Using socks to meditate

“Sadly, my socks are like snowflakes, no two are exactly alike.” ― Graham Parke I bet the title of this blog post made you stop and do a double take for a moment. “Using socks to meditate? How”, you ask. There is a large discussion that goes on as to whether you wear certain items […]

Meditating when you paint

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” ― Leonardo da Vinci No, I am not an artist, nor even a painter. My craft is the more mundane, that of an experienced DIY’er. The house I currently live in is an old house and […]

Doing verse Being

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” ― Bernard M. Baruch Our lives are ordered by the things that we do. The activities that we undertake and the results or outcomes that are achieved. We have developed our learning and development […]

Body Scan at the Check Out

“Daily life is better when it involves interactions with real people who have a personal investment in their labour, like shopkeepers, than it is with someone ‘just doing my job’ or the infernal self-checkout machine. Julian Baggini “Get out of the way, you “A-hole”, was the expression shouted across the supermarket. I was out shopping; […]

Tips for dealing with anxiety

“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.” ― Charles Haddon Spurgeon A chance comment at the weekend sparked a long conversation on the causes of anxiety and how to cope with it. It is not often that you find yourself in the depths of a conversation […]

Are you feeling Life-Tired or lebensmude?

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche Monday’s and the start of the week can make people feel worried, upset or even depressed at the prospect of the week to come. I came across a phrase recently that really struck a chord with me. The phrase […]

Hear, Listen and Attend

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird When I was young, I was partially deaf. This was due to a number of problems with wax and my sinuses. A couple of operations later and I could hear. Not perfectly, but well enough […]

Attitude 4 – Trust

“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection […]

What’s in a Raisin?

“Sometimes the world slows and you notice every small thing, as if you stood between two beats of eternity’s heart.” ― Mark Lawrence Following on from the activities at work where we ran an event focusing on Mindfulness that supported World Mental Health day; a number of people have been talking to me about how […]

What is a silent retreat?

“We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.” ― Leonora Carrington What on earth is a silent retreat? Is this something related to soldiers fighting? A war? A conflict? This is a question I got asked recently. […]