Category Archives for Realizations

I wasn’t feeding myself. (It’s a metaphor!)

Yesterday I realized I’ve been working so hard and so long on proximity thinking, and lately working on the related Shared Situation Guide and Shared Situations website, that I haven’t been feeding other parts of myself.

And when I wasn’t working on those things, I was working to make enough money to survive. But when’s the last time I did a drawing or painting? I often can’t help taking some photos, but when’s the last time I posted one?

It’s sort of like I’ve been working so hard on feeding other people, with the projects I think could help a lot of people, that I haven’t been feeding myself.

So I took part of yesterday to start preparing a photo to post, which I hope to do soon.

I’m the variety guy, but didn’t have variety. Luckily, there’s a loophole. Maybe I needed the variety of not feeding those parts of me for a while??

Liking your life is a conscious act.

It’s obvious that liking something on Facebook is a conscious act. And the post would not get liked, publicly at least, without that act.

However I think it’s less obvious that liking your life is a conscious act. Especially liking as many moments of it as possible. And it seems quite possible that you won’t like your life as much without those conscious acts of liking.

Of course more goes into enjoying your life than just consciously liking it. Things like sleep, exercise, diet, friendships, family, work, and community. The list could go on and on. But the act of consciously liking your life seems just as important as any of those other things. Maybe more so.

The predictability of humans

Humans are fairly predictable in the following sense: we are usually doing things, or trying to do things, that prove we’re not apes. Even though we are apes, we would hate being mistaken for one! So we adorn ourselves with things, experiences, friends, accomplishments, and ideas. And we often prefer doing these things over actually working together to solve real problems. That’s what I often find so funny. Yet I often do it too!

Our Cages and Happiness

Our Cages and Happiness

You’re in cages of one sort or another. We all are. All the time. The cages might be physical, mental, conceptual, social, etc. and on and on. The cages might be chosen by us, or they might be constraints we can’t change. Often both. Often we’re in multiple cages simultaneously.

Since we are in these cages, we might as well make our lives as engaging and stimulating as possible. Of course, this may also entail testing the limits of those cages. Or seeking to evolve those cages.

There’s a ted.com video about happiness, which talks about how, when we are faced with a difficult and unchangeable situation, our brains are perhaps wired to help us be happy with, and face, that situation. Acknowledging the fact of our cages seems to be similar. Both knowing about the cages, and that even if we’re seeking to change our cages, knowing that those changes will lead to other cages of different sorts, weirdly, oddly, seems to make me happier.