A place for us: where do you have your best conversations?

 Try this thought experiment. Think of three wonderful conversations you have had. You might not remember what you said or even what you heard, but you remember the flow of words and the way you felt. Now look around each of those memories. Where did they happen?

Now connect the "where" to the "what." Some wonderful conversations are wonderful because they make you feel so close. You feel that you and the other person (or even a group) are sharing a mind and heart. And often those conversations happen in close spaces, spaces where you share so much in your senses that it is easy to share similar thoughts and feelings.

Other conversations require more space. High ceilings or wide open skies. The room to stretch your legs and create motion. An expanse around you that creates expansiveness in your thoughts.


People get confused by science. They think that because science is rational, the only way to be practical is to pretend that our bodies are separate from our reasoning. This isn't good science. Good science is increasingly studying the links between how we live in our bodies and how we produce good ideas.

In your own life, it makes sense to do two things: observe as much as possible when things are working well and then attempt to replicate all the conditions in new situations. Before you assume that place cannot influence the way two people connect, experiment. Have more conversations in spaces that have worked for similar kinds of conversations, and then notice the results. 

If your thoughts are distinct from the spaces where you think, then you are not risking anything by moving. If your thoughts are linked to your surroundings, you will gradually build an inventory of ways to improve conversations by locating them appropriately.



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