Aliveness

You can’t optimize your way toward feeling alive. Efficiency is a tool to enable life; it is not a life.

Like the tiger, we dream of the savannah, the rainforest and the mangrove swamp. We want to hunt and fuck and bask in the sun. We want to climb trees and drink from freshwater streams. We want to pursue our true calling and live to our full potential. I believe this desire is in every one of us. And when it’s suppressed long enough, we rebel. Somet

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On the other side of creative aliveness, there is flatness. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, about what happens when our worlds go flat. The dynamism we lose, the emotional urges we suppress, the original impulses we become too afraid to nurture.

On the running path recently, a song came on. It was by Eminem. His music is not my choice for ... See more

Sophia Loren // "Isn't it wonderful to be alive? You know, you can forget all about it. Then suddenly you remember, and think of all the things you can do. Here I am. I can walk around. I can talk. I can see things and remember things. I am alive. How wonderful."

As my work-driven identity dissolved, I felt a burning ambition across all facets of life. Instead of a desire to achieve goals that society told me were valuable, I felt a hunger to discover what makes me feel fully alive. Instead of a commitment to “winning” other people’s games, I felt a commitment to design a life that I deeply enjoy inhabiting... See more

“To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”

– Henry Miller

mel is spot-on. a critical part of reaching this stage of self-development and joyful discipline is truly, truly understanding what you actually like and what you actually value. there is often a chasm between our authentic self and our lived self ✨ let’s talk a little about how to close that gap ✨ knowing yourself is the first step, imo, to act... See more