Lately we’ve been interested in an antidote to FOMO — fear of missing out — that has been gaining steam. Since the personal publicity machine of social media has made everyone else’s lives seem better, smarter, hipper, EXTRA ordinary, FOMO has become a debilitating mindset for many: the constant comparison of ourself to others and the subtle violence that does to our spirit.

JOMO is about embracing the JOY of missing out, doing our own thing, taking pleasure in whatever WE take pleasure in, no matter how small. Hayley Phelan summed it up in the New York Times: 

JOMO is about disconnecting, opting out and being O.K. just where you are.

Or as comedian George Carlin noted

It’s important in life if you don’t give a shit. It can help you a lot.

Sally Schneider

In fact JOMO tends to come with an embrace of the lovely ordinary moments in life. Stop competing or feeling you should do something, take away some compulsive social media checking or phone time, and life tends to get more spacious. Brene Brown said it well in Daring Greatly:

Joy comes to us in moments — ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get to busy chasing down the extraordinary. Scarcity culture may keep us afraid of living small, ordinary lives, but when you talk to people who have survived great losses, it is clear that joy is not constant. Without exception, all…who spoke to me about their losses, about what they missed the most, spoke about ordinary moments. “If I could come downstairs and see my husband sitting at the tale and cursing the newspaper…” “If I could hear my son giggling in the backyard…”

 

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