Yin yoga

Institutional isomorphism

French Blondes – the cocktail, not the cohort of French people

Gang of Youths new song ‘Things take time’

Antonio Gramsci and his concept of cultural hegemony

Having new favourite things has long been one of my favourite things. I was aware that my intake of new favourite things had declined and I tried different things to increase them – to tap back into the double delight of new favourites. More and more since I started the PhD I’ve felt new favourite things popping up again and again which I am loving and I can’t recommend looking for them highly enough.

As my list shows, new favourite things can come in many guises. Indeed that’s one of the things that makes them so enjoyable. It could be a new concept which helps you see and understand the world a little differently. It might be something delicious or joyful. It can also be something more prosaic, like the way I’ve rearranged my desk so it’s more comfortable to sit at. They don’t need to be massive, expensive or rare, although obviously they can be. The everyday new favourite can still engender the same sense of wonder.

Setting the bar low is really part of it though, which was why I knew the fact I was having to try and find new favourite things was a bad sign. That sense of being open to possibility and noticing is something which can enrich any particular or seemingly ordinary moment and definitely makes the finding of new favourite things more readily accessible. There’s all kinds of reasons why we can find that difficult to do but finding ways to keep lowering the bar to get new favourite things can help.

Whether it’s a struggle to get new favourites or you’re just a bit out of practice, putting in place forcing functions can help. Back in the day when I knew I wasn’t doing so well on noticing them I came up with a new years resolution to try at least 52 new to me food or drink things that year. It was a reminder to keep looking and exploring, I’m more likely to try something on a menu I’ve not already had but still, putting in place reminders and prompts all over the place can be helpful if new favourites are hard to come by.

I suppose having new favourite things is a bit like the gratitude practice, and if that works for you as a way into this then great, but I think for me those things do feel different. With my new favourite things it usually feels much more intense, whereas things I am grateful for often feel gentler and perhaps more intimate. When I find a new favourite thing I usually want to get everyone involved or knowing about it because it just seems so mind-blowing that I want people to have that chance of delight or astonishment.

And part of what’s exciting is that I just don’t know what my new, new favourite things will be. Being able to look forward to finding them is very wonderful though and fills me with a sense of abundance, for which I am grateful indeed. Only just discovered Gramsci’s idea of cultural hegemony and I’m very much not an expert but here’s a podcast I listened to as a way into it. I’m fascinated by the idea that a dominant ruling class maintains power in a capitalist society not through force, but by shaping cultural norms and values so that their worldview is accepted as natural “common sense”. What a way to understand and see the world and I’m looking forward to exploring that idea more.

If you don’t already have a new favourite thing then feel free to take any and all of mine. And if you can’t find one new favourite thing, then I’d suggest instead you try to find five…