26Dec 2017 by aryask@gmail.com

know your purpose

purpose
Know your purpose and appreciate where you're at. That's the fastest way to achieve your goals. It's a lesson we're all learning in different ways. It's the great awakening of our time. If you think you got it all figured out and your system is perfect then your growth is limited. Make 2018 a year of awakening through continuous learning. That's the truest way to live that I know.
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30Nov 2017 by aryask@gmail.com
Trust the process, improvise success

Trust the process, improvise success

creativity, empathy, flow, improv
I was given 90 minutes to do something fun and creative at a Spittoon tour event in Chengdu, China. It could be about anything! And I was delightfully overwhelmed with possibility. So, I listened to the words of a mentor: “let’s do nothing and then take a break.” The event was not for another month, so I planned to do a lot of nothing until then. After many walks along the river during my lunch breaks, I finally turned on to an idea for the event: Improv Storytelling. It married two of my favorite things in the world and something I personally wanted to know more about. It made me nervous and feverishly eager. As a long time student of improvisation and storytelling, I believe in their potential to inspire…
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16Nov 2017 by aryask@gmail.com

Inside out: 4 ways to lead positive change with self-awareness

mindfulness, purpose, self-awareness, storytelling
Getting past speech impediment and low self-esteem didn’t happen overnight. As a teenager, I remember listening to the radio feeling puzzled by how people could enunciate words so well and be so easy and confident. How was their voice so clear and mine so muffled? The root of the struggle was that I held too many distractions and so I would easily get overwhelmed, and lengthy episodes of depression followed. By quieting the mind through meditation, I learned to give up buggy beliefs and things began to clear up. A friend told me, "when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change." It was a good look in the mirror and poetry was an outlet for me. It's where I found my voice. I no…
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19Sep 2017 by aryask@gmail.com

Dreams of an Octopus

storytelling
Once there was an Octopus with a vision to travel on land. All day he would pretend what it’s like to be a land animal. All his friends teased him because he didn’t have the proper legs and it was dangerous and silly to even consider that quest. But Octopus was determined and he had an idea. One day he floated to the surface of the sea and lured a nearby hawk to catch him. The hawk’s eyes locked in and flung into the water, snatched the octopus with her claws and flew back towards the land. Octopus could feel the breeze for the very first time. He saw the ocean from overhead, the horizon and the sunset blazing in orange and red. Octopus swiveled his eyes and saw the…
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07Sep 2017 by aryask@gmail.com
Without a head

Without a head

empathy, mindfulness, self-awareness
The first night I fell with a high fever, vomiting through trembling teeth. My head was caved in from the high altitude I could feel death looming in and out of my veins. The next morning, I stayed in bed while the others wandered the town. I was extremely glad to have a comfortable bed with the hostel manager looking after me. He was lighthearted and I didn’t have the energy to say much. His Chinese name translated to “without a head”. His WeChat id had the tagline “always stay naive.” It was Spring and the three of us had taken a 13hour bus ride to Seda for a taste of Tibetan culture. Seda, also known as Sertar, is a Tibetan county west of Sichuan in China. At nearly 4,000…
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