Super-Sweary Fragilisticexpialidocious Or a Self-Help Guide to Not Giving a F**k

<tl;dr> Swearing can be good for your health. And happiness.

It’s day 6 of my New Year’s resolution to try writing a post a day for 30 (working) days. To be honest, I’m struggling, so this might be an every-other-day type of resolution, but I’m hanging in there.

You won’t be surprised to know this led to some sweary moments. In the past, I’ve been known to whip out an expletive or two or three or four.

Not giving a f**k

In the extensive research for this post – yes, that does mean randomly searching for swear words on Facebook et al – I came across a new book.

Sarah Knight’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck: How to stop spending time you don’t have doing things you don’t want to do with people you don’t like” needs to go on the reading list.” Read her interview in Idealog.

Starting with a popular post on Medium, I Quit My Job Today, she channels the ultra-trendy decluttering guru of Marie Kondo for her professional and personal life. And swears lots. 730 fucks apparently.

Beyond the shock value, there’s some interesting ideas including four types of fuck not to give,

“…it freed me up enormously in terms of general feeling of calm. I was well rested, had extra money in my bank account, and that makes you a better person, it makes you a more pleasant friend, it makes you a more attentive parent, and it makes you a more genial co-worker.”

A particular gem is the Should I Give a Fuck flowchart, which I’d be tempted to print large and hang on the wall were it not for the small people of the household.

 

Science of swearing

This isn’t merely wishful thinking, there’s actual proper, hard science to confirm a potty mouth can be a good thing.

According to a study reported in Scientific American,

“When swearing, the 67 student volunteers reported less pain and on average endured about 40 seconds longer.”

“Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it,” says psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in England, who led the study. And indeed, the findings point to one possible benefit: “I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear,” he adds.

The ninja of swearing

The master, of course, is The Thick of It/In The Loop’s Malcolm Tucker who creates elevates the sweary rant to a new art.

WARNING: very sweary and not safe for the office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUky4_A7Zw4

Of course, there’s a catch. According to the same study above,

“The more we swear, the less emotionally potent the words become.And without emotion, all that is left of a swearword is the word itself, unlikely to soothe anyone’s pain.”

Bugger.

The post is part of my 2016 New Year’s resolution, day #6, to try writing a post almost every day for 30 working days. Here’s thepost that kicked things off and here’s the full list. It gets easier, right? You’ll also find more of this and other stuff @toodlepip and on Facebook.

Photo (cc) Fuck by Jonathan Rolande on Flickr