Tag: mindfulness

Part 2 (part 1 was yesterday) It is very easy to be kind to someone. When I went into hospital it was my ex-wife who, with the aid of one of our children, sorted out a few clothes for me and brought me orange juice to the ward. That she was still able to be…

Part 1 An old old friend rang me today. He was my best man when I married. That kind of old friend. We don’t talk often, though we both wish we did. I used to find this painful but I’ve learnt that the quality when we do connect floods the silent months between the love…

I heard a golfer* describe preparing for a crucial put by saying “I couldn’t think anymore about it or I’d have wondered about every blade of grass, and that would have just been distracting.” The same goes for mindfulness. It can be a complex topic if you so wish, but ultimately it must be simple.…

I’ve loved getting older. I bristle when people tell teenagers or those in their twenties “these are the best years of your life.” What a depressing way of looking at your time on this Earth. I like to think that as I’ve aged I’ve become a little wiser. Something Ive come to know slowly over…

There needs to be a balance between being and doing. In normal 21st century life much more value is of course placed on the latter. At first I thought going totally against this trend, sliding into days free of structure and allowing whatever arises to be there was the best way to get better. But…

I’ve been lucky that I’ve never had to get a doctor’s note to cover absence from work before. So when I rang a week before term started I was uncertain what to say to prove I deserved my GP’s written permission. He had seen me whilst I had been properly ill. I wasn’t faking it…

When one of my cats brings in a dead rodent I believe they see it as a gift or maybe a triumph of skilful hunting. I view it a lot less favourably. Most of the time, like everyone else, I am trying to hold it all together. Keeping things familiar and living in a little…

I may be lying around on the sofa a lot at the moment but my mind is still instinctively doing laps and circuits. My life long habit of mindlessly chasing or avoiding stimuli isn’t going away any time soon it would appear. Getting to the fridge, having opened the door and my hand inside before…

Over the last month some friends have kindly popped round to see me between finishing at their work and going home. They have all told me how tired they feel. Which is ironic when I am the one off with fatigue. Recuperating at home is not a difficult assignment. “Take it easy and look after…