how to be aware in an unaware world

Author: Josh Avery

Nothing
“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing”.
– Lao Tzu
Doing nothing is surprisingly difficult. It requires a shift in thinking that our time must always be occupied, our to-do list must always be filled, and the busier we are the better.
In this non-stop culture, we herald those that ‘get sh*t done’ and seem to do a million things daily, but we forget how stressful and unbalanced that person can be.
Anytime we do too much of anything, one after the other, we forget to pause.
Reflection
Multi-tasking, as I see it, is a myth. The mind can only truly focus on one thing at a time. The more we do, the less attention we have to devote to a single task.
Dopamine is released in rapid succession in the brain, increasing the heart rate and stimulating the nervous system.
That feeling of constant productivity can feel good for a short while, but in the long run, it has adverse effects by actually encouraging a less productive cycle over time.
Our ancestors held roles that consisted of one task at a time, which reduced stress and increased overall contentment with completion, they were more mindful of their productivity.
Now please don’t misread this, doing nothing doesn’t imply watching Netflix all day or doom-scrolling TikTok until the mind blows up.
It means pausing, reassessing what and why we are doing something (work or personal), and then moving forward in a clear, concise direction.
Mindfulness is the deliberate act of noticing the present moment in an open and kind way, or in other words, the simple yet profound act of doing nothing.
The Good Ole Dictionary defines mindfulness as the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present moment without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training.
As a therapeutic technique, mindfulness has the potential to change our lives in positive ways. When mindful, we are naturally kinder, more compassionate, and clear-headed.
The present is a gift for all to discover. Our only job is to notice when the mind has been lost in thought, judgment, or sensation and softly return to the breath or another object bound to the present.
Judgment and criticism are thoughts, no different than thinking about what to eat for breakfast or what project to work on.
When seeing it this way, the object is the same: see the judgment, recognize it, and then let it pass.
Encouragement
I encourage us to reflect on what mindfulness means in our lives. Take 3 to 5 minutes to write down or think of what activities and experiences bring you a sense of contentment.
And yes, I encourage us to meditate for at least 10 minutes each day, building the foundation of a lifelong practice of doing what we truly enjoy by doing nothing for just a fraction of the day!
Thank You
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post or newsletter, it is a rare gift these days.
Feel free to leave a comment or share this post. You can also Buy Me a Coffee if you feel inclined to do so!
Three Links
October 21, 2023
Advertising
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads,” Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook engineer, told me. “That sucks.” Silicon Valley began to look an awful lot like Hollywood.”
Above is an excerpt taken from the popular and fascinating biography titled Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
I think Jeff is completely right in his sentiment. The unfortunate truth is that the majority of advertising stems from a morally unstable business model.
Advertising produces a lot of meaningless work, invisible products, and unnecessary services.
It’s also a huge waste of human potential and talent.
Reflection
If a product or service is good enough, it should sell itself. It actually needs zero advertising, beyond the initial release.
Rather than advertising, we should outreach aka talk about the things, services, etc, that we actually use and enjoy every day.
I see marketing differently than advertising too.
Marketing is just that, placing a product or service into the market and spreading the word about it. Talking about tried and tested products is far more effective and sustainable than plastering advertisements all over every place possible.
So why is advertising still so prevalent and still so widely used?
Well, for one, advertising is imposed along with a quota in mind, and structured around that quota. And boy do business love their quotas.
Really good marketing is also completely free. Because again, the product or service should sell itself.
People talk, share their interests, and slowly, with honesty, that product or service grows traction and people support it, not because they are fooled into supporting it, but because they actually intend to use it to better their lives.
Same with production, if a company sells something faster than it can produce, it will fail (or fail, re-coupe, fail again, then slimly succeed someday down the road).
Encouragement
My intention in creating these cute little blog posts is to encourage. Encouragement to live mindful, meaningful lives. Without this, my musings come very, very short of having a purpose. So this is why I share a small, completely voluntary encouragement!
I encourage us to consider what we feed the mind. To illustrate this encouragement, below is an old Cherokee parable:
A grandfather is talking with his grandson.
The grandfather says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle.
One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love.
The other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear”.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”
There is an awful lot of control we forget we have when it comes to what we watch, listen to, read, and spend our hard-earned money on.
I encourage us to write down the ten or so things we buy most daily. If we’re unsure, we can either download a spend tracking app or simply take a small notepad with us everywhere we go and write down everything we spend money on and the amount associated.
I did the latter and got an excellent grasp on where my money was going (cough Amazon cough). And slowly but surely I was able to reduce my dependence on the service and the cost associated with it to zero. That’s right, I completely deleted my Amazon account and haven’t used it for the past year or so.
Thank You
At the very end of each blog post, I also want to thank you, the reader, for tuning in to my cute little tidbits on mindfulness.
Thank you so much for reading or listening to this post, I am so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity and space to write what I love. If you have found any value in my blog, you can support me over at Buy Me A Coffee!
Three Links
And at the very, very end of every blog post here, I want to share just three links that inspired me before, during, or after each post. I will try to have an article, audio bit, and video (for those who learn from different mediums).
October 17, 2023
Photography
“Photography is nothing short of a miracle; a window into humanity, and a time machine in our pocket.”
While sitting in a picturesque, instagramable library called Starfield in Seoul, South Korea, sipping on a warm latte, and observing all these people running around frantically taking photos of the place, I had this realization:
Photography is less about the actual process of taking photos and more about mindfully observing a subject. Whether it is captured or not isn’t the point.
Reflection
I can think of no better use of the common phrase, “quality over quantity” than in photography. What defines a gifted photographer or any artist for that matter, is quality creations not mere quantity of works.
I believe that playing the numbers game is not art, it’s business (and it ought to belong there).
It’s like when Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty encounters a world-renowned photographer in some epic mountain range waiting for a rare snow leopard to emerge from a cave.
Upon finally seeing the leopard emerge from the cave, the seasoned photographer decides not to take the photo he’s waited so long for, but rather to observe the leopard in reverence and awe.
It’s observation, not capture that is the point of that scene. The greatest photos on Earth, I’d defend, are not taken at all.
I’ve been capturing moments ever since my father gave in and gave me his old Canon XTi when I was about 11 years old.
From then on I absolutely fell in love with the process of photography, but more importantly, the act of observation through the camera’s lens. A separation from the outside world and my perspective of it.
Naturally, I’m a horribly and easily distracted person, making observation quite a task, but with a daily meditation practice, photography became more of a mindful activity than a creative endeavor.
As in all forms of art, there comes quite a bit of praise and criticism, which I found difficult to navigate until I remembered, “Oh shit, this has nothing to do with the photo, but rather the seconds or even minutes before the photo”. I realized the point was to pause, think back, and tell a story.
And I began thinking about my thinking when I captured a certain photo. Remembering all that took place inside and outside my head.
Then I wrote long, descriptive captions on almost every photo I published on Instagram (not the most common approach mind you).
I want to show those who stumble upon my memories that there is so much more going on behind the photo than the photo itself can capture.
Encouragement
From the simplest drop of rain sliding down a window pane to the awestruck beauty of the Northern Lights or the sighting of a rare and beautiful thing, there are so many moments of paralyzing awe.
I encourage us to observe ourselves observing the world around us. What moments are meant to simply be observed and what moments call us to capture, caption, and share?
It is knowing that those moments that stop us in our tracks and require our entire attention are the same moments not meant to be captured.
With a little bit of mindfulness, you’ll be surprised by the amount of those moments in a single day.
I am so thankful for the journey in photography I’ve taken since picking up a camera 18 years ago and so excited for a new chapter in observing this big, beautiful, strange, and ever-changing world.
Want to see and read some of the moments I did choose to capture? They are sprawled all over my Instagram.
Links
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post, it is a rare gift these days. Feel free to comment, like, and share it. You can also support me by Buying Me A Coffee. Thank you in advance!
October 9, 2023