Countless people seek happiness through wealth, success, even self improvement but are still dissatisfied and unfulfilled.
This blog speaks to the possibility of realizing wholeness and enduring wellbeing without going anywhere or changing anything.
You're either skeptical of or have tried self-help, woo-woo and traditional religions and none of them worked and you're looking for something deeper that has worked for millions of people across time and geography.
I'm not going to tell you everything is going to be OK. But I will teach you how to be OK even when things aren't OK.
Most of my life had been about getting through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff. That wasn't a good strategy because much of life is unpleasant. I was deeply confused, dissatisfied and unhappy, and I knew somebody, somewhere must have figured out a better way to live.
It all started when I was at a high school party, drunk and free of myself and free to be myself - outgoing, funny and able to relate to people in a way that I never could. Was it possible to have that much fun and enjoy life that much - whether doing dishes, working, or cleaning a toilet - without having to drink? I was on a quest to find out.
To my surprise, the freedom, wholeness and happiness I discovered, even amidst the insanity of daily life, exceeded anything I imagined. You could say I became intoxicated with life, not alcohol.
I got tired of keeping track of all the ideas, insights and revelations in my head and needed to write them down.
To see if I could organize all that I had discovered and learned (and un-learned) into a body of wisdom and practices that anyone could apply to their own life.
To democratize wellbeing. Everyone, everywhere deserves physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, regardless of circumstances.
My name is Ryan Delaney. I was born in Portland, grew up on both coasts and went to school in the midwest. I studied French then poured coffee. I went back to school then sold stuff. Eventually I started two businesses - one failed, one succeeded. Then I lost all of my money. Not once, but twice. Now I live in Silicon Valley. Each day I wake up to Olivia Munn’s doppelgänger, two step kids and one remarkable world.
Connecting deeply, backcountry adventures, good design, economics, nature, road trips, music and stillness.
The challenge I had, and the one most of us have, is not being exposed to the wisdom and practices that work, the ones that have withstood the test of time. Instead, the spiritual marketplace offers us simple solutions to complex difficulties catering to our innate laziness and desire for quick fixes. The spiritual path starts with the right wisdom and the right practices.
Unfortunately, it's getting harder to find truth through all the noise - regurgitation of information, half-truths, whole-falses and gaming of search engines. Indeed, 99.9% of all information is entertainment at best, false information at worst.
If we manage to cut through the clutter, we tend to find the following types of recommendations:
Often those who have achieved outward success continue to feel empty inside (and not the good kind). That emptiness is the neglected inner or spiritual life.
For radical transformation, one must attend fully, not only to the practical but the spiritual realm too. My intention is to share what has and continues to work in my life (after years of floundering) and may work for you too. Everything I share has been examined, practiced, tried, and proved in my daily life.
Maybe you shouldn’t. I have n qualifications - no diplomas from a prestigious university, no plaques on my wall. Nothing I can point to really that designates me as someone you should listen to.
However, understanding life's mysteries and what it means to be human, in all its forms, has been my life's inspiration and passion for over 20 years.
You will find nothing new here. In fact, everything I write about you already know. If that sounds strange, ask yourself this: How would anything make intuitive sense if I didn't already know it?
I'm here to remind you of what you have forgotten. Take what works in your life and forget what doesn't. And don’t let people waste your time, including me. If an article is junk, stop reading.
Nothing I write needs to be taken on faith. While the focus of this blog is human subjectivity, or the nature of experience itself, all of my assertions can be tested in the laboratory of your own life.
The most important takeaway is this: learn to see clearly for yourself. Then you will no longer need this or any other blogs, books, videos, workshops, or pithy quotes. Wherever you go, you will have your own living wisdom.
As Lao Tzu cautioned, “Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know.” I'm full of BS like everyone else, hopefully just enough less to be useful.
May all my struggles and searching offer you a shortcut to deep, abiding freedom and enduring wellbeing.