The Unbranded Way: How I Reclaimed Strength and Clarity at 73

April 25, 2025

I didn’t set out to become fit, or to impress anyone. I just wanted to keep walking without falling, stay sharp enough to finish the books I’d started to write, and live each day without the fog that sometimes creeps in with age.

At 73, I’m not chasing youth – I’m cultivating presence.

Now, six days a week, I walk. I breathe with awareness. I chant silently at sacred spots on my path. And nine months ago, I added resistance training-push-ups, planks, step-ups, squats, rows-interspersed through the day. Just two months, I added short bursts of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). I do them twice a week, guided by the terrain of my walk: downhill, uphill, then level. On Mondays I just do the downhill burst. Wednesdays, I do the full trio. It’s a ritual now. It makes me feel alive.

My balance has improved. My mind feels clearer. This is no longer ‘exercise’-it’s my ritual of self-respect.

My Weekly Flow

Monday: Full Resistance x 2 + Brisk Walk + Short HIIT (Downhill only)

Tuesday: Moderate Walk only

Wednesday: Brisk Walk with Full HIIT (Downhill > Uphill > Level)

Thursday: Resistance x 1 + Gentle Walk or Mobility

Friday: Full Resistance x 2 + Brisk Walk

Saturday: Moderate Walk + Spiritual Walk or Breathwork

Sunday: Full Rest – regeneration, stillness

Exercises I Do

  • Push-ups (standard & inclined) – upper body & core strength
  • Plank (1-minute) – core, posture, breath control
  • Step-ups – leg strength, joint health, mobility
  • Squats – total lower body strength
  • Toe-ups – calf & balance strength
  • Dumbbell Curls/Rows – arms and back
  • One-leg Balance – fall prevention
  • Farmers Carry – grip, core, posture
  • Ankle/Reaction Drills – agility and coordination
  • Spiritual walking – silent prayer or chanting during walks

Why Weekly Rhythm, Not Daily Routine?

“I train by the week, not by the day – each step a note in the symphony of staying.”

  • Recovery is sacred – Effort and stillness must dance together.
  • It builds sustainability – A weekly rhythm avoids burnout.
  • It respects cycles – Like moon phases or seasons.
  • It fosters joy, not guilt – Each day plays a role, even rest.

For Anyone Wondering If It’s Too Late

  • Start with walking.
  • Add one strength move.
  • Rest often.
  • Make it yours.
  • Make it sacred

Echoes from the Discount Nirvana Aisle

April 14, 2025

“Third eye’s open, but I’m still blind—must’ve bought the knockoff.”
Whispers from the Algorithm

The Third Eye Is Pointed at the Sky When I Bend Over

This is soul-searching—but not the soft-focus, candlelit kind they sell you in Instagram ads.

It’s the kind of soul-searching that starts when you wake up at 3 a.m. in a cold sweat, realizing your entire personality might be a subscription service. When the thoughts hit so hard you can’t scroll them away.

It’s a tuning of the inner dial—not for good vibes, but to find whatever truth is still leaking through the static. Because let’s be clear: this isn’t about finding peace. It’s about noticing you’ve been sold a leash with a smile.

The revolution?

It’s wearing eyeliner now and dancing on TikTok for likes.

Your rebellion has been repackaged into a hoodie with a brand logo and a mission statement. Every radical thought you’ve had is now available in four easy payments, with free shipping and a 10% discount if you sell your friends out too.

We used to throw rocks at kings. Now we rate their content. Welcome to the age of the black magician. No wands. No robes. Just copywriters, influencers, and people who learned to spell authenticity in Helvetica. And here’s the kicker: they don’t just sell you soap anymore.

They sell you your own face, reflected in a polished screen, whispering:
“You’re almost enough. Just one more upgrade.” It’s not just advertising. It’s sorcery.

And the real spell?

Convincing you that the answers were never inside you—but conveniently waiting in someone’s cart. Let’s talk about the new high priests of this digital cathedral:

Influencers.

They used to be your neighbors.
Now they’re lifestyle oracles.

Curated messiahs with ring lights and discount codes.

Their job isn’t to be real—it’s to look real enough that you’ll follow them straight into the abyss of comparison and consumption. They call it “sharing.”

It’s selling.

They call it “vulnerability.”

It’s emotional clickbait.

And they don’t even know they’re doing it—because the spell caught them first.
They are the product and the packaging, wrapped in digital incense and filtered light.

Their third eye?

Trademarked. Verified. Brand-aligned.

But me?

I’ll take the third eye that ancient Greek playwright joked about—the one that points to the heavens when you bend over. Yeah, that one.

Crude, sure. But it had better aim than the polished, bullshit eye they’re selling me now. That third eye at least had the decency to laugh at the gods, not pretend to be one.

Because the new spirituality isn’t about waking up. It’s about signing up. Log in. Add to cart. Manifest your dream life with our 7-step program and don’t forget to leave a review.

And if you’re not ready to pay for it? Well, then you’re not “aligned” yet. Your resistance is your poverty speaking. They’ll shame you in pastel colors and smiling fonts. This is soul robbery in broad daylight.

And we’re clapping along to the rhythm because the beat’s got a good hook.

The psychic supermarket is open 24/7.

Insight™

Power™

Your Best Self™

All available now, pre-packaged and promise-wrapped.

But here’s the sick twist: no matter how much you buy, you’ll always feel behind. Because the product isn’t transformation—it’s lack. Permanent, bottomless, sponsored lack.

And if you ever wake up—if you ever really see it—someone’s there, waiting, ready to sell you the antidote to the thing they sold you in the first place.

“You’ve always been just one more product away from peace.”
Echoes from the Discount Nirvana Aisle

Maybe that’s what I’m doing now.

Maybe this whole rant is a spell of its own—an exorcism, or maybe just me screaming into the neon-stained void, hoping someone still knows what it feels like to be human underneath all the branding.

There’s a war happening.

Not with tanks.

With images.

The battle isn’t good vs. evil—it’s what kind of image will sit on the throne of your psyche.

One builds an altar to ego, likes, and carefully measured virtue signals.

The other might actually save the goddamn planet.

Because what’s killing us isn’t evil—it’s performance.

The performance of care.
The performance of identity.
The performance of being real.

We’re drowning in simulations of sincerity, while the real thing starves in a basement somewhere, forgotten.

And so the question is this:

Are you buying a product?

Or selling a piece of your soul?

Are you seeing with your own eyes?

Or watching through the lens of a third eye™ brought to you by the latest mindfulness app?

Because the spell only works if you don’t know it’s being cast.

But once you see it—really see it—there’s no going back.

And maybe that’s what they’re really afraid of.

“Enlightenment now comes with a promo code.”
Found scrawled in the margins of a mindfulness app

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A Belated New Year’s Message: May the Rose of the Heart Bloom

April 12, 2025

The calendar may have turned months ago, but the true moment to plant seeds of intention can arrive at any time. This short reflection came to me on New Year’s Day, though I didn’t share it then. Perhaps I wasn’t ready—or perhaps the Rose within needed time to unfurl.

As the seasons shift and the year continues its unfolding, I offer this now—not as a resolution but as a quiet invocation. May it speak to your own rhythm, your own turning.

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Today, the first day of a new year, is a perfect time to plant seeds of hope in the furrows of one’s life line. What will these seeds become? Which will flourish, and which will be consumed by the worm of impatience? Which will endure, drawing strength to be eternally regenerated within one’s being?

Among all that may grow, there is one plant above all others with the power to truly live: the Rose.

Rooted through the layers of one’s life, it reaches the Source of everything—the Heart of the Universe. Its color is the color of blood, flowing through every creature, through humanity itself. Its hue reflects its Origin: the Heart.

Seeds planted in the intellect may sprout for a time but will wither without sustenance. Only those sown in the Heart grow forever, nourished by an infinite wellspring of meaning and vitality.

Jesus spoke of the mustard seed—comparing it to the seed of faith. Mustard or Rose—the name matters less than the meaning. Both are symbols of potential, resilience, and sacred transformation.

This year, may the Rose take root deep in the Heart.
May it grow and flourish, weathering calamity, weakness, and the weeds that crowd the soil of the soul.
May its petals bloom as Art,
its stem rise as Beauty,
and its fragrance drift as Truth.

Let its Ambrosia nourish the spirit of others,
its perfume remain untainted,
and its dew glisten clear in the morning light.

In this turning of the year,
may the Rose of the Heart flourish—
uniting us in the eternal rhythm of hope and renewal.

Stavros


A Laugh in the Backyard

April 10, 2025
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I heard someone laugh
I was washing dishes.
The laugh came from my backyard.
I looked up — and there it was.
A kookaburra calling me out
to say hello!