12May 2018 by aryask@gmail.com

Inflated ego

storytelling
Balloons were her favorite thing in the world because they made her happy. The best part was that she had plenty of them with all the colors. She inflated them all day and night. Eventually, she was holding hundreds of strings and the balloons started to lift her off the ground. She went high up and could see the city far and wide. She drifted into the mountains. Suddenly, one by one the balloons began to pop. She panicked and pretended to fly. Finally, she fell onto the mountaintop.
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10May 2018 by aryask@gmail.com

The opening line

flow, trust the process
Long story short I stumbled into an open mic night in North Park. I hadn't prepared anything but I signed up on a whim and got into swift preparation mode for a 5min bit. I started shuffling through material in my head. Seeing the importance of an opening line, I toyed with a few but didn't really commit to one. Anyway, my name gets called as I'm ready to half wing it in front of 50 or so people (an upbeat n diverse crowd). I get on the mic and somehow I open with: “ good night!”  which I didn't have in mind at all. I started a little shaky but finished strong, shared some jokes and prose. Just showing up, trusting the process, and away it goes.
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08May 2018 by aryask@gmail.com

From meditation to laughing in tears

mindfulness, self-awareness
Mindfulness Meditation is a way of developing a felt-sense of being with the body and simply being present. It challenges us to step back from the mental chatter to reduce stress and regulate attention. It is a discipline of sheer focus, but we don’t have to take ourselves seriously to be committed to the practice. Here’s a story from some years ago. I’m in the middle of the desert for a 10day meditation retreat. Every day I wake up at 4am, step outside of my dorm and into the cold morning air. It’s quiet, and in the distance a rosy dawn is painted over the mountains. I walk over to the big meditation room with 60 other people - no speaking or eye contact for the entire 10 days. You just…
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05May 2018 by aryask@gmail.com

The journey of self-awareness

self-awareness
Self-awareness is a journey of becoming more of who you are. Finding what’s true, that’s when you know you’re on the right track, just place honesty as your highest value. A simple insight arises, an understanding of how things are, with many forces at play in a living orchestra, bigger than the sum of the parts. Then it dawns on you: empathy transforms us. Now that we’re untangled from shifty appearances we can inhabit the folds of something real, a bigger purpose, a heightened flow, a field of vision that optimally grows. Now grounded and laser-focused on the inner work, what was once a fish out of water, is now an eagle spread across the sun.
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23Apr 2018 by aryask@gmail.com

Undertow

self-awareness
The worst thing you can do when you’re numb and weary is to give up, yet it’s the easiest course of action. Everything seems out of reach and nothing works. Stuck in the undertow. You feel powerless. But deep down you know that it will pass. It always has. You’ve come this far with patience and gratitude. You know it well. But no matter, patience is a bitch equally as a noble virtue. Still, eagerly you greet your guests at the door, their names are Self-pity and Despair and you hear them play their songs all day. They play with flair. Gradually, and then suddenly, something shifts. A friend calls. An idea turns up. You go with it. Things develop on their own accord. To your surprise, you find yourself with…
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