human acts

practices to understand, cultivate and act

Fascism and the Failure of Imagination

Why are we so afraid of imagination?

“What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation.

When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its... See more

A quote from Beauty

approch to self discovery

On how to save a sad, angry and mean society: “We’re overpoliticized while growing increasingly undermoralized, underspiritualized, undercultured. The alternative is to rediscover the humanist code. It is based on the idea that unless you immerse yourself in the humanities, you may never confront the most important question: How should I live my... See more

Katina • The death of leisure time is here - this is how we save it

how do we save ourselves and society from the sadness that is eroding away at minds and connections - and mostly our humanity

David Brooks, How to save a Sad, Lonely, Angry, Mean Society

Most people don’t want to be perceived, they want to be approved of. And those are not the same thing. Real attention interrupts the curated self instead of confirming it. It creates the possibility of rupture, of exposure, of being mirrored back in ways that aren’t always flattering. And in that sense, to be deeply paid attention to, without... See more

Tamara • The Attention Economy Is Making Us Emotionally Poor

Do we know what we look like when we’re not performing? to really be seen versus to be liked or followed etc.

we have become so allergic to presence, so habituated to fragmented attention, that stillness now feels like failure and eye contact like a threat. Attention, once the invisible pulse of love, art, learning, even political consciousness, has been broken down, bundled, and resold to the highest bidder, not only making us distracted, but emotionally... See more

Tamara • The Attention Economy Is Making Us Emotionally Poor

Our attention was the last remaning act of devotion not co-opted by ego, ideology or spectacle.

Live the Questions: Rilke on Embracing Uncertainty and Doubt as a Stabilizing Force

Maria Popova themarginalian.org

I love all the ways we are sensual. I like to smell good, taste everything yummy, feel how alive skin is, listen to sounds of breath and pleasure, see the beauty of flesh and bones. Laugh uncontrollably. Play. Feel alive. My body has the capacity to sense immense pleasure, and as I get older I keep intentionally expanding my sensual awareness and... See more

If I were living purely from my body, I might have achieved ...

Studying sensuality outside of sexuality will perhaps lead me back to sexuality, rooted in a return of power and control. A return of what I have lost.

The thing is, the only way to become a secure person is by making real peace with insecurity - because to develop real security, you must learn to sit with insecurity through the discomfort, without letting it be your driving force. Security is not the absence of any insecurity but rather the real acceptance of its presence. Just as being good... See more

you've got more of a choice than you think

Why so ready to identify with a trait we say we don’t want to embody?…

There is this deep-rooted fear that not taking a risk is the safe option because you won’t lose. But if you’ve got nothing to lose, then what is there to gain? The same can be said of feelings: how will I know what I need to work on to better myself if I’m not sitting in the discomfort and moving through the bad? What do we gain by labelling ourselves negatively? “I’m a self-sabotager”, I’m chronically single” doesn’t the label become the excuse to not get better?

…because it’s more comfortable to do that, than to deal with the great strain and effort and discipline that it takes to overcome it.

- YouTube

youtube.com

The lost art of sensuality and how there is poetry in life that saves us all.
Because poetry is emotion distilled!