Overworking is not a virtue, and hustle culture has to be gone once and for all.
Raise your hand if you’ve read articles, listened to podcasts, downloaded apps, bought planners and implemented new systems to become more productive, only to look for the next shiny hack. I’m guilty as charged.
I have spent my twenties ridden with anxiety to get more done and feeling like I was already late to the party. If only I could find a way to be more efficient, fit more into my time! Instead of doing my work, I was focusing on how I should be working.
I was stuck in a loop of self-important, masturbatory procrastination, a kind that made…
Let’s rethink normality and let orthodoxies die
The phrase “new normal” conceals the most and says the least. It suggests business as usual and a certain kind of continuum between yesterday and tomorrow. But is there a continuum? More importantly: Do we want a continuum? Many realise that we have to recalibrate as a society. Step back and think again.
We live in the age of history’s greatest acceleration, and change is the only constant. As Millenials, we never really had a reliable continuity as we entered the workforce just after the subprime crisis, and housing prices were still prohibitive. For the first time in modern history…
And the positive effects of speaking up as a bystander
The number of hate crimes against Asians around the world skyrocketed during the pandemic. They are pervasive in predominantly white communities across the globe. We see extreme examples on the news, but the community had to endure all kinds of shunning and microaggression even before the pandemic and Asian scapegoating started.
Let’s see what xenophobic harassment can look like and why your actions as a bystander and ally matter.
Assault
Assault is the most extreme case of xenophobic hate crimes. Recently, young men attacked and killed elderly Asians. There was a surge in reported assault crimes on the AAPI website.
Here is what you can do instead
I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you that the world's plastic problem is at a critical level today. From the Stone Age to the Iron Age to the Steel Age, we delineate society’s epochs by their primary material for fabrication. Ours will most likely be called the Plastic Age.
Microplastics and the plastic waste in our oceans, food-chain and even air are harmful to humans and wildlife. In one study, 100% of the mussels tested contained microplastics. …
“You are so exotic.”
I am biracial. Wherever I am, the majority perceives me as a foreigner. I am a Caucasian- Asian mix. Not Asian enough in my native Asian country, or anywhere in Asia, and not white enough in Europe or the States.
Racist microaggression and the resulting racial battle fatigue are very real for BIPOC all around the world, regardless of whether they were born where they live or not.
A sense of being mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained from having to defend, validate our existence to racist people. …
An extensive guide to sustainable meat consumption from an omnivore environmental scientist
The meat industry is by far one of the most problematic industries we have on our planet. Meat has become the central piece of the human diet after being on the periphery for most human history.
The average person consumes a staggering 50 kg of meat yearly, which is more than double per capita than just a century before, amidst a tripling of the human population.
The meat and dairy industry is terrible for human health due to the excessive use of antibiotics, low-quality diets for animals, and it is known for its appalling animal cruelty.
I applaud everyone who…
What do 18th-century naturalists have to do with today’s beauty standards?
I wanted to change the appearance of my nose for as long as I can remember. I always felt like my legs were too short, and I was crushed because I did not have long limbs nor full lips, even as a teenage girl. Most of us have thought about having some kind of procedure done. Surgeries being normalized is undoubtedly a positive trend, but we have to take a deeper look at a culture that makes people feel less than. A culture that makes you feel inadequate isn’t healthy by any means.
I want to take a deeper look…
My therapist’s advice on how not to fall into unhealthy relationship patterns ever again
Have you ever felt like people don’t treat you with respect or don’t invest as much in you as you do in them? Ever felt lost, not knowing where your relationship with someone was going? I sure did.
Sometimes we like the idea of a person and a relationship with them so much, we fail to set boundaries and honour ourselves. Projecting and not developing boundaries is just one of the ways how unhealed trauma from your past manifests itself. According to my therapist, other manifestations could be:
- fixing others
- attracting narcissistic partners
- codependency
- need of external validation
- living on…
Travel. Pandemic. Mindful Traveling.
A look at why we travel.
I just came back from the Taj Mahal. It was a great break from living my life in the same place for a year now, but I couldn’t help but feel disheartened.
It was a VR visit. It was immersive enough, and I could see and hear other people there, but it was still rather boring. “What a disappointment”, I thought, and an overwhelming longing took over me.
In the VR, I did not feel the Agra sun's heat on my skin; I did not feel the exhilaration I had felt when I went to India just three years ago…
Stop equating skin with sex
It is not yet warm, but I unzipped my ankle-length puffy jacket in sunny 10 Celsius degree weather as I walked out from a chemical peel. Besides looking like a skinless tomato, I was wearing a simple tube dress with sneakers. Nevertheless, all hell broke loose the moment some men caught sight of my still fully covered body; that’s a sexual object to them. To be clear, my dress was calf-length, but not wearing a bra sent them salivating. The gang of creepy middle-aged men went about telling each other what they’d like to do with my body. They did…
Ono Mergen
Environmental scientist& entrepreneur. Rethinking culture, future, science, society. ☕️❤ ko-fi.com/onomergen🌍 Top writer 📬ono@onoceans.com
