Nice post! I especially loved this: "The irony of optimizing our lives is that the nature of optimization is rooted in a lack of self-trust. We inherently don’t trust ourselves so we put systems in place to take the thought out of it. While setting constraints is a good short-term solution in bridging our self-trust gap, the ultimate goal is to build a reserve of self-kept promises that help us restore faith in our intuition rather than further optimize a system that keeps us caged."
When I create time of quiet and non-doing (with my phone nowhere near), allowing discomfort and boredom for 20-40 minutes, intuitive insights often come for creative projects . . . and always a deeper peace. So simple —and easy to forget this doorway into aliveness!
really resonate with that :) it's easy to feel tethered to our phones as a safety blanket, but so much spaciousness can emerge when we detach from tech
I noticed that when I would optimize my time it sort of put bars on it. When I used to work at a corporate job, the early mornings were the space of freedom where I would engage in my more meaningful work and inner connection. But eventually, my mind started putting bars on that time saying that’s the only thing I’m allowed to do then.
I noticed earlier this year that I stopped wanting to do that kind of work during that time. Instead, I would either stay in bed relaxing or do something else. The breakthrough came when I came to understand that when the mind is controlling a pocket of time, it’s like making a cage around it saying only this can go here. But the soul that wants to be free doesn’t want to work in a cage, so it just waits until the time expires and then goes and does it like a bird that wants to sing.
"when the mind is controlling a pocket of time, it’s like making a cage around it saying only this can go here. But the soul that wants to be free doesn’t want to work in a cage, so it just waits until the time expires" 🔥🔥🔥
I've been surprised to find that when I follow my intuition around when to do certain things, everything I need to get done in a day miraculously seems to happen
After getting overwhelmed multiple times from taking on too much, I sometimes overcorrect to a hyper essentialist frame of mind. Realised this is all just fear talking and balancing multiple projects is a skill, not something to be afraid of. Among other things.
This part was awesome:
'When we’re too precious about maintaining the constraints we’ve set for ourselves, we ignore our intuition and fail to cultivate the self-trust needed to free ourselves from over-optimizing.
The irony of optimizing our lives is that the nature of optimization is rooted in a lack of self-trust. We inherently don’t trust ourselves so we put systems in place to take the thought out of it.'
THIS resonated so much, and something I had to unlearn from my days in SF: "When we’re too precious about maintaining the constraints we’ve set for ourselves, we ignore our intuition and fail to cultivate the self-trust needed to free ourselves from over-optimizing." 💜
it reminds me of the sentiment of "what got you here won't get you where you need to go next" optimizing becomes easy, cultivating deep self-trust is our true test
Nice post! I especially loved this: "The irony of optimizing our lives is that the nature of optimization is rooted in a lack of self-trust. We inherently don’t trust ourselves so we put systems in place to take the thought out of it. While setting constraints is a good short-term solution in bridging our self-trust gap, the ultimate goal is to build a reserve of self-kept promises that help us restore faith in our intuition rather than further optimize a system that keeps us caged."
glad it resonates :) learned this lesson the hard way when I flew too close to the sun with over-optimizing
Great job.
When I create time of quiet and non-doing (with my phone nowhere near), allowing discomfort and boredom for 20-40 minutes, intuitive insights often come for creative projects . . . and always a deeper peace. So simple —and easy to forget this doorway into aliveness!
really resonate with that :) it's easy to feel tethered to our phones as a safety blanket, but so much spaciousness can emerge when we detach from tech
I noticed that when I would optimize my time it sort of put bars on it. When I used to work at a corporate job, the early mornings were the space of freedom where I would engage in my more meaningful work and inner connection. But eventually, my mind started putting bars on that time saying that’s the only thing I’m allowed to do then.
I noticed earlier this year that I stopped wanting to do that kind of work during that time. Instead, I would either stay in bed relaxing or do something else. The breakthrough came when I came to understand that when the mind is controlling a pocket of time, it’s like making a cage around it saying only this can go here. But the soul that wants to be free doesn’t want to work in a cage, so it just waits until the time expires and then goes and does it like a bird that wants to sing.
"when the mind is controlling a pocket of time, it’s like making a cage around it saying only this can go here. But the soul that wants to be free doesn’t want to work in a cage, so it just waits until the time expires" 🔥🔥🔥
I've been surprised to find that when I follow my intuition around when to do certain things, everything I need to get done in a day miraculously seems to happen
That’s been my experience too
After getting overwhelmed multiple times from taking on too much, I sometimes overcorrect to a hyper essentialist frame of mind. Realised this is all just fear talking and balancing multiple projects is a skill, not something to be afraid of. Among other things.
This part was awesome:
'When we’re too precious about maintaining the constraints we’ve set for ourselves, we ignore our intuition and fail to cultivate the self-trust needed to free ourselves from over-optimizing.
The irony of optimizing our lives is that the nature of optimization is rooted in a lack of self-trust. We inherently don’t trust ourselves so we put systems in place to take the thought out of it.'
really resonate with that – a lot shifted for me when I realized feeling overwhelmed vs feeling abundant are two sides of the same coin
it's just a matter of capacity: how much capacity do we have to hold everything coming at us vs unfolding before us?
THIS resonated so much, and something I had to unlearn from my days in SF: "When we’re too precious about maintaining the constraints we’ve set for ourselves, we ignore our intuition and fail to cultivate the self-trust needed to free ourselves from over-optimizing." 💜
it reminds me of the sentiment of "what got you here won't get you where you need to go next" optimizing becomes easy, cultivating deep self-trust is our true test
🤍 🤍
beauuutifully said! Self-trust is much more sustainable than the constant focus on optimizing as well
💯 it's a muscle that adapts to evolving constraints vs a rigid system meant to constrain us