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intention

Inner Skills for Outer Impact

There’s a particular tone to the Easter break that I’ve come to love: the semester recedes just enough for patterns to come into view, and there is a much-needed opportunity to reassess, realign, and prepare again for the next portion of the year. This year, that pause has felt especially necessary. My partner moved in…

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…

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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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