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Short Meditations to Get You Through (Vivek Murthy, Wild Man Yogi Bryan)

Dr. Vivek Murthy, 21st Surgeon General of the United States and a Yogi Bryan, a wild man meditator we recently discovered, share their quick meditations for regaining connection and calm. Similar practices, VERY different approaches.

Nature’s Operating Manual

In her seminal 1997 book Biomimicry, Janine Benyus introduced the notion that we could be better off by simply mimicking the ways problems are solved in nature. Although usually formatted as a numbered list, we saw them for the first time as a single sentence, set up like a poem. And like a good poem, it makes for a radical shift of view…

Lesson in Perception from the Largest Living Being on Earth*

We recently learned about Pando, a clonal aspen tree that is one of the largest and oldest beings on earth. Over 100 acres wide, it has been hiding in plain sight for thousands of years. It is a lesson in how we see, and don’t.

The Great Phyllida Barlow Leaves Us Her Illuminating Explorations of Chance, Control, Vulnerability*

We were dismayed to hear that artist Phyllida Barlow passed away. She was a kind of role model for us, a 78-year old woman who taught for decades until finding fame late in her life for her daring monumental sculptures. We first fell in love and admiration when we watched trailer to the film “Phyllida”…

A Brilliant Concrete Amphitheater + Maria Lassnig’s Body Awareness

We love seeing two of our favorite materials — chairs and concrete — married into the stunning amphitheater designed by artist Armand Pierre Fernandez for Milan’s Parco Sempione, Milan in 1973. Embedded into the concrete steps are the personalities that chairs inevitably evoke, each seat curiously special and intentional. It made us think of artist Maria Lassnig’s view of chairs…

Alex Katz Flings Us Into The Immediate Present

We recently returned to the Guggenheim Museum with a singular purpose: to revisit the handful of remarkable late paintings artist Alex Katz made of trees, lake, night. Those are really not the subject. He paints the sensation of seeing.

A Simple Shift of ‘Should’ Sparks Possibility Thinking

How many times have we heard the exhortation: ‘Don’t ‘should’ on yourself.’? Sometimes that’s easier said that done. We have some pretty fierce ‘shoulds’ in our heads that carry the weight of obligation and duty, and a narrow view of choices. Then we tried a simple shift.

For Yoko Ono on Her 90th Birthday

As we’ve read tributes in celebration of Yoko Ono’s 90th birthday, we’ve been thinking about her too and of the many amazing things she has put into the world. She has lived through so much and never stopped making her art, speaking up, working to antidote the violence of our age. The mindshifts her work catalyzes remain refreshing, heartening, helpful. Here are a few of our favorites:

Marsha Linehan on Building a Life Worth Living

We got interested in psychotherapist Marsha Linehan after a reader told us that it was she who first used the Buddhist concept of Radical Acceptance as a therapeutic tool in psychotherapy. It was a groundbreaking approach, as were the treatments she pioneered for patients who were previously written off as hopeless. The story of how she developed it — as a young woman she had been one of those “impossible” patients — is a marvel of resourcefulness and creativity.

More Reasons for Optimism in 2023: Possibility Thinking Made Tangible

All year long, Andrew Ross Sorkin has diligently and carefully reported on the wild and often dispiriting going- on in world through an financial and economic lens. We were heartened by his recent round-up of the most promising developments of the year, possibility-thinking made tangible.

Reason for Optimism in 2023: The Universe In Verse on “What is Life?”

The perfect accompaniment to the reflective week between Christmas and New Years is the Universe in Verse, an event masterminded by The Marginalian’s Maria Popova, to explore the question “What is Life?” through science and poetry. A gathering of extraordinary humans “celebrate the marvel and mystery of life, from the creaturely to the cosmic, with stories from the history of science and our search for truth, illustrated with poems spanning centuries of human thought and feeling”. It offers a mightily hopeful view.

Escaping Prison Through The Natural World (Merete Mueller)

Blue Room is a beauty of a New York Times video editorial by filmmaker Merete Mueller. It shows incarcerated men and women watching nature videos on loop, in a mental health experiment to see how seeing nature impacts their experience of isolation and the relentlessly bleak environments in which they must live. Its quietly powerful 11 minutes took us way beyond its subject.

Maurice Sendak’s Very Wise Words on Aging, Living, Loss

We recently stumbled on this video the great Chistophe Niemann created to accompany a clip from Terry Gross’ last interview with 80-year-old Maurice Sendak, a few months before his death. It is full of wise, achingly tender words. Our friend Maureen Rolla turned them into a kind of blessing.

Artists’ Simple Marks Inspire Our Own (Brice Marden, Mary Jo Hoffman)

Seeing images of Brice Marden drawing and painting with sticks expanded our notion of what we might use to make our own mark, as a way of revealing what lays hidden in our mind and heart. What medium or implement or movement will unlock the hidden, wordless part of ourselves?

Where to Find Help (Including a Great Website Developer)…

Over the years, I’ve hit periods when I couldn’t figure out how to find the help I needed… Not just a good handiman or office assistant, but expertise that is more difficult to find, like a reliable and affordable website programmer to solve problem I know nothing about. I’ve found stellar people for all realms of my business through two sites, including the Venezuelan programmer (and friend) who services Improvised Life…

David McCullough’s Essential Advice About Writing + the Virtues of Analog

When brilliant chronicler of American history David McCullough died recently, two people sent me excerpts from obituaries, so apt was his wisdom for Improvised Life. Here’s his brilliant advice for becoming a good storyteller and why he used a 1940 typewriter to write his award-winning books.

The Soulful Evocations of Fried Green Tomatoes

Recently, a gift of two green tomatoes sparked a deep hankering: for fried green tomatoes and their elemental deliciousness, and their evocations of deep summer visits to the South long ago. So I cooked up a batch using the simplest method I know. I was startled by how intensely they made me feel the summer day. Here’s the method, and a few things to do with them, and a movie to watch while you eat them.

Illuminating Ways to Think About Climate Change

Amid the daily deluge of bleak, enervating news about the effects of climate change, we’ve been noticing a strain of defiance: Messages that engender energy and activism rather than despair and paralysis. They offer a thought-provoking and heartening view.

Leonard Cohen on the Meaning and World View of ‘Hallelujah’

It took over five years for Leonard Cohen to write Hallelulah, arguably his most beloved song. Although we’ve listened to Hallelulah many times, we did not get its simple message as powerfully as hearing Cohen’s words in an early interview, featured in the trailer of the just-released documentary about him.

Bill Bailey Considers All Things and Reminds Us How Amazing It Is

It is enough to have recognized some of ourselves in comedian Bill Bailey’s astute commentary on the British psyche (which applies to MANY others as well). When he segues into a wild riff on the expression “All things considered” at 2:37 in, we found our view of the world mightily expanded, AMAZING…

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