#39: Practicing Gratitude — Jonas Otsuji

Redeeming Disorder

Welcome back to Redeeming Disorder. Happy full "supermoon." May we make it to May. 😊

Jonas Otsuji competed on Survivor: One World a decade ago. The deep depression he recalls, however, became a challenge for him long before reality TV, and continued to challenge him after the show. Jonas speaks to the factors that made the challenge even harder – junk food, consumerism, social media’s distortion of reality – as well as the factors that were healing, like practicing gratitude.

Through practicing gratitude, Jonas practices happiness, and views happiness as a state we’re fully empowered to enter. I generally consider “happiness” to be a terrible word, because it represents about ten things at once (excitement, pleasure, connection, fulfillment, contentment, etc.), but I consider Jonas’s notion of “happiness” to be a realistic one, emphasizing gratitude, equanimity and peace. Choosing this peace over consumerism, digital escapism and the many trappings of the modern world can be tough, but in this interview, Jonas shares how he’s managed it.

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Children of the Dump — Bless the Children

Books Jonas Mentions:
Sugar Blues by William Duffy
Attacking Anxiety and Depression by Lucinda Bassett
Feeling Good by David Burns

Project MKUltra on Wikipedia
Operation Mockingbird
Video about politics from my email to Amanda Rabinowitz
Century of the Self Film — BBC

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