The Hardest Prison to Escape
Learn why accountability unlocks personal power, how urgency warps dating, why balance is a strength not a weakness, and how reconnecting with nature restores a deeper sense of identity.
July 5th, 2025 - Issue #125 - read online
👋 Welcome to Pursuit—your weekly pause for intentional living, self-discovery, and inner clarity. My name is Amir, and every week I share four carefully chosen ideas to help you design a more fulfilling life.
When my dad told me he planned to leave my mom in Dubai and return to Tehran during the height of the war, I felt sick with worry. I understood he had critical responsibilities waiting back home, but deep inside, I desperately wished he wouldn't go.
Last Tuesday, I woke up to a message from my dad in our family group:
I flew out of Iran to Georgia on Thursday night, and that same night Israel attacked Iran. Yesterday, I bought a bus ticket to Tehran, and then last night Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire.
Why don't you see the signs and believe!? 😀
(jokingly referring to himself as some kind of prophet, I assume)
Even amid chaos, my dad never loses his sense of humor. Despite the uncertainty, he keeps his spirits high. When Iran was still under attack, he told me he avoids thinking or worrying about the future since it's beyond his control. Instead, he simply takes things as they come. Without ever studying Stoicism, my dad seems to embody its principles naturally.
Maybe that's exactly what I should do—stop obsessing over the future of my country and instead focus on what I can control today. I can continue writing this newsletter, supporting people to find strength and warmth within themselves. I can encourage them to face challenges with a growth mindset, remind them to pause and reflect on their journey, and help keep their hope alive. Ultimately, our perspective on life is the only thing truly within our control.
That said, it feels good to be writing again.
This week at a glance:
🌅 Begin again
⛓️ The hardest prison to escape
🕯️ Reclaiming desire as self-love
🦚 In awe of beauty
🌅 Begin again
I love the message in this Chinese proverb:
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
Every morning is a choice.
You can fixate on what’s broken, on what’s out of your hands, and exhaust yourself trying to control the uncontrollable. Or you can ground yourself in what is yours to shape—your mindset, your effort, your response.
No matter what chaos surrounds you, each day offers a quiet invitation: begin again.
✨ From The Ludic Fallacy, Happiness as a Decision, & More
⛓️ The hardest prison to escape
The hardest prison to escape is knowing you have the talent to do something meaningful, but not the courage to act on it.
When you're young, potential is praised. You get used to being seen for what you could do. You chase knowledge, collect skills, and prepare. But somewhere along the way, you forget: potential means nothing without movement.
Eventually, no one cares about what you could become. They care about what you do. So shift the spotlight. Stop dwelling on what’s possible. Start showing what’s real.
✨ From 11 Things I Quit to Transform My Life
🕯️ Reclaiming desire as self-love
I found this episode of Esther Perel on fantasy quite interesting. Here’s what stuck with me:
For many women, sexual fantasies are not just about pleasure but about reclaiming a space where they can focus entirely on themselves. In these imagined worlds, they’re free—free from caretaking, from expectation, from the constant attunement to others. Here, desire doesn’t need to be negotiated or explained. It simply exists, unapologetically.
There’s a quiet power in this self-centeredness—not as selfishness, but as sovereignty. A return to the self not as a vessel for others, but as a source of pleasure, presence, and choice. When asked what turns them on or off, the answers rarely center on sex itself. They speak instead of power, softness, body image, and rituals of care. What emerges is not just arousal, but a fuller sense of being.
These moments of inward attention are a kind of resistance. A soft rebellion against the pressure to always serve, soothe, or anticipate. And in that rebellion, something radical unfolds: self-love that begins in the body and reaches far beyond it.
🦚 In awe of beauty
Another lovely YouTube episode of Reflections of Life, In Awe of Beauty. We all tend to forget the beauty in simple things. No amount of reminders seems enough to keep this in mind. Here are some words that resonated with me throughout this video:
I wake up in the morning and I think what am I going to do with this precious day I’ve been given? This gift I’ve been given, a huge gift, every morning.
I started a gratitude journal. And I started off by making myself find five things that I was grateful for. And it could be that I had a soft pillow, or that I saw the light on a leaf. And that saved me I think. It just changed my focus from the pain to actually seeing the beauty that surrounded me. And the comfort that I’d been given, and the friends. And in the end I was writing 30 things. And I’ve got pages of gratitude journals for what I was given.
We’re not here forever. And we’ve been given these precious days to live to the full and to love, and to make, and create, and to do, and to walk... I mean, what more could I want? And if I got knocked over by a bus, well, I hope it was quick. I think as I get older I’m realising what my priorities are.
And my priorities are love. I have so much love for nature, for people. And I think I’ve discarded those things which just don’t feed my soul. And I’ve embraced the beauty and the love that I have for nature. Because I’m getting everything I need... peace, gentleness, beauty, beauty. Aah, beautiful.
🎵 Music I’m listening to
You’ll find mostly Ethnotronica, Organic House, World, Disco, and Organic Electronic here:
🎧 If you appreciate the music I carefully select and haven't followed my Spotify playlists yet, now is the perfect time to hit that follow button and join me on this musical journey! 🎶
🌒 Pano: Danceable and electronic obscure songs
🌓 Sisy: Ethnotronica and organic house
🌑 Berghain: Dark, minimal techno and tech house
🌕 Heide: Groovy soul and disco house
🌞 Sonntag: Afterhours shit
🦥 Slow rave: Sleepy techno for tired danced
🌎 World: From Latin jazz to Turkish psych
🌚 Super Slow: For your intimate moments
Previously on Pursuit:
