Towards the end of October, he put all of his songs into the public domain.
This means that anyone can use them for any purpose whatsoever without anyone's permission and without paying anything.
This is fantastic news and more songwriters should do this.
I don't know how to predict the broader implications of this development. It could seriously alter the course of human history.
In the meantime, however, I'm doing more meditation classes.
The next one is tomorrow at 12:00 PM EST. The topic is “Meditation for Extremely Intelligent Overthinkers”. You can sign up here.
You might also expect a performance of at least one of his songs by me in the future.
Earbuds are running my whole life now
I need some new earbuds.
The ones I have are broken. I mean, they do work. But the little rubber thing that fits on the end of the left one has a big tear in it. So, it's only a matter of time before they're unusable.
They're really cheap. I don't want expensive earbuds.
One time, I got expensive Sennheiser earbuds that came in a nice traveling pouch. Those were awesome. But, they disappeared.
So, that's why my next pair was a cheaper option from Amazon, which had good reviews but was made by a company I had never heard of.
They looked super-cool, too. They were red and had a silver cable.
But, they broke.
Not just once, but twice. I took a picture and sent it to the company, and they sent me a replacement. That one broke too.
That's when I decided I'm never buying anything other than the cheapest earbuds again. The Panasonic (I think?) pair that I have now was something like $7.
This is what I've been relying on for every Zoom call I've been on this year, and every podcast I've listened to.
Still, they didn't work in my Meditation for Extremely Intelligent Overthinkers class yesterday. No clue why. Probably something wrong with the phone.
Either way, the class was great, and I'm going to do it again.
The next one will be Friday, December 11, at 12:00 PM EST.
(I'm going to have these classes more frequently. Still working out the schedule and the technical stuff.)
Who ever invented tipping, anyway?
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Don’t overthink this one, unless you’re an underthinker
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Oops…I made a mistake…
You might have gotten an email from me today with a subject like “Welcome 2/5”. If so, that was a mistake.
I was working on a draft, and didn't mean to send it. Now, I'm too embarrassed to look at the email to see what I may or may not have sent out accidentally.
Let it go on record that MailChimp is the most annoying email platform ever in the history of email. If you have a mailing list, or if you plan on starting one, I hope you can save your soul from that particular version of hell. It's too late for me.
I also wanted to update you on my live meditation offerings:
Zoom sessions
I will be offering a Zoom session every week as a paid class. (I might expand this to multiple times per week.)
If you're new to meditation, or if you want the structure of sitting with a group, this might interest you. People have had great insights at the sessions I've done in the past, and this will be NO DIFFERENT.
I'll be in touch about registration.
Instagram Live
I will have free live sessions on Instagram. These will be random and experimental. They may pop up without warning. There may even be one tonight.
I might talk, or I might just sit, or I might guide a meditation, or I might just talk. I have no idea.
It will be an adventure for everyone.
Follow me on Instagram (@no.michael.here) to learn about these.
(btw, I will definitely do one tomorrow, Saturday 12/5 at 2:00 PM EST)
How often should I meditate?
I got this question in response to my email yesterday about the meditation timer:
“This might be a dumb question so feel free to roast me. Do you recommend any particular schedule for starting out? Every day? Once a week? Whatever you want? As often as possible?”
To which I replied: “Once a day, idiot.”
Meditation isn't going to help you if you don't do it.
By “do it”, I don't mean once a week. Lots of people do that, and although it might make them feel like they are meditators, they're not spending much time meditating, and thus aren't getting the benefits of meditation.
You have to do it A LOT.
I have done 10-day silent meditation retreats where you meditate for 10 hours a day. And that's just the sitting practice. You're also meditating the rest of the day while walking around.
Every single moment you spend meditating is contributing to your overall meditation skill level.
So, it's a good idea to maximize that time.
But, there's a problem…if you can't stand meditation, you aren't going to do it.
The solution is radical acceptance of whatever comes up during meditation.
It's a skill that must be practiced. There's no other way to learn it. Moment-by-moment, you must practice.
Fortunately, meditation itself is the way to practice radical acceptance.
But, there's another problem…it can't just be any old kind of meditation. If you're spending your time trying to zone out, or trying to imagine yourself on the beach, or trying to work out why you can't get along with your neighbor, you're not practicing acceptance.
Your meditation practice must be based on acceptance.
This is the thinking behind the millennia-old techniques from Buddhism, such as vipassana meditation. There's nothing woo-woo or religious about it. It's just the practice of sitting down and paying attention to what's happening, without trying to change it.
Long retreats (at least a week) are great for learning this. It's an intense environment and it's hard not to benefit from it.
But, that's a commitment (and especially in these times, most retreat centers are closed or operating at limited capacity).
I made No Problem for people who have time constraints and/or short attention spans (like me) but who still want a taste of what acceptance-based meditation can offer them. It's short and gets right to the point. And, it has cool piano music I recorded myself. And, you will get a hand-lettered certificate upon completion.