Category: Transforming Pain

Craving, Attachment, and Desire

Published on December 16, 2024

Edgar Allen Poe once said, “All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire.”

I want you to take a minute to reflect on the suffering you’re experiencing in your life right now.

…Can you trace the root of the suffering back to one of these causes?

If so, I want you to next identify whether the suffering is a superficial creation done by social media, mass marketing, and/or living in a materialistic culture… or if it’s created from something deeper.

Some suffering is meant to be felt. Heartbreak; loss; wrongdoing… this is the kind of suffering that makes you truly appreciate… that wakes you up to your purpose… that turns your attention inward and forces inner growth.

…And some suffering is completely unnecessary and doesn’t need to be felt at all.

What’s Your Frustration Tolerance?

Published on December 15, 2024

In basketball, I usually match up against the same few players each week.

And it gets frustrating because as I get better… so do they.

It wasn’t until I played today against someone who rarely plays that I realized how much better I’ve gotten.

This isn’t to pat myself on the back.

It’s a reminder that while frustration can be an overwhelming emotion that often leads to quitting… it’s also an incredibly important signal that’s telling you you’re in that uncomfortable zone that often leads to growth.

Those who can tolerate frustration the longest are almost always the ones who advance the furthest.

P.s. ICYMI you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.

On Opening Doors You Can’t Even See

Published on November 14, 2024

A creator I follow sent a newsletter the other day that opened with, “How are you doing? What are you building? Hit reply and let me know. I’ll get back to you within few days.”

It was such a refreshing use of a space that’s usually devoted to ads, hyperbole, and clickbait.

So, I leaned in and opened a dialogue.

I told him about this blog, MoveMe Quotes, how I was doing, of course, and praised him on creating content that I’ve been consuming for years now.

I don’t usually compose or send these kinds of emails and what I noticed in myself was a sense of pride that swelled up as I briefly outlined the 14+ years I’ve been actively building MMQ and the (almost) 4 years I’ve been writing daily blogs.

I remember thinking to myself right after I hit reply that he could literally click to any post or page on either site—from any year—and I’d be happy with what he found.

…It felt like one of those moments where I was able to point him to the “pudding” and in it, he’d find the proof. No long-winded intros, pitches, or talking-some-kind-of-talk required.

And then just today, as I was curating quotes for MMQ, I stumbled on this nugget: “Your hard work is opening doors you can’t even see right now.”

…And I suddenly understood what that meant in a way I never had before.

P.s. The creator I’m referring to above is Janis Ozolins. He does an incredible job of explaining ideas visually and always keeps it uplifting, educational, and concise. Check him out here.

Life’s Temporary Reminders

Published on November 13, 2024

A buddy of mine messed his ankle up today while sparring.

Shortly after that, I found out my grandmother fell on the weekend and got a pelvic fracture with some displacement.

And before both of these events, one of my employees told me she was going to have to take her great aunt off life support today.

Reminders like this—which is exactly how I try to receive them—should be given space where their true weight can be felt.

…Because what they could serve so powerfully as are reminders of our impermanence… of life’s temporary nature… of our vulnerability.

…Of precisely what makes this life so very precious in the first place.

When you come across an injury in your life—remember to give thanks to what’s uninjured.

When you come across a serious injury—remember to give not just that person a more serious space where they can feel the full weight of your support… but to give the same to yourself… maybe not to feel support, but to feel gratitude for what’s seriously still going right.

When you come across death—don’t hide from it. Don’t just leave others to deal with it. Don’t suppress your feelings about it. Let it give rise to that potent feeling of delicacy… that terrifying feeling of the ticking clock… the thoughts of consciousness fading to black.

And let it serve as just as potent of a reminder… to live.

Turning Envy On Its Head

Published on November 5, 2024

It’s easier than ever to feel envy in our hyper-comparison, media based world.

And it’s precisely this unchecked feeling of intensely wanting what others have to the point of it harboring resentment and anger that leads to so much of our modern day suffering.

Furthermore, because of the nature of algorithms, access to people’s lives, and our instinctual desire to ceaselessly compare—we get trapped in these downward spiraling feedback loops that go from seeing, to wanting, to envying, to resenting, and back to seeing in no time at all—perpetuating the cycle over and over again—possibly hundreds of times in a day…!

It’s no wonder people’s mental health is in such peril. For what is anger, resentment, and even hate, but a poison to our system? And what are we doing but creating it inside of ourselves via what we’re choosing to consume?

…If we want to change this, here are two thoughts:

1) Stop drinking poison. If it’s creating intense feelings of envy… work to remove that influence from your experience. Unfollow, mute, and block work great online. It can be a little tricker in real life, but it’s certainly possible with some courage and creative problem solving.

2) Learn to better process the poison. Like what the liver does with alcohol, develop the ability to “metabolize” envy as it arises. This might include remembering: (1) Other people’s lives are theirs and 100% out of your control and (2) You have the ability to grow and improve.

Because once you can learn to metabolize envy into rocket fuel for growth…

…You tell me how that won’t turn that downward spiring feedback loop right on its head.

The Two Things That Get Me To Publish Daily—Even When It’s Not Perfect

Published on November 4, 2024

I finished yesterday’s post thinking it still needed more editing… that it wasn’t done… that I could’ve done better.

But, the deadline hit and I ran out of energy.

So I published it anyway.

…Which, by the way, is like the sitcom of my life as it pertains to this blog.

As a perfectionist… it never feels done… I always feel like it could be better… I’ve been doing this daily for nearly 5 years and I *still* hesitate as my mouse hovers over that “Publish” button.

…But you know what gets me to publish anyway—even when I have energy and I’m not worried about the deadline…?

Two things:

1) The enemy of done is perfect; “Good enough” is done’s best friend. And done is what this daily blog requires… for no reason other than it’s what I’ve promised to myself and, by consequence, what I’ve promised to those who have subscribed to this journey.

2) Typos aren’t the end of me… As Catherine Toops pointed out once on X, “…your typos are just a trail of inspiration for writers who want to believe they can do what you’ve done.”

And it’s those two thoughts that give the perfectionist side of me the comfort it needs to be vulnerable… to publish something that’s possibly flawed… that exposes me in some way… that opens me up to critique and possible ridicule.

…But also all of the other incredible things that come with publishing daily for nearly five years that absolutely wouldn’t be possible with perfectionism as a pre-requisite.

P.s. ICYMI, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.

Never Ignore Whispers From A Higher Power

Published on November 3, 2024

Your creative yearnings… those artistic inclinations… are whispers from a higher power… they’re nudges, winks, hints… from somewhere deep… not just inside you… but from within a collective unconscious… an ocean of understanding that spans a millennia and includes countless living beings and experiences… that something inside you, in some mysterious way, miraculously taps into… maybe at just a straws capacity if it were used to drink from the ocean… but a sip of the ocean none-the-less… one that gives you a taste… not of salt and seaweed… but of how you might better live… one that’s filled with meaning and connection… growth and contribution… gifts to be given and received…

See… creative yearnings… artistic inclinations… in all of their manifested forms… are expressions of our consciousness at its highest level… they become statements of what makes us different… what makes us unique… what makes us authentically… us… they become cornerstones of meaning in our life that we talk about, identify with, and share proudly with others… they become some of the most fundamental components of our legacy… the things that get featured at our funeral… the puzzle pieces that others offer to help formulate a picture of how we lived… the things that get left behind and continue to create ripples into the ocean of this collective experience… ripples that one day might make their way into the life of another being… that just might manifest as a creative yearning… an artistic inclination… a whisper… that just might give clues into the possibility of living a better life themself…

…Which is all to say: listen.

Never ignore whispers from a higher power.