SaveWisdom.org is a project dedicated to preserving individual wisdom. On the website, there are 1000 questions designed to interview someone about their early life, formative experiences, values, perspectives, and challenges. These questions are intended to invite deep reflections and greater self-understanding. They are open-sourced and can be used freely for personal use. Because of this website, I feel empowered to interview my grandmother, who is flying in from Morelia, Michoacán at the end of this month to celebrate her 80th birthday. Inspired by this list, I have been creating my own list of curious questions I would like to ask her. I plan to record her answers to gift to my extended family. — CD

NPR’s Stress Less newsletter series shares actionable strategies to reduce stress and increase joy. This series, based on a resilience course created by psychologist Judith Moskowitz, teaches eight strategies to boost your day-to-day well-being. 

The 8 skills to manage stress are: 

• Positive events: Notice when positive things happen in your life

• Savoring: Relish the positive things in your life

• Gratitude: Appreciate what brings you happiness

• Mindfulness: Focus on the present moment without judgment

• Positive reappraisal: Find the silver lining 

• Self-compassion: Be kind to yourself

• Personal strengths: Recognize your unique abilities

• Attainable goals: Make plans that set you up for success

The series launched on September 30, and I am currently on week 2 of the 5-week program. However, you can sign up for the Stress Less newsletter at any time and access the archived issues, as well as the upcoming weeks, if you subscribe now. — CD 

This article “How to do mental time travel” offers practical exercises to help you engage with your past and future selves. These exercises encourage adopting a long-term view and gaining a vast perspective on life, as well as your place in the world. Here is a list of the mental exercises that can help you gain clarity and meaning, and avoid harmful short-term thinking: 

• Conversation with Future Self: Imagine asking your future self open-ended questions to make better present choices.

• Empathy for Future Generations: Visualize the lives of future people to foster concern for long-term issues like climate change.

• Temporal Windows: Spend time each week reflecting on the long-term past and future by observing your surroundings.

• Generational Thinking: Consider your place in the timeline of your family and humanity to feel more connected to the past and future.

• Future-Gifting: Do something now that will benefit your future self or future generations.

• Long-Term Communities: Engage with communities and movements that promote long-term thinking and effective altruism.

• Alternative Time Perspectives: Learn from different cultural views on time to enrich your understanding and approach to the future.

— CD

This might be an oversimplification of the true sources behind our fears, but I appreciate this visual chart of possible unmet needs and the arrows pointing toward a healthy resolution for each fear. Sometimes fear can be paralyzing, and this serves as a good reminder to stay curious about my negative emotions and what truly lies behind them. — CD

Here is a great short list on how to stay calm without any hacks from Greg Isenberg. All of these tips are effective and simple ways to help you move out of “stuck” energy or feelings of helplessness, guiding you toward something more beneficial and useful. The advice, “if you’re scared, take a risk,” reminds me of an anonymous quote I recently came across: “The cold water doesn't get warmer if you jump late.” — CD 

Here is a thought-provoking graphic I came across on Reddit that categorizes your perception of time based on your thoughts and feelings. For example, if you are experiencing emotions like guilt or shame, you are considered to be living in the past; if you are overthinking or worrying, you are seen as living in the future; and if you are feeling or embodying acceptance, you are living in the present moment. While I don’t think these categorizations are absolute—I have definitely experienced fear and negative emotions while being in the “Now”—I still found this useful as a general framework. — CD

Something that helps me dispel confusion or feelings of resistance in my body is listening to "The Pearl Dive," a 30-minute guided imagery journey created by Dr. Rosalind Watts. This meditation prompts me to dive deep into my body and away from my thoughts, uncovering buried emotions and desires that I have yet to shine light on. It amazes me that I always discover something new and how uncomfortable feelings can transform into treasures if I just spend a little time exploring my inner landscape. You can learn more and listen to "The Pearl Dive" here, as well as the follow-up meditation "Planting the Pearl as a Seed," which focuses on integrating the insights gained from the dive. If you’re interested in participating in a communal listening of the meditations, check out ACER’s upcoming events flyer posted to Instagram. — CD 

I recently came across Caroline Myss’s Archetype Oracle Cards at my therapist's office and was so fascinated with it that I decided to purchase my own set. This deck includes 80 cards, each representing a different archetype with both its Light and Shadow Attributes. I like to make up different ways to play with this deck. Sometimes, I sift through the cards to identify the archetypes that are most active in my psyche or recognize those I might be suppressing by selecting the cards that resonate with or repel me. Other times, I draw a single card with the intention of deepening my understanding of it and observing how it might express itself in others. This deck has helped me better understand my own sub-personalities, and I think it would make an excellent tool for anyone doing “parts work,” like Internal Family Systems or Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves. —CD

I’ve been using the Triple Flame app (free, available on Android) for reminders to take a pause. Every three hours, I receive a reminder to pause whatever I’m doing for at least three minutes. You can choose between a silent pause or a guided one, accompanied by music or reflections. I appreciate being able to see how many other people are pausing at the same time. The contemplative quotes that pop up also encourage me to look inward. — CD 

I liked learning about the 9 types of intelligence based on a theory by Psychologist Howard Gardner. They are: Visual-spatial, Linguistic-verbal, Logical-mathematical, Body-kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic, and recently added Existential. Here’s an info-graphic and another chart I found helpful. I know what comes easily to me, but this makes me want to develop the intelligences I struggle with: spatial, logical-mathematical and bodily-kinesthetic. My plan in 2024 is to draw more, build puzzles, and maybe try sculpting. — CD

Morgan Housel compiled a list of ideas “that help explain how the world works.” Here are some examples:

• Compassion Fade — People have more compassion for small groups of victims than larger groups because the smaller the group, the easier it is to identify individual victims.

• Ringelmann Effect — Members of a group become lazier as the size of their group increases. Based on the assumption that “someone else is probably taking care of that.”

• Cobra Effect — Attempting to solve a problem makes that problem worse. Comes from an Indian story about a city infested with snakes offering a bounty for every dead cobra, which caused entrepreneurs to start breeding cobras for slaughter.

—MF

Jane Friedman of Electric Speed recently asked her readers to share their favorite meditation apps and reasons why, and here is the complete list. Calm, Insight Timer and Headspace seem to be most popular. — CD 

Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR), also known as yoga nidra, induces a state of deep relaxation while maintaining consciousness. If you're unable to take a 15-minute nap when you're tired, I find that one of these free 9-minute NSDR tracks has a similar effect. The guided breathing techniques help to slow down my heart rate, and the body scans redirect my focus from external visual information to a sensation of pure rest. — CD

Mind Window is an app developed by researchers at the University of Arizona that gives you insight and data on your thought patterns. Every day I get six prompts at random times to reflect on what I just thinking about. The app generates a word cloud of my thoughts and tracks my mood and what I most commonly focus my attention on. By using the app you consent to participate in their research study. Personal information is stored anonymously and securely, and participants may edit or remove their personal information at any time. I’ve only been using it for 5 days but some things I learned about myself is that my thoughts are split 50/50 between Future focus and Present focus (not Past), and right now my word cloud is made up of: Thinking, Love, Future, Weather, Feeling, Waking, Moment and Energy. — CD

This article is a compilation of advice found in hundreds of self-help bestsellers and boiled to 11 simple rules, which are: 1. Take one small step. 2. Change your mental maps. 3. Struggle is good. Scary is good. 4. Instant judgment is bad. 5. Remember the end of your life. 6. Be playful. 7. Be useful to others. 8. Perfectionism = procrastination. 9. Sleep, exercise, eat, chill out. Repeat. 10. Write it all down. 11. You can't get it all from reading. — Which is just a reminder that everyone needs someone to call them out on their B.S. like a therapist, an accountability buddy or a best friend. — CD

I love walking labyrinths for meditation. I considered buying a portable labyrinth mat but I can’t justify the $600+ price tag. For now, I’m happy with these Finger Labyrinth Travel Cards as a mindfulness “on-the-go” tool. I set an intention to leave my “worry” in the middle, and trace the maze-like path toward the center and back out again. It’s very relaxing. — CD

Girls’ Night In is a newsletter I’ve read for years and they recently solicited advice and learnings from therapy and shared it here: The Best Things We Learned in Therapy (scroll down). In anxious or volatile moments, I like the reminder that "I can't stop the waves, but I can learn how to surf." Or asking yourself, "What are you doing to contribute to your own unhappiness?" — my mind automatically flips the question to, “What can I do in this moment to contribute to my own happiness?” I hope this is a reoccurring feature. — CD

I was a few years into my loosely-disciplined meditation practice when I felt the urge to make hand gestures while sitting. I knew nothing about Mudras or where to even start. Googling it just overwhelmed me. Thankfully, I found my way to this deck of cards called Mudras of Yoga: 72 Hand Gestures for Healing and Spiritual Growth. The instructions and photographs are clear and each card has a description of the technique, application and benefits. It's definitely deepened my experience and I feel more embodied while meditating. — CD 

Mental Supply is a collection of mental health tips specifically for startup founders, but I’m finding them very useful. Here’s one attributed to Gary Keller who wrote The ONE Thing: “Multitasking is often misunderstood as doing multiple tasks at the same time, but it actually refers to task switching. This incurs a time penalty, particularly with complex tasks. To be more efficient, focus on one task at a time.” There’s a lot of helpful advice available here for when you are feeling angry, burnt out, insecure or overwhelmed. — CD

A 20-minute video that looks at 21 kinds of thinking errors. Here’s an example of the Gambler’s Fallacy: “A University of Chicago review found asylum judges were 19% less likely to approve an asylum seeker if they had just approved the previous two. The same person applying for a loan was more likely to get approved for a loan if the previous two applicants were rejected and was more likely to be rejected if the previous two applications were approved.” — MF