My Ongoing Experiment

Posted on October 6, 2021 by admin

I first thought of and completed my letting go experiment a little over a month ago. There are a number of things I’d like to say about how it’s impacted my life since then. Before that, I’ll describe it in more detail than I did when I first wrote about it.

When I had a rare two days off in a row from work, I decided to spend a lot more time letting go than I usually do. The easiest way for me to do this was to set aside 15 minutes in each waking hour during which I would sit or lie down and become as physically still as possible. I did my best to focus on my breath and my body as I allowed whatever emotions wished to come up to do so. As best as I could, I avoided resisting anything, putting the feelings into thoughts or words, reframing them, or justifying anything I was thinking or feeling. That was all fairly easy as I’ve practiced it a lot.

This was already a regular practice of mine a few times a day so it was fairly easy to increase the frequency to 16 times a day. That additional time allowed me to reach some deep issues that I rarely ever addressed and spend enough time there to release a huge amount of negativity. Major results appeared before the end of the first day and grew even stronger before the end of the second. There was a feeling of deep peace within me for most of each day. Among other things, that peace made my voice much calmer and smoother than it was before, allowed me to know what to say and do in almost any situation with little to no effort, made it much easier to treat people well and communicate effectively with them, gave me a great deal of inner strength (as well as enough physical strength to move around a 500 lb barrel at my job by myself), and made everything seem easier overall as my problems melted away and I felt invincible.

I had spent some time in that peaceful state on many previous occasions but it never lasted very long. Since I’ve kept up this experiment each day to the best of my ability, I’ve been able to stay in that state almost all the time. When I lose it, which takes a huge amount of stress, I can get back to it with just one or two sessions. My main focus right now is on releasing as much fear as I can in each session. That’s what made the initial experiment so beneficial and it seems to give me the most bang for my buck. I still release anger, sadness, grief, guilt, shame, and other negative emotions as they come up, but releasing fear makes that process much easier by either getting rid of the other emotions or significantly reducing them. That fear shortcut is one of the greatest things I’ve found through this experiment.

Needless to say, I highly recommend you try some version of this for yourself. I did it in 15 minute sessions because that’s what I was already used to doing and I routinely have plenty of time to do it for that long. If you don’t have that kind of time flexibility, then 5 minute sessions will still be beneficial. As long as you’re doing for at at least a few minutes during each waking hour, you’ll get about an hour or more of healing every day and will most likely still have plenty of time for your regular tasks and routines. This may even save you time if your experience is anything like mine. Doing this has made my daily routines even more effective and efficient than before; my increased positive energy makes each task feel easier and I’ve learned how to be more efficient with the time I have when I’m not letting go. However much time you have to dedicate to this, I hope it works wonders for you and makes your life immeasurably better than before.

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Removing the Negative

Posted on September 29, 2021 by admin

Although I don’t follow philosophical pessimism, I do think it has some good points. The one that stands out the most to me has to do with removing the negative. Looking back over my life, I realized that I’ve gotten much more out of that than I have from increasing the positive. Here are some of my thoughts on this.

Suppose you’re enjoying a delicious meal while listening to nice music in a room with a fairly comfortable temperature. Sounds lovely, and it would be purely pleasurable if not for the additional fact that your hair is on fire. You can’t improve that situation by getting better food, listening to nicer music, or making the room temperature more comfortable. None of that will make a difference until you put out the fire and tend to any injuries you’ve received. There’s only so much to gain from adding more positivity while ignoring the growing negativity. Once a certain level has been attained, further improvement only comes by addressing what’s hurting you and holding you back.

This is similar to David Goggins’s point about tripling down on weaknesses rather than focusing purely on strengths. That’s how I’ve progressed at each of my hobbies. Whenever I’ve learned a brand new skill, there’s nothing but weaknesses to address at the outset. Once I’ve gotten a feel for it, my greatest improvement has come from working on some key weaknesses. A few examples include making my throws more consistent in juggling, taking smaller steps in swing dancing, and leaning more forward in unicycling. Practicing poor technique is a great way to stay limited in any skill so it often pays more to take several steps back when necessary to focus on refining fundamentals rather than plowing ahead with a lot of well-developed bad habits. What are some ways you’ve benefited from removing the negative and focusing on improving weaknesses? Let me know and I will see you in the next post.

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Putting the Pieces Together

Posted on September 22, 2021 by admin

Unsolved problems keep coming back up. This is true from the individual level all the way through the global level. So many problems remain unsolved because one or more parts of any given problem are being ignored. In far too many situations, one person will focus on one part and another person will focus on another but they’ll both ignore each other’s part. Because they can’t find a way to look at all sides of the issue, the problem can’t be solved.

The example of this that best sticks out in my mind is an exchange I once saw on social media about air travel. One person was celebrating how much less expensive flying has become and another was bemoaning the decline in luxury. As the exchange went on, both people essentially repeated their points nearly verbatim with little to no acknowledgment of what the other said. Continually talking past each other like that provided no opportunity for them to come to any kind of agreement, much less do anything to change a situation that at least one of them disliked.

There has to be a way to see the big picture and look at the situation as a whole. It’s extremely helpful when each person acknowledges the problems on their own side and also sees the merits of the other side. The difficult part is how to get there. Here are some things that have allowed me to do this more consistently.

It’s easy for me to see my own perspective as if it’s complete by itself. What’s harder to see are all the pieces that are left out from ignoring other viewpoints. Seeing them requires humbling myself, reminding myself that there is a lot I don’t know, and being willing to change my perspective upon learning accurate and relevant information. After talking with someone else, even if my perspective remains the same overall but now contains additional nuance that makes it more useful, I’m still better off as a result and both of us are a bit closer to a solution.

As I talk about a lot on this blog, working through my deep-seated emotions is crucial in this area. This is how I think about it. Think back to the last time you were verbally fighting with somebody. You had one perspective and they had another. Tensions were high, voices were raised, and emotions were strong. At that point, were you able to set aside your emotions, think calmly, and understand the other person’s perspective? If you could, then please tell the world how you managed to do that. If you’re like most people, however, then you probably couldn’t. In those heightened emotional states, with adrenaline and other stress hormones running through your body, you’re mainly focused either on fighting back or getting out of the situation (other possibilities include freezing or fawning) in the hope of ending the conflict as soon as possible. Whatever perspective you had going in is the same one you’re going to have at the end. It’s only after the situation is deescalated and tensions are relieved that you can look at or accept another perspective. In the heat of the moment, emotions act like a big wall of solid rock. All you can see is your perspective; you can’t see the other perspective on the other side of the rock wall. Once things have settled down a little bit, emotions become like a glass wall; you can see the other perspective but you can’t accept it. After the emotions have mostly or entirely gone away, then there’s no more wall between you and the other perspective, and you’re able to embrace it if you like. That’s why dealing with emotions is important and reframing doesn’t work to deescalate intense situations.

Focusing only on the words while ignoring the emotions underneath is another huge problem. When doing that, it’s far too easy to become stuck in a false story of what the other person believes or wants and miss their actual positions. Nuance is then highly likely to become abandoned entirely as each person digs into increasingly more hyperbolic positions as egoic defense mechanisms; these positions ultimately end up failing to accurately reflect the views of the people holding them as the exchange continues, in addition to putting them more at odds with each other. If this happens, pause as soon as possible and for as long as necessary, examine your underlying concerns, and then ask the other person where they’re coming from. “How can we find a solution to this problem that we both like?” is definitely a useful question to keep in mind and may even be valuable to ask out loud. Depending on how far off the rails the exchange had gone, this may not be enough to save it, but it will at least prevent it from getting worse. Done early enough, it may salvage the situation and make resolution possible.

As important as salvaging the conversation is, it’s even more important to prevent it from going off track int eh first place. Again, emotional work plays a crucial role here. Letting go of a lot of fear has made it way easier for me to listen patiently while someone talks and look for mutually beneficial solutions rather than insisting that I have all the answers. It now takes little to no effort on my part to notice the source of a problem, maintain a good disposition, and work with the other person rather than against them. The civil dialogue that this facilitates is so powerful because it allows us to put our pieces together and gain a holistic view of the situation rather than be stuck with the fragmented views that we’d have if we didn’t come together.

I think this is the only way to solve problems and move forward. Working through one’s own darkness brings healing to that person, which makes possible the kinds of real conversations necessary for healing the world. The more people who do this, the better everything will get. Without this, most people will be stuck in the endless cycle of creating problems, projecting blame onto everyone else, fighting with each other, and creating more problems while calling all of that human nature. That’s the cycle humanity has been in for most of its history but it doesn’t have to continue being that way. Let’s all step out of that cycle, step up our game, and step into a better tomorrow.

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What My Hobbies Have Taught Me

Posted on September 15, 2021 by admin

I’ve learned a lot from my various hobbies. Until recently, though, I didn’t realize exactly how much I’ve gotten out of them. Here are some of the lessons my hobbies have taught me.

Juggling has shown me a better way to accomplish big goals. Instead of attempting to conquer the entire goal in one go, I build up to it by accomplishing smaller goals and winning small victories. That allows me to develop the skills and acquire the knowledge necessary to take on big tasks while minimizing frustration.

Although I only play with my Rubik’s Cube on occasion, I’ve still learned a lot from it. Just like with the cube, so many things in life involve patterns. By learning the patterns, extremely difficult tasks become extremely simple and I can do things that seem impossible. Even if it takes a lot of time and practice to learn and master the patterns, it can be done. This has served me well in everything from my hobbies to personal growth to my various jobs.

From swing dancing, I’ve learned how helpful a good teacher can be. I was basically a beginner when I started swing dancing regularly in July of 2017 and, thanks to a lot of instruction from some great teachers, I reached the intermediate/advanced level at Classic City Swing in September of 2018. In addition to great instruction and lots of practice from dancing regularly, this accomplishment came from focusing on fundamentals and getting the small things right; that makes everything easier in every skill.

Unicycling showed me that even if something seems hopeless, if it’s possible for somebody to do, I can probably learn it given enough time. Something may seem impossible but I’ll keep making progress and eventually get where I want to go if I stick with it. As with the previous point about swing dancing, having help from a skilled teacher who gave me several good pointers around small details made a big difference and allowed me to progress much more quickly. Also, unicycling showed me that balance can be greatly improved over time, even in my case with having poor natural balance.

Even one of my most recent hobbies, rola bola, has taught me some valuable lessons. Mainly, it’s shown me how much skills from one hobby can transfer to another. Rola bola was easy to pick up after almost two years of unicycling had given me pretty solid balance. In fact, I picked up rola bola right away and didn’t need to practice much to get good at it. This has made me wonder what other skills I may be able to pick up pretty easily with the abilities that I’ve already developed.

Although these aren’t the only hobbies I’ve had, they’re the ones I’ve done the most consistently over my life and the ones with which I have the most skill. I’m sure my past and future hobbies also contain useful life lessons. What have you learned from your hobbies? I’d love to hear about it.

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Signs I’m Doing Well

Posted on September 8, 2021 by admin

There are several indicators for how well I’m doing at any given moment. Thanks to my recent breakthroughs, these have become easier to notice and, overall, they’ve been more consistent than before. Without further ado, here are 6 signs I’m doing well.

  1. My voice. This is the clearest and most noticeable sign of my emotional state. When I’m feeling stressed, my voice is shallow, weak, strained, and often cuts out on me. When I’m feeling calm, my voice is rich, strong, effortless, and withstands a lot of talking. Others have pointed out that my voice sounds more chill, grounded, and strong when I’m at peace; the opportunity for easy social feedback makes this an extra valuable indicator.
  2. Background anxiety. I used to feel a lot of anxiety even outside of stressful situations. All the inner work I’ve done has greatly reduced that anxiety to a level that’s usually hard to notice until it’s gone, such as after I get out of a great float. Lately, however, that background anxiety has been almost entirely absent, including in stressful situations. Whenever it’s gone, I feel a deep sense of peace almost all the time.
  3. Saying “no”. For most of my life, I’ve found it hard to say “no”. Even when I’ve managed to say it, I often couldn’t hold to it against even the slightest bit of pressure. Releasing a lot of fear as of late has made it much easier to say “no” and stand behind it since (for the most part) I no longer fear the repercussions of doing so.
  4. Stressful experiences. While I do think I will someday get to a point of not feeling stressed at all, I do still feel occasional stress. However, the remaining stress is much lighter than it once was and I’m able to move past it much more quickly and easily now. This allows me to handle stressful experiences much more effectively, such as by thinking better on my feet, quickly finding solutions, and interacting with other people in a clearer way.
  5. Body position. I’ve slouched for most of my life, especially when sitting. Feeling a lot of negativity reinforces that posture. In contrast, feeling a lot of positivity makes me more inclined to stand tall, sit up straight, and generally pay more attention to how I hold myself.
  6. Breathing. I do my best to take deep breaths through my nose. That’s much easier when I’m feeling calm and breathing that way tends to help me continue feeling calm. When I feel stressed, I tend to take shallow breaths through my mouth, which tends to make me feel even more stressed. The better I feel, the easier it is to breathe in a healthy way.
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One Year of Letting Go

Posted on September 1, 2021 by admin

It’s been a little more than a year now since I started letting go consistently. What has happened for me in that time? More than I can cover in a blog post but I’ll share some of the major highlights below.

This post is based on Letting Go by David Hawkins. Reading that book taught me the technique and using the technique as often as possible has benefited me tremendously. I started letting go regularly in the second half of 2020 because I wanted to see if it would help me get over something that I couldn’t seem to get past. Before that year ended, I had gotten over it completely. This astonished me, especially since it took me a while to figure out how to use the technique properly. I also discovered there was a lot more to work through underneath the surface of that particular struggle than I’d previously thought. Still, consistently letting go got me through something in a matter of months that I thought I’d never get past.

While working through that issue, I noticed feeling a lot less anxiety and depression overall in life. Interacting with other people became easier, the social aspects of my job were much less draining, my communication became much more effective, and I felt more like myself than I had since I was a little kid. All this despite not working specifically on any of those issues. This showed me that letting go in one area relieved pressure in all other areas. However, focusing on specific areas is the quickest way to see progress in those areas.

The letting go technique also works for physical problems caused by suppressed emotions. A few times a year I’ll get pain in a certain part of my back from stress. I learned how to let go of the stress that caused me pain earlier this year and doing so, along with a few other measures, got rid of that pain in less than a day. I’ve done the same since that pain came back last week and I managed to get rid of it even faster this time now that I know what I’m doing. The more I let go, the deeper I’m able to go within myself and heal things that need more attention. This includes a number of issues that in the past never seemed to get better regardless of how much work I did on them. They kept coming up and I kept responding the same way every time. Eventually, I found ways to address them. It took working through a lot of guilt and shame to finally start feeling relief from things that had been frozen in me my whole life. Breaking them down into manageable bits has been the key for dealing with my hardest issues. Letting go of anger, sadness, grief, guilt, and fear one by one has done far more than my previous attempts to let go of all of them simultaneously.

As an experiment, I decided to see what would happen if I set aside 15 minutes to let go every waking hour of my day. This meant 4 hours of letting go each day. I did this when I had a rare two days off in a row from work so I had plenty of time to let go and still pursue all my other interests that weekend. I noticed a deep feeling of peace with all background anxiety removed, which is exactly how I feel after getting out of a great float. However, my mood was more stable throughout the day instead of starting lower and then rising incredibly high as it tends to do on my float days. Plus the mood boost was evenly spread throughout the day instead of concentrated over part of the day as it is when I float. After doing several rounds of this on the first day, it became easy to let go automatically even between sessions. Emotions that would normally have been hard to release went away quite quickly and I found it difficult to dwell on anything unpleasant for more than a few minutes. One major realization I got from this experiment was how much fear contributes to anger. Although I’ve let go of a lot of anger, I noticed it kept coming up when certain past situations came to mind. Going deeper, I saw how much fear was still present. After letting go of that fear, the anger also melted away. All of this was even easier the second day. It seems to get easier each day since I’ve kept up this practice as best as I can and my fear of my own emotions is almost entirely gone, meaning I can work through anything now.

In addition to all the letting go work I’ve done over the past year, I’ve also done some other extremely valuable things. The most helpful by far has been working with a life coach for most of this year. More than I ever imagined, that work allowed me to dig deep, identify the sources of my struggles, and work through them with compassion for myself. I’m certain that coaching greatly accelerated my healing process and for that I am immensely grateful. The other beneficial practice was inner child work as described in the book Homecoming. That revealed a lot of issues I hadn’t noticed before and made it easier to work through original pain from early in my life. Both the coaching and Homecoming have involved a lot of letting go work so the letting go technique has been a staple of each personal growth milestone I’ve reached and practice I’ve undertaken this year.

Letting go throughout 2021 has taken me to entirely new levels. Even before 2020 ended, a number of people close to me noticed my major personal growth, and that has only become more common over the course of 2021. The recent progress I’ve made from the above experiment, as well as continuing it as much as possible since then, has allowed me to remain in a state of peace for longer than I ever have before. The small amounts of stress or other negativity I’ve experienced since that experiment began have been much less intense than they were before and they’ve also gone away much faster. I plan to keep this up going forward as it seems to be the secret to continued progress. If you haven’t yet, please either check out the Letting Go book or at least read some of what I’ve written about the technique (especially the link in the second paragraph of this post) so you can start practicing it yourself and see how much it can do for you. I look forward to continuing to grow with the letting go technique and seeing where it takes me over the next year.

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Overcoming Guilt

Posted on August 25, 2021 by admin

Guilt has been the hardest emotion for me to work through. It’s been present in almost everything I’ve done from a young age since that’s how I was raised. Stand up for myself? Guilt. Fail to stand up for myself? Guilt. Speak my mind? Guilt. Hold my tongue? Guilt. Do something bad? Guilt. Do something good? Guilt. Feel bad about myself? Guilt. Feel good about myself? Guilt. It’s only recently that I’ve pinpointed this as the source of so many of my struggles and have developed anything resembling a healthy, effective way to handle it. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Some experiences have been vastly more difficult than others for me to overcome. Even after letting go of huge amounts of anger, regret, sadness, and grief, I still wouldn’t be able to let go of certain experiences. I didn’t know what was left of them but I could tell something was still there. Eventually, I realized it was guilt. Guilt for feeling badly toward someone (even if they had hurt me). Guilt for not standing up for myself or for the rare occasions in which I’d take a stand. Guilt for still holding on to things that happened decades ago. Guilt for feeling upset in the first place. Once I let go of the guilt from a particular situation, I’d feel a deep sense of peace about whatever happened and mostly forget about it, which is a sure sign that I’ve fully let something go.

I had a recent breakthrough that’s opened up huge doors for me and inspired this post. I’ve gotten good enough at noticing when guilt comes up to prevent it from turning into negative self-talk. Getting bogged down in hateful words or thoughts toward myself was what held me back for so long. Now that I can avoid the words and thoughts and focus instead on the feelings themselves, I can overcome anything. This doesn’t mean it’s always a breeze, however. It may still take me hours, days, or even longer to work through a super difficult experience. Still, that’s a vast improvement over the amount of time it used to take me to work through those experiences, if I ever worked completely through them.

Sometimes reminding myself that the feelings will pass if I give them the proper space to run out is enough to allow me to do it. Though the feelings can be overwhelming at times, it always surprises me how quickly they let up once I let them run. Several times a day, I’ll either sit or lie down for 15 minutes at a time and let go. Whatever strong negative emotions I’m feeling at the start of each session (anger, guilt, grief, rage, etc) are almost entirely gone by the end; even when something remains, it’s always much smaller and less intense at the end than it was at the beginning.

Everything in this post also applies to shame since guilt and shame are so similar for me. Now that I’m so aware of how much guilt has affected me, I find it strange that I never realized it before. Though it’s obvious to me now, it took a long time to figure it out. I don’t regret or feel guilty over the time before I made this discovery. I feel relieved to have had this realization that goes hand-in-hand with my breakthrough earlier this year about my inner judge and I’m finding new ways all the time of working through guilt. Things will be different for me from here on out. Easier, lighter, freer, more joyful, and more peaceful. I hope you receive all of that as well.

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Judgments and Stories

Posted on August 18, 2021 by admin

I do my best to avoid judging the emotions I feel throughout the day. On my best days, I apply this to other people as well. It’s easy to make quick judgments, especially when someone does something I dislike. When I avoid judging, instead of thinking “That guy is an idiot,” I may simply observe what happened or think “I don’t like what he did”. This brings me more peace and reminds me that I don’t have to let other people affect my emotions; it’s up to me rather than the other person to decide how I respond.

There’s a difference between feelings and judgments. Judgments come from the mind whereas feelings occur in the body. Left unaddressed, the energy behind those feelings becomes thoughts, judgments, and stories. Staying stuck in any or all of those makes it almost impossible to solve problems because it prevents the emotions from being addressed and released. Tuning into the emotions dissolves the obstructions and allows the emotions to pass when they’re ready. It then becomes possible to effectively address whatever problems you’re facing.

In difficult situations, especially ones involving conflicts, it’s much more effective to stick to emotions rather than judgments. “I feel hurt” comes across quite differently than “You’re a jerk”. Additionally, the emotion is always true while the judgment is purely an opinion; two people may disagree on whether or not someone is a jerk but there can’t be honest disagreement about whether or not someone feels hurt. Focusing on emotions and behavior rather than judgmental accusations allows for true connection and makes it more likely for there to be a resolution.

As simple as this is to understand, it isn’t always easy to remember and apply. It can be hard to avoid getting sucked into the story. When I’m on point, I can observe what’s going through my mind rather than be overtaken by it, tune in to what’s happening in my body, and focus on whatever emotions are coming up. On more difficult days, I tend to get overrun by whatever my mind created out of thin air. This is still pretty new for me and I’m still working on it, but I take comfort in the fact that it’s getting easier with practice. 

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More Thoughts on Echo Chambers

Posted on August 11, 2021 by admin

Crucial Conversations talks a lot about the feeling of safety in communication. Where there’s not a feeling of safety, communication is largely absent. Some people may still speak to each other by way of yelling, making insults, and mocking each other, but that’s completely ineffective. This lays the groundwork for echo chambers.

Echo chambers arise when certain subjects are considered to be off limits for general discussion and so can’t be discussed in an effective manner. Nobody likes having their voice squashed so when that happens to someone, they may seek out places where they can talk about whatever they like. Those places tend to be full of other people who agree with them and are also sick of being dismissed, so there can a lot of agreement with hardly any pushback. This tends to reinforce existing views without allowing much, if any, discussion from those who think quite differently. In addition to making it hard to see flaws in the ideas being discussed, this also makes it easy to start seeing people who think differently as evil. From there, one is only a few short steps away from wishing harm upon those people, including wanting them to die. I’ve seen that sentiment quite a bit lately and it disturbs me deeply, especially when it comes from people I know.

Far too many people yell at, insult, shame, and threaten people until they either stop outwardly disagreeing or go away. All that does is make those on the receiving end of such treatment more inclined to stick with their existing viewpoints and see those dishing out that treatment as their enemies. If the purpose of this approach is to change minds, then this is a horrible strategy. If the purpose is to make people feel bad and increase existing divisions, then it’s a wonderful strategy. Regardless of the intentions behind that strategy, it almost always originates from talking points developed and practiced in echo chambers. When people from two different echo chambers meet and don’t immediately agree with each other, then the personal attacks and attempts to pound their viewpoints into each other begin, and any hope of productive discourse ends.

Some people seem to misunderstand what I’m about to say next. This doesn’t mean that the alternative to shouting matches and shaming sessions is to do nothing, to ignore people who think differently, or to go along with whatever they say without challenging them. Those approaches also serve no good purpose. The effective alternative is having real conversations with people in which you find out their concerns. Ask relevant questions, encourage them to go deep, and hear them out as they explain where they’re coming from. When I’ve done this from a place of genuine interest and curiosity, it has almost always resulted in the other person being willing to then hear me out and, on at least one occasion, asking for my thoughts before I even began to share them. That sort of connection feels incredible and is essential for building bridges to a better future.

As long as enough people continue to either shut down or totally take over conversations, things will continue as they are. Making things better requires getting out of the echo chambers, having those difficult conversations, actually hearing each other out, and working together to solve problems wherever possible. It’s not always easy, comfortable, or pleasant. However, when the issues involved are important enough, it becomes crucial to put up with the awkwardness and stick with each other long enough to make progress. And above all, remember that we’re all human beings. That’s the way forward.

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Finding the Magic

Posted on August 4, 2021 by admin

A few weekends ago, I went to the beach with some friends. We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed a breathtaking sunset before leaving. We went in the evening and there weren’t a lot of man-made lights by the beach so it started getting quite dark toward the end. Dark enough that we probably could have seen a starry sky if it weren’t for the cloud cover. The next day, I watched the opening scene of The Lion King and was moved to tears at its beauty and power. I had some wonderfully deep conversations at my job the following day that reminded me that I’m not alone in how I see the world.

All of this showed me how much magic is available to us. I experienced a lot of it as a kid before a number of life events gradually beat it out of me. Since I’ve healed so much, I’m reconnecting with that magic now more than ever and it’s amazing to see it all come back. Problems seem to melt away, solutions present themselves automatically, peace is becoming my default state, and things that used to really get to me no longer do. I’m not the exception here; all of this is available to everyone.

One of my missions in life is to remind others of the possibilities available to us. We live on a big rock flying through a seemingly endless void of space and there are far more questions than answers about life. Keeping this perspective in mind is a great way to remember how petty all of humanity’s dramas, conflicts, and issues are. This world can be almost any way we want it to be and it’s too easy to forget that amid the hustle and bustle of modern life. Everyone needs to remember that we’re not meant to work tirelessly, pay bills, cycle through routines endlessly, and then die after raising kids to do the same exact thing. Anytime we are faced with a decision to do things the same way they’ve always been done or do them a better way and we choose the better way, that’s magic. That’s what will lead to a better world, a world that prioritizes health, well-being, connection, and joy over division, material gain, and financial accomplishments that ultimately cost far more than they are worth. That better world is available to us if we want it. So, do you want it?

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