Consumption R.E.P.O.R.T.

Characteristics making up the week.

Apr 28, 2024

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For Sunday’s post, I wanted to share the main ingredients that made up my week. It's a more light-hearted post than the other but I think it can still offer something valuable.

Reading

This week I have been switching between two books, one Maltese and one non-fiction. For non-fiction, I have ‘Sapiens’ lined up by Yuval Noah Harari and I sincerely recommend it. It talks about everything having to do with the human race in a humorous and easy-to-understand way. Reading it provokes questions about most of the things you take to be fact like societal organisation, food growth, and relationships between people. For example, what if myths were never created? Social classes, laws, societal norms, and other constraints are all based on myths. So if you fancy exploring the what-ifs of human nature, pick up a copy. Reading looks good on everyone anyway.

"How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined."

Eating

I need to talk about food a bit as well. It is Christina’s 307 after all. This week I’ve been making yogurt bowls in the evening as dessert and I’ve been loving them. It’s a base of Greek yoghurt with anything you want on top. My favourites are berries, peanut butter, nuts, dates, chocolate, and any other fruit I find. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures. I simply did not find the patience to wait for a picture to start eating. But you can trust me blindly on this (i.e. without pictures), they’re that good.

Playing

Apart from my usual shenanigans with the Revolut request button, I’ve been exploring the world of writing more deeply this week. And I’m genuinely enjoying it. Yesterday, for example, I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking of things to write about and I think I drafted the first sentence of about ten future posts. However, I’m happy to be in this position of feeling taken in by a hobby. I’ve recently read ‘Ikigai’ by Hector Garcia in which he talks about finding a state of flow. This flow state is when you are so immersed in what you’re doing that time flies by and flow propels us towards our Ikigai; our reason for being.

“There is no future, no past. There is only the present. […] You are completely immersed in the experience.” (Ikigai pg. 55)

Now, it might be a bit too early to proclaim writing to be my Ikigai but I believe the flow state is there. There is no past and no present when I’m writing, no school, no essays to do, no chores to do. If there is, it has something to do with what I’m writing.

Obsessing

In addition to this newsletter, my most recent obsession is my brows. So I got them laminated on Tuesday and every day I took it upon myself to determine if this lamination was worth it and if it worked. Wednesday, during my private lesson online, I was in the process of determination and I must have looked so preoccupied that my teacher asked me if I was worrying about the book’s plot and the situation the characters got themselves in. I then had to scrounge up a response, in Italian might I add.

Recommending

Catharsis. This week I experienced this on Friday, unfortunately at school but still, you feel so free afterwards. If you need to cry, go ahead. My preferred method is laughing and crying simultaneously. I felt like I just came out of a bath afterwards; clean and rested. In conjunction, I also recommend finding good people to surround yourself with if you should find yourself going through catharsis in public. Contrary to what I thought, being sad doesn’t make you a burden to your friends. If they truly are your friends, they should be happy to help. And if you’re on the friend side of this dynamic, offering coffee does wonders.

Thankful

I don’t want to end on a sappy note but I’m very grateful for you reading this, and anyone who has shown their support by subscribing or sharing or whatever. I genuinely hope that what I write adds value and that you keep enjoying what I write. If you have any recommendations, thoughts, or opinions, feel free to share them by email, on socials or in the comments. I’m also thankful for those.