A good friend turned me onto The Telepathy Tapes. It presents some pretty compelling evidence that people who are neurodivergent can more easily tap into an underlying universal Consciousness. I suspect Buddhists and other Enlightened folks who spend the time and effort quieting their mind and letting go of ego and dualism can also. I'm curious what others in EA (self-identified rationalists for example) make of this…

Thanks for writing and posting this. Dealing with the inner critic and all the "shoulds" (a red-flag word in any thought you have) requires a shift in our internal narratives.

I invite everyone to lower their achievement bar. Significantly. Down to practically nothing. The one I use is "minimize harm." Anything above and beyond is a positive benefit I put into the world.

Think about the average person in an LMIC we are trying to help. What is our achievement bar for them? Do we expect them to be a hero and step up and save the world? If not, then why expect that of you? Sure, we are more privileged and have more resources.  And just the fact that you are reading this means you already care and give back. The level to which you are doing is enough.

I 100% encourage you to make use of more timely resources. But you can reach out to me via the Forum messaging system or the contact info on my website, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can ❤️

I appreciate you being so honest here, N.I. The small beauties of nature can indeed help ground us in the world. I'm reminded of:

For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the boundless oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door.
—Rabindranath Tagore

And:

But I have forgotten one thing—the singing!
There was such a lot of singing in the villages then, 
   and this was my pleasure, too. 
Boys sang in the fields, 
   and at night we all met at the pub and sang.
The chapels were full of singing.
When the war came, 
   it was singing, singing all the time. 
So I lie; I have had pleasure. 
I have had singing.”
—Ronald Blythe in Akenfield

Noticing and savoring the small pleasures of life is a skill. I invite you to keep practicing it. ❤️

One more thing. Robin Dunbar—biological anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist —noted in his book Friends:

When our ancestors needed to increase the size of our social groups during the course of later human evolution, we had to find some way of extending our grooming circle proportionately. Increasing the time devoted to grooming was [not feasible]. The only realistic alternative was to use what time we had available more efficiently... We discovered several ways of triggering the endorphin system using behaviors that allowed us to engage in virtual grooming at a distance such that we could—in effect—groom several people simultaneously. These include laughter, singing and dancing, feasting, storytelling, and the rituals of religion, probably in that order.”

I invite you to engage in one or more of these activities with others. I personally go to stand-up comedy shows, listen to The Moth radio hour and audiobooks, and sing in a community choir. It all helps keep my demons at bay.
 

Here are my slides on the importance of healthy relationships for your mental health. It was based—in part—on this talk I gave last year at EAGxAustin.

Yes, I went to therapy in earnest for 9 years. In my last year—once I was doing much better—I was certified as a crisis counselor (Crisis Text Line). I did that for a year before moving on to professional coaching. I still have an account on 7 Cups and sign in to have conversations from time to time.

The training was excellent. I recommend everyone take similar training: mental health first aid, compassionate listening, crisis counseling, peer support… It can help you support others, but also give you more context on the kind of support you might need and receive.

I have had bad experiences with therapists, and I've heard even worse stories. My advice: don't take it personally, don't dwell on it, and move forward to finding someone supportive.

LLMs can be helpful but they should only be used as supplemental resources. Ultimately the foundational skill I learned in therapy is how to have an honest, vulnerable, face-to-face conversation with another human being. It was relationship skills training. I don't believe LLMs are currently capable of giving that same experience.

Self-doubt is natural and logical.

Maybe in our achievement-driven, how-are-you-contributing-to-unrelenless-growth society. Indigenous cultures don't exhibit self-doubt. Neither do Buddhists. I just talked about this on my podcast.
 

In a meeting between the Dalai Lama and a group of American psychologists in 1990, one of the psychologists brought up the concept of negative self-talk. Since there are no words in Tibetan that translate into low self-esteem and self-loathing, it took quite a long time for the psychologists to convey what they meant. But this wasn’t a translation problem. It was a problem of conceptualization. Self-loathing? People do that? The Dalai Lama was incredulous. Once the Dalai Lama understood what they were saying, he turned to the Tibetan monks in the room, and after explaining what the psychologists were suggesting, he asked, “How many of you have experienced this low self-esteem, self-contempt, or self-loathing?”

Complete silence.

Here was a psychological state of mind so ubiquitous in our culture that everyone experiences it from time to time, if not every single day. Yet the Tibetans—trained since childhood in the art of a mental exercise they call meditation—acted like they were being told about some alien life form. The Dalai Lama turned back to the psychologists and asked a simple question:

“Why would you ever let your mind get like this?”

Excerpt from The Awakened Ape

I voted for more mental health funding: Vida Plena and Kaya. They increase WELLBYs with a very high ROI

I'm proud to announce the 5-minute animated short on mental health I wrote back in 2020 is finally finished! I'd love you to watch it and let me know what you think (like, share…). It's currently "unlisted" as I wait to see how the production studio wants to release it publicly. But in the meantime I'm sharing it with my extended network.