Trauma is loosely defined as “an emotional response to a terrible event”. which can be anything we’ve experienced that has left a profound impact on us. Not only does it cause mental injury, to our mind, it physically changes the structure of our brains.
When we’ve experienced prolonged suffering, our brain doesn’t inhibit the fight-or-flight response. Why? Because it’s always been in that state, it never left it. Living with trauma every day means our brain reacts as if we’re in danger all the time, even when we’re safe.
So what does that mean? We’re always reacting from a place of emotional pain because our brain perceives everything as a threat. But this becomes a vicious cycle. One that stops us from moving forward and past our past. It paralyses us from doing anything that could help us change our circumstances for the better. …
The Mahabharata, one of the two major ancient Indian Sanskrit epics alongside the Ramayana, is often known as the “the longest poem ever written”. Written by the sage Vyasa, at approximately 1.8 million words divided among 18 parvas, or books (yes, 18 books), central to the epic poem is the Kurukshetra War, an 18-day battle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas.
The Mahabharata is considered an analogical equivalent of a human being, and its narrative, an allegory for the constant inner battle we face with our consciousness; between the attachments of ego, identity, and body. With each story and character comes many lessons about how to navigate the mind. …
Disclaimer: all official Barclays assets used for this project are purely for educational/project purposes only and do not reflect the intentions of Barclays or any of its affiliates.
This project was created as my submission for D&AD’s New Blood Awards 2020 ‘Barclays UI/UX/IxD Digital Service Design’ brief. I, unfortunately, was not one of this year’s winners of a D&AD New Blood Pencil Award, but I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to submit this project and hope to submit more work in the future.
‘budgit’ is a money management app providing digital banking tools and services that support Barclays customers with everyday banking
Preface: to provide conceptual context, the app UI and branding were derived from Barclays’ existing ‘pingit’ app. …
The principles that explain how not doing induces your creativity.
Lichtenbergianism, by Dale Lyles, is, to quote directly from the website, “an approach to the creative process that doesn’t make sense and should not work, but it does.”
It’s essentially a guide to achieving the goals of creative work by leveraging procrastination as a strategy. Creativity is subjective and can be pretty much anything in the context of your domain.
Here are ‘The Nine Precepts of Procrastination’ of Lichtenbergianism, a group of attitudes and ideas that grant you with the permission to succeed in your creative pursuit.
Task Avoidance
The first principle of Lichtenbergianism is that, more often than not, we’re actually better off delaying finishing something we’re working on. …
Jaggi Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, is an Indian yogi, mystic, author, philanthropist and founder of the ‘Isha Foundation’.
Sadhguru’s teachings are a vessel of practical wisdom, abundant in lessons on how we should manage our minds to successfully live a fulfilling life, free from the reigns of our own negative mental faculties.
His ‘Inner Engineering’ course is centred around human wellbeing, providing tools and solutions for stress management and overcoming depression and anxiety to achieve a joyful life, using yogic practices such as meditation. He helps people manage life’s situations through altering their perspectives on the nature of their minds.
Many of his teachings derive from an ancient Hindu religious text, The Bhagavad Gita, which I highly recommend reading. …
TLDR? UI Redesign
I didn’t realise how much I’d written for this piece (this is my first ever completed case study) so if you want to see just the UI redesign solely then please go to my Behance post for this project whilst I’m in the process of finishing up my portfolio & website — https://www.behance.net/gallery/92730569/Apple-Music-Redesign-UI-UX-Case-Study
I would like to start by saying the intent behind this case study is with nothing but reverence for Apple. In fact, my one of my dreams as a designer is to work for a company of such calibre. …
What the Punjabi religion of peace can teach us about living a good life.
One of the youngest religions in the world, Sikhism teaches one formula comprised of five virtues. Sikh means disciple. These virtues are taught to followers of the religion as a guide to learn the fundamental human qualities needed to optimally train the mind.
The goal in doing so is to foster unity with God through living a life dedicated to humanity. That is, to serve God’s creation.
That aside, though, there are many lessons that Sikhism can teach even those of us that don’t follow religion. Below are five Sikh virtues teach us about managing our minds.
1. Daya: Compassion
The first virtue, ‘Daya’, is the teaching of compassion, kindness and mercy. …
Lessons on contentment, creativity and vision from a world-renowned mathemetician.
Dr Richard Hamming held a lecture on “The Art of Doing Science and Engineering” at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in 1995.
What seems like an introduction to learning science and engineering is actually a lecture full of wisdom about preparing for life and the future through learning.
Hamming teaches three life lessons through his concept of “style”, a concept he explains he wants to instil into the attendees so that they amount to something in life.
He prefaced the lecture by saying:
“You cannot put everything into words and one of them is style. Style cannot be put into words. …
This concept of ‘The Five Planes’ is derived from Jesse James Garrett’s “The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond”.
It dissects the overall end-to-end user experience into layers through which decisions are made as to how a product is built. These decisions influence and inform the entire user experience of the product — how it looks, behaves and functions.
Ultimately the five planes combined to create a homogeneous process that create a user experience that has been designed holistically.
The Surface Plane
What an ancient Hindu text has to say about living well.
The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu religious text, tells a grand story. It is a vessel through which Lord Krishna teaches his disciple Arjuna how to navigate his mind. He is to fight through a battle that he doesn’t want to, one that will cost his own family’s blood for the rule of a kingdom.
Arjuna’s inner turmoil is used by Krishna to teach him lessons all about the mind. Duty, action and renunciation are taught through the core paradigms of action, knowledge and love.
I’ve found much solace and guidance in the texts of The Bhagavad Gita. I often go back to the last few chapters where the lessons taught are summarised succinctly. …
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