“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.”
– Seneca

“My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes; most of which never happened.”
– Michel de Montaigne

“A rock thrown in the air. It loses nothing by coming down, gained nothing by going up.”
– Marcus Aurelius

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
– Aristotle

“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
– Seneca

“We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.”
– Seneca

“Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?”
– Epicurus

The cost of sanity in this society, is a certain level of alienation.
– Terence McKenna

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
– Aesop

It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
– Seneca

Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise.
– Zen proverb

Zhuangzi was one of China’s greatest thinkers. His ancient parables are legendary, designed to free you from society’s damaging constraints and recover your natural spontaneity. Sounds great, but can Zhuangzi’s ancient stories help us find freedom in our modern, complex lives?…

Zhuangzi Illustrated! C.C Tsai’s Way of Nature is now available in English. Available now (Amazon affiliate link supports the work that I’m doing ☺️):
US: https://amzn.to/35T6ho6 UK: https://amzn.to/376Lyxf Canada: https://amzn.to/2Slrins

Professor Edward Slingerland’s Trying Not to Try
Essential reading for understanding Wu-Wei and how to cultivate spontaneity in your life:
https://amzn.to/2EJuG3m
Professor Slingerland’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slingerland3/

You have just completed assessing yourself with 100 phrases. Our systems have compared your-self-ratings to those of thousands of other people. You are being compared to men and women of all ages. This means that if you are young, your scores on neuroticism will be higher and on agreeableness and conscientiousness will be lower than if you were compared to people of your own age (with the reverse being true for older individuals). For men, their scores on agreeableness and on neuroticism will be lower than if they were just being compared to men. We decided to make the comparisons simple, so that you know where you stand in comparison to the typical person (with age and sex regarded as irrelevant).

The Meditations, by a Roman emperor who died in a plague named after him, has much to say about how to face fear, pain, anxiety and loss.

A great article from Donald Robertson, published by The Guardian:

Stoicism in the Time of Pandemic

“Some day my prince will come.…” Good old Walt Disney. Well, that may have worked out for Snow White. Back here on Earth, it’s a recipe for disappointment. In flesh-and-blood life, waiting for “some day” is no strategy for success, it’s a cop-out. What’s more, it’s one that the majority follow their whole lives. Someday, when my ship comes in … Someday, when I have the money … Someday, when I have the time … Someday, when I have the skill … Someday, when I have the confidence … How many of those statements have you said to yourself? Have I got some sobering news for you: “some day” doesn’t exist, never has, and never will. There is no “some day.” There’s only today. When tomorrow comes, it will be another today; so will the next day. They all will. There is never anything but today.”
– Jeff Olson, The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness

Agreeable/Assertive

Select Relevant Items

Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

• Avoid conflict even when it is necessary
• Find myself making excuses for other’s inappropriate behavior
• Cannot negotiate for myself very well
• Will sacrifice my own feelings for the comfort of others
• Can bottle up my feelings until I become resentful
• Can be overly sentimental
• Am polite to a fault
• Feel sorry for people who may not deserve it
• Find myself too upset after I have a conflict with someone
• Would probably help me if I could be more competitive
• Am sometimes dominated by other people
• Don’t know how to deal with mean people
• Trust people too easily
• Find myself believing that people are basically good, even when there is evidence to the contrary
• Am loyal to a fault
• Have a hot temper
• Can be indifferent to the feelings of others
• Am not interested in other people’s problems
• Am too suspicious of other people’s motives
• Will charm people to get my way
• Can be detached and cold when others are hurt and upset
• Am quite critical of others
• Don’t generally show gratitude
• Can be vengeful
• Am willing to manipulate others for personal gain
• Infrequently help others
• Insult people
• Can be aggressive and domineering
• Tend to always put myself first
• Could be better at cooperating

Emotional Stability/Low Stress Tolerance

Select Relevant Items

Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

• Am sometimes not afraid of things I should be afraid of
• Have found myself in dangerous situations because I was not paying attention
• Might have done fewer stupid things if I felt shame more often
• Things that should bother me don’t seem to
• Am easy-going to a fault
• Sometimes think if I was more worried about things I might do better in life
• Don’t appear to learn as well from my mistakes as others do
• Can do careless or inappropriate things without seeming to experience guilt
• Don’t worry about things that should bother me
• Don’t pay enough attention to costs and potential future dangers
• Am sometimes too calm about things
• Am often too optimistic
• Criticism, even when warranted, does not seem to affect me
• Often take counterproductive or unnecessary risks
• Do not seem to benefit from negative feedback
• Am easily disturbed and upset
• Am frequently irritable or angry
• Am too moody and emotionally unstable
• Am too self-conscious for my own good
• Blow little things out of proportion
• Feel ashamed of my body
• Feel hurt often, even by little things
• Feel inadequate when introduced to new people
• Feel too fearful, afraid and anxious
• Compare myself unfavorably to other people
• Get stressed out easily
• Grumble and complain about things
• Have a hard time calming down after becoming upset
• Let my fears stop me from doing things I want to do
• Often feel depressed and blue

Conscientiousness/Carelessness

Select Relevant Items

Please select habits that apply to you. You can select up to 10 habits, and are required to select at least 2. Be over-inclusive. Don’t worry if some of the bad habit descriptions do not really apply, as you will get to specify the most typical habits later, when you make your final fault selection, prior to writing.

• Am too perfectionistic
• Get obsessed with details and lose the big picture
• Insist that everything be in perfect order
• Dislike deviation from the rules, even when it is necessary
• Have to plan everything
• Seriously dislike having my routine or schedule upset
• Cannot stand to be late for an appointment
• Feel that I am being unproductive if I relax
• Can be very judgemental
• Get upset at myself when I misplace something
• Will work on a project beyond what is useful and necessary
• Believe that I have to be flawless
• Always believe that failure is a consequence of insufficient personal effort
• Cannot tolerate having to finish a task imperfectly or quickly
• Can be contemptuous of other people and of myself
• Do things in a half-way manner
• Don’t like to tidy up
• Find it difficult to get down to work
• Make a mess of things
• Leave my belongings around
• Surf the web or watch TV or waste time in other ways even if I have a project due
• Am without real ambition
• Neglect my duties
• Frequently make excuses
• Often procrastinate
• Waste my time
• Am sometimes willing to bend the truth to get out of an obligation
• Feel unmotivated to complete my work
• Have few clearly defined goals
• Have no stable daily routine for sleeping or eating