Human
Opportunity: Compounded improvements in the quality of life.
Threat: A downward spiral into oblivion.
Practical solution: Adopting a framework of good habits.
Goal: Aliveness.
Tag: Journal Diary
Journal 2020-06-29
I am now fasting for 18 hours a day, eating a balanced meal at each end of a six hour window – called “intermittent fasting”.
My Phone
My phone pleads:
“Look at me,
I can show you anything,
JUST LOOK AT ME!”
Summon with caution, a mischievous little genie
wants feeding by my stare;
To bestow wonders or destroy the world,
it doesn’t care.
Journal 2020-06-25
Having a proper look around Twitter.
It’s a good way to get updates and information on interesting topics.
The massive downside is the angry political gunge seeping through it. I generally move on when people start writing in terms like “us and them” or left and right, this tribe or that tribe. Twitter seems to inflame that partisan ugly polarisation.
The gaming aspects of Twitter, such as gaining likes and follows, encourages people (irrespective of political compass) to clamour for attention, often leading to the normalisation of all sorts of distorting and destructive behaviour.
But to be honest, it is morbidly fascinating to look at all the crazy. It’s like picking a scab though, no good for me at all.
Journal 2020-06-23
5 creative outlets for me:
- Playing music – vocals, instrumentals, producing;
- Performing – singing, acting, public speaking;
- Writing – music, lyrics, poetry, drama, prose;
- Visual art and design;
- Computer programming.
I’m not interested in comparing levels of ability to others, that’s not the point.
The more these areas cross-over the better.
The more I enjoy doing them, the better.
Journal 2020-06-20
Any person has a wide range of emotions and impulses running through them, to lesser or greater degrees. Sometimes, given the right circumstances, grace can be found in the most surprising places; and sometimes ugliness is expressed where beauty usually resides.
Mindfulness is an awareness that enables greater choice over the energies that move you.
Journal 2020-06-19
Acting is an exercise in empathy: the actor tries to understand the thought processes and emotional life of the person being portrayed. I first look into the world from the point of view of a human being, then try on some different clothes.
Journal 2020-06-17
In good stories the brave hero courageously saves the lives of others; well these days it can just take a tap on a screen to save someone’s life. Anyone can be the hero.
Journal 2020-06-16
One of the effects of the worldwide shut-down has been to hasten the widespread transition from offline real life to an online virtual life.
The analogue world often has more reverence, albeit less sheer efficiency than the online version; for instance finding a seminal work in the labyrinth of a dusty old library feels like discovering a bit of history, rather than scrolling past disposable data on a screen.
Journal 2020-06-01
I sometimes experience Hypnagogia, particularly when I am very tired, where I have vivid hallucinations in my mind’s eye in the period between wakefulness to sleep. I have no conscious influence over the arising images; I am just an interested viewer, with no mental presence internally voicing opinions or conclusions.
I also have experienced, although more rarely, a Hypnopompic state of mind between sleep to wakefulness, where I briefly have no memory of my life or where I am – I am just there. That sounds scary in the default settings of everyday life, to lose identity and a life story, but my overriding sense is feeling at peace, just before my thoughts come flooding in and layering everything on top.
Robert Walker 