On Healing

Wednesday May 6, 2026 — Lausanne

If we all each one reach one
Each one try to teach one
Nobody can do everything
But everybody can do something

— Work for Peace by Gil Scott-Heron

I want to talk about healing. More broadly about bettering yourself. I think, recently, there has been an insanely obsessive tendency to make the most of every second of our lives. We need to always be productive. Either academically, financially, emotionally, socially, or any other domain. It has spiraled out of control, and I want to give some of my thoughts.

Starting with healing, all of us have flaws. We’ve all been hurt, some more than others, and are trying to come back from that. We all have parts of ourselves we don’t like. However, how do we deal with that? Is anything that isn’t perfect a flaw? Is anything that isn’t fixed broken? It seems paradoxical, but what if the parts of us that don’t match the perfection we see online or are shown to us in highly targeted content shouldn’t be changed? The pressure and guilt that comes with always scrutinizing our every move is perhaps the biggest flaw of all.

So I’d like to look at it with another lens. The flaws should be seen as quirks, as traits that make us different and unique from others. They are the parts of ourselves that make us fit nicely with other humans in our lives like puzzle pieces. A gap in knowledge is an opportunity to learn from a stranger. A lack of patience could push someone to be better. “Strengths have liabilities, weaknesses have silver linings,” said Simon Sinek, and I keep having to remind myself that I’m already great just where I am right now. Flaws are only flaws if you’re comparing yourself to someone better, and there is always someone better than you. So why are we trying so hard to climb an impossible ladder?

My point is eating itself. All I’m saying is that you’re just allowed to exist. That being yourself is all anyone is allowed to ask of you.

That being said, individualism shouldn’t be taken to an extreme either. The narrative of “Don’t listen to anyone,” “Be yourself 100%,” and “You don’t ever need to change” isn’t healthy either. Being completely self-obsessed and self-absorbed shouldn’t be your ideal either.

I’m trying to be somewhere in the middle. Looking to friends and people I admire for guidance while accepting that I’m just as worthy of existing the way I am myself. Reminding myself that no one is a saint every day while striving to make the most of my life. But what does it mean to “make the most”?

A brain chemistry-altering essay I read was “The six-second hug” by Julian Baggini. In it, he argues that everything has become a means to an end. We don’t read a book to read a book. We read to learn, to show off, to prepare, to keep up. We don’t eat to live. We eat to be healthy. He argues that “being healthy,” “being happy,” or any supposed final goal ultimately doesn’t have any intrinsic meaning. “Being healthy” or “being happy” isn’t useful in any way, and it only seems useful when being used for other activities. We need to go back to doing things for the sake of doing them. Taking pleasure in reading because it slows our minds, it sparks creativity, and it is a joy to experience. Taking the direct benefits of an act instead of how it could be of use to us in some fictional future.

To appreciate things for their own value instead of what they might bring us is liberating. It frees us from the internal pressure always to make sure that what we are doing serves some further purpose, to justify our days in terms of the future credits that we accrue from them. Living life to the full means fully appreciating what life brings, not trying to extract bankable benefits from it.”

— Julian Baggini

Lastly, I’d like to propose the best activity of all. Learning to help someone. With everything going on, it makes sense that we’re stuck in our bubbles of angst. From everywhere, we’re being told how to cope or how to better ourselves. Seldom are we taught how to help someone cope, how to make space for someone to open up, how to make someone feel heard and understood, or how to give advice and empathize.

Thank you <3