Dear Henry, By the time you read this, you will know that among all the various mottos and maxims that define how the Hess family approaches life, there is one which stands out as being both the most important, and the simplest; Imua. It’s a Hawaiian word that your
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Letters To Henry: Fear
Henry, For this, my first letter to you, I am compelled to talk to you about fear. Why fear? Why would I choose to open this series of letters on a topic that is so negative and for many, debilitating? Because in writing this, I am recognizing just how much
Continue readingCongratulations, Good job….. Now get to work
There is nothing wrong with being proud of our accomplishments… But it is important we know that just because we get a win, the season is far from over. There’s always another fight, always more to learn, always more training to do.
Continue readingPatience and Happiness Today
Can we make the slow driver speed up? Probably not. Can we force the coworker to reply to the e-mail? not without the perception that we are uncontrollably overbearing. Can we force other people, or the universe to speed up and slow down at our whims? almost never. So then why do we allow it to affect our mental state?
Continue readingAnger and Jiu-Jitsu
To put it blithely: When life has you in mount, the solution is not to flail around, a victim of your own passion and panic. Instead, stay calm, breath, and remember that you know how to fix this.
Continue readingStop Complaining, Ryan
One could argue that it is this lack of reflecting, and of daily practice that has caused the second reason for my absence. The truth is, that over the last few weeks I have been a pretty rotten Stoic.
Continue readingMindfulness: one of many common threads
Separated by culture, language, politics and centuries, all of these philosophies have commonalities which seem ever present. These and religions I haven’t discussed today all contain ideas which ring true regardless of which god one prays to.
Continue readingDoes this make me happier?
By knowing what we can and can’t control, by loving fate, by knowing that our perceptions are not fact, and by filling our lives with mindfulness and gratitude, we can live effective lives. Effective and, crucially, happy lives.
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Move Thyself…
For the vast majority of those things, those obstacles, there is nothing we could do to avoid them. Still less we can do to remove them from our path. What we can control, is our perceptions of the obstacle and how we choose to react.
Continue reading50 Shades of Red: The Stoics on Anger
Anger is a weakness. True strength is being able to hold yourself together and maintain the ability to reason regardless of what happens externally.
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