Oliver Burkeman – Just go to the shed
It's always a little disorienting to realise how much of life is dictated by psychological avoidance – by the effort to avoid having to think about, or deal with...
14 June, 2025
Aaron Hsu – Five answers on questions about Time Surfing
1. "What’s really made a difference for you with Time Surfing?" Honestly, just doing it. I think it's tempting to see one element of it and then just do that...
13 June, 2025
Podcast Focused by David Sparks and Mike Schmitz
David Sparks and Mike Schmitz interview Paul Loomans about Time Surfing and the new release of the book 'I''ve good time'....
12 June, 2025
Podcast Ben Owden and Paul Loomans
Ben Owden interviews Paul Loomans about Time Surfing. 'Winning The Stress War, Embracing Calmness and Overcoming Procrastination featuring Paul Loomans'
12 June, 2025
A string of beads
'Obviously, you don’t need me to tell you these are dark, unsettling, apocalyptic times' Oliver Burkeman begins his newsletter which takes an unexpected turn after the beginning...
12 June, 2025
Mathious Boulianne – Catching the right wave at the right moment
I’ve been immersing myself in *Time Surfing* by Paul Loomans, reading it while warming up in my cozy sleeping bag on a recent camping trip...
12 June, 2025
Where are your bones?
As I enter the dojo, step over the thick wooden beam, and prepare to greet the altar, my gaze is drawn to the right. A large bouquet of flowers, still wrapped in cellophane, lies on his cushion...
11 June, 2025
Consciously incompetent
'I only notice it when it's too late,' says Alice, 'then I get terribly annoyed.' Alice follows the Assertiveness training with me...
11 June, 2025
Physical emotional pain
'Does this hurt?' asks my physiotherapist Rogier. He presses with his fingers on a spot in my groin. I don't have a chance to answer. I scream out in pain...
11 June, 2025
Wondrous pain
Pain is a remarkable phenomenon; at least, it is remarkable how our body can handle it. I read with passion the book Explain Pain, based on the latest scientific insights....
11 June, 2025
Like a long-held breath
When I turn on my laptop and activate Zoom, I'm immediately in a different Zen dojo, with other practitioners, all in kinhin, as the walking meditation is called. It's as if I'm stepping into silence.
11 June, 2025
Death has silent wings
Death has icy wings. It sails silently, floating over the snowy landscape and frozen lakes. Death has no words and shows no understanding. It has no tomorrow and no way out...
11 June, 2025
Like a tightrope walker
My eyes scan the sky. I search for cables in the air and for someone walking on them, but there's nothing to be seen. Could the rain have brought the spectacle to a premature end?...
11 June, 2025
The smell of home
As I cycle home, it seems as though Amsterdam has the smell of a strong broth. I smell it each time in a different place: by Paradiso and at the bridge over the Amstel...
11 June, 2025
Meditation in school
‘Often I start my lessons with a moment of silence,’ says Mirjam, ‘sometimes a few minutes but occasionally even longer.’ Mirjam is a mathematics teacher. She is an enthusiastic educator...
11 June, 2025
The open door
One of my first individual clients from 'De StressOntknoping' was Freek, he worked in an institution for young people with special support needs. He visited me at the Zen Center...
11 June, 2025
Torn
I see that it overwhelms him. He's such a tough guy and now there are tears in his eyes. He looks at me and says: 'I find it so incredibly stupid of me. I even told myself: you can't participate...
11 June, 2025
The wooden hammer
I take the wooden hammer from its support and strike it against the middle of the block that hangs in thick ropes before me...
11 June, 2025
Placebo
How is it possible that complaints decrease when you take a fake pill? The effect of a placebo is so significant that the professor of health science Andrea Evers dedicated her life's work to this...
11 June, 2025
A voice in the void
It feels like my voice is speaking into the void. I can still hear myself, but does my wife hear what I am telling her?...
11 June, 2025
Father and son
‘Wraff, wraff’ I hear and although I cannot see him yet, I suspect I know who it is. I climb further up the steep path, over rocks and stone trails...
11 June, 2025
At second glance?
On the lavender bush at the entrance of the zen temple, there is a constant coming and going. The butterflies and bumblebees completely ignore you if you stand close by and don’t move...
11 June, 2025
Nostalgia or authentic?
‘No, we cannot make an exception. We can only give you the code if you have a reservation.’ This secret code is to lift a barrier that blocks all traffic to the mountain area in both directions...
11 June, 2025
Rooster crowing
"Just don't let it get too touristy," my wife tells me. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice something strange. A large white collar. The collar is worn by a broadly smiling man...
11 June, 2025
Chasing in the garden
'Zzzzz,' I hear followed by a dull 'splat.' I turn around and look into the blue eyes of Gingko. Gingko is the cat of the upstairs neighbors. He is a young gray tomcat with elegant movements...
11 June, 2025
Golden glitters
Already in the subway, we notice the crowd and the excitement. Next to us stands a woman with glitter around her eyes. My wife, who is also in a good mood, speaks to her...
11 June, 2025
A people person
‘You are really a people person,’ says Rose Mary at the end of the interview. I repeat it at home to my wife, who puts a mocking smile on her face. ‘What? You a people person?’
11 June, 2025
I am not going to vote
'I'm not going to vote,' says my daughter, 'I don't believe in it anymore.' My wife responds from her heart: 'It is important to vote because that's how you can exert your influence...'
11 June, 2025
Can religion save the world?
It is quiet in the dojo. Barbara Kosen, a Zen master from Madrid, leads the sesshin. She looks both friendly and sharp from her eyes...
11 June, 2025
Do you know someone who always has time?
He had parked his car a bit further away because his stubborn route planner had led him to a sandy road. But I had already noticed him...
11 June, 2025
The Accursed Race
I hear a gasping sound. The breath of someone making a physical effort. I expect to heare a voice any moment now, but it remains just gasping, in a regular cadence...
11 June, 2025
When you get shaved, you have to lie still
With a firm swing, he turns the animal onto its side. 'What should I do?' I ask helpfully. The previous evening, my sister-in-law had asked me if I would help with shearing the sheep...
11 June, 2025
At eye level
I put the bucket with the mop in a corner and look around. The floor shines, the windows look out generously. The earth-red wall, which occupies an entire side, leans kindly against the empty space...
11 June, 2025
Inhabitants of the Galaxy
'Poff', we hear, followed by a scream. And immediately 'Poff' again. I turn my head and look over the busy square. I see a huge bouncy castle with an axle in the middle...
11 June, 2025
Resistance hurts the most
What we feel most during an unpleasant incident, what plays up the most, is often not the emotion itself but our resistance to it. You can observe this well in physical pain...
11 June, 2025
I’m good at it and I like doing it
‘I want to try one more thing’, Ted said and looked around the group thoughtfully. My heart sank. I thought I had given it my all and that it would be good now...
11 June, 2025
Two sisters
Carefully Henk opens the door. There is soft light and cool air. Marianne lies in a wicker basket. 'She wanted that herself', says Henk. It also fits well, I think...
11 June, 2025
You experience time most intensely when you forget it
It seems like a paradox: you experience time most intensely when you forget it. To my wife's despair in the past, I like to take the unknown way...
11 June, 2025
A ‘must-do list’ or a wish list?
The method to reinject calm into your life with Time Surfing has been given the name that you no longer use lists. The reason is simple: I once threw away my lists in a fit of clairvoyance...
11 June, 2025
Hopelessly delayed
I received a text message: 'Am hopelessly delayed due to delays at an airport. Not sure yet if I can be on time tonight.' ....
16 January, 2025
Through the eye of the needle
I sit next to François, who wears a big moustache and is usually on a motorcycle. He is a real 'motard', as the French say...
16 January, 2025
Is that your dad?
‘Hey dad, you’re mentioned in The New Yorker,’ my daughter writes me in a text message, followed by a link to the article. ‘How do you know that?’ I ask. ‘A colleague forwarded it to me.’...
16 January, 2025
Expressing Appreciation
We sit in a circle, 25 of us, with the chairs pressed closely together. Despite the size of the group, a tender silence fills the room...
17 December, 2024
Ripe Figs
“Do you remember the fig tree we came across at the start of the trip? It was full of ripe figs—we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore.” I search my memory. I remember nearly all the places we set up...
09 December, 2024
Day with the Neighborhood Policeman
Rik turns on his siren, and with a combination of quick and calm movements, he steers his car off the bike path and onto the roundabout, taking it in the opposite direction. We speed toward the scene.
03 December, 2024
Whispering
‘I also work for the fire department,’ he says, ‘which can be tricky with these narrow streets. When you have tourists who park such a big bus on the side of the road.’
26 November, 2024
‘I’m getting it cracked, thanks to Paul Loomans’ -Margaret Cahill
This book has really trasnformed the way I think. I became interested in mindfulness way back when I was having chemo and the stem cell transplant as a way of staying sane during the looooong hours...
30 January, 2018
