In our rapidly changing world, it might make you feel crazy to look around and see others going about life as usual. There’s actually a term for this phenomenon: hypernormalization. In this episode, Adam talks with Rahaf Harfoush, a digital anthropologist and expert on toxic productivity culture, about the immense pressures of living through “unprecedented times.” Rahaf breaks down the concept of hypernormalization, and Adam explains why it can fuel feelings of destabilization and disconnection. The two challenge the propaganda that promotes productivity for its own sake and explore healthier ways to get things done.
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How self-care and setting boundaries for yourself is like the greatest act of love that you can do because boundaries are telling other people what you are willing to accept. And when you put boundaries for yourself, then you put yourself first in a way that allows you to show up in the most authentic way, in the best, most possible grounded way. And so that was such a shift for me because I realized that you could be kind in setting boundaries, that it didn't have to be this aggressive conflict, that it could be done with
0:31 – 0:59
People-pleasing, validation seeking, and the cost of self-abandonment
RHRahaf Harfoush
lovingness, it could be done with gentleness. And I learned that the reason many of us people please is because we fundamentally are seeking a source of validation or a source of acceptance, or we wanna be seen. But I read somewhere, and I don't remember who said this, but that all wounds at the root are self-abandonment wounds. So essentially, everything that we've been looking for from other people, we are actually looking to give ourselves
Episode duration: 0:59
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