Breathing a little and calling it a life

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Artwork by Alina Bohoru.

Hi Friends-

It never ceases to amaze me that my biggest insights seem so… obvious. Other people call them “aha moments” but for me they feel more like “oh-duh” moments. 😂

I had just such a moment of clarity today. The realization sprung from writing the latest Hurry Slowly episode, which is a meditation on how we can honor our own rhythms, ideas, and idiosyncrasies.

A good chunk of what I explore in this new episode is why we don't honor our uniqueness. Which has a lot to do with how our culture trains us to look outside of ourselves for answers — to cherish the advice of others above our own inner guidance.

As often happens, it turned out that I needed to hear this episode as much as anyone. After recording it, I realized that I was looking outside for something that I could only get inside. As a mentor of mine likes to say: "Happiness is an inside job."

Tune into the new episode: "Honoring Your Idiosyncrasies"

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In other news: Registration for my Hi-Fi course opens today! If you're not already familiar with it, Hi-Fi is an immersive six-week journey into the heartspace, designed to help you reconnect with your body and your intuition.

I mentioned in the last newsletter that as soon as I decided to re-open Hi-Fi, I received a truly lovely email from a past participant that pinged into my inbox like some magical validation from the universe.

For those of you who are considering taking Hi-Fi, I wanted to share this beautiful perspective from Lucy who took the course during the first offering, way back in 2020:

"I think it's hard to know when in the unfolding of everything to stop and say 'Hey, this is how Hi-Fi impacted my life!' because it just keeps going and going.

Taking the course was a true gift, both in the grounding community and tools it provided during a chaotic year, but also in the continuous ways its stuck with me and inspired some major life shifts.

Hi-Fi helped me figure out that I needed to move home to become a full-time caregiver for my dad in the last years of his life, a process I'm still engaged with and often overwhelmed by. The tools you provided have been a lifeline during the most challenging season of my life thus far, and I'm very grateful for them.

I've made ritual altar time a consistent part of my life and I love it. I've kept up with making a wall journal at the start of each year and love that too. I've been developing a card deck of reminders and permission from my Wise Self for the last couple years that I hope to release soon.

I'm sure you get this feedback a lot, but it really is hard to single any one thing out. Things are just different. Thank you for everything you do."

This message made my week! If it resonates with you, you can learn more about Hi-Fi and book your spot here. Registration is open through next Friday, Jan 27th.

This was a long introductory note but — don't worry — there are links down there! Scroll on, brave readers...

Much love,
Jocelyn

Artwork by Alina Bohoru.

LINK ABOUT IT

"Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?" That's a Mary Oliver quote from this absolutely wonderful interview with poet laureate Ada Limon about life, loss, and poetry. Highly recommended: "I think it's important, especially as an artist, to not always be looking for how we are seen. I think about labels a lot. And I’m just very suspicious of any kind of summing up of 'this is who I am.' Because, first of all, who I am is changing rapidly all the time with what I’m reading, and who I’m with, and what I’m experiencing. And then the other thing is even I can’t sum up who I am. So I don’t know if I can trust someone else to do it."

Nick Cave on the antidote to our existential helplessness. I just stumbled on these marvelous excerpts from Nick Cave's The Red Hand Files: "Rather than feel impotent and useless, you must come to terms with the fact that as a human being you are infinitely powerful, and take responsibility for this tremendous power. Even our smallest actions have potential for great change, positively or negatively, and the way in which we all conduct ourselves within the world means something. You are anything but impotent, you are, in fact, exquisitely and frighteningly dynamic, as are we all, and with all respect you have an obligation to stand up and take responsibility for that potential. It is your most ordinary and urgent duty."

On using ChatGPT to connect with your inner child. There is so much controversy about ChatGPT that I really appreciated artist Michelle Huang's rather wondrous approach to it. She fed all of her childhood diaries into the system so that she could have conversations with her "AI" self as a child. "I do think essence is something that stays constant. And of course, let’s say if someone goes through significant trauma, they may behaviorally act different, but I think a lot of their worldview or what they hope to believe or what they actually believe remains intact. I think a lot of times the most difficult part about trauma is trying to reconcile your internal conception of yourself, or of the world, versus anything that has happened to make you reevaluate that. Most of the entries I used in this project are from when I was between 10 and 14. That’s when I was sentient enough to have thoughts, but not jaded. Honestly though, I’m surprised how much has stayed the same."

Writing, an embodied process that connects you to your humanity. Continuing on the ChatGPT thread, this essay questions what writing is good for if/when we have AIs that can do a moderately good job of it without us. It really made me re-appreciate how much value the act of writing adds to my life: "It’s possible that one of the things we will decide is that students don’t need to learn to write anymore, since we have technology that can do that for us. I think this would be a shame because one of the things I value about writing, is the act of writing itself. It is an embodied process that connects me to my own humanity, by putting me in touch with my mind, the same way a vigorous hike through the woods can put me in touch with my body. For me, writing is simultaneously expression and exploration."

+ Brian Eno reveals the hidden purpose of all art.

+ Kimberley Wilson on whole body mental health.

+ Dan Savage on polyamory, chosen family, and better sex.

+ 10 websites that give you superpowers.

+ 183 ways the world got better in 2022.

Artwork by Alina Bohoru.

SHOUT-OUTS:

The artwork is from: Alina Bohoru, who is based in Bucharest, Romania.

Link ideas from: CreativeMornings, Austin Kleon, Ann Friedman, and Jessica Bozek.

You can support this newsletter by: Tweeting about i t or leaving a review for Hurry Slowly on iTunes.

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Hi, I'm Jocelyn, the human behind this newsletter. I created the online course RESET, a cosmic tune-up for your workday, as well as Hi-Fi, a journey into the wisdom of the heart. I also host Hurry Slowly — a podcast about personal and collective transformation.

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Website: jkglei.com
Twitter: @jkglei

Hurry Slowly LLC

PO Box #832

Woodstock, NY 12498

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