I’m lucky in that I pull most of my inspiration from my current life. I don’t have to dig into the archives anymore. I’m living the lessons now, and I’m more aware of them as they happen.
Recently, when I was wrestling with all these health issues, I hit a point where I knew I had to turn that frustration into something useful. I kept thinking: I’ve got to make this mean something. And that pushed me into a question I’d never really asked myself before:
Who am I actually trying to become?
What’s my aim and purpose?
What do I feel called to say that’s true to my values and my ethos?
That line of questioning became the spark. It drove me into my own ikigai – my sense of meaning.
It wasn’t some grand revelation. It was more like: the frustration of not knowing the answers forced me to go find them. And when I did, everything in my life started to feel more aligned, more intentional, more fulfilled.
I’m happier. I feel more grounded. And I understand stoicism in a way that makes sense for me – not as “don’t feel emotions,” but as:
you can feel them, move through them, and keep going because you don’t stay in the moment; you live through it.
That’s what this whole period has taught me. It’s helping me refine my philosophy, my ethos, my way of being – every single day.
Photo by Sam Szuchan on Unsplash
This article is part of The Human Collective. Each week we take a prompt and create a playlist and accompanying articles. Check out the rest of the playlist: Songs That Start The Fire & Learn more about The Human Collective here.
About the Curators
Otis Galloway
My name is Otis Galloway, and I am a beautiful mess.
- I believe in music as a powerful agent of healing.
- I believe a cassette mixtape can carry powerful emotional gravity that tells stories that span generations, worlds and universes.
- I believe in travel, love, cooking, street food, cold beer and gelato.
- I believe in conversations that go until the sun comes up.
- I believe love comes in a multitude of forms.
- I believe in large kitchens and cooking huge dinners for friends.
- I believe we have so much to learn from one another.
- I believe in growing more hemp, cannabis and bamboo.
- I believe we should say, ‘I Love You’ more often.
- I believe we need more justice for the people.
- I believe we can do better, and should do better.
- I believe in a diverse, colourful world full of happy, realized, loving people.
- I believe gyoza is love.
- I believe in musicto.
Find me here: