Hack Spirit

1 week ago | hackspirit.com | Lachlan Brown

I still remember standing in a bustling Chiang Mai market, long before I stumbled across mindfulness on the floor of a Melbourne warehouse. I was frozen in front of fifty nearly identical mango stalls, my mind spinning through every possible variable: Which one was cheapest? Ripest? Sweetest? Would buying two be too much? Would it make me “that tourist” who wastes food? A nearby tuk-tuk driver chuckled.

3 weeks ago | hackspirit.com | Lachlan Brown

There’s something about the aftermath of a conversation with a manipulative person that feels like emotional jet lag. You replay the exchange in your head—wondering if you misread it, overreacted, or missed something obvious. And yet, the discomfort lingers. I’ve been there. So have many of the people I’ve worked with over the years. The challenge isn’t just spotting manipulation—it’s knowing how to hold your ground without getting entangled.

3 weeks ago | hackspirit.com | Lachlan Brown

There’s a kind of inner life that doesn’t demand attention, but quietly transforms everything it touches. You don’t see it in highlight reels or social media feeds. You feel it—in the pause before someone responds, the softness behind someone’s boundaries, the way they hold space for what others overlook. That’s what emotional depth looks like. It’s not intensity for its own sake. It’s not a flood of feelings or poetic melancholy. It’s presence. Stillness.

3 weeks ago | hackspirit.com | Lachlan Brown

When Jessie Gallan turned 109, she was asked the question we’ve all quietly wondered about: What’s your secret to living a long life? Her answer? “My secret to a long life has been staying away from men. They’re just more trouble than they’re worth.”Now, depending on your own experience with love, that might make you laugh—or nod in total agreement. But underneath the humor is something worth pausing for. Because Jessie’s life was far from ordinary.

3 weeks ago | hackspirit.com | Lachlan Brown

We live in a time when Buddha quotes float through social media feeds like feathers—light, graceful, and strangely disconnected from the weight of what they were meant to hold. They appear on minimalist backgrounds, often stripped of nuance, reduced to soft encouragements: Let that sht go*, or Peace comes from within. And while I understand the impulse—sometimes a gentle phrase is what we need to keep going—I’ve also found myself wondering what happens when we stop at the surface.