#301 – Why are your Ghosts in cahoots with the outside world?When you're able to see a tree and think "just tree," you'll be free. Your Ghosts, unemployed, will be lazily filing their nails and yawning at an empty wall.Years ago, I helped a researche...
#300 – What makes you give up your inner peace?Whenever we allow external circumstances to bother us, we're making a choice. But we do it because we feel we don't have a choice––how could I be happy when my son's in jail?Yesterday, we were again...
#299 – What can be hiding behind high productivity?I learned a new term today: "high-functioning depression." It's the sort of depression that hides behind a highly productive, often successful, and always full life.Listening to a psychiatrist discus...
#298 – How does the Ego cover up its fear?The Ego fears two things: not knowing, and knowing it's wrong.When it doesn't know, it floods you with second-guessing, flip-flopping, brain fog, or endless polling. Anything to prevent you from trusting...
#297 – What's cozy about keeping an enemy list?Clinging to our grudges seems to put us in a position of power. If I'm the one holding the grudge, I am the one shunning you from "my land," and therefore, I have some power over you. I limit you and, by...
#296 – What part of you resists being "on hold?"Waiting for something to happen––a process to end, your phone to ring, a lab result to arrive––can feel like torture. The uncertainty is unnerving: will it happen? When? What will be the outcome? A...
#295 – Is your mind a true democracy?I don't know of anyone, personally, who doesn't believe democracy is the most beneficial form of governance.But I know many people (myself included, if I'm not vigilant) who allow their minds to be governed like a...
#294 – What has fear cost you so far?My first paid job (after babysitting) was writing for a music magazine. Yet, I didn't go to journalism school.I also loved film and storytelling; I dreamed of making films (writing and directing them). Yet, I...
#293 – What's the key to emotional resilience?This morning I was feeling lonely and sad, as I wrote in my morning pages. Of course, seeing my current situation (son, ankle, underemployment), anyone would understand.Yeah, but. What about the "joy...
#292 – When do high standards turn into "sticklerism?"Caring for quality is one thing; putting others down because we think our work is better is another. That's what I've recognized in myself lately.In my AI project's iterative revision system, I no...