Back in December, I started walking 10,000 steps a day, and I'm still walking. (You can read more about how I started walking here.) I’m still walking 10,000 steps a day (and more some days), and it has really changed the way I look at exercise. While I have been a fairly active person all… Continue reading I’m Still Walking
Recently, it seems that everywhere I turn in the news, someone is talking about wokeness or woke people. Sometimes the term is used positively, i.e. “I got woke”, to describe a type of awareness someone gains in his or her life about issues pertaining to justice, fairness, and equality. Specifically, becoming woke often refers to… Continue reading About Wokeness: Should You Get Woke?
Internal and external validation are two kinds of approval we seek in our lives. They are both important, and to some degree we need both. Nevertheless, many people struggle to trust their own sense of internal validation. Because of this, they get stuck seeking external forms of validation their entire life. This can cause a… Continue reading Internal Vs. External Validation
I tricked myself with picture filters the other day and caused myself a lot of anxiety in the process. The story is partly funny and partly embarrassing. And it also reminded me of some important lessons pertaining to social media. So here is how I tricked myself. Several months ago, I was taking selfies to… Continue reading How I Accidentally Tricked Myself with Picture Filters
Dear Friend: I wanted to write you today to remind you of something wonderful. First, let me say that I know there are hard, unfair, and scary things in the world. But I also want to remind you that there is someting stronger than all that. Right now there are people full of love looking… Continue reading Love, Wisdom, and Creativity Seeking YOU
Lately I have been thinking a lot about playfulness and performance, which are two different modes of living. Playfulness and Performance When we are playful, we become joyfully caught up in the moment, focused on what we are doing for its own sake, [1] rather than focusing merely (or primarily) on what we gain from the… Continue reading Playfulness and Performance: Two Modes of Living
I have recently learned an important lesson about gratitude, and it has given me a great deal of joy. But before I tell you about that lesson, I should be honest about something. In the last few years, I have felt a bit skeptical about gratitude. It seems like recently, everywhere I turn, I have… Continue reading What I Have Learned about Gratitude Recently
Every day we tell ourselves stories about our own self and our life. And these stories matter greatly. They greatly affect our mood, our view of ourselves, and our ability to see life clearly. Let me give you an example from my own life. I have a diastema, which is a fancy name for a… Continue reading Stories We Tell Ourselves and Why They Matter
“To be human is to engage in relationships with others and with the world.” Paulo Freire[1] Recently I have been thinking about something I call “People First Politics”. I’m pretty excited about it. People First Politics is a name I came up with, but the ideas behind it have a long and noble heritage. (You… Continue reading People First Politics: Something to Get Excited About
I have recently been experiencing some painful and joyful personal growth. This semester, I have been teaching an independent study on African philosophy with two young women. This was our anthology, which I highly recommend. They have taught me so much. We finished our independent study the other day by watching the movie Judas and the… Continue reading What I Learned Teaching African Philosophy This Semester
