I’ve re-discovered the art of deliberacy.

By that I mean that my way of interacting with the world is (ideally) always through deliberate, careful, and conscious actions.

A good example: you’ve just written a note. Your instinct would be to drop the pencil. Instead, you should be deliberate in how you place the pencil down. It is gently placed in line with the page instead of being tossed to the side.

This sounds silly, and I feel like it gives serial killer vibes, but we are all so overstimulated and so much goes on in our subconscious minds. Being deliberate in your actions, big or small, is a soothing way of reconnecting to the world and thinking more clearly.

But damn if it isn’t difficult to maintain deliberacy. It’s shocking how many of my actions are effectively subconscious.

This idea was granted to me through Infinite Jest. A frankly detestable character hammers this practice into his son’s head, and while it doesn’t seem to help the character much, it has helped me.