Skip to main content

Posts

THE LEARNING HUB: When you wake up in the morning...

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural. ~Marcus Aurelius Book: Meditations https://amzn.to/3qjadxq (Art: Painting by Maximilien Luce)

The America's Youth Adaptation Forum

Princewill Daokorite was one of Africa's delegate at the America's Youth Adaptation Forum. "It was an awesome experience" in his words. The America's Youth Adaptation Forum Aims to: * Promote the perspective of young people in International adaptation process including the Global Goal on Adaptation * Promote youth participation in national policy- and decision-making processes, including in National Adaptation Plans. * Catalyze innovation ideas and adaptation action in young people by featuring African Youth Leadership Around the World including the African Youth Adaptation solutions challenge ( YouthADAPT ) winners. 

THE LEARNING HUB: I remain cautiously optimistic...

I remain cautiously optimistic. I think if we can move beyond the anxiety and dread and despair, there is a promise of something shifting not just culturally, but spiritually, too. I feel that potential in the air, or maybe a sort of subterranean undertow of concern and connectivity, a radical and collective move towards a more empathetic and enhanced existence. It does seem possible — even against the criminal incompetence of our governments, the planet’s ailing health, the divisiveness that exists everywhere, the shocking lack of mercy and forgiveness, where so many people seem to harbour such an irreparable animosity towards the world and each other — even still, I have hope. Collective grief can bring extraordinary change, a kind of conversion of the spirit, and with it a great opportunity. We can seize this opportunity, or we can squander it and let it pass us by. I hope it is the former. I feel there is a readiness for that, despite what we are led to believe. ~Nick Cave Book: Fa...

THE LEARNING HUB: The emotionally intelligent person..

The emotionally intelligent person knows that love is a skill, not a feeling, and will require trust, vulnerability, generosity, humor, sexual understanding, and selective resignation. The emotionally intelligent person awards themselves the time to determine what gives their working life meaning and has the confidence and tenacity to try to find an accommodation between their inner priorities and the demands of the world. The emotionally intelligent person knows how to hope and be grateful, while remaining steadfast before the essentially tragic structure of existence. The emotionally intelligent person knows that they will only ever be mentally healthy in a few areas and at certain moments, but is committed to fathoming their inadequacies and warning others of them in good time, with apology and charm. There are few catastrophes, in our own lives or in those of nations, that do not ultimately have their origins in emotional ignorance. ~Alain de Botton (Book: The School of Life https:...

THE LEARNING HUB:Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me.

Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life,the idea came to him of what he called 'the love of your fate.' Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, 'This is what I need.' It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment--not discouragement--you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are require...

THE LEARNING HUB: 6 Sentences that will change your life and mindset

1) Stop telling people everything. Most people do not care, and some secretly want you to fail. 2) Choose your friends wisely. The fastest way to become better is to surround yourself with better people. 3) Expect nothing, appreciate everything. Be grateful for the little things in your life to find inner peace. 4) Do your best and trust the process. The harder you work, the luckier you will get. 5) Control yourself, not OTHERS. Being able to control yourself is true power. 6) Learn to react less. When you control your reactions, you can't be manipulated. By Chandan

THE LEARNING HUB: We destroy the disinterested..

We destroy the disinterested (I do not mean uninterested) love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards — gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A’s on report cards. In short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else. We kill, not only their curiosity, but their feeling that it is a good and admirable thing to be curious, so that by the age of ten most of them will not ask questions, and will show a good deal of scorn for the few who do. ~John Holt (Art: Photograph by Bernard Hoffman)

THE LEARNING HUB: What are the realities of life that people don't want to accept?

1. Life pro tip: stop expecting. 2. The more you hide your feelings, the more deeply you feel them. 3. Forgiveness is accepting the apology you will never receive. 4. Everything we say at funerals should be said at birthday parties instead. 5. Real ones stay during bad times. 6. At some point, you’ll have to realize that some people won’t be ready for your love. 7. Growing sometimes means leaving people behind. 8. Change is scary but so is staying the same. 9. Letting people lose you instead of trying to convince them of your worth hits different. 10. Just because today wasn’t your day doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t be.

THE LEARNING HUB: I have a theory that..

I have a theory that the moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. I have tried this experiment a thousand times and I have never been disappointed. The more I look at a thing, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I want to see. It is like peeling an onion. There is always another layer, and another, and another. And each layer is more beautiful than the last. This is the way I look at the world. I don't see it as a collection of objects, but as a vast and mysterious organism. I see the beauty in the smallest things, and I find wonder in the most ordinary events. I am always looking for the hidden meaning, the secret message. I am always trying to understand the mystery of life. I know that I will never understand everything, but that doesn't stop me from trying. I am content to live in the mystery, to be surrounded by the unknown. I am content to be a see...

THE LEARNING HUB: As adults, we have many..

As adults, we have many inhibitions against crying. We feel it is an expression of weakness, or femininity or of childishness. The person who is afraid to cry is afraid of pleasure. This is because the person who is afraid to cry holds himself together rigidly so that he won't cry; that is, the rigid person is as afraid of pleasure as he is afraid to cry. In a situation of pleasure he will become anxious. As his tensions relax he will begin to tremble and shake, and he will attempt to control this trembling so as not to break down in tears. His anxiety is nothing more than the conflict between his desire to let go and his fear of letting go. This conflict will arise whenever the pleasure is strong enough to threaten his rigidity. Since rigidity develops as a means to block out painful sensations, the release of rigidity or the restoration of the natural motility of the body will bring these painful sensations to the fore. Somewhere in his unconscious the neurotic individual is awar...