Hey friends,
I just got back from two weeks of travel through Colorado, Washington DC, and New York. All that movement motivated me to try something different with today’s newsletter—I recorded it as an audio podcast.
The topic is yin and yang, which is a concept that comes from ancient Chinese tradition. The essence of yin yang is that everything is connected to its opposite, but the meaning and implications of the idea go much deeper than that.
In the podcast, I share a few examples of how this duality shows up in everything around us, and how it can help us reframe our ideas of happiness, our concept of self, and even our approach to creative work. I hope it sparks some curiosity in you to explore these ideas a bit more.
These ideas were mostly inspired by an Alan Watts lecture I listened to over a year or so ago, in which he explores the idea of nothingness. His words really stuck with me, and changed how I think about the world we live in. Here’s a link to that lecture on nothingness, along with some additional resources if you’re keen to dive deeper:
Alan Watts Essential Lectures: Nothingness (via Library of Consciousness) — The lecture that changed my view of the world, including Watts’ breakdown of how everything is connected to what’s around it.
Alan Watts: We Must Learn to Love Ourselves (via Alan Watts Audio Experience) — In this lecture, Watts explores how we need our enemies because they define our identity
Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu (Translated by Joseph Lumpkin — This is my favorite translation of the book)
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and reactions to today’s audio newsletter. Feel free to leave a comment or send me a note.
🦊 Yin & Yang