Zen and the Art of Change
““All of us have two minds, a private one, which is usually strange, I guess, and symbolic, and a public one, a social one. Most of us stream back and forth between those two minds, drifting around in our private self and then coming forward into the public self whenever we need to. “ ― […]
Read More The Divided Self“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Oscar Wilde I don’t know about you, but some days I feel fully present. On other days, I feel as if I have somehow dissolved into the background. I can recognise the symptoms and also the feelings that come […]
Read More The man who wasn’t there“1 in 5 people have dandruff. 1 in 4 people have mental health problems. I’ve had both.” ― Ruby Wax When I get the opportunity to meet someone who is a keen advocate of Mindfulness and who is also a personality, I jump at the chance. Last week, Ruby Wax gave a talk at […]
Read More The power of habit“She said things and I nodded. I didn’t pay attention. She didn’t pay attention to me. We floated through our days in that way.” ― Frederick Barthelme, Elroy Nights Carrying on the theme of pulling apart the definition of Mindfulness and trying to articulate my interpretations; this post is all about paying attention. […]
Read More Paying attention is really hard“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” ― Gautama Buddha Anger, frustration and that sense of being out of control is something we have all felt at some time in our lives. Often, it comes […]
Read More How to manage and deal with angerOur prisons are other people’s eyes; our cages are their thoughts. – Ruby Wax, from her autobiography, How do you want me? The world revolves around the events and the interactions that we all participate in. We create our own world inside of us; recreating and reinforcing our thoughts and perceptions, moment by moment, every […]
Read More What you see and hear isn’t always what it seems“Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present, and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.” ― Audrey Hepburn Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend a […]
Read More 3 Minutes is all it takesOddball: “Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves Moriarty? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?” ― From the Film “Kelly’s Heros” So what are we going to do about being hard wired with a negative […]
Read More We can change our negative wiring!“From the backstabbing co-worker to the meddling sister-in-law, you are in charge of how you react to the people and events in your life. You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead. Take control and choose to focus on what is important in your life. Those who […]
Read More Are we hard-wired to be negative?“Unhappy childhoods will kill you as an adult.” – Anon Here is the article I promised on how to deal with Toxic Stress. The previous article described what Toxic Stress was and how you identify it. Just as a reminder. The starting point was that there was a series of research programmes that identified […]
Read More How to deal with Toxic Stress
Martin Summerhayes 