A couple of years ago, there was a spectacular sunrise worth noticing. Anyone who has seen my Instagram feed knows that sunrise posts are one of my staples. But this particular sunrise is memorable because I scooped up my kids who were aged 5 and 1 at the time and took them to the deck upstairs to see it. As soon as took a picture … Continue reading The Power of Awe
A new goal of mine is to leave earlier than on-time. It’s about doing just a little less, in order to have a lot less distress, and it’s the result of a quite specific quality-of-life insight. If you’re like me, you’re often a bit of a scrambler… Continue reading Leaving Earlier: Why It’s Better Than On Time
Wu Wei is a key concept of Taoism that can be translated as “do not act” or “do not intervene”. However, it is not a passive attitude. It’s letting go to allow the action to flow effortlessly and in harmony with the “original cosmic order”, without attempting to modify it. The result will be merging into the spontaneous movement of nature and life. When talking … Continue reading Wu Wei, the Art of Non-acting
Too much stress, blue light, and you wake up tired more and more often. This is a sign that your quality of sleep is poor. You know for sure that sleep affects your overall well-being. But do you also know that poor sleep quality may increase your level of stress, cause concentration problems and that it also has a direct link to your weight? Let’s … Continue reading How to Face Poor Sleep Quality
You all know about the half empty or half full glass of water. By saying how you see it, you will understand if you are an optimist or not. And if you would like another perspective on a half empty or half full glass, you can read Wynne’s post The Glass Is Refillable. But what you are going to read here is something different that … Continue reading A Glass Full of Water
The Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had a mission to break down spatial and geographic barriers and connect the world. In many respects he has succeeded. You can now instantaneously connect with family members or friends living across the globe. Moreover, you can virtually keep up to date on key milestone events in the lives of loved ones or distant acquaintances. Despite the hyper connectivity that … Continue reading The Search for Connection and Solitude in a Digital Age
Throughout history water has represented a powerful symbol and metaphor in different cultures, philosophies and religions. It has been viewed as a symbol of purity in the Christian tradition while being embodied as the Greek god of Poseidon in the ancient world. Water is life-giving. It is vital for the health and existence of life on our planet. As we are all well aware, we … Continue reading Drifting with the Tao: Drifting Like Water
Much of our suffering and psychological problems we face are due to the fact that we are using ancient cognitive machinery to deal with the complexities of the modern world. Humans evolved though a process called natural selection in which genes that were best suited for their respective environments were passed on to the next generation. As Robert Wright notes in his book Why Buddhism is … Continue reading Mindfulness and Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer
The value of silence Continue reading The Importance of Silence
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 good when my thought train takes me on a pleasant … Continue reading Stuck in the Clouds: An Aviator’s Guide to Pointless Overthinking
As humans we spend most of our lives in a state of perpetual craving and desire. We land a big promotion at work, but soon fantasize about continuing to move up the corporate ladder. We become consumed by discontent and dissatisfaction as we constantly compare our social standing to that of our peers. Wealth, status and power are engrained in our cultural ethos. However, all … Continue reading Escaping the Rat Race: Lessons from Buddhism
Today is your last day on earth. How are you going to spend it? What are you going to say? What will you let go of? I look forward to hearing your answers. *** You can find AP2’s personal blog here at: https://clear-air-turbulence.com You can also find him on Medium at: https://anxiouspilot2.medium.com Or on Twitter at: @AnxiousPilot Continue reading Question of the Day: No. 545
If there is anything that we seem to fear most in this world, it is uncertainty. The great unknown, the darkness that lies in the abyss. Uncertainty about how the future will unfold is the source of many of our anxieties. This is because we desperately crave certainty. We dream of secure and orderly lives where everything goes according to the plan – the script … Continue reading How to Manage Uncertainty: Lessons from Philosophy
In aviation we have a term called AOG that means Aircraft on Ground. It refers to a plane that can’t fly because of a technical issue. We might also say a pilot is grounded because of a disciplinary issue, or that passengers are grounded because of weather. In all cases, the term indicates an inability to fly. We might also use examples in real life. … Continue reading Grounded
The other night I got into a pointless argument with someone after they decided to leave a comment on one of my older posts telling me that I should have my head examined. (A fair point in retrospect.) She said that Trump is a true American unlike Biden who is a horrible person. Naturally, she went on to say the election had been rigged. Now, I should … Continue reading Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Here’s a question for discussion: Is ego really the enemy? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. *** You can find AP2’s personal blog here at: https://clear-air-turbulence.com Continue reading Question of the Day: No. 537
“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 the look in your eyes and evaluate your mood. Perhaps … Continue reading The People Mirror Effect
Growing up my dad always made a point about having good table manners. He made sure we never chewed food with our mouths open. That we always sat up straight. That we we set the table properly and cleared away and washed the dishes afterwards. One of the rules was if you didn’t cook, you clean! Now that I have kids of my own, I … Continue reading Table(t) Manners
A life is infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things. When you zoom the lens out, when you consider the enormity of existence. A life is but a speck in the vastness of time and space. A life is nothing. It matters not a jot. But when you zoom the lens in, past all of the galaxies and all of the solar systems, past all … Continue reading The Meaning Of Your Life
“The great gift of such periods is that they invite us to question our certitudes, our givens, these seemingly sure foundations that have lulled us into complacency — for it is only by being jolted out of our complacencies, cultural or personal, that we ever reach beyond the horizon, toward new territories of truth, beauty, and flourishing.” – MARIA POPOVA So much of what I’ve heard … Continue reading The Things That I Will Miss
