Paradox At Play

Episode Transcript Do you ever not feel quite human? Like maybe you're running on slightly different software than everyone else, following the rules sometimes, crashing into things other times, not entirely sure you belong in the room? What does it mean to play when you feel like a misfit? What does it mean to feel things on a day that insists on being beautiful anyway? This episode is a greeting. Come as you are, you beautiful misfit, you.

Episode Transcript Three words walk into a meditation. What do butts, breath, and boredom have in common? More than you'd think, and probably not what you'd expect. This episode, I explore three entry points into ridiculous mindfulness that are in your body, right now. One of them will make you giggle. And one of them might bore you half to death. And together, they might be the most honest meditation I know. I spent years pretending I wasn't bored by meditation, now I embrace it, keep sitting on my butt, and giggle a little. There is no perfect meditation, just the ridiculousness of the present moment. That's kind of the point.

Episode Transcript   I get anxiety. Not as much as I used to, but it still shows up — in packed grocery stores, intense social situations, the usual suspects. Over time I've collected some tools for those moments. This episode is about one of them. It is strange. It involves your tongue. It is also, I'd argue, a legitimate practice of ridiculous mindfulness. Before I walk into something hard, I send in my dog tongue, a phantom pet made entirely of tongue, to lick the room for safety. It works.  And it is ridiculous. Come try it.

Episode Transcript What if the most profound practice of presence is also inherently, unavoidably absurd and silly? That's the paradox at the center of ridiculous mindfulness. A paradox holds two contradictory truths simultaneously, and ridiculous mindfulness is exactly that: deeply serious about silliness, earnestly committed to the foolish. This introduction is an invitation to sit with that contradiction, feel it in your body, and see what comes up when you let yourself say the words out loud. Ridiculous mindfulness. Go ahead. Notice what happens.

Episode Transcript I'm Jonathan Paradox, and this is Paradox at Play. A podcast and a place for play. This podcast has been brewing for a couple of years — a few false starts, a lot of learning the technical what-and-how, and finally: it's time. This is me saying hi, introducing the practice, and being honest that making this thing is at least partly how I soothe my own nervous system. The first season is all about ridiculousness and how it can be utilized for joyous play.