mindset

‘Beautiful News’: A Daily Hit of Positive to Antidote the Media’s Dark Worldview

Over half a century ago in 1967, John Lennon’s ‘A Day in the Life” nailed the feeling of hurried daily life infused with dark news that continues to reverberate today. Check out this antidote to the relentless daily barrage of bleak news…

Listing What You Like Yields Mighty Benefits and Poetry

At the great Artist’s Prints and Multiples, we came across these inspired fridge magnets. We realized that making lists of “likes” can provide the same benefits as counting blessings AND work curiously like poetry…

Patti Smith: “The Secret to Improvisation I Have Accessed My Whole Life”

As we work to move Improvised Life to a new form, we came across this passage from Just Kids, Patti Smith’s memoir of finding her artistic voice: the secret of improvisation she learned from Sam Shepard.

Lee Krasner on How to Build Joy, Discovery and the Unexpected into Work and Life

Artsy’s Alexxa Gotthardt combed through interviews with legendary abstract expressionist artist Lee Krasner for her insights into “how to be an artist”, with three essential lessons.

Inspiring, Do-able Interior Design Ideas from Paola Navone

Whenever we look at designer Paola Navone’s homes, we come away with a zillion ideas that we could actually do, without a ton of dough. Here are our favorite steal-able ideas.

Wendell Berry on The Real Work We Do

We know quite a few people who are making major life changes these days, living with the question of what to do next, waiting for the path to become clear. What’s the mindset to embrace in limbo: all questions, few clues, no answers?

Lessons in Slowing Down (Pico Iyer, Vija Celmins, W.S. Merwin…)

The past week or so, the same message arrived through a variety of sources: in an email sent by a friend, a poem stumbled on on instagram, a notice of a museum exhibition…

Sublimely Analog Chalkboard Drawings of Mathematicians, Rudolf Steiner, Twombly Inspire Our Own

“This is what thought looks like” begins Dennis Overbye’s article about Jessica Wynne’s remarkable photographs of mathematician’s blackboards, that reminded us of Steiner and Cy Twombly…

Crazy Beautiful Joy Dance via Issey Miyake PFW20

We’ve watched this little video on instagram many times now, vicariously soaking up its unexpectedly BIG expression of joy AND its insight into the most common of personal catalysts…

Visit Alexander Calder’s Alive, Colorful Homes via Pedro Guerrero

If the usual interior porn leaves you cold, I recommend spending time at photographer Pedro Guerrero’s website to roam through his photographs of Alexander Calder’s very original living spaces.

Kraft Paper Dispensers That Let Your Write On the Walls, and Elsewhere

Kraft paper is so wildly useful that if I had the room in my city apartment, I’d keep a roll on a wall to have easy access when the mood/need hits.

Powerful Questions About Personal Expression Sparked by W.S. Merwin’s Garden Time (Consider Journal)

At #Consider Journal, a remarkable post ranges from W.S. Merwin’s last book to the “cyclical effect of nature and art” to the bigger question of how our expression might come to resonate in bigger ways.

Slomo Followed THIS Principle To Change His Life and Transcend the Trappings of the Material World

The impetus for Dr. John Kitchen’s radical life change into the skater Slomo was the answer a very old man gave him when he asked, “What is the secret to living so long?”

An Empowering Short Film on What We Can Do to Restore the Climate (Greta Thunberg, George Monbiot)

From The Guardian on the day of massive worldwide climate strikes comes this excellent 3 minute film on what we/you can actually do to restore the devastated climate. Empowering and essential.

The Bathroom As Incubator of Ideas

The bathroom is the one place where I find mindfulness overrated. It is a lovely place to read, write, draw. Look at all the way it can be an incubator of ideas.

Richard Feynman’s Simple Technique for Learning Just about Anything

Richard Feynman, the brilliant Nobel physicist and “great explainer”, devised a simple 3-step technique for learning things. We’ve found it mightily effective and for preparing for a talk or workshop.

Garrett Bradley’s Big Question Transforms Each Day

When we saw this image from New Orleans-based filmmaker Garrett Bradley, we thought: that is a perfect exhortation to start the day. Then we read THIS:

Patti Smith: How to Reread a Favorite Book Three-Dimensionally

We were casting about for a new book to read when we came across Patti Smith’s technique for rereading personal favorites “three-dimensionally, cubistically, from several angles.

Gary Snyder On Doing The Work You See For Yourself, ‘Mind Like Compost’

We’d never thought about guarding against the “lesser talents” we all have until we read Gary Snyder, whose practical counsel and poetry on the creative process is seriously clarifying.

Fred Sandback on Needing a Place to Play and Letting Your Fingers Think

Artist Fred Sandback stretched lengths of colored yarn taut in a space to make people experience it differently. His booklet, A Children’s Guide to Seeing, made to accompany an exhibition provides serious illumination for adults…

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