Tranquilo

At the start of 2020, a mere month and a half before the pandemic locked us all down, my family and I moved from the middle of the country to Brownsville, TX. For those who don’t know, Brownsville is located at the bottom of Texas, where the Gulf of Mexico meets the US / Mexico border. At the time, it was a huge change and a vastly different lifestyle and culture than I had ever experienced. That, combined with the effect of being locked down during a Pandemic the likes of which I had never seen, made for a very trying year. But as I settled in and got used to my surroundings, I noticed life seemed to move at a different pace down here. I was used to the hustle and bustle. Up at the crack of dawn or before, grab your morning coffee on the way to work, eat at your desk etc, etc. You get the picture. Things are different in the Rio Grande Valley, the lower area of Texas that includes Brownsville. There’s a more relaxed view of life. I’ve heard it called “mañana,” but the term I like best for it is Tranquilo.

The literal translation of Tranquilo is “Don’t worry.” To practice it means to live your life without a care. That was a very foreign concept to me when I arrived in Brownsville. I worried about everything. At the time, I was dealing with depression and anxiety on top of the worry that came from moving to a new place. On top of that, we had the crippling existential dread that came with the pandemic. Honestly, it was all almost too much to bear. However, as I’ve gotten used to my tropical home, I’ve worked hard to adapt to a more tranquilo mindset. As I have, I’ve found that it has helped me learn to relax again. 

Online is another matter entirely. At some point, the masses locked on to the rule of growing engagement that states “grow engagement by taking a contrarian stance,” and away we went. These days, content is specifically designed to wind you up and fuel outrage. Mountains of content are explicitly written to get a response. The bad thing is, it’s done in such a way that unless you are in tune with it, you might not even notice. So, how can we use the concept of Tranquilo to live a more peaceful, easygoing life online? Recently, I’ve decided to employ Tranquilo in the following ways:

1. Don’t respond to trolls. I know this one is difficult. We all want to be right and to get the last word, but that’s the trap. With most of these trolls, you’ll never get the last word. Also, you’ll never be declared the winner. It’s a never-ending slog into a void that shreds your nerves. Trust me, it isn’t worth it.
2. Stop worrying about things you can’t control. Yes, Amazon is an evil corporation that wants to grind authors out of existence. But, I would be a fool not to use the tools they provide. As an indie author who is very early in my journey, I need those tools and the exposure that comes with them. The same goes for AI. I see it all the time. People online are raging against AI and how we have to stop it. The problem is that AI isn’t going away any more than self-checkouts at the grocery store. Just like self-checkouts, AI provides a lot of convenience if used ethically. We owe it to ourselves as authors to learn to use any tool we can to help augment our natural talent, as long as it is ethical. 
3. Stop worrying about what other people think. I see people arguing online every day over something someone said about authors. One day, it’s “Authors shouldn’t read reviews,” another day, it’s “Authors shouldn’t write books over 170k words.” Frankly, it’s exhausting. In the early days, I did my best work in a vacuum where I didn’t pay attention to every little post and comment about how to be a success. I’m not saying you should stop learning at all. I’m saying that being bombarded by so many opinions on what is or isn’t right every day can overwhelm you, leading you to sit and do nothing, negating all your progress. Curate your advice carefully.
4. Realize that things constantly evolve, and that’s okay. We are never at a fixed point. Everything around you, offline and online, constantly evolves and changes. Apps that you love today can get bought out and changed tomorrow. That’s the nature of the world. Enjoy what you have in the present moment because, at some point, it will change, and that’s okay because you will have changed as well.
5. Focus on what you can control. All I can control is myself and my reaction to the outside world, and that is plenty. Realize that 99.99% of the things you see online, designed to work you up, aren’t going to affect you at all. Live in the present moment, and work on the things that are important to you.

These are just a few simple things that I’ve found that help me apply a more “Tranquilo” mindset to my online world. They have helped me bring my blood pressure and overall anxiety down, and I hope they help you as well. If we all adopted these, the internet could be much more pleasant. 

– Ryan