“The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and results come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity.” – Aldous Huxley Drown-Proofing When it comes to our psychology what’s happened is this. Our hands … More Stalling: Why Letting Go Is the Key to Regaining Lift
I have a friend who quite often doesn’t tell me the truth. It’s most often in small ways like, “I’d love to do that but I can’t because I have to <fill in the blank>.” Or “I’m sorry that I didn’t get that done but I had to <fill in the blank>.” And although I … More Telling The Truth
The Four Forces of Flight There’s an analogy I want to imprint on your mind today. It’s one I intend to come back to repeatedly as I go about writing my high-flying book. It concerns something known in aviation as the four forces of flight. To give you a quick lesson in aerodynamics, those are … More Stalling: The Aerodynamics of Life
My emotions come at me in waves. Often I’m strong enough to withstand them – to hold the ship steady – but every now and then they catch me with my shields down. I’m swept away. That happened the other day when the movers came in to pack everything up. Seeing my whole life packed … More The Ghosts of My Past
A meditation on inperfection … More Finding Beauty in Brokenness
Please note this is a partnered post and may contain affiliate links. Pixabay – CC0 Licence In a world where big things seem to happen more or less everyday, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We’ve all grown up with messages around us telling us that we can do anything, we can change the world and … More Why It’s Not Such A Bad Thing To Be “Powerless”
I have a love-hate relationship with thinking. Sometimes, I get in these kinds of flow states where I follow my train of thought – connecting the dots along the way. When I follow my thoughts in this way, I find it euphoric. I often derive my best writing doing so. This is all well and … More Stuck in the Clouds: An Aviator’s Guide to Pointless Overthinking
When I was about 8 years old, my family and I went over to our next-door neighbour’s house for dinner. After dinner, their daughter offered me a sweetie. So, she led me into her room and opened up her “sweetie draw.” What she had done was save up her sweets over months and months to … More The Sweetie Draw
Scrolling down our various social media profiles may give us the impression that everyone that we know is having the time of their lives 24/7. Glowing smiles of newly formed relationships, exotic foods, sculpted flawless bodies all exemplify the perfection that they have achieved. One puts down their phone and is immediately filled with a … More The Perils of Perfectionism and the Joy of Being Ordinary
The Parable of the Second Arrow According to the Buddha, any time we suffer misfortune, two arrows fly our way. The first arrow is the bad event itself, which certainly can (and often does) cause pain. The second arrow is our reaction to the bad event, the suffering we attach to our pain. This secondary pain, he tells us, is … More Escaping the Emotional Rabbit Hole
I write to call myself a writer and be called a writer, because that means more to me than words could ever convey. … More Why I Write
Do you feel like the weight of responsibility is keeping you grounded? Or the sheer drag of life is forcing on the brakes? Do you find it hard to muster the requisite lift and thrust to overcome these forces in life? Of course, we’ve all been there. We’ve all had those days where everything has … More Finding Life Balance Using the Four Forces of Flight
“Misfortune weighs most heavily on those who expect nothing but good fortune.” – Seneca Have you ever noticed how we’re taught that our wants and desires have everything to do with our suffering, yet we’re also taught to “live in hope”? Have you ever stopped to consider how these messages might muddy the waters? You … More Why You Shouldn’t Hope for the Best
“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” ― CARL JUNG I spent most of my adult life trying to avoid suffering. It made everything worse. I spent my days waiting, hoping for my knight in shining armour. The funny thing is she existed, I just didn’t have the courage … More Angels and Demons
Hello everyone, We are here to do some Sunday reading again. Welcome you all! I want to discuss something I often struggle with today: acceptance. I come from a family of government workers. In Turkey, a government worker can be a teacher at a public school, a doctor at a public hospital etc. When you … More Acceptance
Here’s a question for you: If you could go back in time, say 10 or 20 years, and give yourself some advice, what would you say? If I went back ten years or so, I would tell myself that the change you are looking for comes from accepting who you already are. I would also … More Question of the Day: No. 528
“Your perception of me, is a reflection of you. My reaction to you is an awareness of me.” – Unknown. What do you do when you look at yourself in the mirror? Maybe you comb your hair or have a shave. Maybe you brush and floss your teeth. Maybe you correct your posture. Maybe you examine … More The People Mirror Effect
Hello everyone, My life is hectic right now, so I am not able to write consistently. But I miss you all! I hope everyone is doing good! The hectic nature of my life recently made me think of something that some of tend to do, me included. We want to control things and when we … More Control the Chaos
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.” – VIETNAM WAR. ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE Do you want to know the one reason you’re not happy right now? It’s because … More The Hopeless Nature Of Hoping
If I could start all over again, I’d only focus on my body being strong. The hell with the numbers. If I could start all over again, I’d go into meetings with confidence. I have a right to be here. If I could start all over again, I’d make more time for reading. For crafting. … More SnapDragon Speaks: On Starting Over.