ALEX NOBLE - WRITING JOURNAL-2015

95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning & Happiness

 

Assignment: For the next 95 days, beginning today, answer one of the questions below. Do not skip any of the questions.  Make it a goal to create a "Book of Answers" to these 95 questions, which you can share with friends, and maybe even self-publish.  When you have finished the 95 questions here, make up 5 of your own questions, and answer them, so that you will have a total of 100 questions.  Have fun! Write Now! GO!

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95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness

 

 

by Marc

“At the cusp of a new day, week, month or year, most of us take a little time to reflect on our lives by looking back over the past and ahead into the future.  We ponder the successes, failures and standout events that are slowly scripting our life’s story.  This process of self-reflection helps us maintain a conscious awareness of where we’ve been and where we intend to go.  It is pertinent to the organization and preservation of our long-term goals and happiness. The questions below will help you with this process.  Because when it comes to finding meaning in life, asking the right questions is the answer.

   1. In one sentence, who are you?
   2. Why do you matter?
   3. What is your life motto?
   4. What’s something you have that everyone wants?
   5. What is missing in your life?
   6. What’s been on your mind most lately?
   7. Happiness is a ________?
   8. What stands between you and happiness?

Zenpreneurism 3.0: A New Manifesto for Entrepreneurs

 

From New Paradigm Digest: www.newparadigmdigest.com

 

In his little treasure of a book. Allan Hollinder, the father of Zenpreneurism, shares his lessons on living a soulful and integrated business and personal life. There are many great business books, but few pack in as much wisdom in 45 pages.

Allan supports readers in redefining what real success means from the accumulation of more and more money to identifying and sharing our authentic soul’s calling as well as our love, compassion and gratitude, attracting and welcoming our experiences, and leaving an honorable footprint on the planet.

As Buddha said “Deeds done in harmony with one’s path of life are those which bring clarity, peace and harmony to the doer”.

What Would You Take to a Desert Island? (New Yorker)

 

Assignment:  When asked what he would take to a desert island, Playwrite George Bernard Shaw replied: "Seven blank books."  The article below details what a number of folks would take to their island, and is entertaining as well as informative.  This is a most useful thought exercise, and makes for a useful journal entry, as one realizes how one's chosen items may change over time.  So here we go: What would YOU take to a desert island, using, if you wish, the specifications set out in the article below? Write Now!  GO!

 

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Seven Decades of Desert Island Discs

Posted by Judith Thurman

January 30, 2012

 

 

Yesterday morning, as dawn was breaking in Manhattan, and Londoners were enjoying a late Sunday breakfast, I tuned in to BBC Radio 4 to hear the seventieth-anniversary broadcast of “Desert Island Discs,” an hour-long, live interview show that first aired on January 29, 1942.

      For seven decades, “Desert Island Discs” has been introduced by the same theme song, “By the Sleeping Lagoon,” composed in 1930, by Eric Coats, and every week a new “castaway” of distinction is asked to name the eight tracks of music, one luxury item, and one book that he or she would choose to be marooned with. (One also gets the Bible, or its equivalent, and the complete works of Shakespeare.) There are only two longer-running shows in radio history: a British program of religious music, and “The Grand Old Opry.”

 

What Is Worth Fighting For?

 

Assignment:  Do you agree with Samwise Gangee's statement, below, that "There's some good in the world, and it's worth fighting for?"  What greater good is calling to you?  What do you care about with your whole life?  What cause or causes do you find irresistible, compelling, and necessary for the fulfillment of what you define as your personal Grail Quest, Heroic Journey, and Soul Mission?  Write Now!  GO!

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Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy?

The Mystery of the Singing Maya-Aztec Skulls

One of the most fascinating subjects of 21th Century archaeology concerns thirteen crystal skulls of apparently ancient source that were found in parts of Mexico, Central America and South America in the 1900′s.

 

These skulls, found near the ancient ruins of Mayan and Aztec civilizations (with some evidence linking the skulls with past civilization in Peru) apparently hold a profound mystery.  Some of the skulls are believed to be between 5,000 and 36,000 years old.  Mayan pottery and Mayan masks as well as Aztec pottery are replete with skulls.  Indeed human skulls are one of the most pictured objects dealing with religious rites of pre-Columbian cultures.  But the crystal skulls are different.  They seem to defy logic. Everything that is known about lapidary work indicates that the skulls should have been shattered fractured or fallen apart when carved.

What is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, or Beautiful Explanation ? (Edge)

"The World's Smartest Website."

— John Naughton, The Observer 

Scientists' greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way. These explanations are called "beautiful" or "elegant". Historical examples are Kepler's explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr's explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick's double helix. Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it "was so beautiful it had to be true."

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT,
OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?

Since this question is about explanation, answers may embrace scientific thinking in the broadest sense: as the most reliable way of gaining knowledge about anything, including other fields of inquiry such as philosophy, mathematics, economics, history, political theory, literary theory, or the human spirit. The only requirement is that some simple and non-obvious idea explain some diverse and complicated set of phenomena.

[Thanks to Steven Pinker for suggesting this year's Edge Question and to Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, and George Dyson for their ongoing advice and support.]

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Andrei Linde

Father of "Eternal Chaotic Inflation"; Professor of Physics, Stanford University

Excerpt: To summarize, the inflationary multiverse consists of myriads of 'universes' with all possible laws of physics and mathematics operating in each of them. We can only live in those universes where the laws of physics allow our existence, which requires making reliable predictions. In other words, mathematicians and physicists can only live in those universes which are comprehensible and where the laws of mathematics are efficient.

One can easily dismiss everything that I just said as a wild speculation. It seems very intriguing, however, that in the context of the new cosmological paradigm, which was developed during the last 30 years, we might be able, for the first time, to approach one of the most complicated and mysterious problems which bothered some of the best scientists of the 20th century.

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Why Is Our World Comprehensible?

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." This is one of the most famous quotes from Albert Einstein. "The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle." Similarly, Eugene Wigner said that the unreasonable efficiency of mathematics is "a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve." Thus we have a problem that may seem too metaphysical to be addressed in a meaningful way: Why do we live in a comprehensible universe with certain rules, which can be efficiently used for predicting our future?

One could always respond that God created the universe and made it simple enough so that we can comprehend it. This would match the words about a miracle and an undeserved gift. But shall we give up so easily? Let us consider several other questions of a similar type. Why is our universe so large? Why parallel lines do not intersect? Why different parts of the universe look so similar? For a long time such questions looked too metaphysical to be considered seriously. Now we know that inflationary cosmology provides a possible answer to all of these questions. Let us see whether it might help us again.

Who Are You? Quotations from Erich Fromm

"If I am what I have, and I lose what I have, who then am I?"

- Erich Fromm

Journal Assignment:  The works of Erich Fromm are filled with inspiring and provocative thoughts, such as the one above. If you need a catalyst for some introspection and reflection, use your journal to write something in response to the quote above, or pick one from  the collection of quotes from Fromm, below.  You might ask yourself: "What am I afraid of losing? What would I be if I lost this thing (or these things) that seem so important?"   What if a forest fire was approaching your home, and you had to walk out and leave everything? Who would you be if it all turned to ashes?  What would be left?

Poet Antonio Machado writes that "What the poet seeks is the deep YOU."  What is the 'deep you'?

Spend a few minutes writing a poem or passage which describes what would be left if you lost everything?  Write Now!  GO!

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More wisdom from Erich Fromm:

“Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity. He cannot help suffering, even though he can experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the life of his "normal" contemporaries. Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society. In the process of going further in his analysis, i.e. of growing to greater independence and productivity,his neurotic symptoms will cure themselves. ”
― Erich Fromm

Life Lessons: What Have Your Learned? What Can You Share?

 

 

Alex Noble:  It is a useful exercise, from time to time, to write out short, one sentence "life lessons" - things you have learned that you wish to pass along to others.

We do not suffer without gaining wisdom, we do not fail without becoming tougher, we do not succeed without realizing how much better we can be, we do not pass through fire without learning that we can, after all, survive. 

From our trials, as well as our achievements, we can harvest treasures of insight and transformation.

What life lessons do you have to share? 

See if you can write 10, 40 or even 50 0f these. 

Use this writing practice to create something of value you can share with your friends, family, and even your larger network.

Why not give the gift of your experience?

Have fun!  Write Now!

Once you have written as many life lessons as you can (and use short sentences), take a look at the provocative list below, from Regina Brett.

And if you need some inspiration, it is OK to take a look at hers anytime.  But more fun if you do your own first! GO!

 

2012 - Mayan Prophecy and A Message of Hope

 

 

In the video posted below, Visionary Scientist and Best Selling Author Gregg Braden presents a message of profound hope for us and our home planet, and asks a compelling question which you may want to reflect on in your journal thoughout the coming year.

 

Choices

 

 

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

 

Dreams As Answers to Questions We Have Not Asked

 “Dreams are the answers to questions that we haven't yet figured out how to ask.”

- "Fox Mulder", "The X-Files"

WRITE NOW! Reflect on Being Fully Alive!

 

 

 

Questions:  Are you feeling fully alive right now? Do you have a sense of joyful celebration about the New Year?  What are you looking forward to? What do you plan to do to bring more joy into your life and the lives of others?  What are your thoughts about being alive, on this planet, at this time in history? Are you excited about your goals and plans for 2012? Are you expecting Angels and Miracles to appear in your life to support your journey and success?  Are wonderful things happening for you? Are you grateful for the opportunities that are presenting themselves to you?

Imagine That a Stranger Asks You Three Questions

 

"Questions Before Dark"

"Day ends, and before sleep
when the sky dies down, consider
your altered state: has this day
changed you? Are the corners
sharper or rounded off? Did you
live with death? Make decisions
that quieted? Find one clear word
that fit? At the sun's midpoint
did you notice a pitch of absence,
bewilderment that invites
the possible? What did you learn
from things you dropped and picked up
and dropped again? Did you set a straw
parallel to the river, let the flow
carry you downstream?"

- Jeanne Lohmann
from "The Light of Invisible Bodies"

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What would I attempt to do if I knew that I could not fail?

 

What Would I Attempt to Do If I Knew I Could Not Fail?

Fear of failure is built into our culture.  We are brought up with an ingrained fear of being “wrong.”  Drawing on the Aristotelian and Medieval Monk traditions, upon which our Western Civilization is built, we are not taught to be fearless, experimental, innovative, adventurous or wild.  Instead, timid conservatism is applauded and rewarded in terms of being “right.” Everything is right or wrong, black or white, with no room for “maybe” or “interesting.”