Not All Poetry Feedback Is Equal: Stop Taking Their Words Personally

Not All Poetry Feedback Is Equal: Stop Taking Their Words Personally

Not all poetry feedback is equal, nor is it equally appreciated. It depends on what you write, who is offering the feedback, and the type of relationship you share.

I write poems about sex, sadness, and spirituality, thus my audience is broad and eclectic. I want to be read wildly by most everyone, except perhaps by my family, colleagues, neighbours, and acquaintances who may (read have) raised a few eyebrows at my work…

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5 Senses Mindfulness: How to Calm a Panic Attack

5 Senses Mindfulness: How to Calm a Panic Attack

The first time I had a panic attack, I thought I was going to die.

There was no exact triggering moment, just a quick, overwhelming onslaught of symptoms. Tight chest, sweating, heart palpations, racing thoughts, and a feeling of impending doom…

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You Win Or You Learn

You Win Or You Learn

I lose every day. Each time I step onto the mat at the start of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training session, I know that I will soon be ‘tapping out’. Giving the signal that I have been defeated, and effectively admitting to myself, to my opponent, and to everyone watching, that I was bested. ‘You win or you learn’ is an aphorism that we learn to live by, and in most sessions, I lose more than I win. Yet I return, day after day, and plan to continue to do so for the rest of my life. By the end of this chapter I hope to convince you of the reasons why…

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Learning Life Skills You Were Never Taught As A Child

Learning Life Skills You Were Never Taught As A Child

Learning how to adult is a challenging prospect. There is so much to do, and so many different skills needed to successfully maintain a household, pursue a career and have successful relationships, all of which involves learning life skills, that we may not have been taught…

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Why You Should Stop Striving For Enlightenment

Why You Should Stop Striving For Enlightenment

Zen suggests that when sitting, you simply sit. If enlightenment comes it comes. But you should stop striving for it. There should be no expectations of growth, change, happiness, or insights. You should sit for sitting’s sake, or more specifically, you should just sit…

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What Is Evocative Poetry?

What Is Evocative Poetry?

Evocative poetry, like all good art moves people. It changes their emotional state – usually from neutral or mellow, towards any extreme. This change isn’t always in the positive direction. Good horror will terrify you, a masterful comedy will have you in hysterics, and any existential thriller worth its salt will leave you questioning the very nature of reality and the people within it…

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Feeling Unsupported? How To Handle The Negativity The Comes When You Make Positive Life Change

Feeling Unsupported? How To Handle The Negativity The Comes When You Make Positive Life Change

When you start to make changes in your life in any positive direction, you will encounter haters. There are people who will share with you all of the reasons that you should stop doing what you are now doing, and why you will fail. They cause you to doubt yourself, question your goals as well as the methods that you are going about acquiring them…

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Am I Hitting Rock Bottom?

Am I Hitting Rock Bottom?

Rock bottom implies a hard abrupt end. A clear definable point at which things can’t get worse.

I realise I’ve been waiting for such a point, waiting for a clear moment where I can say, ‘ah ha! This is it, this is the lowest point of the dark night of my soul.’

But now I realise that the analogy of rock bottom is faulty…

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Why Prioritisation Beats Procrastination Every Time

Why Prioritisation Beats Procrastination Every Time

Procrastination kills dreams.

It causes the ‘must do’ tasks to build up and never get done. It takes away our leisure time. It makes us stressed and causes us to scramble over approaching deadlines. It makes us feel guilty and worthless whenever we recognise all of the things we haven’t yet completed….

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Elements Of Poetry

Elements Of Poetry

Poetry is just words on a page.

Anything beyond that definition risks falling into a philosophical or literary debate that would amount to such an abstraction of the beauty of the artform as to render it pointless. There are no rules. No restrictions. No limits to what you can and can’t, or to what you should and shouldn’t do.

A lot of this book will help you to hone that expression, giving you tips, tools, and tricks to make it more evocative. But that is all just make up and window dressing. Expression is the key. Some people gravitate towards rhymes and structure, others to free-flowing verse, others still, to long form paragraphs or books, crafting each line with meticulous care. It is all just writing. It is all just words on a page. It is all just poetry…

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Finding Safety in Safe Words

Finding Safety in Safe Words

Terms like sapiosexual, demisexual, pansexual, get thrown around a lot, and I’ve always wondered where I fit on the spectrum. A review of my past partners, and passed attractions, reveals something interesting to me. I don’t really have one type.

Whilst I have certain preferences and prefer to connect over intelligence/humour/personality/drive. One trait above all seems to rule out everything else. I’m attracted to clarity….

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Hunt Your Own Shadow - 12 Week Self Paced Course

Hunt Your Own Shadow - 12 Week Self Paced Course

Featuring exclusive guided audio tracks, introspective contemplations, expansion challenges, and email coaching - this course will act as a guide, offering insights, prompts and suggestions that will help you to dive into your shadow, reintegrate, heal, and grow...

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A Day In The Life

A Day In The Life

I always knew that my dad was an addict, but it took me a while to truly understand the difference between my dad and my friends’ dads. However, as I moved from primary school into high school, the differences became more and more apparent.

One of my close friend’s father was a truck driver who drove semitrailers interstate on a regular basis. I remember this friend complaining about how his father was often not at home for long periods, but when he returned they would go to the football or play at the park.

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Why I Stopped Watching Porn

Why I Stopped Watching Porn

“I don’t watch porn, that shit rots your brain.”

These words were casually said to me by a friend of mine. We were discussing different ways that we ‘Guard Our Mental State’. Basically talking about mental health and the things that we do to ensure that we stay in a stable place …

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Hoarder

Hoarder

I realised just how bad Dad's living conditions were about a year after his death. I was talking to a cousin of mine who had recently become a police officer. It’s not often that you get a chance to have a firsthand glimpse into the seedy underbelly of the society you live in. So I jumped at the opportunity, asking for recounts of some of her more memorable highlights on the job.

After describing some interesting car chases and instances in which she had to draw her weapon, she began describing a case where she was called to a disturbance at house in a fairly shady area. The neighbours had heard a questionable noise and were concerned enough to inform the police. My cousin was the one who answered the call and arrived with her partner at the scene.

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Just Popping By

Just Popping By

I loved going for drives with Dad, he would always let me choose the music and never complained about my taste. It’s one of the little things that made him special to me. It made me feel like I was important, no one else let me choose the music.

Dad loved to go camping, and from a young age he encouraged me to develop an interest myself. The long drives up past Ballarat into the Victorian high country allowed for a lot of time to listen to music. Back then he drove around in a yellow tradesman van. It was one with only front seats and a large open space in the back. The windows even had flowered curtains. Similar to his house, his van was a mess. Discarded food wrappers, old drink cans and generally just filled with trash. It always had an interesting musky odour about it, not overpowering, just ever present. But hey, that's what all vans smell like right? Man I was naïve.

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Play It Again Daddy

Play It Again Daddy

If you have children or younger siblings, you will know just how obsessive they can be when it comes to watching their favourite movies. Often they will want to watch the same show again and again to the exasperation of the rest of the family. Relentlessly quoting their favourite lines and demanding that it is always on.

For the most part, this is a win-win. This hypnotising program can serve as a well-deserved respite from the pressures of raising children. For a few precious hours, they are entertained and mum and dad can relax. They can get onto that project they have been meaning to do, read a book, exercise or have a long overdue adult conversation.

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