Mindfulness &

how to be aware in an unaware world

Author: Josh Avery

  • Teamwork

    Teamwork

    Are you enjoying these weekly mindful blog posts? Sharing them with friends or family helps me out so much! I would also love to hear from you, it’s anonymous, just simply reply to this email and I’ll respond within a day! You can also support me by buying me a coffee over at buymeacoffee.com/mindfulnessand

    “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
    – Ryunosuke Satoro

    It’s true. No man is an island. From the coffee we enjoy in the morning to the bed we sleep in at night, there are thousands of people to thank for procuring, developing, making, marketing, and delivering our stuff.

    Humankind, the great collective, the stewards of this planet, has built massive buildings, been to the moon, created supercomputers that fit in our palm, and increased life expectancy tenfold.

    And we have done it together, we have done it in teams large and small, diverse and different. With teamwork, the imagination of one becomes the reality of many.

    And yes, humankind has messed up big time too, from World Wars, Climate Change, Addiction, Famine, Pollution, Corruption, and Extinction.

    And, ironically, it took teamwork to do that too. It wasn’t conscious, thoughtful teamwork mind you, it was the us vs them mentality that led to so much unnecessary war and destruction.

    But the fact is, together we can do so much, to change this planet for better or worse. Like ants, we are powerless alone, it’s in our unity and teamwork that the magic happens.

    As cheesy as it sounds, that common phrase ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ is so true. I was watching a SpaceEx speaking event where Musk described the amount of complexity and ingenuity it took to get an object to orbit, and how utterly ridiculous it sounded to land it safely back on earth. The one constant that made it possible? Teamwork.

    A far less ambitious dream of our own, say losing weight or obtaining a high-paying job, takes incremental steps to achieve. Surprisingly a workout could help lead to better employment or working hard at a job could help lead to crushing it in the gym.

    1. Teamwork allows us to pass on ideas and get real-time feedback on how to improve said ideas (instrumental for in-time completion).
    2. Teamwork offloads the work itself, reducing fatigue and burnout (while also building confidence to ask for help).
    3. Teamwork allows each member of the team to focus on their strengths (and learn new skills from other team members).

    Encouragement

    I encourage us because I need this inspiration too. What’s the point in telling someone to do a certain thing if I’m not willing to do it myself?

    Consider joining a team volunteering at local homeless shelters, food banks, parks, or events. We will see the power of teamwork firsthand and be a part of something bigger.

    I find a lot of opportunities to be a part of a team myself on the Meet Up App and have started a whole YouTube Channel based on going to random events on it haha.

    Links

    1. 11 Benefits of Teamwork in the Workplace (With Examples)
    2. How to Be a Team Player — Without Burning Out
    3. VolunteerMatch
    4. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa – Wikipedia
  • Reason

    Reason

    “Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.”
    – Theodore Dreiser

    Instinct and reason both help advance the human species. However much of our evolution has relied on instinct as the primary driver for survival, we now rely on reason to propel us.

    Instinct is defined as an inborn pattern of behavior characteristic of a species and often a response to specific environmental stimuli.

    Reason, on the other hand, is the capacity to apply logic consciously by concluding new or existing information, to seek the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered a distinguishing ability humans possess.

    Reflection

    We are hard-wired to use both as a means of survival and evolution. There is a popular movement going on right now that concerns me, the movement away from reason, to act solely on impulse and instinct when guided by emotion and sensation.

    Because of this, I believe there is a greater need to practice mindfulness than ever before. Mindfulness is characterized by an awareness of oneself in isolation and with the world around them.

    If we reach a point where we use reason as a deduction and primary method of decision-making, we will inevitably make smarter, more mindful choices.

    This is a point reached with mindfulness practice, deep contemplation, and deliberate action.

    Such catalysts are meditation, gratitude, manifestation, deep conversation, open-minded thinking, and Tai Chi).

    One thing recently revealed to me that I started for the new year is Gratitude Manifestation.

    I’ll write a whole post on it soon, but basically, you express gratitude, on paper and out loud, for things and situations you want as if you already have them in your life.

    One of them for me is saying, “I am thankful for a place of my own, near the mountains, filled with plants and artifacts from around the world, good people, and tall, wide windows allowing sunlight to stream in like a river flowing”.

    I may not have this place yet in reality, but it’s clear and concise there in my mind whenever I look and recite it, and that holds the power to get it!

    Also, the more descriptive and imaginative the manifestations are the better. Just make sure they’re realistic enough to achieve too (a nice-sized apartment vs a 6-bed mansion).

    Instinct ought to be reserved as a survival mechanism for ourselves and others (like when we or someone else is in real danger and we can do something about it).

    This property of our mind, the human mind, has allowed us to evolve into such safe living today, without fear of a lion eating us or the cold freezing us. Our instinct is our safeguard and we do need to tend to it too.

    Such activities include camping, cold therapy like ice baths, heat therapy like saunas, strenuous exercise, and extreme sports.

    Instinct and Reason balance on a scale as close as life and death do, both necessary for the nourishment of life.

    This is a scale we must balance acutely though. We are more connected to the world than ever before and yet more disconnected from the person down the street.

    Instinct tells us to stay away and take care of ourselves, but reason says to connect and include that person in our life.

    Encouragement

    I encourage us to ask: “What does this balance look like in my life?”

    “Am I more guided by more feeling or thinking?” “Do I tend to act impulsive or mindfully? 

    This is no easy task, it takes practice to be reasonable, but the beauty is that it is obtainable! Keep meditating ya’ll!

    Thanks

    Thanks for reading these long, stream-of-consciousness posts ya’ll, your feedback keeps me writing them!

    As always, feel free to share, print, comment below, or tell a friend. You can always support me too at buymeacoffee.com/mindfulnessand

    Links

    1. Theodore Dreiser | American Naturalist Novelist & Journalist
    2. The Instinct Definition: What It Is & the Science Behind It
    3. 9 Habits to Be a More Responsible Person
    4. How Gratitude Rewires Your Brain | Jim Kwik
  • Rejection

    Rejection

    “Most dazzling human achievements are, in fact, the aggregate of countless individual elements, each of which is, in a sense, ordinary.”
    – Angela Duckworth

    (Another way of stating this is that individually we are ordinary, but together we are extra ordinary).

    Layers and layers of simple inventions, like the parts of a computer (or the layers of a cake), make this possible, making the ordinary extraordinary (or delicious).

    And broken down, piece by piece, anything can be understood and learned, from rocket engines to apple pies (also delicious).

    It’s not just about the matter either, people become more understood and surprisingly relatable when unwrapping their layers.

    Reflection

    Take agoraphobia for instance, a condition consistent with many layers, trauma, self-doubt, isolation, etc. that when confronted and encouraged, can heal someone and change their life.

    What’s agoraphobic you ask? It’s a person with an extreme or irrational fear of entering open or crowded places, of leaving their own home, or of being in places from which escape is difficult (like Van Gough).

    Last I checked, there are a lot of anxious and socially awkward people out there, which can be for a lot of reasons, but one that speaks numbers is the fear of rejection or humiliation.

    Because we are biologically hardwired with a longing to belong, we fear being seen critically. So much so that we avoid any situation that could cause rejection at all.

    But there within lies a greatly missed opportunity: Rejection. Beautiful, terrifying, life-changing, character-building rejection!

    Rejection teaches us a powerful lesson: we are not supposed to be liked by everyone. That’s impossible (and so we can save a lot of energy just letting that shit go too).

    As we become less afraid of what we’re experiencing inside — that is, less afraid of ourselves — we become less intimidated by rejection and more empowered to love and be loved.

    So once again, this has nothing to do with the ingenuity and grit of teams, but more so of the individual.

    It reminds me of Steve Rogers in the first Captain America, who was so frail and thin that he could barely run a mile straight, but he had one thing no other soldier did: a heart and a mind.

    He was the one who jumped on top of a dummy grenade, screaming for his comrades to get back while they scurried away anyway (heart because it was the right thing to do, not the easy thing) (like Dumbledore).

    And learned to get the flag off the top of a tall ass pole by simply removing the pin at the bottom while his comrades scrambled on top of each other to grab it (mind because of awareness, not some oversized intelligence) (that’s Tony Stark).

    Yes, thank you, I am a nerd.

    Encouragement

    What scares you the most out there? I encourage us to embrace that, even if very slowly. Try and do one thing today that scares you, whether it be meeting a new person or trying a new food.

    Also, what would you like to learn today? Because you can learn absolutely anything you want.

    Given this realization, try solving some of these riddles by breaking them down (the answers are in the first link).

    1. Mr. and Mrs. Mustard have six daughters and each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the Mustard family?
    2. How do you make the number 7 even without addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division?
    3. Always in you, Sometimes on you; If I surround you, I can kill you. What am I?
    4. How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?
    5. Two girls have the same parents and were born at the same hour on the same day of the same month, but they are not twins. How can this be possible?

    Thanks

    I am thankful for the space and platform to write. This blog has breathed new life into me and I’m eternally grateful.

    As always, you can like, share, reply to this post below or support me over at buymeacoffee.com/mindfulnessand

    Links

    1. 100+ Brain Teasers for Kids and Adults (with Answers)
    2. Deconstructing the Fear of Rejection: What Are We Really Afraid Of?
    3. TED-Ed: How to deal with rejection
    4. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson 

    P.S. I will start recommending a new book with every blog post. Today, it’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson (with help from Ashwaganda). Here’s an introduction:

    Life is not about getting rid of problems, it’s about finding better problems. It’s not about avoiding failure, it’s about getting better at failure. It’s not about knowing everything, but becoming more comfortable in not knowing anything.