Inker Supply – Slow Down. Reconnect.

With so many people staying home due to the pandemic (let’s not forget a pandemic is still going on), we are witnessing a change in human culture. People are spending an inordinate quantity of time alone with their thoughts because there is only so much Netflix we can watch, so many video games we can play, so many times we can floss our teeth before excitement wears thin and hapless activity leaves us in a puddle of what we were born with.

Ourselves.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the human mind has not been trained to be alone with itself. Life would be easy if we could attribute this interior chaos to the overflow of technology and entertainment, but the way we spend out time is more like the aspirin we created in reaction to a root cause. The majority of people would rather be electrically shocked than be alone with their thoughts.

Know that you are not alone in this struggle. This is a problem that we must collectively confront. The real question is, where do we begin?

Those of us at Inker Supply would argue now is the time to slow down. During your bouts of quarantine induced sighing and pacing, consider the thoughts that pervade your mind. The ones that make you smoke your eighth joint. Down your fourth Wednesday afternoon mimosa. The pesky little gophers that peek their heads despite the countless times you slammed them down with mindless activity.

Seek peace with yourself through the written word, because what is writing but the process of strengthening our ability to think? Writing in any form is beneficial. Writing by hand reconnects us, reminding us that our minds and bodies are not as separate as we once believed. Find your rhythm. Find your flow. Activate your brains to find your path to your greater self. We’ll be working on the same.

Inker Supply – Dream On

What are dreams and why do we have them? Opinions vary, attributing nighttime wonders to the random firing of neurons and direct messages of God. Contemporary theory suggests that they are a broad spectrum of images connected by emotion.

Objectively speaking, we don’t really know. However, we do know that people tend to dream more when they are stressed out or have experienced traumatic events, which suggests that dreams are adaptive in coping with our past, present, and future.

Whatever the reason, we here at Inker Supply believe that dreams are fundamental to the human experience. The problem is, they are hard to remember. The processes that allow us to create memories mostly lie dormant while we sleep. 

But for our fellow dream walkers, those of us who want to remember things from a state that we spend nearly a third of our lives engaging in, dreams can be preserved through intent and technique. One proven method is to write dreams down immediately after waking, grasping images and emotions like palms catching water.

Train the mind and see for yourself. Are your dreams worth remembering?

Inker Supply Blog Post: Goal Setting

Type out a list of your year’s goals on your laptop.

Write the list by hand.

Now, compare the feeling in your brain, body, and spirit. How does the rush of blood differ between the two mediums?

Every year, when I am feeling stagnant and brave, I reaffirm my life goals by hand, and a rush of endorphins swirl across my consciousness, as if the promise of writing goals by hand is more sacred. As if I’ve committed a magical act. As if I am more fully in tune with where I have been, what I am doing, and where I am going.

My guess? This feeling stems from the fact that goals cannot be accomplished by thinking alone. Goals take action. E.B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web, once said, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.” Those of us at Inker Supply believe that this adage applies to the accomplishment of any goal, and the physical act of writing the goal is the first step.

Writing by hand combines the process of honing your thoughts while incorporating the action of moving your body in accordance with your inner most self. There is a wealth of evidence to support the efficacy of writing goals by hand. Whether your goal is getting in shape, improving character, or discovering what you want to do with the rest of your life, writing by hand dramatically increases the odds of success.

The beautiful truth is that writing your goals only takes a few minutes of your time. So, make a cup of coffee. Use any pen . And write. Scribble on a napkin. Tuck them in a book. Jot them on Post-it Notes and tag them on a wall. Write them in your journal and carry them. Whatever you do, write down your goals and see where the connection takes you.