Ranking importance is critical to mental health What IS the matter? Matter is an interesting word. It’s a noun and a verb. The noun means something of substance and can be physical or metaphysical. The verb means for something to be important. There’s matter, and there is the matter. I like words like that, but the complication of communication and understanding. The idea of something mattering, as a verb, has been on my mind lately. The…
The fourth of July makes me ashamed. I’m ashamed of myself because I can’t seem to match the patriotism that surrounds me. In the USA, people get almost spiritual about their fireworks, hot dogs, and freedom worship. Behind all of this, for me, is a whole lot of weirdness. The whole Independence thing is fine. We fled a plutocratic government to have the ‘freedom’ to worship any god we wanted only to find ourselves in…
In part 1 of this series, I introduced the difference between asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is basically mitosis or simple cell division. This leaves little room for variation. Evolution and change are slow, and your kids are basically clones of you. With the onset and ultimate domination of sexual reproduction, much more change becomes possible. New concepts like gender and parenting evolve. Evolution, itself becomes THE way organisms can adjust to changing…
Do you enjoy friendly competition? Many of us do. Some say it brings out the best in us. Some thrive in an environment where other people push us to perform at higher and higher levels. I can appreciate friendly competition like this. But I rarely see it. And sometimes even friendly competition turns sour. Feelings get hurt. Tempers flare. The high level of energy surrounding competitive exchanges can often spill over into anger. In Economics…
Most of us are not perfect. I certainly am not. In fact,lately I have been replaying several moments from my life where I behaved poorly. But when I do this nowadays, I don’t beat myself up. I have learned to find self-compassion for the person I used to be and to recognize I am no longer him. Integrity is the alignment of our values or beliefs with our actions or behavior. Even though I know…
What are your thoughts on meditation? Do you think it’s some hokey mumbo-jumbo? Do you think it’s too hard to find time but that there may be something to it? Are you a regular cushion-sitter? As a human, you’re likely to fall in there somewhere. And if you are reading, listening to, or watching Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom you’re probably at least a little curious about meditation. Meditation has been called the single best…
Have you ever really thought about what you want? I mean really sat down and asked yourself what you would change if you could? Maybe you said you want more money. Less time at work. More time with family. Longer vacations. A bigger house, better car, or fancier smartphone. If you keep at this long enough, and wish for all the material things, what do you REALLY want? When I did this sort of iterative…
Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you get anxious sometimes? Is anger part of your normal reaction to unexpected things? Do tiny little things sometimes irritate the crap out of you? Most of us struggle to some degree and could use a bit more calm in our lives. And a lot of this discomfort is normal and unavoidable, but what if we could reduce it a bit? Wouldn’t that be nice? One of the main…
Don Miguel Ruiz, author of many books including ‘The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)‘ uses the term “Domestication” to describe the process by which humans are taught how to live. I have been fascinated by this process, whatever you wish to call it, for as long as I can remember. In fact, I still wonder, often out loud, why no one ever asked whether or not I was…
I met DJ Doran when he reached out to interview me about my podcast. We hit it off rather quickly, and of course I had to have him on to discuss Curiosity. In fact, the whole Curiosity interview series was inspired by DJ! See, DJ told me my podcast made him curious, and he’s a very curious guy as you’ll see. And I realized that I am driven, in large part, by curiosity. It’s in…