As we know only too well becoming an adult has very little to do with turning 18 or 22, driving a car or being entitled to drink an adulthood worthy of the name is an internal process which may postate the acquisition of a formal adult identity by many years we might be 92 and still very slowly be leaving...
A most basic fact about a child: it never knows when it's tired. It just grows convinced that it now hates mummy, that little brother should die, that the button falling off the cardigan is a catastrophe, that its self-respect depends on being allowed to throw the bread knife out of the window sharp end first. And it's the role...
We tend to imagine that in order to live a good life, we need to have to have an appetite for the truth. But what if, in reality, in order to keep going and get anything done, We actually need to blind ourselves to a range of realities and have to swallow a number of illusions without which we couldn't...
We start with an unusual observation there is a huge variance in how much we feel we have to say for ourselves around some people compared to around others certain people make us feel boring others do not. We tend to evaluate people on how interesting they are but we're thereby liable to miss a more acute and relevant issue....
"The endurance of darkness is preparation for great light."
- John of the Cross
Most of our lives are ongoing pursuits of sensory pleasures. And every time we think that we've found lasting fulfillment, it doesn't take long before we need more gratification to soothe the pain of an incomprehensible emptiness that seems impossible to fill. We...
In the ancient city of Rome, a man named Tiberius approached the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who was getting ready for his journey to Greece. "Master Epictetus," he cried, "Before you leave, please listen to me. I've lost everything! A fire destroyed my house, and all my belongings are gone. I'm ruined!" Epictetus listened patiently, and then...
"The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day."
There are four essential facts that every 20-year-old should know that most are never taught. One: your energy is a limited resource that you are consciously or unconsciously investing each day. Two: how you invest your energy determines the outcomes of your life. Three: most people will convince you to invest your energy into things that benefit...
What is meditation and how can we use meditation to alleviate our suffering and achieve peace of mind. It's probably a bit more complicated than most people think. When we meditate we watch our thoughts while focusing our attention on a certain anchor that keeps us in the present. For example, the breath while watching the breath we observe how...
The best way to 10x your intelligence is: to go on a difficult books reading regimen. That's where you read ten or less books a year, and each one should be harder than the last. And this is probably the opposite of a lot of what you see and hear on YouTube, where the game is often to read as...