Musings

We spend so much time bettering ourselves at work or in wellness, and then when it comes to relationships everybody is talking about negative things, like setting boundaries. It should be the opposite: we should be thinking about how to become more compassionate, how to understand someone more, how to listen more.

Perhaps making and doing things is so powerful because in doing or making you break out of stasis. Even if only fleetingly, you get unstuck and, afterwards, have proof of that. Something exists because you made it. Something happened because you did it. You baked the cake and decorated it attentively and inexpertly. You showed up at the protest... See more

“The same view you look at every day, the same life, can become something brand new by focusing on its gifts rather than the negative aspects. Perspective is your own choice and the best way to shift that perspective is through gratitude, by acknowledging and appreciating the positives.”

Research has linked the practice of savoring with greater well-being and lower negative mood. It's part of a growing body of evidence that accentuating positive emotions can be critical for your mental health.

This is exactly what the video had done for me. It’s also what this professor’s work has taught me to do since: in annoying situations, or even just mundane ones, I try to think about how I might see them in 20 years. Not all the time, of course. We can’t walk around in every shitty situation and think, well when this terrible friend is dead maybe... See more

"A creative life is a life where you routinely choose the path of curiosity over the path of fear. Not twice or three times, but daily. Systematically. It becomes your habit and practice to say, I don't even know why I'm interested in this, but I'm interested in it, and I'm going to look into it." — Elizabeth Gilbert