Seeker of Stillness

77 essays to find the space from which your entire life is born.

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Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. ~ Viktor. E. Frankl

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Like many children, I once imagined a life spent close to animals, immersed in the wild, in the mesmerising world of buzzing flower fields, magical forest trails, with endless time to listen, explore, and belong. I wanted to be a veterinarian. Instead, social pressure, conditioning and living on auto-pilot ushered me into a corporate career where urgency was a virtue, hesitation was regarded as weakness, stillness as indulgence. I built a life based on speed and accolades. And it worked. Until I couldn't bear the pain of living as someone else's idea of me.

It was Viktor Frankl who named what I had been searching for: the space between stimulus and response.

Once a Harvard-trained negotiator, I became a Shaolin Temple disciple and photographer - a journey from 'too much' to 'enough', from noise to stillness, from haste to purpose. I discovered that inside that space lives everything: clarity, agency, the quiet authorship of a life you love.

Through stillness, I learned to find it. And to live from there. If my path brought me here, yours can too.

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This book is the field notes - a collection of 77 stand-alone essays of my journey from overwhelm and emptiness to a purpose-driven life where I am not pushed by the wrong reasons, but moved by stillness.

Read it when you feel like you are living someone else's life, or when you want to change a version of your own that no longer fits - but you don’t know where to start. Read it when you aren’t sure you’ll find what’s meant for you. Read it when your life becomes so loud and urgent that you cannot hear yourself think anymore. The goal of each page is not to give you an instruction or an answer, but to introduce an idea that provokes a series of thoughts and questions within you. Start with answering those, and be prepared to be mesmerised.

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The second edition is taking its final form.
Meanwhile, I invite you to download a free reading sample below.