Introducing Most Alive, The Blog
Fall 2023. I leave my corporate career without a plan. I trust I’ll figure it out, I just know there’s more to life than this. Many coworkers support me and say they wish they could do it. (I think they can.) I joke that I’ll do it ‘for them,’ and they suggest I blog about it. Sometimes I take jokes seriously … so this is a blog about it.
Why though?
It’s a bit of a story.
I suffer from depression with the primary toxic thought being “nothing’s worth it.” I’ve spent two decades struggling with that. After leaving my job, I asked myself, “If I knew I’d die tomorrow, what would I want to do today?” The answer was, “Go to France.” I’d briefly visited twice, enjoyed it, felt I might want to live there, and wanted to test that out. So in January, off I went for a few months.
Less than a week in, my chronic ‘come-and-go’ depression hit, and I spent two days barely leaving my bed. This has been common for me for years. Luckily, so too is coming out of it, and this time after those couple days, I woke up with these thoughts invigorating me:
The 3 Things
There are states of mind that yield happier lives.
It’s possible to change our states of mind (neuroplasticity is a thing).
I want one of these states of mind.
I was sick of the “nothing’s worth it” mopes taking my life over so often even with pretty regular therapy.* I plunged myself into the work of rewiring my brain accordingly. I began researching the scientific literature on happiness and well-being, following breadcrumbs from study to study, experiment to experiment, book to book.
I also began writing based on prompts, data, and ideas I was finding. It helped, and voilà (French!), the idea to blog about it for real was born. Combine that with the Most Alive story and it all comes together here in front of your eyeballs (perhaps above them if you’re laying down, below them if your phone is resting on the table, etc.).
What To Expect
I’ve come to learn how valuable it can be to see people’s authentic, vulnerable stories. I’ve come to learn I have a natural desire to share what helps me with others. So that’s what this’ll be: the story of my journey to rewire my brain for a life of well-being, drizzled with the hope that something in it, some way, somehow, somewhere, will
help someone.
*Disclaimer: Therapy has helped me immensely and I recommend it to anyone. I also do not pretend or believe that my work is a replacement for therapy especially for those with mental illness.
