Tag: mental-health
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Sympathetic joy
It’s funny, I don’t talk about mindfulness that much with my inner circle of friends. Maybe they would say different but it’s rare that I espouse the benefits of mindfulness, or wave the flag. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of friends who I work with or practice with in which I do talk…
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Disturbing the peace
A few days ago, I received a lesson from a duck. I was on my daily walk and I stopped to watch a number of mallards as they appeared to be peacefully swimming along the reeds of a slow moving river. They were casually foraging for food when I noticed this one duck repeatedly pecking…
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The power of surrender
Without being overly dramatic or unrealistic, I think it is fair to say that the province in Canada in which I come from is on fire. Well, 6 days ago there were 477,498.9 ha of Manitoban forest burning. Coupled with the hot weather and the winds that have been blowing on and off, this number has surely…
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Just roll with it
**I have been toying with whether to write about my night sweats for a few weeks now. It feels a bit too personal. However, I think that it might be quite helpful as it is relevant to my experience of living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). What’s more is that these somatic events provide…
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I am NOT always right
It’s been birthday week in my household. Three birthdays mean plenty of cake and a few moments of what the Irish call ‘banter’—or some good old fashioned teasing in a friendly sort of way. For example, as we all sat and watched my daughter blow out her candles, my son claimed to know what she…
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Do our expectations get in the way?
I can remember being a smug teenager who constantly reminded my mother that if she was going to place expectations on me, she was only setting herself up for disappointment. I have no idea where I got the confidence to make such an assertion and at such a young age; however, it was not far…
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What’s your prescription?
Recently, I have been delivering a programme on Rest and one the practices that we do is setting our personal prescriptions. What does this mean? To begin with, it’s an exercise taken from Claudia Hammond who is a BBC radio presenter and delivers the podcast ‘All in the Mind’. It’s the practice of what she…
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This is to mother you
This past weekend, my daughter was complaining about a sore back. In her complaint, she asked me to make a doctor’s appointment for her. To which I reminded her that she was nearly twenty two and perhaps it was time that she makes her own doctor’s appointment. She laughed and replied that she was tired…
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Re-emergence
Many years ago, a dear friend of mine happened across what she called ‘the day of the frogs’ . She had been over for an evening of soap making and had just moved into the area. When she left to drive home, she was a bit unsure of directions, so I made her promise me…
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To punish or to heal, that is the question
Have you ever heard a soundbite spouting an obvious truth that is executed with such freshness that it stops you in your tracks and spurs on a moment of deep insight? It’s almost as if this soundbite is a message from beyond, smacking you across the face and telling you to wake up. I think…
My Silent Place 