Anxiety is at an all-time high. What are we so anxious about? To answer that question, you might give one of many common answers: I’m anxious about this timeline/quota at work I’m anxious about my financial situation I’m anxious about COVID I’m anxious about the political landscape I’m anxious about this job interview The list, of course, could be much longer. There’s no shortage of things...
I’m anti-conclusion. I spend a considerable amount of energy resisting the temptation to come to conclusions. What is a conclusion exactly? Conclusions are defined as the end or finish of an event or process. What’s the process that ends when we come to a conclusion? Thinking ends. Curiosity ends. Exploration ends. The moment we come to a conclusion, we are done learning. Our cup is full. We have...
I recently walked past a man sitting on the side of the street talking to himself. He was speaking loudly, with great emotion, and every few sentences the topic of his soliloquy seemed to change dramatically. In one moment, he seemed to be ranting about a woman: “And who does she think she is?! You don’t talk to me like that! Don’t you ever dare talk to me like that!” In...
Unsupervised, children will get into trouble. Breaking dishes, muddying the carpet, drawing on the furniture — you name it. But put a parent or teacher in the room, and they’re much more likely to behave. The simple process of being OBSERVED leads to children behaving better. Same goes with our own minds. Unsupervised, our minds will run rampant. Ruminating, stressing, judging, catastrophizing —...
Mental obesity is on the rise. We all know the symptoms of being physically unfit — obesity, labored breathing, poor strength, chronic illness. We also know exactly what it takes to become physically FIT — exercise, nutrition, sleep. What is less known is what it means to be MENTALLY unfit. What does it mean to be mentally obese? Here are some common symptoms: you find it difficult to focus...
They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. So what should one do about this? Conventional wisdom says this: the first impression is a lasting one, so you’d better make it a good one! The onus, it would seem, falls entirely on the one doing the impressing. I think this is backwards. First, we have to ask: why is the first impression so lasting? It seems to me that the first...
Wherever you are, whatever you may be struggling with or uncertain about — just take the next step. Take one baby step forward. As your leg extends forward and your body follows you might notice something profound about the next step: that it’s actually a new birth. You have left behind the “you” that was there and you have stepped into a new “you.” As you take that step you might ask yourself:...
As you progress on the spiritual path you will naturally find yourself speaking less and less. You’ll come to see that, most of the time, spoken words are the vehicle of the ego. I speak because I want to spread my thoughts and my beliefs. I want you to think and believe as I do. I speak because I want you to think of me in a certain way, and so I choose words as a way to construct my social...
What’s the difference between philosophy and photography? One uses a camera. Aside from that, nothing. They’re both all about perspective. Don’t like what you see through your lens or through your life? Change the composition. Pan slightly to the left or to the right. Crop out the people, places, and habits that no longer serve you. Lacking direction, meaning, purpose? Zoom out. Keep zooming out...
My soccer coach used to run us to death. He’d have us sprinting up and down steep hills…carrying a teammate on our back. “What am I, a Navy SEAL?” I remember thinking to myself. When we finished we’d be exhausted. We’d put our hands on our knees and drop our gaze to the ground. Our coach didn’t like that. “Heads up! Heads up!” he would scream. I never understood why it was so important to...
Wherever you go, there you are. If you’re thinking that changing a job or a house or a location will have a lasting impact on your happiness then you might hear someone utter this platitude. I’d like to make a minor alteration to the saying: “Wherever you go, there your brain is.” The reason why changing your external circumstances rarely has the kind of impact you hope is because...
Life is a puzzle. This weekend I got to put this puzzle together with my 3-year old niece. It may only be a 9-piece puzzle but when you factor in that she wanted to break it up and put it back together again 27 times it turned out to be quite the project. What struck me most was how excited she was every time she found a piece that fit. What started as a confusing pile of pieces slowly began to...
I once stood under a freezing waterfall in the mountains of Japan. In the middle of winter. And believe it or not I wasn’t out there alone. There were others. This was a thing. It’s an ascetic practice called “takigyo” or “waterfall meditation” and it holds the purpose of purifying and strengthening one’s mind and body. Standing directly under the path of the heavy and unimaginably cold...
