Things are really tough right now. And many people around the world are feeling decidedly not OK.
But that feeling of 'I'm not OK' isn't something we should hide, or pretend we're not going through, philosopher and author Alain de Botton told James Corden on The Late Late Show. The founder of The School of Life shared his thoughts on how people should embrace the "new vulnerability" they're experiencing, and the newfound ability to be honest about how they really are.
"One of the great things about this time is that we are rediscovering one another. Most of the time we are so busy, but also we have such a front," De Botton explained. "We're all of us pretending to be this and that. At this time I'm loving the 'new vulnerability.'"
De Botton said that when a friend calls you up and asks how you're doing, if you're able to be honest and "take them into the reality of your life," we should see this as a gift. "So many of us think 'I'm unusual, I'm so strange, other people are all having a great life, they're having a great time."
"This is a time when there's no more FOMO, there's no 'fear of missing out' during a pandemic. There is no great party somewhere else. It's all of us fragile, suffering, vulnerable humans trying to hold it together with sometimes frightening moments," he added. "In a way, the pretences of the normal world we've put up and suffer from have gone."
No more pretending that everything is fine. No more FOMO. No more pretences. Just vulnerability in abundance.
Topics COVID-19
