Mindful Matter
Grief and gratitude.
Last week our grandfather, or Babajoon as we called him, passed away at the incredible age of 104. His death came just four months after the passing of Mamanjoon, our grandmother and his wife of 75 years. His passing also marked the loss of our last living grandparent. After the news of his death, our family received many comforting messages and words of wisdom to guide this period of grief. One video in particular was shared a few times, first by our cousin and then again by a close friend. It was an honest, heartfelt, and open conversation between Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper discussing life after losing loved ones. About 13 minutes in, Cooper says to Colbert: "You told an interviewer that you have learned to love the things that you most wish had not happened. You went on to say, ‘What punishments of God are not gifts?’ Do you really believe that?" Colbert took a moment and responded: "Yes. It’s a gift to exist, and with existence comes suffering. There’s no escaping that. But I didn’t learn it — that I was grateful for the thing that I most wished hadn’t happened. It’s that I realized it... I don’t want it to have happened. I want it to not have happened. But if you’re grateful for your life — and not everyone is, and I’m not always… then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can’t pick and choose what you’re grateful for. Then what do you get from loss? You get awareness of other people’s loss, which allows you to connect with that other person, which allows you to love more deeply and to understand what it’s like to be a human being…and however imperfectly, acknowledge their suffering and to connect with them and to love them in a deep way that not only accepts that all of us suffer, but also that makes you grateful for the fact that you have suffered so that you can know that about other people. And that’s what I mean. It’s about the fullness of your humanity. What’s the point of being here and being human if you can’t be the most human you can be?" Learning to find peace, growth, and even gratitude from our most painful moments — is an incredible act of Resilience. To life, love, and humanity, Mike and Dave RadparvarCo-Founders, Holstee
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Our Next Chapter: Reflection.app — a better way to journal.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Søren Kierkegaard Last week I recapped our 10-year Holstee journey and how it has steered us towards a new and exciting project. This week I am thrilled to introduce you to: Reflection.app — a simple way to start a meaningful reflection practice with an online journal that guides your personal growth each month. From our Reflection Cards, to our annual Reflection Journal, to the exercises in our Mindful Kits, Mike and I are big believers in the power of reflection. Through reflection, we get the chance to appreciate, learn from, and find peace with our past as we take steps toward the future ahead. The challenge is that starting and keeping a reflection practice is hard. It can be difficult to know how to begin, and once you do begin, it can be difficult to maintain with all the distractions life throws our way. For years, journaling has been our go-to tool for reflection. But even when we mastered the habit of writing about our days, there wasn’t an easy framework for looking back on past entries — no guide to help us find patterns in the things that brought us joy, or learnings from the moments that challenged us. It’s a problem we have experienced first-hand, and after speaking with you, our community, we realized we were not alone. Two years ago, we began researching, testing, and developing concepts to solve this problem. We have created, scrapped, and recreated dozens of prototypes (“reflectionapp_mockupv10-7a_copy-v2-final-FINAL1.sketch” may or may not be a file on my Dropbox ;-). Finally, we arrived at a tool that we believe can really help people start and keep a meaningful reflection practice. Here is how Reflection.app works: Daily Journaling Through a simple web interface, you can add daily entries in one of three categories: Highlights - Things that brought you joy. Lowlights - Challenges you experienced. Free Writes - Everything else on your mind :-) (with optional writing prompts for inspiration!) End-of-Month Review At the end of each month, you are guided through your Highlights and Lowlights so you can understand how to grow from them. After, you are led through a short self-assessment in six key areas: Mind - Do you feel clear-headed, engaged, and intellectually challenged? Body - Does your body feel healthy, nourished, and strong? Soul - Do you feel at peace and connected to the world around you? Work - Do you feel interested in and fulfilled by your work? Play - Do you feel joyful? Are you engaging in activities that bring you joy? Love - Do you feel positive about the relationships in your life? Your end-of-month review comes together in one stunning personal monthly report that you can return to at any time. End-of-Year Review At the end of the year, you will have the chance to look back on the whole year. Your daily entries roll into your monthly reviews, and your monthly reviews roll into your annual review. Our goal with Reflection.app is to provide a simple and delightful framework to help guide you through a meaningful reflection practice. A practice that naturally builds on itself by using your entries to guide your reflection, at each step making the next milestone in your life more enjoyable and meaningful. We plan to work closely with our community to continue making this tool as valuable and useful for you as possible. Excited to hear your thoughts! Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. Holstee Members — You will get bumped up on the list once you request early access! In addition, we have also been working hard on some new updates for 2020 and we are excited to share those updates. Keep your eye on the private members group for a sneak peek :-)
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Feed your soul.
In our latest Passion Kit (also available in our Digital Guide), we talk about intrinsic and extrinsic values — a key concept in my own path to living fully. Here’s a quick breakdown: Extrinsic values represent external psychological needs such as money, fame, and image (physical appearance). Intrinsic values represent internal psychological needs like growth, connectedness, and helpfulness. I like to think of this distinction as “things that feed my ego” vs. “things that feed my soul”. It’s the “things that feed my soul” that light me up, fuel my passion, and ultimately make me feel fulfilled. And there’s research to back that up. After more than 20 years of study, psychologist Tim Kasser found that living in alignment with intrinsic values correlates with greater well-being. While most people naturally live by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic values, it’s the intrinsic values that are at the root of personal fulfillment. What are you doing to feed your soul? Mike RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee
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That one thing that will change it all.
It’s been about 10 years since we started Holstee — that’s almost 1/3 of my life dedicated to building one company. We have experienced wonderful successes, but also our share of challenges. In the early years, during tougher times, I used to hope for that one epic partnership to go through, that one large sale to close, that one journalist to finally reply to an email we sent, or that one product idea that would “change everything”. Ten years later, I’ve come to appreciate that there is rarely “that one” thing that will catapult an idea or business to the next level — there is no silver bullet. Even if you land that big opportunity, it’s just the first step, and more often than not, it’s just the beginning of deep and important work. There is rarely “that one” thing that is going to change everything. Business, like life, is just a series of steps — one after the other. If there is a project you are working on, remember to find joy in the process, step by step and day by day. Instead of constantly waiting or seeking that one thing, allow consistent effort and follow-through to be your greatest strength and source of fulfillment. One step at a time, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. This month in our Passion Guide, we discuss the challenges of identifying passions and how the challenges we experience through them can ultimately contribute to well-being and flourishing.
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In The Studio With Maia "Meech" Boakye
Each month, we are privileged to work with artists from all over the world. Their unique styles and points of view make for an especially diverse sense of inspiration in the art that arrives in our monthly Holstee Membership. From Los Angeles, California to Barcelona, Spain and everywhere in between, each piece of art is a true collector's piece. This month’s Passion Art art is by Maia “Meech” Boakye, an artist and illustrator interested in creating art around a post-internetworld, often juxtaposing the mundane and the absurd. For a little more about what inspired this artwork, process, and their life, here's a short Q&A: Where is home for you? Currently Toronto, Canada. What is your definition of a successful life? One where I have loved and been loved as much as I could have. Describe your perfect day. Taking a really long walk in the sun with some sort of camera. How did you get into design? Mostly out of boredom. I learned how to use illustrator holed up in my dorm room one winter and haven’t stopped drawing since. Where do you find inspiration? Pinterest, Instagram, various forums and e-commerce sites, YouTube. Sometimes I’ll go on walks and find inspiration in something as simple as the lines on the road. Which designers or thinkers influence/inspire you? If I could dwindle it down to a list of illustrators, Love is Wise, Abbey Lossing, Sara Andreasson, Amber Vittoria, Anna Kovecses, Xoana Herrera, Juli Majer, and Kendra Yee are at the top of my head. What was the inspiration behind this design? When I think about passion, it’s hard not to think about love and dreams. I drew this illustration depicting the dreams I’m most excited for, the ones I can’t yet imagine. At the moment, what is your favorite … Color: I’m between a light peachy pink and a sea foam green. Food: Fresh pita with red pepper hummus. Song: Juice by Lizzo Quote: “...the world is composed exactly by and only by surfaces on top of surfaces.” -Domenico De Chirico
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The Torrance Test.
“The creative adult is the child who survived.” — Ursula Leguin Ellis Paul Torrance, a pioneering psychologist in the 1960s, dedicated himself to unpacking how children and adults engage with creativity. He designed a non-conventional IQ test to measure a person’s creativity through a squiggle prompt on a piece of paper. Higher scores were awarded for answers that included rich imagery, implied narrative, or humor or fantasy. In this month’s Creativity Guide, we included a similar activity. We shared two mini-canvases with abstract squiggles and challenged members to come up with a one-of-a-kind picture, using their imaginations. Here is what the activity page looked like: Members have been sharing their creations in our private members community. It has been so fun to see the creative ways different people bring these simple squiggles to life: What would you create? Download the Creativity Guide or pick up a Creativity Kit to give it a try. Mike RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. Attention Art Lovers! We just launched a new Art Membership option. It gives you access to all of the resources available in the Digital Membership plus we will send the monthly archival quality letterpress-printed art to you every month. It starts at just $10/Month. Learn more and sign up today!
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More bad ideas.
This past weekend, I brought my notebook and a pen to a nearby cafe with the intention of drawing some simple sketches. It’s not something I do often, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do more of. I opened my notebook and felt the familiar fear that comes from looking at a blank page. But this time, I remembered a line from this month’s Creativity Guide. “Generate more bad ideas. Sometimes it’s about the quantity, not quality. It’s proven that simply generating more ideas (even if it means producing less than great work) creates a pathway to ideas that ultimately stick.” It reminded me that the first time is rarely perfect — in fact, the best results often come after many imperfect attempts. Inspired by this thought, I touched my pen to the page and I wrote in all caps at the top: “IMPERFECT SKETCHES” I decided to reframe my sketching experience by removing the results-oriented expectation. Once I did that, I was able to relax and start moving my hand without judgment, ultimately doodling different perspectives of a simple chair. By altering our approach, we can reduce the pressure that sometimes comes up during the creative process. Not only can this lead to better outcomes, but it can also make the whole thing way more fun. Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. The past few weeks I’ve been sharing some of my creative struggles — like resistance and fear of the blank page — along with a few techniques that help me power through them. For more tips and inspiration, check out our Curated Resources for Creativity.
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