Tag: mental-health
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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…
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The cure for apathy
Watching the news this past week should have come with a trigger warning. Just as I was settling down to a Friday night of relaxing TV, live news coverage rolled in. Rather than feeling an ease into the weekend, the politics of our day activated a sense of shock, disgust, anger and ultimately a sadness…
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Against the grain
There is a Buddhist teacher named Pema Chodron who has famously declared that, “to be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest”. I remember when I read this for the time, a droll smirk formed on my face. Accompanying this smirk, my internal dialogue muttered the word, ‘Great..’.…
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The practice of looking up
Last week, things were feeling tight. Part of my discomfort was that I had a computer heavy week with very little output. This is perhaps funny as one of the projects that I was working on was the Art of Rest, which is starting in the Sanctuary this coming weekend. Despite the research that I…
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When in doubt, keep on keeping on
I have been stepping out of my comfort zone a lot lately. Last September, I started “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. The Artist’s Way is a bestselling book that guides the reader through 12 weeks of self-discovery and an uncovering of all that holds one back creatively. Through the 12 weeks, I have been…
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I’m fine…well I’m basically OK
It’s been a weekend of wild weather, over here in Ireland. A sense of foreboding started early in the week with headlines declaring a storm so big that the whole country would be on Red Alert. I’d like to say that I was cool as a cucumber with all my mindfulness and stuff. And mostly,…
My Silent Place 