Because I write, I always ask people what they read. Many people tell me that they don’t read at all. Some say they don’t have time. Some even tell me that they don’t really like reading. Others say they can’t remember the last time they finished a book.
I always make a few recommendations to people.
Continue reading “Reading Becomes Easier Over Time”Back in 2018, I self-published a fantasy story called Faarland. This story is about a faar called Cullford and his journey in uncovering various disturbing facts about the organisation he works for—the Science Ministry. Over the course of his adventures, Cullford has shocking realisations about many ideas he once believed wholeheartedly.
For instance, The Third Truth is “Too much thinking can drive a faar brain insane.”
Without giving too much of the story away, I want to say that the Third Truth was not about over-thinking. Rather, the Truth was used as a mechanism of control. It was used as a way to keep faars from questioning things.
Continue reading “Faarland was not about over-thinking”
As a society we kind of have this obsession with intelligence. We admire people that are smart and even go so far as to build things that are smarter than us. Chess software engines like Stockfish that can basically waste any grandmaster.
We put intelligence on a pedestal and believe that it will solve all our problems. But a lot of our problems are not due to a lack of intelligence. A lot of our problems stem from charged emotions like jealousy, shame, fear, and anger. These unwanted emotional states often drive us to do unwise things.
I would argue that it is not that we need more intelligence but that really we need more emotional awareness and ultimately emotional integration.
Continue reading “Why emotional awareness matters more than intelligence”
Sometimes getting into the right state is the first step in writing a great scene.
When I want to write good fiction, I have to be focused, alert and at least somewhat in the mood. I can’t be rushed, or distracted, or angry, or tired. Those states aren’t optimal for great writing.
But anyone who has done extensive fiction writing (or any writing for that matter) knows that focused eagerness is rarely the state that you start off with. It’s the exception, not the rule. But there are a few things one can do to cultivate a better state.
Continue reading “Writing a great scene”
(NOTE: This post contains spoilers)
When I first watched Equilibrium, featuring Christian Bale, I thought it was a good movie but I didn’t necessarily realise how significant the main theme is.
This was probably ten years ago at this point, and back then I was re-watching many sci-fi favourites like Gattaca and Minority Report to name just a few. A friend recommended that I watch Equilibrium because it fell nicely into my genre of interest. I loved the movie, and as a side note, the scene where Cleric John Preston first hears Beethoven’s 9th Symphony got me into Beethoven and classical music.
So, I really liked the movie but my first reaction was: We’ll never live in a totalitarian state that suppresses emotion.
Continue reading “The Wisdom of Equilibrium (2002)”
Meaning is often seen as a good thing. We want the work that we do to be meaningful. We want our relationships to be meaningful. We attach a lot of value to meaning because we believe that a big, important “why” will counterbalance the inevitable difficulties of the “how.” This idea has merit, but attaching too much meaning to something can also be burdensome. Meaning can bring a certain amount of expectation and heaviness.
Continue reading “The burden of meaning”
Dream interpretation can be difficult for many reasons. For one thing we might not always know what our dreams are trying to tell us. Sometimes it might seem like our dreams are contradicting itself. Also, prophetic dreams can be terrifying and instill fear for some possible future outcome that we would do anything to avoid.
This article discusses some of the challenges related to dream interpretation and gives a few basic guidelines to navigate them.
Continue reading “Dreamwork: How to interpret your dreams (and stay relatively sane)”
It’s hard not to get consumed by resentment for living a life on Earth. The things that we all face regularly, like betrayal, loss, disappointment, or just sheer physical discomfort makes it hard not be resentful on some level.
But instead of complaining, or acting rash, bring awareness to that resentment. Shine some light on it and see if it brings some relief.
“Many of us are afraid of going home to ourselves because we don’t know how to handle the suffering inside us”
Thich Nhat Hanh – Silence
Set the bar really low so that you can’t fail. For example, if you’re a beginner, start with five minutes today and feel good about it. Feel good about showing up no matter what. If your mind was all over the place and you hardly focused at all, that’s still a successful meditation session because you’ve observed something about yourself.
Continue reading “My top 4 meditation tips”
Pausing before reacting is a superpower.
I think most people will agree that it’s easy to stay centred and calm when you’re not triggered or emotionally activated. But staying centred while you’re experiencing intense emotions, especially fear or anger, is hard. It’s not just a little harder to stay centred. It’s much, much harder. But pausing amidst these extreme emotions can be extremely beneficial.
Continue reading “Pausing is a superpower”