The troubles of over doing self-help
I find myself throughout the day, scrolling through Medium and passing hundreds or maybe thousands of “4 steps to happiness” or “How to avoid distractions the easy way.” All of these tend to be anecdotal, and inspiring enough stories that tell you how to be someone else. I’m all for self help. Like…all fuckin for it. Without it I wouldn’t be even attempting to write this article. But I think we need to step away from other people’s life instruction guide, and pick up the pen and start writing our own. So in my…
An anecdote on how to be present while suffering.
Naval Ravikant said it best — “If you go to a circus and see a bear, that’s interesting. You see a unicycle and that’s interesting too. But if you see a bear riding a unicycle, that’s REALLY interesting. So when you combine things you’re not supposed to combine, people get interested.” Here is my experience of being a bear riding a unicycle.
These days, micro-dosing psychedelic drugs is the hottest trend. It promotes creativity, laser focus, and that euphoric optimism we are all looking for. For me, the psychedelic of choice…
For a Minute I Thought I Was Dead
I’ll admit it. I’m a JRE junkie. It covers all topics of life that really make sense to me — health, fitness, psychedelics, and just a sprinkle of some political talk I can bear to listen to (not something I like to waste too much energy on). The other thing that Rogan can NOT stop talking about is the good ol’ float tank. Also known as “isolation” or “sensory deprivation” tanks, these tightly sealed “boxes”are said to be able to take your meditation abilities to the next level. …
It’s never about what you know, but who you know.
If 27 year old Ben could talk to 19 year old Ben, he wouldn’t even recognize his own voice. At 19 I was immersed in films by Wes Anderson and other smaller independent actors that told stories. That’s what I wanted to do and I thought, “All I have to do is go to film school and graduate and my life is set.”
I could not have been more wrong.
Not only film school, but college was a huge whirlwind. I lived right in Boston, specifically Allston, MA (shout out…
Burlington, Vermont — writing is a hobby — film school dropout surviving in the corporate world.