. I'm also seeing half-orange, half-green marketing that also tries to tie in social issues and their commentary along with their products (such as Nike with BLM and Gillette with toxic masculinity). When marketing comes from a desire to connect and understand people instead of just making a profit, it can start to lean more green. I guess people find more traditional outlets such as corporate jobs to conduct their green ideals through instead of simply marching on the streets and demanding change. Being an activist is still important don't get me wrong, but that isn't the only way to in act change nor should it be if you want change to penetrate every area of society. I think with age, people realize that more and more and then consequently look as though they are falling in line. Also I'd think that with some people, they end up "regressing" back to earlier stages in a way to integrate healthier forms of those stages or to sort out any short comings they might have whether intentionally or unintentionally.

@Forestluv Ok that makes more sense. Thank you for clearing that up. I appreciate it

The Ways I've Grown at 20 Part 3 Part 1 and 2 were to summarize what actually went on. I had to clear my mind because there was so much that happened between October 2019 and October 2020. Now for Part 3 I will be just making a simple list to shorten part 1 and 2 for simplicity. Got over the blank slate feeling Created an identity outside of chaos Connected to a sense of joy that I haven't felt since childhood Stopped having trauma dominate my narrative Stopped procrastinating as much Started taking care of myself more both in terms of physically taking care of myself but also taking care of my environment Learned what its like to be with a guy who actually cares out you Learned how much power and privilege can blind a person from their own perspective (I didn't include this in my previous post but it is something I learned by dealing with people in my classes). Dealt with grief for a family friend and the fears I had with losing my own family Contemplated my own death and wtf I'm doing with my life along with issues regarding mortality Learned about generational trauma and how things work in human rights in south Asia, and how religious conflict works in that part of the world. I also learned about how colonized my perspective of my own background was. Realized how much I have grown since I can't resonate with my family anymore Came to terms how the trauma and growth probably mentally aged me. Stopped being the therapist friend Moved towards more positivity and surrounded myself with more people like that accordingly Dealt with the grief with rapidly changing times includes the shock, the anger, the depression, the meaning making, and the acceptance Started seriously meditating Got rid of my food cravings/ got my diet together Cultivated a healthier relationship with food Cultivated a healthier body image Unpacked my limiting beliefs regarding the school that I'm going to Did a lot of shadow work and unraveled labels from my childhood Dealt with the depression that came along with shadow work Moved into stage yellow in spiral dynamics more Mended my relationship with my parents more Integrated the notion that I don't have to be special to be loved and that this whole thing is the work of the ego Gained responsibility for my feelings by not resorting to blaming myself Tackled a lot of shame regarding taking up space Realized that I needed to change my major Found a better potential path for my future career Addressed some of the social anxiety that came up due to isolation Understood exactly how important discipline is Started addressing imposter syndrome Started addressing trauma relating to academic And finally.... 35. Realized how much I have grown this year by writing things out and how I haven't turned into my 14 year old self after moving back home Sometimes I see this whole situation as something that caused me to regress. I have had times in the past month or so where I felt as though I wasn't growing or that stability and happiness in the future are not things worth striving for since I haven't gotten anywhere. In reality, that is me being consumed in the myopia of my current negative mood which ultimately distracts from the bigger picture in the effort to survive in the present. Even writing things out in this post helped me regain this sense of perspective that I am in fact doing what I need to be doing and that I am still making progress. And I'm so proud of myself for that. I can't wait to see how I grow in the coming year. It also makes sense why I've been feeling this ego backlash. Lately I've been craving more stability and stagnation because I'm tired of everything changing all the time. Truth is, I've grown and I need time to slow down a little and have all of this fully sink in before adding new things to the list.

@Willie @Gidiot Ok so I personally agree with keeping the electoral college because I think that the smaller states still need representation and the highly populated areas shouldn't decide everything on their behalf based on majority. We still have other aspects of the government that is decided by majority vote and the electoral college is supposed to balance things out. Now I don't consider myself conservative in any means and I would have MUCH rather had Hillary Clinton as president but I can't help but think that there is something larger than my personal interests. Sure I as a liberal may not like how the electoral college favors conservatives but that doesn't mean that people in less populated states get less representation. Similarly, I believe the gerrymandering on behalf of both parties needs to be eliminated for a fairer process/ representation even if it means that democrats also lose districts/ seats. I would like to hear additional inputs in regards to this to expand my perspective.

The Ways I Have Grown at 20 Part 2 Mid March 2020- May 2020 So I had to finish my spring semester of my sophomore year at home. I also let go of a friend during this time. Our relationship was slowly coming undone since about November 2019 because we were moving towards different chapters of our lives. I was moving towards more positivity since I have solved a lot of my issues regarding my family and I was more oriented towards positivity and building healthy habits. She on the other hand was still dealing with a lot in regards to her family. There is nothing wrong with that. I was definitely in that part of my journey as well so I understand. I stuck around mainly because for one she was my roommate and two I saw myself as the therapist friend. When we met initially we mainly bonded over shared trauma so it wasn't the healthiest of circumstances. I set boundaries with her in regards to what I am and am not willing to discuss and while she never crossed those boundaries once, the boundaries didn't help because the foundation of the relationship was off in the first place. I thought, hey, maybe once I move back home and get some space from her, then things will turn out ok. It didn't and I had to cut her off. During this time I unpacked why I was the therapist friend. It's for a plethora of reasons ranging from not being raised in a stable environment, my family venting to me about things that I'm not old enough to deal with, having to deal with things earlier than what is appropriate, wanting guidance and therefore giving guidance to people who look like they need it so they don't have to suffer the way I did, having chaos being my defining personality trait for a bulk of my life, and more. I also isolated myself from people who triggered my inner Dr. Phil as well. In this isolation amidst COVID, I healed a variety of wounds that caused me to be the therapist friend. During this time I was also trying to cope with the pandemic. I went through the cycles of grief. I suppose I was grieving the previous state of the world. The whole thing was such a shock and didn't make sense. It happened faster than my ability to process it. First my study abroad plans were cancelled and I was left scrambling for new plans for the summer and then not even a week later everything gets shut down and all of my classes are online. It seemed so absurd and strange. After the shock wore off, I was faced with anger ( didn't really go through the denial phase tbh). I was angry with the people in power. I was angry with how I regressed because I had to move back in with my parents. I was angry with myself for not coming up with better plans for the summer. But most importantly I was scared. I was scared of the possibility of being broke and unemployed, to never fully gain my independence as an adult. Then I moved into the depression stage. And thats where my grades started falling. It was pretty discouraging tbh. I thought maybe, just maybe I was back to normal academically because I put down some good habits and I was doing great emotionally. Yeah... I was wrong. I luckily finished the semester with half way decent grades. Then I went into the meaning making part of the cycles of grief. I was trying to piece together why this was happening, what will humanity look like after this, etc. I went all mad scientist and started researching with enthusiasm. How will the economy look? What does it mean for health care in the U.S.? How will we progress past this. I didn't come into the acceptance stage until July or so. I also decided to start a serious meditation habit where I meditate for anywhere from 1-2 hours daily. Its been paying off I'd say. It helped with a lot of the shadow work that I did in the future and helped me get it together. June 2020-August 2020 I moved into research/ mad scientist mode as a part of my meaning making stage of dealing with grief when it came to COVID. I delved into my studies more and I took two summer classes. It was a very fulfilling experience and I feel like that along with me joining this forum helped me be more solidly yellow. I started dealing with a lot of repressed anger which I worked through. I learned how to integrate anger in a healthy way and better assert myself in this time. Because I'm at home all the time and now that I don't have classes, I was forced to be with my parents all the time. Though I didn't enjoy it, it forced me to mend my relationship with them. I still don't think I can talk to them about many things but my relationship with them has improved. I'm still thinking of distancing myself after I get a stable job but that decision is no longer coming from a place of pain. I really delved into shadow work during this time and I got depressed again. I realized that my entire personality is essentially a coping mechanism that the ego made to survive in childhood. I carry a lot of labels from my childhood until now. I talked about a lot of this in my journal so far. I feel that because I wrote things out and I delved into it more, in a way it healed it. Because awareness alone is curative. I'm still on this journey to keep unpacking it. I also learned on how I don't have to be special or interesting or *insert positive quality here* in order to be lovable. In order to be worthy of love, I just need to be, because well, I am love. I think I unpacked a lot of trauma I had regarding lovability in the recent months. After talking to a therapist more about this subject instead of tackling it on my own, I made an immense amount of progress. I know that I have a tendency to point the blame at myself and assume that "there is something wrong with me." This comes from a desire to take responsibility and do something about the situation. However, blaming and saying something is your fault is not the same as accepting responsibility. Taking responsibility means you are using your ability to respond. Shame weighs as person down and stops them from responding constructively. I feel that I integrated that well towards the end of August. I got rid of all of my food cravings and now currently have a very healthy diet. I'm so proud of myself for achieving this as I was working towards finding and creating a diet that works for me for quite some time now. September 2020 School has been kicking my ass. I'm not off to a good start. I slumped into a state of anxiety and depression with my future and realized that I don't like my major. Luckily this gave me a better idea as to what kind of career I want going forward. Additionally, I had a couple mental breakdowns and I had to self soothe through writing my feelings. It was an excellent exercise in resilience and a good test to see how much I can apply the lessons I learned prior to this occurrence. I got a better guide for my shadow work through my religion class and I have had some insights from that class as well. I also solidified my sense of school spirit and I feel that I have addressed my issue with elitism once and for all. I have gotten out of this anti-social funk that I got myself into because of prolonged isolation. I basically realized that I'm just fine and that I didn't magically turn into an awkward duck during quarantine. I also addressed some of my social anxiety during this month as well and I'm sure I will be ok. I began truly understanding how important discipline is. I let myself backslide in terms of discipline as I moved back home and my structure for my day to day life dissolved with the pandemic. I'm currently in the process of implementing this more but I will say that I had to have a pretty rough fall to learn this lesson. Hopefully I will get out of this semester in one piece. I've also been trying to find stability because the times feel especially unstable with rising fascism in the U.S. It's been a struggle. I also began addressing issues regarding imposter syndrome, my trauma regarding academic performance from 2018-now that I have had to deal with in therapy, and the anxiety of moving into adulthood during an economic depression. So lets see how that goes. While I did learn a lot from September, I will say that this month has been a struggle and an ego backlash month more than anything.

The Ways I Have Grown at 20 Part 1 It's the beginning of October and in every October, I catch myself going into a more reflective state as to how I have grown in the past year mainly because my birthday is in October. God, because of how how crazy 2020 has been, my last birthday feels like it is a world away. I think one of the reasons why it feels like such a long time ago is because of how much I've grown and how much the world around me changed. I'm probably going to go chronologically so that I can get my thoughts straight October 2019- December 2019 I remember feeling like an blank slate of a person. It wasn't in a depressing way where I felt like an empty shell but rather it was much more peaceful. The reason why I felt this way is that I was still dealing with some things regarding burnout from earlier that year. I also cleared out a lot of childhood trauma from when i was 18 and a half uptil my 20th birthday. I held onto that trauma for such a long time that for a while, it fused with my identity. Now that trauma isn't there to inform my personality, I'm here with all this empty space. The question now is, what do I fill it with? I began feeling a little bit more like myself. Not as in that blank space was getting filled but really, truely like myself. I felt as though I could connect to the joy I felt growing up on a super regular basis. I could look back at my past and now acknowledge parts of my life that were more joyful. Before, I could only see the depressing heavy aspects. This is not to say that I only look at the bright side and I don't acknowledge the harsher stuff that happened to me but its more along the lines of "hey these bad things happened but that's not the only thing that happened." The trauma is no longer the dominant part of my narrative. During this time I also cleaned up some of my habits. I stopped procrastinating on my work. I started putting in more effort in my appearance. I paid more attention to my health. I started being more organized etc. I also dated a guy during this time. It lasted for like a month and tbh I wasn't really feeling it but I learned a lot from that experience. I learned what a good relationship with a healthy person felt like and what a guy who actually like you looks like in terms of how he will treat you. It mainly didn't work out because we were in very different places in our lives. He treated me so well. I hope he finds someone good. The year ended with me dealing with a death of a family friend suddenly. It brought the year into a poignant end. This whole time after healing from the trauma I was asking myself "what now since I solved is major issue with my life?" Then this hit me. It pushed me into an existential crisis for like a month. I was like, damn WHAT am I doing with my life? I could honestly die at any moment. I also had a near death experience around this time and it was somewhat similar to the way the family friend died so yeah that made me question things. End of December 2019- January 2020 During this time I went to visit family in India. I also went to Bangladesh for the first time. That was an interesting trip for many reasons. Firstly it made me realize that my family is a mess. The more I grow up the more I realize that the people around me haven't. After I healed through most of my family related trauma, I realized that they weren't the healthiest people to be around. It's like I have done all of the work and they haven't done the same so I naturally outgrew them. Another thing that stuck out to me in this trip was Indian politics. I took a class on Human Rights in Modern South Asia right before I came here. And after taking that class, a lot of things just made more sense. It's like I was actually able to apply what I have learned in real life. As a result, the trip was very educational. Also during this time, the whole Citizen Amendment Act thing was going on and that was interesting to say the least. Going to both India and Bangladesh at this particular time was really interesting in terms of comparison. It showed a lot of unhealthy manifestations of stage blue both societally as well as in the political views of the people around me. In this trip my family did a lot of funeral stuff regarding our religious customs. I'm a religious person but it was interesting just to observe what was happening. A lot of it was really good, healthy stage blue content. I was also happy seeing the fulfillment my parents were getting because it resonated with their inner stage blue selves even though the stuff in question didn't resonate with me personally. During this time for one of the ceremonies, we went to an ashram and stayed there for a night. There was no heating, very little electricity, bugs etc. It was an interesting experience that put things into perspective, not trying to sound like one of the eat pray love people but that's the best way that I could phrase it. Strangely enough, it wasn't much of an adjustment for me though this was the first time for me doing something like this. I guess it's because I'm not super attached to materialism and physical comfort but idk. I just know that the rest of my family that were on this trip were losing their shit. In additon to the funeral stuff that was going on, my dad was also reconnecting with his cousins whom he hadn't seen in decades. I don't know these people so I was just politely minding my own business and watching everyone reconnect. Everyone was so old since my dad is typically the youngest among all of his relatives by at least a decade if not more. A lot of them would also talk about health complications and death as well. It was surreal to watch some of these people's grandkids call my dad grandpa because for one they are like 5 years younger than me and two I don't see my dad as super old even though he is an older parent because of the way he carries himself. It kinda tapped into the whole existential crisis that I was having with mortality earlier in December. For once we also got to do more touristy things in India. I realized that travelling with my parents wasn't the best idea as I grew up because their way of travelling was so different from what I enjoy. It caused some problems. But it was nice to see more historical stuff and understand what's going on (again because of prior study/ exposure). It made me feel like I could embrace my roots more, not in a ideological way, but more of a oh here is a side that i don't acknowledge as often, let me embrace it a little more. January 2020-Mid March 2020 I was living life until then. I was on top of my work. I was killing it. I was working out regularly, getting good grades etc..I was making moves to become much more disciplined with my life. That was my main new years resolution. I realized, hey I'm finally in a really stable place in my life, I like this. There were something that I still needed to work through though and that was the fact that I don't have many friends and that I don't know what I'm doing career wise. During this time, I also was trying to come to terms with the notion that the trauma and then growing from the trauma aged me. It was a period of mourning and a time when I was trying to understand why I don't have many friends. I began doing therapy to figure this out with a new therapist since my regular one was on maternity leave. I uncovered some issues I have had just swimming around in my mind and I found some limiting beliefs I held. This would later turn into my whole thing with shadow work that I pursued up until now. I also decided that after I ease into this sense of stability I was going to put myself out there more specifically after spring break. I was going to integrate everything fully and then put my new and improved self out there. I also planned to do a study abroad trip during the summer and I was like, hey this will let me travel, it has a build in internship, and I will meet more like minded people in my field of study. It's going to be great. I'm finally getting my life together. HHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHHHHAAA And then the pandemic happened

Using Fashion for Self Development Even though things such as changing your style is more like window dressing self development without making deep change, I believe that changing up your appearance can still be a tool for self development. To me it only become window dressing if you see changing the external and the surface as the end all be all without examining the internal. Because lets be real, the external world does have an effect on the internal world and vice versa. I have tried this in the past when I was trying to step into my femininity more in my mid teens. It began with me wearing heels more often and growing out my hair. In a way, I see those as physical affirmations through symbolic femininity as opposed to verbal affirmations someone migh read to themselves every day. Granted I was also doing a lot of inner work regarding opening up to my feelings and undoing my mindsets that were rooted in misogyny so it wasn't like *ok i put on heels and now I can embrace my femininity.* To me, wearing heels wasn't anything I forced. But I was like "ya know what let me try this out as a major part of my wardrobe." I believe that in a symbolic way, it made me let go of this notion of femininity being this weak submissive thing because I felt powerful in heels even though it was feminine. I'm 5'2" so it wasn't like I was towering over people with 2 in heels but I remember thinking I CAN SEE EVERYTHING FROM UP HERE. I wear heels so regularly now to where people just associate them with me and they wonder how tf I do it when really it's literally the most comfortable shoes I own. Then I started growing out my hair. Growing up I always had really short hair and I was like *let me try something else.* I think one of the reasons why I opted to have short hair when I was little was because I "didn't want to be like other girls and conform to society" so there were elements of rebellion mixed in with internalized misogyny though that wasn't the only reason (I was like 12). I thought *hey if I don't like it, I can always chop my hair off again.* And I realized that hey I really like having long hair. I would even say that it suits me better. It made me think oh hey femininity isn't this thing that is meant for everyone else and not you, it can still work for you if you are willing to embrace it. I can say similar things with wearing makeup, liking pink, and surrounding myself with florals. Same thing with wearing more makeup. I remember at one point I had a judgement towards people who wore makeup regularly. Those judgements were along the lines of "oh I bet they are insecure of their appearance and/or conceited." Then I tried it out and now I actually enjoy it. I'm not insecure about the way I look or anything like that but in the morning, it just feels like I'm doing something nice to myself, as if it's something that is extremely relaxing while still waking me up and energizing me. And eventually, those judgements also faded away. I'm trying to do the same thing when it comes to being more basic. As far as my wardrobe goes right now, I would say that it's mainly neutral (black, white, denim, beige) and mauve/ burgundy. My leanings towards dark colors root back to my emo fashion phase which came from this desire to rebel lol. Even though I don't dress emo, I can't say that I completely left the color palette since like half of my closet is black/ dark colors. My closet is fairly small and minimalist mainly because I enjoy the efficiency of a minimalist wardrobe and how everything matches each other so I don't have to make an effort to get ready and match clothes in the morning and still look very put together. Having a minimalist wardrobe also forced me to find clothes that actually fit me according to my body shape because I was looking for quality over quantity which was a huge boost in my self esteem. Finally, embracing minimalism in fashion helped move away from mindless consumption for the sake of consumption. As for being more basic, I simply didn't know where to start because to me basic is just whatever is super popular and common at the time and that can cover a vast variety of things tbh. I've mainly been thinking of a more preppy aesthetic since it the opposite of my emo inclinations from my childhood/ teens. And so I went to the internet to gather intel lol. So the main things that came up were the differences between new england preppy and southern preppy. New England preppy as an aesthetic is more of ralph lauren/ jcrew. Color palate is usually white, burgundy, and red. It's also very polished and put together. I think this aligns more with my current sense of style except for the fact that I'm too broke to afford most brands that are associated with this style and the fact that I normally am more relaxed with my choices. It's more aligned with my comfort zone. Southern preppy on the other hand immediately evokes my fight or flight response lol. It's more bright and colorful and has more of an emphasis of monograms and patterns. I don't mind patterns, I certainly incorporate them into my wardrobe, but I'm not so into it when it comes to really elaborate patterns (unless it's for Indian clothes for special occasions, there I go all out). I find them rather impractical and difficult to match with a variety of clothes, but hey, i can open up and branch out and try to have fun. My first exposure to this aesthetic was when my roommate in college during my freshman year had a Lily Pulitzer skirt. The whole aesthetic isn't limited to this brand but this brand is the one that I had the strongest reaction to. At this time I wasn't even exposed to that designer mainly because I'm broke and because even though I have lived in the south my whole life, I live in the city surrounded by middle class poc. I just remember seeing it and having a Regina George moment where I was like *that is the ugliest effing skirt I have ever seen.* Honestly if it makes her happy, idc lmao its just a skir, the style is just not what I'm used to. But yeah southern preppy is more along the lines of this along with a dose of Vineyard Vines and Lululemons (both brands just remind me of all of them memes tbh lol) s For both of these aesthetics, I feel a strong vibe of elitism. In turn, elitism makes me think of power and what is normalized in society, which is the exact opposite of what I'm drawn to which is nonconformity and questioning thing as far as ideals go. And I think that desire to rebel was what pulled me towards emo and dark colors even though I was ironically being conformist in a nonconformist way (that is just my 12 year old logic that I still have traces of now). I think this reaction also reveals the biases/ prejudices that I have towards people with privilege or perceived privileges. Because lets be real, you can't tell much from the way someone dresses. I've also met plenty of cool people who look privileged af and have this type of aesthetic but I would be lying if I said that I didn't have this split second first impression of them being bubbly, super conservative, and judgmental (which is ironic because I'm the one being judgmental). I think this comes from the fact that people like this would be the main archetypes of people that picked on me growing up and therefore I subconsciously jump to that conclusion. Therefore instead try to find like minded people based on how weird they dress because I perceive myself as another weird kid like them. I also know that I have an orange shadow because of my green desire to dismantle hierarchies. And also you can get these things in a more discounted place, it doesn't have to cost a fortune. While the former is more within my comfort zone as far as design and colors go, the later doesn't have that. The bright colors freak me out because I'm not used to it. I also find the elaborate prints pretty impractical because there isn't much that it would match with in a cohesive wardrobe. Upon further inspection after my first impression of *no it's too bright my eyes*, I found a lot of Lilly prints rather beautiful. I also found them rather uplifting too. However, the thought of wearing it, seems off putting to me. I remember walking into one of these stores and nothing really caught my eye to where I would consider even trying it on. I know all of this sounds super dramatic but these judgments are more subtle irl. I think my first step to step out of my comfort zone and embrace my inner basic is to incorporate more bright colors into my wardrobe. The only restrictions I have towards my choice in clothes as of now is nothing that fits me horribly and no neon, thought the neon one can change. Bright colors is one of the things that intimidate me more fashion wise. I also think that bright colors can be one of the ways for me to embrace the hero archetype more because I tend to want to fade into the background and mute myself out whether it is verbally or hell even when it comes to my clothes as I am drawn to more neutral colors since they aren't super harsh. And of course all of this willingness to be basic comes from me trying to embrace the everyman archetype more. Whenever I think basic, that's the first store that comes up in my mind is Victoria Secret Pink (because I'm not about to drop a $100 on vineyard vines or lululemon) similar to how when people think Hot Topic they immediately think emo. I would add H&M and Forever 21 to the list but nothing fits me from there other than like pants. Sometimes I think the best way to counteract judgement for other people for most traits is to acknowledge, and/or embrace that same trait in yourself. As far as embracing goes, one of the ways I'm going to embrace my inner basic is my clothes.

I completely agree with this. It explains why liberals aren't as willing to go for the jugular in a debate and start ridiculing their opponent like Trump does for instance. A lot of progressives believe that democrats need to be more vicious and have critiqued them for that. From what I understand, it's not being vicious for the sake of being vicious but being vicious for the sake of everyone's future over the fear of saving face. However, what a lot of progressives don't understand mainly because of a lack of exposure to things like spiral dynamics and how consciousness works, they don't see why democrats are reluctant to use lower consciousness means to appeal to the public compared to republicans and instead see it as "democrats are addicted to losing." It could be that and potentially mix of toxic green as well. Another thing that I remember someone saying in a different thread was someone saying something along the lines of "what is considered healthy is contextual" and how what is considered healthy in say the middle ages with a bunch of warlords everywhere is not going to be considered healthy in the modern day. What I'm trying to say is that what is considered constructive in a debate like the one with Trump, isn't going to be constructive in a debate with McCain for instance. Being civil will work in the second instance and is a necessity in order to not look like a lunatic but the same thing can have cons when dealing with Trump where you look like you've been walked all over. Granted what is considered healthy/ constructive isn't always aligned with what is the most conscious since society has to develop on it's own and because healthy/ constructive is reliant on survival. It's also important to draw that distinction and take that into consideration. You can't go in to the middle ages preaching green values like free love and multiculturalism without dealing with a huge backlash collectively with a side of getting your head chopped off. Even though your ideals are more conscious, society isn't ready for it at that moment therefore it isn't healthy/constructive. Instead that type of backlash could potentially be greater and be negative towards overall growth. Similarly with a debate like trump, "playing nice" with him, though it is higher consciousness, can lead to more backsliding because no one is there to stand up to him and therefore his rampaging continues, causing more damage.

Meme Historian This is such a stoner thought but, what if, I became a meme historian. Think about it, in the future, if someone were to look back at the memes of today, they would see historical events, the mental anguish of everyday people, political beliefs, narratives, propaganda, significant pop culture references, and more. What if the requirements to professionally analyze memes involved a background in the humanities and the social sciences (so like political science, history, sociology, anthropology, the arts, etc.). My point is that to someone who lives in a different time period, there is so much to dissect in a single meme. For example: u To fully understand this meme, one needs to understand the generational conflicts that happened prior to the 2016 election. There is clearly a lot of chaos that is happening in the background which represents the amount of polarization at the time along with how the president conducted his governance. Interestingly enough, this meme was created prior to 2020 meaning that this foreshadowed the rising tensions at the time. You also need to understand the symbolism of Hitler and Stalin and how that relates to generational political differences. A lot of the Boomers supported Donald Trump and was labeled as fascist by the young who found parallels between Trump's rhetoric and that of Hitler's. Millennials at the time began recognizing the short comings of capitalism after 2008 and were in search of alternatives like Scandinavian style socialism. However, the Boomers, because they grew up during the red scare, saw the Millennials/ Gen Z's desire to have more social programs to deal with the societal consequences of late capitalism as communist. You also see Hitler here having a higher ground then Stalin representing the fact that the Boomers have more wealth and political power at the time, meaning they have the upper hand. There is also pop culture references in this meme particularly the way that Hitler and Stalin are attacking each other. This is a nod towards the popular anime Naruto. There is also the joker that represent Gen Z which is a reference to Batman. Basically, clown were popular in this generation as a way of articulating the foolery of the times and the collective coping mechanism to use humor in order to process the chaos of the Trump Presidency. Ok but real shit, I can't take myself seriously typing this out. I really want being a meme historian to be a thing.

Sooooo trump caught COVID https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/10/02/trump-tests-positive-coronavirus-melania-announcement-vpx.cnn I mean I know you typically have to quarantine for 14 days but if the next debate ends up being on Zoom, muting him when he interrupts is most definitely an option

TRUMP CAUGHT CORONAVIRUS!!!!!! DON'T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS! SPEAK WHAT YOU DESIRE FROM THE UNIVERSE INTO EXISTANCE!!!!! And while yall doin that, Imma go stock up on some healing crystals for positive vibes.❤❤❤ https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/10/02/trump-tests-positive-coronavirus-melania-announcement-vpx.cnn My manifestation skills are finally paying off lmaooooooooo ???? This is probably the best news I got this year ✌??? I know this is most definitely devilry and I'm willing to own up to it but for now I'm going to bask in the joy

I think that this is the best piece of advice here when it comes to what to do when you don't resonate with your surroundings. Even though it is good to grow and track where you are on your journey using a model like spiral dynamics, I feel that it's easy to make something like spiral dynamics just another man made hierarchy. This happens when we put value judgements on stages and label them as conscious and unconscious and decide who is worthy of connection from there. Don't get me wrong, there are levels of development that are higher quality and resonate better with some individuals, but what i mean by value judgement is along the lines of "I can't connect with anyone because they are too unconscious" or "these people aren't worth talking to because of their level of consciousness." That can get toxic and turn into a competition and not in a good way. Regardless where other people are in their journey, you can still empathize and connect to other people even if you are further along. I believe that hierarchies based on value judgements are what separate stage orange (man made hierarchies) from the natural hierarchies in stage yellow (while stage green is just flattening hierarchies and getting rid of value judgements so you can move to yellow). For instance, lets say you have a test that measures out how smart you are. An orange person will look at it and say that "hey person x is better than person y because of their IQ and therefore person x should be treated better and is more worthy of connection." Stage green will say "person x and person y have the same value because scores don't matter since they are human beings and you shouldn't base a person's value on their IQ." Both of these have a partial truth. Stage yellow and above sees this and says "person x is smarter than person y which can be valuable in certain contexts (like prediction of academic performance) but as far as being human goes, both deserve dignity and respect because they have the same value." These statements for each of the stages may not be conscious but it can be reflected based on how they treat people and what triggers them. I hope that analogy/ example makes sense in how you can apply that to a person's development. Just replace smarts with consciousness and IQ with spiral stages.

12 Jungian Archetypes: Where to go From Here As of 10/1/2020 here is where I stand 7: well integrated 3: needs work on integrating 2 are (-) or more prone to repression which leads to things like judgement and projection 1 is (+) or more prone to inflation which leads to egotism and identifying with one thing too much 2: not integrated at all. The goal of knowing where we stand on the archetypes is to evaluate where we have an excess and where we have a lack of integration in our soul. From here on out, we can evaluate what we can do to more acceptance of every part of ourselves. By accepting contradictory aspect of ourselves, we can hope to reach balance The negative aspect of one archetype will be balanced by the positive aspects of another. Accepting all part of ourselves also negates shadows and therefore unconscious mechanisms. It also helps us move away from repression, which can be a result of not embracing an archetype or not embracing an archetype enough, and way from inflation which happens when we over identify with any one archetype because the other archetypes aren't there to balance it out. I have talked about shadow work a number of times in this journal as it is something that I am very focused on in my self development journey. While a lot of things I have discussed in the last couple of posts are repetitive, I thought it would be a good exercise for me to see how my current shadow work fits into this model. So here are my conclusions: Things I need to do going forward: 1. Integrate more discipline and structure in my life Helps me come into The Ruler archetype and strengthens The Magician (-) come up with a routine start exercising build consistent habits 2. Embrace being a "normie" Strengthen The Everyman (-), weaken The Rebel (+) Also develops The Ruler because mainstream things are more along the lines of societal structures and power dynamics. One of the reasons I was drawn to the Rebel (+) was my dislike of authority and routines binge on more mainstream music, show, YouTube channels, etc. 3. Continue shadow work in order to love myself more completely and build confidence Develops The Hero by healing "background character energy" which ultimately comes from a lack of self confidence Also strengthens The Magician(-) by removing blockages in manifestation Speak up more to heal shyness Develop skills in public speaking 5. Cultivate Your Life Purpose more Develops The Hero and strengthens The Magician (-) because it cultivates a vision Change majors Apply to different internships Figure out my career prospects after graduation

12 Jungian Archetypes: Reflection Key: Turquoise: I embody it well Gold: I embody it a little (or too much) but need to work on this more (-): not embodying it enough (+) embodying it too much Underline: this feels very natural to me from a young age to where it's almost like a default. Black: I don't embody it at all The Ego types 1. The Innocent I feel that I really started to embody this in the last couple years after I stopped being depressed constantly and moved out of my house for college. I also began therapy to unpack all of my baggage from home and that ended up making me feel like a much lighter version of myself. It was almost as if I was 5 years old again. I had what I call bright eyed bushy tailed energy and I felt very optimistic and upbeat about life. Its like I could tap into that child like enthusiasm and curiosity again after digging through the gunk that piled up over the years in my psyche. 2. The Everyman (-) Upon reading the description, I got the impression of how the everyman is someone who isn't boastful and sees themselves and other people as equal. In that way, I find myself embodying the everyman. I find myself resonating with this mainly when it comes to politics and basic decency. However, the reason why I believe that I could embody this more is because I had a label of me being a weird kid slapped onto me for a while to where it's a part of my ego and I have a shadow. I see myself as strange and sometimes like I can connect to others and relate. I'm trying to embrace more of my "normie" side lately (see Pumpkin Spiced Lattes p.3 in this journal) so that's how I'm trying to integrate all of this. 3. The Hero To embody this, I believe I need to do 2 things. One is create a more solid life purpose which is pretty explanatory if you're on this forum so I'll refrain from expanding on it a lot. The other is that I need to stop having "background character energy." I know there is the term called "main character energy" that has been thrown around a lot on the Internet. It refers to someone who seems pretty out there, goes on interesting adventures, and is sometimes prone to the tendency of forgetting that everyone has a life of their own because they see themselves as the star of their lives and everyone else as a side character. I'm using the term background character energy to refer to the opposite of this. I have resorted to being the background character in my life to avoid problems and confrontation from my peers. I've always taken the "I'm going to just ignore the annoying people and mind my own business by doing what I need to do." I would say that this was pretty good for me growing up because I avoided getting into drama and other petty problems. But I also never really asserted myself in groups of people. I rarely let myself stand out as a leader. Sure no one hated me, but I didn't have anyone really like me either because I never bothered to put myself out there. 4. The Caregiver I embody this archetype pretty well. At one point I embodied it too much and ended up being the therapist friend. I think it's good that I know how to care for people by listening to what they need and acting accordingly to meet those needs. It certainly helps me to connect to people and makes me a pretty reliable source of advice. The excess that I ran into before was that I would rush in and try to help everyone all the time even if the person isn't in the place to receive help because they needed to lesson on their own without me telling them what to do and giving them a predetermined structure. The way I dealt with this is that I set some boundaries with myself and others and proceeded to distance myself from people who were getting codependent. I also began really tapping into this when I developed/ explored my feminine side more in the last few years. The Soul Types 5. The Explorer I would say that I also embody this archetype pretty well. I have always been very open to experience both intellectually but also physically. I really integrated this as I became more interested in societies and cultures. I've also began being very authentic to myself as I learned about myself and the world. I also have a desire to travel around and get a lot of joy from that. 6. The Rebel (+) I have integrated this pretty well though I will say that growing up that this was in excess. I saw myself as a weird kid and on top of that I saw the limitations of conformity based on how my parents tried to raise me in a traditional way (don't question authority, respect elders, etc.). I questioned a lot of norms growing up and sometimes even faced backlash. This has been a crucial part of my growth and it helped me find what is authentic to me instead of rely on society all the time. I also went through a punk phase from the ages of 10-16 so there's that lol. When I was little I had problems with picking my battles but I have since learned to do so with age. I also find myself clinging to my weird kid label and I sometimes find it hard to follow a structure. I have an inclination to this archetype mainly based on familiarity. I believe integrating The Everyman (-) and The Ruler more will solve things. 7. The Lover I have integrated this fairly recently. In the last couple years I have focused my intention towards being more in touch with my feelings and with my feminine side. Before I was relatively closed off and uncomfortable/ fearful when it came to being vulnerable. I have learned to tap into that more and began seeing my vulnerability as something to embrace as a strength because it enables me to connect to others. Also when it comes to embracing my vulnerability and feminine side, nowadays I'm much more comfortable with letting other people take the lead if they want to do something nice for me or do something to help me out, especially but not limited to romantic situations. I remember before a couple years ago feeling guilty whenever someone would go out of their way to help me but I have since gotten over that by saying "thank you" more than "sorry". 8. The Creator/ Artist Growing up I integrated this archetype pretty early on because of the fact that I really enjoy art. When I was little I did a lot of painting and drawing. As I grew up, my creative energy shifted more towards writing and analysis. I think I was able to tap into creativity more because of my weird kid label because I didn't have anything to fear. I wasn't afraid to do things that weren't mainstream because I was already labeled as weird so in a way I didn't have anything to lose. This I would say goes along with the rebel and the explorer archetype because of how it relates to openness to experience. The Self Types 9. The Jester I'd say that I embody this pretty well. My interpretation of this archetype is the ability to not take things to seriously and having your own sense of humor. I wouldn't characterize myself as the class clown but I do know how to have fun and joke around even if it can't be told through my writing. I never really had problems with this whether it was an excess or lack of it. 10. The Sage I embody this well. I think embodying this archetype came from me being open to experience and me being depressed as a teen. It forced me to ask more questions and get to know myself and my reality in more depth. This is also the reason why I gravitated towards this site as well as self development as a whole. Before I had a problem with over analyzing things but nowadays I'm pretty confident with not knowing and I don't mind letting myself take things in in my own pace. Other than that, I didn't have too many hang ups along my journey. 11. The Magician (-) I've been really into manifestation lately and been cognizant of how my thoughts create my reality. That's what got me into shadow work in the first place. But I will say that I still have quite a few blockages I need to work through which is why I would characterize this as a lack. However, I don't completely lack it because I do believe that I can have a vision and work towards it. I think to further strengthen this I need to cultivate my life purpose and my vision more. In that way, this archetype connects with the Hero. 12. The Ruler This archetype really resonated with me, not because I embody it but because I lack it. I don't feel like going too much in depth on it because there is a lot to unpack but referring to Stability Fetish and Resistance to Discipline (both on p.3) sums things up pretty well . I won't reiterate this because it will be beating a dead horse. I think this also relates to my current taste in more masculine/assertive/ borderline domineering guys because it's like they have something that I don't and if I tap into what they have that means I won't have to go through the work and develop that quality in myself. This is problematic because causes me to get caught up with the idea I have of a guy instead of actually getting to know him as a human being. That's a plethora of other issues that I will probably discuss in a different post.

12 Jungian Archetypes My religion class this semester is currently talking about the Jungian Archetypes. The whole thing resonated with me so I decided to write out my reflection on it in this journal. In this post I'm going to write out the archetypes (I got them from this website:https://conorneill.com/2018/04/21/understanding-personality-the-12-jungian-archetypes/ but I also wanted to include this in my journal for aesthetics I guess). The next post will be my personal reflection. The 4 Cardinal Orientations The 4 cardinal orientations that the archetypes are seeking to realize are: Ego – Leave a Mark on the World Order – Provide Structure to the World Social – Connect to others Freedom – Yearn for Paradise The 12 Archetypes in Detail The Ego Types 1. The Innocent Motto: Free to be you and me Core desire: to get to paradise Goal: to be happy Greatest fear: to be punished for doing something bad or wrong Strategy: to do things right Weakness: boring for all their naive innocence Talent: faith and optimism The Innocent is also known as: Utopian, traditionalist, naive, mystic, saint, romantic, dreamer. 2. The Everyman Motto: All men and women are created equal Core Desire: connecting with others Goal: to belong Greatest fear: to be left out or to stand out from the crowd Strategy: develop ordinary solid virtues, be down to earth, the common touch Weakness: losing one’s own self in an effort to blend in or for the sake of superficial relationships Talent: realism, empathy, lack of pretense The Everyman is also known as: The good old boy, regular guy/girl, the person next door, the realist, the working stiff, the solid citizen, the good neighbor, the silent majority. 3. The Hero Motto: Where there’s a will, there’s a way Core desire: to prove one’s worth through courageous acts Goal: expert mastery in a way that improves the world Greatest fear: weakness, vulnerability, being a “chicken” Strategy: to be as strong and competent as possible Weakness: arrogance, always needing another battle to fight Talent: competence and courage The Hero is also known as: The warrior, crusader, rescuer, superhero, the soldier, dragon slayer, the winner and the team player. 4. The Caregiver Motto: Love your neighbour as yourself Core desire: to protect and care for others Goal: to help others Greatest fear: selfishness and ingratitude Strategy: doing things for others Weakness: martyrdom and being exploited Talent: compassion, generosity The Caregiver is also known as: The saint, altruist, parent, helper, supporter. The Soul Types 5. The Explorer Motto: Don’t fence me in Core desire: the freedom to find out who you are through exploring the world Goal: to experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life Biggest fear: getting trapped, conformity, and inner emptiness Strategy: journey, seeking out and experiencing new things, escape from boredom Weakness: aimless wandering, becoming a misfit Talent: autonomy, ambition, being true to one’s soul The explorer is also known as: The seeker, iconoclast, wanderer, individualist, pilgrim. 6.The Rebel Motto: Rules are made to be broken Core desire: revenge or revolution Goal: to overturn what isn’t working Greatest fear: to be powerless or ineffectual Strategy: disrupt, destroy, or shock Weakness: crossing over to the dark side, crime Talent: outrageousness, radical freedom The Outlaw is also known as: The rebel, revolutionary, wild man, the misfit, or iconoclast. 7. The Lover Motto: You’re the only one Core desire: intimacy and experience Goal: being in a relationship with the people, work and surroundings they love Greatest fear: being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved Strategy: to become more and more physically and emotionally attractive Weakness: outward-directed desire to please others at risk of losing own identity Talent: passion, gratitude, appreciation, and commitment The Lover is also known as: The partner, friend, intimate, enthusiast, sensualist, spouse, team-builder. 8. The Creator/Artist Motto: If you can imagine it, it can be done Core desire: to create things of enduring value Goal: to realize a vision Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution Strategy: develop artistic control and skill Task: to create culture, express own vision Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions Talent: creativity and imagination The Creator is also known as: The artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer or dreamer. The Self Types 9. The Jester Motto: You only live once Core desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world Greatest fear: being bored or boring others Strategy: play, make jokes, be funny Weakness: frivolity, wasting time Talent: joy The Jester is also known as: The fool, trickster, joker, practical joker or comedian. 10. The Sage Motto: The truth will set you free Core desire: to find the truth. Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world. Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance. Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes. Weakness: can study details forever and never act. Talent: wisdom, intelligence. The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative. 11. The Magician Motto: I make things happen. Core desire: understanding the fundamental laws of the universe Goal: to make dreams come true Greatest fear: unintended negative consequences Strategy: develop a vision and live by it Weakness: becoming manipulative Talent: finding win-win solutions The Magician is also known as: The visionary, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man. 12. The Ruler Motto: Power isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. Core desire: control Goal: create a prosperous, successful family or community Strategy: exercise power Greatest fear: chaos, being overthrown Weakness: being authoritarian, unable to delegate Talent: responsibility, leadership The Ruler is also known as: The boss, leader, aristocrat, king, queen, politician, role model, manager or administrator.

Cheat Codes to Life Today I have made the consideration to change my major. I'm going to be switching over from finance to management. I haven't officially made the switch yet however I am planning to if things go the way they are right now up til November when I have to make the final decision. These are my main reasons for switching. 1. Management Aligns with my Interests and Life Purpose More Than Finance I originally got into finance for two things. One because I was good at math and enjoyed it. Another is because I care about topics like wealth inequality and how to help people get out of their life circumstances financially. When it came to being good in math, in the last month I realized that the only reason why I am good at math is because of the resources that were available to me and because my parents pushed me in that direction by sitting with me every weekend and doing problems. As a result, I began enjoying math because it was a subject I was good at. Because all of this happened when I was young, it felt so normal. It felt like the truth. Now, I'm not saying that I hate math or that I'm bad at it, but saying that I'm passionate about it is an overstatement. I mistakened ego for passion. I thought I loved math but really I loved how smart it made me feel, how easy it came to me, how whenever I would do well in math, my parents would shower me with love. But, once you take ego away, math was just like any other subject that didn't resonate with me. Skill =/= true passion. When it came to notions of wealth inequality, upon taking my finance core classes, I discovered that majoring in finance isn't the best way to achieve this goal. From what I'm learning in class, finance mainly has more to do with statistical calculations and coming up with numbers rather than evaluating the numbers and creating systems accordingly. I care much more about personal finance over the stock market. I honestly couldn't care less about the NYSE or NASDAQ. My management classes on the other hand focuses more on people and how they work together in an organization. This also ties in notions of how resources are allocated towards the workers and other projects. Even though you still have to deal with people in finance, with management it's not mainly focused on clients rather it is also focused on workers. From what I understand, management is more applicable an relevant with the well being people and wealth inequality because it is more oriented around the system of how a company works. While everything in management didn't come naturally to me, because of my interests in the social sciences and human behavior, I'm actually more willing to work my way up to those skills because I'm genuinely interested in it. Skill =/= true passion but true passion -> leads to skill 2. Careers in Management Align with the Lifestyle Choices that I Want for Myself Because I will be graduating in a couple of years, I have been looking into types of jobs to apply for. With finance, I found things like investment banking, venture capital, hedge fund management, corporate finance etc. To be completely honest, none of those seem appealing to me. On top of that, most of those with maybe the exception of corporate finance have ridiculously long work weeks. From what I've gathered, it's around an average of 60-80 hours each week. This isn't me being like "oh I don't want to work hard I want things to come easy for me etc." This is me saying "hey I don't want my career to dominate my life to where I don't have time for additional interests, relationships, contemplation, and growth." The thing that I find ironic about finance is that one of the first things you learn is that a lack of diversification leads to increased volatility. Sure, we were talking about assets in that instance but I believe that it also applies to life as a whole. In other words, don't put all of your fulfillment eggs in one basket. Find fulfillment in numerous areas in your life even apart from your career and life purpose to supplement your over all life satisfaction. A lot people in finance understand this on paper with their work, but they don't see the same mechanism working for the rest of their lives and as a result put all of their time and energy into work until they lose it or burn out completely. I'm sure that there are some people that derive a lot of pleasure from a fast paced finance career, but it doesn't seem like the most sustainable option both emotionally or physically. I'll pass. Instead, I find that careers in management has a better work life balance. Sure, there will be times where I'll have to put in extra hours but I don't mind so long as it isn't the norm. If anything, having extra down time can help one be more creative and alert meaning they will be able to put in more quality effort. I'm not opposed to working hard towards a particular goal, I just think there is more sustainable ways of going about it than working 80 hour work weeks. Management still pays well even if it is lower than finance. But that is a trade off that I'm willing to take. I'm willing to give up that opportunity cost for the freedom to have more time for myself, my hobbies, and someday a family. 3. Management Pairs Better with my Major in International Relations and Minor in Human Rights I picked up my second major in international relations and my minor in human rights solely because it interested me. I still kept finance as my main focus as I thought that this is what I will get a career with. The other two were simply garnishes for the main course. However, upon taking my finance classes, I realized that it didn't in corporate a lot of what I learned in my social science and humanities courses. Management on the other hand does. Management incorporates a lot of psychology as well as sociology. If I focus towards more global business, notions of anthropology and history also come into play when understanding different cultures and power dynamics. While majoring in finance can help me diversify my skills by adding in trading and more calculations, majoring in management can complement my skills in the social sciences for more holistic decision making. Management ties in my skills in those classes and my understanding of human behavior in a more practical and more marketable way in the job market. Plus, I love dealing with people and institutions. I think that this is a better way of moving businesses through the spiral because it isn't about how the numbers are being crunched in a stage orange way rather it is how the numbers are being applied in a larger system so that there is efficiency and equity among people so that they can be emotionally elevated and therefore more productive (green/yellow). 4. The Switch in my Major Isn't that Bad It would be one thing if I was going from finance all the way to physics. That would definitely lengthen my graduation time and therefore how much money I will owe the school. There would me many more logistical concerns there. Rather, I'm switching majors within the business school. There is a lot of over lap between finance and management since they are both business degrees and therefore require some of the same basic business courses. I'm also not in too deep with finance to where it will be a great inconvenience to major in management. If I switch now, things will still be ok. It's better to stop, wait a minute, take everything in and change course accordingly so you can get to where you want to go rather than sprint at lightening speed towards the wrong direction only to crash and burn. 5. Majoring in Finance is Taking an Emotional Toll on Me This goes along with #2 when it comes to life style choices. Every time I would look at my course work, I found myself zoning out and having an existential crisis thinking *this is what my life is going to amount to* in a very negative way. I caught myself just not liking where my life was heading and I noticed myself lacking in bright eyed bushy tailed energy. As a result, I have been really having to force myself to do anything, even though I arguably do have the mathematical skills. The notion of getting into a soul crushing job with long hours of punching numbers hung over me. I feel that my mind being reluctant to focus is a form of self sabotage in order to protect me from this type of future. The fact that I have to drag myself to do anything is a sign. It's not a good feeling but those feelings are still trying to tell you something usually in an effort to warn or protect you from something. Sure sometimes it can come out in an unhealthy way and can be an egoic over reaction but sometimes, sounding the alarm bells is necessary however unpleasant. I believe that these negative emotional states are trying to tell me that if this was my life purpose, hard work is more likely to be a flow state rather than pure grunt work. I have had to deal with classes that were challenging before and though it didn't feel like a breeze, it still felt like a flow instead of a constant forceful push. I'm going to opt to listen to my intuition before my intuition's whisper turns into a scream for help. When I told myself that I'm going to opt to major in management instead, a weight felt as thought it was being lifted off my shoulder. My future didn't feel super grim. I then began thinking *hey, I need to only do this for this semester and get through this, it isn't what my life is going to amount to.* That thought brought me an immense amount of relief, probably to the point where I can get through this semester. I remember getting a piece of advice that said "choose what feels like freedom." What feels freedom isn't always the same as doing what feels easy in the short term rather it is about what will be good in the long term. It isn't a manic, crazy, panicky feeling rather it is one of peace and balance. And that is exactly what choosing management feels like to me. This is where my intuition is guiding me towards. I'm glad that I came to these conclusions sooner rather than later. I feel that the work I have done on myself as well the content/ advice I got from a variety of teachers have helped me a ton. Who knows how long I would have had to deal with this existential crisis or how much longer it would take me to get to these conclusions. I'm glad that I'm getting these conclusions now rather than say a year from now when I will be graduating or maybe even years down my career. The stuff that some of these teachers have said are really like the cheat codes to life it one actually listens to and applies the knowledge/ advice. I'd say it has paid off considerable and streamlined my growth.

I love her channel!!!! I find her content to be very in depth while remaining entertaining. As a result, her videos really resonate with a lot of different types of people along the spiral even though the message is pretty green/yellow.