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Innate well-being
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[Photo credit: artist and illustrator, Siri Stiklestad Opli http://www.fjellbjorka.no]
“It’s the ultimate peace, ultimate freedom. Everything falls away. There is nothing left.” a beautiful young man, I met recently, describing heroin.
And isn’t that what all of us are looking for in one way or another through whatever means our conditioning tells us it can be achieved?
The end of the self blame? The end to the feelings of inadequacy, responsibility and insecurity? The peace of inner silence. Th…
“It’s the ultimate peace, ultimate freedom. Everything falls away. There is nothing left.” a beautiful young man, I met recently, describing heroin.
And isn’t that what all of us are looking for in one way or another through whatever means our conditioning tells us it can be achieved?
The end of the self blame? The end to the feelings of inadequacy, responsibility and insecurity? The peace of inner silence. Th…
Tree
tree
There is a tree in the garden. It is the perfect expression of itself. It is unique, unmatchable, exceptional. The tree has no need to be anything else.
There is a woman in the house. She is the perfect expression of herself. She is unique, unmatchable, exceptional. She compares herself to others. She blames and critiques herself. She believes she should be different.
There is a tree in the garden. Sometimes, its roots encounter stone. Sometimes its branches encounter brick wall. The roots gr…
There is a tree in the garden. It is the perfect expression of itself. It is unique, unmatchable, exceptional. The tree has no need to be anything else.
There is a woman in the house. She is the perfect expression of herself. She is unique, unmatchable, exceptional. She compares herself to others. She blames and critiques herself. She believes she should be different.
There is a tree in the garden. Sometimes, its roots encounter stone. Sometimes its branches encounter brick wall. The roots gr…
The final frontier…. (with help from Syd Banks)
If you are like me, you might now have the old ‘how many ears does Captain Kirk have…?’ joke in your head.
But let’s move on….
And let’s instead ask a more useful question:
How far can we go with the exploration of what is real?
And the answer is:
Three. The left ear, the right ear and the final front ear.
Oh sorry. That’s the answer to the first question.
The answer to the second is:
There is no end to how far we can go. The final frontier is that there is no final frontier. From the first realisat…
But let’s move on….
And let’s instead ask a more useful question:
How far can we go with the exploration of what is real?
And the answer is:
Three. The left ear, the right ear and the final front ear.
Oh sorry. That’s the answer to the first question.
The answer to the second is:
There is no end to how far we can go. The final frontier is that there is no final frontier. From the first realisat…
What is your purpose?
In one of the companies I worked for, a big deal was made of purpose. Employees were coached in finding what really made them tick and then they would spend a lot of time writing it out, choosing each word carefully so that the sentence reflected their sense of who they are and why they are on earth.
What is your purpose for being on this planet? What is your meaning? Why were you born? What are you here to achieve or accomplish? What is the thing that only you can do?
Wow.
Big questions.
Big ques…
What is your purpose for being on this planet? What is your meaning? Why were you born? What are you here to achieve or accomplish? What is the thing that only you can do?
Wow.
Big questions.
Big ques…
True listening
My friend was doing an MBA and one of his text books had a chapter on listening. He sent me the summary box from the chapter of the 20 things to do in order to become a better listener.
Things like: ‘make sure to maintain some eye contact but not so much as to intimidate’, ‘nod or make affirmative noises when the speaker pauses’ ‘notice their body language and what it indicates about their emotional state’. And so it went on.
All very sensible apparently. And the sort of advice that everyone needs…
Things like: ‘make sure to maintain some eye contact but not so much as to intimidate’, ‘nod or make affirmative noises when the speaker pauses’ ‘notice their body language and what it indicates about their emotional state’. And so it went on.
All very sensible apparently. And the sort of advice that everyone needs…
The dream job
I coach, write and teach from the understanding that the self, other people and the world we experience is a creation of perception, of limited, conditioned thought.
This means that we are essentially living in a dream. A dream in which there is no self or other or world in the way they appear. A dream in which nothing is fixed, objective or independent.
And we know this to be true. We recognise the transience and impermanence of all experience. We get that thoughts, feelings, moods, energy and …
This means that we are essentially living in a dream. A dream in which there is no self or other or world in the way they appear. A dream in which nothing is fixed, objective or independent.
And we know this to be true. We recognise the transience and impermanence of all experience. We get that thoughts, feelings, moods, energy and …
The self-assertion trap
The self assertion trap
Have you ever thought you should be more assertive?
In one of the companies I worked for there was a list of values that all employees were judged against in their performance reviews.
One of the values was ‘Edge’. That meant putting yourself out there, being self-assertive, stamping your mark on meetings and projects. For someone who had long believed the words of a gym teacher that she was a ‘wet prune’ this was a hard value to live up to indeed.
But I gave it a good go. …
Have you ever thought you should be more assertive?
In one of the companies I worked for there was a list of values that all employees were judged against in their performance reviews.
One of the values was ‘Edge’. That meant putting yourself out there, being self-assertive, stamping your mark on meetings and projects. For someone who had long believed the words of a gym teacher that she was a ‘wet prune’ this was a hard value to live up to indeed.
But I gave it a good go. …
Alive
Conception. Experiences. Death.
Life. One experience after another. Transient, temporary, split second, fleeting experiences.
Depending entirely on how we understand the nature of those experiences and us as the experiencer, life can be hell on earth or the miracle beyond all miracles.
And, if we’re honest, it can be really shit.
Awful experiences coming at us out of nowhere - arguments, boredom, betrayal, redundancy, poverty, bullying, anxiety, depression, illness, divorce, loss. All that stuf…
Simple life? Two steps
It seems that this heat is reducing life to a maximum of two.
Two words: ‘SO’ and ‘HOT’.
Two hairstyles: damp and scraped back or damp and hanging
Two ways to be in the car: windows open, hot air blowing in or windows closed and air con blowing hot air in.
Two settings for the kids: just-emerged-from-the-Sahara listless or manically hyper two hours after bedtime
Perfect then that there are only two things it ever makes sense for us to do.
Ready for them?
Two words: ‘SO’ and ‘HOT’.
Two hairstyles: damp and scraped back or damp and hanging
Two ways to be in the car: windows open, hot air blowing in or windows closed and air con blowing hot air in.
Two settings for the kids: just-emerged-from-the-Sahara listless or manically hyper two hours after bedtime
Perfect then that there are only two things it ever makes sense for us to do.
Ready for them?
- Explore what is true about who we are.…
Yes. No.
The coaching I do is about seeing who we really are.
We go through our lives believing we are this separate body, this identity, these choices, this life, these needs. But there is no substance, no realness to this. It is impermanent and subjective, a function of momentary perception. All appearing and disappearing within consciousness. Consciousness is, ultimately, who we are. And as consciousness, as awareness with no judgment, there is nothing to resist and nothing to seek.
So that is who we a…
We go through our lives believing we are this separate body, this identity, these choices, this life, these needs. But there is no substance, no realness to this. It is impermanent and subjective, a function of momentary perception. All appearing and disappearing within consciousness. Consciousness is, ultimately, who we are. And as consciousness, as awareness with no judgment, there is nothing to resist and nothing to seek.
So that is who we a…