Happiness is overrated— aim for alignment instead — This year is already shaking up my brain and soul in a slightly less chaotic but equally as cool way as last year. 2020 was about breaking down the past, tearing us away from the familiar, and preparing us to do things differently. …

Why life is about living the mystery — John Keats, a Romantic poet, first wrote about the concept of ‘negative capability’ in 1817. It’s the ability, he said, to “exist amid uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without reaching for absolutes”. To play in the grey and embrace not knowing. Over 200 years later, and I can’t think of a…

The seven rules for dating with an open heart and a smart mind — It’s no mistake that the Latin origin of the word confusing (adj.) means to mingle together. Dating, or mingling, in 2020 is just that. Confusing. In the past few years, romantic connection has been completely transformed by apps and shifting social norms. If you add the challenge of getting close…

Why everything you do for you, you do for me too — My mum has a habit of not indicating when she’s driving around a corner in a quiet street. ‘Why would I?’ she always says, ‘there’s no-one behind me’. It’s a good point. There were no other cars in sight. ‘But it’s the principle’, I tell her. ‘What if a car…

And other ways to get your brain buzzing again when you’re feeling flat — We all have those days when it feels like our brains are on backwards. There might not be anything major that you can attribute it to, you just feel flat. …

Finding the elusive creative beast, the counterintuitive way — Creative flow is an elusive beast. Whenever I stumble upon it, I try to pause, look around, and take note of where I found it, so I can hunt it down again. One Sunday morning, a few weeks ago, I suddenly felt incredibly inspired, and open to sharing my writing…

What your smartphone addiction tells you about identity — Everyone knows the rule. Limit screen time before bed or the blue light will interrupt your sleep and mess with your brain. But like all bad habits, late-night scrolling is so enticing. It feels like all the fun stuff happens after dark — deep text chats, falling down internet wormholes…

Using values to make decisions in the face of uncertainty — The big pause of 2020 has made me really think about how we relate to uncertainty. The unknown that permeates our lives in minuscule and massive ways every day, now more than ever. On an abstract level, we get that the Universe is always changing. There are forces too vast…

There’s no escaping this paradigm shift, because the paradigm is us — This is big. Really big. And yet it all started from something so small. In just a few months a sub-microscopic agent has shut down the whole world, and we’ve woken up in a new reality. This is COVID-19. Sometimes I forget that everything has changed. When I remember, I’m…