🌀🐇 #45 More Wow, 4 Types of Friendships, Celebrate Yourself

Plus meditation for real world events  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ​ ​ ​ ⚡️ Enlightening Bolts Gems of The Weird and Wonderful From Around The Web 👁 Fill Your Life With More Wow: Awe is a profound feeling that some find elusive and difficult to experience. Research shows you can get more regular doses by tuning in to certain stimuli. This article reviews Keltner’s "Eight Wonders of Life." You'll understand different 8 paths you can follow to experience awe more regularly and also get a deeper understanding of the connection this emotion shares with psychedelics. [Read it here.]()​ 🤯MindF***: This fun project focuses on meditations for real world contexts. Dealing with pre-zoom call anxiety? Did a romantic interest ghost you? Stressed out because of the fluctuations of Bitcoin's price? They have meditations for all of these circumstances. [Try it here.]()​ ✅ Kairo: Simple but delightful goal and habit tracking platform. I've seen so many systems for keeping tabs on our efforts in transformation. There is something fun and inviting about Kairo that is unlike anything I've seen before in this category. It also integrates with Notion if that is your note-taking app of choice. [See it here.](​ Did someone forward you this email? Get this newsletter every week when you [sign up here.](​ 🎇 Image of The Week ​ This week's image is a bit of a change of pace. Usually, I share images of beautiful natural phenomena. I came across this chart from Tim Urban of WaitButWhy and felt like it was too important not to share. The quality of our friendships contributes a great deal to the quality of our lives. Use this image to make sense of where your primary relationships fall. If you're noticing you have a lot in Q4 it might be time to set some boundaries or part ways. If you've got some in Q1, give them a call (or forward them this email 😉) to tell them how much you appreciate them. 🙌 Celebrate Yourself I spent some time in my childhood home this past week rummaging through relics of the past. Boxes of vintage action figures, bags of pennies from the early 1900s, binders full of collectible Hockey cards, and even a few scattered Pokemon (none were holographic). Encountering these totems of "the world before" tend to provoke reflection. I think about who I was when these belongings were so significant to me. Then I trace the line from there to all I've been through, who I am now, and who I'm becoming. There are things I've done that would make little Mike shake his head in perplexity. Silly mistakes and crash-and-burn failures. I know little guy. I've fumbled some balls in my life. But fortunately, it doesn't stop there. I also consider the things I've done that would ignite a raucous applause in my younger self. I've accomplished some things that would have seemed near impossible to him. It's easy to let those things fade into the background while I'm fixated on forging ahead, shaping tomorrow. And so I wanted to take some time to invite you to take a pause. The future you're so earnestly trying to bring about, the aims you have and dreams you still hold.... These are vitally important. But it's so easy to make real what used to only live in our imagination and rather than celebrate, almost immediately skip to focusing on what comes next. There are obstacles you have overcome, pains you have navigated, goals you have brought to fruition that would be jaw-dropping to the you of yesteryear. Yes, there is more to do. More you want to realize. But that is not a reason to bypass appreciation for what has already happened. You will become more. But please, for a moment, embrace who you already are. Celebrate yourself. 👩‍🌾 People Are Not Things Enjoy these words of wisdom from Dee Hock: "People are not "things" to be manipulated, labeled, boxed, bought, and sold. Above all else, they are not "human resources." They are entire human beings, containing the whole of the evolving universe, limitless until we start limiting them. We must examine the concept of leading and following with new eyes. We must examine the concept of superior and subordinate with increasing skepticism. We must examine the concept of management and labor with new beliefs. And we must examine the nature of organizations that demand such distinctions with an entirely different consciousness." “Accomplishment is one part commitment, one part ability, one part persistence, and one part circumstance. Circumstance we cannot control. The rest we might.” “Don’t preach. Don’t teach. Don’t judge. Take a loved child by the hand and explore something fascinating together.” 🤓 Learn This Word Weltschmerz: Mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state. This is a German for “world pain,” was also coined during the Romantic Era and is in many ways the German version of ennui. ⏳ From The Archives A hand-picked classic HighExistence article. ​[6 Brilliant Terry Pratchett Proverbs for Growth, Creativity, and Living a Fulfilled Life]()​ Terry Pratchett was a surrogate parent to me; growing up, he showed me the world for all that it was and could yet be. When he died two years ago, aged 66, from early-onset Alzheimer’s, I cried. In grief, but also in gratitude for all that he’d left behind. His words continue to reverberate through my life as I try to live it the best I can. His novels were incredibly funny, weird, and playful, and so the literary critics hated him. They dismissed his books as frivolous and silly, as mere pun-laden pastiche. But millions of readers thought otherwise and begged, borrowed or stole his books (at one time he was the most shoplifted author in the world). He’s now widely hailed as one of the finest writers of the century, but his genius as both a writer and observer of the human condition went unrecognized for decades. He wrote Fantasy – in the critics’ view, the lowest tier of ‘genre’ fiction. But Pratchett used that fantasy backdrop and his razor-sharp wit to explore what it means to be human. He held up a mirror to our nature and played with the warped and colorful images he saw in the reflections. He exposed the corruption and deceptions of governments, technologies, ideologies, and – most important of all – of the ordinary person like you and me. Amidst the wizards, trolls and vampires, his books burned with anger at the needless suffering and cruelty of the world. He didn’t simply mock and criticize, but threaded small beacons of hopeful wisdom through the pages of his 40-odd novels that lit the way to a better, more compassionate world. ​[Continue Reading]()​ 🎬 Endnote We hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell us what you think. Want to help us spread the word? We love sharing these gems of wisdom and wonder with you each week. If you love receiving them and want to help us spread the word, here is one quick way you can do that: Forward this email to one friend. That's it. It will take 5 seconds and will help us spread the good vibes and reach more people. We appreciate you. With Wonder, Mike Slavin & The HighExistence Team P.S. Did a friend forward you this email? Read previous issues and sign-up to receive future issues here: [(​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​[Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 40 E. Main St. #1137, Newark, DE 19711 [Built with ConvertKit](