In gratitude for space and time as self-care
When we think of self-care, do we forget to count downtime? I’m thinking here not so much about downtime that is scheduled, as it were, but rather that which is almost circumstantial. In other words,…
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Nothing is enough.
A handful of insights, gathered from various sources, about productivity, rest, and self-worth. 1. Permission to start at zero. I’ve been listening to a series of short talks called “Time Management for Mortals”, delivered by…
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The journey of a kombucha bottle filled with Ganges water
The first time I swam in the Ganges was the first morning after our arrival at the Ashram. I had set my alarm early enough to get a walk in before morning asanas, and headed…
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Swapping Notes: An exchange with a taxi driver in India
The game of getting around as a solo tourist in Indian cities is a topic of its own. This is the story of one interesting exchange I had with a taxi driver in Jaipur. We…
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Struggle and Acceptance: How to avoid giving yourself uphill
During a recent three-week hiking trip, there were times where I felt more than a little “on edge”. I took these moments of struggle as an opportunity to reflect on something broader: that we can…
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Solo: Reflections on solitude on an overnight hike
In April 2022, I did a solo overnight hike in the mountains of the Western Cape in South Africa. My objective, if I can put it that way, was not so much to hike but…
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Past Tense: The anxious voices of history
Whereas in my last piece I considered anxiety as fear of the future, in this post I reflect on the ways in which it might in fact derive from the past. Rather than being a…
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Temporal Whiplash: Anxiety and Fear of the Future that is Now
I once heard that the source of all anxiety is fear of the future, and the source of all depression is dwelling in the past. As a rough shortcut to understanding these two very common…
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Thinking about Thinking (too much): Critical versus Over Thinking
During a recent masterclass I attended on critical thinking, as part of a virtual internship for third-year quantitative students, one of the interns asked this question in the chat: “What is the difference between thinking…
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Stay “Soft”: Openness and vulnerability in the service of lifelong learning
My reflections on the value of staying open and vulnerable in order to stay flexible and adaptable – in short, to be a lifelong learner. This was inspired by participating in a virtual internship for…
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Saving People’s Sanity, One Basic Query at a Time
I know that the stereotype of the IT team spending most of their time answering the phone with “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” must be based at least loosely on reality…
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On virtues
My mother used to quote this poem (which I only recently Googled to discover that it was penned by the same man who gave us The Sheep Pig):
“Patience is a virtue, Virtue is…
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Real Part 3: The Blind Rise
In Real: Part 2, I spoke about how our experience can shape our consciousness, specifically our awareness and understanding of others. I considered how privilege can make us blind to others’ perspectives and other people’s…
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Real (Part 2): The reality of perspectives and privilege
How much of the world is real to you? How big is the “real estate” in your mind? To me, one major aspect of reality awareness is recognising different subjective realities. In other words, I…
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Real (Part 1)
What makes us “real”? I’m not talking about knowing whether or not we exist, whether we are live flesh and blood, or even whether we are conscious, but rather about what makes us real “in…
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The Power of the Third Person
In a webinar I attended once on the value of presence, the presenters shared a metaphor for being mindful of your own thoughts: “Engage your third person”. In storytelling, the third person is used as…
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Ask What, not Why
In my recent work, which involved exploring how to teach critical thinking to university students, I began asking myself questions about how we ask questions. Personally, I’ve realised certain downsides to the “why” approach to…
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Invisible Threads Part 4: Unravelling
Throughout life I’ve often struggled with “not seeing the wood for the trees”, but sometimes I think the rest of the world spends too much time doing the opposite and ignoring the trees completely. While…
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Invisible Threads Part 3: It’s not (all) about you
In my previous post in this series, I highlighted that one of the defining features of a good story is that it takes you somewhere. If stories direct people’s attention, they also help us connect…
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Invisible Threads Part 2: What makes a good story?
I once attended a webinar on the power of storytelling in the business world, in which the following definition was offered: “Story is truth, well told”. There are two elements at play here: the truth,…
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All & None of the Above 