Anthony

External Storms, Internal Shadows How negative circumstances awaken old trauma — and how we can meet them with resilience, presence, and care

When external storms overturn life, they stir old shadows inside.

But resilience is not avoiding storms—it’s walking through them without letting yesterday’s shadows dictate tomorrow’s light.

New ace.roll essay → External Storms, Internal Shadows

medium.com/@ace.roll/ex...

🌺🌼🌸🌞💚

The Discipline of Small Things Mastering the little tasks as a path to resilience, proactivity, and becoming who we want to be

Sometimes we don’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed, just partway.

Not despair, not disaster — but not steady either.

That’s when the small steps matter most.

What looks ordinary is actually resilience in motion.

✦ Read the full reflection: medium.com/@ace.roll/th...

Through Screens or Through Streets Why our worldview shifts when we stop doomscrolling and start experiencing life firsthand

The more we consume headlines, the more despair feels inevitable.

The more we experience life firsthand, the more hope feels possible.

My new ace.roll essay explores why our inputs shape our worldview →
Through Screens or Through Streets

medium.com/@ace.roll/th...

What helps you let go of resistance and find clarity?

Denial feels safe. But it keeps us in place.

Acceptance isn’t the end of change.
It’s the beginning.

New ace.roll visual essay — Clarity Before Change.

#Truth #PersonalGrowth #Clarity

What small act brings you back to the present?

Anchored in Presence Breaking free from endless distraction by returning to the present moment

We’re pulled in a thousand directions every day — tabs, feeds, notifications, thoughts.

Presence doesn’t demand perfection. It asks for return.

medium.com/@ace.roll/an...

Curious how others navigate this: when do you know it’s time to rest, and when do you push through?

“I’m tired.”

Sometimes that’s true.

Other times, it’s resistance in disguise.

Visual essay: The Thin Line Between Rest and Resistance.

🎞🕯☯️

Clarity Before Change Acceptance grounds us in truth, freeing us to act with clarity and courage.

Denial feels safe. But it’s resistance that deepens the wound.

Acceptance isn’t the end of change.

It’s the beginning.

✍🏻 New ace.roll essay:

medium.com/@ace.roll/cl...

#Wisdom #PersonalGrowth #Truth

Even after the mind heals, the habits of survival can linger.

This visual essay is about the “ghost habits” we carry from difficult seasons, and the small, steady steps that help us rewire and return to life as it is now.

#Healing #MentalHealth #Resilience

The Thin Line Between Rest and Resistance How to tell when you truly need recovery — and when resistance is just holding you back

How do we know when we truly need rest—and when we’re just resisting the work?

My new essay looks at the thin line between recovery and avoidance, with insights from philosophy and neuroscience.

Read here: medium.com/@ace.roll/th...

Not all progress is loud.

Sometimes growth loops.
Sometimes it whispers.

But it’s still growth.

🎞️ From the latest ace.roll visual essay

📖 medium.com/@ace.roll

#aceRoll #visualessay #mentalhealth #personaldevelopment

Motivation After Movement We think motivation drives action. But neuroscience, philosophy, and human experience point to something far stranger: action comes first.

Motivation is not the gatekeeper. Action is.

Neuroscience shows dopamine fires after we act, not before.

Philosophy, spirituality, and personal experience echo the same truth: move first, feel later.

Here’s my latest essay for ace.roll: medium.com/@ace.roll/mo...

☯️ Not Nothing

This one’s for the silent shifts.
The slow work.
The progress no one sees.

#aceroll #growth #selfreflection #neuroscience #healing #tolle

When the Mind Heals, But the Habits Stay Even when depression fades, the patterns it taught us can keep living in our routines — unless we learn to rewire them.

When depression ends, we expect life to feel different.

But sometimes the old habits stay — quiet routines built for survival that no longer match who we are.

This is about recognizing those patterns, rewiring them, and living fully in the present.

🕯️♾️☯️

Read here: medium.com/@ace.roll/wh...

The #mind wants answers.
The #ego wants to be right.

But sometimes, the wisest thing we can say is:
“I don’t know… yet.”

🌀♾️🕯
New visual essay from ace.roll:
The Bias Toward Certainty
(Full article also on Medium)

A Hundred Times Through Repetition, patience, and the quiet work of becoming who we already are.

💯 Just published my 100th ace.roll essay: A Hundred Times Through.

It’s a reflection on the spiral nature of growth — how we don’t move in circles, but in loops that take us deeper each time we return.

Read here → medium.com/@ace.roll/a-...

#aceRoll #100thPost #WritingLife #SelfReflection

A few soft blooms from a recent walk through downtown Davenport.

Not everything has to be profound. Sometimes it’s just peaceful.
🌸🌿🪻

Follow ace.roll for more small moments + quiet reflections.

Overthinking is often fear in disguise.

A forecast factory that never turns off.

New ace.roll visual essay: The Forecast Factory

Slow the storm. Reclaim your peace.

🌀 New visual essay

→ When the path loops back
→ It’s not regression
→ It’s recognition

Sometimes the loop is the lesson.

Sometimes the spiral is the path forward.

📖 Inspired by a piece I wrote earlier this year: “When the Path Loops Back” on Medium

#selfgrowth #ace_roll #personaldevelopment

Steady Doesn’t Mean Stagnant We don’t always need a breakthrough to make progress. Sometimes growth is what happens when we keep showing up.

What if staying steady was the bravest thing we could do?

A new ace.roll essay on change without chaos, discipline without pressure, and growth without needing to prove it.

Read here ➡️ medium.com/@ace.roll/st...

#philosophy #mentalhealth #neuroscience

Growth isn’t always loud.

Sometimes it’s a whisper, a return, a quiet spiral inward.

🌀 For anyone doing deep work that doesn’t look like progress on the outside.

#personaldevelopment #selfimprovement #philosophy #mentalhealth #mentalhealthsupport #selfawareness

The lens we carry shapes how we experience everything.

But what happens when we stop living inside the story?

New visual essay: The Lens We Carry

#rewritethestory #truthseeking #visualessay #innerwork

Not Nothing Why slow seasons, invisible growth, and silent shifts matter more than we think

New from ace.roll 🌀
Not Nothing

Not all progress looks like progress.

This one’s for the quiet seasons. The stillness. The shifts no one sees.

medium.com/@ace.roll/no...

#neuroscience #philosophy #tolle #humancondition

🕯 New visual essay from ace.roll:

When Self-Discipline Becomes Self-Punishment

Sometimes what we call strength is really fear in disguise.

This one’s for the ones who never stop.

The ones who need permission to rest.

🔗 Read the full article: medium.com/@ace.roll

#mentalhealth

Why Sustainable Growth Is Slow—And That’s Okay We don’t always notice our progress. Not when it’s quiet.

✍🏻 Been reflecting on why slow, steady growth often matters more than dramatic change.

It's not always visible, but it’s usually what lasts.

Shared a new piece about it—my first native article on LinkedIn.

(Just for the professional circle this time.)

www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-su...

Temptation isn’t always obvious.

Sometimes it scrolls softly.

This is for anyone who’s been pulled from presences, purpose or peace.

#distraction #mindfulness #selfawareness #visualessay

The Bias Toward Certainty Why our brains crave black-and-white answers — and how embracing uncertainty helps us think clearer, live calmer, and connect deeper.

The mind wants answers.

The ego wants to be right.

But peace lives in the space where we can say: “I don’t know… yet.”

New ace.roll essay on how craving certainty narrows us — and how openness sets us free:
medium.com/@ace.roll/th...