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Observations

Overcoming Procrastination in Creative Practice

Creative practice is one of the few places where procrastination can masquerade as discernment. In most areas of life the difference between the two is fairly easy to spot. If you delay replying to an email for three weeks, you are probably not engaging in a subtle process of ethical reflection. If you keep postponing…

creativity

Your Creative Voice Isn’t a Style. It’s Your Self.

We talk about finding our creative voice as if, hidden inside the sentences, brushstrokes, melodies, or camera angles, there exists a particular tone we must locate and refine. The advice is familiar: keep practising, imitate the masters, produce enough work and eventually your voice will emerge. This isn’t wrong, exactly, but it isn’t the entire story, because the…

Observations

Time Orientation and the Trap of Living Elsewhere

I left a tarot workshop yesterday with an insight that was startlingly clear: I spend a great deal of time living in the future. Card after card suggested anticipation, projection, preparation, movement toward what comes next. The irony was not lost on me. Present-moment awareness — mindfulness, contemplative attention, the cultivation of presence — sits…

Observations

The Ethics of Attention: Reading, Writing, and Living in a Distracted Age

As I prepare for some very exciting spring workshops and begin working with a new cohort of 1–1 clients, I find myself returning again and again to the question: what kind of attention are we cultivating? And to what ends? At the same time, I am collaborating with colleagues at the University of Surrey on…

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About Me

Hi, I’m Allan. I’m a professor, coach, and meditation teacher interested in how we can live and think more creatively in a complex world. My work bridges mindful living with the craft of scholarship, bringing together literature, philosophy, and contemplative practice.

Alongside my academic writing, I share reflections here on the art of academic practice, slow living in a fast city, and the small rituals that make daily life meaningful. This blog serves as a library and archive for my wider projects across Substack, YouTube, and beyond.

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