I say a lot of weird things. Here’s the translation key.

  • Black paintbrush: To cast the past in a negative light because of one or two bad things. It’s like taking a black paintbrush to the whole calendar.
  • Bridger: One who works to build bridges of compassion by understanding those who are different.
  • Cheese factory: A temptation that one would be wise to avoid entirely instead of relying on willpower to resist. [more]
  • Chocolate: A task that requires oomph. [more]
  • Deconflate: To separate out two things that seem the same but are in fact different. [more]
  • DDR: Dance Dance Revolution, a music video game that you play with your feet. I’m pretty much obsessed with it. [more]
  • Face in the spikes: Being forcibly reminded of something that makes you feel frustrated and dissonant.
  • Kidney stone stub your toe: Usually, stubbing your toe hurts, but it’s not the end of the world. But if you stub your toe while suffering from a kidney stone, it is the end of the world. The “kidney stone stub your toe effect” is that small things seem huge when background stress or pain is high. [more]
  • Measurementism: The belief “If it can’t be measured, it doesn’t exist.”
  • Milgram Syndrome: When you find yourself obeying an authority figure despite your reservations. [more]
  • Oberon: A task that you’ll avoid, procrastinate, or resist if given half a chance. [more]
  • Oomph: Decision-making ability. [more]
  • Pantry: A project that’s worth investing in, despite exhaustion, because it will make every future day better. [more]
  • Pathfear: The fear of facing your path, which feels like “I can’t do it” but is actually because you care so incredibly deeply that you’re utterly terrified of failing. [more]
  • Pathfinder: One who follows their heart’s calling. A Pathfinder is someone who has turned away from the culture of conformity or has been pushed out – out to the edges. A Pathfinder is an explorer of dreams, of possibilities, of new ways to be.
  • Pathfinding: The process of finding and following your heart’s calling. [more]
  • Remembrance: A Sufi devotional practice that involves calling the name of the Divine into your heart. [more]
  • Schlitterbahn: Something you don’t feel like doing at the time, but you’ll enjoy a whole lot if you can get over that initial hump of resistance. [more]
  • Spiral: feeling like you’re going around in circles, but you’re actually spiraling upward, making progress. [more]
  • Sufi: One who practices Sufism.
  • Sufism: A mystic spiritual path, rooted in Islam, focusing on direct experience of the Divine.
  • Tears of Truth: Spontaneous leakage that occurs when your heart senses something that is deeply true or right.
  • Tervetuloa: Finnish for “Welcome”; a reference to a poem Pace and Kyeli read to each other at their wedding
  • The usual error: Assuming that other people are just like you; that others think, feel, act, believe, and are motivated just like you are. [more]
  • Vanilla: A task that does not require oomph. [more]
  • White paintbrush: To cast the past in a positive light regardless of how good it actually was. It’s like taking a white paintbrush to the whole calendar. This can be a useful way to counteract the negativity bias, but it can be overdone.
  • Wholehearted: Feeling aligned and of one mind. Present, not wishing you were anywhere else or doing anything else.
  • Worm: A mutual trigger in a relationship.