• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

meet john gray

  • Home
  • Blog
    • Mindfulness
    • Running
    • Home
    • Travel
    • Photography
    • Technology
  • Writing Portfolio​
  • Images
  • About
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
You are here: Home / Archives for minimalism

minimalism

Too Many Inputs

05/18/2018 by John Leave a Comment

Front Page of the New York Times

How often do I cede what to think about to others? The ubiquity of advertisements takes away much of my choice when it comes to where my attention goes. But often, I do have the choice. Every time I open up social media or subscribe to an email list, I am letting someone else decide what will occupy my mind for a period of time. It feels innocuous at the moment it is occurring but is it healthy when 12 or 24 hours later, I am still thinking about some random bit of information I let in?

The thing is, thoughts are little pebbles that roll downhill dislodging larger stones as they go until there is an avalanche. I often find myself buried in thoughts and unable to find the way out. An innocent glance at a Facebook post can lead to hours of researching a topic I never knew I had any interest in. Before I know it, the day is full of pursuing the thoughts and interests of someone else instead of my own.

I should be more mindful of how many times I open the door for new inputs to come in. I should be careful about the sources and ask myself if I am really getting any benefit from them. I want quality over quantity but I keep choosing quantity. I keep swimming in the shallow end of the pool of information when what I long for is to go deep.

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: focus, mindfulness, minimalism, technology

Goodbye Portland

12/16/2017 by John Leave a Comment

Outside the window I see the lights of a plane climbing into the orange-tinted dawn sky. In just a few days as the sun rises over the Blue Ridge Mountains, we will be on a plane descending, coming back to Asheville again and the closest thing to home we have. Soon it will be time to gather the detritus we have scattered throughout the corners of this house and wonder how much of it we really need before we stuff it into a bag to haul back across the country. We’ll be leaving here with more stuff than we brought. How does that always happen? But the important things we will bring back with us are memories. Below are just a few.

View of Portland from the Sellwood Bridge

View of Portland from the Sellwood Bridge

This was a view I got a lot of while running around Portland.

Matcha Latte

Matcha Latte from the Rain or Shine Coffee House

The Northwest may be known for its coffee culture, but while here I developed a strong taste for matcha lattes.

Guitar players on the Deschutes River

My brother-in-law and friend playing guitar while on a rafting trip on the Deschutes River

I got to get out on the Deschutes twice this fall. One of the highlights of river trips is getting to hear my brother-in-law and his friends playing guitar in such beautiful theaters.

Mary and John at Cannon Beach, Oregon

Mary and I at Cannon Beach on a beautiful fall day.

Mary and John at Mount Hood

Out hiking with Mount Hood in the background.

We’ve had some great weather this fall and we’ve tried to take advantage of it by getting outdoors as much as possible.

Filed Under: Images, Travel Tagged With: minimalism, travel

Less Is Almost Always More

12/01/2017 by John Leave a Comment

Photo of an Empty Beach The season of stuff has begun, and there is no limit to the amount of distraction and dissatisfaction that follows in our pursuit of more. We allow stuff to overfill our homes, ending up with closets full of things that brought us momentary fulfillment but are now forgotten. We keep this stuff because maybe someday we will decide we need it or like it again.

But we also tend to clutter up our mental landscape. There is only so much input we can grasp at once. Overloading our capacity to process information can lead to unrest and unhappiness. Too often I treat my mind like a junk drawer, just throwing random stuff in there that I think I might need later. I find something interesting on the internet, and I file it away both digitally and mentally in the hopes that one day I’ll do something with it. But with rare exception, I never do. What I end up with is a mind full of loose ends that I struggle to tie up, tangents of thoughts and ideas leading off in too many directions at once. My mind is full of so much stuff I don’t know what to do with it all.

While traveling, I tend to pack light, living with only a few possessions for several months at a time. I have also spent long periods completely disconnected from all sources of information input other than what I observe with my senses. Invariably, these have been some of the happiest times of my life. Contentment follows when I am unburdened by stuff both physical and mental. You would think I would know better by now, but I am still learning that less is almost always more.

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: minimalism

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Want to hear from me?

Archives

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework

 

Loading Comments...