As of 2pm tomorrow afternoon, I will be unable to communicate electronically or telephonically for five days. It will probably sting for a while but I’ll get used to it fairly quickly. I know this because I managed to survive without my iPhone/iPad/Macbook for eight whole days last year. No surfing the web, no texting, no emails, no Facebook, no Tumblr, no Twitter, no Pinterest, no iPlayer - … [Read more...] about What would you do without your 21st-century toys?
emotional processing
Perhaps we should let joy be unconfined
You are carrying the accumulated joy of centuries. Setting aside for a moment what your logical mind makes of this, what if it were true? What if, rather than shouldering many generations-worth of pain and suffering, you have within you the joy passed down from your ancestors? It’s an intriguing story. And if it were true, what if you lived your whole life without connecting with this joy that … [Read more...] about Perhaps we should let joy be unconfined
Writing to heal: how to be a proper journalist
I’m a passionate advocate of writing to heal. And as journalist of some 30-odd years (some of them very odd), I am naturally drawn to the practice of journaling. It’s a simple healing tool that can reduce stress, liberate you from limiting self-beliefs and even give your life new meaning. Research has found that writing about painful experiences boosts the immune system, reduces trips to the … [Read more...] about Writing to heal: how to be a proper journalist
How I let myself become an April Fool…
Yes, it’s April Fools’ Day but this post is no joke. As April 1 falls on a Sunday this year, I am marking - rather than celebrating - a defining event. For today is the 39th anniversary of the day - Sunday April 1, 1973 - that my lovely dad had a devastating stroke, when he was only 46 years old. While I am not going tell the story of that event right now, suffice to say it changed … [Read more...] about How I let myself become an April Fool…
The healing power of the heart
There is no such being as a human who has never had a problem processing their emotions. We all learned coping strategies early in life and these represented our best effort at trying to minimise our experience of “difficult” feelings. But we wouldn’t think it was an effective strategy to suck a dummy now, would we? So what would happen if you replaced those immature strategies with new, mature … [Read more...] about The healing power of the heart