For many people, Happiness is a holy grail; longed-for, searched for, but elusive. We invest huge amounts of time, energy and money in the search. We work to be able to buy what we believe we need. We strive to be what we believe we ought to be, sometimes losing sight of who we really [...]
Until my fifties, I was an enthusiastic meat-eater. I had always felt vaguely uncomfortable about this, aware as I was of the multiple evils of industrialised agricultural farming, and I tried to eat free-range chicken or game when I could. Beyond that conscience-appeasing concession, I did not allow myself to think too much about what [...]
Waking inexplicably at 3.30am and frustrated by continuing sleeplessness, I just logged on to twitter, where I found a post by a woman whose therapist suggested she write a letter to herself to read when she felt suicidal. I was catapulted to a different time, 28 years ago, when I was young and also [...]
Many of the women I work with, in my workshops and one-to-one sessions, are unhappy regarding relationships. Perhaps their partnership lacks vitality, or they are single and despairing of ever being happily paired with a compassionate other. I can empathise with both these states which, amazingly, I can also now look back upon through the [...]
In a previous post I wrote about the power of gratitude to change our every-day world-view. How when we consciously seek things to be grateful for, we start to find them everywhere. The same is true of compassion, and it is a wonderful thing to bring into the forefront of our consciousness. Once my clients [...]
The day before the Berlin Wall came down, I lost my mind. It was the eighth of November 1989; a Thursday. Much later, my best friend Alison noted “two walls came down at once”. According to Project Hope, half of the global population will experience mental health crisis in their lifetime. For many of those, [...]
Perhaps you’ve noticed we are living in challenging times. Times in which hope, while never needed more, can sometimes seem inadequate for the crises we are facing. I have been facilitating workshops that explore and identify hope for many years, and repeatedly witnessed its power to guide people through the darkest times. An acquaintance recently [...]
It’s March today! Flowers are blooming, buds erupting on the trees, and blossoms appearing everywhere. I didn’t see it coming, in this new environment of mine. The huge magnolia tree that’s heralded the start of Spring for me these past 24 years is 100 miles away, and I live in a city now, with fewer [...]
