Mindful Matter
Love is all we need.
"So long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy." What if it really is that simple? Dalai Lama XIV famously shared a vision of how love and compassion can lead to happiness: “We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received wisdom. But we cannot escape the
Learn moreDrum lessons.
A couple years ago, I decided I wanted to learn an instrument. I was between guitar (mostly for its accessibility and size) and drums (what I was most interested in — except that I was worried about the noise and storage). Then, through a series of random events, I found myself gifted a five-piece drum set. Then, a former punk rock drummer walked into our Brooklyn office
Learn moreNamaste.
I just want to pause and take a moment for this word. Namaste. Chances are you have heard the word at yoga, in talks, through meditations. I feel like I hear it all the time — so much so that I forget to think about what it really means. A yoga teacher explained it to me as:
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Thinking broadly and deeply.
In my work, I can be both solutions-oriented and obsessed with the details. Often this can be a good thing. But sometimes, I find that this approach is way too limiting. Let me give you an example. When I run into a problem, here is how my internal dialogue usually goes: “Oh, shoot there is a problem.” “Hmm. Ok, wait, I think we can solve it by using this tool.” “Ok, and this is how technically that tool would work for this situation and how we would implement it.” The problem is that in my haste to solve the obvious problem, I can
Learn moreAn experiment.
Today we want to try an experiment. The last two days, we talked a lot about gratitude. Today, we want to take action. Thank someone for something you never thanked them for before. Express gratitude for what they did, and share how that action had an impact on you. You can even simply thank them for who they are and what they bring to the world. If the thought of randomly contacting this person out of the blue with a message of gratitude makes you
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Grateful in every moment.
Recently we shared this idea from Brother David Steindl-Rast idea: “So it is not happiness that makes us grateful. It's gratefulness that makes us happy.” - Brother David Steindl-Rast In his famous TED Talk, continues... “Does that mean that we can be grateful for everything? Certainly not. We cannot be grateful for violence, for war, for oppression, for exploitation. On the personal level, we cannot be grateful for the loss of a friend, for unfaithfulness, for bereavement. But I didn't say we can be grateful for everything. I said we can be grateful in every given moment…” A great distinction. It is not that we need to be grateful for everything. But every single moment has something that we can give thanks for, if we open ourselves up to it. Our breath — which reminds us that we have the opportunity to be here and be present — is a perfect example. Practice gratitude with every breath. Mike and Dave RadparvarCo-Founders, Holstee
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Fear is not real.
Last night, I went to my wife’s friend’s girlfriend’s birthday celebration. I was a little anxious about going. It can take me a while to feel like myself around new people, and I often find it hard to connect with people during brief encounters at parties. However, I’m thrilled I went because I met Raymond. He was one of the first people
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It's all related.
"Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be..." In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., was sentenced to time in a Birmingham, Alabama, jail for participating in non-violent civil rights demonstrations. From the confines of his cell, he wrote these
Learn moreTimes they are a changin’...
Artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, virtual reality, neural networks, cryptocurrencies — these developments (and others) are going to have a massive impact on the way we live, work, earn, and spend money. It is expected that we will live longer, but also that much of our work will be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence. And concepts like
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