BOOK —

Field Notes

stories and reflections

Written between retreats, mostly in the early morning, before the light is up over the Doring valley. Some are about silence. Some are about stars. None of them will tell you how to live.

Written between retreats, mostly in the early morning, before the light is up over the Doring valley. Some are about silence. Some are about stars. None of them will tell you how to live.

Doring river at bliss and stars

Why We Don’t Rewild

We hold the older view of conservation: leave the land alone and watch what comes back. Five years on the Doring river, in the Cederberg.

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The Harder You Work, The Worse You Think

The productivity research everyone cites to work harder actually says the opposite. On the candle problem, play, and why the clenched mind misses the obvious.

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Meditation Isn’t About Stopping Your Thoughts

If you think you're too busy or too analytical to meditate, you've misunderstood what it is. The mind was never going to go quiet. Here's what the practice actually asks of you, and where to begin.

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The Strange Power of the Eye-Gazing Experiment

Four minutes of eye contact, and what it does to a familiar face. The experiment behind the 36 questions, and why we reach for screens instead.

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Why You Can’t Switch Off From Work

You can't switch off work because your stress response only shuts down once a threat passes, and work never quite does. The science of rest, and what helps.

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Stargazing in South Africa: A Night in the Cederberg

The Cederberg has some of the darkest skies in South Africa. Why the sky is this dark, what you can see overhead, and the best time of year to come.

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What Actually Happens at a Silent Retreat

A silent retreat, plainly explained: whether you can talk, what you do all day, and what the second morning is actually like in the Cederberg.

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Perimenopause, Cheese, and Other Spiritual Practices

Brain fog in the supermarket, the impossible instructions of the wellness industry, and why Unmade promises no arrival, not even stillness.

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How Awe and the Night Sky Can Shift Your Mindset Instantly

You will not change your mindset by trying harder. Why the input, not the effort, is what moves it, and what a dark sky does that reframing can't.

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The Strange Magic of 3-Day Retreat

Why Your Brain Needs Three Nights to Stop Making Lists and Start Noticing the Stars

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Reclaim Your Time

Five ways your attention quietly slips away, from curated cravings to life as exhibition, and the small pauses that take the day back.

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  • Rest

Six Steps to Get Unstuck from Stress

Six practical steps out of survival mode: slowing down, returning to the body, glimmers, and sorting what you control from what you don't.

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Rejection is a Doorway

What 130 rejections did for Albert Ellis, what selling insurance taught me about the no, and why the fear is mostly a story we attach to it.

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A Stargazing Evening in the Cederberg

The guided stargazing evenings. The down to earth astronomy.

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  • Rest

Somatic Experiencing for Stress Relief and Nervous System Reset

Somatic Experiencing, explained by a practitioner: what happens in a session, the idea behind it, what it isn't, and what people tend to notice.

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The Power of the Night Sky: How Astronomy Inspires Wonder and Well-Being

Why looking at the night sky measurably helps: ancient light, the pale blue dot, and how to stargaze properly. No telescope required to start.

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Make Decisions Right

Why hunting for the right decision backfires, what the research on reversible choices shows, and the case for making your decision right instead.

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Why is Being Still Difficult?

If meditation makes you more anxious, your nervous system may be reading stillness as a threat. Why rest is hard, and three ways to ease into it.

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Moving at a Human Pace

Notes from running a retreat at walking pace: cacao before dawn, an empty boat from Zhuangzi, and why slowness is a choice made daily.

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