Too many people are using the word "struggle" too often and too easily. I first noticed it in 2017.
Examples:
"He's blunt: 'I struggle with the idea that a cauliflower base with some cheese and tomato on top is called a pizza. It ain't a pizza.'"
That is not a struggle. He had a definite opinion.
2018—the struggle continues.
-=- and struggle keeping the balance...-=-
-=-We're feeling stagnant and struggling-=-Too much struggling. Relax.
Struggling is a waste of energy.
I know the world "struggle" is as popular as "groovy" was in 1967, but it's not nearly as groovy.
/battle IF every time you start to write or say "struggle" you stop and rephrase, then you can move toward rephrasing every time you *think* "struggle." And your struggles will be over as soon as you stop struggling.
In June 2018, not about unschooling, from a closed group I'm in, me writing:
The word "struggling" is used too much lately. Everyone says they're struggling about everything.Please consider re-phrasing. If you think of the situation in your own words, you will think of it, and see it, and respond to it more clearly.
And anytime people describe things as a battle, a struggle, a fight, they're categorizing the thing as though it's fighting back, and they're in danger.
By 2020 people were struggling with struggling. No one seemed to do or to discuss anything without the word "struggle."
A nice outside metaphor for this is Devil's Snare, invented by J. K. Rowling for Harry Potter's world. It will grab people, and if they struggle, it grabs harder. Relax and it will relax. Shine light on it and it will shrink away.
Movie version
[in the Devil's Snare]Book:Hermione : Stop moving, both of you. This is devil's snare! You have to relax. If you don't, it'll only kill you faster!
Ron : Kill us faster? Oh, now I can relax!
“She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing. Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as the two boys fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them. “Stop moving!” Hermione ordered them. “I know what this is—it’s Devil’s Snare!””
Devil's snare hates sunlight. Just Add Light and Stir
"Battling" things and other negative thought and speech
Avoiding negativity
Phrases to hear and avoid
