In this fast-paced, competitive world, we can become incredibly driven and impatient, and that drive and impatience is primarily motivated by time. We live in the worry that we don’t have time to get where we need to go, to do what we need to do and to become who we aspire to be. Seldom…Read More
Impermenance – Remembering That What is Born Will Die
It was only last year that I had the pleasure of meeting the guys who set up The Spring Foundation, an organisation that educates and holds retreats using mindfulness as its approach to coping with cancer, both during treatment and during remission. This week, however, cancer came closer to home. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with…Read More
Mindfulness & the Past – What About History?
Fundamentally, mindfulness is about living in the present, accepting the moment and not being controlled by the past or restrained by perceptions of the future. But what about history? History is of great importance because it helps us understand the circumstances that have shaped the landscape we live in today, not to mention that history…Read More
Why My Mum Won’t Meditate
My mum’s an energetic woman. She’s 65 years young and has more energy than most twenty somethings. She wakes up at 7am every day for a brisk walk round the park with her dog, can talk for England, doesn’t suffer from jet lag no matter how long the flight, and rarely sits still. As many…Read More
Less is More, Less is Freedom
This post is inspired by the President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica. I’d never heard much about him to be honest, but this week I read about his life as the world’s poorest president. By choice President Mujica lives on his wife’s farm, rather than the presidential digs that his predecessors enjoyed. He drives a 1973 Beetle car and donates 90% of his…Read More
Does Rain Make You Sick or Happy?
“Don’t be so ridiculous”, my mother always said, “Rain can’t make you sick; germs make you sick”. And not too long ago a doctor friend of mine confirmed this. The only way the rain can make you sick, is if the rain water contains germs that you swallow or fall into your eyes, he said, in not…Read More
How to Enable Natural Personal Growth & Development
A family were sitting down to eat waiting for their son to come in from the fields. The son eventually arrived an hour late. His father asked why he’d taken so long, and the boy replied, “I was helping the wheat grow”. The next morning the father went out to the field and all the…Read More
My Richness is Life…
Earlier this week I heard a beautiful quote from Bob Marley. In an interview, with reference to his fame, he was once asked: Are you a rich man, do you have a lot of possessions? He replied: I don’t have that kind of richness, my richness is life. So simple yet so profound and meaningful.…Read More
A Poem by a Taoist Priest
Just recently I stumbled upon this beautiful poem in the Tao Of Jeet Kun Doe, by Bruce Lee. The book has some delightful zen teachings and spiritual musings amidst the martial arts instruction. The author is cited simply as A Taoist Priest, and has no title. I don’t want to say too much – because as…Read More
What Will You Do with Your Life? Said the Career Officer…
Fourteen years old, about to take what were called “options” back then – a set of subjects that were supposed to define my future – a career officer asked me what I wanted to do when I left school. But as he asked me this strange, daunting question, a few questions of my own rattled…Read More