a picture I really want you to see
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Hey hoo, HAPPY 2025 🥂 Rounded the corner to the new year and I’ve been wracking my brain to think of any excuse to talk about life cultivation. How about I just talk and I share what a life cultivator should consider for the story of change to become reality, and we’ll work from there? To fully appreciate this, you’ve gotta know that I have started a fiction writing course by the end of 2024, and that I was the classic "I don’t know what to write" kid who was at a loss for ideas to come up with a storyline in school when it came to the 'essay writing' assignment. Tim is becoming a world champion. Think of a story such as a football tournament, describe Tim, Tim is coming too late, a teammate drops out, Tim replaces him etc. I dreaded writing stories. It was more than daunting to write these endless pages of action, adventure, characterisation and twisting plotlines because I struggled so badly with coming up with a story. Who could believe that, right? This seemingly natural gift that should’ve been given into my cradle must’ve gotten lost somewhere along the way. Poor Tim…no great adventures for him. The way I was taught in primary school was to sweat over handwriting practice and making sure to come up with the most fabulous words for my story writing; "You want to look at your words, whether you want to use long words or simple ones, or descriptive words or words that help you to create pace and tension. You are learning to use written language to communicate your thoughts and ideas." When you are faced with lack of understanding, of not knowing how to come up with a story for Tim, it might be useful to ask whether it is the story structure aspect or the writing craft aspect one does not grasp. Does one comprehend the overall structure but not some aspects of it, or does one not comprehend the whole because one lacks the foundation? The aspect of developing the writing craft has been truly hammered into my DNA. So, I still struggle with the story structure aspect badly, tbh. Now tho', there’s new hope for Tim 😂 You go back to the beginning. Why do stories exist and what is their purpose? How are they built? You learn that story structure is built on many brickets. You look at these brickets in detail, and you take things apart. Then you take things apart again, and then put them together. Every brick is connected with all the other bricks, nothing is there just randomly. All is connected. Writing fiction is learning the fundamentals and practicing continuously, and vice versa. You always keep going back to the fundamentals. You never stop practicing the pieces of your bricks. You keep doing the work intertwined together, keep improving, with more nuance, with more subtlety, with more depth. It is not a one and done thing, like… I went to law school, I learned the theory once and now I have the degree. Woohoo, I am now a lawyer. I don’t have to go back and worry about it. I achieved it. I acquired the expertise. I know it. It is not "I learned the theory once, and I got this". No, it is actually quite the opposite. You are spending the most time going back to the fundamentals, practicing them, applying the methods. Over and over. You’re drilling the fundamentals. You keep doing the work. Theories are distilled from application, and in turn they can be used to guide application. Application can further validate the theories. Theories and application are two sides of a coin. They are one. That’s the image you want to work with. In life cultivation. You are a lifelong practitioner of the two sides of your coin. Does this sound obsessive or tiring? But this is how mastery on every endeavor is achieved. Chances are you already know a lot about CHANGE. How to change. Many of us set our intentions and new year’s resolution of what is to come for the new year. This year I’m gonna change. You will see it. I’ve set my intentions. I know it! But maybe you also feel so much like crying already because "You found it so hard to change". Not just in 2024. Many many life cultivators struggle with this, btw. Is there other stuff? Are there advanced tools that other people have and who are successful in changing that you don’t have access to? What's the missing ingredient? In life cultivation having the fundamentals and most importantly applying them in a systematic way is a huge freakin’ deal. Life is a totality. The three unique foundational theories that are underlying Yuan Qigong Life Cultivation are precious, as they help to understand ourselves, others, the world and nature and the universe, and so this life cultivation system needs a theoretical foundation.
Because you are here, I guess you also want to know more about these fundamentals of life cultivation. Watch the short video here: You have to think about being eternally curious about the fundamentals. You don’t get bored with them. You keep doing the work. You work towards that more sophisticated understanding of the laws of life, and how they work and what they mean to a human life, and the world, through application. Keep knowing that you do not know. And know this, as you know yourself, is not the final term of your being. These are the fundamentals of a life cultivator’s trait. And it all starts here. TTYL, Know a friend who is cultivating their life too and might be interested in my newsletters? Why not share it? 🤷🏻♀️ >> |