By Troy Headrick I’d like to do something a bit different in this blog. It’ll start with me posting a fascinating TED Talk by Leon Berg. The title of his presentation is “The Power of Listening: An Ancient Practice for Our Future.” By the way, before I tell you the true aim of this post,... Continue Reading →
Fighting the Inside Dragons – Book Launch
We try to make some sense out of this weird brutal world. The problem is that the sense we’re making has the power f*ck us up inside and that’s what really matters. WE are the ones seeing the world so WE are the ones deciding how it is and we can only do it... Continue Reading →
Napping as an Act of Defiance
By Troy Headrick I’ve been thinking a lot about defiance lately. Actually, because I’m very much a contrarian at heart, I’m always thinking about ways to defy. That’s what contrarians do; they defy conventional wisdom (among other things). (By the way, it seems pretty clear that we need a lot more contrarians in the world.)... Continue Reading →
Our own self-drawn box
Today my mind wanted to wonder about the limitation a human being has. Of course, this is not about our physical limitations, but more about our mental limitations, which seem to guide our behavior. With this in mind, we might say that our behavior is limited by our mind, right? If you think that some... Continue Reading →
SnapDragon Speaks: On Jealousy.
Reach, 2020. Pennsylvania. Original Photo by SnapDragon X. All rights reserved. Why do we get jealous? It's inevitable, really. Because for a time, in one way or another, we all feel it. She's so much skinnier than me. *pout* He has a summer house he never even uses. *scowl* They pop out a kid every... Continue Reading →
Do You Belong?
Hi everyone, Let’s talk about the sense of belonging today. We naturally want to belong to a place or person. We want to be part of a community. We therefore value family and we tend to prioritize them. Family partially gives us our personality. Then, we also belong to a group of friends and colleagues,... Continue Reading →
Question of the Day – No. 507
From all your achievements, which are you the proudest of?
Patience with Self
Hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing good! Today’s topic is patience with personal development. It is sort of a follow-up to my post last week about forming routines. I am patient with people. If someone is misbehaving, I don’t react (warnings aside) because I know that everyone makes mistakes on their way to better... Continue Reading →
How Do Others See Me?
By Troy Headrick A couple of weeks ago I had this really jarring experience. I watched a video of myself leading a workshop on critical thinking. (I am the director of a writing center at a community college in San Antonio, Texas, and often do all manner of presentations for a wide range of audiences.) ... Continue Reading →
Want vs Need
In a world full of stimuli, we want everything. And with everything, frustration and regret comes. You start to double-check every decision and you keep comparing it to the endless potential. And for what? The biggest problem raises from the fact that we rarely analyze what we really need in life. We want this and... Continue Reading →
Routine is the Spice of Life
Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good week! I had a good one and I have been having good weeks lately and I want to talk about why. Spoiler: Routines made a big change on how my weeks turn out to be. I have always had this perfect life in my mind where... Continue Reading →
How to Stop Self-Sabotaging
By Ellen Jayne | You were having a great week, but something along the way changed. Your entire mood shifted which affected your attitude the rest of the day, and you're not sure why. Chances are, you're mentally drained, and you're doing it to yourself.
Listening to Chicago
By Troy Headrick Before I go any further, I’d like to ask you to watch this five-minute video about an extraordinary woman named Chicago Crosby. OK, where to begin? There’s so much I want to say. I suppose I’ll start not with Chicago but with me and us, those of us who’ve just watched her... Continue Reading →
Your thoughts please: What's an example of doing the right thing gladly?
How would you illustrate what it means to do a good thing gladly and with pleasure, as distinguished from doing the same thing with reluctance, pain, and a sense of loss?
Is Happiness the Goal?
Hi everyone, I hope you all had a happy week! Even if you didn’t, we will talk about happiness today, so we will end it happy. Maybe. Up until recent years, I had decided that happiness was the goal of life. We go through all ups and downs so one day we can learn how... Continue Reading →
Fear Setting For the Future
By Ellen Jayne | Traditionally a taboo topic, fear is rarely discussed; however, this new exercise called fear setting can actually help you measure your fears and develop your dreams through them, not around them.
What Is Courage?
By Troy Headrick I want to tell you about a time in my life, now long passed, that I’ve been thinking a lot about in recent weeks. The story I’m going to share says a lot about the nature of courage and about what it means to act courageously. During the spring of 1993, after... Continue Reading →
Your thoughts please: What are the most important personal qualities?
Obviously technical skills are important in life. But it's other qualities that make you a good person, a good human being. Someone, in other words, who leads a good life. Does the question seem random? In fact, it's intrinsically connected with the pursuit of humane and skillful wisdom. I'll follow up on this question in... Continue Reading →
On Choosing Happiness
Provided by Anthony Garner from https://zenothestoic.com/ I believe on any number of counts, including personal experience, that we have the power to choose to be happy but that the road is not altogether straightforward. Our philosopher friends would tell us that happiness is a “quale” – one of a number of different “qualia” which we humans can... Continue Reading →
The Benefits of Talking
Hi everyone, Let’s talk about how talking is essential in life today. I am Turkish. I am culturally inclined to talk. We talk all the time. You can put two Turkish people who don’t know each other in the same room and they will find a lot of things to talk about. I can talk... Continue Reading →
Reconnecting with the Natural World and a Younger Me
By Troy Headrick I had a strange upbringing. Up until the age of, say, five or six, I lived in urban areas being raised by a father and mother who didn’t get along very well. Then, suddenly, a year or so before starting first grade, my parents found that they no longer wanted to be... Continue Reading →
Doing Nothing: The Hardest Thing To Do?
I know, I know! The first impulse is to throw rotten eggs in this title because we both know it’s not true (at least, most of the time). So the question now is: when doing nothing is the hardest thing to do? I think this is related to having control over the situation because that’s... Continue Reading →
