practice

Where to Go with Hope or Anxiety

A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful at NYC’s Rubin Museum is a powerful interactive display of visitor’s anxieties and hopes. As is this strategy for navigating them.

Allen Ginsberg’s Meditation Instruction

During an interview with a very combative interviewer, poet/wise man Allen Ginsberg offered to show him how to meditate. His description helps our us greatly in gently calming our monkey brain.

Blind Master Card Magician Richard Turner: Play the Cards You’re Dealt

Richard Turner is considered the world’s greatest card sharp. His prowess at card magic is astonishing, all the more so because he is blind. Here are his principles for overcoming obstacles.

How to Become a Master: Arnold Drake World

Artist Arnold Drake World transforms paper napkins and towels into botanically correct flowers. It’s an art he’s mastered through thousands of iterations, study of materials, and a strong sense of mission. In this lovely short video, he tells his formula for success.

Improvised Life’s Very Quiet Birthday Celebration

July 4th was Improvised Life’s birthday, the day, eight years ago I pressed PUBLISH and took the site live in what seemed like a giant leap. How the 4,000 articles in its archive has come remains something of a mystery…

every inhalation triggers inspiration (John Franzen)

Artist John Franzen uses an intriguing practice to make his drawings composed of many parallel lines: Each line, one breath. We wondered what would happen if we tried Franzen’s method.

Meditation 101: Failure is Actually Success

This 2-minute video is the perfect guide to meditation for beginners and the meditation-averse. It gives a simple method and the science of why meditating for five minutes daily will change your life. And unlike anything else in your life, in meditation, ‘failure’ is actually success.

‘Is it Additive?’ (Ginny Jordan)

We recently learned a powerful practice from artist/poet/humanitarian Ginny Jordan. Acutely aware of how precious time is, Ginny found a way to quickly discern what is truly meaningful amid the endless time-consuming activities of modern life. Here’s how she describes it:

Living is a Martial Art (Bruce Lee)

Legendary martial artist Bruce Lee always carried a small notebook in which he wrote down quotes, affirmations, appearances, poetry, philosophical ideas and his personal practices for training his mind and spirit NOT just his physical skill. Take a look.

The Way to Start a Day

At our Little Free Library we came across a kid’s book called The Way to Start A Day, something we think about a lot. It’s about the many ways different peoples celebrate and honor a new day to set the right tone in their lives. It offers fine advice no matter what age you are.

How to Walk Around with “Poet Mind”

Knowing of our love of — and frequent postings of – centuries-old Japanese Haiku, tiny poems that perfectly describe an instant, a friend gave us The Haiku Anthology. It contains very surprising haiku written by contemporary Americans in English; evidence of modern life is everywhere…as poetry and insight… long meeting I study the pattern embossed on the napkin * freshly…

A Strategy for Tumultuous Times (Bruce Lee)

I was pondering how to remain sane in the tumult and violence that seems to be our world these days, where lunatics of every stripe are taking center stage, when I remembered this quote from Bruce Lee, the great kung fu master:

Practice Losing Farther, Faster (Elizabeth Bishop)

The other day we came across the shorn trunk of huge tree that had been taken down by the Parks Department. We looked close and tried to count the rings but got lost in the swirls and changes in its three-foot span. It is one of those everyday losses that reminded us of others, and of the Elizabeth Bishop poem “One Art”*, in which the antidote to loss lies hidden.

Why A Skateboarder Fell (Failed) 160 Times for a Single Flight

In the New York Times Magazine, Bret Anthony Johnston described the video a friend made for him on his 41st birthday, of him falling off his skateboard nearly 160 times during his four-year quest to successfully execute a trick. Falling is a wonderful description of the grueling process of mastery that we’ve so often written about using a…

Weekend Magic: René Lavand + Li Po

(Video link here.) David Saltman of The Houdini File alerted us to René Lavand, the extraordinary artist of illusion who passed away recently. His performance of the classic “cups and balls” is mesmerizing. Lavand, who has only one hand, performs with the grace of a dancer, weaving a hypnotic spell as he whispers “siempre tengo tres” (I have…

Little by Little, Fill Yourself with Good: Rick Hanson’s TED How-To

Psychotherapist Chris Eldredge sent us this powerful TED talk of neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson‘s simple technique for transforming our hardwired negative patterning (also known as Negativity Bias). We thought 13+ minutes might be too long for our busy selves, but Hanson’s talk flies by, and we found ourselves with a useful practice we can do…

Four Principles for Generating Good Luck

Psychologist Richard Wiseman completed a ten-year study to figure out why some people, even smart ones, are luckier than others. He explains how and what he found in illuminating detail in “Be Lucky —It’s an Easy Skill to Learn” in the Telegraph. The gist: people who generate good luck practice four essential principles.

Magic for Monday: Lindzee’s Wondrous Illusion

(Video link here.) Our friend David Saltman is, among other things, a magician. Over the years, we’ve learned from him that magic requires PRACTICE. When you see a great illusion, it is the result of hundredes of hours of practice, thought, innovation. This lovely illusion, found at his blog The Houdini File is an example of practice…

mastery of anything is about practice + overcoming ‘can’t’

David Saltman over at The Houdini File spotted this image on The Art of Kung Fu’ facebook with the comment: Whenever you say “I can’t do it”, think of this photo. All martial arts, including tai chi, are about practice…a lifetime of practice to gain mastery… …And mastery of ANYTHING is about practice, perservering in the…

weekend fun: steve martin is the great flydini

(Video link here.) Apparently, some readers were turned off by Louis C.K.’s vulgar, and to our minds perspective-inducing reflections on “what comes with a basic life”. Susan Dworski sent us this brilliant few minutes of Steve Martin as the Great Flydini as “an antidote”. Like all great magic, it appears to just happen— an improvision…

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