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Personal Development: “Cocooning in a new decade” November 22, 2020

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Concept of personal growth, Uncategorized.
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Cocooning is a concept coined by social philosopher and futurist Faith Popcorn in the late 1970s, which described the idea of spending more and more time at home as a refuge from the noise/disruptions  of the outside world.

In her book The Popcorn Report (1), published in 1991, she said “cocooning…when we named it, [was] “the impulse to go inside when it just gets too tough and scary outside. To pull a shell of safety around yourself, so you’re not at the mercy of a mean, unpredictable world…”

“Cocooning turned into a major preoccupation, as record numbers of people remodeled, redecorated, restored, and then watched, “This Old House” to relax.”

But, all of this was nevertheless a choice; we made the decision to go inside, to cocoon.

It was part of an enjoyable lifestyle.

But now in 2020-21, and perhaps beyond, pushed inside by a relentless Covid-19 virus and mandated sheltering, we are in the midst of an emotional and physical health crisis.

Instead of comfort reading, we are more likely to be reading personal development and personal growth books on coping with anxiety, or working on reading or writing job-related reports on the kitchen table because we have been forced to work remotely from our homes.

But hopefully, in part by utilizing the coping tools we have learned, and by  community efforts and working together, we will emerge from this stronger and have more of an attitude of gratitude and appreciation for what is good in our lives.

(1) Faith Popcorn, The Popcorn Report, Doubleday Currency, New York, 1991

 

Dennis Mellersh

 

Personal development: The day-tight compartment paradox September 30, 2018

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development.
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Sooner or later in our lives we will all likely come to the logical and stark realization that we no longer have time to realize all that we wanted to in life; we can’t do all the creative work we dreamed of doing; can’t read all the books we would like to; listen to all the music we would like to – we see the stop-sign.

For many of us, this can be an unpleasant discovery and a body-blow to our emotional, future-focused optimism.

All those things we have been postponing doing for future action are not going to get done.

But for those people who have, throughout their lives, practiced living life in day-tight compartments, the time limits on their lives does not present itself as a new revelation, and therefore not a shock.

By living one day at a time and getting the maximum they can out of every day, they have not exchanged a full life now for possible future enjoyment.

A paradoxical adjunct to the concept of benefiting from delayed gratification.

Dennis Mellersh