Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World
RSS URL Direct Download Link Who is Cal Newport? Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University who also writes contrarian advice about succeeding as a student, cultivating a meaningful career, and most recently, adjusting the way we use technology so that we can lead deeper, more meaningful lives. I highly recommend reading
Hail Mary full of grace, my Catholic month is over! To be truthful, I’m actually a little bummed it’s over. I benefited quite a bit from going to Mass and participating in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Here’s my assessment of my Catholic month. Love/Compassion For my Catholic month, my goal was to become a more
Today, I attended my first Mass. Well, that’s not actually true. I’ve been to Mass before with a friend, but this is the first time I went alone. One of the reasons I want to attend Mass every day is because it’s full of rituals that are hard to make sense of. As I expected,
This weekend I went camping with a few friends at the Shenandoah National Park. I considered attempting a number of pseudo-spiritual exercises like fasting the entire weekend, reading religious texts and reflecting, meditating, taking solo walks, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any of those things. Most of the time, I was doing something with the
In the 1985 book, Habits of the Heart, sociologists Robert Bellah and Richard Madsen interviewed a young nurse, Sheila Larson, about her religious beliefs. “I believe in God. I’m not a religious fanatic. I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my
After I read the 4-Hour Work Week, starting a “muse,” an online business that generates enough passive income to sustain my ideal lifestyle, seemed like the ultimate way to live a happy life. I wouldn’t have a boss and I would only spent a minimal amount of time on tedious tasks. I could spend my
It is Polar Vortex 2 week here in DC. The government closed for a day, and I decided to work from home. Hooray for flexible workplaces! I really did not want to jump into my ice bath today. It was snowing outside, I was nice and cozy and warm in my apartment, and I just
Anika reached out to me earlier this year asking to participate in the AWP Reader Experiments challenge I advertised earlier this year. As a 22-year old graduate student in Pune, India, she felt that she needed ancient wisdom to help her with a few things most of us struggle with: anxiety, procrastination, and a shortage
Earlier this year I offered readers the opportunity to take on a customized ancient wisdom projects that would help them explore or address an issue or problem they were interested in. Several courageous readers took me up on the offer and I am in the process of turning their experiences into case studies. Lara offers
TLDR Everyone experiences a desire to retreat from the world This desire may come from need to escape “normal” life’s problems But it might be better to engage with your current life in a different spirit, rather than run away from it This is easier said than done The awakened sages call a person wise