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ASH - After Steve Hardison
I spent two hours with Steve Hardison and I have absolutely no idea how to describe it. I wrote everything that was in my head as soon as I got to the airport but reading it again I realise that it doesn't even slightly sum up what happened or why I feel so different.
We talked about mind and thoughts and how we can only experience the world through what we think of it. That I can never experience it in any other way than through 'Clare' but that I can expand the perspective that is Clare. He pu…
BSH (before Steve Hardison)
This won't mean much to anyone who hasn't heard of Steve Hardison. Anyone who does know him will know exactly what I am experiencing right now.
He is the ultimate coach. I have travelled for 18 hours Marlborough to Heathrow to LA to Phoenix to meet him today for 2 hours. I meet him in 1 hour 20 mins. The fee and the travel costs are more that I earn from my yoga classes in a year. How on earth do I make sure I make it worthwhile?
I asked him. He said 'Just BE here.' so I guess that is what I wil…
Nap
Do you remember that old advert for the Guardian newspaper? The one where we look out from the perspective of a woman in the street who sees a skin head running towards her. (This was the early 80s when a shaved head was a symbol of a youth who would bring down society. Now it is the sign of a middle aged professional man.)
Then the perspective switches to that of an elderly man. He sees the skinhead run past the woman towards him. The man puts up his briefcase to defend himself as the skinhea…
Breathe
One school day I was getting ready to cycle my kids to school. One of my favourite parts of the day is the ride in. Whatever the weather. The busyness of getting ready for school, the tired grumpiness of my kids, all of that evaporates once we get on the bike. It's a lovely time. We chat. Wave to people we know. Point out changes in the high street or in the fields as we cycle through into the countryside.
That day I was going to do some writing in a cafe (well someone has to) after dropping the …
Creating reality
Recently I've been wondering about what in my life is fixed and unchanging. There are the walls of my house. There is the physical reality of gravity keeping my feet on the ground (literally, at least, if not metaphorically). There is the fact that I have a body and a husband and two children.
But beyond the material facts, anything beyond an objective description of protons and neutrons is based on meaning and interpretation and this is subject to my perspective at that moment. My perspective ch…
Creating freedom for others
I have a friend, let’s call her Ann, whose view of the world is that it is a very hard place to be, that life is difficult. Her conversations are full of phrases like, ‘life’s not meant to be easy’, ‘you just have to make do with what you have’ and ‘it’s a tough world’. Even when things are going really well, she is looking ahead to a time when it could all be taken away.
I have another friend, let’s call her Beattie, who’s view is the polar opposite. She believes that life is a miraculous advent…
I have another friend, let’s call her Beattie, who’s view is the polar opposite. She believes that life is a miraculous advent…
What is that meant to mean?
The person I admire most was born with an incurable disease. Her life expectancy was 18 years, her only hope of surviving was a heart and lung transplant. Throughout her childhood and teenage years she became increasingly ill, missing school, unable to go out with friends, gradually becoming confined to bed, fighting for breath with the help of an oxygen machine.
It was my enormous privilege to see at first hand how someone can simultaneously accept and fight and the amazing outcome that can have…
It was my enormous privilege to see at first hand how someone can simultaneously accept and fight and the amazing outcome that can have…
Reclaim your body
Just north of Copenhagen I cycle past a plastic surgery, in the windows are ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of noses, breasts and thighs. There is even a full length mirror in the window, presumably so that you can look in it and think of all the changes that you should be making to your appearance. I look at all the people, children, teenagers who are walking past this clinic... what is the message they are taking from this? And while I am wondering about this, a bus goes past with an enormous pi…
What is freedom?
What freedom we have these days! Our shops are full to the ceilings with billions of alluring products waiting our selection. We can treat our bodies how we want – even if that means eating ourselves into an early grave or spending thousands of pounds under a scalpel for self ‘improvement’ through surgery. Anything we want to buy that we can’t afford we can put on credit or take out a loan from the many quick money companies springing up. We can say what we want to whomever we want without respo…
Signal failure
One of the most fascinating business trips I ever did was to Las Vegas. I remember one night I went out without my watch and as I walked through the casino in the Venetian hotel where we were staying I wondered how late it was. I looked around to find out the time and it struck me then how the hotel had managed to eliminate all signs of day or night. There were no clocks or windows. All around the edges of the casino were restaurants and all of them had signs advertising breakfast, brunch, lunch…