In this episode, we discuss the countercultural habits you should adopt to live a rich and meaningful life. Popular culture is, by its very nature, fleeting and temporary. As a result, it often promotes habits that have no enduring value and add little meaning to our lives. Fads and fashions are incapable of fostering the elevated modes of living we truly desire. Instead, we need to thoughtfully analyze the cultural habits we have—intentionally or unintentionally—adopted and practice on a daily basis, and remove those which do not add value. Ultimately, in order to live a elevated, meaningful, and cultured life, it is necessary to give up some popular cultural habits and replace them with those which add joy and meaning. 

Key quotes: 

"By looking back at the values and habits that shaped those who came before us, we can cultivate practices in our own lives that allow us to rise above the cultural morass in constant flux around  us and curate cultured lives that transcend pop culture itself. "

"The path to genuine transformation demands a departure from familiar routines and habits to make room for daily practices that give life, elevate, inspire, and enrich."

"The trouble with seeking happiness is simple: happiness is inherently transient. Like all emotions, it is a temporary state of feelings. And when we seek as permanent something that is by nature temporary, we are bound to be profoundly disappointed."

"We redefined life’s highest end as happiness, and we’ve lost ourselves in the process. "

Victor Frankl: “For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”

"Joy is a posture of the soul that emphasizes giving, rather than getting; creation, rather than consumption; and making life meaningful, rather than expecting life to make you happy. And the counterintuitive reality? That by focusing on cultivating joy rather than feeling happy, you will experience profound happiness as a result."

"Maintaining a private life is a profound act of respect—respect for yourself and for those in your life. It is an implicit acknowledgement that your private life is too precious to flaunt publicly."

"[Maintaining a private life] is a gift that you can give to yourself: the gift of space and freedom. Privacy is freedom from judgement. It is space to work at your own pace. It is freedom to act wisely and rightly without fearing external criticism. It is the space to pursue your own calling and passions without turning them into an exhibition."

"Consumption is easy. Creation is hard. It takes time. It saps energy. It demands attention and our effort. It’s an act of vulnerability. It’s emotionally, mentally, and physically taxing."

"There are few greater delights than to spend a day creating from thoughts, ideas, and raw materials something that did not exist when the sun rose in the morning—whether that’s a book, a loaf of bread, or a ceramic mug. There’s joy in both the created thing and the act of creation itself."

Website: http://modernrenaissance.ca/

Blog: http://modernrenaissance.ca/blog/

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In this episode, we consider the cost of busyness and the importance of slowing down. Your host, Chelsia Van Hierden, talks about the tendency of perfectionists, high achievers, entrepreneurs, students, and mothers, to constantly add more to their lives, all why trying to optimize every second to compensate for wildly busy schedules. The reason we do this is because we live in a society that glorifies busyness and views worth as contingent upon work. But this constant busyness isn't doing us any favours, and is actually detrimental to many areas of our lives. The solution, Chelsia suggests, is to be courageous enough to slow down. By taking simple steps, we can open up time in our schedules and in our lives to live slower—and, as a result—to live richer. 

Quotes: 

"Explicitly or implicitly, we use our busyness as a measurement of personal value. To be busy implies that we are successful, respectable. It has become a modern status symbol. Our societal assumption is that your worth is contingent upon your work."

"Based on the data, we’re working more, sleeping less, enduring more stress, taking less time off. We spend more time alone, and less time connecting others. We’re more exhausted, more anxious, and less fulfilled. "

"When you slow down, you increase the space in your mind for non-busy work—for exploration, creativity, and reflection. You’ll experience less stress and anxiety, and more peace and clarity."

"And by slowing down, you’ll discover that the self development you may have been fiercely striving towards actually needed some space to germinate. We grow in the spaces and in the silences. "

"[T]here’s such a thing as saying 'yes' too often, and if left unchecked, it can lead to that chaotic busyness that cuts into the most important parts in your life. Because saying 'yes' to one thing is saying 'no' to others. "

"Finally, define the things you are saying 'yes' to in advance, and make them non-negotiable. Decide ahead of time that everything that would impede on your 'yesses' will receive a 'no'."

"[S]eek balance amidst imbalance. Life is not the teeter-totter we imagine, where achieving perfect balance will result in a perpetual blissful existence. Perfect balance doesn’t exist. Life is by nature unbalanced."

"Some phases will feel like winter—a time to slow down, hunker down, and endure the cold. Others may feel like spring—a time of new growth, new opportunities, and new horizons. Some seasons are for hibernation, some for harvest. The key is to embrace the balance of the imbalance."

"[W]e should seek balance in our own lives, not all at once, but in seasons, and strive to thrive through both busyness and rest, through times of productivity and times of slowing down, recognizing that neither is valuable or sustainable without the other. "

"Part of the courage in slowing down is being brave enough to confront this discomfort with thought and action: In our thoughts by continually reframing our perspective when culture creep tries to demand we define our value by its standards. And in our actions, by gradually integrating moments of slowness into our lives."

Website: http://modernrenaissance.ca/

Blog: http://modernrenaissance.ca/blog/

This description may contain affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission when you make a purchase through the listed book links—at no additional cost to you.

In this episode, we explore five simple, but powerful, ways that you can begin to enjoy the "finer things" in life today—and they won't cost you anything. Join your host, Chelsia Van Hierden, as she discusses how the finest things in life are free and available to everyone. Too often, we approach our lives with the idea that we can enjoy things someday when ______. However, life is fleet-footed, as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius suggests, and putting our enjoyment of life off for some future time often means that it never becomes a reality. Instead, it's better to cultivate a posture of celebrating and savouring life's finest treasures today.

*In the intro, I mistakenly say we are discussing "10 things." It should have been "5 things." My mistake!

Quotes:

"Slowing down can be a powerful catalyst in our lives, but it’s also valuable for its own sake. It’s tempting to slow down so that we can recharge and work even faster in the future. This is not what I’m suggesting. I’m suggesting that slowing down is its own end—that we slow down for the mere sake of slowing down, that we learn to savour the pause itself, to explore its corners and find riches in its silences."

"To celebrate the small moments is to recognize that the present is inherently valuable and to find joy in the simplicity of existence. It is an act of mindfulness, a conscious decision to immerse ourselves fully in the here and now. By doing so, we become attuned to the subtle joys of life—moments that, though seemingly insignificant, hold within them the potential to add beauty to our lives."

C.S. Lewis: “And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back — if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?”

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: ”People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.”

"Life becomes more beautiful when you learn to celebrate it—even, or especially, when reasons to celebrate feel hard to find. Celebration is powerful, because it forces you to acknowledge that there is something beautiful in life at all times. It is a profound act of gratitude, enabling you to transcend your circumstances and see that today is also worth celebrating."

"To savour a dish, a conversation, a relationship, a book, is to implicitly acknowledge the transience of everything we get to enjoy, and to render unto it our attention and our appreciation."

"We often assume that the finer things in life are costly and must be purchased, when in reality the opposite is more often the case. The finest things in life are free and accessible. What you can buy is just window dressing. "

Books:
Madeline Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today
C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

Website: http://modernrenaissance.ca/

Blog: http://modernrenaissance.ca/blog/

This description may contain affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission when you make a purchase through the listed book links—at no additional cost to you.

In this podcast we consider the question: Why should we read the classics? Using Homer's Iliad as our compass, we explore how classic literature can help us transcend our own lives to engage in the grand meta narrative of history. Chelsia discusses that what makes a classic a classic isn't necessarily the poetic or literary brilliance of a work, but its ability to timelessly strike at the very marrow of what it means to be human. She then goes on to consider how literature is soul-forming, why it's particularly worth reading in the world in which we live today, and the reasons old books are worth reading simply because they're old.   

Quotes:

"The [Iliad] strikes at the very marrow of what it means to be human. The soul, forced to transcend from the confines of a single little life and see itself within the great expanse of history, longs, if only for a moment, to incarnate the greatest of what it means to be human. The Iliad is great not because it is imagination stirring, but because it is, at its most fundamental level, soul-forming. "

"We do profound damage when we treat as though it does not exist the part of ourselves which most fundamentally underpins our existence. Our souls will be formed whether we acknowledge them or not; the question is merely how. "

"The stories of others are valuable on their own merits, regardless of whether or not they add explicit benefit to my own life, because they relentlessly remind me of shared humanity amidst striking difference."

"Why, then, should we read the classics? In a word, because we are human. Because we have the same questions and curiosities of those who have preceded us and, indeed, of those who will follow after us. Because our stories are not the only stories that matters, and because it is important to transcend our little lives and dare, if only for a moment, to embody the greatest of what it means to be human—justice, courage, wisdom, charity. Because the things that matter most are the things that have always mattered the most. And, perhaps most importantly, because our souls will be formed—whether intentionally or carelessly—and because we are the charioteers who guide them."

Want more? Check our our this post on our blog: 

• 7 Reasons You Should Read the Classics

Inspired to read the Iliad? Get your copy here: 

• The Iliad, Homer

Website: http://modernrenaissance.ca/

Blog: http://modernrenaissance.ca/blog/

This description may contain affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission when you make a purchase through the listed book links—at no additional cost to you.

In this podcast we consider the question: What does it mean to be cultured? Chelsia explains that although we are all cultured by the people, places, things, and experiences we encounter, to be cultured in the classic sense means something more—that is, to possess elevated manners, refined tastes,  well-rounded knowledge, and a strong sense of historical centredness. She emphasizes that each of these characteristics must be tied to strong character, explains why curiosity is one of the most important traits of a cultured person, and digs deep into why we need to accept, appreciate, and safeguard the  cultural legacies we've inherited.

Key quotes:

"Although culture has shifted, what it means to be cultured has largely remained the same. It continues to describe individuals who exhibit elevated manners, refined tastes, and a well-rounded education—those who are connoisseurs of the world and who readily engage in the richness it offers."

"To be cultured is to be centred in the past, aware of the nuanced reality of the cultural heritage upon which you stand, and regarding history with appreciation and charitable criticism without condemnation."

"To be 'cultured' without character is simply to be a snob." 

"Expensive taste that lacks refinement is merely gauche, and sophistication needn’t be costly. To have cultured taste is to conscientiously curate, evaluate, and appreciate what one consumes."
 
"To have cultured taste is to be a connoisseur of the finer things in life, without becoming a critic of everything else; it is a posture of appreciation and delight for that which is good, true, and beautiful."
 
"Curiosity, not obligation, cultivates the breadth of knowledge possessed by those who are cultured."

"For that is the mark of being cultured: to accept, appreciate, and treasure culture until one is able to pass it down, intact if not improved, to those who come after them. It is to recognize that they are but one link in a long chain of history, and to accept that although culture is their birthright, it is not personal property but a heritage of humanity. What has been bequeathed must be safeguarded so that what has been safeguarded may be passed down."
 
" To be cultured in the manner I have described above is to live well—to show greatness of soul towards others and towards yourself; to find delight in that which has been deemed most beautiful and noble by the democracy of mankind; to be ever curious, ever exploring, ever learning; to safeguard the historical legacy that has been passed down to us and, with humility and courage, to bequeath it to those who will come after."

Website: http://modernrenaissance.ca/

Blog: http://modernrenaissance.ca/blog/

This description may contain affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission when you make a purchase through the listed book links—at no additional cost to you.