Sydney Barnett
@sydbarnett
Writer. Singer. Coach.
Sydney Barnett
sydneybarnettmusic.substack.com
Constellations round my waist
I’m wrapped in the winks of angels
Looking for a soul to save
Come collapse into my fable
Fly away with me, I’ll spin you tales
A pretty pipe dream
Whatever you need
I’ll change my whole world
Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl
A male fantasy
With a touch of crazy
I’ll light up your world
Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Implications, I fall f
... See moreHarmful, Internalized Concepts of Love (Hetero Female POV)
Manic Pixie Dream Girl:
“an archetype that taps into a particular male fantasy: of being saved from depression and ennui by a fantasy woman who sweeps in like a glittery breeze to save you from yourself, then disappears once her work is done.”
A stock character type in fiction, usually depicted as a young woman with eccentric personality quirks who serves as the romantic interest for a male protagonist.
The Unread Shelf
1d
The irony is that the self-improvement industrial complex has convinced us that contentment itself is a problem to be solved. “ You're happy? Well, you could be OPTIMIZED happy. You're calm? But are you PEAK calm?” It's exhausting being marketed to by your own potential. Sometimes the most radical act is sitting still and thinking... See more
1d
The irony is that the self-improvement industrial complex has convinced us that contentment itself is a problem to be solved. “ You're happy? Well, you could be OPTIMIZED happy. You're calm? But are you PEAK calm?” It's exhausting being marketed to by your own potential. Sometimes the most radical act is sitting still and thinking... See more
Annie Scott • Annie Scott (@anniescott)
The urge to "provide value" is killing creativity and Self-Improvement Industrial Complex
Absolutely on point. “It’s exhausting being marketed to by your own potential.” What a line. I also think he’s right in that presence and gratitude are key tools.
“To conflate the choice of a romantic partner with the choice of one’s own identity might strike you as retrograde, but…who was I anyway? I was looking for someone to tell me.” -CJ Hauser, “The Crane Wife” Page 36.
When you have a weak self-concept, and are prone to people-pleasing behaviors, then you might find yourself in this predicament. Looking outward, to any relationship, to dictate who you are.
Makes me think of when people I love have made sweeping statements about me. “You’re always spilling things! You’re so messy.” If I am not careful, I might take this for truth and internalize it. Soon, I might find myself repeating to people, “I’m always spilling things. I’m a messy person.”
Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
I guess what I’m trying to say in this essay is: I’m awed and surprised and deeply pleased that this turned out to be a good strategy. You don’t have to be a content farm to find a community of readers; you can just put your heart into making unreasonably thorough stuff.
Henrik Karlsson • When I Have a Slower Publishing Cadence My Blog Grows Faster
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”
Ruby LaRocca • A Constitution for Teenage Happiness
When people come to me and say, “I’d like to be an artist.” I say, “Well, you’re not. You either are or you’re not.” It’s like breathing. You don’t question breathing, you just breathe. So you just wake up in the morning and you create. That urge to create makes you an artist but it doesn’t make you a great artist. The great artist has to really, r
... See more
“Franz Marc’s Blue Horses” by Mary Oliver.
I love this line:
“Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.”
For me, this poem is a lot about letting things be, without trying to intellectualize or to over-explain. It’s about presence, and allowing beauty to be enough. And in the face of war, or conflict, it’s important to continue creating beauty and art.
Self-Improvement Industrial Complex
Trusting your inner wisdom… honoring your mess… practicing discernment amongst all the “self-help” chatter