Shots of awe

It’s About Time! Another Jason Silva Sunday

This is a new Shots of Awe where Jason rants on risk, creativity and failure.

Most people shy away from ranting on failure but I happen to believe, like my buddy Jason here, that it’s extremely rant worthy.

A while back I even wrote failure a love letter.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/my-love-letter-to-failure_b_8198096.html

I wrote it because I truly believe that failure has taught me SO much more than success—and sometimes late at night, after a glass of wine or four, I write love letters that are really only rants on paper.
I do.
Look for yours in the mail.

Carry on,
xox

Paradise Engineering —A Jason Silva Saturday

“Our self-systems are like leaky buckets. No matter how much pleasure we’re getting, we’re bleeding from our many holes” – Jamie Weil

There’s something I never really gave any thought to:  While human beings are wired for pleasure, sadly, we are incapable of collecting and stockpiling joy?

No one can argue that we are experts at doing that with fear and anxiety. It seems as if humans are hardwired to hoard all of those bottom feeding emotions. Collecting them in the storage unit parts of our brains that we visit much too often.

When something good happens I always say to my friends, “Wow! I’m going to live off the fumes of THIS for a while!” Because I have to remind myself to do that.
To inhale deeply while it lasts.
Because…Fumes!

The joy leaves only fumes while the shit sticks. It sets up camp inside my narrative complete with a big old tent, a canoe, some jet skis, a generator, and a box of graham crackers.

Am I right?

In other words, after a peak experience, we as realists go right back to chopping wood, carrying water.

“After the ecstasy, the laundry.” ~ Puritan mindset

Shouldn’t we try and change that? I think so. So does Jason. Take a quick listen.

Carry on,
xox

Jason Silva On Grace

“Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it” – Simone Weil

Enjoy you weekend everyone!

xox

The Mystical Experience ~ Another Jason Silva Sunday

Hey there fellow seekers,
Listen, we’re all seeking enlightenment in our own way. Right? Whether through meditation, tantric sex, or the most transcendent piece of salted dark chocolate. But what about mystical experiences? Do they count?

My answer to that is a big, fat, YES!
And they’re easier to come by. 😉

Witnessing the birth of a baby.
Holding a loved one’s hand as they die.
Completing a triathlon.
Listening to opera music.

For me, it happened while I was listening to the perfect piece of music while riding a perfect road, on a cloudless day that was the perfect temperature, on the back of our motorcycle—on the way to a sumptuous lunch—in Lucca, Italy. I have to admit, I cried a little.

According to Jason, “A Mystical experience is an encounter with transcendence.”
It includes but is not limited to:

Feelings of cosmic unity. Interconnectedness.

A mind free of all boundaries.

A feeling of ecstasy.

Feelings of being in the presence of something sacred.

An experience beyond language.

Multiple paradoxes. Understanding the unexplainable.

Feelings of being forever changed by a finite experience.

It holds the understanding of a deeper meaning.

So pay attention this weekend, because a mystical experience can happen to you when you least expect it.
Carry on,
xox

How We See Ourselves Through The Eyes Of Others ~ Another Jason Silva Sunday

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.” – Chuck Palahniuk

Finding Balance Between Now And The Future ~ A Jason Silva Sunday

“What if your intuition was your future informing your present?”
~ Me

Another Jason Silva Sunday

“The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.” ― Charlotte Brontë

The Epiphany Of A Kiss ~ A Jason Silva Saturday

 

The best part of this video is watching Jason giggle like an eight year old boy and then break into some Latin (like you do), while discussing The Kiss.

So, tell me, why do people kiss each other? Haven’t you asked yourself that question?
I have.

I remember a long time ago reading somewhere, I think relating to Kabbalah (an ancient and mystical form of Judaism), the high regard with which they held a kiss. They consider it a sacred act. It is an act so intimate that you are virtually “sharing” the breath of another person.

Knowing that marked me.

Today, the most widely accepted theory of kissing is that we humans do it because it helps us sniff out a quality mate. When our faces are close together, our pheromones “talk” – exchanging biological information about whether or not two people will make strong offspring.

Well, that’s just not sexy.

Here are some other fun facts I found:

Do any other animals kiss?
Save for the bonobos that suck on each other’s tongues for up to ten minutes at a time, there aren’t any animals that kiss. And are we really going to count a tongue-suck as a kiss anyway? Somehow, humans are actually the only species to kiss on the mouth, and the meanings of a kiss are plentiful.

Why do they call it a French kiss?
The term ‘French kiss’ – once also called a ‘Florentine kiss’ – is popularly considered to have been brought back to the English-speaking world by soldiers returning from Europe after World War I. At the time, the French had a reputation for more adventurous sexual practices, and so it happened that these soldiers returned to their sweethearts with some newly acquired “skills”.

That being said, with decades of dating under my belt, I became a bit of a connoisseur regarding kissing. There is a Goldilocks zone where kissing is concerned. I’m sure you’ll all agree with me on the fact that a bad kisser can kill even the best chemistry.

No tight, dry “butt pucker” lips.

No overly moist delivery that makes you want to wipe your face with the sleeve of your jacket.

No wide open “shark mouth” where your teeth bang together.

And my least favorite, the wild tongue thrusting where it feels like they’re looking for their car keys somewhere around your tonsils.

Ah, the kiss. Done well it makes me giggle and speak Latin too—how about you?

Carry on,
xox

Can We Change The Past? ~ A Jason Silva Sunday

“The past is never where you think you left it.” – Katherine Anne Porter

Time.

Time as a fluid nonlinear happening-all-at-the-same-time slippery little bugger that I’ve been attempting to wrap my brain around lately.

Does your future inform your past?

Can we change our past?

Can we? Can I go back and make better choices in clothing and in men?

Mind…blown.

What does Jason think? What do you think?

Carry on,
xox

What Is Wonderment ~ Another Jason Silva Sunday



“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” – Socrates.

Oh, how I wish I could bottle this man’s enthusiasm!

Enjoy your weekend of wonderment!

xox

Hi, I’m Janet

Mentor. Pirate. Dropper of F-bombs.

This is where I write about my version of life. My stories. Told in my own words.

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