In the wake of the election, America is really polarized. They were polarized before, but now there is a record of how polarized we are.<\/p>\n
People voted, and it was recorded that we don’t agree. And it’s tough. Although I love social media, the algorithms have left us mostly hanging out with people that agree with each other.<\/p>\n
And now, incontrovertibly, a lot of people don’t agree.<\/p>\n
I’m watching people try to come to terms with the election. I am hearing a lot of fear and anger. And people trying to understand each other.<\/p>\n
I am reminded of a time when I was in a hostile work environment. It felt like everyone was against me, and I didn’t know whom to trust.<\/p>\n
Months went by as I tried to understand what to do. And I also would go over in my mind what was happening, and I would try to understand why my coworkers were so against me.<\/p>\n
I caught myself having imaginary conversations with each of them, explaining myself. And then they would have counter arguments, which I would then refute.<\/p>\n
My mind was completely occupied with these mental conversations. It was not pleasant. I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into helpless despair.<\/p>\n
The point of all those imaginary conversations was to try to find a way to make it better. I started them with the idea that I could understand what my persecutors were thinking and perhaps I would be able to change something in my control and resolve it.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t stop when it didn’t work. It wasn’t clear to me that this preoccupation had become the problem.<\/p>\n
Until it did.<\/p>\n
I forced myself to stop. Never ever have a conversation with someone who is not in the room.<\/p>\n
STOP.<\/p>\n
It was not easy. It had become an ingrained habit.<\/p>\n
In order to stop, I have to fill my mind with something else. Whatsoever is good, think on it. I was working on finishing The Russian American School of Tomorrow. My mind was so preoccupied with all these imaginary conversations I wasn’t making much progress.<\/p>\n
So, I decided that whenever I started to go down that rabbit hole, I would think of what needed to be done next in my story.<\/p>\n
I was not eloquent as a ground the gears of my mind in a reverse direction. I did not come up with beautiful metaphors or tense plot pivots.<\/p>\n
I recorded my own voice into my phone; “The next part is the part where I don’t know what to do next.” I repeated what came before and what I thought might be good to put into that section.<\/p>\n
Then I listened to my recorded voice, considered what I’d said. Then I would record over that and do another version with a few improvements.<\/p>\n
I would then take those recordings and type them into a MS word Document. Tedious. Uninspired. But NOT obsessing about imaginary conversations. I pulled myself, completely resistant and incapable of anything, into making progress on what really mattered to me.<\/p>\n
So what does this have to do with the election?<\/p>\n
I find myself having imaginary conversations with people about the results of the election.<\/p>\n
And I remembered–that’s never a good idea.<\/p>\n
I thought I could share with you all my experiences. Spinning brain cycles on non-productive trains of thought is very seductive. But is makes me unhappy. And I want to make progress on what’s actually important to me.<\/p>\n
I want that for you too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the wake of the election, America is really polarized. They were polarized before, but now there is a record of how polarized we are. People voted, and it was recorded that we don’t agree. And it’s tough. Although I … Continue reading