Why is interest fading gradually?

8.12.2025

It is 10:41 and I have just sat down to start writing the blog. Yesterday I met my friend Jat (yes you have heard of him already, but not much) and he asked me, as he is a writer, what the writing of the blog brings me. I don’t know if I have been able to answer fully yesterday evening, but the question stayed with me, and I will try answering a little bit more here.

But of course before getting to the serious stuff, I realize that I haven’t shared music on the blog for some time now, and I find I should now. Let me just check into my soul and see what plays there…. And yes, I discovered one song of an Album called Night Song by Ketil Bjørnstad and Svante Henryson, and I boldly propose to listen to the whole album now. I have just started listening to it, and I will discover as I write.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0RexTMxuBjyJKxFZ99b8VN?si=vWB0AUSkTjmIPBlJ9FXCaw

Hmm I like the first song very much, it somehow goes well with the morning sun that is generously caressing me after so many days in the typical Czech grayness.

I haven’t been to the forest yet, today was an odd day out, where the routine is interrupted by certain events one doesn’t need to mention. I will go for a walk with Gigi as soon as I finish writing. However, coming back to my friend’s question: what does the writing of the blog bring to you? 

Very briefly I said: it gives me discipline, a regular rhythm and it allows me to write every week. I feel obliged because I gave my word. And this regularity enables me to write better (at least I hope). I also create an invisible audience, to whom I can speak :) it is very comforting, I don’t see them, I don’t hear them but I can deliver to them my thoughts, knowing that someone is reading 🙂

Now when I think of it in a deeper way, writing the blog gives me actually more than that: 

It helps me keep my interest alive: Somehow the obligation which I have given myself to write every week actually may seem like a burden. Everyone is trying to become more free.. and you are putting more work on your plate Berrak! Yes and no! It all depends on how you look at things: I freely choose to focus my energy and grant my time to writing a blog. And there it happens: A time opens just for me.. to think, to create, to write and to reflect on what I am writing. A space where the dialogue starts between different parts of my being. 

(I am now still listening to the same album, and wow, what a melancholy!!! I wouldn’t have expected such emotions…)

It is a time that nourishes my interest.. Yes, I believe that interest is a phenomenon in us that we need to nourish regularly. Being interested in what is happening to us and around us is an activity that is vital for our process. 

When I look around me I can see a lot of interests fading… If interest would be a coloured spirit.. just this time let’s imagine: interest is like a constantly shape-changing coloured spirit like matter floating through us, in between us and the world. It lights up when our attention is in it and it grows and floats around enveloping us in its mist when we are fully interested.

And then as we stop nourishing it it shrinks and loses its colour, just listlessly drooling next to us, or following us like a little fart.

(Oooh this theme touches me so deeply, that my heart needs a pause… I will roll a thin cigarette and reflect more before I continue writing)

Well, here is one more thing that writing the blog does to me: it surprises me in my own thinking process. I have started with an idea but as I write my thoughts are revealing deeper thoughts and I let myself be guided not worrying about how it will be received. I can write and enjoy how the filters are lifting slowly. 

Coming back to the theme of interest: well I think our capacity of being interested in what we do or in the other is a great potential, which can change the way we experience our loves and lives. I think immediately of the times where there is a lack of interest: how dull everything seems. But once we keep the fire of interest in us, our approach to the other and to action lightens up and the weight of everyday life becomes lighter, flow can happen easily and we can even feel satisfaction during. Moving through life without interest makes us heavy and closes the doors to relational space. 

I feel that we all need to meet our source of interest, in order to see how it works for us. Why does it shut down, or overreacts, or drains us? I believe that interest is one of the most powerful resources we have in us. And it is constant work. We have to stay in a lively relationship with our interests and think about them and sometimes also be lost in them to discover other aspects of our being.

For example, my daughter Sofia-Su is studying for her IGCSE mock exams right now. It is very difficult for her to stay interested in the process of learning. For some it is difficult, but also the system in which we learn doesn’t foster interest, nor does it give deeper attention than just mentioning that students should be interested in what they are learning, because they are learning for themselves. But from her talks I have come to understand that her interest is nourished by the interest she feels from her teachers concerning not only them but also the subject. When the teacher is interested in what they are teaching, and has a genuine interest in the learning process of the student, the learning happens more joyfully and the potential of interest of the student grows.

Being interested in something or someone opens  the door to an exchange of ideas, emotions and experiences. It opens the door to deeper listening. It creates a space where relationships can grow. But nowadays our interest is so fragmented, we are unable to truly stay interested for a longer time span, and we lose our potential to make our experience colorful, exciting and beautiful. 

I feel that being interested in a person is the best gift we can give to them, and being interested in the world around us is a gift we give to ourselves.

What do you think?

How is your little interest spirit’s color today?

B