I started this new blog a few months ago with the idea of it being a place to talk about the issues and ideas that seem to resonate with both me and a lot of the people I know. At first glance, these things may not seem to be related (which is a problem if you’re trying to narrow down what your blog is all about) but when I listed off the subjects that energize me I realized that they are all basically topics that flow into what makes us tick. I’m interested in talking about and understanding why we are who we are in relation to:

Personality

Do we all start with a basic personality type and grow from there? Or do we learn and adapt our personality through experiences? Or is it a bit of both? I don’t know (I have my theories) but I love to learn about this stuff. I’m basically a personality profile geek. Some of the profiles out there are more pop culture than scientific. Some resonate with me more than others. But I find all of them pretty fascinating. I’m particularly fond of StrengthsFinder and The Enneagram. More on those later but if you want to do a little research on your own click on StrengthsFinder and/or Enneagram.

Faith/Belief/Doubt

How does what we do or do not believe about the existence of God or a Higher-Power-type-being affect who we are? How does it inform our daily lives. Is there just one way to believe or are there a million? Is there a way to have nuanced and interesting conversations about this with people who think differently, without resorting to demonizing others to make ourselves feel like we own the moral high ground? Just a tiny little topic there. 

Mental Health

This is a big one. This is something I’ve been passionate about for a long time and have written numerous posts about over the years on my original blog. While I think this issue has gained traction in recent years, I still think we have a long way to go in understanding and eliminating the stigmas that exist in this space. Are depression, anxiety, personality disorders, ADHD—and any other neuroses or psychosis that show up in a google search on mental health issues—real things or are they just crutches people use to avoid responsibility for their actions? (I’m going to give myself away by saying that just typing the second half of that last sentence makes makes my blood pressure rise.) 

Since these topics are very distinct, I’m going to do a series on each, the first being mental health as it’s not only landed on the front page of our nation’s news lately—between horrific school shootings and heartbreaking celebrity suicides—it’s also something that has affected my life and the lives of those closest to me. And I want this blog to be a place where we can talk about the hard things, the scary things and the often taboo things. 

So, if you want to read a blog that is very specifically about one issue, this might not be the place for you. I’m not going scattershot here...writing about whatever strikes my fancy on a given day (not that I think that's a bad thing) and I'm not likely to share recipes, movies reviews or fashion ideas. But I will be covering a wide range of ideas under the umbrella of “What Makes Us Tick.” So if that umbrella is interesting to you, stick around! (You can sign up for email alerts for each new post at the bottom of the page.) d

Leave a comment below if you have something specific you'd like me to start a convo about!

~rebekah

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