frame shifting

Freeze frame, how many ridges are there across my thumb? (60)

Exercise: in the middle of your day, as soon as you become aware (or, as soon as you remember this exercise), just freeze mid-motion. Don’t think, but just look at whatever is in sight and notice the details you were oblivious to. It’s like how it’s hard to process details in a video, but easier in an image.

What would it be like to live 90% of the day in literal vision & literal action? Don’t spend time in abstract vision (over-thinking) or abstract action (over-optimizing). There’s a plane of being that has pure sight & pure action. Remember those parrots from the book Island that just shouted, “attention!”

You can tip into the virtual engine (mythic

When your stuck in your head, return to the pure attention and reset the loop; ARCHAIC (return to your literal vision) > MAGIC (with intention, refocus your attention on something that matters) > MYTHIC (tap into the narrative or story behind that action) > RATIONAL (embed what’s working into a virtue/plan).

What is your potential self pointlessly dying to?

Escape chronos through perception. Found myself getting stressed over a tight schedule (here by 11am! here by 2pm! here by 7pm!). Time can easily keep you in your head, in a realm of abstractions. But aesthetic observation puts you back in the body. It’s a frame shifter. As long as you have a decent plan, you can trust it and get out of your head.

On looking — There’s an art and power to looking; when you can really see, and observe, and guide your attention to aesthetic specifics of something, it closes a thought loop. It’s centering, maybe even more than the breathe.

What if looking and breathe went together? For example; as I write this, I’m now focused on my peripherals, and I see my

To combat any grand ambitions of the future that are starting to turn toxic, just imagine that what you’ve already accomplished is all you ever need to do.

My Substack is already the fulfillment of my life’s potential. I didn’t have to end up here. Because of all my decisions over the last 15 years, I have now have this his site, some ideas on

There’s a radical range of resolution in how I can interpret my day. Sometimes the smallest details, like the headphones of a passing pedestrian, can have something like religious significance, and every perception feels worthy of a paragraph, worthy of interpretive and sensorial prose. Other times, days escape in a passing fog without rapture or