Take It All In

Life is a beautiful thing.
Just take it all in and breathe,
breathe, breathe.

~ Creola Johnson

A Kind of Contrivance

"There's a lot more going on in your brain and your body than you can ever be aware of. And yet, most people identify themselves with this little flash-lit area of consciousness."

~ Rae Armantrout

ClarityDaron LarsonNovember 2, 2017poetry, poets, Rae Armantrout, self, identity, memory, metacognition, brain, neuroscience, consciousness, awareness, self/otherComment

What You Missed

"Mrs. Nelson explained how to stand still and listen
to the wind, how to find meaning in pumping gas,

how peeling potatoes can be a form of prayer."

~ Brad Aaron Modlin

Daron LarsonSeptember 17, 2017Brad Aaron Modlin, poetry, growing up, learning, life, paying attention, awareness, self-awareness, memory, FOMOComment

I Want To Be Astonished

"i want to feel tectonic shifts.
i want to be. i want to be astonished."

~ Sleeping at Last

Daron LarsonApril 7, 2017wonder, life, senses, taste, waking up, shadow, awareness, attention, music, music video, Sleeping At LastComment

You are Not Your Thoughts

"You are the awareness of your thoughts. You are not your thoughts. You can let your thoughts happen. Just know that the real you is the awareness."

~ RuPaul

Getting Better at Noticing Directly

When you begin a walking or running program, there are several details you can track as evidence of improvement. Your step count. The length of your stride. Your pace. The amount of time it takes your heart to return to its recover its baseline resting rate.

But how will you know when you’re getting better at noticing perceptions?

Real Things

"The idea that reality is not real or what you sense and feel is not authentic is something I’m very skeptical of."

~ Bill Nye

See Out, Hear Out, Feel OutDaron LarsonMarch 3, 2016Bill Nye, science, philosophy, Big Think, senses, awareness, reality, skepticismComment

Cultivating Familiarity

Mindfulness involves cultivating familiarity and intimacy with aspects of everyday experience that we often take for granted.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

So Simple We Don't Want to Believe It

“The trouble with explaining this work is that it is so simple that we don’t want to believe it."

~ Trudy Goodman

Practice in Stillness, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonSeptember 30, 2015Trudy Goodman, mindfulness, practice, training, awareness, exercise, focus, choiceComment

Continuously Unfolding Nonlinear Narrative

"The entire orchestration of the symphony of mind unfolds like changes in a music score, and while there is no single, master conductor, the decentralized process does have hot spots of top-down modulation linked by connections built over evolutionary time."

~ Antonio Damasio

Daron LarsonJuly 17, 2015Antonio Damasio, consciousness, brain, self, awareness, narrative, identity, illusion, neuroscience, default mode networkComment

The Transparency of Existence

"In this mode of consciousness, the most supremely banal transforms into the most supremely baffling and awe-inducing. That which is most obvious and taken for granted is simultaneously that which is most mysterious and astonishing."

~ Brian Maniscalco

To Tell the Modes Apart

Mindfulness practice doesn’t eliminate my personal narrative. It gradually changes my relationship to it.

Beginning, Clarity, Myths & MisperceptionsDaron LarsonJuly 6, 2015narrative, attention, intimacy, self, self/other, freedom, liberation, practice, awarenessComment

Deep-Sleep Awareness

"The moment of awakening reveals two kinds of self-experience." ~ Evan Thompson

Clarity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonJanuary 21, 2015waking up, sleep, Evan Thompson, self, narrative, story, attention, dreams, awarenessComment

Benefits Before Mastery

Mindfulness meditation is extraordinarily simple to describe, but it isn't easy to perform. True mastery might require special talent and a lifetime devotion to the task, and yet a genuine transformation in one's perception of the world is within reach for most of us. Practice is the only thing that will lead to success.

~ Sam Harris

Storylines

Daron LarsonOctober 21, 2014narrative, story, plot, life, uncertainty, Guy Davenport, writers, self, awareness, paying attentionComment

Bored Incarnations of Eternity

"How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god?" ~ Alan Watts

Daron LarsonJuly 26, 2014Alan Watts, paying attention, mundane, seeing, hearing, taste, memory, present, wonder, boredom, awarenessComment

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