Welcome to Trippy Monday’s, where I go over 3 things that caught my attention from this past week. Enjoy!

(1) I decided to start using LinkedIn to post about TripSitting and discuss psychedelics. (Mic drop). 

Why is this noteworthy? Well, I’m not a fan of LinkedIn. Maybe it’s from my days in software sales, but the content there just seems so out of touch with what I consider important. Business is fine. Capitalism is fine too. But I think there should be a reason behind why people participate in these businesses. I hate people posting just for the sake of posting. I also hate people taking their jobs too seriously, which LinkedIn is fucking full of. 

However, I also realize that this is simply the way I see LinkedIn because of the people I follow and the way I was taught to use it when I worked in sales. I can unfollow the people I don’t like seeing, and then follow others who I believe post genuine and valuable content. It’s wrong of me to dismiss an entire platform just because of a few people. The same goes for all social media platforms. If you use them consciously, you can get a lot of value out of them. 

So now begins my transition from thinking LinkedIn is a garbage platform, to consciously using it to create genuine and valuable connections. While I got you, feel free to shoot me a connection request if we’re not connected :).

(2) One of my friends asked to paint my nails, and I decided to let her. This is the first time I’ve ever had my nails painted and I kind of love them… at least for now. It got me thinking, though, how the only reason I’ve never done this is because of how it’s viewed by others and society as a whole. Guys don’t paint their nails. But why?

Obviously, this is seen as feminine or gay or just plain weird by some people. However, I don’t really care. Doing or not doing something because of the way that society or other people view it shouldn’t play into my decision-making process. There’s no actual reason for guys not to be able to paint their nails, other than our own personal biases. I have no idea if I’ll continue to get my nails painted in the future, but now it feels like I have another avenue to express myself that never used to exist in my mind. 

(3) I’m back in Chicago for the first time since I moved to Denver. I’ve been gone for not even 3 months, but it feels so much longer. A lot has happened since then. I’m living such a different life than I did when I live in Chicago, so it’s interesting being back. I’ve changed so much, yet everything here feels like it’s largely stayed the same. 

In reality, however, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. I’ve definitely changed since I left. But everything else has too. I just see things through my own lens. Unless I make a conscious effort to zoom out, I’ll just see everything as the same because that’s how the mind works. So, I’m excited to stay here for another week and a half and consciously make an effort to not fall back into old patterns just because it’s comfortable. I want to make the most of my time here and see everything for what it is, and not what I initially perceive them to be.