I've arrived at the end of Plastic Free July. It was a month that affected my life in meaningful ways. I've made it the whole month using very little plastic and I feel like I see the world differently. Recently, Ajahn Jayasaro used a metaphor that resonated with me: if you've lived in a dirty room your whole life, it's hard to forget a clean room if you see one. Seeing the abundance of plastic in the world has made the world feel a little bit like a dirty room and it has felt good to clean up the spaces I inhabit.
July 8, 2022
I woke up this morning and I saw something that annoyed me. I noticed almost immediately how unhelpful it was for me to be annoyed, which gave me a temporary sense of satisfaction. But I still went down the rabbit hole. The details are unimportant because I am sure all of us could easily relate: "How could that person possibly have made that choice? Don't they know how inconvenient their choice will be for me? Don't they know what I want?" I could just sense the anger bubbling over and I felt almost helpless.
July 2, 2022
We do lots of earth-friendly practices in our house, but in the past 24 hours or so, I have realized that I would like to be more mindful about my plastic use. I feel like I've gotten a little bit lazy. But it turns out July is the perfect month to start re-incorporating some of the practices that I used to do and reduce the amount of waste that I produce. There is a thing called Plastic Free July, and if my participation does even a little bit that leads to cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities then that feels it it would benefit my well-being as well as the well-being of the planet and other people.
June 27, 2022
In a recent episode on Hacking Culture I interviewed Stephanie Wagner from Healthy Minds Innovations about their Health Minds @Work program, "hacking the mind," and tools that cultivate and measure well-being. We discussed various critiques of workplace wellness programs and how Healthy Minds might be able to support your company or organization. This article explores a few of the topics we discussed.
June 21, 2022
In 2014 the United Nations General Assembly declared June 21 the "International Day of Yoga" and it has been celebrated annually on June 21 ever since. Because so many people around the world embraced yoga to stay healthy and fight social isolation during the pandemic, the theme for 2022 is "yoga for humanity." How can you not like a day that is literally for humanity (the most abundant and widespread species of primate on the planet)?
June 16, 2022
As part of GitHub's Maintainer Month, I'm co-organizing a session tomorrow (Friday, June 17, noon-1pm Central), titled "Burnout and Mental Health in Open Source," and you are invited!
May 25, 2022
You might wish you were more passionate about your job. Or that you had the kind of job you could at least imagine being passionate about. Something that made you jump out of bed in the morning, excited about a new day filled with fist pumps and joy.
But psychologists differentiate between two types of work-related passion – and they may not both appeal, even if you’re more than a little fed up with your current role.
May 23, 2022
Medieval monks had a terrible time concentrating. And concentration was their lifelong work! Their tech was obviously different from ours. But their anxiety about distraction was not. They complained about being overloaded with information, and about how, even once you finally settled on something to read, it was easy to get bored and turn to something else.
May 18, 2022
If you can't bring yourself to delete your social media accounts, a recent study shows that you might consider taking a social media break for just a week and see how it affects your well-being.
April 11, 2022
When we encounter difficulties in the pursuit of our most important goals, we must decide to either continue our pursuit or give up. These moments when we must make a choice are called "action crises." At these key points in our life, people make lists of pros and cons, talk to trusted friends and family, or perhaps carve out some time alone to just think. Another method for coping with goal-related difficulties is to practice body scan meditation.