Midnight Musings

This treatise explores and broadens the emotional spectrum behind high-signal communication, explores seriousness, joy, pain, and balance, and introduces the idea of sustainable emotional living. Part three on effective communications.

Mental health is a fickle beast, one that can manifest itself in all sorts of ways. One’s mind is one’s most powerful tool. But like any tool, it can be used for good or evil. Studies have conclusively shown the benefits to externalizing one’s thoughts – journaling, therapy, writing things down, confiding in a trusted source. Vocalizing what goes through one’s mind drags it out of the dark recesses inside one’s skull and into the light, where one can then examine it from all sides. Process it and move past it.

But some things are not so simply dealt with.

And toxic positivity – denying anything negative or unpleasant is both immature and foolish. Feel your feels, but don’t become your feels. We’re all dealing with crap we don’t share with anyone else. Compassion and kindness are the bywords we should be operating with. Because people like the late Robin Williams tried so hard to make others happy, in an effort to mask or hide a deep, incredible pain. These sorts of people take their happiness and peace very seriously. They are often the ones most in need of support.

Conversely, at the other end of the spectrum, are those who seem fundamentally incapable of cracking a smile. These people have often been subject to so much that they simply retreat entirely, because playing social games with chaos is exhausting. And yet, life is meant to be lived. Enjoyed. Like The Joker says in Batman, Why so serious? Let’s put a smile on that face! Granted, The Joker suffered a psychotic break with reality according to lore, but the difference between him and Robin Williams is thinner than some think. Williams was crushed by the cruel, harsh indifference the world offered; The Joker lost his mind from it.

Again with the mind being a powerful tool; a sword. But that is a blade that can cut both ways. Here’s the thing. There are many things that one can – and maybe even should – laugh at or laugh off. Boundaries and standards are not. Respect is not optional. People create their realities and their safe spaces through their actions and decisions, but those same actions and decisions ripple outwards in all directions and affect others. Nobody’s perfect, but uninhibited indulgence is toxic and unsustainable. Hiding from pain out of fear is valid, but also unsustainable. All living beings may be wired to avoid vulnerability and the risk of pain, but in the human world, pain is multilayered. Physical? Mental? Emotional? Reputational? Professional? Risk management is an important life skill. But running from one’s issues can only be sustained for so long. Speak plainly so you are understood, and understand your motivations for doing so.

So yes, be serious. But also, have fun. Sustainably. Everything in moderation! Don’t demonize someone for what they show you, you don’t know what made them that way. There may be a lesson to be learned in that.

The path towards a prosperous legacy demands one find balance in all things.