This is a comment on Charlie's post Do Epic Shit. (Note: I'm not disagreeing with the post, I'm just adding another voice. Different people need different messages.) I write periodically about the machine we call the education system and how it breaks many of us in one way or another such that we need to work hard to … [Read more...]
Embracing Winter: Let Yourself Hibernate
Each year the coming of winter tends to hit me like a wall of bricks. Suddenly it's dark so early. Suddenly it's raining all the time. Suddenly I feel sluggish, unmotivated, depressed. My blogs go silent, my mind goes fuzzy, I just want to sleeeeep. And you know what? That's OK. Winter is supposed to be slow. Taoism is … [Read more...]
Becoming a Channel for Creative Inspiration
Diversity and creativity are sacred right order If God was some kind of conformity-loving force, we wouldn’t all have such passionately divergent ideas and desires. We all share common needs and yet we all have preferences and strategies. Thus our sacred call is to discover and express our inner soul desires–and encourage … [Read more...]
Are You Earth, Air, Fire, Water?
I was musing with a friend and colleague recently about our different styles - we decided she was like water and I was like lava - a combination of fire and earth. Fire is transformative, explosive, quick-moving, but can burn out quickly without the right nourishment. Earth is grounded, practical, always there. Lava is a … [Read more...]
How Hope Can Hinder Joy
Hope can be a wonderful thing, but for many of us it has been a coping skill, not a living skill. Hope is a feeling that a desire will be fulfilled someday. Hope can be good if you are just coming out of despair. Hope can be that motivating factor where you realize you really can have a beautiful, prosperous, joyful … [Read more...]
Why Life is Difficult and What to Do About It
I was browsing in the library today and a book on the Kabbalah jumped out at me. Now I thought Kabbalah was this arcane thing with strange symbols and a lot of numerology. So not! This book totally clicked something into place for me around why life is difficult. So the whole idea of "we have to suffer to learn" never … [Read more...]
Stop Forcing Yourself to Do Things
Whenever we are engaged in an activity that we don't want to do, we are acting in opposition to ourselves. Part of our energy is going towards doing the activity. And part of our energy is going towards resisting doing the activity. This energy shows up in procrastination, inner disharmony, suppression activities … [Read more...]
Goal Mentality vs Play Mentality
Sometimes I get lost in focusing on money and business and lose sight of my playful side. I start feeling grumpy and sluggish and think "Why am I so obsessed with money?" But the truth is I'm not: money is this great game to me, as long as I'm connected to my sense of play with it. If I'm not connected, then it's just … [Read more...]
The Relationship Between Creativity and Divinity
Where do creative ideas come from? You could describe creativity in terms of random synapses firing together, but most mystics would agree that creativity is spiritual in nature. The first explanation of this I found was in The Artist's Way. Cameron explains that when we say God we mean Creator, which is the same as … [Read more...]