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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 133 (Feb 19, 2023) — Disorienting Dilemmas, Transformative Learning, Free Will, & More
Sloww Sunday shares creations from Sloww along with curations of fascinating finds to 10,000+ students of life. If you enjoy this issue, please help grow Sloww by forwarding the email version of this newsletter to other lifelong learners.
🌎 Lighter Living
A Mini Guide to Voluntary Simplicity
I first discovered the concepts of simple living and slow living just after my existential crisis in late 2015. But, it would take almost another year before I became aware of the concept of “voluntary simplicity” by stumbling upon a college student’s thesis called “Listening to the Quiet Revolution” (Thesis Summary). It was one of those pivotal moments that led me deeper down the rabbit hole to “Voluntary Simplicity” by Duane Elgin (Book Summary) and “The Value of Voluntary Simplicity” by Richard Gregg (Essay Summary). I highly recommend checking it out because it’s life-changing once you start intentionally living below your means.
“To live voluntarily, is to live conscientiously and deliberately, and to live more simply is to unencumber oneself in all aspects of life in order to ‘(meet) life face to face.’ In short, voluntary simplicity is ‘outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich.'” — Duane Elgin
Explore more: How do I design a lighter life? (Sloww Stage 1)
🧭 Deeper Purpose
Turning Depression into Drive
I’ve synthesized everything I could find on Maria Popova of Brain Pickings/The Marginalian (50+ articles, interviews, podcasts, and videos) and never saw or heard her mention she suffers from frequent depression until a talk she gave a month ago. I think this is new news to me because Maria keeps pretty private—she’s been writing online for 15+ years but says she “rarely writes very personal things.” Lucky for us, we get a little window into her world every now and then. Here are 3 life lessons I’ve learned from her, along with my 🔒ultimate synthesis of Maria Popova.
“I began this project (Brain Pickings / The Marginalian) in large part because I needed to pull myself out of my first major depression. I think the best way to feel the edge of life is to become interested, and then you become interesting by default.” — Maria Popova
Get the eBook: Ikigai 2.0: A Step-by-Step Guidebook to Finding Life Purpose & Making Money Meaningfully (+ Bonus Workbook)
Explore more: How do I find higher purpose (Sloww Stage 2)?
🧠 Mental Wealth
If you’re experiencing a “disorienting dilemma”…
…you may be at the beginning stage of a transformative learning journey! I wish I could go back in time and realize that my own crisis was what could be classified as a disorienting dilemma. Instead, it’s 7+ years later and I’m just now hearing about transformative learning theory. But, better late than never, and I hope these new book summaries and synthesis can guide you if you’re currently experiencing a disorienting dilemma of your own:
- “Learning in Adulthood” (Book Summary)
- “Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning” (Book Summary)
- “Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning” (Book Summary)
- 🔒Transformative Learning Synthesis: How to Transform Your Perspective (+ Infographics)
“You encounter problems in which the old ways of thinking and reacting simply don’t work. And, you become aware that they don’t work, and you get really upset and frustrated and emotional about it because something isn’t working for you … Often, emotional disturbance is the key to having a really successful transformative learning experience. If somebody really feels that they can’t use an old way of thinking, they’re going to have to open themselves up to a new way … The central concept that I’m really interested in, in the context of adult learning, has to do with critical reflection of assumptions.” — Jack Mezirow
Get Mini Mind: 365 Daily Emails of Bite-Size Brain Food
Explore more: How do I master the mind (Sloww Stage 3)?
☯️ Timeless Wisdom
The Ancient Question of Free Will
I did a deep dive into free will last year that led to 15+ posts on the subject, but I’ve seen even more free will stuff popping up lately:
- New 2023 free will documentary (Website | Amazon)
- 2021 free will video series (Website | YouTube Playlist)
- Robert Sapolsky’s upcoming free will book (Amazon)
PS: Free will is also connected to the concept of the lottery of birth. I just watched one of the most powerful videos I’ve ever seen to show its influences. Fair warning: The topics involved in this video are intense (or, in the words of someone I shared the video with, “brutal”) and NSFW.
Explore more: How do I embody wisdom (Sloww Stage 4)?
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Go with the Sloww,
Kyle Kowalski
Synthesizer & Solopreneur
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