If you must dwell, dwell on the positive

If you had to pick one word to describe 2025, what would you say? I'd hasten a guess that no one opted for steady, calm or indeed normal ...

Perhaps it was fitting then, that for the final Willow the Wonderer book I left the external world behind and delved instead into the worlds that lie within — our inner worlds after all are places we can condition and control.

Even as the writer, it can sometimes take a while to articulate the essence of the work you have produced. The central lesson in Inner Worlds only presented itself this past week: Dwell on the positive.

A preview of Inner Worlds

Inner Worlds begins with our little hero waking up to find a dark, gloomy, grey cloud hovering over his head. It is a dispiriting presence that drains him of his joy. He tries to ignore it, distracts himself in the hopes of forgetting it and when really desperate, tries to outrun it. Alas, this only makes the cloud grow bigger and more menacing.

By evening, Willow had finally gathered the strength to look within. And with that begins Willow's adventure into the surrealist realm of his mind ...

The state of our untrained minds

What Willow discovers will surprise no one: Most of the thoughts that tend to mill around our heads tend to be negative. They can relate to and be triggered by anything and everything - past memories, anxieties about the future and even relatively minor irritations transpiring in the present.

Negative thoughts are also often repetitive. Our mind regurgitates them on repeat, forcing us to live and relive the emotions and feelings they evoke.

It is only when we sit down to observe our mind that we become aware of what is going on. But even this exercise can be fraught as we can fall down the trap of ruminating even more. Getting out of a negative spiral — especially when we feel our anger, frustration or whatever other emotion we are feeling is justified — is incredibly difficult.

I found myself in the very same position this past week ...

The Shifting Sands of the Internet

The world is changing and our little business, which is built on the shifting sands of the internet, has been greatly impacted. Platforms that dominate the internet are currently in an existential fight as the next generation of platforms powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) enter the scene.

All big tech firms are racing to develop and deploy this technology - no one wants to be left behind or worse, become obsolete.

AI is far from perfect and the solutions being deployed, don't always work. But the stakes are so high (at least in their minds) that these tech giants are willing to break and burn everything to get there.

Facebook (or Meta as they are also known) is no exception and has been investing hundreds of billions into AI. They've also been deploying AI across their advertising platform. This has not only driven up ad costs but also rendered the platform unstable.

Running ads on Facebook and Instagram has proven to be the most effective channel to market Willow the Wonderer series these past few years. It is how we reached and connected with many of you. But the skyrocketing costs and unstable performance has made even this channel unviable. Unless things change, we will have little choice but to close out all the campaigns come December.

It is a huge blow for us, as right now there are no other viable alternatives. All other traditional publicity, marketing and distribution channels for books are geared towards large incumbent publishers. As much as we love the book world, we've found that doors rarely open for small, independent authors and artists ...

How the internet changes over the next short while remains to be seen but there is no doubt that the future will be AI driven.

Our front door to the internet is likely to change — Instead of Google Search we'll probably be using Google's AI mode. Many users have already moved across to AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude for search. Over time these AI platforms will be where we transact and make purchases or perhaps be directing our personal AI agents to transact on our behalf. The rest of the internet will be akin to a 'dark kitchen' where content gets cooked up to feed the hungry AI and its legions of users ...

Keep going on

Seeing the value from six years of heart-based work being siphoned off by the slimy tentacles of big tech is enough to trigger all of my worst human emotions — The stream of negativity that follows can be relentless. Overcoming this mindset is no mean feat. For most of this year, I too had a dark cloud hovering over my head.

But as someone once wrote ...

" Life, dear [Reeta]

Tends to ebb and flow —

Tough times will come

And then, they will go.

So don't despair,

Keep going on.

The troubles you face

Will soon be gone."

Like most people, I wake up everyday and carry on, carrying on.

The antidote to negativity

 

One of the tasks on my to-do list for the week was to check up on the latest set of customer reviews. On Thursday afternoon, I logged onto the 'Kudobuzz' platform and started reading through them.

A bunch of reviews stood out: Some customers had included adorable anecdotes of how their little ones reacted to the books, stories and of course, their new toy.

Lets just say, my mood began to lighten...

I lingered on the reviews all afternoon, slowly reading through the almost 400 testimonials we've received to-date.

The simple act of reading this potent mixture of joy, delight and gratitude changed the condition of my mind and with it, the thoughts that were arising: I began to see the positives.

Platforms like Facebook have become bonafide global monopolies that unilaterally control reach to older demographics across the western world — They have no direct competitors. Without AI there would be no one to challenge them. At least now they have some competition.

Like the real world, the world of technology also ebbs and flows. It is only a matter of time that one platform is replaced by another. We are currently in that stage of transition.

We, like many small businesses, have to choose where we focus next and in the process figure out how we will use — arguably the most powerful technology men has ever made — to do the maximum good.

A positively charged epiphany 

That evening we went out to dinner to celebrate my baby brothers graduation - He is now a PhD! It was a beautiful evening, with a soft warm breeze. As we walked up to the restaurant, I turned to Darren and shared a thought that had appeared in my mind during the drive,

" You know what Da, we are not in the book business. We are in the business of making wonderful memories - and we are just getting started... "

Darren's reply, "Ok. Where's this restaurant again?"

Darren was oblivious to the epic battle I had been fighting in my inner world ... In his inner world, he was battling hunger!

Embrace all of reality

Admittedly, any mention of positive thinking would irk me in my younger days. I felt that it was a cop out — a way to deny one's reality. Thankfully, I have since aged ...

Negative thoughts can be all consuming. So much so, they cloud our judgement, mind and even memories until all we see is the downside. We become blind to all that is good and well in our lives, relationships and indeed, the world.

I know that the positive vibes from the customer reviews are not going to miraculously reduce the cost of advertising on Facebook — that problem remains. But what it did do was act as a circuit breaker to the steady stream of doom and gloom scenarios that were playing out in my mind. Suddenly, instead of just fixating on all that we are losing, I saw all that we had built: A foundation of trust and advocacy that would enable us to adapt to an AI-powered future.

So no, focusing on the positive thoughts is not about denying reality. Rather, it is what removes our blinders so we can see and embrace the whole of reality.

Learning to deal with the treachery of the world

Inner worlds centres around this tussle between the negative and positive poles in our lives.

We all will at some point have life experiences that are downright unpleasant. Being able to deal with these situations and the emotions they give rise, without becoming overwhelmed by them is an important life skill — and one that we are rarely taught.

We also gloss over the fact that children are exposed to the treachery of this world fairly early in their lives.

Some experience it as favouritism at home or school. Others have to deal to the unkindness of 'playground politics'. Yet others have to face up to bullying.

Small children may not have the vocabulary to express the full injustice of their situation but there is no doubt the feel the complete spectrum of emotions that go along with that. Acknowledging this reality and giving them tools to work through these heightened emotions, can only be helpful.

It is also important to start early as staying positive in the face of adversity takes practice — even people who write books on the subject and have spent a lot of time in retreats, observing, understanding and conditioning the mind find it difficult to stay positive ...

Just when we think we are nearing enlightenment, life finds yet another way to get under our skin ;-)

Practice makes perfect

The good news is that the mind is like a muscle - the more your train it, the stronger it gets. Coming out of negative mind states does get easier with practice.

As one of our meditation teachers used to say, "If you used to spend 9 days burning in negativity before and now you spend 8 — That's good. You've just saved yourself a day!"

 With practice, one of the first things one develops is a keen awareness of when negative mental states are starting to arise. This awareness allows us to then take deliberate action to change the condition of our mind —  instead of just ruminating and reacting blindly to the negative emotions that follow.

How we shift the negative mind states differs. At times just sitting with the discomfort and observing the sensations passing through your body is enough for such states to pass away by themselves.

At other times, engaging in more vigorous activity (that you enjoy and get a positive charge from) can help switch to a positive mindset. For me these are things like going for a ride in the park, a swim in the ocean or a walk in nature.

But when the stimulus for the negativity is really strong e.g. relates to a past memory where we felt we were wronged or mistreated, a more direct method of engagement with the mind is required.

This is where proactively focusing the mind (i.e. meditating) on memories that have a very positive charge tends to be the most transformative. These are typically memories where we experienced love, kindness or gratitude of any kind. As my recent experience goes to show, even engaging in the expressions of joy from others can change the state of one's mind.

A 2,600 year old inspiration

It's important to understand that things like positive thinking are not some new age, spiritual, mumbo-jumbo phenomena ... It has deep roots.

Meditation practices focused on cultivating positive qualities are central to the Buddhist contemplative tradition, for example. 2,600 years of continuous practice and refinement has led to the development of some highly effective techniques and guided meditations that anyone can follow. As they relate to the human mind, they are universal in application and secular in nature.

One such meditation exercise is known as Metta or Loving-Kindness practice. This has been one of the most transformative practices I have personally encountered. Not only does it change the condition of the mind, through continued practice I have found that it even lessens the hold that difficult memories have on us and with it, the intensity with which we experience them. Over time, it give us the ability to let go, forgive and forget and move on with our lives.

Inner Worlds is in part inspired by this meditation.

Shaping our outer world

Negativity is not helpful in any situation.

Yet, it is the dominant emotion expressed across our entire media landscape - from newspapers, radio, television, podcasts to social media. It is the emotion that algorithms promote and propagate.

As a human society, we need to get better at identifying and coming out of these blinding mental states. The change needs to start at an individual level. And who knows, as the conditions of our inner worlds improve, maybe our outer world will follow.

What about Willow?

Willow's journey through his inner worlds is his most epic adventure yet. He too becomes aware of the memories and thoughts that plague him ... and after some trials, he intuits the antidote to counter it all.

 I am sure that by now you can guess what it is ;)

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Inner Worlds will be officially published on 11.11.25.

Join the waitlist now.