Last year, I travelled through Southeast Asia for eight months. Before that, I quit my full-time, stable teaching job in a specialist secure unit. On paper, it was sensible employment: regular income, structure, pension, routine. In reality, I felt trapped in a groundhog-day version of life. Something in me had reached a point of quiet… Read more: Is Long-Term Travel as Amazing as People Say?

My First Yoga Class I first came into contact with yoga approximately six years ago, when I was working as a tutor in one of the specialist secure units in the UK. During Enrichment Week, when we did not have to deliver standard education, we invited Natalie, a yoga teacher, to deliver a session for… Read more: How Yoga Changed My Life: From Stress and Trauma to Healing

Today I was cooking rice. Nothing spectacular or glamorous. Nothing grand. Just rice — that humble staple food item that sits quietly in a pan, pretending not to be capable of rebellion. Then the rice water escaped. It bubbled up, lifted the lid, spilled over the edge of the pan and spread itself across my… Read more: From Irritation to Inspiration: The Art of Eccentricizing Everyday Mess

An unconventional but powerful way to reclaim your inner weather, stop overthinking, and turn emotional disturbance into comedy. I am sure you have experienced a situation in your life when someone enters your consciousness and starts to change the colour of your thoughts, or affect your inner weather. Let’s say you go to the gym… Read more: How to Stop Obsessing Over Someone by Turning Them into Satire?

Many creatives try to unlock their potential through pressure. They sit at the desk as if reporting to a strict invisible manager. They demand ideas. They demand discipline and structure. They demand originality immediately. And then, very unsurprisingly, nothing significant arrives. For years, I thought creativity required structure, self-discipline, deep focus, intensity, and possibly a… Read more: Creativity Does Not Work Under Pressure

Most people are not born average. Children come into the world strange, intense, theatrical, obsessive, imaginative and excessive. They ask unsettling questions. They want to wear bizarre outfits. They become fascinated by obscure things. They invent magical worlds and identities with almost alarming confidence. Individuality is initially natural. Then socialization begins. School rewards compliance more… Read more: Why Most People Choose Mediocrity?

This morning began in a strangely symbolic way. I woke up at 7:00 a.m., earlier than usual, and sat down to write my Morning Pages. My mind felt unusually clear, almost suspended between sleep and wakefulness, as though something deeper was trying to surface. Lately, I have been reflecting on a metaphor that keeps returning… Read more: A Shore I Cannot Yet See

The longer I live in this society, the more often I notice that the system does not want people to be happy. On the opposite, the system wants people to stay unhappy. The system wants people to be stuck in 9-5 boxes, to be stuck in unhappy relationships, to eat crappy food, to be broke,… Read more: The system does not want you to be happy, wealthy and free