I was thinking about the emphasis on mind vs. body in current society. For example, most people tend to have goals related to caring for the body be it general exercise or going to the gym or eating healthy or working on a diet, so on and so forth. If people seem to be obviously ignoring the body such as if they are overweight or they are home-bound most of the time, they will get direct advice about how they should do all of those things that people do or even obsess about doing.

However, consider the opposite. People who do all these things to keep physically fit but do hardly anything to develop or grow their mind. Would they ever be told to go read a book or develop their knowledge or sharpen their thinking or anything that relates to making the mind fitter? It would be deemed offensive to even say something like this but why is it not offensive to say a similar thing to someone who is more oriented to exercising their mind? Why is it—paradoxically and ironically—okay to make this person feel like they are not living well... when at least according to me living well is about reaching one's mental potential, not flat abs or ideal weight. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the latter goals if that's what one wants and I wouldn't dream of telling anyone to change whatever focus they have. The issue or rather what seems strange to me is how modern society places so much emphasis on physical fitness or the body and so little on mental fitness or the mind.

I am feeling a bit under the weather... not heavily so but a general, vague sense. I can't even put my finger on the why. Almost every day I want to say something on this blog but writing this and that on this forum and that on social media sort of leaves me at a loss at the end of the day... like my words have been spent. This bothers me a bit... what I really like about writing on this blog is that I am not oriented specifically to my views being accepted, liked or even understood for that matter. Not to say I don't try my best to be clear but I don't have any expectation of understanding, reciprocation, approval, approbation, agreement... nothing. I feel this is soothing in one way but in another way I ask myself why I need to expect these things anywhere else either? Why can't I adopt this attitude in general to be emotionally distant or detached from feedback, praise, criticism, indifference, etc.? I don't mean that I should ignore constructive feedback or not work on improvement but my stress here is on "emotional detachment" or on not being moved by praise or lack of it. In other words, whether people offer praise or whether they don't see any merit in what I say should not be the scale on which to weigh the strength or weakness or validity of my message. If they indeed do have valid criticism, that should also not make me feel bad but rather good that I was offered a chance to reorient my thinking. The problem is vanity makes one focus on external perception/reception instead of internal coherence, sense, depth, quality of message. This is where I sometimes feel I would profit more by spending more words on my blog than anywhere else... but that is a bit like closing my eyes because I don't want the world to look at me. What is really needed is for me to work on my own attitude rather than escape the avenues that put a demand on me.

I understand why people in the earlier centuries were so productive. They weren't beset by the distractions of technology. I find myself checking social media, my FB groups, memes so on almost every 10 minutes and once I start I don't stop quickly. I even wonder how I manage to get any work done at all. I clearly do because... well, proof in the pudding and all that. I think if I didn't get work done or I got shoddy stuff done it would help me fix my work habits immensely. It would make me feel very guilty and remorseful and I would perhaps then try to find ways to not give in to temptation. Not that I haven't tried! I generally keep my phone in the other room so I have to make some effort to get it but even then I feel like I look at it too much.

You might be wondering what's the problem if work's getting done and getting done well. I do believe I am far more productive than my counterparts but I feel I shouldn't be comparing myself to other people to figure out if I am doing fine. The point is that I could be more productive if I used my time better. But then I think to myself—no one can work intensively 12 hours a day, at least I can't? What's the harm if I use social media for relaxation or distraction or to have conversations with intelligent folks. I have anyway less avenues for all this with the pandemic going on. I guess the problem is not the distraction or relaxation or the time off itself but the nature of it or the fact that it drains my mental and sometimes even emotional batteries in a way. Even after I switch off from the distraction I chew on it. If I went out for a walk or to shop I could have come back with a rather refreshed mind. During these type of activities I could process my work in the background so maybe I would even have some solutions when I get back. But that's not the case with social media consumption. It actually takes away my attention to different problems, different topics... away from the things I should be consumed by; I think about those things when I am working rather than the other way round. I guess that's the main issue. I can't deny that sometimes these other problems or topics have actually led me to insights that were useful in my research. Also, I think it's necessary to know what's going on in the practical world, what is top of the mind in the world, what sort of things are in fashion in multiple senses of the term and so on. I suppose what I am coming at is that giving it all up would be to throw the baby with the bath water. I need a way to maintain balance. Not sure how to do that because it's a bit like carbs... if you have a little, you want to have more :)