May we give s p a c e🤍

Dear Friend,

Hey, how’s it going? In reviewing my August’s memorandom (What’s worth remembering), it was easy to see just how anxious I have been … how over the course of the month my stress from work took over my personal life, even affecting my personal health enough to take a sick day. While this anxiety is not constant across every minute, it’s persistent enough for me to use up a lot of unneeded mental energy just to keep them at bay… and boy did I burn out because of it.

But one way I’ve been managing my stress and anxiety is to give space on these irrelevant thoughts and just allowing them to settle. I picked up my Bullet Journal (“BuJo”) again this month not just to jot down my to-dos, but also to write out my thoughts and learnings for the day. It’s an effective way to give space for these racing thoughts, simply by the act of physically writing them out of my head and into a literal canvas of a page. And since BuJo is based on a daily log, everyday I play an active choice to carry foward the relevant to-dos to the next day while leaving the rest behind as I literally turn over a new page.

Similarly, whenever there’s a nugget of a good idea not quite ready for prime time, usually a passing thought during my routine run, I table and give space for it to grow. If it’s important enough the idea would come up again and again, becoming more ready or relevant over time. And if it doesn’t come up again, then c’est la vie. My boss has this analogy of a rock tumbler… how in the beginning ideas are rough and need to ruminate, but with enough time, debate, and patience they’ll eventually tumble their way to be polished gems. I like this analogy a lot, and to it I would add the importance to also focus on the rock tumbler and not the rocks themselves. Am I being tumbled around by these thoughts when ideally, I should be the one tumbling them instead?

I’ve also been listening to a lot of classical music lately. I was initially intrigued by classical music because my childhood friend Linus was really into it growing up, so during college I took a Music of the World elective course. I ended up liking the class so much that I took the same class again a year later! As a person who loves structure, I find classical music (specifically 4-movement symphonies from the Classical Era) to be my sweet spot. In a world where pop vocals rarely stray outside of a single octave, it’s nice to listen to something with a much wider range while fully knowing what to expect for every movement — each of them a world in itself.

Lastly, I hope this email isn’t coming across as whiny or overly negative. While I strive to be honest about my anxiety and overall mental health, something so taboo yet common living in today’s world, I also want to share how I manage these issues in a truthful, authentic way. If you’re also going through a rough patch, let me know how you’re managing in your corner of the world. May we give space to others and to ourselves.

The Leave Behind:

• The photos I took this month
• What’s worth remembering in August 2023
• Check out the Installer series from The Verge. It’s similar to what I used to do here on Dear Friend, but quickly realized I didn’t have enough time or rationale to do it as fully as what Installer is doing here.
• I’m back on Reddit and Instagram, but only via the desktop web as to add more friction to the process. It’s a good balance between being completely cut off from the social world and being addicted to the apps (again)

Thanks for reading on this and being with me on this journey. You can check out past issues of Dear Friend, here.

Love wins