For years, thought leaders and pop-psychologists have been telling us that gratitude is the long lost secret to happiness, success, harmonious relationships, wild sex, financial abundance, world peace, and the perfect brownie recipe with crispy edges and gooey middles. There’s even a bunch of quasi-compelling science to support gratitude’s transformational power. When I first startedRead More

Note: this is the second installment in a two-part series on getting out of a rut. The first part, which can be found here, is on emotional spring-cleaning. One subtle characteristic of being in a rut is that we become self-obsessed. We ruminate over the past and where we went wrong. We scornfully replay allRead More

Summer, 2018, during a brutal silent meditation retreat: It’s been two days since I’ve had significant human contact. Worse still, my thoughts are dominating me. There’s no corner of my mind that isn’t overrun by fears about work, love, loss, the past, the future, and… everything. I’ve given up attempting to sit still, and IRead More

Modernity is filled with false gods. How many of us have chased – and even achieved – success, only to find that it didn’t fill the void we hoped it would? How many times have we felt even more isolated after getting exactly what we thought we wanted? Of course, success isn’t the only falseRead More

Right now life feels particularly unstable. Long time readers know that I endured a decent amount of turbulence this year, and to the best of my ability, I used it as an invitation to build a better life. As I write, I’m raising capital for my next business and exploring a new relationship. I’ve also startedRead More

March 2018, Botanical Gardens, Denver, CO: C* has always been generous, kind, and loving. Two years ago, I did something very hurtful to him. I’ve never apologized, and we’ve never talked about it, even though I feel its weight every time we hang out. It’s not that I don’t want to apologize; I’m just afraid.Read More

Earlier this year: Going a day without crying feels like an accomplishment. Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched many things I cherish fall apart: I found out that one of my projects was in copyright violation and had to deal with a bunch of lawyers to sort everything out. A business partner of severalRead More

In my current phase of life, I find myself searching for next steps and trying to stay open to new possibilities. When I mention this to people, many urge me to “dream big,” or something along those lines. I realize that “dreaming big” means different things to different people. To me and my circle ofRead More