On Monday, the hashtags that usually start trending on Twitter are, say, a musician getting cancelled or our politicians acting meme-worthy. But an unusual phrase started to pop up on the trending page, pulling in thousands of uses and even more confused onlookers: "cuck zone."

This phrase stemmed from a drawing created by artist Chelsea Saunders and the editors of Current Affairs, a leftist print magazine that often posts satire. "The Campus: As It Exists in the Mind of a Conservative" is a lambastic take on how conservative talking heads envision a modern, liberal college. Complete with "Oppression Olympics" and a "Department of Intersectionality," the campus also features a bar designated as "Cuck Zone."

The image was published in 2018 for the "The Current Affairs Big Book of Amusements," alongside other Saunders drawings like the "Intellectual Dark Web Carnival" that spoofed conservative figures like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson.

"The staff at Current Affairs wanted to poke fun at right-wing conservatives, who view college campuses as wild liberal playgrounds," Saunders told Newsweek. "It's funny because colleges are not really like this, and even if they were, they would be amazing places."

The piece originally gained some viral momentum on conservative reddits like "The_Donald," editing out the original title and taking it at face value. One user, "r/LouderwithCrowder," shared the image with the tagline taken out on Monday. "It's depressing how fairly accurate this is," wrote one commenter looking at an image containing an "Oppression Olympics."

"The piece surfaces every couple months, but this is by far the biggest wave," Managing Editor Lyta Gold said. "Every time the illustration pops up, I think the reaction is hilarious. And I'm glad Chelsea's work is getting attention and recognition, even in this odd circumstance...I think it's so funny that whenever 'The Campus' pops up, people aren't quite sure what it's satirizing or who made it, but everyone's absolutely sure they're the ones who get the joke."

The "Cuck Zone" is one of the main points of interest on the map and became a viral point of interest for the image. Gold and her team of editors, who came up with most of the jokes in the image, were the inspirations for the over-the-top bar.

Saunders is proud of her work on the image and says that the "internet has been surprisingly tame to me" and that she hasn't "been attacked for [her views]."

"Political satire is such a great expression of the times," Saunders said. "Glad Twitter thinks it's rad, too."

You can purchase prints of the piece on the Current Affairs online store.

Originally posted here:

'Cuck Zone' Artist Is Happy That Twitter Thinks Her Work Is 'Rad' - Newsweek

Mohamed, (not his real name), was a Muslim in his 30s, an migr from Iran who had built a life for himself in Canada. Sadly, a blanket of personal problems marred his efforts to thrive. He sought out psychotherapy. For the sake of rapport, I made a mental note to avoid mention of Jewish insights into human nature, normally a staple in my work.

As the therapy progressed, my apprehension dissolved. So relevant were the ideas of Rabbi Akiva Tatz and other Jewish thinkers that I began to introduce Mohamed to concepts that spoke directly to the challenges with which he grappled. He was intrigued and one day reflected, Ive read a lot about Buddhism and new age psychology but I know nothing about the Jewish approach. Can you recommend a book? I suggested Rabbi Tatzs Living Inspired and when our session ended he went to a local Judaica shop and picked up that book and three others.

Mohamed made nice progress in the work. He implemented important changes and I commended him; these changes were quite dramatic. To demonstrate just how so, he described an incident that had occurred 10 years earlier when he stood in army fatigues with 250 other Iranian soldiers, all heavily equipped with weapons. The men participated in a familiar ritual: the burning of the American and Israeli flags as the men shouted, Death to Israel! Death to America! He looked me dead in the eye and said, Ten years later, Im buying books at the Judaica store!

I was shocked, but shouldnt have been. As we approach Shavous, the commemoration of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, we can remember that Jewish thought is part of the arsenal we are given to change the world. This body of knowledge contains timeless wisdom that can help individuals change, both Jew and non-Jew.

Case in point: I would argue that, right now, the most widely recognized mouthpiece for any number of important Jewish concepts is a Gentile, Dr. Jordan Peterson. When I stumbled upon his work, I was amazed at the resonance between his ideas and those of Rabbi Akiva Tatz, author of both Living Inspired and Worldmask. Indeed, my excitement about this resonance and the way the Rabbis ideas inform those of Peterson compelled my writing of two books: This Way up: A Faith-Based Introduction to Jordan Petersons Maps of Meaning and In Good Standing: Using Jordan Petersons Insights on the Structure of Self to Sort Yourself Out.

Its ironic that so many Jewish psychotherapists seeking to anchor their work in a wisdom tradition pursue Buddhist studies. These practitioners dont realize the wealth of resources that are rightly theirs, if only they would look in their own backyards!

But dont take my word for it. Take Mohameds. His ancestors werent included in the Sinai experience. But maybe his experience shows theres a basis for the old proverb: if Mohamed cant come to the mountain, bring the mountain to Mohamed. And every year at Shavous, the mountain comes to you.

Interested?

Annette Poizner is a Columbia-trained clinical social worker who graduated with a Doctorate of Education in Counseling Psychology. As an Israeli-trained graphologist, she specializes in projective personality assessment, as well as strategic psychotherapy. Her work has been featured extensively in the media and in academic venues. She founded Lobster University Press, an imprint which explores the work of Jordan Peterson. Her books, the most recent being, "From Chaos to Order: A Guide to Jordan Peterson's Worldview," summarize Peterson's ideas and explore the intersection between his insights and Jewish wisdom. She also produces animations which relay some of Peterson's insights in short soundbites.

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Mohamed and the Mountain | Annette Poizner | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

Former WRAL Sports Director Bob Holliday brings back a memory from the WRAL vault, a moment when Michael Jordan and Buzz Peterson had some fun on the golf course.

DISCRIMINATORY WORK CONDITIONS TO MOVE FORWARD. IF THE DISTRICT JUDGE SIGNS THE ORDER, THE TRIAL WOULD LIKELY BE DELAYED UNTIL 2021. THE MICHAEL JORDAN DOCUMENTARY THAT HAS THE WORLD BUZZING, THIS CONTINUES TOMORROW NIGHT. THIS WEEK'S STORYTELLER SEGMENT BRINGS US SOME MOMENTS THAT HAPPENED OFF THE COURT. >> IN THE COUNTLESS TIMES THAT YOU COVERED THE CAREER OF MICHAEL JORDAN IS YOUR FAVORITE THE INTIMATE SETTING ON THE GOLF COURSE? >> ABSOLUTELY. THIS WAS JUST SO MUCH FUN. IT WAS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE STORIES. ONE DAY JAY JENNINGS AND I GOT WORD THAT THEY WERE PLAYING GOLF AT FINLEY. WE WENT OVER THERE. WE GOT OUR GOLF CART AND FOUND THEM ON THE COURSE WITHOUT MUCH DIFFICULTY. IT WAS LIKE THE OLD TIMES. AS SOON AS WE PULL UP THEY SAID HOW ARE YOU DOING? HOW'S TOM AND CHARLIE? MICHAEL KEPT UP WITH US, HE REALLY DID. >> THE GOLFER YOU BASKETBALL FANS KNOW IS DOUG PETERSON BUT YOU RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF THE PLAY-BY-PLAY? >> HE GRABBED THE MICROPHONE FROM ME. >> 15 PETE FEET FROM THE PIN. >> THAT'S RIGHT, MICHAEL JORDAN. HE IS DOING A BIT OF EVERYTHING THESE DAYS. >> THE MATCH IS TIED. THERE WAS GREAT TRASH TALKING DURING IT. MICHAEL STANDS OVER THE SHOT. BUZZ IS GIVING HIM THE BUSINESS AND MICHAEL SAYS, HEY BUZZ, 17 SECONDS. HE TOOK HIS DRIVER BACK AND SMACKED THE BALL 250 YARDS DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE FAIRWAY. IT WAS A GOOD SHOT. IN MANY WAYS, WE THINK OF MICHAEL JORDAN AS THIS LARGER THAN LIFE PERSONALITY WHO MAY HAVE FORGOTTEN WHERE HE CAME FROM BUT TO YOU GUYS HE WAS STILL VERY MUCH THAT MIKE THAT YOU MET. >> ABSOLUTELY AND THIS REALLY HAPPENED, IT REALLY HAPPENED. MICHAEL SAYS, HOW IS TOM SOUTER DOING, IS HE MARRIED? THIS WAS BEFORE TOM AND JULIE STARTED DATING. HE GRABS THE MICROPHONE AGAIN AND SAYS, TOM, THIS IS MICHAEL, I HEAR YOU AREN'T MARRIED. WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT, TOM. COME TO CHICAGO. WE WILL FIX YOU RIGHT UP. THIS WAS LONG BEFORE THE DAYS OF TENDER. THE MICHAEL JORDAN MATCHUP. >> EXACTLY. >> YEARS LATER, JEFF BRANTLEY CAUGHT UP WITH MICHAEL JORDAN AND ASKED AGAIN, AT THAT POINT TOM WAS ALREADY MARRIED TO JULIE. A CRAZY STORY THOUGH. [

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Bob Holliday talks about the fun day when MJ and Buzz Peterson went golfing - WRALSportsFan.com

Exactly two years ago, on May 8, 2018, Bari Weiss published an essay in the New York Times titled Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web. Describing a subculture of liberals, conservatives and disaffected leftists who were engaging in conversations about free speech, left-wing censoriousness and un-PC subjects like sex differences and transgenderism, Weiss described three common features of these different people:

First, they are willing to disagree ferociously, but talk civilly, about nearly every meaningful subject Second, in an age in which popular feelings about the way things ought to be often override facts about the way things actually are, each is determined to resist parroting whats politically convenient. And third, some have paid for this commitment by being purged from institutions that have become increasingly hostile to unorthodox thought

The article was smothered in cloying pretension. The name might have been coined jokily by the mathematician Eric Weinstein, but once it was affixed to the subculture it became absurd. Sex differences and transgenderism are controversial subjects, no doubt about it, but the intellectual equivalents of the drugs and guns that are traded on the Dark Web are not profiled in the New York Times. Also, somebody had made the well-meaning decision to photograph the likes of Weinstein, Sam Harris and Dave Rubin in night-time shots that made them look like the supporting cast of a dirt cheap neo-noir independent film.

Soon, the web in the name evoked not the Dark Web but a spiders web. Curious browsers were trapped in long-winded podcasts, paralyzed by anti-leftist platitudes, and gobbled up by classical liberalism. As I noted in my review of Dave Rubins book, there was too much talking about talking about ideas, and too much using free speech to talk exclusively about free speech. There was no systemization or institution-building but a constant stream of monotonal discourse.

But am I being too cynical? Is it not a failing of opinion columnists that we live to drag people down and not to build them up? Perhaps. So, I wanted to look for the good in the IDW and how better than to read a left-wing analysis of the phenomenon!

Michael Brooks begins his study of the Intellectual Dark Web, Against the Web, by defining the IDW as a group of men. Like most political movements and subcultures, it is largely male. Any sensible analysis of the phenomenon, however, would place Heather Heying, Christina Hoff Sommers, Claire Lehmann, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and others in its sphere. Brooks wants it to be a group of men because it suits his ideological framework. Perhaps the Intellectual Dark Web has made people more skeptical about this kind of dull and disingenuous identity politicking, which is good.

Such annoying sleights of hand come thick and fast throughout Against the Web. We learn, when Brooks writes about Ben Shapiro, who somehow got a column as a teenager, that conservatives have an obsession with teenage prodigies that never ceases to amaze. Why, yes, that is just a conservative obsession, and Greta Thunbergs youth is incidental to her fame. Later, he says, young, angry white men have historically been a pretty dangerous group. More dangerous than others, huh? Perhaps Brooks does not mean that, but the IDW has at least raised awareness that this is one of the only groups one can problematize in polite society without the whiff of scandal.

Brooks does land some powerful shots. Writing about the psychiatrist-cum-self-help guru Jordan Peterson, Brooks justly notes the absurdity of railing against alienation and atomization while tip-toeing around the alienating, atomizing forces in consumer capitalism. This is a fair point: Jordan Peterson should have read Christopher Lasch. But Brooks blames all social evils on market forces. Families are collapsing and birth rates are dropping because of relentless anxiety and undercompensation. Really? Thats it? African people have a lot more kids and I dont think that they are better compensated than Americans, Europeans and East Asians.

By the time Brooks segued into talking about how everything from air pollution to homelessness should give us psychic anguish rather than the psychological focus on the self, I was fanning my armpits with my smartphone. Of course, those are important subjects, but informing sad and lonely men that the cure for what ails them is far left activism feels more opportunistic than anything Peterson says. For all of JPs limitations and eccentricities, at least the man gave good advice like read the Bible and dont waste your time watching porn. Its not exactly Aristotle, but theres something to work with there.

Brooks has a problem in that he wants to write a funny book dunking on Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson and a sincere left-wing internationalist manifesto. Too often without wanting to sound like Stefan Molyneux he relies on ownage rather than argumentation. A passage criticizing the belief in IQ and innate intelligence gets side-tracked by a long-winded and pointless digression about how IDW idol Christopher Hitchens rejected the concept because apparently they think he was omniscient and Brooks never gets around to addressing twin studies or predictiveness, or explaining how, if IQ is defended by white commentators trying to find scientific cover for their racial attitudes, they suggest that Jewish and Asian people have, on average, higher IQs than white people.

Brooks is also vague enough about his own ideals that they can escape the kind of scrutiny that he applies to others. We find him wringing his hands about pressing threats to democracy in todays worldrepresented by Singapore and Hungary, but also praising the noble revolutionary tradition represented by Cuba. Im not going to huff and puff about the Castros fiefdom, which is hardly the worst place in the world to live, but dont howl about threats to democracy and then get teary-eyed about a state that has been ruled by two brothers for 60 years. I hope the IDW has tarnished the romantic image of revolutionary leftism in academic and cultural spheres.

Nonetheless, I have to admit that Against the Web does offer good advice to Brookss comrades. Quoting the late Mark Fishers essay Exiting the Vampires Castle, Brooks criticizes the lefts reliance on shame-based moralizing, which has indeed served to drive a lot of left-wing men and women rightwards. Riffing on the great Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. Jamess respect for European culture, Brooks also promotes cultural cosmopolitanism over a knee-jerk hostility towards cultural appropriation. These are great suggestions and I cynically hope that no one listens to him. But I suspect that they will not because left-wing politics, even more than right-wing politics, is so based on grievance, and on acquiring status by displaying grievance. You can laugh at Jordan Petersons rather cack-handed criticisms of postmodern Marxist feminists or whatever but at least his work is founded on the premise that nature is harsh and constrained. If you doubt this, then resentment is a natural consequence.

The Intellectual Dark Web has fractured now. Sam Harris is still droning on his podcast with more soporific power than a packet of Restoril. Rubin has become an overblown Fox News personality. God bless Jordan Peterson, wherever he is. The phenomenon left lots of people with a lot of questions. If we want them to have answers, well now is our chance.

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An autopsy of the Intellectual Dark Web - The Spectator USA

The National Posts Jonathan Kay recently interviewed American author Dave Rubin, whose tour for his new book, Dont Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in the Age of Unreason, was disrupted by the ongoing pandemic, and is now being done out of Rubins garage.

Jonathan Kay: Nice suit. Look what Im wearing. Thanks for making the rest of us look like crap.

Dave Rubin: I thought Id keep it professional, you know? Im on a book tour.

Kay: Whats it been like doing a book tour without actually touring?

Rubin: I got to tell you, its really bizarre, actually. The book came out on Tuesday, April 28, and I was supposed to be in New York the week before, doing all kinds of press, going on every TV show you can imagine and meeting with the publishers and all that good stuff. And then I was supposed to be on a book tour starting that night. We were gonna be at the Gramercy Theater in New York. And then I think I was going to be in D.C. and then across the country for the next month and a half or so. And instead, Im in my garage. I mean, this is my garage. I happened to have a studio in my garage. So its kind of funny. Were seeing all these CNN anchors in their kitchens, in their living rooms and things. I was a little ahead on the home studio thing. So Ive got a nice professional setup here, which is great. And, you know, theres a certain convenience to it that I can do this all from here. But I guess it is missing a little something. Talking to a live person always adds a little something else to the conversation. But Ive enjoyed this. And in many ways its allowed me to do more than I was going to be able to do because I can basically just, every day for the last four or five days, Im starting in the morning. I started literally at 6 a.m. and I go till about 8 p.m., with just minor minor breaks and maybe lunch, if Im lucky. So, you know, Im happy to talk to people. Im glad the books being well received. And you do what you gotta do.

Kay: You write that your original book idea was about how you abandoned the left side of the political spectrum and then you decided you had a more interesting idea. Tell me about that.

Rubin: Yeah. The original title of the book was Why I Left the Left, which is the title of a very popular PragerU video that I did that has about 20 million views or so. I became sort of a left the left guy. I talk about the regressive left and that the left is no longer liberal.

Thats very much in the mix, the stew of things that Ive been talking about for the last five years or so. And I started writing that book. And then I quickly realized I was like, you know, I dont know if I want to write a book about just what Im against or what I used to be. I want to write a book about what Im for. And thats what it became: Dont Burn This Book. But I lay out three moments in the book that were my seminal wake up moments.

I wont give you all three. Ill give you one of them. You may know David Webb, who is a commentator, conservative commentator on Sirius XM Patriot Channel. He guest hosts on Fox News all the time. And years ago when I was a lefty, I was on the Young Turks. We were watching a clip of Fox News and David Webb came on and suddenly they were saying all the worst things about him. He was just talking about some basic conservative beliefs. Doesnt even matter what he was talking about specifically. But suddenly they were calling him an Uncle Tom and a sellout and a race traitor. Just all of the worst things that you could say about somebody. And what they didnt know was that a few years before I had had a show on Sirius XM and although I was a lefty and David Webb was on the right, wed met in the hall one day and we started chatting. I used to go on his show every week and wed debate topics and then wed go downstairs and have a steak and have some whisky. And we were good, even though we disagreed on almost everything. But I knew him to be a good man and forthright and a passionate advocate for his positions.

It wasnt some fake thing. And yet here the Young Turks were, the supposed tolerant people, the people who loved diversity. And they were suddenly seeing a black man. And just because he didnt think the way they want black people to think he was the bad guy. He was all the worst things you could say about somebody. And because I knew him, it suddenly became so stark, so clear to me that when we think of racism, we think, oh, that youre racist. You dont want those people using a water fountain, something like that, which obviously is racist. But theres a new pernicious racism, which is that you say youre for groups gays, blacks, women.

But you cant be for whole groups because, believe it or not, black people think all sorts of different things. Gay people think all sorts of different things. Women think all sorts of different things. And to watch a group of supposedly tolerant people be angry at a black man who just thought differently than them, I realized was a new sort of systemic racism. And I say systemic because its sort of spread throughout all of the left. And even right now, Harvard discriminates against Asian people because they had too many Asian people by their measure being admitted to the university.

What the left does is they see racism almost everywhere except where it really is. They're looking for it constantly. So they have to find it.

Dave Rubin

Kay: But what about the counterargument that theres still a lot of old-fashioned racism thats still around.

Rubin: I dont see that now. Thats not to say that there isnt a KKK. There are some marginal white supremacist groups or the Westboro Baptist Church or something like that, which dont have any mainstream traction, because anytime they do any stupid little thing that, of course, the media goes crazy with it. Does David Duke exist? Of course. David Duke exists. Does he have any influence in any way whatsoever? Of course not. So I dont see actual influential bigotry out of the conservative side or on the right. But I do see it almost everywhere on the left. The left has become obsessed with identity, obsessed with gender and sexuality and the colour of skin. And I wouldnt even call that reverse racism. I would call that racism. If you rail all day long against white Christian men because theyre white Christian men, thats racism.

Again, Im not saying that there are no racist people on either side of the political aisle. Of course there are. But I think what the left does is they see racism almost everywhere except where it really is. Theyre looking for it constantly. So they have to find it. And just because you believe in low taxes doesnt mean youre a racist. Just because you believe that America should have a strong border, doesnt mean youre a racist.

These movements, they get equality, but then they the activists don't want to go out of business. So then they have to just keep finding new and new perceived oppression.

Dave Rubin

Kay: Your book is partly about what you call the pitfalls of leaving the left. What are those pitfalls?

Rubin: The biggest growing political movement or political ideology in America right now is the disaffected liberal, which is what I would say that I am I am a true liberal. And I lay out what classical liberalism is, which, of course, is about individual rights, meaning everyone that is a legal citizen of any country should be treated equally under the law. And then basically laissez-faire economics, light touch. Thats pretty much what my belief system is. Thats live and let live. And we could talk about the marginal differences between that and libertarianism.

As far as the pitfalls, well, I lay out some of the things that I guarantee will happen to you if you leave the left or not even leave the left once you start questioning it. Because if you remember four or five years ago when I started talking about my frustrations with the left, I was always saying we. I was saying we guys, we the left have abandoned liberalism. We have to fix liberalism. We have to stand for the things that were supposed to stand for, like free speech and open inquiry and not deplatforming speakers and destroying people. These are liberal principles. So I was doing this from the left. And what I think a lot of people see right now is that Im trying to give them the courage, I suppose, to be able to walk and not be destroyed once you pick one position that is counter to whatever mainstream leftist orthodoxy is of the day.

If you dont check all of those 10 boxes, they will eliminate you and they will try to mob you on social media. They will go after your employer. You will watch friends and family members turn on you and call you all of the worst things. And even if you say no, those are none of my beliefs. Well, then theyll move the goalposts and try to extrapolate something else on you. One of the very important tips that I give people is dont apologize unless you genuinely have done something wrong. Im not saying never apologize. Weve all wronged people. Weve all done things that are wrong. So you can apologize if its earnest. But I think a lot of times that we see this when the mob comes after celebrities all the time, you know, a celebrity will say something that everyone knows is basically right. You may remember Mario Lopez said that we shouldnt be something to the effect of we shouldnt be transitioning kids who are four years old, you know, gender transition. And its like everyone knows thats the truth. Thats not anti-trans. Its just that we might want to wait till theyre a little bit older. Then we could discuss all of that stuff. But he got mobbed. And then what does he do? He basically issues in a faux apology, even though we know he doesnt really apologize. He doesnt really feel any contrition about what he said.

Another one would be a Hollywood actor who Im sort of friendly with, Mark Duplass, he basically tweeted out something to the effect that Ben Shapiro is not the devil, he just has different political thoughts. He got mobbed and then deleted the tweet and issued an apology. And its like once you do that, once you apologize for something youre not sorry for, now theyve got their foot on your neck forever and you will never get up. And theyre using that power over you. So one of the things you can do is be brave and stand up for what you believe. And I think if more of us start doing it, we can actually silence that mob.

Kay: But political cults come from the right side of the spectrum, too, no?

Rubin: Lets not forget, it was mostly people on the right who were going after violent video games. Remember, they were trying to ban Mortal Kombat from the shelves. So these things are cyclical. And Im glad you brought it up because its an important point.

Kay: Were talking about censorship and preventing people from saying what they think. But its interesting that youre not talking about government censoring people which is what we would have been worried about 20 or maybe even 10 years ago. Instead, were talking about people censoring each other.

Rubin: We should always be wary of the government silencing dissent, silencing speech. But at the moment, I mean, Donald Trump can tweet whatever he wants and then what happens? The first hundred people that respond to him are usually blue check journalists or actors or activists, all telling him hes a Nazi, hes Hitler. Hes going to burn in hell. I mean, the worst things you can imagine. And guess what? Nobody knocks on their door. The Gestapo doesnt show up to drag them off to the gulag. I mean, theres no version of any of that. The bigger worry to me is that we are censoring ourselves. That is separate than the government. Its an important distinction.

Kay: Youre a gay man. Ive noticed, anecdotally, that many of the people pushing back against social-justice cultism are gay men, lesbians, Jews, Muslims people who have some trait that makes them stand out from ordinary white people. Do you think having at least some mark of outsider status gives you moral capital to push back?

Rubin: I love this question because Ive asked this of other guests of mine who are in similar situations. So Douglas Murray, the wonderful author from the U.K. whos written a lot about this and talked about immigration in Europe and all sorts of things. His last book, Madness of Crowds, is one of the best books of the year. He happens to be gay. Hes a gay conservative in the U.K. And Ive asked him about this. I see this from women. I see this from black people. It sort of gets to what I was saying earlier about why when you say youre for a group, you will actually crush all of the free thinkers within that group. And thats what Im trying to restore. Im trying to stop that from happening.

If youre a minority because of your sexuality or your skin colour or some of these things, now, I dont think that should give you power over people. I dont think that inherently makes your opinions correct. I mean, that would be absurd. As absurd as saying, you know, someone who is a white male, that his opinions are correct just because of that. So those are silly notions. But what I do think is probable is that if you are a minority of some sort, you start looking at the world from a bit of an outsider perspective. Youre not in the machine all the time. And because of that, you suddenly realize that uniqueness is deeply important. You realize there is something different.

So the most interesting example of this would be whats sort of happened to the gay community. I would say that for four decades, the gay community brought a tremendous amount of art and music and comedy and all of this cultural stuff that would start in gay clubs or whatever. I was never even into that scene at all. Much of this is before my time. But we all know that so much great music and all of this cultural stuff came from the gay community. Then, things shifted and the progressive movement sort of infiltrated the gay community. Im not saying, well, their intentions were bad. Gay marriage, by the way, is an extremely positive development that the progressives pushed because they were pushing for equality. But they were pushing for gay people to be equal, not to be above. And what happens usually is then these movements, they get equality, but then they the activists dont want to go out of business, sort of. So then they have to just keep finding new and new perceived oppression.

So what I think, unfortunately, has happened is the gay community, for whatever that term broadly means, they went from fighting for something. They went from being outsiders. And by the way, that comes with a lot of pain and all sorts of stuff. I mean, many gay people have written about this. And, you know, from my own experience, the pain and drugs and just doing stuff that I shouldnt have done, its just part of being closeted and the outsider and the rest of it. But you take that, then you get equality. And now thats great. Now things are good. But then the progressives move in and they kind of use you as a tool.

So if you notice, theres really nothing interesting coming out of the gay community these days. And that is to directly answer your question. That is why were watching so many gay people walk away (from progressive orthodoxy) right now. And by the way, its the exact same thing with the black community.

Kay: Youre an American. Do you find your political message resonates with Canadians? It used to be that a political writer like you was mostly a celebrity in your own country. But thanks to social media, things are much more global.

Rubin: It really, really does. Now, part of that I have to credit Jordan Peterson, obviously, because, you know, Jordan, whose origin he was a clinical psychologist in Toronto and professor at the University of Toronto, you know, hes sort of Canadas biggest export over the last couple of years, certainly intellectually their biggest export. And I toured with Jordan Peterson. We had many stops in Canada. Ive done some speaking events with Maxime Bernier from the Canadian Peoples party. And I do sense that there is a strong liberty movement growing in Canada. You know, as Justin Trudeau and the Liberals of Canada sort of extend their power. And I know you guys have all sorts of problems. You know, Western Canada and the Calgary area feeling that theyre sort of being left out from what the decision-making process is. I sense that there is a there is a strong liberty movement there. So we absolutely wonderful receptions in all of our Canadian stops. I love doing them. We had a running joke in every Canadian stop on the tour because I would moderate the Q-and-A at the end of the show. So the way the shows would work, I would do about 15 minutes of crowd warm-up. Jordan would give about an hour and a half speech and then we would do about 45 minutes of Q-and-A. And each time, somebody would ask if Jordan would run for prime minister and hed make you know, its a fun, silly comment about Trudeau. And it would always get a huge laugh. So I do sense that that there is a certain set of Canadians who are waking up to some of these more liberty or individual rights issues, which maybe isnt fully within the Canadian political ethos as much as it is within an American one.

But, yes, to your point. Look, were all on YouTube, were all podcasting. Were all doing all these things. And what is local is now everything. You know, its like everything is now local and whats local is now everything.

Kay: Thanks so much for joining us. Stay safe!

National Post

Original post:

Dave Rubin interview: His new book, censorship on the left and what he sees happening in Canada - National Post

News

Story: The Far-Right Grassroots Movement Taking Over Canada (January 28) Correction: This article originally stated that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had visited Kamloops in December. In fact, he visited January 9.

Story: What The Media Missed At The Jordan PetersonSlavoj iek Debate (May 1) Correction: Due to an editing error, the photo of the lineup outside the Sony Centre was initially credited to the author of the piece, rather than to Heidi Matthews. Clarification: While Live Nation was involved with making the event happen, the company did not initiate it, and so the word organized has been replaced with put on in one sentence.

Story: StarMetro Vancouver Has A Union, But Not A Contract (May 17) Clarification: Due to an editing error, this article did not originally make clear that the layoffs that greatly affected employees at StarMetro Toronto were limited to those who worked in editorial.

Story: How (Not) To Report On Vancouvers Downtown Eastside (May 27) Correction: This piece originally described Nicolas Leech-Crier as a coordinator for Megaphones Voices of the Street anthology. He is, in fact, a coordinator for Megaphones Speakers Bureau.

Story: The Guardian Paves The Way For Canadian Media To Be More Blunt About The Climate Crisis (July 18) Corrections: This piece originally said that Vice made recent changes to its style guide following The Guardians announcement. Vices changes, however, narrowly preceded The Guardians. Further, Sean Holmans title has been amended to reflect his current position as an associate professor at Calgarys Mount Royal University.

Story: You Must Be This Conservative To Ride: The Inside Story of Postmedias Right Turn (August 12) Correction: Due to an editing error, this piece originally described a John Ivison column critical of the Conservatives climate policy as having been published a week earlier than a July 17 meeting with the Ottawa bureau, on the day Libins new role was announced. While the Ivison column was indeed published on July 10, Libins new role was announced on June 10 (as stated elsewhere in the piece). Clarification: One passage has been revised to more clearly reflect that Libin was tapped to oversee certain political commentary published in Postmedia newspapers, not all of it.

Story: We Have Seen This Before In BC (October 2) Clarification: An image caption has been revised to clarify that the figure depicted in a political cartoon was BC politician Amor de Cosmos and not just a generic white man.

Story: No Indigenous Journalist Among Debate Moderators. Instead, An Offer To Be A Human Mic Stand.' (October 7) Correction: This article originally stated that APTN would be translating the debates into three Indigenous languages. In fact, APTN is broadcasting and streaming Indigenous-language versions of the debates, but the translations themselves are produced by the production partnership.

Story: CBC Had Employee Delete Tweet Critical Of Don Cherry (November 14) Clarification: A passage stating that Rogers fired Cherry has been amended to make clear the action was taken by Rogers Medias Sportsnet, which maintains editorial control over its broadcasts.

Episode: The Mud Slinging, Meme Hustling, Rage Baiting Sites You Need To Know Before The Next Election (January 6) Correction: In this episode, reporter Graeme Gordon mistakenly states that North99 Director Taylor Scollon previously worked with Navigator Ltd, the crisis communications PR firm. In fact, it was North99 co-founder Geoff Sharpe who previously worked with Navigator. We regret the error.

Episode: #261 Oh Great, Now China Hates Us (January 20) Correction: This post said Schellenberg was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison. It was 15.

Episode: #273 The Media Baron Dinner Party Where The News Bailout Was Born (April 14) Correction: In this episode, Jesse says Fox News is not available in Canada. It is.

Episode: #297 Shads Hip-Hop Evolution (October 6) Correction: A previous version misspelled Rodrigo Bascuns last name. We regret the error.

Episode: #305 Researchers Just Proved The Media Is Too White (December 9) Correction: The show notes originally misspelled Asmaa Maliks last name. We regret the error.

Episode: #196 Naughty Daughter (January 17) Correction: WE Day Ottawa 2018 took place on November 14th, 5 days before Canadaland published its second investigation into WE, not afterwards, as Jesse states on this podcast. We regret the error.

Episode: #205 Scheer And Loathing (March 21) Correction: In this episode, the shooter at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando was referred to among a list of angry white men. He was not white.

Episode: #212 Newfoundland 2: The Newfoundlanding (May 8) Correction: The show notes for this episode originally stated that the Liberals dropped a suit against Mark Norman. In fact, the Crown has stayed charges against the Vice-Admiral. We regret the error.

Episode: #213 Misfit Manchild Edgelords (May 15) Correction: A section of this show claims that Canada sent Omar Khadr to Guantanamo Bay. Whatever delayed actions the government took, it did not send Mr. Khadr to the detention facility. We regret the error. Clarification: Jesse describes Kevin Johnston as an Internet personality of the Faith Goldy, freedom talkin, anti-Islam, intellectual dark web variety. The Intellectual Dark Web is a term commonly used to refer to a group of academics, writers, and commentators including Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and Dave Rubin. While their ideas may be attractive to figures like Goldy and Johnston, and though it may be fair to compare the IDW to the alt-right, the two should probably not be conflated or presented as the same thing.

Episode: #216 The Word For This Is Genocide (June 6) Correction: Barrie City Councillor Keenan Aylwin has not had his pay docked, nor did the Integrity Commissioner recommend it. A decision on whether to sanction the councillor through official reprimand and removal of the post in question is scheduled to be rendered on June 12. We regret the error.

Episode: #221 Fuck You For This One, Qubec (July 10) Correction #1: The show notes listed Ben Makuch as a former Vice employee. He remains employed at Vice. Correction #2: This podcast inaccurately states that $7 million was given to the NewsMedia Council, when in fact these funds were given to News Media Canada. We regret the error.

Episode: #237 Shitty Media Management (November 7) Correction: In this episode, Jesse says that on the day the Toronto Star/Associated Press story about unsafe drinking water in 11 Canadian cities broke, The Globe and Mail was among the news sites that did not promptly pick up the story. This is inaccurate: the Globe ran the APs story before 8 a.m. on the morning of Monday, November 4th. We regret the error.

Episode: CRUDE #1: Smell This Town (April 2) Clarification: In the episode, we credit the Price of Oil series to the Toronto Star, National Observer, and Global News. The collaborative investigation also involved Concordia University, Ryerson University School of Journalism, the University of Regina, UBC, the Corporate Mapping Project, and the Michener Awards Foundation.

Episode: DYNASTIES #3 The Fords (October 15) Correction: We state in this episode that Rob Ford died in 2014. He died in March of 2016. We regret the error.

Episode: #20 Wheres Jagmeet Singh? Hes On OPPO! (January 14) Correction: This interview took place before Jagmeet Singhs appearance on CTV, not after. We regret the error.

Episode: #35 How Alberta Got Weed Right (July 29) Correction: We stated that cannabis is only available online in Manitoba. It is in fact available in a number of retail stores.

Episode: #46 About Last Night (October 22) Correction: An earlier version of this episode said that the Liberals picked up a seat in Northern Saskatchewan. That seat ended up going to the Conservatives. That detail has been removed from the show.

Episode: #15 Dirty Money, Expired Eggs: The Auditor Generals Annual Shaming (December 11) Correction: The NDPs critic for OLG and horse racing is Percy Hatfield, not Wayne Gates as stated in the show. However, Wayne Gates did provide the quote that is attributed to him in this episode.

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All Our 2019 Corrections And Clarifications - CANADALAND

Isle of Wight Aerial photographer and cinematographer, Pete Heather, has shared this great short film with us today.

Shot last summer, it showcases some stunning Isle of Wight scenery and follows on from Petes earlier film called, Home.

Under Control features a voiceover by the writer Alan Watts and gives you views you might never have seen before.

Pete says,

Have you ever dreamt of being somewhere else, then only to realise that being where you are now is a much better place?

We continued our aerial voyage around the Isle of Wight only to discover that many of the places we dream about, can be found right here on this stunning island.

You can see more of Petes films on the PH Imagery Vimeo account, but in the meantime, check this out. Turn sound on and make the video full screen.

Under Control from Ph Imagery on Vimeo.

HoMe from Ph Imagery on Vimeo.

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Watch: Stunning film shows the beautiful Isle of Wight in a way you might not have seen before - On The Wight

Moving museum benches, balls darting along roller-coaster tracks, mirror labyrinths, and a chorus of Tibetan singing bowls are just a few of the devices Jeppe Hein has used to elicit joy and wonder. Far-reaching in appeal while incisive and poignant, his work imparts truths that are particularly resonant in these turbulent times to live in the here and now, to accept the dark in order to see the light, to remember that we all share the same air. In midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the artist has taken his Breathe With Me project to Instagram Live, in the form of a regular Wednesday evening workshop that teaches mindfulness through art. We catch up with him ahead of his most recent workshop to talk about conscious breathing, inner change, and the pursuit of happiness.

Jeppe Hein: I am sitting at my desk, at home in Berlin. I have been painting my breath onto the walls of my room in my weekly Wednesday workshops on Instagram. There are other canvases standing next to me, on which I have started to paint waves for our corridor. My new yoga mat with breathing stripes is lying on the floor, and artworks from artist friends surround me. My desk is full of tools, brushes, blank paper, notes and sketches. It has started to thunder and rain heavily, and it smells fresh and very good. I had a long day today, with a lot of meetings and decisions to be made, a bit like a roller-coaster, but I am looking forward to breathing with you and the world in my workshop tonight.

Jeppe Hein wearing an I am right here t-shirt from his own brand, Change Yourself. Photography: Tom Wagner, changeyourself.dk

JH: Mindfulness is about observing and perceiving things in detail. Taking a break from what you are doing, opening up to new experiences and giving new ideas more space. After my burnout in 2009, I had to change my life. I started walking a lot, practicing yoga, and doing breathing exercises, which have influenced my later artworks and my public project Breathe with Me. I still try to include these exercises in my daily life. When I prepare my ginger tea, take a shower, take a walk in the forest, or work in the garden I always try to be in the here and now, be aware of my breath and control it, so that I feel well. Thats my goal, but of course, I dont always achieve it.

JH: When I realised my first work Moving Wall #1, I noticed that it activated something in the observer joy, surprise, wonder, and happiness. This activated something in me too. It inspires me to see how people overcome their boundaries, how they feel themselves, how they perceive their surroundings in a different way, and how they start a dialogue with one another. It helps me develop as an artist, but also as a person.

Jeppe Hein, Wishes for Two, 2017. Two coloured balloons hang from the ceiling, subtly moving with the circulation of the air, their mirrored surfaces produce a distorted perspective of the surrounding space. Only the roof seems to prevent the balloons from soaring into the air and expanding the reflection to the infinite. Courtesy of the artist, Knig Galerie, Berlin, 303 Gallery, New York, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

JH: While my aim is not merely to entertain, I believe playfulness and participation make artworks more approachable especially for those who are normally not in touch with art.

Art can make people laugh, and life is easier with a smile on your face or as Charlie Chaplin said, a day without laughter is a day wasted. I believe if an artwork puts a smile on your face and gets you in high spirits, it even makes your life better, at least momentarily. To see how people interact with my work, to be able to fascinate them, and sometimes even make them happy, makes me very happy too.

JH: Our different senses enable us to experience ourselves, others, our surroundings, as well as the artwork in the very moment. The more we are within ourselves, and aware of ourselves and our surroundings, the more we can open up to someone else. We always talk about what we see when we visit an exhibition, but in my opinion, what we feel and experience is more important.

Top, Jeppe Hein, Distance, 2004. White plastic balls dart along steel rollercoaster tracks in this site-specific installation. When a visitor enters the room, a sensor reacts and releases a ball that runs the length of the track. As more visitors trigger new balls, they begin to lose track of their own ball and experience the whole architecture as a moving and dynamic structure. Bottom, Jeppe Hein, Bear Your Consequences, 2018. Created for Heins solo exhibition at Cistererne, a subterranean reservoir turned exhibition space in Copenhagen. A small gas flame burns in the centre of a huge round mirror with a fragmented surface, growing warmer and brighter as the visitor approaches, offering an encounter that both seduces and repels. Courtesy of the artist, Knig Galerie, Berlin, 303 Gallery, New York, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

JH: Since its launch in September 2019, thousands of people around the world have downloaded our manual and taken Breathe with Me into their own lives. We continue to empower individuals, families, neighbours, communities, kindergartens, schools, museums, as well as other public institutions and organisations, to make the invisible visible, and share how we breathe around the world. We also aim to bring Breathe with Me to other significant locations worldwide, including Greenland, a place of great beauty and importance, where the climate change rising temperatures, warming oceans and melting ice could have the most extreme consequences.We are also developing a concept for the upcoming Global CitizenFestival.

JH: Its again about sharing. Right now, we are all sitting in the same odd situation, where we feel a lot of different emotions, and it is not easy to breathe freely. So I started to do these workshops to lighten things up and to give people a tool to look at themselves and reflect on their feelings.

Ive hosted the workshop in different ways. I did How do you feel like drawings, encouraging people to express their feelings by painting their faces. Then I did Breathing your wave, where I asked people to listen to their inner ocean, whether it is stormy or flat and calm.

I eventually decided to do Breathe with Me every time, since it is very minimal and the concept is easy to understand. Everyone knows how to breathe and how to paint a line while exhaling. It is the core of what we need now breathing. It unites us all. I will continue to paint my breath onto the walls of my room at home, and make a whole breathing room out of it.

Jeppe Hein, Mirror Labyrinth NY, 2015. An accessible installation of freestanding mirrored lamellae, exhibited at Brooklyn Bridge Park from 2015-16. The varying heights of the mirrored surfaces echoed the Manhattan skyline in the background.Courtesy of the artist, Knig Galerie, Berlin, 303 Gallery, New York, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

JH: All around the world, our current situation forces us to stop and actually look inside, whether we want to, and to realise that what we have around us is all we have. We have to feel and reflect much more than we are used to. This is the moment to do things differently on many levels: in our own lives, in our society, in our world. Because if you want to change the world, you have to change yourself.

Jeppe Hein, All We Have Is Right Now, 2016. ALL WE HAVE IS RIGHT NOW glows in white neon letters behind a two-way mirror, layered with reflections of the visitors and the surrounding space. Photography: Studio Jeppe Hein / Florian Neufeldt, courtesy Knig Galerie, Berlin, 303 Gallery, New York, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

JH: If this time has a positive aspect, it is that there is room for fresh ideas and new thoughts. I ask myself: What is really necessary? Which way have I come here, and do I want to continue or turn left, right or around? It has inspired me to create a few new works, but also made me realise how important works like Breathe with Me are in offering people a moment to feel themselves again.

JH: The song It starts now by Blond:ish, which includes a speech by philosopher Alan Watts.

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At home with artist Jeppe Hein - Wallpaper*

Conor O Malley the CEOs Caddy and Instigator of CoachAid20 supporting CEOs & Executive Leaders trust the way they learn, lead, and know themselves. Transformative approach to leadership and delivering results are the key outcomes for leaders who work with him through his Observe | Choose | Act methodology. Sharing new ways to see themselves and the world they lead to take action differently. OMalley has shared his reflections and advice in an interview.

VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2020 / Conor OMalley, the CEOs Caddy, Instigator of CoachAid20, and experienced executive coach walks alongside CEOs, Business Owners and C-Level Executives to help them execute the right shot through his Transformative Executive Coaching Practice; for executive leaders to trust how they learn, lead, and know themselves and to be more effective both personally and professionally in todays new economy.

OMalley helps his clients observe themselves from the inside out and truly observe the environment they operate in. He helps them see possibilities for their choice of shot (choose), how they execute the shot (act) and he walks alongside them reviewing the outcome (learn). As a public speaker, he supports the audience with his storytelling, through his own executive experience and by sharing distinctions for those present to understand themselves better, as well as the world they lead in, enabling them to take more effective action.

Having a clear view and providing direction remains critical to being an effective leader, OMalley states. He also contends that Executive leadership attributes and styles are changing. One change is to a more enabling leadership style from a more directive and hierarchical model of leadership. This is due, in part, to the increased pace and complexity of the environment that leaders now lead in, where the patterns in the data are harder to see and the pace of decision making has increased. The directive approach is limited by only having one source of listening the listening to self. A caveat to this he shares, is when there is chaos in a time of crisis, as is currently the case with COVID-19, where a more directive approach is required for decisions to be made quickly.

Critical to this change in leadership style is trust. Trust, OMalley argues is, and always has been, created by delivering on your promise. The change he refers to is more mutual respect, empathy at a humanistic level, curiosity, active listening and leaders showing vulnerability; not attributes the previous style encouraged.

This recognition is, in part, a result of O Malleys work with CEOs, Business Owners, and C-Level executives internationally. He takes a humanistic approach to leadership development and career transition through his Observe | Choose | Act Programme.

Conor OMalleys Observe | Choose | Act Programme is a transformative (not performance) coaching approach that delivers:

OMalley, now a native of Melbourne, Australia, has been coaching CEOs, Business Owners and C-Level executives internationally for 3 years, when he decided to leave the C suite in the supply chain industry. After he relooked at what success meant for him, both personally and professionally, he decided to move into the world of coaching and mentoring to support those who are now where he was to help shape how leaders lead, both personally and professionally.

In response to a question on the driving force behind his success, O Malley has explained how it really boiled down to being a beacon for others (his purpose) and helping to build the leadership behaviour and language of business leaders today, that helps shape the world in which we all live.

Reflecting on the change in O Malleys life, to where he is today, he quotes Alan Watts waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.

In a recent one-on-one interview, O Malley reminisced on past achievements, which helped build momentum towards the present day. Notably, his leadership at National Foods, in Australia, a core part of which was transforming the safety culture of the organisation that changed peoples lives for the better. Most recently, on the outbreak of COVID-19, his instigation and leadership of CoachAid20, where globally 350 coaches signed up to provide free coaching to support professionals transition to working from home 24 hours a day for 9 days prior to Easter. 146 sessions of free coaching were held across 6 continents within 7 days of his idea. Lastly, he shared that transforming his way of being, both personally and professionally, to enable him to be a beacon for others is an achievement he is immensely proud of.

His own learning journey, and competency building, over the last 3 years brought him to a point where he now has a highly professional, and certified, coaching practice working with CEOs and business owners. Having been an executive leader, and now an executive coach, he knows from feedback of the many who have worked with him in both domains, that he has inspired them and taught them skills that have lasted a lifetime, from which they have drawn on in their own journeys.

In the same interview, O Malley stated his intentions for the future. The primary goal for the next 12 months, he states, will be to build his executive coaching reach to support more leaders and, during Covid 19, to build on the community reach of CoachAid20 for those in need of what coaching, more broadly, can provide. This will be done by his message being heard by the leaders of the corporate world and by working with others on developing CoachAid20.

Looking farther ahead, the aim is to be working with world influencers to help shape the language and behaviour of leaders to be more in line with societal expectations of what leadership looks like and needs to be today. His second aim, through CoachAid, is leading a global movement to support those in the community at all levels to have access to free, or affordable, highly professional coaching. The aim being, through coaching, to help them solve their own challenges delivering the outcomes they want and need for themselves, both professionally and personally.

When asked more personally about a core mantra that drives him OMalley said: Trust starts with me. His reason being that without trust there is no leadership and no choosing to follow the leader. We need to trust ourselves first, both existentially and through our own actions, before we can trust others.

OMalley closed the interview by sharing his recommendation for anybody who wants to follow his footsteps in some fashion. According to Conor, the key to any meaningful, and successful, service offer in a marketplace is to meet the unmet needs of the procurer by listening to it, understanding it and ensuring your offer is heard by those whose problem you can help solve.

Further information can be found at: linkedin.com/in/conoromalley

CONTACT:

Contact Name: Conor OMalley Business Name: Outlander Executive Services, trading as COM Address: 32 Gramatan Avenue, Beaumaris, 3193, Victoria, Australia Phone Number: +61405399580 Website Link: http://www.conoromalley.com.au/ Email: Send Email

SOURCE: Conor OMalley

View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/589171/Conor-OMalley-The-CEOs-Caddy-Instigator-Of-CoachAid20-Helps-Executives-Execute-The-Right-Shot-Through-His-Transformative-Executive-Coaching-Programme-He-Works-With-Leaders-To-Trust-How-They-Learn-Lead-Know-Themselves-To-Be-More-Effective

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Conor O'Malley: The "CEO's Caddy" & Instigator Of CoachAid20, Helps Executives 'Execute The Right Shot' Through His Transformative...

Anyone who suffers from anxiety knows it sucks. What are your triggers? One of mine is when I resist letting go of situations that are completely out of my control. Another is resisting feeling an emotion, subconsciously or otherwise, because its going to hurt.

Emotere, the Latin derivative for the word emotion, literally means energy in motion. Discovering this was the missing piece to understanding that its resistance to accepting emotions or energy in motion which causes me anxiety. It seems, trying to think of every possible solution or berating myself into being happy creates an energy blockage.

The first law of thermodynamics states, No energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. It is transferred to other forms of energy. Therefore, one may think one can indefinitely resist or suppress the energy which moves when experiencing an emotion but it has to go somewhere and eventually, it will. If ungoverned, energy blockages often come out in subconscious behavior or patterns e.g. self-sabotage, anger, creative block, etc or when bottled up for ages, ill-health may occur.

According to Taoism, the energy which is in play is called Qi (or Chi) and there are two fundamental types of it: Yin and Yang. Feminine and masculine, respectively. Succinctly put, the positive side of feminine energy is fluid, open and creative, the negative (shadow) side is chaos. Masculine energys positive side is solid, structure and drive. Its negative is trapped and restricted. To be clear, these energies are not related to gender. Every person is made from/uses a mixture of both. Too much of either creates a feeling of being overwhelmed and health, flow, passion, etc is found when theyre in balance, e.g. theres enough creativity to generate ideas coupled with enough drive to not spend all day with ones head in the clouds.

If what weve determined as a positive emotion is experienced, say happiness, we immediately accept the energy. It hangs around for a bit, then it moves on in its own good time. We dont stay ridiculously happy forever. With negative emotion, say sadness, we often dont immediately accept it which causes it to stick around. We keep charging up the energy by revisiting the negative emotion and questioning why we are having it or pushing ourselves to try to feel something else instead. As difficult as it might be to just accept, the result of not accepting it is often worse. Pressure builds, we feel overwhelmed, out of control and anxious, which often means we react rather than choose to act.

Accepting emotions is much easier said than done. Constantly being the observer and choosing to act is hard because we have a lifetime of subconscious coping mechanisms to contend with. On top of that, lets not forget that we are human and have primal reactions, ones we dont have a choice about; fight, flight or freeze. When each happens, the bodys reaction is the same; we release adrenaline. This prepares us to protect ourselves by supercharging (energising) our bodies ready for action. This surge of energy is uncomfortable and its the discomfort which magnifies our minds perception of the threat. This creates an energy-thoughts-thoughts-energy vicious circle and anxiety is the result.

Though a journey of trial and error, I pieced together a toolkit for when I register the start of being out of balance. It helps govern the movement of energy and break the vicious circle blockage.

1. Let situations unfold, dont fight it. Practise Wu-Wei. Take a breath, slow down, observe the energy moving in the body and the thoughts we (very quickly) connect to it as simply that energy moving and thoughts. Then try to accept the uncomfortable feeling.

2. Feeling all your feelings. To accept it, try to understand it. Ask Where in my body and how am I feeling out of balance? Are there too many options, a sense of chaos (too much feminine/not enough masculine)? Or do you feel backed into a corner, a sense of feeling trapped (too much masculine/not enough feminine)?

3. Whichever is the answer, as a quick sticking plaster, try and release or ground some energy by:

4. The above helps regain balance after a strong reaction but prevention is better than cure. To aid that, one can question which energy space they are in at any given point. Meditation is a huge, huge part of being able to do that. Here are a couple of prevention examples:

5. An easy question to remember is, Am I acting from a place of love or fear? I believe wherever we are or whatever we are doing, those are the base emotions we are acting from. Take sadness as an example. Letting yourself feel it is coming from a place of love, not letting yourself feel it is because youre fearful its going to hurt. Next time you react, try asking yourself whats underneath your reaction

The unexamined life is not worth living Socrates

Holding a mirror up to myself started my journey. I chose to because my anxiety bouts got quite severe. Through reading, seeing a professional (Sue from Third-space coaching) going to support groups and talking about what was happening, I better understand my brain/body connection. When I discovered anxiety is often triggered by something in the past, overreactions became signals for growth.

To govern the energy which moves during an overreaction, I found it is key to lean into anxiety and not run away from it. Ironing out creases from the past allows trapped energy to be released and the emotions to finally be felt. Its a very strange experience to cry about something that happened 20 years ago but that is 100% where reaching out for support comes in. Once acknowledged, awareness and understanding of whats happening in the body provides a solid foundation to achieving balance, makes the experience of anxiety much less scary and choosing to act rather than react becomes easier.

Ps. Books which were key to writing this: Tao Te Ching Lao-Tzu, The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts, Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson and Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore.

Previously published on Medium.com.

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Photo credit: Adam Slawson

Writing about being a vulnerebel in life, love and business. Founder of Plight Club - The first rule is: you DO talk about it - http://www.plightclub.co.uk

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Handle Anything. Govern Energy. - The Good Men Project