I feel I’m not the only one who thinks that Social Anxiety has prevented me from experiencing more of what life has to offer. I thought I couldn’t meet the standards of sociability that society expected and promoted even. I just wasn’t the sort of person who fitted in. We introverted and shy types beat […]
When frustration boils over
It all gets too much sometimes; last week felt like this. Trying to make headway in the crucial areas of my life never seems to happen, like I’m spinning my wheels. Personal stuff bothers me; I won’t go into details, but my lifestyle is in transition, and I want it to go faster. I want […]
Zen Buddhism, going meta and postmodernism
What’s the connection between the Buddha and Deadpool? It might seem an unlikely comparison, a wisecracking anti-hero and a spiritual icon. The answer is linked to the most amusing thing I learned from my battle with anxiety and what I learned from Zen: its responses are seemingly counter-intuitive, even paradoxical. You can’t understand Buddhism by grasping for […]
The ‘Nones’ and Syncretism
‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’ There is a rise of people who don’t identify with any religious creed. The ‘Nones’ as they are known, are a demographic that’s being talked about more in politics and religion, […]
The Abstract Expressionists
So many different art movements were born during the 20th century that I can’t go into them all, but one was the Abstract Expressionists (AbEx). I’ve been looking at them through the Museum of Modern Arts online course at Coursera, presented by Corey D’Augustine. In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting I found it to be […]
The Insidious idea of Perfection
“I’m never going to be good enough”. Sometimes I just can’t shake that feeling. Ashamed of who I am, flawed, weak, shy, introvert. Not like the people who have it together, the happy people. You know the ones who are relaxed in their own skin. In short I wasn’t perfect and I knew it. My […]