Charisma, fame, good looks, superhuman physical and artistic achievements. Some people seem to be everything you dream of becoming. And as @coryrichards shares in this interview, everything can be nothing and anything can be the opportunity for presence, mindfulness and connection to who and what matters most. Cory climbed Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 2016 and was the first and only American to climb one of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks in winter, where he almost died in an avalanche and took one of the most famous photos of his career that became the cover of the 125th anniversary issue of @natgeo. Cory has been a @natgeoadventure of the Year and National Geographic Photographer fellow. His memoir, The Color of Everything, out July 9th, tells the story of his journey with mental health and how it has shaped his life, his path as an adventurer and artist and his decision to walk away from climbing, photography and shed his former identities to move to LA and be a writer. Once I started reading The Color of Everything, I couldn’t put it down and since I finished it, I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a profound, must-read book and I’m sure you’ll see it on many best of the year lists come December. To pre-order the book now, go to the link in bio. Footage courtesy of Cory, @fossil, @nikonusa
READ CAPTION // Mental health medications…let’s talk about ‘em. I think I was probably medicated too young, but it’s an unanswerable question. The various labels and mental health hurdles I’ve navigated over the years have brought with them an assortment of pills of various sizes and colors and I’ve often wondered about their efficacy. And still, I’ve taken them because overall, I believe in their value. It’s unarguable that we are an over diagnosed and over medicated society. It’s also important that I make clear that I’m not endorsing big pharma here. This isn’t a commentary on the healthcare system. What I’m challenging is the stigma around mental health medications. Many of these substances save lives and keep people safe and the idea that they are “bad” or unnecessary can be far more harmful than taking them. Yes, they can come with some shitty side effects. Yes, we need a lot more research and solutions and options. But there isn’t a silver bullet to calm the tempests of the mind and anyone peddling a sure shot with a handful of herbs and supplements probably isn’t very trustworthy. At their best, medications are used to carefully mitigate symptoms while addressing the underlying issues (almost always some form of trauma) That’s where the gold is. Building new systems and patterns of behavior is often only possible in the absence of acute symptoms. Still, some issues really do benefit from life long medicating. The truth that healthy people aren’t profitable is a tragedy. Big pharma isn’t incentivized to HEAL people. They make money off TREATING people. But those treatments can and do save lives. It’s impossible to make it all go away with a pill. But sometimes a pill makes it all seem a bit more possible. As with almost everything, mental health medications are a “yes, AND…” #thecolorofeverything
When people talk about how long it takes to write a book, they’re usually referring to the writing process…from the time they put pen to paper. But it takes much longer than that. In my case, it’s taken me 42 years to write THE COLOR OF EVERYTHING. It’s arguable that it’s taken 13.8 billion years. From the book: ‘From the beginning of time until now, with all the innumerable events that happened just so, I am very improbable.’ This is not unique to me. We all are. Books are precious objects…little pieces of magic leaked out of the heart and mind. Likewise, they are only made possible by readers and I’m grateful for everyone who chooses to come along for the ride…and hopefully becomes immersed in a world that is outside of their own and yet now belongs to them in some small way. Pre-order now at link in bio. With all my gratitude -c- #thecolorofeverything
Walrus, Franz Josef Land, Russia.
Where it started and where it went. First image: @alexhonnold climbing near Moab, UT ‘08/‘09 Second image: @alexhonnold for the @ESPN body issue in 2019.
Where it started and where it went. First image: @alexhonnold climbing near Moab, UT ‘08/‘09 Second image: @alexhonnold for the @ESPN body issue in 2019.
READ CAPTION // I’ve had a few people suggest that some of my chapters should come with “trigger warnings” To put it bluntly: No. As much as this post ironically seems to accomplish that goal, it’s not that. Like everything, the whole idea of trigger warnings exists on a long spectrum. Of course we should let people know if we’re about to abruptly show them atrocities, death, or extreme violence. So yeah, they have a place. But are they actually helpful to the degree that they’re thrown around these days? Research suggests there is no reduction in anxiety, fear, or negative emotions when trigger warnings are offered. I understand the argument of giving people a choice of whether or not they want to engage in hard content, but we actually need triggers. They are full of information on the pieces of us that need attention. Providing safe spaces (healthy) is not the same as attempting to avoid difficult emotions (unhealthy). Being chased by a bear is not the same as being reminded of getting chased by a bear. Yes, the fight or flight response is the same, but the real life implications aren’t and it’s our individual responsibility to resolve those stress responses. Triggers help build the capacity to hold emotions and build ‘antifragility’ (Nassim Taleb). It’s arguable that trigger warnings are antithetical (even anti therapeutic) on the road to overcoming trauma as they build a framework in which trauma remains to hold power. Rather than being mindfully confronted, emotions are avoided which does nothing long term for growth. In story and in life, growth tends to happen at crisis points. Something needs to trigger us in order to generate curiosity about our pain or fear, address it, and let it go. A society of eggshells ends up in pieces. So no…No trigger warnings for The Color Of Everything. Pre-order now at link in bio.
Pre-order now at link in bio!!! I love your likes and comments! Comment more! Share! And also, EVERY PRESALE MATTERS! Seems silly to say, but that is how the sausage is made. Thank you for your support! From the book: ‘I’ve spent most of my life trying to escape my own story of madness. I’ve chased the horizon, confusing it for a perfect future where everything will make sense. I’ve feared being myself because I learned early on that my mind was a dangerous thing. But in the pursuit of an idyllic version of me, I’ve missed the joy of being myself. Chasing the horizon is never wrong so long as we understand that, from another perspective, we’re already there. I chose to live madly to outrun madness itself. I’ve thought that by rebellion, doing more, being better, and being different, I might be able to out-climb, out-explore, or out-create the disquiet of my mind. But what if the noise and madness were the gift?’
A little insight into what my writing process on my best days looks like. As with any process, you’re not always gonna nail it. That’s okay. I don’t use a word count as a goal. I don’t use a page count. I use time. Some days, you’re just not gonna get as many words out. Some days you’ll put down pages in a blink. It’s all okay. A book is an ultra marathon…not a sprint. It often takes people well over a year if not two or more. And if you must count pages, just remember that one page a day for a year is 365 pages. You’re gonna lose those 65 to edits. And you’re gonna end up with a 300 page book…which is great. Maybe (often) it doesn’t even need to be that long. So…there you go. Happy writing. Pre-order The Color Of Everything at the link in bio.
Spoiler alert…human-ing is hard. That’s not the spoiler. Just another little vignette from my conversation with @dimlitesnotwits explaining where the title of the book came from…
I think Labels and diagnosis are essential and important because they help us understand specific patterns or groupings of behaviors. That understanding can help direct how we address it all. That said, I identified with my diagnosis for a long time and it was useful until it wasn’t. I’m not saying we should deny or reject a label or diagnosis at all. I’m just suggesting that they don’t need to define us. It’s the difference between ‘being’ something and ‘navigating’ it. For me, the story of ‘being’ something ended up feeling like a cage because I was identifying with something I understood as sickness or deficit. The key to the cage was understanding that while the behaviors might stay the same, the story I was telling could change. When I didn’t feel the need to identify with ‘sickness’ any longer, I felt liberated and free to be curious and explore the big sea of neurodivergence. As that happened, I noticed that many of my behaviors started to shift as well. This isn’t to say that we can wish things away or use a bandaid of toxic positivity to evade real hurdles. We can’t and denial isn’t a cure. What I am saying is how we tell the story of our journey with mental health matters. Yeah…it’s just words…but the words we use and how we use them actually have a profound impact on how we see the world and our place in it.
Book report Mondays! Follow for more reads that helped shaped my understanding of my mind, story, and writing style. #thecolorofeverything
Monday morning book reports! Over the next months I’m going to be sharing a lot of the books I read while writing The Color of Everything. This week is one the most important books I’ve ever read in regards to storytelling, The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell in conversation with Bill Moyers. Required reading for all. It might challenge some beliefs, but it certainly holds all of them with respect and reverence. Check it out. Don’t forget to order The Color Of Everything at the link in bio. Happy reading!
Big love to this guy, my dear dear friend Reinaldo Marcus Green for his new film One Love @onelovemovie out in theaters now. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about the importance of lighting throughout my career. Too many. Which is it’s so funny that Rei and I met in Lamps Plus on some random Tuesday (that’s Rei’s review on the last slide) Biopics are notoriously hard films to make, especially when the person depicted is still fresh in our memory. Covering an entire life and weaving it all together is an incredibly difficult task. It’s arguable that Bob Marley is the most globally recognizable musician in the world. His music is pervasive and I’ve heard it everywhere I’ve traveled, from an international science station in Antarctica to a boat in the Russian Arctic to a tea house in Tibet. Few contemporary artists have such a fingerprint and I believe his message is important now more than ever. It’s hard to comprehend the undertaking of Rei, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch @lashanalynch and everyone else involved in the film. Regardless, under his direction, the roles are transformative and played with incredible skill and care. Well done! Go have some popcorn and let the music you already know be born again.
Big love to this guy, my dear dear friend Reinaldo Marcus Green for his new film One Love @onelovemovie out in theaters now. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about the importance of lighting throughout my career. Too many. Which is it’s so funny that Rei and I met in Lamps Plus on some random Tuesday (that’s Rei’s review on the last slide) Biopics are notoriously hard films to make, especially when the person depicted is still fresh in our memory. Covering an entire life and weaving it all together is an incredibly difficult task. It’s arguable that Bob Marley is the most globally recognizable musician in the world. His music is pervasive and I’ve heard it everywhere I’ve traveled, from an international science station in Antarctica to a boat in the Russian Arctic to a tea house in Tibet. Few contemporary artists have such a fingerprint and I believe his message is important now more than ever. It’s hard to comprehend the undertaking of Rei, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch @lashanalynch and everyone else involved in the film. Regardless, under his direction, the roles are transformative and played with incredible skill and care. Well done! Go have some popcorn and let the music you already know be born again.
Big love to this guy, my dear dear friend Reinaldo Marcus Green for his new film One Love @onelovemovie out in theaters now. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about the importance of lighting throughout my career. Too many. Which is it’s so funny that Rei and I met in Lamps Plus on some random Tuesday (that’s Rei’s review on the last slide) Biopics are notoriously hard films to make, especially when the person depicted is still fresh in our memory. Covering an entire life and weaving it all together is an incredibly difficult task. It’s arguable that Bob Marley is the most globally recognizable musician in the world. His music is pervasive and I’ve heard it everywhere I’ve traveled, from an international science station in Antarctica to a boat in the Russian Arctic to a tea house in Tibet. Few contemporary artists have such a fingerprint and I believe his message is important now more than ever. It’s hard to comprehend the undertaking of Rei, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch @lashanalynch and everyone else involved in the film. Regardless, under his direction, the roles are transformative and played with incredible skill and care. Well done! Go have some popcorn and let the music you already know be born again.
Big love to this guy, my dear dear friend Reinaldo Marcus Green for his new film One Love @onelovemovie out in theaters now. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about the importance of lighting throughout my career. Too many. Which is it’s so funny that Rei and I met in Lamps Plus on some random Tuesday (that’s Rei’s review on the last slide) Biopics are notoriously hard films to make, especially when the person depicted is still fresh in our memory. Covering an entire life and weaving it all together is an incredibly difficult task. It’s arguable that Bob Marley is the most globally recognizable musician in the world. His music is pervasive and I’ve heard it everywhere I’ve traveled, from an international science station in Antarctica to a boat in the Russian Arctic to a tea house in Tibet. Few contemporary artists have such a fingerprint and I believe his message is important now more than ever. It’s hard to comprehend the undertaking of Rei, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch @lashanalynch and everyone else involved in the film. Regardless, under his direction, the roles are transformative and played with incredible skill and care. Well done! Go have some popcorn and let the music you already know be born again.
Big love to this guy, my dear dear friend Reinaldo Marcus Green for his new film One Love @onelovemovie out in theaters now. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about the importance of lighting throughout my career. Too many. Which is it’s so funny that Rei and I met in Lamps Plus on some random Tuesday (that’s Rei’s review on the last slide) Biopics are notoriously hard films to make, especially when the person depicted is still fresh in our memory. Covering an entire life and weaving it all together is an incredibly difficult task. It’s arguable that Bob Marley is the most globally recognizable musician in the world. His music is pervasive and I’ve heard it everywhere I’ve traveled, from an international science station in Antarctica to a boat in the Russian Arctic to a tea house in Tibet. Few contemporary artists have such a fingerprint and I believe his message is important now more than ever. It’s hard to comprehend the undertaking of Rei, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch @lashanalynch and everyone else involved in the film. Regardless, under his direction, the roles are transformative and played with incredible skill and care. Well done! Go have some popcorn and let the music you already know be born again.
#thecolorofeverything
Book reports used to suuuuuuuck. Maybe that’s why I dropped out of school…who knows. Strange how the things we hated as kids (having nothing to do, coffee, eating vegetables) end up becoming some of our favorite things later on. Book reports are one of my new faves. Being a first time author, I had no f*cking clue where to start. And then I read some pretty basic advice: ‘Want to write? Read’. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be talking about the books I read during the writing process (as well as the process itself). I reread classics from my middle school curriculum as well as random new ones that found me in dusty bookstores. I always read physical books (unless it’s just not possible) and I always read with a highlighter and pen. I make notes in the margins and dog ear the pages and spill coffee and water and food all over them. I want the covers barely hanging on by the end, the pages a bit wavy and tired. As much as I think they are precious objects, I want them to feel lived in…because they were. Books aren’t written just for me, but I like to make them mine. I’ll be talking about those ones. Stay tuned. #thecolorofeverything
GET IT NOW AT LINK IN BIO From the book: ‘Storytelling is what we use to navigate life as well as transcend death. Story is consciousness. It drives discovery and belief and even psychology and science as we try to figure out and explain the why of things. Story is also the architecture of identity. We become “I” and the stories we tell ourselves not only guide us but become us. We say “I am this” and “You are that” and become certain of far too much. Story is the bedrock of everything we do and all the relationships we have. With others. With the world around us. With ourselves. Make no mistake, storytelling is the most important thing we do. To tell stories is to be human.’
A little excerpt from The Color Of Everything #thecolorofeverything
Just a quick moment of calm for Friday. #thecolorofeverything
Another book report comin in hot. Wired For Story by Lisa Cron @wiredforstory should be required reading for all storytellers…which is everyone. She beautifully bridges the gap between conceptual knowledge and the real world application of skill, playfully illuminating the way the brain consumes story and the most effective ways to tell it. She leans in to the hard data of neuroscience without getting lost in the weeds. She dispels common myths of writing and makes the whole thing just feel a lot more accessible. She invites us all into a deeper knowledge of what makes humans so unique…the stories we tell. Get it. Read it. Write.
