My friend sent me the cover of this week’s New York magazine with an enormous gold title The Return Of FOMO. Which stands for Fear Of Missing Out. And it’s baaaccck baby! The world is opening up, and with it a level of anxiety about missing out. No one knows what the missing out is precisely about, but it’s sidling into our minds. I’m speaking with students all over the world, and the same messages are coming back; I’m unsure how to navigate life right now, and it feels like it’s all going rather fast. Like warp speed. And I still have no idea what the future holds. That kind of angst.
There is a lot anxiety about The Perceived Need To Return To. Exhaustion at the prospect of many after school activities for their kids. That extra study is over now because, travel. That too much socialising and not enough rest is around the corner. That being introverted and discovering more alone time than you thought possible is bliss and that’s about to finish. That you might not need to exist in a city and now probably have to go back. There’s a lot of these ideas floating about, hauntingly.
I just wanted to remind you that you don’t have to do SHIT if you don’t want to. And especially only because the world is ‘opening up’. The New Normal is up to your to define. This has been the greatest global opportunity for our conditioned minds to be shaken up. Collectively. It happens individually all the time. But now it’s been for most of the world. And you can choose to continue to write your story however you please. Just because we can board a plane doesn’t mean we have to. Just because all the mums are back at the park, or friends are back in the club, doesn’t mean we need to be too. Let’s not let this past enormous year that has shaped everyone, be for nothing. Let’s sit with ourselves a moment, get really clear on what we want from our lives, who we want to be within them, and be empowered to act upon this current version of yourself, not the one from last year. This is a new you. But it is every day, we just kid ourselves that it’s not.
With love,
Jac x