Nothing is lamer than an attempt to force a narrative, political opinion, or a buzz word topic into your poetry. Unless you are passionate about it and extremely competent, the result will come across as tacky, and importantly, it won’t be impactful to the reader. I care about a multitude of issues, but I only put to paper the poems that come to me naturally. I am never happy with the results of forced poetry. After a month or two away from the piece, I find myself cringing at how obviously contrived my work was. Of course, I am critical of my normal poetry, but it is not in the same way. I had a few ‘forced’ poems that I could have included in my books, but I cut them all as I no longer feel what I supposedly felt when writing them originally, and upon reflection I don’t think I ever felt that way…

Throughout my entire schooling career, I was a left-brain thinker. Math made sense. It had a right and a wrong. It felt like the only solid base in a chaotic world, spawned by a tumultuous home life. This was combined with incompetent and out of touch teachers and terrible examples of poetry that I simply couldn’t relate to. I was left feeling that at best the entire artform was beyond me, and at worst that it was a refuge for pomposity and prose, written by people who have experienced less than they would ever write.…

There is a risk for poets, and all artists, to believe they need to be drunk or high to be creative. And whilst I have had some amazingly creative thoughts whilst stoned, rarely, if ever have, I produced anything of worth in that mental state. Obviously everyone is different, but I prefer to work with the creative energy sober, for two main reasons: health and practicality…

Finding the time to write can be hard and staying focused during that time can be harder still. Whether or not you are like me and want to make money off your art (gasp!), or just write for the sheer pleasure or catharsis of it, you will want to make the most of the limited time you get with the page…

Writing feels akin to a combination of exorcising a demon, giving birth, and the following of a holy calling. There is a reason you are reading this book. It is the reason you want to write. You may not even be able to articulate it, beyond a drive, a push, a force, that seems to be moving you in a certain direction. You know when you hold the negative poles of two magnets, how one is compelled to move? You can hold it back, but there will forever be tension…

Communication, either via words on a page, or spoken, is not perfect. The speaker formulates a concept in their mind (imagery, feelings, sensations, memories, emotions) and condenses all of that down into words and expresses it…

I moved out of home at 16, surviving off government assistance, charity, and sheer will. Back then, I couldn’t imagine what thriving would even look like…

In this course you will learn how to lucid dream - that is the ability to recognise that you are dreaming, and then gain control of the dream.
Once lucid, you can freely explore your subconscious mind, stop nightmares in their tracks, practice for real life events and of course, engage in all kinds of wish fulfilment in a completely safe, internal environment.
This course will cover four basic strategies designed to get you lucid dreaming as quickly and proficiently as possible.
1: Raising Awareness - The act of engaging with lucid dreaming material (like this course) will itself increase your chances of becoming lucid.
2: Dream Journal - Recording your dreams increases your ability to recall your dreams, as well as increases their stability and clarity.
3: Reality Checking - By asking yourself ‘Am I Dreaming?’ you are checking reality. This will translate into the dream world and promote lucidity.
4: Induction Methods - Learn a specific night time induction method that (in some people) instantly gets them lucid.

For the class project, you will do a 7 day Dream Journal, this will get you started and hopefully help you to implement it as a daily habit to assist you in continued lucid dreaming.

When you look closely at most religions, philosophical traditions, styles of psychological therapies, and even healthy friendship groups, you see that they all share the common feature of talking as a form of healing. The confessional, the therapist’s couch, the shared introspections, and the long phone calls all seem to serve the same core function: they act as an outlet, a way to let go of our troubles, a springboard for our ideas, or just an opportunity to process the complexities of life. There are of course differences in the beliefs, practices, and surrounding doctrine, but the practical reality is that healing comes when we talk.

Unless we act, our lives cannot improve.

Extensive knowledge, support or resources mean nothing if we do not employ them to our advantage. Yet there is a risk of falling into the trap of constant action. Always working and never playing. This kind of relentless pursuit of self-improvement is akin to attempting to sprint a marathon; initially you will outpace your opponents, but you will soon burn out. To some, finding this balance comes naturally. These people can moderate their workload and pace themselves over time, ensuring an optimal split between work, rest, and play. Unfortunately, this ability is not universal.

Perfection is unattainable. No matter how hard we try, we will always fall short. Initial progress comes quick and easy, but as we progress, the time and effort to make similar gains becomes exponentially harder. To get a task to 50% complete may take less effort than the final 10%.

Chasing perfection is like trying to find the end of a rainbow. As we approach it, it shifts just a little further. The problem is that perfection is subjective. My perfect will not be the same as your perfect, nor will my perfect stay the same over time. This is true for exercise, family, relationships, careers, financial, or attainments of any kind.

When we attempt to reach our goal, our efforts change us, thus what we now perceive as perfect has also changed. So, we set a new goal, one that is ‘truly’ perfect and then start the process over. We end up stuck in an endless loop of goal revision, one that can stifle all forward progress.

There is a temptation to make money the goal of our worldly pursuits. To make a certain income level, or amount of accumulated assets our life purpose; one that becomes the benchmark of our performance and subsequent happiness. Until reached, we have not yet ‘made it’ and thus cannot be satisfied. The problem is that if your goal is purely financial, attainment will feel like a hollow victory. This is because after a certain point, more money does not bring more happiness.

All relationships end in breakup or death.

It can feel like the more you love now the more pain you will suffer later. One person will outlive the other; left to handle the emotionality of their companion’s passing. Given the inevitable pain that such a connection causes, why is it that we are drawn to one another? Why have the poets spoken of love so passionately? Why is love at the centre of so much art, literature, and culture?

Love gives life meaning.

True, it can be a double-edged sword; a pendulum that swings from joy to pain. But it also acts as a counter point to the inherent suffering that life brings. We will all experience loss, pain, embarrassment, and shame; love balances this equation. It gives context and meaning to those experiences, and accentuates the good times.

When we suffer, love heals us.
When we triumph, love enables us to share.

When you smile, the world smiles back.
When you fight, the world fights back.

“Your mood is reflected on the faces of strangers.”

We take on the moods of those around us. Happiness, anger, and fear spread like a contagion, jumping from person to person, mutating and growing stronger. This transmission forms the core of interpersonal relationships and is the basis of our survival as a species. We look at our tribe and make quick assessments. Should we run or fight? Welcome or shun?

The sense of self is an illusion.

When we introspect, we see that there is nothing stable to hold onto. Our moods, thoughts, desires, behaviours, and opinions constantly change.

“Who am I other than constant change?”

Turn the camera inwards and observe for yourself. Watch the thoughts come and go. Notice how you did not choose the thoughts that came, nor the thoughts that replaced them. They just appeared and disappeared of their own volition. Watch, and see how emotions, memories, moods, and other mental phenomena arise.

Where are they arising from?

The inevitability of death is overwhelming.

What is the point? Why strive when our accomplishments do not last? There is some logic to this line of reasoning. The fact is that we are going to die. And given enough time, all memory and evidence of our existence will fade from humanity’s collective memory. Most of us will not even be remembered four generations from now. Do you know anything about your Great Grandparents other than their names? Do you even know their names? Why should our lives be any more permanent?

We judge people on their actions. We look at their history, accomplishments, qualifications, and experiences, and then we want that person in our lives. We rarely consider what the person thinks of themselves. A good builder is good, not because they say and believe themselves to be good, but because they create sturdy, reliable, and safe houses.

Yet, when we judge ourselves, we do so based on momentary feelings. We may be positive, believing ourselves to be a paragon of beauty, virtue, and capability. Or we may be negative, believing ourselves to be total failures, unworthy of love and respect. These judgements are rarely accurate. We are too close to the subject matter, and our egos have a vested interest in keeping itself protected. We have the capability to justify anything. To distort reality such that our actions become the cornerstone of morality, truth, and rightness. When we acknowledge our shortcomings, we are far more forgiving of those shortcomings in ourselves than in others.

The present moment is all that exists. The past is gone, and the future has not yet come. We are continuously dealing with ramifications of the past. The choices we made then, will forever impact us today. Similarly, the impact of our choices today, will forever reverberate into our future. Yet neither the future nor the past exists as more than a construct. We are impacted by it, and need to plan accordingly, but our lived experience is one of repeated present moments strung together.

Have you ever had the experience of coming to the end of a long productive day, looking back over what you have done and feeling completely dissatisfied with what you managed to accomplish? You know you can do better, and you should do better. Friends and family tell you that they could never hope to do as much as you, but you feel like you could do more.

People have a tendency to believe that they are special or separate from the rest. That they are innately lucky, skilled and intelligent, that they are above average, destined for greatness, and immune from the problems that plague others. This is simply not true.

There is nothing inherently special about you, me or anyone. We are all average, and unless we do more than average, we will remain that way. Only hard work, discipline, practice and perseverance will set us apart from the crowd.