#5 The joy of finding things out
Welcome to Vast Experiences, the place where you can be yourself and can expand your horizons. I’m Eike Zeller. I just started a new routine around building Vast Experiences. You can read more about it here.
Playful Ideas
I have been meditating for a while now and recently started to meditate for an hour first thing in the morning. It’s nice to give yourself permission to let your mind drift off into all sort of directions and when you open your eyes again everything seems to be a bit clearer. This morning I was thinking a lot about the joy of finding things out. I was thinking of an interview with Richard Feynman I watched many years ago there are a lot of gems in it. Have a watch of the famous physicist here:
Growing Methods
I’m currently reading Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta. It’s a book about how indigenous knowledge can save the world. It’s a fascinating read. There is a beautiful part of the book about the joy of discovering new things.
The burst of pleasure we feel when genuine knowledge transmission takes place occurs from of new neural pathways. These are connections between two points that were previously unconnected. Jokes are one most pure examples of this neural creation event; In humour is based on two ideas coming together in a new way — puns, rhymes, double meanings, unusual circumstances, accidents, exposed delusions and contextually inappropriate content are examples of this. The chemical rush we get from sudden neural connections in jokes is so intense and pleasurable that we laugh out loud. This kind of humour and joy in learning is a huge part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. If people are laughing, they are learning. True learning is a joy because it is an act of creation.
It is an amazing way to thinking about how learning, creating and play are connected. Part of what I am doing with Vast Experience is to explore new ways how we can get joy out understanding and learning about ourselves and our environment. Improv theatre is a classic example to learn about yourself and people in a safe and joyous environment.
Creative Experiments
Every Tuesday night, my friend Tim and I are facilitating a virtual improv class on Zoom. Last Tuesday we played a game you get endowed with a topic, let’s say ‘tissues’ and then you play to an expert on tissues present a talk at the International Tissue Symposium and the other players get to ask you questions. It’s nice to be in a controlled environment where you can explore your mind and interact with others and it trains you to have more engaging conversations. If you like to join the virtual improv group get in touch at eike@vastexperiences.com
Connected Discussions
It’s the 4th week we have been running the Early Work Crew. This week we started as a little segment in it called “Know How To Share”, where we share little tips and tricks and tutorials about how we work and about the tools we are using, like you to design banners with Canva or how to display data in meaningful ways. After 19 sessions of the Early Work Crew, I feel like I’m starting form a habit. I am very grateful for all the inspiring people joining in for 90 min of undistracted work in the morning. If you are interested to get an inspiring headstart to the day you can sign up here.
Curious Conclusions
Keep creating all of these wonderful things in your head and turn the most beautiful thoughts in reality. If you can imagine things, they exist in your mind. Talk to others about them then they exist in their minds. Write them down then they exist on paper. Play with them, then they develop. Put them into action and let your ideas explore the world, let merge other ideas and form new ideas. One day they will return to you and make you proud. If you like to play around your ideas in a supportive environment come along to Ideas Anonymous. Every fortnight, we get together and explore our ideas and find ways to turn them into reality.
Have a lovely weekend. See you next week.
Only if we can see the world in different ways, we will see how it really is.
Only if we can see ourselves in different ways, we will see who we really are.
Places to Belong
- Mon, 11/05/ Zenergy Stage 1: The Art of Facilitation (Online)
- Thu, 14/05 /Play in Isolation with Playful Thinking
- Wed, 13/05/ Ideas Anonymous #7
- Fri, 05/06/ Live Streamed FAB9 Show & Tell
- Weekdays from 7 to 9 am: Early Work Crew
- Tuesday night Improv Session from 7 pm: Contact Eike
- Fri, 15/05/ pm Story Happy Hour
- Saturdays 2 pm Painting live on Facebook
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