Cut the excess
Besides coming up with ideas, perhaps the hardest part of writing is being strict on yourself when it comes to culling the bad.
Month: August 2022
What are you waiting for?
Last week when we were doing Yamabushi training there was one particular point where I was taken aback by the sheer simplicity of everything. It’s impossible to truly understand this without being there, but at one point we were having a short rest (Shokyushi) at the base of Haguro-san. And that’s it. That’s all we …
Mountains are the New (old) Medicine
When you spend a lot of time out in nature, and on the mountains especially, you start to realise something crucial: Mountains teach us when something is wrong, and they teach us to look for a new way forward. Mountains teach us who we are, and importantly remind us who we are too. Mountains are …
‘You don’t know what it’s like’ – Try me
I’ve been reading Dan Ariely’s work for the better part of a decade now, and his latest column in Ask Ariely in the Wall Street Journal touched close to home, but with surprisingly good insights especially for me.
Quick to dismiss: the Uketamo muscle
Uketamo is a muscle. When you’ve been practicing it a lot it becomes second nature.
Whose opinion? Whose effort?
The only opinion you need is your own, and the first thing you need to look at is your effort.
If and when necessary
Do first. Always. The best way to learn anything is to do it. It’s no use having someone explain an experience to you unless it’s to best help you learn from it. Explanations only come if and when necessary, and only when it adds to the experience. Anything else is wasting your and my time.
Building the numbers
I saw a post recently by someone trying to build an audience on YouTube who was disappointed by their numbers and I guess it irked me. You’re doing it wrong. You have to do it for the love of it. You have to do it simply because you want to do it, simply because you …
Appreciating without adversity is the holy grail
If you’re able to appreciate without having to go through tough experiences to do so, you win.
Realisations you never realised you had
In the west, we talk to psychologists to try and nail down the truth of what we are feeling. In stark contrast, the same results can be found on the mountains of Japan. Yamabushi training gives us realisations we never realised you had. It shows just how fragile entirely at the whim of nature we …