Well, in 2011 after I felt sufficiently humiliated and battered by life, I took a crack at justifying why I felt I had something significant to share with the World. I was raised as a, um, let's say lower-class American, with all the life informing experiences that come from a childhood riddled with alcoholism, various forms of addiction, and morbid obesity. My first blog Analytical Ramblings of a Scientific Mind centred around how I began sorting through the resulting colourful mental illnesses that plagued me through my late teens and 20's. Back then I only dabbled in the weird and wonderful (i.e. my unique form of Spirituality), but since then I've shifted. Now becoming aware of the deeper psychological, if not subconscious, aspects that drove those previous anxious and/or unhealthy thoughts, emotions and actions is what really lights me up! I've practised observing myself as objectively as possible, pulling myself up on my own BULLSHIT (while remembering to remain kind to myself... one of lifes' greatest ironies), attempting to build authentic self-worth (while avoiding selfish conceit), and accepting myself flaws and all (while walking the fine line between letting myself off the hook too easily and preventing unnecessary self punishment).
Ah, it's a tangled web we Humans weave for ourselves! Indeed some of us are particularly good at wrapping ourselves up in the invisible chains... holding limiting beliefs we didn't even realise are actually tall-tales we tell ourselves for various conditioned and self-sabotaging reasons.
The stories I share are raw, hilarious, tragic, and unrelentingly honest. I publish this written and audio content in hopes others will reflect on the parallels in their own lives; after all, we are all Humans sharing this wonderful shit-show called Life. There are a finite number of emotions, which is why we can all relate on at least some level. I dare say Life is easy for anyone, no matter how their circumstances may appear to others from the outside... 👀💩
Below are some features that I'm hoping will help facilitate effective navigation and allow each reader/listener to have their own personalised experience:
Right-Side Panel
Navigating The Rabbit Hole: A Reader's Guide
I keep this reader's guide pinned to this location for everyone's convenience 😉.
Search This Blog
To the right-hand side, above 'Labels', is a search bar. Use it when looking for content containing specific words. For example, one may want to delve into articles that touch on 'IRONY'; debatably my favourite topic!
Labels
To group common themes I write each blog post under a specific label. While most articles will have multiple themes, I stick to one or two for consistency. The 'Labels' heading can be found on the right hand side (under the Search function), and are as follows. Clicking on any label will take the reader to all articles or recordings within that category, and shows the number of published works in parentheses.
- 20MRH Podcast: Take an animated and amusing adventure with me as I record myself analysing a particular topic. I keep these podcasts to 20-ish minutes since anything longer tests the limitations of the Human attention span. Each podcasts centres around a particular story, experience and/or working analogy.
- Analogical: Any written or audio creation that focuses on using an analogy to make a weighty-concept more digestible. For example, using the game of Tetris to analyse how I feel about dating and romantic relationships. Fun!
- Emotional Adventure: When someone would like to take a deeper look into emotional awareness, intelligence and also conflicting emotions, this is the label for them! This shit is both heavy and extremely enlightening, offering a means of understanding ourselves on a deeper emotional level... Which is important unless we're OK with punching a McDonald's employee in the face because the store ran out of Quarter Pounders 😂😳😏.
- From The Journal: Written in italics, these meanderings come directly from my own journal. Yes, this is actually the crazy shit I write to myself day-in and day-out, and are typically less dense than full articles (though no less illuminating 🔍🔮).
- Poetry: No, I'm no Robert Frost or Edgar Allen Poe, but I have a go 🙏📖.
- Body Lessons: I exercise for my mental and physical health, but also to get my creative juices flowing! Most of my ideas manifest whilst running, rowing, tramping, yoga-ing or lifting weights. These articles are either specific analogies or general rabbit holes I stumble upon during my physical pursuits... For example, how can the sweet-ache of an uphill jog teach me about growth as a person 🏃🤔?
- Self Worth & Esteem: Ah, a formidable topic indeed! The fine line between a healthy sense of worth versus arrogance and/or selfishness is among one of my favourite subjects to contemplate. These works stem from the premise that our worth is inherent, granted to us simply by being in existence instead of being something we must earn... I must continually remind myself of this 👌.
- Spirit Science: Mind-bending concepts, and my personal 'go-to' label for complex analyses... such as asking ourselves "Who gets the blame?" This label exemplifies a scientific Mind at work within a Soul's spiritual realm, using the laws of Physics, Biology and/or Chemistry along the way to aid in understanding. Definitely come prepared to think outside of the box as well as receiving a lesson in Science 📚🤓.
- Subtle Differences: The oh-so small nuances that frame what we say and do, giving essential hints towards our Mindsets. So many things can appear one way under a certain circumstance but completely different from another perspective, yet at face-value the concept seems the same 👆👀👈👀👉👀👇
- Summer's Shanghai Shuffle: A VLOG! Live, unfiltered, and completely unscripted because I work best while 'wining it.' My faithful and fellow philosophers of the weird and wonderful ways of our Universe are invited to accompany me to China where I'll be based in Shanghai for a year (unless I get kicked out or hauled back to NZ 😅). My reasons and intentions are detailed in the first episode, and I look forward to entertaining everyone as I observe myself and others through this cultural conundrum, and share what I'm certain will be humbling deductions... 💯💖🙏
Links
Links to other blog articles appear as Blue Bolded Text, and represent the true essence of the Rabbit Hole! All posts intentionally inter-relate as I attempt to keep my messages consistent even while drilling down into distinct themes, examples and psycho-sociological complexities. By elaborating on common philosophies from different vantage points, I hope that people can grasp these concepts in a way that is meaningful for them and helps build their own awareness. These links create a veritable 'Choose Your Own Adventure' of Rabbit Holes 🐇. Click on any link to go deeper into a different (yet related) adventure and see where it leads!
Unbolded Blue Text represents a future link to an article that I intend to write or is in development (timeline unknown unfortunately)... So, watch this space. 👀😆
My Other Works
Links to my previous blog, Analytical Ramblings of a Scientific Mind, as well as my YouTube channel which holds the 20-Minute(ish) Rabbit Hole Podcasts and the Audio Versions of articles (if there is one 😅).
Left-Side Panel
Contact Me
I send out an article each week via a Bcc'ed email list (for anonymity). This will either be for a newly created peice or revisions to previous works. This is a means to let me know if this email is of interest, or, if there's any feedback to give. I'd love to hear from the readers either way! 📧🙏What Others Enjoyed
Top 5 clicked-on published articles, which typically coincides with the article I've sent out via the weekly email list 😆👋. Blog Archive
What I've written and when... fairly self explanatory 😉. Rather than troll through the list, however, I've tried to make this easier by inserting Original Publication and Revision Dates at the end of each article. If nothing else, this proves that I continually un-learn and re-learn golden nuggets of wisdom continuously, and am perpetually humbled when I read an 'old' article only to discover that I 'had it all figured out' three years ago... 😅🙇🙈Report Abuse
I can only assume this is a default function, I certainly didn't put it there intentionally. But hey, if you think I'm being a dick, push it and see what happens 🙋😝💣
Bottom Panel: Resources to Promote Evolvement
A list of just a few of the resources that significantly informed my own weird and wonderful awareness evolution 📚꩜.General Themes
Language
Language
Firstly, the only truly off-limit words are those of 'You' and 'Should,' everything else is fair f*$!ing game! I abhor the word 'You' in self-development writing as I feel it comes across as accusatory and/or overtly instructional; and for me to be perceived as qualified to instruct others on how to conduct their own damn business is laughable if not entirely hypocritical 🤮. Instead I choose to use 'We,' because we're in this together dammit! I may be the author, but I'm still very much feeling and often fumbling my way through life; at times blindly, banging into all sorts of drama imaginable! I, in NO WAY, want people to think I have it all figured out, or that I have all the answers... that would be supremely embarrassing, especially since I fully expect to be arrested for exercise- (not alcohol-) related public urination some day 😅😂😇😖.
'Should' is also a no-go. Saying we 'should' do this or that subconsciously implies that what we're currently doing is 'wrong' in some way, which is not ideal for growth or healing. I can only speak for myself, but when I started paying attention to how much I heard myself thinking 'I shouldn't say that....' or 'I shouldn't have done that...,' it always inspired a sense of shame and/or guilt. Instead, let's put on our big-boy/big-girl pants and ask the bigger questions: "Why do we feel bad for being ourselves?", or "Why do we do shit that makes us feel like 💩 and/or we know doesn't serve us well?!"
We are who we are, we're at where we're at, and that's OK. If we don't like it, find that it isn't serving us well or helping us be the people we want to be, then we can shift it by becoming more aware. We're all here to learn. 📚
Secondly, F^*# yes I swear! It's colourful, adds flavour and helps keep shit light. Of course it's not intended to offend, so if people feel offended they would do well to explore why... and build their awareness! 😝🐇
Lastly, my articles are meant to be rather complex with a high degree of syntactical sophistication (i.e. impeccable grammar and vocabulary 🤓). This is intentional to create an environment wherein whole Worlds are created by reading between the lines. Reading an article once will provide one layer, while reading them two or three times over time will provide even deeper meanings, especially after certain life experiences give us different lenses to look through. As our awareness and consciousness expands, so too will our interpretation of these works.
Memes, Memes Everywhere!
Yes, I am obsessed with memes. I find they offer the perfect mental break within my meandering written creations. Some are homemade, otherwise I troll Google while writing to find one that fits the works' central thesis.
Author-Narration Story Time!
For those who prefer to be read to, in my own animated voice saturated with tonal context and oral cues, there are embedded YouTube videos of the 'Audio Version' at the end of each written work. Great for multi-tasking!
[NOTE: I'm Currently Working Through Updating These. Current versions can still be found on my YouTube page.]
Light and Love is for Hippies and Naifs
Come here for brutal honesty and raw tales of my adventures / mis-adventures (perspective dependent 😝), not a pat on the shoulder or a superficial assurance that 'it'll all be ok.' Will it? Potentionally... Eventually... Maybe at some point... but reading this shit at least gives us brain fuel and viewpoints to tackle lifes' challenges with a deeper sense of awareness, a bit more wisdom, and a lot more dark humour 👻🐇🙏💖.
Original Publication Date 16 August 2020, Revised 23 April 2023.
