Prisons and what-ifs

This post starts with 2 quotes. One I read somewhere, one I heard in a podcast. Yes, I listen to many podcasts.

The greatest prison people live in, is the fear of what other people may think.
- David Icke

and

Don't overthink. If you drown yourself in the what-ifs, you'll never get anything done.
- Louise Butcher (via "Women in Focus" with Helen Berriman / British Naturism)

Note that the statements I'm going to here may not apply to large sections of the USA, which country often appears to exist in an alternate and much more anal retentive universe.

It occupies many minds for too long. What if they find out I like being without clothes? What if I undress and people think I'm not beautiful enough?

All those questions are prevalent among more people than I want to think about. It's a sign of the time that just everybody overthinks everything, and that's bad. You want something. Instead of doing something until someone proves you wrong, people start thinking about it, and some more, pondering themselves into such deep black holes that they're scared to come out of it. End result: they hate what they initially wanted, because... what if?

I know David Icke has a bit of a reputation (wikipedia-link for the curious) but his statement in this respect hits the nail on the head. If you don't give a wet fart about David Icke, listen to Louise Butcher: If you overthink, you'll never get anything done.

(Up here is part one of the interview, I think her actual statement is in part 2 but they're both worth listening to.)

For adults and those who think they are, this is already a bad thing to go through. It gets worse when you're young and in the phase of life where one's body is supposed to be at its best looking. Thanks to all the crap on the internet, such people don't even know what real bodies look like any more. (See this article on mentalhealth.org.uk on body issues with young folk.) Even the most 'perfect' bodies need to be photoshopped into the ultimate unrealistic ideas of 'perfection'. Is it strange that young people are obsessed and even worry?

In our survey of young people aged 13–19, 35% said their body image causes them to ‘often’ or ‘always’ worry. (Source: above mentioned article.)

This is bad. Very bad. These are people from the generation that have to build something up, and they're already breaking themselves down. How horrible is that?

Will they ever believe that the people depicted here are actually the normal ones? Just ordinary people enjoying a good time?

I'm worried for the younger generations. And yes, I'm worried about you too, if you're the one going deep into the what-ifs, instead of enjoying what life and nature can give you.

Contrary to what many "news" outlets try to sell us, most folks aren't mortally scared of seeing a nude person. I speak from experience. Do you what you love and like, while staying within the borders of what's possible. (This is why I made a special remark about the US of A, where this is a big issue. Which is terminally wrong for a country that calls itself the land of the free...)