Saturday, February 7, 2026

The Payoff of Deep Contemplation

That is an version of The Surprise Reader, a e-newsletter wherein our editors suggest a set of tales to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Join right here to get it each Saturday morning.

When Michael Pollan traveled to a collapse New Mexico to attempt to perceive consciousness, he realized what good meditation is admittedly product of. “The recipe was less complicated (and far much less appetizing) than I’d have imagined,” he writes: “To transcend the self, power your self to be alone with it lengthy sufficient to get so bored and exhausted that you’re comfortable to let it go.

As Pollan intuits, this observe isn’t all that enjoyable at first. However by the top, you get someplace that makes all of it value it. Deep, existential pondering is slightly like train, Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2024: We’d keep away from considering huge questions due to the short-term discomfort, however in doing so we ignore the larger payoff. You may schedule deep pondering into your life in the identical approach you’ll a exercise, Brooks argues: Take day trip of the day to meditate and think about significant concepts, or go for a morning stroll with out your units to spark contemplation. As we speak’s e-newsletter explores these and different methods of turning deep thought right into a behavior.


On Considering Extra Deeply

Three Methods to Grow to be a Deeper Thinker

By Arthur C. Brooks

You don’t must turn out to be a Buddhist monk to comprehend the worth of considering laborious questions with out clear solutions. (From 2024)

Learn the article.

Find out how to Have a ‘Don’t-Know Thoughts’

By Michael Pollan

My quest to know consciousness took me to a collapse New Mexico after which deep into the cosmos.

Learn the article.


Don’t Make Small Speak. Assume Large Speak.

By Arthur C. Brooks

Uncover the rewards of discussing deep issues.

Learn the article.


Nonetheless Curious?


Different Diversions


PS

A reflection of trees in the water
Courtesy of Lisa C.Ok.

I lately requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on the earth. “Have you ever ever seen a sound wave within the shoreline? I delight each time,”  Lisa C.Ok. from Sarasota, Florida, writes.

I’ll proceed to characteristic your responses within the coming weeks.

— Isabel

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