Reflections, Frameworks & Discoveries

Where the
left brain meets
the inner life

A collection of musings, original frameworks, practical tools, and discoveries from the journey toward Awareness, Wonder & Embodiment. None of these ideas are new — but every perspective is another chance to let them land.

Musings Tanisms Twilight Zone Files AWE in Action Perspectives On the Shelf Science of Manifestation
Personal Reflections

Musings

Stories from the journey. The moments that cracked something open — at the rental car counter, in the ocean, during morning chant. The universal truths that need to be heard again and again, through a different pair of eyes each time.

M

The Billion Things Rule

Surrender isn't defeat. It isn't yielding to an enemy or relinquishing power. What if it is simply accepting reality — the way things actually are, shaped by a billion converging factors, none of which have any interest in fighting you?

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Pros and Pros

Most of us were trained to weigh pros and cons. What if every outcome — the promotion and the rejection, the smooth plan and the fallen-apart one — contained equal usefulness?

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More musings coming soon

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From Left Brain Spirituality

Excerpts and reflections from the forthcoming memoir

Original Frameworks

Tanisms

Ideas worth sitting with.

Original frameworks, concepts, and tools born from the intersection of analytical thinking and inner work. Not new ideas — but new ways of holding them. Each one is a different handle on the same door.

T

Trigger Happy

Most of us are walking around trigger-happy — reacting before we realize we've been activated. Understanding your triggers isn't about eliminating them. It's about creating the space between event and response.

Coming soon →

Pros and Pros

A reframe of the classic pros and cons decision model. When non-attachment enters the equation, every outcome reveals its own form of usefulness — and the fear of the wrong choice begins to dissolve.

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The Billion Things Rule

In any given moment, a billion factors have converged to produce what is. We see one — the one closest to us — and mistake it for the cause. This is the Billion Things Rule.

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ReGet

Instead of regret that leaves you wishing things in the past were different — REflect and GET a plan. A simple reframe that turns backward-looking rumination into forward-moving clarity.

Coming soon →

The Wall Theory

On processing, venting, and where your energy is best spent. Sometimes the most efficient listener costs nothing and asks nothing in return.

Coming soon →
More Tanisms in development

The Billion Things Rule · Decision Making Series · and more

Pop Culture & Inner Life

The Twilight
Zone Files

Rod Serling didn't just write science fiction. He wrote parables about the human condition — ego, fear, attachment, identity. Each episode is a spiritual teaching in disguise. This series finds the lesson hiding in the twist.

TZ
Series launching soon

The Twilight Zone as spiritual teacher — one episode, one lesson, one piece at a time

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Have an episode in mind?

Reach out and suggest an episode that you think holds a hidden teaching

Practical Tools & Interventions

AWE in
Action

Awareness without practice is just information. These are the tools, exercises, and experiments that turn insight into lived experience — the bridge between knowing and being.

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The Reframe Game

Instead of being consumed by an activating event, what if you could reframe it as a learning opportunity in real time? This tool walks you through Albert Ellis' ABC model — and the DEF extension that changes everything.

Coming soon →

Breathing Methods That Actually Work

Four evidence-based breathing practices — from box breathing to alternate nostril — and how to find the one your nervous system responds to.

Coming soon →
More tools coming

Meditation approaches · Gratitude practices · The 30-Day Experiment · and more

Articles & Analysis

Perspectives

Analytical writing from a career that spanned corporate law, wellbeing research, and coaching. Published articles, formal essays, and explorations of the intersection between the professional and the personal.

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Connecticut Lawyer articles

Published pieces from the Connecticut Bar Association's Wellbeing Committee — coming soon

Essays in progress

On decision making, productivity, burnout, and the analytical mind's path inward

Left Brain Spirituality

Excerpts from the forthcoming memoir — a logical path to peace, belief not required

Recommendations

On the
Shelf

Books, films, podcasts, and teachers that have shaped the journey. Shared here because the best thing we can do for each other is point toward what opened a door for us — in case it opens one for you.

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The Untethered Soul

Michael Singer's foundational work on the relationship between the self and the voice inside your head. The book that changed everything — highly recommended for the analytical reader who has been waiting for permission to go inward.

Authentic Happiness

Martin Seligman's introduction to positive psychology — the science of what makes life worth living, rather than just the study of what goes wrong. The foundation behind the AWE method.

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl's account of finding purpose in the most unimaginable circumstances. A masterclass in the space between stimulus and response — and why that space is everything.

More recommendations coming

Films · Podcasts · Teachers · Practices

What Positive Psychology Actually Says

The Science of
Manifestation

Millions of people are still being told to "raise their frequency" and "ask the universe." The science of why some of this works — and why the parts that don't are genuinely harmful — has been hiding in plain sight. This series brings it into the light.

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What The Secret Gets Right — And What It Gets Dangerously Wrong

The Law of Attraction has sold over 35 million copies. Some people swear by it. Others tried and felt blamed for everything that went wrong in their lives. The truth — grounded in positive psychology and decades of research — is more interesting than either side admits.

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The Law of Attention

Your thoughts don't attract objects. But they do direct your attention — and attention changes everything. Here's what the research actually shows about how a focused mind shapes outcomes.

Coming soon →

The Law of Appreciation

Gratitude isn't mystical vibration. It's one of the most researched interventions in positive psychology — and it works for measurable, logical reasons. This is what The Secret stumbled onto without knowing why.

Coming soon →
Series in development

Based on Tan's forthcoming work — The Law of Attention and Appreciation

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journey

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