⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

💬 Sapien Quotes: Collective Wisdom From The Dead.  Try it here. 

🌳 Majestic Tree: 140-year0old Holm Oak found in the garden of Villa Il Balbianello in Lenno, Lombardy, Italy.  See it here. 

🧘‍♀️ Yoga Nidra: Guided Non-Sleep Deep Rest Practice from the creator of Nervous System Mastery.  Listen here. 

(Applying for  Nervous System Mastery ? Use code HEX when you apply for $150 off).

🎇 Image of The Week

"Night of the Phoenix." Captured by Shamon Kureshi near Calgary, Canada during March 24th's raging solar storm.

🥭 When The Moment Ripens

Consider our lives as magnificent trees with sprawling branches reaching for the sky. Each branch represents a different aspect of our personal stories. The fruit borne from these limbs symbolizes our opportunities. However, not all opportunities are seized, and not all stories come to fruition.

Fruit may fall and decay, while branches can break or wither away. Thus, we can learn to cultivate discernment around the timing of opportunities. Can we seize the moment when it offers the greatest benefits? Can we exhibit patience, allowing opportunities to ripen before we detach them from their source of growth?

Can we accept the falling fruit and the inevitable decay that accompanies life's cycles? Can we recognize the abundance of opportunity and the fertile soil in which we are rooted?

We may not know where our lives are headed, but we can learn to embrace the winds of uncertainty and delight in the rustling of leaves.

🚪 A Secret Entrance Has Appeared

From Eric Brown, Steward of HighExistence:

I"ll be honest… we closed the doors to the  Hero100  yesterday.

But Down the Rabbit Hole only goes out every Wednesday. And if you’re weird, wild, and wonderful enough to read this incredible publication from Mike each week – I want you on this adventure with us!

So I’ll tell you what – I will keep our secret backdoor entrance open for you for ONE MORE DAY. This is only for readers of Down the Rabbit Hole.

This is like showing up at a club with a line around the corner and being walked in through the VIP side entrance. You’re a HighExistence OG, I love you, and I know you’re up for a challenge.

 This is the Hero100.  This is your time. This ends TOMORROW. The secret entrance will close in 24 hours, and we begin shortly thereafter.

 JUMP IN, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT. 

✍🏼 So You Want To Be A Writer

Take heed of this advice from Charles Bukowski:

"if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it. if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it. if it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it. if you're trying to write like somebody else, forget about it.

if you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. if it never does roar out of you, do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all, you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers, don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers, don't be dull and boring and pretentious, don't be consumed with self- love. the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. don't add to that. don't do it. unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it.

when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was."

🤓 Learn This Word

Anchorage: The desire to make time stand still

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

 Seneca’s Groundless Fears: 11 Stoic Principles for Overcoming Panic 

Sometimes people ask me, “How can I become a Stoic? Sure, I can read Stoicism books, but how can I actually embody this philosophy down to my core?”

My answer is that one should treat the practice of Stoicism no different from the practice of martial arts.

The great Stoic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius compared the art of living with wrestling. He was actually a student of martial arts in his youth—a style that resembles modern day MMA, with striking, wrestling, and submission holds.

If you were to enter into a fight in six months, your preparation for that fight would not consist of…

• Reading a few books on martial arts

• Loosely practicing some moves in the mirror

• Talking to other people as if you are a seasoned warrior

If this was your training, you would most certainly lose.

And yet for most of us, that’s how we approach Stoicism.

What you would do instead is…

• Drill technique over and over with training partner

• Condition yourself through challenging daily exercise

• Set up your lifestyle to optimise your health and training

• Find expert coaches to guide you through a camp

• Set achievable goals and pursue them with discipline

This is the exact process you must go through if you wish to become a practicing Stoic.

 [Continue Reading] 

🎬 Endnote

We hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell us what you think.

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With Wonder,

Mike Slavin & The HighExistence Team

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