Blick über den Tellerrand #14
What you need to do is become paralyzed with fear. If you aren’t paralyzed, you aren’t going far enough. If you don’t feel yourself being avoidant, you’re probably settling. This is normal. Your brain wants you to be safe. Your body is built to procreate and die, not thrive. Naturally, facing pain will feel horrible and unnatural. It can’t be any other way. It feels like a threat, and threats must be stopped. In order to get anywhere in life, you need to be uncomfortable constantly.
(Julien Smith: How to tell if you’re doing your life’s work)
If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea. You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone. Life is like that.
(Thich Nhat Hanh: The Tea Ceremony)
Ich hatte Angst, dass ich auf den Tisch hauen muss. Aber dann hat sich gezeigt, dass ich mit meiner harmoniesüchtigen, stillen Art auch Erfolg haben kann. Vielleicht sogar mehr, als wenn ich laut wäre.
(Susan Cain im Spiegel-Interview: ‘Wir sind keine Ameisen’)
We teach kids in group classrooms not because this is the best way to learn but because it’s cost-efficient, and what else would we do with the children while all the grown-ups are at work? If your child prefers to work autonomously and socialize one-on-one, there’s nothing wrong with her; she just happens not to fit the model.
(Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts)
You can be a minimalist anywhere, because it is a mindset. We are influenced by our environment, but we also create our environment, and we always have a choice. You can slow down, be content with little, and value doing and being over buying.
(Leo Babauta: a minimalist in NYC)
Being cool was important to me. It mattered. I had to have the perfect clothes with the right logos. I had to have my shiny Lexus with the tan leather interior and in-dash navigation system. I had to have those stainless steel appliances and hardwood floors and modern furniture and all the trappings promulgated by our heavily mediated culture.
(The Minimalists: Ending the Tyranny of Cool)
So, why are we so bothered with labels? The rub seems to be when we give too much meaning to our labels. You see, you’re not only a black woman or a tall man or an ill person or an agoraphobic kleptomaniac. You are so much more. You are thousands of labels at once, and that is OK. Labeling is just the start in the process of better understanding someone or something.
(The Minimalists: Labels Are Necessary)
I could hold on to her memories without her stuff, just as she had always remembered me and my childhood and all of our memories without ever accesses those sealed boxes under her bed. She didn’t need papers from twenty-five years ago to remember me, just as I didn’t need a storage locker filled with her stuff to remember her.
(The Minimalists: Letting Go of Sentimental Items)
Ich habe ständig 170 Prozent gegeben, immer bis zum Anschlag. Und oftmals auch darüber hinaus. Ohne Rücksicht darauf, was alles auf der Strecke bleibt. Und warum? Weil ich Anerkennung von Anderen wollte und keine andere Methode kannte, Anerkennung zu bekommen außer über meine Leistungen.
(Ralph Goldschmidt: Eine Frage, eine Antwort: Selbstakzeptanz)
The decision to start washing my dishes by hand was begun as just an experiment based on this zen story of washing your bowl that I decided to apply literally. It was a practice in mindfulness that was intended to last 1 month… that was 8 months ago.
(Joshua Becker: 10 Reasons to NOT Use Your Dishwasher)
In fact, deciding to intentionally live with less is among the best decisions I have made in my life. As a result of paring down most of our possessions and determining to only buy things that are needed, we have found life greatly improved. We have more time, energy, and money available to us than ever before… we have more opportunity to pursue the greatest passions in life… we spend less time cleaning, organizing, and repairing the “stuff” in our lives… we have been forced to intentionally redefine our values… and rather than chasing every new product or fashion line sold at the department store, we are finally able to invest into the things that make our lives worthwhile and significant.
(Joshua Becker: A Practical Solution to (Almost) All Your Money Problems)
Die Psychologin Elaine Aron bricht eine Lanze für „Highly Sensitive Persons” – für Menschen, die auf ihre Umwelt besonders sensible reagieren und deshalb oft zur Überreizung neigen. Zwar braucht jede Gesellschaft feinfühlige Menschen, aber die Empfindsamen sehen sich immer mehr an den Rand gedrängt.
(Wolfgang Streitbörger: Die Supersensiblen – eine übersehene Minderheit?)
For some, 2 weeks of vacation a year is enough for them to satiate their travel lust. For others, 2 weeks is just a teasing drop out of a vast pool that is their fervent thirst and desire to be on the road, in the air, on the water, on the tracks. Two weeks simply isn’t enough. This essay is for those latter folks who want to make world travel a lifestyle. Make what you will of this and know this one fact: ultimately, you are your only barrier.
(Nina Yau: How to Leave Your Home Country and Travel the World)
Was sind hochsensible Menschen? Zunächst einmal handelt es sich um ca. 15% der Bevölkerung, die sich dadurch auszeichnen, daß sie wesentlich empfindlicher auf Reize reagieren, als der Rest der Bevölkerung. (…) Verantwortlich dafür ist eine sensitivere Wahrnehmung. Hochsensible Menschen nehmen Reize deutlich früher und deutlich intensiver wahr. Das kann sich auf Geräusche, Gerüche, Temperatur, optische Eindrücke und nicht zuletzt auch Stimmungen, die der eigenen Person und die anderer Personen, beziehen.
(Jan Karbowiak: Hochsensibiliät – eine Einführung — offline)