December 6, 2019
Greetings gents and ladies, here
are the top 5 things I learned and pondered upon in the past week,
1: What I am reading
‘Radical Acceptance: Embracing
your life with the heart of a Buddha’ by Tara Brach, Ph.D. I have read halfway
through this book. I got to know about this book in one of the Tim Ferriss Podcasts.
So far, it has proved to be an insightful, spiritual and important book for me.
The way Brach talks about our lives and how underwhelmingly we treat ourselves
is really an eye-opening experience. Then, the insights she offers as to how to
overcome those bad, habitual treatments of our own selves is both practical and
deeply healing.
2: What I listened to
Podcast: Tim Ferriss Show /Guest
speaker: Neil deGrasse. Neil deGrasse is a very well-known astronomer
and scientific narrator, and in this show, Tim asks him about his journey of
becoming such a popular and important figure in our world. It is truly
inspirational and informative. The way deGrasse talks about everything in this
podcast, shows how good he is at explaining and communicating things. One of my
favorite parts of this podcast was when deGrasse mentions: I was a really
good dancer too when I was young. But I had to give that up to become a great
astronomer and scientist. I couldn’t be both a dancer and astronomer. What
I love about this honest and important message is that in order to become a
truly important and working-for-greater-good person, we have to give up a lot
of the other things that are fun and rather easy to do as well.
3: Short Essays
I have come across two short essays
from Tim’s 5 Bullets Friday mail (subscribe if you haven’t yet, it is a
must), and I found both these essays easy to read and understand, yet as effective
as a good, lengthy article. Here are the links:
The Tail End: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
This short essay is about how
many years, months, weeks, days, number of meals, etc., do we have left in our
lives, and how much of it do we really spend with the people who truly matter
in our lives.
Subtract: https://sivers.org/subtract
This very short essay emphasizes
on cutting, rather than adding more, stuff in our lives. It may sound nothing
effective, but in its simplicity of explanation, you would see the power of subtract
in our lives.
4: There’s a poem for that
Last week, in the 5th
point of 5BF, I mentioned a quote from a poem by Estefani. Do check it out if
you haven’t, it is really cute and heartwarming. That poem comes from a series
of videos on TED-ED’s YT channel ‘There’s a poem for that’. In that
playlist/series, in each episode they explore one poem, narrated by the poet
and visualized beautifully by an animator. It is just a bundle of joys, each
poem, and watching each of them is truly a heartfelt experience. A must
check-out.
5: Quote
“Hurt people hurt
people.” – Hustlers (2019 movie)
A great movie, and an even
greater quote. What it says is that the people who are deep down hurt,
rejected, alone, let down, left, uncared – those hurt people do, and rather
unconsciously, hurt other people. They have plenty of hurt, only which that can
share. So, let’s try to see behind the pathetic, heartbreaking and angry
actions of others towards us next time, and let’s console their hurt parts.
Extra: Songs I most
listened to
·
Heartless (The Weeknd)
·
Blinding Lights (The Weeknd)
·
Highest In The Room (Travis Scott)
·
Pal Pal Dil K Pas (Arijit / Sahher)
·
Khairiyat (Arijit)