On understanding

Each of us lives in a micro reality.

Reality is too complex for us to grasp. We’re like ants trying to understand the vast realm that is their little corner of the backyard.

So we simplify reality, put it into little linguistic boxes, and proudly declare it known.

But our understanding is like the crude drawings of a child. Two people arguing about the world are like two children bickering over whose drawing is bestest.

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Moments of Grace

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What is life-art?“

“Think of listening to a song you love. The first few times, it’s breathtaking. Then it gradually fades until it disappears. I call this, one of the small tragedies of life.

As a child, the entire world is breathtaking. Then it gradually fades until it disappears. This is the compounded effect of a myriad small tragedies.

The purpose of art is to make the invisible visible again.

I call those precious moments when you can see the breathtaking beauty of the world, moments of grace.

I call life-art (among other things) the practice of consistently creating moments of grace.“

The Hourly Reset

Pentru un azi care maine va fi un ieri indepartat. (Erika Erdos)

Translation (from Romanian): For a today that tomorrow will be a yesterday far gone.

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Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“Every day, the day before feels like a long time ago. I call this, The Daily Reset.“

“What if you also had an Hourly Reset?

At the beginning of every hour, let go of the past hour, regardless of how it went, prepare for the hour ahead, and recommit to being your best self.“

On the value of ideas

There must be a threshold for the number of self-help books one can read in their lifetime. (Kenta Nagamine, Twitter)

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Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“So many books, so little time.“

“Think in terms of ideas, not books. If you get one valuable idea from a book, that’s the value of that book for you. Moreover, you can get ideas from sources other than books. An idea has value regardless of where it came from.

Self-help ideas have value only in implementation. It doesn’t matter how many ideas you absorb, but how many you implement in your own life – and how many you teach others how to implement.“

Journaling Optimization

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What if your journal had a table of contents?

Journaling in essence is preserving aspects of your history. The items of the table of contents clarify the aspects you deem worth preserving.“

“I love the idea.“

“What would the table of contents of your journal look like?“

“So far, like this:

Experiences Journal – resource experiences
– Beautiful Experiences
– Storyworthy Moments – experiences I can tell a story about
– Turnarounds – situations where I beautifully recovered balance

Learning Journal
– Optimization Journal – life optimization, but not only
– Implementation Journal – you grow through the ideas you implement, not those you read

Ideas Journal – I love playing with ideas

…

“

“How might you implement it?“

“I keep my journal in Logseq [<link]. I can create a template for it.

Whenever I write something in the journal, I can add it within the corresponding category.“

Compounding Meditation

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“For how long do you meditate daily these days? Is it the standard 20 minutes in the morning?”

“I meditate for 15 minutes in the morning.”

“Why 15 minutes?”

“It’s another facet of my life-art.

I meditate for 5 minutes during every hour of the day. I consider every hour sacred, and I want to make the most of it every day. 5 minutes may not sound like much, but over the course of a day, they compound.

There are 16 hours in a day. 5 minutes every hour over 15 hours is 15×5 = 75 = 60+15 minutes. Add the 15 minutes in the first hour of the day, and you get 90 minutes. I meditate for an hour and a half every day.”

Tree-Climbing Snacks

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“I love climbing trees. One of my favorite pastimes during my Parkour walk [<link; short read] is what I call tree-climbing snacks.“

“What are those?“

“It’s a little game I invented for myself. The rules are simple:

Pick a tree.

Pick a branch at height. The goal is to climb and touch that branch.

Bonus points if…

– you don’t take the same route if you’ve climbed the tree before

– you don’t take the easiest route

– you spend a few breaths at height until your heart normalizes – expand your awareness for a beautiful little Zen moment

– you come down on a different route

“

The Purpose of Learning 2

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What is the purpose of learning?”

“To open play possibilities.

New playgrounds.
New ways to play.”

Journaling Meditation

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What is journaling meditation?“

“Meditation combined with journaling.

You meditate as you normally would, but with a sheet of paper in front of you. You may write on it a few cues to guide your practice.

eg

Non-Judgmental Self-Awareness
Loving Acceptance
Relax
Notice…
– thoughts
– tension

Meditation is an inner journey. Its fundamental purpose is self-exploration by non-judgmentally observing your inner world. In journaling meditation, you’re also taking notes along the way.

Turn every meditation session into deliberate practice.“

Project Transformational Vocabulary

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“Another project?“

“This is an organic evolution of my linguistics project [<link; shot read].“

“What’s it about?“

“I know the concept of transformational vocabulary from Tony Robbins.

The words we attach to our experience become our experience. Words have a biochemical effect on the body. (Tony Robbins)

You can change your emotional state through the language you use to describe your experience. Tony calls this type of language, transformational vocabulary.

Language is a tool. However, Tony’s idea is but one application of it. Jason Silva shares a mind-blowing perspective:

The words you use to map reality affect your experience of reality. Words do not just describe; words are generative.

Language is a metaphysical tool. […] We create and perceive our world through language. We think reality into existence through linguistic construction in real-time.

I’m fascinated by the magical technology we call ‘language’. I see language and meaning as the ultimate playground. I’m especially interested in practical ways of using language for personal transformation and for shaping your subjective reality – I call this process, reality painting.

I see concepts as the (modular) building blocks of meaning. In playing with concepts, we’re playing with meaning in the same way a child is playing with Legos. 

We all have an internal concept library we unconsciously use to construct meaning in real-time. The library was unconsciously (and haphazardly) ‘compiled’ over the course of our life. I want to make this process conscious and deliberate.

I’ve started compiling a dictionary of the most powerful concepts that make up my personal universe of meaning, and of the most powerful concepts humanity has created that are transferrable across domains and disciplines. I call this project, Transformational Vocabulary – in homage to and as an extension of Tony’s idea. 

I’m interested not just in the concepts, but also in the interconnections between them. I use Obsidian for this project because it allows me to see them as a graph – as a beautiful (and useful) constellation of meaning. 

It looks like this so far

I’m also deconstructing and organizing the concepts, identifying various kinds of linguistic and semantic structures.“