# Self Inquiry

By James R. Stewart · Published September 8, 2025
Source: https://jamesstew.art/notes/self-inquiry/

Podcasts, practices, and writing I come back to. All with the same thread: radical self-inquiry.

**How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want?** ([Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJE7etZQ9us))

What struck me is the lie so many of us carry—that success and happiness can’t coexist. The reminder is simple: I don’t have to choose misery as proof of achievement.

**Journaling as clarity** ([Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZn9dF3XTo))

When I write, the fog lifts. Looking back, I see old struggles with distance, and often I realize they weren’t as permanent or defining as they felt at the time.

**Radical Acceptance** ([Book](https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Acceptance-Embracing-Heart-Buddha/dp/0553380990))

The line that stays with me: “something is wrong with me” is just a trance. Tara Brach shows how noticing and softening that voice is already an act of freedom.

**The Big Leap** ([Book](https://www.amazon.com/Big-Leap-Conquer-Hidden-Level/dp/0061735361))

We all have ceilings we secretly enforce. Hendricks’ idea—that joy and contribution can live together in a “zone of genius”—makes me notice how often I hold myself back.

**Fear-setting** ([Post](https://tim.blog/2017/05/15/fear-setting/))

Writing down fears makes them ordinary. Once they’re on paper, they stop being monsters in the dark. The worst case usually looks manageable, and the cost of inaction becomes clear.