Dara Clear, Author at The ClearOut

Is That What You Believe? The Thoughts That Shape Our Reality – Episode 149

In this episode, Dara once again finds himself considering his mental health battles. Emerging from a very recent depression, he examines the difference in his thinking when he is embattled versus when he is well. Why would he choose to believe one reality and not the other? Why, in spite of very persuasive negative thoughts, does his ‘better’ self prevail? And why does he compare these differing states and beliefs to acting reviews?

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Is It Okay to be Vulnerable? Yes, it is! – Episode 148

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In this episode, Dara wants to know what vulnerability looks like. He talks about his own sense of feeling vulnerable at this time in his life and tries to contextualise that feeling in terms of age, time spent, and time left. He also reflects on fear, threat identification, and the conviction that one can be ‘got’.

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That’s Not My Life! or, The Elusive Human Study – Episode 147

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In this episode, Dara is looking at life stories. Prompted by a project of his own that he is working on, he acknowledges the difficulties he finds himself facing before discussing several different lives that he has just consumed in artistic form.

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Understanding Brotherhood, or Why ‘Bro’ is not a Dirty Word! – Episode 146

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In this episode, Dara is scratching his head over the idea of brotherhood. One of four sons, he feels he has a reasonably reliable perspective on his own experience of brotherhood, one he admits was not, nor continues to be, straightforward.

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Was That Absolutely Necessary? or, Keeping Calm in an Age of Chaos! – Episode 145

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In this episode, Dara is rolling over some recent themes. He is convinced that cultivated internal calmness is a key part of responding healthily to the chaos of the world. When he talks about the importance of a ‘proportional response’ to whatever afflicts us, he acknowledges the connection of that idea to the philosophy of traditional martial arts practice. The implication of control is central to that idea and it is why Dara doesn’t have a lot of love for UFC competition, where that restraint is often disregarded.

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Take Me To Church, or The Honesty of a Good Punch – Episode 144

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In this episode Dara tries to understand the connection between the advancement of AI-generated images and his desire for the simplicity and austerity of certain places and practices. There is something about the ornate and ostentatious perfection of AI images that reminds him of the roots of the Protestant movement as a response to the grotesque greed and riches of the Catholic Church.

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Identifying The ‘Write’ Voice – The Joy of Creative Luxury – Episode 143

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In this episode, Dara reflects on a few days spent at a writers’ retreat and his attempts to slip into a writing flow. Among other things, he talks about identifying his preferred voice, the subject matter he finds himself drawn to, and trusting that his own process would reveal to him what he should be trying to write. He describes as luxurious the gifts of headspace and optimal conditions for creativity.

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One Movie, One Concert, One Show – The Ineffable Magic of the Offer and the Receipt – Episode 142

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This episode does exactly what it says on the tin. Dara settles in to discuss a film he just watched, a concert he just attended, and a theatre production he recently saw.

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Innocence, Sex, and Sophistication: Who Do We Connect With and Why? – Episode 141

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In this episode, Dara responds to a music podcast he found surprisingly moving by exploring the idea of connection. Why do certain things or people connect with us more powerfully than others? What is it that speaks to us about a particular individual, or their work? And what is it about music and musicians and movies and actors that can so enrapture us?

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The Absolute ‘Ick’ Episode – Going Granular on My War with Myself – Episode 140

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In this very personal and occasionally difficult episode, Dara decides he can’t not examine his near four-decade-old impulse to destroy himself. A follow-on from last week’s episode in which he spoke more generally and euphemistically about a recent onset of anxiety-fuelled depression, this time he wants more transparency, more openness, more keeping it real. He understands that for some people this type of sharing gives them the ‘ick’, hence the title of the episode.

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Dara Clear

Is That What You Believe? The Thoughts That Shape Our Reality – Episode 149

Is It Okay to be Vulnerable? Yes, it is! – Episode 148

That’s Not My Life! or, The Elusive Human Study – Episode 147

Understanding Brotherhood, or Why ‘Bro’ is not a Dirty Word! – Episode 146

Was That Absolutely Necessary? or, Keeping Calm in an Age of Chaos! – Episode 145

Take Me To Church, or The Honesty of a Good Punch – Episode 144

Identifying The ‘Write’ Voice – The Joy of Creative Luxury – Episode 143

One Movie, One Concert, One Show – The Ineffable Magic of the Offer and the Receipt – Episode 142

Innocence, Sex, and Sophistication: Who Do We Connect With and Why? – Episode 141

The Absolute ‘Ick’ Episode – Going Granular on My War with Myself – Episode 140

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