Mental Environment
I've always been fascinated by Adbusters Magazine's motto: "the journal for the mental environment". Indeed, it seems to me that most of us are careless about what we allow into our minds. We pollute our psyche with all sorts of negative stimuli. They are delivered through the things we read, see and hear. Adbusters, for example, used to do a great job at identifying the psychic damage caused by adverstising; that is, until they adopted an ideological stance on the issue. It all went downhill for there.
In part, as result of this pollution that we subject our minds to everyday, I believe our mental space is also shrinking. I've always been the daydreamer type. Recently, however, it seems my little fantasies and other musings come to visit less and less often. The mental space where I used to nurture them has been taken over by concerns that are mainly derived from work. It's the mental equivalent of England's Enclosure Movement: the sheep are eating away at the very sustenance of my mind!
With this in mind, it seems to me that calling-in sick every now and then is a healthy activity. It's a way to recover some of the territory we loose on a weekly basis. During those days, I plan to fly a kite, walk through the park, play my guitar, write letters and drink tea in the afternoons. To borrow Plato's analogy, I'll set out to do some gardening of the mind: I'll rid it from the weeds that pollute it so that my dreams may reflourish. It's the sort of therapy I need.
In part, as result of this pollution that we subject our minds to everyday, I believe our mental space is also shrinking. I've always been the daydreamer type. Recently, however, it seems my little fantasies and other musings come to visit less and less often. The mental space where I used to nurture them has been taken over by concerns that are mainly derived from work. It's the mental equivalent of England's Enclosure Movement: the sheep are eating away at the very sustenance of my mind!
With this in mind, it seems to me that calling-in sick every now and then is a healthy activity. It's a way to recover some of the territory we loose on a weekly basis. During those days, I plan to fly a kite, walk through the park, play my guitar, write letters and drink tea in the afternoons. To borrow Plato's analogy, I'll set out to do some gardening of the mind: I'll rid it from the weeds that pollute it so that my dreams may reflourish. It's the sort of therapy I need.
