Small Kindnesses
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers...
Two Stonemasons
Consider the story of two stonemasons. you walk up to the first stonemason and ask, ‘Do you like your job?’ He looks up at...
Hopium
The problem with hope is that it’s bipolar. Every time we rely on hope, we always bring in fear. Wisdom teaches that...
Meeting Our Own Mortality
Stories have helped us make meaning of the world, from ancient times when our ancestors whispered around campfires. Inner mental models...
A Flower's Job Is To Bloom
A powerful moment in My Fair Lady is when Henry Higgins's mother commiserates with a sobbing Eliza Dolittle. Eliza is distraught...
Paying Attention
Attention is thought to have evolved to solve one of the brain’s biggest challenges: There is far more information in our...
Mental Immunity
Everyone knows that physical pain is bad and tries to avoid it. We do this not only by curing diseases, but also by trying to prevent...
Why I Stopped Fighting
When I was a teenage girl, I had a fight with an older boy who had at least fifty pounds on me. It was a pre-announced fight, so many...
Reality Of Actual Contact With Oneself
The reality of actual contact with oneself is, at the same time, actual contact with our environment. It is a very...
On Love
I see so many people talking about the world's problems but so few talking about the solution to them: Love. It really is that...
Slavery To The Senses
We are all slaves to our senses, slaves to our own minds, conscious and subconscious. The reason why a criminal is a criminal is not...
Wonder Increases As Speed Decreases
Indulge me for a moment: let’s do a short thought experiment. We’ll compare two different mornings. On one, you’ll fly...