When is a gift not a gift?
When it is an obligation, which is really a trap.
Category: Self
- Theme: Self
Body Resonance allows Mind Residence
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1–2 minutesWe always return to the body. Human care and compassion is rooted in physicality.
Interestingly, if we consider embodied cognition then consciousness is in the body as much as, if not more than, the mind.
Extending further: any abstract theory finds its relation (human receptivity) not in diagrammatic chains of logic, but in the role or impact upon the body.To ignore the body, or operate outside of it, means there is scant chance of residence in the mind: body resonance allows mind residence.
- Theme: Self
Soft serve
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1–2 minutesWith all of our behavioral and cognitive science, with our best practices psychology, there is always a better way to soft serve facts to people. No one is ever "wrong." Instead you made a decision that was right for you in the moment, or you were lacking a vital piece of information.
Our language is really a version of influence marketing. - Theme: Self
Growth is Pain
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1–2 minutesTo want to grow is to embrace pain.
Growing requires stretching, breaking, and failing so that you become more. Growth can be forced upon you by external circumstances, which are never as kind as taking it upon yourself to start the journey.
A little pain for a little growth everyday seems like no pain, it can even feel like pleasure, while all the pain all at once can crush us.
- Theme: Self
Definitions make distinctions
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1–2 minutesTo confuse skills with career is common. To confuse nationalism and patriotism is common. To confuse passion with love is common. To confuse value and worth is common.
As Timothy Snyder says: be kind to our language. Be precise. Avoid clichés.
When our medium of communication becomes casually abused and twisted we can feel the trap, but do not have the concept (accessibly contained in language) to push back.
- Theme: Self
The paradox of self-compassion
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1–2 minutesThe paradox of self-compassion is that it is not selfish: once you fully face your flaws and accept you are merely human, you more easily forgive others for their foibles.
- Theme: Self
Self-narration prison
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1–2 minutesWe spend the majority of our lives in our head, crafting our dramas, articulating rebuttals. We are not happy there, yet refuse to leave.
Meanwhile nature is rustling. The minute you let go and pay attention, a supreme peace can be upon you.
- Theme: Self
Empathy wins, and loses
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1–2 minutesOne enlightenment tactic is broader and broader empathy: if you are empathetic for a person, I am empathetic for people; if you are empathetic for animals, I am empathetic for rocks as well.
To win, move from the individual particular, to the abstract universal.
Going meta is not love: true empathy is staying here in the messy particulars. - Theme: Self
Older and Younger
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1–2 minutesYou are always older and younger: forgetting either shortens your life.
Your body is more fragile, your will gives out quicker, but going into overdrive (overcoming) blocks your child-like curiosity, humor, and empathy… for yourself.We often embody the wrong age at the wrong time. - Theme: Self
Brain Training
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1–2 minutesAlmost no one uses metrics to guide themselves in cognitive labor.
It is normal to train your body for specialized results. Why do we not measure and track our brain fitness equally?