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Wellsbaum.blog

Writing about life and arts

  • Rightsizing life

    November 19th, 2022

    The reduction of ambition rightsizes one’s life. All of a sudden, those magnetic forces, trophies, hefty pocket books, and rich attractions lose their lure.

    All the stylization and mimetic desire mean little. The sheep collective drown in the waterfall of white fountains. What matters is cultivating a satisfaction with fomo that becomes intrinsic.

    The reward for sitting out or slowing down, being a bit more tortoisey and less harish, is the crunch on speed and desire. The iron fist of action, which radicalizes and tries to reward effort, hath no fury at the onset of patience.

    We enjoy the problem of idleness because there is no answer, no reward. Doing and creating nothing anneals the brain toward more mindful patterns.

    So we take the foot off the gas and just float.

  • The visionary compass

    October 17th, 2022
    The visionary compass

    To be interesting, we have to be interested, that is, an atypical perspective discovers atypicality in our surroundings.

    Different is a way of seeing. But it doesn’t come naturally, it flows through some mental defect, which, if lacking, takes some pre-programming to tilt the visionary compass.

    Taste is grown and groomed by shapeshifting through variegated sources. Adopting a different sound and culture in near intimacy temporarily relieves one from the obstinacy of local.

    Parochialists wear blinders, perhaps on purpose, as if to say any other religion is inherently wrong. They favor a world of deliberate ignorance painted into concreteness. Are they to blame for their stagnant internal weather and intolerance for abstraction?

    Water chooses water and, when unrestricted, becomes an obstacle to itself. Water needs an aim. “Water the flowers, not the weeds,” as the Buddhist monk Thich Nhan Hanh reminds us.

    Expanding the scope of attention offers the right stuff. By tuning into and sucking their surroundings, organically and/or purposively for self-growth, the curious benefit from their high-alert state.

    Content synthesizers grasp the duality of the dialectic. As Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

    Paradoxes are linked with knowledge and understanding, giving open minds the upper hand.

  • A catalog of emotions

    October 3rd, 2022
    A catalog of emotions

    We live with a catalog of emotions, whipsawing between highs and lows. Most of the undulation is due to poor internal weather.

    We are not neutral, pushed inside and outside by competing forces. One minute we’re a lover of rule-breakers with scrupulous indifference; the next, we’re just another lemming, a sheep jumping through hoops.

    We don’t aim for mediocrity. We shoot for the range of emotion — that long-term serotonin of being ourselves.

    What individuates the individual is the armor of absurdity. Uniqueness treads underrated, and brilliance shines at the edges. We stand in to stand out — dialectic reflections reinforce the true self, that which is original.

    Everyone’s brain comes uniquely hardwired; the difference is what one decides to shed versus the flawed attributes one decides to radically accept. Under the delusion of reprieve, those confused and jealous never get bailed out.

    Divergent thinking offers a sanctuary, sheltered from the periphery’s fabricated emotions. Never take anything personally from society’s grip — the standard is injurious and little more than noise. Other people’s thoughts and feelings, albeit sticky, remain detached from the Personal Legend that makes us stretch.

  • Together as spiritual completeness

    September 26th, 2022
    Together as spiritual completeness

    It is human desire to share. It is also human desire to compete. The two — cooperation and competition — bleed into each other to test human resolve.

    One excels in their particular field to consume another’s comparative advantage. As soon as those walls close down, trouble is lit. Every man for himself, absolute freedom, begets pure paralyzing chaos.

    So we invent realities, make laws and pacts, and develop a socio-economic hierarchy. We drink the liquid of tacit agreement, a mere human perception.

    The fear of breaking the bond threatens the tissues that hold everything together. On the whole, we prefer to bathe in a murmuration of order rather than concede to germs. What the hell is going on?

    As products of our environment, we seek spiritual completeness. We need inner peace to focus on what matters to us: our families, work, hobbies, etc.

    Of course, life is not linear. Relapses, and dips, are expected. Some exposure to vulnerability keeps things alive. Yet, some spend their whole lives trying to master the self, breakable at a moment’s notice.

    The paradox of stress is long-term durability. Constrictions stretch our zones of comfort. Power concentrates around the individual but dedicates itself to the mirror of others.

    Despite our differences and quirks, working together is a form of art.

  • Under the trained eye

    September 19th, 2022
    Under the trained eye

    The eye works as a paintbrush, coloring the world with a palette of vitality. Unfortunately, the constant bombardment of external stimuli torpedoes our attention, bankrupting what’s interesting.

    After all, the attention merchants plant eye candy and other UX wiles to captivate us and throw us into a ludic loop. But we can see our way through the artifice to avoid the delusion of our times. It’s not what we see but how we digest information, ignore the fodder, and redirect our focus on what’s important.

    We desire a special kind of perception that is not soupy. One can’t see the forest for the trees without seeing several things jointly — how the individual parts connect, clash, and blur.

    There is a well-intended space between the notes and poignancy at the edges, swaddling us into their spell. Hence the importance of resetting the dopamine balance to get us off the leash of commercial thought.

    Cognizant of the psychological nudge, we refuse to let the marketers smuggle distractions into our heads. We probe carefully, create life intentionally, and exhaustively test any overprescribed vision.

    The best way to goad the eye into visibility is through wide-eyed observation, to balance out that which conflicts or permeates a particular view. Under the trained eye, we latch onto a artful perception with the greatest wonder to avoid living someone else’s story.

  • A mind run riot

    September 12th, 2022
    A mind run riot

    Creativity occurs when the imagination runs riot. The mind, an inherently jumpy organ, delves into its own fruitful space — probing fantastic and experiential possibilities.

    Truth is not the matter. Searching for what’s real and pure invention harbor the same goal: to pile up ideas. So we write a shitty rough draft or build a prototype to drive the concept forward, all in the name of the affirmative.

    But making time to focus and start the work is only half of the job. Maintenance is the biggest challenge. What sustains mental and physical energy for any great project is a crazy assertion of persistence.

    All else flows when we make up our minds to show up, practice, and ship daily. Process — the groove of habit — fuels a numbness against anxiety, doubt, and fear. “This may not work” is a reason to keep going.

    The arteries of life hinge on what we can create, let go and transform—action gestures at such possibility. Instinct puts us in the best position. We keep running the experiment, vaccuming up and spilling out alpha, freshly windexing perspective with effort, experience, and time.

  • Inseparable opposites

    August 29th, 2022
    Inseparable opposites

    We’re always in the middle of fictional thinking — vacillating between what we’d like to do versus what we’re scared to do. Utopia and dystopia keep us on our toes before we filter for the truth. 

    We’re also paradoxical role-players — toggling between obedience and standing out depending on our internal weather. Authenticity often remains the most hidden. 

    The life process is replete with ups and downs, the yin and yang, sinking and then floating again. We move firm in one direction, only for the opposite to have its day. But “The Way taken as the way cannot be the Way that is always taken,” as the Dao-de-jing reminds us. 

    The dialectic likes to shock and prevent the mind from life’s fullness. Upfront and honest, practicing the art of negativity is to skip the myopic bullshit and embrace the agony of risk, including what typically follows: disappointment and underachievement before succumbing to the pitfalls of ennui. 

    “Everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance,” Kurt Vonnegut’s aphorism remains sharper than ever. Consistency is burdensome and complicated and vigorously attacked by mixed psychology. Real-life gains navigate the muddy opposites: chaos and certainty, tension and relaxation, excitement and exhaustion, security and freedom, all of which have their moments and days. 

    All things exist as well-defined problems yet remain mystical as inseparable opposites. 

  • The spotlight of attention

    August 22nd, 2022
    The spotlight of attention

    Willpower rests on the brain’s set point for pleasure. Get used to indulging doses of dopamine, and the mind goes numb to any lack of stimulation.

    Redirecting the spotlight of attention enforces a deliberate curb on the amygdala’s hijackings. Overriding how we feel is at the core of managing life’s compass. When we’re under control, there is no fight nor flight, only stillness of thought before taking purposeful action.

    Analysis need not be paralysis; rumination need not beget catastrophe. The gears eventually unstick from loops of doom.

    We can’t understand the anxieties of the present without understanding what caused the trauma of the past. When the going gets tough, we draw on experience and competence to accommodate the nakedness of confusion.

    Being mindful is not just a suspension of judgment but the pursuit of discomfort. Reality bites, and it never makes an identical shape twice. There are always new challenges posed to the human mind, requiring we pay attention differently.

    The attention habit of consciousness determines the design of aliveness. The inner narrative is the artist now, and it embraces our story before animating onto the canvass of the external world.

  • In the spell of imagination

    August 15th, 2022
    In the spell of imagination

    To remain in the spell, unmoored from the compass of time and place. The inner narrative reverberates off our surroundings. We become how we see, think, and respond.

    The mind is always in the process of masticating the materials to prepare the imagination for lift-off. Moon shots take their shape at the precipice of unfettered possibility.

    The fact is, reality is pretty dull. Voluntary dreaming allows the brain’s resources to flow freely and productively against the mental trap of what’s “reasonable.”

    Riding the wave of creativity helps one tap into spontaneous ingenuity. All is food for thought.

    After conjuring a story with clarity and detail, the subconscious decides whether or not the fantasy sticks. Intuitively, the mind leans toward the edge to gather the most compelling stuff, the string worth keeping.

    The optimist says that we can match what we’re seeing with what we say. As long as we sit down and do our thinking, we can describe what we see with our august imagination,

    The underlying cause of boredom and stuckness is in our heads. The magic is sitting down and working out the cognitive muscles to reignite those powerful stories repeatedly.

  • Writing takes guts

    August 8th, 2022
    Writing takes guts

    Writing is a bitch. It takes routine, grit, and lots of induced anxiety to show up every day and put pen for paper. There’s a reason few do it: it’s depressing.

    But for those who do, like runners, consistency means everything. Putting words together is like jogging the brain; working on prose keeps the artist one step away from lunacy.

    Writing, as in life, is a rough draft. Remaining wide-eyed in an uncontrollable universe, we dare to make new mistakes.

    The scribe is on a mission of discomfort, but the outpouring of ink is a form of therapy. Each blank piece of paper begins without a plan — well, maybe a hunch — and then, slow and steady, the words fill the page with imperfection and uncertainty. Bird by bird, the continuous present churns the valve of frustration.

    Writing is an extension of breathing — an activity for sweating creativity. Surrender to it and get a share of its spoils.

    No one is more insane than the person who opts for the struggle. But that’s what a true writer does. They sit in a chair and produce something from nothing, and interruptions are damned if not welcomed to break the deliberate intensity. The most challenging part of the writing process is getting started.

    “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open,” advises Stephen King. Writing is an invention on screen. Stare into the light long enough, and the letters jumble into pixels of starlings. Blink, and the brain momentarily goes into a fog; any words will do. Even in the poorest form, one still has something to play with.

    The artists grows tired and unmotivated, of course. The dark clouds hang over the pen with the slightest silver lining. The resistance tries to pickpocket our attention by telling us we suck and that the sentences are worthless. Just buy bitcoin and work at Mcdonald’s, they said. How selfish is it to think other people care about what we have to say, anyway?

    The words greet those bold enough to wrestle with them. But when one’s called to their vocation, they’re roped in — to the odd, banal, abstract, empty, and off limits. Invested is an understatement.

  • Memes are a hurricane of influence

    August 1st, 2022
    Memes are a hurricane of influence

    A meme is a hurricane of influence. It finds a human host, a signal booster, who spreads the meme before it takes on a life of its own.

    Historically, words are the simplest of memes, necessitating a language of thought. But most memes today are visual concepts manifested in viral images shared on social media.

    These images might be misunderstood — birthed from snarky Redditors before they become part of the online zeitgeist. The most transmissible, like human genes, are the ones that reproduce.

    Memes, like any mimetic behavior, are less essential for thought. These contagious representations celebrate culture but bankrupt it too. Here, the adage rings true: images speak louder than words.

    Reveling in the same memes standardizes how we dance, which is usually unique and personal. The psychological elements of herd mentality create a flurry of uncreative behavior.

    The hive mind synchronizes with a remixed version of the internet’s infinite archives until originality loses its course. What’s viral rarely retains or sustains.

    Memes offer a special kind of amassed perception, a snapshot of culture, without supplying something vital in return. We want to pursue things that are different and extend our learning. For that, we deviate toward what is radical and what is possible.

  • The bright rush of ideas

    July 26th, 2022
    The bright rush of ideas

    Where do good ideas come from, and how do they form? They come from extensive research bolstered by the ability to connect the dots between knowledge and different experiences.

    Good ideas form through time, osmosis, long walks, boredom, and the misheard; a fruitful combination of work, rest, and fearless play.

    Maintaining curiosity motivates part of the unconscious; quieting the monkey mind delivers interesting ideas that err on openness and possibility. It is ignorance, like indifference, that portends a slow grind downward.

    Not everyone cares about learning or showing compassion. Most people seek entertainment, amusing themselves to death. They seek minus knowledge and construct a self-narrative dependent on suppressing emotions. What they don’t know bars the synchronicities, making them “stronger.” In reality, they are less than average.

    First-class minds, however, are prepared to confront their stupidity and adopt the perspectives of others so they can see the other side.

    Only when people realize that there’s a solution for insouciance and stuckness — called EFFORT — is it too late. To remain active in imagination and love is to stay wide awake. People need each other because they need ideas.

    We wield the baton and conduct our senses, coloring the world with our eyes. Immersion constitutes a sense of self, making all the difference in discovering the bright chunks of ideas waiting to emerge.

    Awareness is a kind of anti-paralysis, liberating over-thinkers from the tyranny of thought and providing them a passport to freedom.

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