Do you do any self-development?

Meditation isn't for me and neither are self-help books really...but it's so funny, because the startup I'm building is literally an ebook platform for creative & professional development. 🥴

When I want to refocus my energies, build a habitual practice, try to calm my mind, being occupied will take me much further than meditating or reading.

So instead of meditating, I'll make paper stars or other origami. I'll do art to explore my emotions. When I want to learn something new, an exercise — even a thought exercise! — teaches me more than theory. If I want to improve something, I need to actually do.

It's really interesting how self-development can take so many different forms.

I meditate and have done for years now. I find that it's really helpful with getting myself out of my own head which is something that I've struggled with. The common misconception is that it needs to be this whole event but that's incorrect. You can meditate almost anywhere. I would do it on the train to work in the morning.

As for books, I don't gravitate to ones that self describe themselves as "self help" because, to me, it's evocative of those almost cult-like leaders like Tony Robbins. Not a fan.

I am, however, a huge fan of philosophy. For people who are wanting to improve themselves and their reactions to negative events, I'd recommend looking into Stoicism. I'd start with Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (the Gregory Hays translation). I find that incredibly helpful and reread it a couple times per year. If you read and enjoy that, I'd point people to Epictetus' Discourses and Seneca's Letters from a Stoic. Both great.