Challenge #1: Isolation
A sense of isolation is at the root of human experience and suffering, a foundational element of what it is to be human.
Balloons in my mind
Recently, I woke up to an image of my head hollowed out and full of balloons, one for parenting, one for my relationship with Sara, one for Kindling, one for exercise, and so on.
Inventions of the mind
Humanity’s greatest inventions are not anything that any of us can touch, see, or feel with our senses. Rather, our greatest inventions are all constructs of ours minds, mental technologies that allow us to see and show up in the world in entirely new, revolutionary ways.
What is meditation to you?
I used to think there was more or less one way to meditate. Now it seems like there are probably endless approaches, even endless definitions of what it is in the first place.
Instinct
Without instinct, human flourishing would be impossible. Humanity itself would not be possible. We are permanently indebted and connected to our biological forebears – non-human primates, birds, reptiles, amphibians, plants, fungi, bacteria, and countless others – for this wonderful gift of instinct for which we can claim no credit.
Keeping hope alive
Part of anti-oppression accountability for me is being present to the pain that others have to deal with every day that I don’t. And part of it is harnessing the energies that are more available to me due to my privilege.
Humanity’s evolving mind
Has humanity itself really stopped developing cognitively and behaviorally, much like we believe human individuals to do around 25 years old?
Time vs. energy
Maybe if I could just let go of that mental clutter, I’d have all the time and energy I need.
“People never really change”
Conventional wisdom tells us that adults stop developing because of our very nature. Stagnating is an inevitability of our physiology, just like with all other animals. Theories of adult development say otherwise.
Being the person I will be
What would it be like to make decisions from the person I will be – a year or even a decade from now?