Recent Posts

81

Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: Anything again

« Last post by Meh on March 16, 2026, 06:25:22 PM »

- Today I finished reading East of Eden.

It took me a long time to complete it. I'm a slow reader and now that I've gotten to the end I think I almost forget the start of it. Anyhow I feel like I should throw myself a party for finishing it. There are some books like that. Just having a cup of tea is all for a few minutes here.

The book has layers so a reader and interpret it maybe however they want to.

I think one of the big themes if not the main academic theme is loneliness. Loneliness is mentioned a few times in the book. Anyhow maybe I will come back to this thought later. 

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: Mindfulness and codependence thread

« Last post by Hopalong on March 16, 2026, 03:31:20 PM »

We've got tornadoes in the area, and drizzle....

So glad for you, Lighter, for today and for that gorgeous memory. I loved and never forgot the light in Scandinavia. I bicycled around the island of Funen (off Denmark) one summer on a job (chaperoning younger teens all over Europe, amazing time). I remember the golden light most of all...reflecting off a golden kind of stone in the houses.

I gotta bad code, so more later. So frustrated with a friend who hopped in my car toting a large box of tissues and coughed and spluttered the whole way, assuring me it was "allergies". I hadn't had a single respiratory illness since before covid.

Achoo,
Hops

hugs
Hops

83

Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: Generation Jones

« Last post by sKePTiKal on March 16, 2026, 08:46:20 AM »

Here's another one. This one deals with some shared social psychology attributes of the generation. It's about 20 mins long - and the video is all AI - but it is a real human speaking. I think - these days it's getting harder and harder to tell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvU7N6C7yfY&t=5s

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: Mindfulness and codependence thread

« Last post by lighter on March 15, 2026, 12:23:48 PM »

This morning was one of those perfectly sunny and mild mornings where Hobbits engage in mischief, and hoe their gardens.  Youngest DD stopped on the porch, looked up, and commented on the nice day, as she left for work.

THAT kind of perfectly perfect day, sans bugs.....how many of those does one get in a season? Year?  Lifetime?

I remember a day in Sweden...the sun filtered through the day, just like it did on a perfect day from my childhood, on my Grandparents' farm.....like a warm light filtering through the atmosphere, diffusing....softening...changing the way sound hits.  It was a thing.  A rare thing.

There's been many memorable fall days.... not so many amazing Spring days, but here one is.

Lighter

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Generation Jones

« Last post by sKePTiKal on March 15, 2026, 08:41:19 AM »

This is something recent I've run across. Between the Baby Boomer and GenX, exist this cohort of people born between 1954-1965. We're Generation Jones. We have attributes of BOTH adjacent generations... and some distinctively our own.

We overlap with Boomers culturally, in that many of us remember the signal events of the 60s, but we were a bit too young for Woodstock. With GenX, we share some music preferences, distrust of the gov't and other institutions, and fierce independence. GenX is forged in fire; we created the path.

The popular mythology goes, that Jones people have a craving to "keep up with the Jonese"... altho' personally, that wasnt on my priority radar. Surviving was. Our cultural events include the first gas crisis, Nixon/Watergate, closing the gold window, and the moon landing. Oh yeah, and DISCO.

Decent explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-X01D2oIcY


Professor hat removed: whomever picked the name "jones" for this generational cohort, should be roundly rediculed! It's beyond silly; it's absurd. Personally, I began to critique some of the boomer's ideas long before anyone would take me seriously and I've mostly only gotten more critical since. But not all people embody the whole "stereotype" definition neatly. In boomers, jones & X, I see a thread of individualism running - X being the most empathetic to others who are different from themselves, for instance. But, there are the surface appearances - and more personal level differences in all 3.

So, is this evolutionary?? or just dressing the pig in a different colored tutu and lipstick?

Fodder for pondering. Observing. Maybe finding a conclusion or two in the process.

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: N.

« Last post by Meh on March 14, 2026, 03:40:07 PM »

If you'd like more information, or insights, on my perspectives on healing....just ask.

Lighter

Thanks.

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: N.

« Last post by Meh on March 14, 2026, 03:37:39 PM »

Momentum is a strange thing. Once moving, it develops a life of it's own.

This is a fact.

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: N.

« Last post by Meh on March 14, 2026, 03:35:45 PM »

Talking about your childhood won't fix the fact that your prefrontal cortex is being bathed in cortisol & damaging brain tissue.

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: N.

« Last post by lighter on March 14, 2026, 02:05:13 PM »

You seem ready to process, and heal your trauma, Meh.  I'm glad you're actively seeking a therapist to facilitate.

If you'd like more information, or insights, on my perspectives on healing....just ask.

I don't want to slow your flow, of noticing what's there.....behind your discomfort.

The discomfort is just a messenger, IME.....asking for attention. 

Resisting, what's there, typically is the root of my suffering....once I turn to face it.  Even though I know this, it's still exhausting and confusing to sort, as you're doing.  Better with a guide/therapist.

Lighter

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Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board / Re: N.

« Last post by sKePTiKal on March 14, 2026, 09:12:13 AM »

Meh, your description of yourself as "stuck", struck a bell for me. Along with being "tired".

You're correct, that CoNs know that their survival depends on being quiet, not telegraphing emotion, or giving the N any reason to target oneself for criticism or anything else. Sometimes it happens while practicing that a LOT, like all the time, that one "hides" one's internal world from oneself even - in the fear, that it'll be read on one's face. Ooops.... revealed!

I equated that with a wish to be invisible. LOL. But it was more like my personality, persona, ego, whatever you call it, had been only roughly sketched out - in my inner world. I'd never developed it into a refined finished drawing to present to the outside world. Logically, it follows (at least in my mind) that something that vague and ghostly didn't have a lot of preferences, didn't have much agency or autonomy... wasn't really REAL. It was an idea. And that sure as hell FELT stuck.

Trying to move out of that (and finish the drawing more completely) moved me into an experimental phase; trying things on for size, fit, feel - expression. It wasn't competitive; there wasn't any objective right or wrong (since society is always changing it's standards there) - it was just finding what was comfortable for me, that I felt good about. And I kept going.

Momentum is a strange thing. Once moving, it develops a life of it's own. The only hard part is overcoming the reason for inertia, in the first place. There can be a million different reasons for inertia - fear, resistence, lack of direction, lack of decision, procrastination (as if there is some magically blessed time to begin anything)... and if you're being as honest with yourself as it sounds to me, as you are... you'll figure it out. I got my own struggles with inertia. And knowing when it's my self telling me I NEED to rest or when it's something getting in my way. That I've been putting in my own way, because I internalized something unjust, judgemental, critical or cruel.

Yup; it's still there - but I'm making headway. Usually to do with pick 2-3 little things toward the task and making myself start - because it is something I WANT for myself. For me, it's the want that's the key to kickstarting that momentum. You might find something else that does it for you.

Good luck! (oh - and it helps if you accept any babystep successes at first and don't beat yourself up if you fail to meet a goal the first time)