The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Has anybody here ever substantially changed their personality? I don't mean a simple increase in confidence or developing a taste for beer. I mean a fundamental shift in polarity -- going from an introvert to an extrovert, a risk-averse nerd to an overconfident jock, etc.. Do you think there's any limit on the changes people can make in themselves, barring traumatic events or assistance from drugs?
I remember a phase change in early childhood. I was a rather introverted kid, refusing to interact with strangers or even family outside my immediate one.
One day, an aunt of mine tried talking to me, and I remember mentally going fuck it, what's the harm? and engaged in a bit of polite conversation. She was extremely surprised, pleasantly so, and I recall feeling gratified by the positive feedback, along the lines of "huh, that wasn't bad at all, maybe I should talk to people?", and I did so from there on out. I'd say that's a change from an utter introvert to an ambivert.
A more recent example was college, where I made an effort to make friends, not that I tried particularly hard, but it seems I'm an interesting enough guy that I had friends who would look for me and drag me along to places even if I was perfectly content being a shut-in.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link