This past week, I found myself muttering a phrase many of us know from Finding Nemo: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming… When life gets hectic and the to-dos begin to stack up, I’m often tempted to fall back into a “just keep going” mindset. Just keep working, just keep pushing, just keep giving, just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit– And, if I don’t find a practice that offers me some space to breathe, I inevitably crash and find myself feeling adrift and purposeless. So…the practice is really important. Casper ter Kuile teaches that practices with the power to deepen our sense of presence, meaning, and experience have three common traits:
A practice that has all three, ter Kuile says, has the power to “make the invisible connections that make life meaningful, visible.” If you’re interested in creating a practice like this for your own life, I’ll be guiding folks (and myself) through the process at a workshop later this month! More details below. Questions
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Inner work frameworks, practices, and questions – all in a five-minute read. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before you even wake up. Written and curated by Andrew Lang.
Hey Reader, A quick reminder to start us off 👇 Tomorrow night, Kimberly Novosel and I will be hosting our first “sweatshirt session!” If you’re feeling a bit exhausted by the world and want a few new practices for self-connection and staying soft, yet fierce, I hope you’ll consider joining us. Today's focus is on a concept used in family systems therapy known as the “transitional character.” This is someone who becomes a change-maker in their family lineage by refusing to pass down...
Hey Reader, I recently received an email from one of our Wednesday 1-2-3 readers sharing this super relatable challenge: “setting goals I can stay with over time.” Woof – me too! In my day job, I train teachers in a style of education known as project-based learning. And one of the things I talk most with teachers about is how we can emphasize “process over product” in our classrooms. (You can probably guess: I have a lot of critical things to say about standardized testing.) In other words,...
Hey Reader, Every minute of every day, we’re making decisions. (I know, I know – I wrote about decision making last week too.) Sometimes the decisions we make are fully grounded, well thought-out, and exude the energy we want to embody in the world. And sometimes…they aren’t. Instead, they can be reactive to what’s going on around us and unconsciously (and uncritically) informed by the under-the-surface movements going on within us. This week has been busy in my life (a new position at work,...