#but millenia ago we were more immersed in our organic surroundings and the knowledge we relied on for survival included differeniating the
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one very good thing about Knowing Bugs that I hope to impart on people who are Afraid Of Bugs (that's okay!) even just a little bit is that once you get to Know bugs, you can feel something crawling around on your leg at night in your dark bedroom and when you turn on your light to look at it you can assess that hey. This Particular Guy is harmless and fine. and instead of feeling scared you can make that assessment and brush him off or put him outside or whatever feels comfortable to do and just go back to whatever chill thing you were doing! because hey you've Noticed and Observed enough bugs now to differentiate the ones that might be dangerous* from the ones that are largely neutral to you! and it's nice to have that knowledge because it helps you feel more secure in your environment (a home is an environment too!) and more comfortable and less scared, and it's always nice to be Less Scared I think <3
*disclaimer: even "dangerous" bugs are inherently valuable and worthy of their own buggy life opportunities, and with time you can learn to be very relaxed around them too! but at the same time if there is a tick crawling up your leg at night unfortunately you do have to recognize that and remove it :/
#anyway i guess I'm just thinking about how Knowing Bugs really requires a sort of exposure therapy. particularly for certain cultures.#(often western)#because being afraid of bugs is very much a cultural thing :( though it reasonably has it's evolutionary basis!#but millenia ago we were more immersed in our organic surroundings and the knowledge we relied on for survival included differeniating the#Dangerous To Us bugs from the Neutral To Us bugs from the Delicious To Eat or Beneficial To Us bugs! and we have distanced ourselves#from that knowledge in some cultures. and therefore we adopted the tendency to lump ALL BUGS into Dangerous!!! which makes them scary :/#but it can be unlearned!#i was afraid of small spiders (but not big ones haha!) and plenty of other bugs as a kid#but luckily i had a handful of good role models (shoutout to early 2000s Animal Planet lol....) and the opportunity to learn entomology#in college!!!#and now bugs are one of life's endless little gifts. they're always around anywhere you look and sometimes that has been very grounding#for me; and sometimes it's been the only positive thing i can recognize out of a shitty day or a bad season of emotions#so big love to the bugs of the world i guess!!#as a side note i really hope i can take that same exposure therapy outlook to some other things in my life. cuz boy do i fuckin need it :/#bugs#insects#entomology#arachnophobia#entomophobia
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