📱Professional studenthood, meditation and stillness, I-Thou relationships

Happy wise365 Tuesday!

Here are 3 ideas to consider this week…

1. Professional studenthood

Aristotle spoke of eudaimonia, often translated as flourishing or living well, which invites us to focus on purposeful actions that lead to a fulfilling life. (In Habits and Productivity: Timeless Wisdom for Building Better Routines)

Lack of direction in career and life is a common complaint these days, including in the “professional student” community. There is a hard to attain balance between freely exploring ideas and personal options (which I as a former philosophy PhD student highly appreciate) and focusing on a purpose that will help us build something of long-term value. Studenthood has its limits: how long did you actually retain the details of what you learned in the last course you took?

2. Meditation and stillness

Buddhist teachings frequently highlight the breath as a gateway to mindfulness, a means to anchor oneself in the present moment and move beyond the mental noise that can cloud perception. (In Emotional Intelligence: Discovering Timeless Wisdom Through Practice)

Social media scrolling can be so engrossing for many people that they forget about the thing called “sleep.” I know how hard it is to make progress in meditation. It’s quite scary for people not to be engaged with their phones - much less to do nothing at all.

3. I-Thou relationships

Philosophers like Martin Buber highlighted the "I-Thou" relationship, which focuses on treating the other as a fully realized individual rather than a means to an end. (In Relationships and Connection: A Workbook Inspired by Timeless Wisdom)

Have you been dying to expand your business card collection? The networking event is the perfect example of a situation that can easily fail to be I-Thou, in Buber’s sense. Those giving us their cards can seem unconcerned about who we are as people, making these events somewhat problematic from the point of view of fostering a healthy feeling of self-worth.