Tag Archives: emotion

PROMPT: Won’t Live to Witness

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Daily writing prompt
What’s something you’d love to see in the future, but know you probably won’t live to witness?
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I would love to see an era in which AI and robotics frees up humans to work on the project of being better humans physically, mentally, creatively, emotionally, artistically, etc.

However, I suspect that on the way to that point there will be periods of dystopia, chaos, and quasi-Armageddon. As near as I can tell, it will involve the invention of a new form of economy (and possibly governance,) which I haven’t seen anyone discussing in the merited depths.

PROMPT: Quote

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Daily writing prompt
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
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“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.” – Mark Twain

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“What you imagine, you create.” – Siddhartha Guatama Buddha

All restatements of one key principle, that our [mental / emotional] experience of the world is an entirely separate thing from the world itself. The latter one has almost no control over, the former one can reach a state of complete control (granted through painstaking and relentless effort.)

PROMPT: Nervous

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What makes you nervous?
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Chemical interactions in (and between) my nervous, enteric nervous, and endocrine systems make me nervous.

Whiplash Weather [Free Verse]

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Photograph taken in Stepantsminda, Georgia of evergreens in the foreground and Mount Shani in the background.
Mountains are the
     Lamborghini of weather --
  from gray and dismal to
    gloriously sunny 
       and back again
           in record time. 
 It may rain and the droplets
   burn off before noon,
     leaving no trace of 
        the gloom.
  One day may feel
    multiple ways before 
      the sun goes down.

The human mind isn't
   built for such whiplash
      emotional experience.

Stump Gator [Kyōka]

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Photograph of a young alligator resting on a stump in the Louisiana bayou, near Slidell.
Gator rests on stump.
 but my mind cannot rest.
  it's not "gator"
 and "stump" in the same place,
 but in the same sentence.

The Fray [Lyric Poem]

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Rainy December day
 blows in - not long to stay.
   From season to season,
   without any reason,
 sometimes we feel the fray.

PROMPT: Pay More Attention

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What details of your life could you pay more attention to?

Mental states and somatic & emotional sensations. Sakshi Bhava is good stuff.

5 Books to Read If You Want to Live

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Taken on the Annapurna Sanctuary Trail in Nepal.

Over the years, I’ve read many books about survival in extreme or unexpected situations. Here are five of my favorites.

THE UNTHINKABLE by Amanda Ripley [Full Review]

What I like about this book: Ripley focuses heavily on the topic of mindset while exploring a wide range of survival situations from being stranded in a lifeboat to being in the Twin Towers on 9/11. It’s a fascinating – as well as educational – book.

SURVIVAL AT THE EXTREMES by Kenneth Kamler [Full Review]

What I like about this book: This book focuses on surviving in all the places humans are not adapted to, places where one cannot live for long without ongoing technological support. These places include Mt. Everest (with which the author has personal experience,) the ocean, and the harshest of deserts. Kamler is a medical doctor and the book, therefore, does a good job of explaining the limits of human physiology.

EXTREME FEAR by Jeff Wise [Full Review]

What I like about this book: Wise’s book examines how fear can work against us in challenging situations (e.g. causing one to freeze at the wrong time) and what methods have been developed to overcome such crippling or inappropriate fear responses. This book is not entirely about life-and-death survival, but it does have a lot to say that is relevant to the subject.

INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer [Full Review]

What I like about this book: This book is not like the others. There are no physical or mental techniques for survival described in it, nor discussions of physiology. Rather, it is an extremely well-written cautionary tale about a young man who goes out into the wilderness and gets in over his head. It is highly readable food-for-thought.

98.6 by Cody Lundin [Full Review]

What I like about this book: This is the closest thing to an actual survival manual on my list. But it’s written in conversational, folksy style that makes it easy to read, despite the daunting subject matter. As the title suggests, Lundin’s central premise is that one must keep the body burning at its appropriate temperature, or else…

PROMPT: Positive Emotion

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What positive emotion do you feel most often?
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Curiosity. I exist in a state of perpetual perplexity. For example, is curiosity an emotion? If so, is it a positive one? I know it includes a feeling that drives me to make a decision or take an action, which would be an emotion by definition. But I don’t see it on a list of emotions. I consider it positive, but I also try to avoid putting value judgements on all things. Maybe it’s neutral. Can an emotion be neutral?…