I landed in Greece a few days ago, and it’s subtly unlocking a lot for me. I’ll have more to reflect on next week, but for now I won’t overthink it. Instead, I think I’ll just party my face off (soberly) with my friends. I’m here for a Greek wedding with a number of my old fraternity brothers and “the whomp squad” — a group I attended concerts and festivals with when I lived in Raleigh. It’s a lot of fun to be with them again.
Opa! 🇬🇷
This is on the back of a really sweet trip to Konstanz and Switzerland while visiting a friend. I totally get the charm of the Swiss country side now — I mean wow!
🤯
According to my friend, you can tell how well cow is taken care of based on how afraid (or not afraid) it is of strangers.
In this moment I have the sensation of free-falling. Total trust, a feeling of weightlessness. The suspicion that I’m “missing something” — which has stalked me much of my life — is almost entirely gone, leaving me with a nicely surrendered mind.
After today I’ll be on my own again. My plan is not to have a plan — intuitively Couchsurfing and serendipitously encountering my way over to Portugal.
Anyways...I hope you enjoy this week's {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} Newsletter and have a beautiful Sunday, - Ethan ॐ
Ethan Hill Owner, Yoga with Ethan
Space is fundamental to healing
In all things, in all ways, in all realms — physical, energetic, mental, and spiritual — space is the sacred prerequisite for all transformation, growth, and evolution.
Consider that seeds cannot germinate without room between soil particles just as birds cannot soar without the currents of open air just as a flower cannot blossom in a closed fist.
Chemistry, too, is inert without the vacuous field between electrons just as sound cannot travel if air molecules have no room to vibrate just as suns are not birthed without space for gravitational collapse.
Even new identities require the demolition and clean up of old ones, creative ideas impossible while the mind is full, and wisdom stifled without pause between stimulus and response.
Again…in all things, in all ways, in all realms — physical, energetic, mental, and spiritual — space is needed.
Even more-so when it comes to mastering and making peace with your body, then. Blood cannot flow through clogged arteries, nor information through compacted neural pathways, nor light through closed eyes. Space is more than fundamental —life, movement, and healing simply do not exist without it.
Practice Step-by-step instructions to turn theory into healing.
Think of a crowded yacht being suddenly teleported into the sky and dropped. What would the scene look like? What would the people on the deck be saying (or screaming) to one another?
And how are you creating this scene?
From the mundane to the supernatural, thoughts are, at first glance, merely inner verbalizations and imaginations of the mind. They can be seen as a whole (i.e. the entire yacht scene) or in smaller segments (i.e. the individual words coming out of the mouths of passengers).
Through meditation, it is discovered that thoughts must be more than just this, though. After all, saying that ‘a thought is just a mental word or image’ is not answering anything — what even is a mental word or image?!
This question is much, much deeper than you may realize.
Consider what's happening as you read this. Presumably you're hearing these words aloud in your mind, almost as though spoken over an internal intercom. But how can you guarantee that my definitions of words match your definitions? When I write "yacht," do we both conjure the exact same image? When I say "fear," do we feel the exact same sensation?
Said differently, do words and thoughts contain meaning like a .zip file contains .pdfs? Or are thoughts just empty vessels that become meaningful only when filtered through a physical brain?
My answer next week.
Meditate Bite-sized audios to help you become the master of your mind.
“Humility is the beginning of true intelligence.” — John Calvin
The life you currently live can be attributed to your own intelligent design. The city you live in, the career you love to hate, the body you obsess over — these outcomes, and more, are the result of countless decisions you made along the way.
Ah, but how much of your intelligence can you truly take credit for? Did you design the neural networks that generate your thoughts? Do you consciously orchestrate the billions of calculations happening in your brain each second? Can you summon a flash of insight on-command?
Human intelligence, however impressive, operates within a system it neither created nor fully comprehends. Just as the eye cannot see itself, the mind cannot grasp the Greater Intelligence upon which it depends.
Ironically, then, the most intelligent response to Intelligence is humility. To tenderly surrender the desire to ‘be right’ before the mystery that thinks, creates, and knows through the brain.
Journal Contemplative questions on the nature of inner freedom.