Self. It’s a thing. We are individuals. And we are herd animals. Being part of the group is part of our nature. Like bees, humans don’t do so well all on their own.
However, many people in our times, believe they should “do it all” themselves. If you don’t do it yourself, it doesn’t count, they say. If you need to get help or work with someone else, you’re weak and ineffective, they think. If you can’t figure it out and pull it off on your own, you suck, they feel.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) hyper-individualism is a big fat lie.
You are not a loser if you feel down after living alone and isolated in your apartment under quarantine during a pandemic for days or weeks.
You are not essentially flawed if you can’t stop doom scrolling the familiar yucky thoughts in your head trying to figure out the cause of the mental doom scrolling.
Read about the primacy of social connection here.
Yes, you should do some stuff alone and on your own. Being an individual is, say, half your life. The other half, however, is being part of the group. Our lives are part me and part we–to you individualists: a hefty part we.
You are not supposed to go it alone.
Share, talk, connect, lift yourself out of the deep hole of hyper-individualism by helping others do the same. Give, take, honor others. Honor your natural way of being, which is social, and all of our natural way of being, which is necessarily interconnected. You only deny yourself when you deny the primacy of social connection
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