Joys of J (ep.27)
Yikes. It has been awhile since I last wrote and I have to admit I am A-OK with that. I have been quite busy just LIVING out here on one of the most remote islands on the planet, Kauai. It has been nothing short of an adventure packed journey being here. Both emotionally and physically. From crypto classes to fire twirling beach parties to women’s circles to coffee shop chats, I feel I’ve truly tasted the rainbow of life out here.
For starters, I’ve met more people in my month here than I have in the last 2 years of my life. This island and more particular the people on this island present a daily dose of serendipity everywhere I go. Whether that’s running into a new friend at Trilogy Coffee and chatting for an unexpected few hours about neuroplasticity and NFTs to the many eves spent dancing under the stars. Reminds me of how often I would come back from that week spent at Burning Man thinking to myself how can I bring more of this eccentricity, aliveness, and serendipity into my “real” life and although it’s available to you to make that change wherever you are, I must admit, Kauai provides that life with such ease.
With that said, here’s my open invite to any and all to come visit. :)
Now onto my most recent joys… :)
📖 What Book I’ve Learned From
The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel van der Kolk
Wow. I could not recommend this book more for it is essential to all as everyone out there to date has experienced trauma in different ways, shapes, and forms.
This book is armed with a lifetime of knowledge and immense healing potential. The author explains what you are going through in such a compassionate way and provides such science backed actionable insight to heal and overcome.
A few notable quotes to highlight:
“When you experience trauma your brain protects you, it creates a new personality on top of the one you were born with and transforms you. It increases your senses, it makes you more intelligent, but it changes your brain chemistry and that's the big problem. If your chemistry changes then you're not going to benefit in normal everyday situations because your flight, fight and freeze part of your brain is now on over drive, your hypothalamus is now stuck in hyper drive and your prefrontal cortex becomes neglected and undeveloped and in a contradicting to making you more intelligent now makes you less able to learn by constantly injecting stress hormones into your blood stream.”
“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.”
“The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the smaller the awakening. No doubt, no awakening.”
“The brain is a cultural organ— experience shapes the brain.”
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
"What we can witness at times is a tragic adaption: In an effort to shut off terrifying sensations, we also deaden our capacity to feel fully alive.”
“Knowing what we feel is the first step to knowing why we feel that way.”
“The moment we feel trapped, enraged, or rejected, we are vulnerable to activating old maps and to follow their directions. Change begins when we learn to ‘own’ our emotional brains.”
“Everything about us — our brains, our minds, and our bodies — is geared toward collaboration in social systems.”
“As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself…The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage.”
“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”
📱 What Company Has My Attention
“Mark Cuban is getting in on the audio and podcasting hype. Alongside co-founder Falon Fatemi, he’s planning to launch Fireside, a “next-gen podcast platform” that facilitates live conversation, according to an email sent to possible creator partners seen by The Verge. The app idea is similar to the buzzy live audio startup Clubhouse, except with the ability to natively record conversations. A source close to Fireside says the app plans to launch publicly this year.”
Check out this article for more info. Definitely a company to keep your eye on.
🎙️ What Podcast Episode Has Got Me Thinking
Aubrey Marcus Podcast - The Sound of Love w/ Vylana Marcus
Few notable quotes for me below:
“The thing that you love the least about yourself is the ceiling on your self love. Whatever that thing is that you judge is your limiting factor. You have to lift that to raise the universal bar of your self love. Start working on loving those things that you love the least.”
“Darkness is on the spectrum of light. Your lightest light is polarized by your deepest darkness.”
“Burning Man is radical self expression and acceptance. Everyone is going there in their eccentric way of being. No one is looking at anyone with judgement. What does my soul want to express. You can be completely free in this place and have people’s response be so much love. There are no constructs and no container that you have to be stuck in.”
“As humans we desire to apply our force—our work—to the maximum effect possible. Our mission is what we want that force to accomplish. While the meaning of life might be complicated, your mission in life should not be complicated. What are you, in this lifetime, on this planet, in this body, here to do? What do you want more than anything else?”
❤️ What Quote I Love
“Growth by nature is an evolving process. It is not something static that we can ‘master’ once and for all. Yet this is an illusion so often perpetuated by the self-help industry.
Life is constantly changing, constantly evolving, and so we need to learn how to ‘witness’ this change, to move skillfully with it, rather be ‘subject’ to the roller-coaster ride that change can sometimes bring about.”
- Andy Puddicombe
Rest of his article can be found here.