What I’ve been reading:
Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis by Erich Fromm, D. T. Suzuki, and Richard De Martino, and The Big Book from Alcoholic Anonymous
If you are a regular reader of Existential Espresso, you will notice that these are the books I mentioned in my two previous weekly updates on my reading. In reality, I read more than these two books over the past week. Or at least I tried to.
But the truth is that I took some of my own reading advice too far, making it counterproductive.
I advocate not restricting yourself by reading one book at a time and waiting to finish it before you move on to the next one. Read multiple books at a time. However, I noticed myself "saying yes" to too many books. Recently, I realized that I never finished reading a certain book that I actually found interesting and well-written at the time of reading it. Then I realized I never finished because I found multiple books in the same time period that I liked even more, and they eventually pushed this one out of my reading schedule.
That’s why this past week, even though I had some new books and essays that I wanted to start reading, I decided to practice some reading discipline and dedicate myself to these two I already shared with you.
What I’ve been listening to:
Embrace Simplicity - Nick Bare podcast
This is not a podcast episode with a guest; it’s just the host, Nick Bare, reflecting on a single idea: you want to aim for things (and life as a whole) to be simple, but not easy.
It’s significantly shorter than the average podcast episode, so I think it’s well worth a listen.
What I’ve been thinking about:
"The day is only so long, and I sometimes have difficulties letting go of it…I am working on ending the day accepting the extent of its contents."
This is a part of a weekly check-in provided by Sebastian, a member of Sisyphus Society, describing the biggest challenge he was facing the previous week, irregular sleep schedule, and what he is doing to overcome it.
I never read or heard anything on the topic of sleep that spoke to me on the level this reflection did. As someone who wants to accomplish as much as I can each day, I often find myself wanting more time in the day so that my "as much as I can" is also greater as a result of it. It leads me, as Sebastian perfectly put it, to have difficulties letting go of the day and staying awake for longer than I planned. I guess I know what I need to be working on.
Thank you for reading.
Stay strong, love life, and never feel sorry for yourself.
Free Resources:
My free ebook: The Lost Art of Reading
Paid Resources:
The Art of Showing Up: A Clear and Practical Method for Mastering Consistency
The Gold Pill: Timeless Ideas for a Life Worth Living
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