Category: Experiential Living

A great strategy for living your best life, is to habitually dip into the lives of others.

There are as many different ways of living as there are people and no one person has lived them all.

But every person has probably found a few strategies that work well for them. Things that make them feel good about their life; things that make them feel joyful; things that make them feel proud.

And if we don’t allow ourselves to dip into other worlds, other perspectives, other experiences—we’ll forever be living inside of a fish tank… completely oblivious to the possibilities of the ocean.

Here; now; with what you know—is as good (or bad) as it gets… if there’s nothing to compare it to.

But, take a dip into the life of a stranger—who you happened to sit next to on a plane and ask them questions that give you a peek into their life… and you just might walk away with a golden life nugget.

Take a dip into the life of a historical figure via a fat biography—and get acquainted with the experiences that truly shaped and guided their path… and you just might end up with insight that’ll alter your trajectory.

Take a dip into the life of a family member who’s always around, but hasn’t shared much of their story—and get a glimpse into what *actually* ends up on people’s highlight reels—and you just might adjust what you’re saving onto yours… now.

P.s. Some of the best insights I’ve ever uncovered from dips I’ve taken into other people’s lives are captured in my first guide. 18% off for a limited time ➜

There’s something primal about playing in the rain.

We spend so much of our time worrying about how we look, trying to keep dry, dodging the literal and metaphorical raindrops of our modern day world… that it almost feels rebellious and freeing to just say EFFIT! …And spend a few hours soaking in it all.

…And not only disregard how we look and disregard all cares about getting wet (physically and metaphorically)… but, allow ourselves to, as we all have at distinct times in our lives, feel the rain once again.

P.s. I also published: 40 Bessel van der Kolk Quotes on Trauma and Healing from The Body Keeps The Score

One benefit of having an active imagination that you honor and hold space for is you get to see things before they happen. And the more vividly you see things before they happen, the more real the feelings about these happenings can be. And the more real the feelings are, the more you stand to learn from the experience… before it ever happens.

…Which allows you to apply these visualized learnings to your life minus all the painful trial and error.

Some examples where this is particularly useful:

• Vividly imagining a presentation so that you can experience the feelings and flow and make the necessary adjustments before the actual one.
• Vividly imagining how various life paths might unfold so you can better navigate your day-to-day decision making before “life happens.”
• Vividly imagining death so the reality of how fleeting and short life is can once again come to life in your being.

Do you have a space that you honor that’s for your imagination to roam and explore the possibilities of the future? If not… you might be experiencing more error from your trials than you need to.

Want to get some of your favorite life memories stolen?

…Give in to inertia.

Let the feeling of being stuck… keep you stuck… and withheld from experiencing the world in the way you originally planned… hoped to… dreamed you would…

Inertia is the ultimate memory thief.

It creeps up on you, slowly weighs you down, and sabotages plans.

Unless you stop it.

Or should I say… keep things moving to avoid coming to that crippling stop altogether.

Break inertia by taking that initial step as soon as you can… by sticking to your plan(s)… by giving yourself the kick in the ass you’d wish you’d gotten when you gave into inertia before and missed out on something grand that you wish you hadn’t.

And keep that momentum moving forward—however slowly—in the right direction…

…The direction of what could undoubtedly amount to be, your life’s favorite memories.

P.s. I also published: Letting Your Bow Relax—A Short Story About Not Being So Serious All Of The Time

Being a “good finder” can be tough when awful things happen.

It’s not always appropriate to look for the good in the bad (e.g. like when a heinous crime is committed) but when it is, one thought that can help is the gift of perspective that comes with the awful.

When we experience real hardship, suddenly all of the other “hardships” we experienced in life shrink a little and fade into the background in comparison.

Because in comparison is how we measure “hardship.” And not “in comparison” to other people’s lived experiences—only ever in comparison to our own.

Hardship only becomes real through direct experience. Without direct experience, it’s highly unlikely to affect our perspective (e.g. To see starvation and disease on TV is one thing; to live amongst starvation and disease is another).

When I think about the strongest people I know in life, the people who always come to mind are the ones who have been through the most—hardship, awful things, direct experience with the “bad.” They have a perspective that allows them to stay calm, cool, and collected over awfully heavy stuff while the inexperienced are flustering, raging, and cursing over #firstworldproblems.

This isn’t to judge or make you self-conscious of how you respond to awful things happening—or to say you should act a certain kind of way when they do. It’s merely to remind you that, if no other good can come from an awful thing happening, take with you the direct lived experience that allows you to deepen your life’s perspective.

…One that might even give others a measure of support and strength when they go through awful times of their own.

There’s a time and a place for thinking. And there’s a time and a place for being. All being and no thinking leads to rash decision making. And all thinking and no being leads to a sheltered, inexperienced life.

Times when we’re experiencing life are times when we should drop thinking altogether. Like when we’re: walking, running, swimming, playing, hiking, meditating, listening, dancing, drawing, painting, etc.

And times when we’re reflecting on life and planning ahead for the future are times when we should turn the thinking up. Like when we’re: reading, writing, conversing, planning, researching, developing, building, brainstorming, imagining, visualizing, etc.

It’s when we get either of the two confused that we stumble in life.

It’s when we start thinking about playing or meditating or dancing that it suddenly becomes awkward and unnatural. And it’s when we spend all of our time being and none of our time writing or planning or imagining that suddenly our mistakes repeat and our life trajectory worsens.

Like most things in life, it’s a balancing act. One that I don’t think we’ll ever get perfectly correct, but one that we can and should be more conscious of and aim more deliberately for.

P.s. This post was inspired by (and became the afterword for) The Story About The Centipede and The Frog.