18/11/2022
NOTES ON SCARCITY + FREEDOM
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Have been reflecting upon the intricacies of scarcity, the expression of freedom and how they interconnect.
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If scarcity is the state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage.
Then there is a lack, a need for more.
If there is a desire for more, beyond basic needs being met, then this is by comparison to another. Someone else has more/achieves more/does more, then by comparison we don’t have/achieve/do enough.
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Conversely, by seeking more, we filter for all that we DON’T have, missing what we already DO have. This mindset will have us binging on scraps to make up. The cup runs half empty, not full.
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A matter of perspective, all this comparison. We try to reconcile our worth as a human on this planet as compared to the next. By seeing through this lens, we are never enough, how could we be?
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We fail to recognize that WE ARE BEYOND COMPARISON.
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Now is not the time for scraps, there is more than enough to go around.
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Holding on, to small scraps, to piles of not-enough-ness, to the state if scarcity, is precisely what serves us back lack. Which is precisely what we are trying to energetically reject.
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If this isn’t the definition of madness, it certainly is backward. Like, WTF, peeps.
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Birds are meant to fly free of all cages.
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Let’s fly.
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Happy Friday.
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08/11/2022
EINSTEIN KNEW
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This falls in line with the words ‘energy goes where attention flows’, taken from the domain of NLP.
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This quote is taken from a 1948 film called ‘Atomic Physics’. So if this has been said for nearly 75 years. How are we going with it?
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Map building is pretty freakin genius. Write it down. Set intention. Watch it unfold.
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The biggest challenge we face is getting ourselves out of our own way…
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08/11/2022
ONE WORLD
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Floating on a ball of rock somewhere in amongst a universe of which we know very little, as humans we are so busy telling stories about how different we are to each other.
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RICH // POOR
WHITE // BLACK
GAY // STRAIGHT
BINARY // NON-BINARY
TORY // LABOUR
REPUBLICAN // DEMOCRAT
PRO-VAX // ANTI-VAX
BREXITEER // REMAINER
PRO-LIFE // PRO-CHOICE
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And the list goes on.
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And on.
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And on.
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We are being called upon to solve the challenges we face as a species.
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And yet we are distracted by all the stories.
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Needing to be ‘someone’. Needing to be ‘successful’. Needing to be ‘seen’.
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We already are these things: we are ALIVE.
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We live on one world. Can you sense the fallacy of the tale of our differences?
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Even if you can’t: Our similarities far outweigh the differences.
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Can you perceive how we limit ourselves?
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01/11/2022
‘HUNGRY GHOSTS’
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The divine invited me to talk to her students last night about the forthcoming PLAYshop .studio.
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She planned to read a focus of the month from from the same time in 2008. It was all about hungry ghosts…
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Monica sent me the essay and wondered if I could tie it in somehow…challenge accepted.
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Let’s take the masquerade of Halloween, all the costume: Consider that this dress up is visible/obvious and therefore in gross/concrete form. We can pretend to be a ghost or ghoul (or of course slutty nurse/ghostbuster/superhero) and then go home, wash the makeup off and put the costume away. Job done til next year.
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Consider the rest of the year, when the masks we wear are more subtle entirely: think of how you present yourself in the office, home, social contexts. We likely all show different faces depending on the environment or surroundings.
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The way we ‘think’ we need to show up is either based on past memories of experiences, outdated old outfits (sometimes armour) that once offered protection, or imaginations of situations that may come to pass (and wow do we humans get creative!).
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So if the majority of us are walking around this life enshrouded by past or future, how often do we get to experience the essence of each other? Of the moment? I would venture rarely, if ever.
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Our masks are in their own right, ghosts. Shadowy impressions of a subtle-but-no-less-impactful realm. They are hungry for love. A strategy made up of habits to secure validation or reassurance from the world around us. These ghosts are hungry little blighters indeed.
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How often are we with ourselves, with and in the moment, with and in reality?
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Depression = lack of acceptance of the past // Anxiety = fear of the future.
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NAVIGATING DIFFICULTIES PLAYshop NEW YORK Edition is on this Saturday, 6th November at SOUK STUDIOS, 4:45-7:15pm. Link in bio. This is your chance to clear what isn’t serving you.
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28/10/2022
TIME TO FLIP THE SCRIPT
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Being vs Doing.
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How are you going, with all the doing?
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We are raised through a lens of achievement, get the grades to get the job, get the job to get the life…
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And yet when does all the work stop?
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There is nothing ‘wrong’ with achievement, however if this becomes the sole reason for me/you/us to find value as a human being on this planet, then pardon my poor language but WTF?
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We are in the form of the body, given the tool of the mind, capacity to connect with each other and truly be ALIVE in this life.
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Will you really be saying ‘I wish I’d worked harder’ from your deathbed?!
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It’s the SYSTEM that is rigged against us. Time to wake up to the exhausted sleep that is forced upon us by an outdated system of wealth and resource accumulation.
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It starts the minute we are born.
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24/10/2022
EDINBURGH I LOVE YOU
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What a privilege to be able to spend some heartbeats in Scotland in a very exciting, dynamic and forward thinking university.
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This city is a pleasant surprise: friendly, caring people, dynamic buzz and a ‘can do’ attitude that seems to look out at the world, instead of only into self.
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Hope to be back before too long to continue the conversation.
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14/10/2022
PAIN // HUMANITY
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For all you pleasure seekers out there:
Do what pleases you, yes, however…
Is there even the faintest whiff that your pleasure seeking is on behalf of avoiding pain?
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There’s nothing on the outside that will ever satisfy you on the inside if you haven’t done and aren’t doing the work.
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Relationship to and with reality, to and with yourself, are the key relationships to cultivate.
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Optimize these and the rest will do itself, allowing you to truly ‘be’ a human being, not a human doing.
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13/10/2022
NAVIGATING DIFFICULTIES @ UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
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Unpacking Relative Reality.
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What a profound joy to be share heartbeats with a dynamic group of scholars, academics, peers, HUMANS.
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We jumped right in on reality, how we relate to it, how it relates to us, leading us into how we relate to ourselves, and therefore each other.
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We started to unpack the use of ‘technology’, exploring the definition of the word:
– ORIGIN early 17th century: from Greek tekhnologia ‘systematic treatment’, from tekhnē ‘art, craft’ + -logia (see -logy).
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The quality and indeed quantity of this ‘systemic treatment’ of our world and all life within it has brought us to our current environment, our current trajectory.
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The most vital thing for us to do is start to as ourselves bigger questions about how we fit into this picture, and become objective to the systems at play in order to make the necessary changes we need to survive on this planet.
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What would need to change for ALL of us to survive?
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What would need to change for ALL of us to thrive?
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10/10/2022
WANTING IS SEEKING ELSEWHERE
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How do you want? Where? When?
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Can you notice, without judgment?
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10/10/2022
KEEP IT SIMPLE
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Dogs keep it simple.
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Love/affection/joy/treats.
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Of course they experience fear. However in the moment. And then in the next, present…to what is NOW.
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We humans have a different expression. We make meaning. We think about our feelings and we feel about our thoughts.
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We think about those thoughts about those feelings, and so on. We are checked out from reality. How much of the time is dependent on your own wiring.
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In my work this would be referred to as ‘Meta States’: the state you have above and about reality.
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If we are above and ABOUT reality, how would we ever be WITH it? How would we be with ourselves? With those that we say we truly care about?
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To be in and with the moment, notice the feelings in the body. Notice the thoughts in mind. It’s not for us to ‘do’ anything with them.
[**you’re probably doing enough already, hey?**]
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KEEP IT SIMPLE
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BE. In relation to and in relationship with the moment, with yourself, with those around you.
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05/10/2022
EMERGING FROM
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The space between stories.
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The split-second between thoughts.
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The silence within.
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