⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

Can’t miss gems of the weird and wonderful

🐲 Becoming A Dragon: A card deck based on the Enneagram to help you live with more boldness, adventure, and intimacy. See it here.

🤫10 Days of Solitude: An essay exploring the value and power of unplugging from this hyperconnected world. Read it here.

🌊Glowing Oceans: Stunning video of billions of bioluminescent organisms known as sea sparkles making the ocean glow blue. See it here.

🥊 Spar Cards: A simple tool to better handle conflict with loved ones. Check it out here.

🎩The Magic of Emergence: The closest thing to magic that science has a word for. How synergy of different parts can come together to create something fundamentally new: Watch this talk here.

🎇 Image of The Week

Anthony Salsi took 15,000 pictures and then stacked the highest quality frames to make this stunning mosaic of the Moon. It’s believed that the red hues are signs of lava flow from millions of years ago.

🙏🏻 Gratitude Chain Reaction

We are living through difficult times. Many people are struggling and some of them are suffering in silence. We can’t be sure how hard life is for our neighbor right now. Not everyone shows it on the surface.

For those who feel drawn to help, it can be challenging to figure out how to even make a meaningful difference. Well, here is one small way you can make your corner of the world a little brighter:

Choose a contact in your phone and send a heartfelt message of appreciation. This can be someone you’re close to or someone you’ve lost touch with. It doesn’t matter.

It can be someone who you know is struggling or someone who seems to always have it together. It doesn’t matter.

It can be a specific characteristic that you’re grateful for or just a general sentiment about their presence in your life. It doesn’t matter.

The point is, in expressing your thankfulness for them, you strengthen the social fabric around you. Your message can uplift their mood and even cause them to have a more positive impact on the people they come in contact with today.

Imagine if everyone who reads this email shared their appreciation with someone they cared about. That can light a spark in everyone who receives a message to be a little more kind, compassionate, or grateful towards those in their life. And then those people show up a little bit differently. And so on. A ripple effect is formed.

We could create a Gratitude Chain Reaction. It might not cover the globe but it might have a bigger impact than we could ever assess.

Because there might be someone out there who is really struggling today that needs the extra zap of kindness. And through this Gratitude Chain Reaction, we might reach them.

Pick someone and write them a heartfelt note. You’ll feel better, they’ll fell better, and the world will get just a little bit brighter.

📖  The 4 Functions of Myth

Joseph Campbell explains the four functions of myth:

“Myth basically serves four functions. The first is the mystical function,… realizing what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before this mystery….

The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which science is concerned – showing you what shape the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through….

The third function is the sociological one – supporting and validating a certain social order…. It is the sociological function of myth that has taken over in our world – and it is out of date….

But there is a fourth function of myth, and this is the one that I think everyone must try today to relate to – and that is the pedagogical function, of how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.”

🌴 Rainforest Medicine Council

If you’re in Costa Rica or feel like you can travel there safely, you might want to check out this event happening in January. Experience Ancient Amazonian plant medicine ceremonies for personal, community and planetary renewal.

Hosted by friend of HighExistence, Jonathon Weisberger, The Rainforest Medicine Council is happening at the Ocean Forest Ecolodge Retreat located on Costa Rica’s treasured Osa Peninsula, a paradise well known for its vast diversity of animal and plant life. Tucked perfectly between a pristine beach and the thriving rainforest you will also find yoga, wellness modalities, comfortable accommodations and three delicious natural meals daily. Learn more here.

🤓 Learn This Word

Onism: A word found in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows that references “the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time, which is like standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here.”

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article

How I Stopped Comparing Myself To Others

“I used to feel like I’d never be successful, like I’d never measure up to the accomplishments of the people around me.

Right after I first began coaching and speaking, I spent much of my daily life comparing myself to people I considered successful. And I never measured up.

I would go on website after website, feeling my heart sink as I wondered:

“How will I ever be able to do this? How can I ever get people to listen to what I am saying? What if I will always be a nobody? What if no one cares? What if I’m not good enough?”

The shame was overwhelming, and so was the anxiety. After I had quit my day job, it became even worse. I had left my career of study – a field I had excelled in academically and professionally – to pursue a passion that left me feeling inadequate and insignificant.”

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