https://paulstapel.com/categories/meditation/Recent content in Meditation on Paul's ParticlesHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usSat, 04 Apr 2026 14:04:55 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/back-to-basics/Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:04:55 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/back-to-basics/“There is no complex without basic” - me I was interested in what forms a good basis for my day to day life. For a healthy body and a healthy mind, I’d like to know the minimal set of things to focus on to achieve them. I meditated on this, and came to the following conclusion. The basics of my life are: Order Meditation Care Puzzle Creation Movement Nothing more, nothing less.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/being-ugly/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:44:36 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/being-ugly/Can’t relate, I’m hot as fuck.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/social-guy/Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:15:28 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/social-guy/A ruler’s success should be measured by the success of his commonwealth - Me Once again I feel myself reaching beyond myself. Lately, I have found myself becoming more and more social, and I wanted to reflect on this. When I tell people that I usually identify myself as an introverted person, they don’t often believe me. The reason is quite apparent; I laugh, chat and bounce around all over the place with social energy not often found in your average person.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/sore-loser/Mon, 25 Aug 2025 22:20:43 +0800https://paulstapel.com/meditation/sore-loser/“I figured it out - I figured it out from black and white” [One Direction] “All I do is win, win, win no matter what” [DJ Khaled] Just wanted to share a quick observation on humans, call it a philosophical inquiry if you will. Every person I know of is a sore loser. I believe this is something that lies in our human nature even. Let me start off by saying that I don’t think that everyone gets angry at “losing”.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/focus/Thu, 21 Aug 2025 21:27:28 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/focus/“If you want to complete a project, maximise the time you spend sat on your chair” [Jonathon Blow] During this summer, I’ve been doing quite some work at the company I work for. Along with all the social obligations and events, it tired me out quite a bit. I got to do what I wanted to do, but I did notice that I noticed that I struggled staying focussed on what is important to me.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/i-forgot/Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:32:02 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/i-forgot/“The right way to go easy is to forget the right way” [Zhuangzi] I was looking at my blog, and found that some of the posts where set to draft. I forgot to post them, but ah well, it doesn’t really matter. I will be posting them soon, I think – otherwise all posts will just be uploaded today, and that would be strange. Forgetting is quite an interesting thing.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/on-purpose/Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:10:23 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/on-purpose/“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how” [Nietzsche] Although my philosophy on life has been shaped quite strongly in the past few years, the goal of this philosophy was never quite as clear to me. I have built the framework from which I can persue my life goals, but for this to happen, I still needed true life goals. I always knew a direction somewhat, but experience has taught me that vague goals are almost never inspiring enough to be persued.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/correspondence/Tue, 10 Jun 2025 21:10:47 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/correspondence/Dear Niels, I usually write towards myself in these meditations, but today I would like to write back to you instead. To start at the ending of your letter, I would like to say that I feel the concepts of “perception,” “choosing,” and “reality” are indeed perceptions themselves—only deemed as such because we deem them to be reality. For quite a while now, I have taken a stance of contextual truth—that is, truth as something that lives within the construct of reality.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/different-worlds/Thu, 05 Jun 2025 13:11:28 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/different-worlds/World is as much perception as it is fact [Me] As we develop and grow older, we come to face many realities. It starts at nothing, nothing to be percieved or thought, an empty slate. From there, we gain insight into the reality around us, our parents, our home, eventually our school. We play pretend, maybe watch some shows, play some games. Through our development, we come into contact with many different worlds.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/muscle-memory/Mon, 02 Jun 2025 11:31:24 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/muscle-memory/“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times” [Bruce Lee] Proficiency is a beautiful thing. When we have reached a point where we can perform an action without having to think about it, it frees our mind to focus on what we wish to focus on, bringing us closer to non-action. In martial arts, we often hear that we must practice a certain technique hundreds of times over, and the same thing holds for all aspects of life.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/morning-rythms/Thu, 29 May 2025 08:53:26 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/morning-rythms/Bathing in the morning sun, not only can we feel a presence of mind, but also a presence of God [Me] What a luxury it would be to have your window aligned with the sunrise. When spring slowly turns into summer, one of the most inspiring changes is that the sunrise is brought to us earlier and earlier. When I awake, I tend to become most energetic at sunrise, and this means that my sleep schedule also shifts earlier into the day.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/breakfast-struggles/Wed, 30 Apr 2025 07:12:52 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/breakfast-struggles/“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” [Adelle Davis] I’d like to spend more time on my breakfasts. Usually, I cook quite lavishly when it comes to dinner, and I take quite some time to prepare a good meal for lunch, but breakfast has always been left behind a little by me. I’d like to change this soon, but there seem to be some things that stand in my way.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/setting-up/Tue, 29 Apr 2025 21:28:53 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/setting-up/[Donald Knuth] “Premature optimization is the root of all evil” Sometimes, I struggle with getting started on things because there are too many options for the set-up. Maybe this is because no real best way to do something is known, or maybe it is because there are too many good options available, but it leaves me a little paralysed afraid of heading down the wrong rabbit hole. I meditated a little on this, and wanted to share two things that have helped me in this.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/poems-on-a-walk/Sun, 27 Apr 2025 22:08:46 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/poems-on-a-walk/[Me] Eenden op het meer // Een blad valt langzaam naar benee // Water onveroerd [Me] Boom van goud en rood // Buigt voorzichtig oeverwaarts // Kijkend naar zichzelf [Me] In zonnenflux // Stap voor stap // Ademt mijn geest // Een overstap // In rust [Me] Ik dans // Naar het ritme // Van het ruisende gras in mijn tred // En de melodie // Van de zingende wind in mijn armen // Door de stilte heen // Ik danshttps://paulstapel.com/meditation/weak-week-planning/Sat, 26 Apr 2025 22:23:38 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/weak-week-planning/“Having no destination I am never lost” [Ikkyū] When planning ahead, I usually only plan for one day. Everything after that is a little too far into the future for me, and I think it distracts from the present. If I plan too much, it may lead to multi-timing, which I try to avoid at all costs. Besides this, not planning too much is a way of practicing calendar yoga.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/why-need-love/Wed, 23 Apr 2025 14:47:43 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/why-need-love/“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it - all idealism is mandaciousness in the face of what is necessary - but love it” [Friedrich Nietzsche] As I have stated last week, love is a troubling subject to me. It has taken many a nights of pondering this abstract topic for me to even discover my feelings on it, and only after a relationship of about two years have I grasped them in some capacity.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/silent-observation/Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:30:43 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/silent-observation/“Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject” [John Keats] I could ask myself to think about the way I am breathing currently. It is often joked that this makes you start to think too much about your breathing, making you switch from automatic breathing to manual breathing. I have been reading “The Art of Game Design” by Jesse Schell, and in one of the earlier chapters, he talks about the paradox of actually observing your experiences.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/post-mortum-of-love/Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:36:52 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/post-mortum-of-love/“The saddest thing about love is not only that it cannot last forever, but that heartbreak is soon forgotten” [William Faulkner] Last December, I broke up with my first serious partner. We had been together for 2 years by then, but we both agreed that it would be better for us to go our own ways. As it has now been 5 months already, I felt it was finally time to write down some of my meditations that came from this breakup.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/codex-meae-mentis/Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:07:06 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/codex-meae-mentis/In my meditations, I stumble upon thoughts and concepts that cannot always be described fully by language. These thoughts need to be expressed in words that convey feeling, not reason. In my meditations, and throughout my life in general, I may thus share words that are not at all clear in meaning. In order for readers to better understand these concepts, and to keep me from having to repeat myself, I present to you the codex of my mind.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/view-from-the-summit/Fri, 11 Apr 2025 21:10:30 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/view-from-the-summit/“Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality” [Bruce Lee] Yesterday marked the end of my most recent semester of university, and one of the most challenging semesters yet. I was faced with the mountain that was the course “topology and geometry”, a course on abstract topology. If you are interested in reading my original thoughts on this course, I’d refer you to this post, where I shared my anxieties going into this semester.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/on-rejecting-the-self/Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:16:12 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/on-rejecting-the-self/“Oh, you sentimental hypocrites, you lustful men! You lack innocence in desire: and therefore you now slander desiring!” [Nietzsche] After re-reading Nietzsche’s “Of immaculate perception”, I started seeing some of the subjects of resentment more clearly. It is all too common to reject our own nature, and resent our love and desire in this world for we lack a certain innocence in this desiring. We can be a jealous bunch, afraid of our own desires.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/on-company-and-solitude/Mon, 24 Feb 2025 21:48:14 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/on-company-and-solitude/“My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company” [Nietzsche] Solitude is a tricky thing. On the one hand, I strive to find peace in solitude, and the time I spend with myself is among the most peaceful time I can have. On the other, I recognise that a certain balance needs to be struck between relying on friends and relying on self.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/awake/Tue, 18 Feb 2025 08:08:04 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/awake/As yet hath his knowledge not learned to smile, and to be without jealousy; as yet hath his gushing passion not become calm in beauty [Nietzsche] Sometimes, things in life may inspire you to a deeper contemplation. Things that once eluded you suddenly become clearer, and more present in your mind. It can feel as if things just fall in place, and a fire of passion consumes you thus. But it is not that which life reveals to me, but that which life conceals from me that fuels me most.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/the-crushing-weight-of-time/Tue, 11 Feb 2025 08:01:39 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/the-crushing-weight-of-time/“The past wants to be loved, the future heard and the present lived - such is the nature of time” [Me] We are subject to much force throughout our lives. I myself can feel this resistance in much of what I do. A principle I try to live by is to follow the path of least resistance - to go with the flow of the way of life. I also believe that life is what you make of it, and that our actions shape these paths for our future.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/facing-mountains/Tue, 04 Feb 2025 08:00:26 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/facing-mountains/“On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain; either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow” [Nietzsche] Last academic period didn’t go easy on me. Or more accurately, I didn’t go easy on myself. I always aim to challenge myself, and with all the things that I had to do outside of studying I found myself struggling quite a bit more than previous periods.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/the-slow-days/Thu, 16 Jan 2025 13:28:45 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/the-slow-days/“Winter is a slow heartbeat, an aged murmur of lifelong love” [Angie Weiland-Crosby] During these cold winter months, it is easy to let the mind slow down to a halt. The combination of cold temperature and short days makes for a season of tiredness, but also of tranquility. I wanted to take this slow afternoon to reflect on this beautiful January, and to shape my winter ways. Staying lively Winter is a numb season.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/social-initiation/Sat, 11 Jan 2025 08:33:09 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/social-initiation/“Life is a conversation, make it a good one” [Glennon Doyle] In keeping with my new year resolutions, I started meditating on how I can become a more sociable person. One of the core parts of being social is conversation, and while I have learned a lot about how to hold an engaging conversation, there is always one thing that I find difficult: How do you start a conversation in a natural way?https://paulstapel.com/meditation/marathon_idea/Fri, 10 Jan 2025 08:01:35 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/marathon_idea/“Once you make the decision that you will not fail, the heart and body will follow” [Kara Goucher] So a few friends of mine came up with the idea to run a marathon in 2026. Now, I have been running for about 4 months, and I wouldn’t have imagined doing this 1 year ago. I wanted to share some of my personal observations. My physical confidence In my youth, I wasn’t always the fittest person.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/resolutions2025/Thu, 09 Jan 2025 11:28:11 +0100https://paulstapel.com/meditation/resolutions2025/“A path is made by walking it” [Chuang Tsu] 2024 was a good year for me. It was a year of great fortune in my education, work and home life. That being said, I have even more to look forward to in 2025, and one of the things I always embrace in the new year is the opportunity to steer myself in the right direction along the tracks of life.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/noticing-no-no/Sun, 08 Sep 2024 21:23:27 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/noticing-no-no/“Every battle is won before it is fought” [Sun Tzu] In my life, I have noticed that most of my failings are only recognized in hindsight. It is often easier to look back with an analytical mind than to analyze the situation on the fly. This is exactly why I mostly fall victim to my unwillingness to say no when I am put on the spot. From my experience, the best way to shift this bad habit is to analyze the course of action beforehand.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/learning-to-say-no/Thu, 05 Sep 2024 19:56:21 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/learning-to-say-no/“You have to learn to say no to many good things if you want to say yes to many great things” [Unknown] Recently, I have found myself having trouble saying no to people. Of course, when push comes to shove, I know when to stand my ground when I strongly believe in something, but the main problem lies in saying no to good things. In order to explore this, I will take you on a journey of meditation where I explore this side of myself for the first time.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/rebalancing-oneself/Wed, 04 Sep 2024 21:41:30 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/rebalancing-oneself/“Balance is not something you find but something you create” [Me] Sometimes, I feel like I’m finally getting in a good groove. In those times, my studying routine works, my workout routine works, I’m being social and am taking care of myself and the people around me. Then, something happens that knocks me off-balance. This summer, it has been a wonderful vacation to Vietnam that saw me quickly adapt my way of living to this travelling lifestyle, but this sweeping force may also be something a little less enjoyable.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/mishaps/Sun, 21 Jul 2024 22:16:37 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/mishaps/“Falling down is an accident, staying down is a choice” [Unknown] When working on becoming the person you want to be, it is often in the stressful and doubtful situations that you find out your conviction is strong. You can tell alot about yourself and your growth as a person from how you deal with hardship, however small it may be. It is good excercise to ask yourself what your instinctual reaction is when something goes wrong.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/pretty-things/Fri, 19 Jul 2024 22:44:55 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/pretty-things/“Beauty exists only to relief us from ugliness” [Oscar Wilde] Often in live, I find myself feeling like I’m above the need for beauty. It can be seen as a virtue to look not at appearance but at what lies within. I agree with this, but only recently have I come around to realising that beauty has its place as well. A lack of elegance or beauty can be distracting.https://paulstapel.com/meditation/beginnings/Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:52:09 +0200https://paulstapel.com/meditation/beginnings/“Meditation is conversation with the soul” [Me] For quite some time now, I’ve been wanting to put more of my creative energy into my blog. To do this, I have tried to understand what makes me me by finding my creative voice. I’m afraid this question is too grand for me to answer in one go. In my life, I have meditated quite often, and this is just one of many other topics I will meditate on in my life.