30Jun 2018 by aryask@gmail.com

Connecting through play

play
Diversity is nature's playful obsession with beauty and connection. Racism is when we get stuck on labels and cling to a reduced version of people's reality. And there are all kinds of ism’s. Why do ism’s exist? Maybe to nurse our artificial nerves. I don't know but it arises with a bias that we all carry: confirmation bias. It's where we look for evidence that validates what we already think is true. Confirmation bias blocks learning because it promotes a fixed worldview. Ism is always on call and self-importance keeps it alive. Being Persian, I notice racism in myself and my own culture. Racism towards others and towards our own people. Yet even noticing this, the challenge is to constantly check my own assumptions. It's why I'm obsessed with going…
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03Oct 2016 by aryask@gmail.com
Powered by play

Powered by play

play, storytelling
I met Gary Ware at a storytelling event last month where he gave an engaging talk on play, improv, and storytelling. Gary is an all-around creative: by day he is the Chief Strategy Officer of Tower33 Digital and he is a comedian by night. I sat down with him last week and after an unfortunate vanishing act by technology, our 30min podcast gem of a recording went amiss. Below is some of what I would briefly pen to words. Play is a natural state of being. It’s the feeling of aliveness when immersed in an activity. And you don’t need a goal to be engaged in it. The feeling, the process, is the endgame itself. The journey is the treasure. As children we instinctively crawl with toys in our boundless field…
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21Jun 2015 by aryask@gmail.com

Why I don’t bother with humility

gratitude, happiness, play, spirituality, storytelling
What if each waking breath you had a whole new brain, a new perspective, and all that remained was a wonder, “Here I am.” What if we dropped our personhood, no matter clever or simple, humble or self-absorbed, into the thick fragrance of now. Those ribbons of analysis wrapped around the mind, how we decorate our walls with untold stories. If we remove the outside world from the equation of "me," what are we left with? The self-image is hallow. there is no person behind the mask. There is nothing to chase or avoid, you are the light soaking on your forehead. How light wrinkles and shifts in her eyes, starring at the world behind the world with the spear of destiny in hand. Easy under the skin, liquify your spine, melt like gravity washing over the…
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