Crimes of convenience
@m_d_n_f_
Convenience has made life easier in so many ways. But as tech companies rush to eliminate every minor frustration from our lives, what are these frictionless solutions really costing us? To me, the small inefficiencies we're so eager to optimize away are actually the texture of life itself—the rough edges that keep us connected to our environment and to each other. As Oliver Burkeman observes in Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals:
In startup jargon, the way to make a fortune in Silicon Valley is to identify a "pain point"—one of the small annoyances resulting from (more jargon) the "friction" of daily life—and then to offer a way to circumvent it. Thus Uber eliminates the "pain of having to track down a number for you local taxi company and call it, or trying to hail a cab in the street; digital wallet apps like Apple Pay remove the "pain" of having to reach into your bag for your physical wallet or cash...It's true that everything runs more smoothly this way. But smoothness, it turns out, is a dubious virtue, since its often the unsmoothed textures of life that make it livable, helping nurture the relationships that are crucial for mental and physical health, and for the resilience of our communities.
This convenience-at-all-costs mindset doesn't just shape our external world—it influences how we approach our internal struggles too. When I was diagnosed with clinical depression in my teens my solution was the same as everyone else's—go to therapy (read: outsource your healing), and get meds. But what if wanting to die is inherent to the adolescent experience? Ecophilosopher and writer Derrick Jensen posits that "when you're a teenager you're supposed to want to die, but that death is supposed to be metaphorical and spiritual. Your childhood has to die so you can become an adult—but nobody's told them it's metaphorical and spiritual so they have this death urge that they then actualize in the physical world as opposed to through ritual or through maturity."
How tragic is that? Does that feel true to you? It sure feels true to me. So what are we to do? Go to more therapy? Therapy has been instrumental in putting me on a path towards betterment, but its benefits tend to plateau for me, and recent studies have shown its effectiveness may be more limited than we once thought—with research finding declining outcomes over the past 40 years and significant gaps in treating complex trauma and chronic conditions. [1][2][3] So, for real, what are we to do? Well, what has worked for me is *drumroll* psychedelic mushrooms. Shocker, I know.
Psilocybin and psilocin, the psychotropic compounds found in psychedelic mushrooms, do something different than your Celexa, your Lexapro, your Welbutrin—they activate the serotonin receptors in our cortex, the part of our brain responsible for solving problems and adapting to new situations. Compare that to most pharmaceuticals, which work on the limbic system and just help you tolerate whatever life throws at you. If you're here for growth and healing, it’s all about practice and integration—actually making sense of your experiences and applying insights to daily life. It’s not comfortable, it’s not convenient, and yet, that's where the real magic is.
I swear, I’m not pill-shaming here—I’m currently a Cymbalta girl myself. My point is this: finding peace, acceptance, serenity, and calm in a world designed to overstimulate our nervous systems at every turn requires a multi-pronged approach. One of those prongs has to be self-discovery, self-growth, and self-reliance. For me, the tool that has supercharged those efforts more than any therapy, meditation, yoga, bodywork, nature time, or self-help book has been mushrooms.
It’s not just about using mushrooms in isolation—it’s symbiotic. When practices like therapy, meditation, and yoga are already part of your wellness system, the insights you can glean from working with mushrooms are exponentially deeper. Mushrooms amplify and integrate the groundwork you’re already doing, making them a powerful complement to a holistic approach to mental health and growth.
Awareness over Auto-Pilot
Psychedelics heighten our awareness—the word literally translates from the Greek as "mind manifesting" or "soul revealing." They show us what lights us up, what drains us, and can lead us on a path toward changing things in our life so we can spend more of our life satisfied and marveling at how strange it is to be anything at all [1][2]. Too often, people operate with blinders on, completely missing the fact that they have the power to shift their reality.
If you’re working toward a deeper state of consciousness—by which I mean the dynamic, ever-evolving experience of being aware, perceiving, and processing sensory information, thoughts, and emotions as they unfold in real-time—along with a stronger sense of self, here’s where to start (whether or not you’re choosing to enhance your journey with mushrooms):
Question Your Environment: Notice where you're choosing convenience over connection. That delivery app might save time, but what conversations are you missing at the local market?
Resist the Quick Fix: When difficult emotions arise, practice sitting with them instead of immediately seeking relief. Sometimes the path through is better than the path around.
Cultivate Beneficial Friction: Create small ceremonies out of daily tasks. Make your coffee with intention. Walk instead of drive. Let the 'inconvenience' become the practice.
Find Your Fellow Explorers: Connect with people who understand that growth isn't always about optimization and efficiency. Share stories, compare notes, hold space for the journey.
Start Small but Real: Instead of planning the perfect transformation, choose one small relationship or habit where you can trade convenience for presence. You can't steer a parked car, but you also don't need to floor it.
